Chapter 2
The mystery of the Mystery
Crystal
The next morning, the Bandits were all assembled out of sight around the area where the shipment would be passing through. The plan called for the Bandits to distract the guards while Domino, being the fastest and most agile, went in to retrieve the crystal. They all knew what to do and had memorized the exact point the carriage had to be when they leaped out. This plan called for teamwork and fortunately, with one exception, this was how the Bandits worked best. They also had the ability to hide and become almost invisible. As the carriage approached, the Bandits readied themselves and all sprung as one when the carriage reached the agreed spot. Smoke bombs went flying everywhere and Domino, seeing her chance, ran out of the bushes and leaped on the top of the carriage. She immediately saw a problem! The roof was reinforced with tough metal, but the Genome had prepared for every eventuality. She placed one hand on the metal and froze it using her Blizzaga spell. After a couple of seconds of freezing, she stopped and, moving her blue cloak aside a little, whipped her tail onto the now frozen metal. The metal immediately shattered into pieces. Amazing how brittle metal becomes at sub zero temperatures! She thought to herself. She leaped down through the hole and took a look around. Uh oh, this is gonna be harder than I thought! The whole carriage was filled with identical wooden crates. With no way of knowing which crate the crystal was in, she started opening any of them and hoping that the Bandits could hold off the guards long enough. Her searching revealed many necklaces, rings and precious jewels. Being a thief there was a big temptation to take everything she could lay her hands on! However reminding herself of her mission and that she hadn’t much time, she ignored everything and continued searching. Finally she found it. It was a small crimson crystal, glowing brightly in the smoke darkened carriage. Domino snatched up the crystal and made a leap for the hole in the roof. Just as she leaped, someone grabbed her ankle and pulled. She fell back down through the hole and smacked her head on one of the crates. Rubbing her head and attempting to hold on to consciousness, she looked up to see the shadow of a guard against the smoke. Dammit, those idiot guards worked it out! She thought to herself. As one of the guards approached her, pointing a spear at her to prevent her escape. Domino swung her tail around and knocked the spear out of the guard’s hand. She then followed that up with a Drain attack. The guard fell unconscious and Domino, well accustomed to picking up and using any weapons her opponent dropped, picked it up. As she attempted to escape, another guard blocked her path. Using the unconscious guard’s spear she pole vaulted over this second guard and, dropping the spear, ran for it. The guard gave chase, closely followed by a few reinforcements. Not actually thinking about where she was going, she just kept running, until she noticed that the trees were closer together here and tangles of vines had suddenly sprouted. The Mist was also somewhat thicker her, She stopped in her tracks and looked round. The guards had stopped chasing her ages ago, and she now realized why. She was deep in the infamous Evil Forest and totally lost.
“Oh DAMN!!” She cried to no one. Following that little outburst, Domino decided to retrace her steps. However this turned out to be harder than she thought. There was a reason very few people visited Evil Forest and it was because most never came out again! In the end she decided to just carry on in the direction she was going, it was way better than just standing there wait for a Mist monster to attack her. Along the way, Domino, unfortunately, came across a couple of Goblins and a miss-aimed Thundaga spell hit a nearby rock pile and caused the rocks to fall down. What lay behind the rocks shocked Domino into allowing the Goblins to escape. The rock pile had hidden a small cave, from which a faint glow seemed to be emitted. Domino was tired and hungry and really wanted to go home, but having always had a reputation for being a curious creature, she decided to try to find out where that light was coming from. The cave was quite deep but as she went further in, the blue glow grew stronger. Eventually, it led her to a smaller cavern area. Standing right in the center of this cavern was two stone pillars with strange writing carved on them and a bright glowing blue sphere atop each one. There was something all too familiar about the carvings, but she couldn’t quite place it. Stepping forward for a closer look, Domino tripped on a stray stone and landed flat on her face. The crystal rolled out of her hand and was dragged into the hole in between by some unseen force, kinda like when a magnet attracts metal. Domino got back up and dusted herself off, but was immediately distracted by the fact that the glowing blue spheres were now glowing red. She flinched as whitish yellow beams shot out of each sphere only to meet in the middle and create a seven-foot tall vertical beam over the crystal, which then widened to fill the space between the two pillars. Due to her temperamental lifestyle, Domino had long forgotten what it meant to be frightened, but this intimidated her a little, though she didn’t know why. It was at that point that she sensed something. Looking round she saw the silhouette of a Spider Plant looming up behind her. Without further hesitation she jumped forward into the white space.
