Pokémon Heroes of Hoenn

Recovering from the Heat of Battle

(Emerald's POV)

Rayquaza let out a low growl in a way to show it's attentiveness​. Nervous, I took a shaky step forward, holding a firm gaze into Rayquaza's eyes. "Rayquaza.... we need your help. Kyogre and Groudon have been awakened, and they are now battling in Sootopolis City. If they are not stopped, I'm sure that you already know the calamity that would fall upon us." I explained with a slightly shaky tone, intimidated by the large Dragon Pokémon that put Kyogre and Groudon's heights to shame. Rayquaza lowered its head to be at eye level with me, a thought​ in the back of my head fearing that it would take a bite out of me, but I knew it wouldn't.
"Emerald..." Green muttered hesitantly, presumably fearing for my well-being. I took a deep breath, ignoring Green as I began to understand what Rayquaza wanted. I took another step forward, slowly raising a hand to its forehead and resting it there gently.
"Rayquaza, I ask you to please.... help me stop Kyogre and Groudon!" I exclaimed with much more confidence than before. Rayquaza closed its eyes for a moment, suddenly pulling away from my hand and hovering over us, roaring out in confirmation to my pleas. Rayquaza leaned back down, hovering over the floor right in front of me as it waited for us to climb onto its long back. Making myself comfortable right at its neck, I smiled at Green and Gold, who were staring dumbfounded at the Legendary Pokémon. "Well? Are you coming or what?" I asked teasingly.
"N-no, it's fine.... We can just take my own Gyrados." Green declined with a nervous chuckle. I shrugged in response, gently patting Rayquaza on the head affectionately.
"Suit yourselves. Come on Rayquaza, we've got all of Hoenn to save!" I exclaimed readily. Where the sudden confidence came from was beyond me, but I could care less at the moment. Rayquaza cried out once again, speedily flying off of the rooftop of Sky Pillar and making a beeline for Sootopolis City, Green, Gold, and Gyrados following close behind.
"Alright Rayquaza, let's go defend Hoenn!!" I cheered out readily, earning another roar of approval from the Sky High Pokémon.
Don't worry guys, Green, Gold, and I are on our way with Rayquaza on our side!

(Ruby's POV)

After using another Dragon Pulse, Latios flew up and out of the ancient Legendaries' attack range, Latias following just a few feet away. I noticed their heads jolt, both Latios and Latias widening their eyes in response to the sudden jolt.
"What is it, Latios?" I asked.
"Rayquaza... it is on its way." Latios stated firmly.
"It is?! That means that Emerald got it to help us!" Sapphire exclaimed joyfully.
"About time! I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold out against these two." I sighed in relief, mentally noting how grateful I am for Green, Gold, and Emerald being in my life.
Kyogre and Groudon did seem to lose a little bit of energy since we started fighting, but it definitely wouldn't be enough for us to defeat them. Just before I could give Latios another command, I heard an ear splitting roar coming from above us. As I began to turn around, a blur of green dived down between Sapphire and I, causing us to flinch in surprise. The green blur came to a swift stop between us, allowing us to spot Emerald on the head of the Pokémon.
"Th-that's Rayquaza?!" I exclaimed in shock.
"Startling, isn't it? I know exactly how you feel." Green teased as he and Gold flew beside us on Green's Gyrados. He made his way to the others, hopping off of his Pokémon to land beside Red and Fire. Rayquaza slowly raised its upper body, making it tower over Sapphire and I as it glared down at Kyogre and Groudon. The ancient Legendary Pokémon stared up at Rayquaza with hesitant looks, presumably recalling the last time they had met hundreds of years ago.
"Rayquaza, let's do this." Emerald murmured softly, earning a light nod in response from the Legendary Pokémon. Rayquaza sucked in a large amount of air, giving us a mere second to cover our ears as it let out a deafening roar, threatening Kyogre and Groudon with its booming voice. Though the two Legendaries flinched and backed away in fear, they had yet to leave, which deeply concerned us. A sudden thought crossed my mind, causing me to jolt my attention down to where Archie and Maxie were standing by. I signaled Latios to dive towards them, Sapphire and Latias being sure to do the same.
"Archie, give me the Red Orb." I demanded.
"Maxie, you too. Hand over the Blue Orb." Sapphire ordered. Hesitantly, Maxie and Archie exchanged glances, but obliged, reaching into their shirts' pockets and pulling out both the Red and Blue Orb, placing them in our hands gently. Sapphire and so nodded in approval to them before flying back up to Rayquaza's side.
"Let's give this a shot." I murmured.
"Right." Sapphire stated in agreement.
"Groudon!"
"Kyogre!"
