Explorers of Legends - Prologue

“Hey, guys, it’s about to happen.”

“No, really, Rotom, I hadn’t noticed, thank you for pointing it out.”

“Geez, just being helpful, no need to bite my head off.”

Huddled down in one of the larger bushes surrounding the Striaton Gardens, the sole man threw a glare at the Rotom huddled nearby, effectively shutting it up. Turning his gaze back out into the park, he paused a moment to blow his black bangs out of his amber-colored eyes. Man, these past… how long? Years? He didn’t even know… had let his hair grow out to a rather astounding length considering. He’d have to get it cut soon. He never really liked long hair, at least among men.

“Hey Yel, you really don’t have to attack him, Rotom really is just trying to help,” a nearby bush whispered to the man – Yel.

Yel sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s just been so long since we’ve been here, and we’re SO close to being able to go back to our lives here,” Yel whispered back to the bush, who of course wasn’t really a bush so much as another human: Lily, a brown-haired purple-eyed girl who had held Yel’s affections and gave hers in return. “Of course,” Yel continued, “It didn’t help at all we overshot our return time.”

“Yeah, well, you know how it was in that place bro,” another bush whispered, this one occupied by a different girl, Rui, who instead of brown locks had Christmas colored hair: mainly light green with shades of reddish pink intermixed. “Different rules.”

“Guys, really, it’s nice we’re all on good terms and everything and back home, but it is really happening right now.”

“Huh?” Yel turned back to where they had been originally watching: a small bench toward the middle of the park, currently occupied by a young man with black hair who had his back turned toward the small group. The man was lounging up on the bench – both legs crossed and propped up on the seat – without so much as a care in the world and had pulled out a small device from around his neck to fiddle with. Before he could do much though, a Rotom zipped out of nowhere and got right up into the man’s face.

From their distance and perspective the group was faintly able to see the Rotom’s mouth move in relation to words, though they were far enough away to be unable to hear anything the Pokémon said (not that it mattered, of course; the group already knew exactly what would be said and when). The man sat up and the two continued talking, the Rotom mostly carrying the conversation. After a bit the man relaxed and resumed his lax posture on the bench, up until something the Rotom said brought him to his feet with what the group knew was a huge grin.

No more words were exchanged in the conversation, however; as before either could say anything more they vanished into thin air, like they had never existed to begin with. The only evidence they had been standing there was the small black disk on the ground in that exact place. And then the disk shrank into nothing, and soon what little evidence there had been was gone.

With no one currently in the park (the group excepting, who would never say a word of it for reasons obvious to themselves), there was no record to show the man and his Rotom had even been there. Well that would’ve been the case, until the man and his Rotom emerged from the bushes, looking older (in the man’s case) and with less of a sparkle of carefreeness in eithers’ eyes (though noticeably more so the Rotom than the man), followed by the two women, the one with brown-hair who had a remarkably serious expression and the younger-looking girl with green hair and hazel eyes far to haunted to be on the face of a teenager.

They made their way over to the bench occupied just moments prior, and stood in a small circle, just watching each other.

After a long period of silence, the man finally spoke up. “So,” Yel said, “we’re finally done. No more battles and no more danger.”

Lily couldn’t help but smirk. “Oh, you should know by now, sweetie. Danger can’t stay away from us. It’ll be back.” Her smirk vanished and her face became stone. “Let’s just hope it’s not for a long while though.”

“Agreed,” Yel said, his face also uncharacteristically solemn. Then the shadow passed and a relaxed grin appeared. “Well, like I said, we’re done! We should go celebrate, both for us and the others.”

“Yeah,” Rui approved. “They definitely deserve that, and we do too.”

“I guess it’s settled then,” Lily said. She leaned in toward Yel and gave him a small kiss on the lips before turning and heading toward the main city. “I’ll go get us a table at the Trio’s Restaurant, my treat, and call my father to let him know I’m fine. Don’t leave me waiting too long though, yeah?” she called back to the two before disappearing behind a row of hedges.

Smiling at Lily’s actions, Yel turned back to Rui to see her smirking cheekily at him. “What?”

She giggled. “You’re all pink and red right now. It’s weird seeing you not your namesake color.”

“Oh shush,” he chastised, slinging an arm over her shoulders in a brotherly way. “You’re all pink now too, technically. So, I’d let us go see your new home, but with Interpol all there still there’d be too many questions to answer right now. Also, I’d like to give Lily some time to talk to her father, so how about we tour the rest of Striaton for a bit? That’s as much your new home as the ranch will be.”

“I’d love that bro,” Rui grinned, glancing at the outline of the city past the park entry arches. Yel could only imagine how overwhelmed – or maybe just excited? - she might be; Striaton was colossal compared to the towns she lived in up until now.

It was at that point Yel realized the last member of their quartet had been awfully quiet. “Hey Rotom, you ok?”

The Rotom, who up until then had mostly been just staring at the ground or his plasma ‘arms’, looked up to Yel. The two locked eyes, amber to dark blue, and Yel could tell what the Rotom was thinking without him having to say it: No, not really, but I will be.

“Hey, Rotom, you don’t have to come with us. You can go back to the ranch and rest if you want,” Yel said softly.

“…I could, but then what? No, I’ll come with you guys.” A bittersweet smile. “Besides, what kind of party would it be if there wasn’t a Rotom to be at the center of everything.”

Yel gave a sympathetic smile. “Well, come on then. We got a lot of ground to cover if we don’t want to keep Lily waiting forever.”

With that said the three began to walk toward the city’s outline, keeping up small chat between them. Yel kept a conscious effort to keep the conversation light and happy, and he could tell Rui and Rotom both were as well. It’ll take a while for things to really get back to normal, he thought. Or maybe, a little bit later he revised; maybe we’ll just make a new normal.

Still, at the back of his mind he couldn’t help but think about the two who disappeared a bit before. Yel knows things’ll turn out alright for the two of them, eventually. After all, he is standing there with Rotom and his new little sister. But even so, things definitely won’t be easy for them. There’ll be trouble in their future. Fights that’ll leave them exhausted beyond all belief, and even death awaiting them.

And to think, he sighs inwardly, in the beginning he had been excited about it all.