World Competition - Season 1

Chapter 2

"I apologize, Your Highness. I hope you understand", explained a voice from behind the door.

Professor Sycamore couldn't possibly take the risk of opening the door widely enough to see who the people were, or at least so they could hear their voices better.

"Of course I understand", spoke another voice, giving them a strange sense of familiarity, "Of course, I am not happy about it. But since a young age I have been used to being thrown into situations I do not want to be a part of.

"I do not tell you this because I want you to feel sorry for me. I was just excited that I would finally be able to explore this world that has been separated from us for so long. I should've known it would be more of a mission. Rest assured myself and the others have everything under control"

"I'd expect no less from you. The reason I visited in the first place was so I could inform you of our plans, but it seems you are collected and prepared as always. If there is nothing else you would like to discuss, I shall leave?"

"Oh, no. Please stay. I may seem collected, but I will need to know exactly what I am expected to do once I am past the border. There are strange things there that I could only imagine"

"What lies behind the border is no match for your ability, Your Highness"

"I appreciate your compliments, but I doubt myself. My hopes are simply to achieve the goal my Empire has been working on for centuries now"

Footsteps echoed louder and louder. The Professor quickly backed away from the door, urging the others to try and hide. They spread out to different sides of the hallway, but there was nothing to conceal them. 

Just as they were beginning to lose hope, the doors swung open, almost smashing into their faces. Shauna, Trevor, Tierno, Sawyer and the Professor were on one side, while Alain, Bonnie, Clemont, Serena and Mairin were on the other. All stood still, holding their breaths while the oblivious others made their way through the hallway.

They turned a corner as the doors shut, allowing them to exhale in relief.

"Alain, what's going o-"

Serena muffled Mairin's mouth with her hand, waiting for the muttering after her loud outburst to stop.

"Mairin, you have to be quiet", she whispered sharply.

"None of us know what's going on", the Professor stepped forward, speaking in the same way, "But from the looks of that scroll there, we've...somehow traveled back in time? It looks like we've gone back a year"

Even the Professor himself was unsure of his own words. Alain was about to open his mouth and suggest finding somewhere to hide for the time being, before Dedenne slipped out of Bonnie's bag and was found springing away from them. 

"Dedenne! Come back!", Bonnie ordered as quietly as she could, but since the Pokemon had seen the large golden crown sitting on one of the previous stranger's heads, it couldn't help but be attracted to the shiny object.

The little girl hastily ran after the Pokemon, her brother following suit, calling for her to come back.

"We'll find them later, we've gotta hide now!", Alain interrupted before any of the others could do anything.

The eight clueless time travelers hurried into the room in front of them, opening and closing the door as gently as possible. As soon as it was locked, their panic escaped them.

"What in the world is going on?! First of all, people from Team Flare show up at the festival and start capturing people! Then some ninja comes and beats them up, makes some weird dragon-type thing come out of the ground and tells us to discover the truth! And now we're back a year in time in, what I'm guessing is, a palace?!", Serena shrieked, pulling her hair with frustration.

"Not only that, but I've never seen a place like this before. I've traveled to a lot of different Regions and cities, but I've never seen writing, or clothes, or decoration, or anything like this", Sawyer added, pointing at the large frame filled with different combinations of strokes he assumed to be letters.

"This has to be some sort of dream! Hello? Anyone? If this is a prank, it's not funny!", Shauna wailed with her hands around her mouth as she, too, started tugging on her brown locks.

"Shush! If by any chance this is real, which I'm pretty sure it is, we don't know where we are and this might not end well if we get caught!", Trevor silenced her, clutching desperately onto his camera for comfort.

Tierno hadn't contributed much to the conversation as he was too busy staring at the decoration of the room. There were cabinets filled with trophies and medals from things he'd never heard of. He didn't understand anything about the writing, but it seemed quite complicated. The windows and frames of the room were lined with strange patterns that were oddly fetching. The wall displayed many images of different people, which he figured were ancestors or some other company of people through time, since most of the pictures were black and white.

The most recent one featured a lot of people in the background, and only a few people in the front, the focus of the picture. Four children sitting at the front with some adults around them. It was colorful and vivid, and they looked happy. But there were no Pokemon in the picture. Just people. 

Once he pointed it out to Trevor, only then did all of them realize their Pokemon were still on hand, although it was strange that they hadn't seen any since this whole catastrophe begun.

"What are we doing? We could just use our Pokemon and get out of here! Find another Pokemon or something else that can get us back to the present!", Sawyer realized. 

Murmurs spread across them as they began to take hold of their Pokeballs. Alain was about to release Charizard when he noticed the Professor's eyes nervously darting around.

"I wouldn't do that...", he mumbled shakily, drawing attention to himself.

"Why not? It's the only logical thing to do right now"

"I know, and I, it's just, uh...", he struggled to explain himself as the trainers eyes him suspiciously, "It's just not such a good idea in a place like this"

"You mean you know where and when we are?"

"Not exactly, uh..."

A few seconds was granted to him before Sawyer snapped, also beginning to get nervous.

"This is ridiculous! We're wasting time here!"

He was about to release his Sceptile as the Professor held his hand out to stop him, when the door suddenly began rattling. They squirmed behind curtains and large furniture just in time for the door to be unlocked from the outside. Unfortunately, Sawyer's Sceptile and Alain's Charizard already having been prepared for release, their Pokeballs were thrown into the air just as the door opened.

"He-WAH!", the boy shrieked and quickly backtracked as the Pokemon stood in front of him, clueless.

'The boy from before, when he and someone else was in this room...', everyone thought to themselves.

He moved his hands in a strangely artistic form, and a blue aura emerged from in between his fingers. Charizard abruptly jerked, frozen in a stretched stance, and collapsed. The boy darted out of the room, dragging his long hair and clothes on the floor with him.

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"Dedenne, where are you going? Come back!"

"Dennene!"

The small Pokemon leaped into a tall bush, getting stuck in the leaves. Bonnie fished it out, exhaling in relief of finally catching it.

"You shouldn't have run away like that!", Bonnie scolded, furrowing her eyebrows at it.

Clemont soon arrived behind her, panting with his hands on his knees. He was about to yell at her when he stopped to acknowledge the pleasant sound in the distance.

"That must've been what Dedenne was trying to follow!"

Minutes later they found themselves standing in a garden, watching an extravagantly dressed figure