"Hear my command!! Stop your battle and return to your original slumber!!" Sapphire and I exclaimed in perfect sync, holding the Red and Blue Orbs high above our heads. A flash of red and blue lights came from the orbs that shared the respective color, causing Groudon and Kyogre to cower. The grey color that the two Legendaries had when we first met them began to return, symbolizing their returning state. Kyogre and Groudon were once again in their deep slumber.
"Now we must take it from here." Latios stated firmly. Before I could question him, his eyes began to glow a sky blue color, as did Latias'. An aura of the same color began to surround Groudon and Kyogre, and slowly but surely, the Legendaries began to rise off of the ground and out of the ocean. They were lifted over the crater that surrounded Sootopolis City, slowly being carried off to their original resting places. When Latios and Latias finally released their holds on Kyogre and Groudon, their eyes stopped glowing, giving them a chance to breathe.
"L-Latios...?" I murmured as its eyes rolled back and slowly shut, both of us suddenly beginning to plummet down to the ground. I too was too exhausted to take action, allowing us both to fall without even a cry of remorse. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Sapphire and Latias were beginning to fall as well, but neither of us said a word. I felt a sudden gust of wind coming in the opposite direction of the air surrounding me, and before I knew it, there was an arm wrapped around me, keeping me from falling any further. I slowly raised my gaze to see who had saved me, and recognized the man with a gentle smile of relief on his face to be none other than Steven Stone. I looked beneath me to realize that we were on top of Steven's Metagross, who was gazing up at me with a look of relief in its eyes too.
I noted that Wallace and his Gyrados had caught Sapphire, who was giving him a hug as thanks. The last thought that crossed my mind almost caused me to panic, looking around frantically for Latios and Latias. I was finally relieved to see that Rayquaza and Emerald had caught them, letting me know that no one had actually plummeted to the earth.
We slowly landed in an open part of the field everyone else was standing on, letting us regain or balance.
"Steven... thank you." I murmured as he kept me from falling backwards. Steven simply smiled and nodded modestly in response. Before I had a chance to check on everyone around me, I heard a voice cry out from far off on the patch of land.
"Ruby!!" the voice, whom I recognized to be dad's, cried out as he raced over to me and tackled me into a tight embrace. Steven had to take a huge step back so that we wouldn't crush him.
"D-dad...?" I murmured in confusion. Dad pulled back a bit to rest his hands on my shoulders.
"Look at you, you're all bruised up... you're not badly hurt are you?" he asked frantically.
"N-no, I'm fine, really." I muttered, still utterly confused by his behavior. Dad once again threw his arms around me, letting me hear his racing heartbeat.
It sounded..... scared?
"I can't believe you just risked your life for all of Hoenn. I thought you were going to get hurt or worse! I couldn't be more grateful to hold you right now and know that you're alright!" dad exclaimed, sounding as if he was holding back tears. I pulled away from his embrace swiftly to look him in the eye, realizing just how genuinely concerned he really was. Tears began to flood my eyes as I fell into his arms once more, the realization of the danger of what I just went through overwhelming me with mixed emotions. As I slowly relaxed again, I dried my eyes, slowly pulling away from dad for the final time.
"This place is really messed up now...." Blue muttered remorsefully.
"Yeah... if only there was something we could do to fix it." Yellow sighed as they glanced around at the destroyed land and dead plants that were either drowned or burned by Groudon and Kyogre.
"I think I just found one." Crys stated softly, smiling up at something in the sky.
"Celebi!!" Fire exclaimed happily as the Mythical Pokémon came into view. Celebi flew into Fire's arms for a warm embrace, earning everyone's attention easily. "Long time no see!" Fire chuckled. Celebi nodded in agreement, a sudden look of sadness making its way onto its face as it saw the destruction around us. Celebi flew out of Fire's arms, surrounding itself with an emerald green aura before glancing around once again. It flew up to dead trees, gently tapping them and causing them to instantly be revived. We watched in awe as Celebi flew over the plant life and restored it to the lush greenness it previously was. Flying over to Rayquaza's side, who was hovering over the center of the main body of water here, Celebi focused all of its energy into its aura. Its aura suddenly bursted into little green sparkles that floated down to the ground like snowflakes.
We all watched in awe, all of our worries melting away for the time being as we admired the emerald green lights. Leaf, who was standing beside Yellow, glanced down at his Eevee as it reached out and poked one of the lights with its nose, Eevee suddenly being engulfed by a white light.
"What in the world?!" Leaf gasped as Eevee began to change its shape. When the white light faded, a Pokémon I've never seen before stood in Eevee's place.
"What is that?" Blue asked in shock.
"I've never seen an evolution of Eevee like that before..." Crys commented.
"Do you know what that means, Leaf?! You just discovered a brand new evolution of Eevee!" Fire exclaimed in excitement.
"How many evolutions of Eevee are there anyway? Like ten?" Proton asked with a tone of mild annoyance. I had almost forgotten he was here since he and Lance weren't exactly talkative.
"Well I'll be..." Leaf murmured in awe, staring down at his first Pokémon and long time partner.
"What're you gonna call it?" Sapphire asked.
"Hmm... Well, it does look like a Grass type Pokémon so I think I'll call it... Leafeon." Leaf stated softly, earning a cry of agreement from his newly evolved Eevee.
"Of course, you would name it after yourself." Fire chuckled, earning a shy laugh from Leaf in response. I smiled at everyone while they spoke about Leaf's new discovery, each of them eager to tell the Pokémon Professors about it. Focusing on a more important matter, I made my way towards Rayquaza, where Emerald was helping Latios and Latias off of its back.
"You feeling okay, Latios?" I asked calmly.
"Yes, thank you, master." Latios assured me formally.
"Why do you keep calling me master? I'm not really even your trainer to begin with." I stated in a matter of fact.
"Is that not what I should refer to you as? We were destined to train together." Latios stated with the same type of tone I had used.
"W-well, I don't know about that... Hey, that brings up another question. How did you two know me and Sapphire already?" I asked curiously.
"That's easy, we saw you two the day you met outside of Littleroot Town. We knew we were destined to meet you, so we decided to search for you on the day of your arrival here." Latias explained.
"We are Psychic type Pokémon as well as Dragon types, so we have the ability to foretell the future. We had seen you and Sapphire fighting with us against Kyogre and Groudon and learned that you were to be our masters." Latios added.
"I see... Still, there's no need to call me master. We're friends, right? So you can just call me Ruby." I explained warmly as I gently pet Latios' head.
"Yes ma- yes Ruby." Latios corrected, leaning into my hand as he spoke. I smiled in response, glad to have gained a friend in the mysterious Dragon type Pokémon.
"Nice job, Ruby. I couldn't be more impressed." Silver stated calmly.
"Thanks, but I didn't really do much. I wouldn't have been able to make it this far it wasn't for you, Fire, and everyone else." I stated modestly, making my way to his side as I spoke.
"Agreed. If it weren't for Fire, Gold, and Crystal, I don't know where I'd be right now, but it wouldn't be good. Now I just can't imagine life without them.... without her." Silver murmured softly.
"Silver!!" Fire yelled out, rushing towards us and tackling said redhead into a hug.
"Ow, ow, ow!!" Silver exclaimed frantically, reminding Fire of the wound in his side.
"Oh, I'm sorry!!" Fire exclaimed fretfully, taking a few steps away from Silver.
"M-man, what a rough day..." Silver muttered, taking a seat in the grass to let the pain subside.
"Yeah..." Fire murmured. I nodded in response, turning my attention to Maxie and Archie off in the distance.
"Hey, Maxie!!" I called out, racing to his side as I spoke.
"Ruby.... I'm.... I'm truly sorry for what we did. I don't expect you to forgive us, but... I want you to know that if there's ever anything I can do to help you, I will gladly do so." Maxie stated remorsefully.
"Yeah, I got an idea. Go out there, and make right the wrongs you did. The next time I see you, I'm challenging you to a battle, but I don't want to battle Maxie the leader of the evil Team Magma. I want to battle Maxie the leader of the organization that helps improve the lives of others, Team Magma." I stated.
"That goes for you too, Archie." Sapphire, who had followed me over to them, stated firmly. Maxie and Archie exchanged glances, but smiled softly and nodded in response.
"You got yourselves a deal. Maxie and I'll be sure to do everything we can to right our wrongs, and then we'll be back to show you how far we've come!" Archie exclaimed in agreement.
"Precisely. For now though, we need to figure out how to separate our differences. Team Magma and Team Aqua can only cause each other trouble when driven against one another." Maxie explained wisely.
"Yeah. Take it slow you two. See you around!" I called out as Maxie and Archie began to make their exit. Sapphire and I turned to face each other with gentle smiles on our faces, glad to say that it was finally all over.
"Wow, Ruby... you look awful." a voice from behind me teased with a snicker. I turned to spot Emerald behind me with a smirk on her face.
"You don't exactly look like sunshine and rainbows either, Emerald." I stated in a teasingly accusing tone. Emerald looked down at her bruised up limbs and muddied clothes, chuckling as she realized she looked exactly like I did.
"I think we should all stop by the Pokémon Center now. We all look pretty terrible." Green laughed. Everyone agreed, and so we headed for the Pokémon Center to get both our Pokémon and ourselves all patched up. Silver had to have his whole waist bandaged thanks to his wound, but otherwise he was fine. Everyone needed a couple bandages here and there, but nobody was actually in any serious danger with their injuries.
Leaf and I were leaning back to back on the couch, his "Leafeon" curled up on his lap as he gently stroked its fur.
"Ruby and Leaf, correct?" an unfamiliar man asked us.
"That's us, but who are you?" I asked curiously.
"I am Juan, the Gym Leader of Sootopolis City." the man introduced.
"It's a pleasure to meet ya." Leaf stated cheerfully.
"The pleasure is all mine. I wanted to express how grateful I am to you for defending my home, so I came here to give you this." Juan tossed two Rain Badges into the palm of both Leaf's and my hand. I looked down at it curiously, but reached it back out for him to take back.
"I can't take this... I didn't earn it." I declined.
"Nonsense! You fought off two ancient Legendary Pokémon to defend all of the Hoenn region! You deserve these more than anyone else. I won't take no for an answer." Juan insisted.
"In that case, thank you very much, Juan." I stated genuinely, pinning my final Badge to my bag strap. Juan nodded in response, thanking us once again before leaving to chat with the other Gym Leaders.
"Well, Leaf, looks like we finally reached our goal of eight Badges." I sighed out peacefully.
"Yeah. Now we've only got one dream left to reach..."
"The Pokémon League." Leaf and I chorused.
"Hey, son, can you come here?" dad called out of random. I signaled Leaf that I would be right back before making my way to dad's side. "I have something for you too." dad stated softly as he placed a Pokéball into my hand.
"What's this?" I questioned.
"That was originally the Pokémon I was going to give you once we settled in here, your first Pokémon. I never had the chance to then, but now may be the best time to give it to you anyways. Go ahead, let it out." dad beckoned. Curious, I hesitantly released the Pokémon, surprised to see a white and pink fur covered Pokémon with sharp claws before me.
"No way.... it's a Zangoose!!" I exclaimed in awe. When dad first told me we were moving to Hoenn, I refused to accept it, so he tried to introduce me to the Pokémon here to interest me. I pretended to dislike all of them, even though I truly loved them, but I couldn't hide how cool I thought Zangoose was. The Zangoose before me leaped into my arms, lovingly nuzzling me as it did so.
"I'm glad you like it. I remembered how much you loved it when I was showing you that book of Hoenn Pokémon, so the first thing I did when I got here was find and catch you a Zangoose. This one specifically was awfully friendly towards me, so I thought it would be perfect." dad reminisced happily.
"I love him... thank you, dad." I stated softly. Dad nodded in response, a feeling of ease washing over as as we stood in silence. I introduced Zangoose to the rest of my team, who in turn welcomed him warmly. I glanced around the large room silently as my Pokémon got acquainted with Zangoose, taking in the peaceful atmosphere around me. Fire was holding Celebi in her arms as she chatted with Silver and Red, Crys and Gold were both tending to their Pokémon, Blue and Green were passed out on the couch, Yellow, Leaf, and Emerald were grabbing something to eat, and all the Gym Leaders were chatting away at the other edge of the lobby.
"Here. Latios wanted me to give you this." Steven stated as he made his way to my side. He handed me a nicely designed flute with a little blue ribbon tied to it.
"What's this for?" I questioned.
"It's called the Eon Flute. If you play it, Latios will rush to your side at blinding speed. Sapphire has one as well, but hers has a red ribbon tied to it so you don't mix them up." Steven explained. I smiled softly at the flute in my hands, then rested my gaze on Latios and Latias, who had fallen asleep in the center of the room.
"So... this is his way of wanting to keep in touch with me, huh?" I chuckled, mentally thanking Latios as I spoke.
I noticed the smallest hint of a grin appear on his face.
"I'm​ very thankful to you, Ruby. You and your friends did something incredible today." Steven stated softly.
"Well, to be fair, you saved my life too." I teased.
"That is true, but you saved the world. I only wished to repay you as a friend of yours." Steven said in a matter of fact.
"Touché.... Say, after we're all back into shape, I'm gonna head for the Pokémon League. Will you cheer me on?" I asked hopefully.
"Of course! I wish you the greatest success. Maybe one day even you and I will battle each other." Steven hinted.
"You'd do that?! I'd love to!" I exclaimed cheerfully.
"We will have to see, Ruby. We will have to see." Steven chuckled.
"Yeah, as soon as I beat the Champion, my next target will be you then!" I exclaimed readily.
"If and when you do, I will be waiting." Steven offered his hand as he spoke, which I quickly accepted to seel our deal.
"Don't let battling go to your head now, Ruby. We just finished the fight of our lives." Fire teased with a chuckle.
"Guess you're right... I'm pretty beat too. After a long while of rest and relaxation, I'm hitting the road for the Pokémon League!" I stated confidently.
"Rest and relaxation first. I don't plan on battling for like a month." Silver muttered, causing everyone to laugh. Zangoose jumped onto my shoulder, smiling warmly at me as it got comfortable. There we stood, helping each other unwind as we looked to each of our own bright futures.

Knowing that everyone in this room is a part of what helped me get this far... it only makes me want to grow stronger for them. And growing stronger is exactly what I plan to do from here on out.