Back in Johto, Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu were reflecting on how lucky they were to have found a village in the middle of the forest. They had taken shelter in the village’s local Pokemon center, and, although the rain had finally lifted, they had decided to stay at the center for another night before moving on. They had already asked the center’s Nurse Joy about the pillars in the forest, but she didn’t know any thing about them, and neither did the other Pokemon Trainers who were staying at the center that night.
“That was strange,” stated Misty “I mean who would build something like that in the middle of the forest and why?”
“Maybe it was aliens from outer space,” joked Ash “they’re gonna use it to take over the planet!”
“Uh, Ash? Time to come back to reality!” said Misty. But even she had to admit that that it looked liked like something from an alien movie. This had been their main theory, but the residents were adamant that no movies had been filmed in that forest at all. The next two hours were spent exploring the village and participating in friendly Pokemon matches with local Pokemon Trainers, none of whom could shed any light on the pillar mystery. Finally, Ash couldn’t stand it any more! He just couldn’t wait to go and have another look, so Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu went back into the forest to examine the pillars again. As they approached the pillars, the two spheres became red and created a large white light filling the space in-between. Pikachu had just moved forward to give the light a sniff when Domino shot out of it like a bolt of lightning, tripped over the little Pokemon and slammed straight into Brock, knocking him over. Without saying a word, Domino shot back up and, dreading the consequences of the Spider Plant following her through, pulled the crystal from the hole in the center. When the crystal left contact with the hole, the light flickered for a couple of seconds then went out, the two spheres returning to their normal blue colour. Domino breathed a sigh of relief then looked round to find Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu all looking at her strangely.
“Um… hi?” she said, not really knowing what else to say. She noticed with some disappointment that, apart from the funny looking yellow creature, they were all humans and unfortunately, due to past experience, Domino was somewhat less than fond of humans. Although, since she was in unknown territory, she felt it best to be polite for a change. Then she remembered why she had taken that untimely flying lesson! “Sorry ‘bout that!” she said to Brock “I really ought to start looking where I’m going!”
“Err… That’s alright!” replied Brock, still recovering from Domino’s shock arrival.
“Um, excuse me,” Misty butted in “but just where are you from?”
“Long story!” replied the Genome “I’m Domino, by the way” After this little intro, Ash, Misty and Brock proceeded to introduce themselves and Ash introduced Pikachu. Pikachu really intrigued Domino, she had never seen a Pokemon in her life and it was interesting just how much Pikachu could’ve been mistaken as a newly discovered Mist Monster, if a little smaller than average monster size. “I guess I gotta apologize to you as well, Pikachu,” she said, “I think it was you I tripped over on my way in!”
“Pika, pika” Pikachu agreed. Domino knelt down beside Pikachu and offered it her hand. Ash was just about step in and warn her that Pikachu was very likely to electrocute her, as it did with anyone it didn’t know who tried to touch it, when he noticed that Pikachu wasn’t reacting as it usually did. The Pokemon gave Domino’s hand a cautious sniff then moved closer and allowed Domino to stroke it. Ash was surprised at just how friendly Pikachu was being to some one it had just met. Standing back up, Domino took a look around. Just where the hell am I? She thought to herself. There was absolutely no Mist to be seen… anywhere! On Gaia, even outside of the Mist Continent, Mist still loomed in thin layers. Then there was the Pokemon… How come she had not heard of these creatures before? Thinking it over for a minute, she concluded that she must be on a different planet, or a different dimension! She also realized that she didn’t have a place to stay, not wanting to risk going back into the Evil Forest ‘til she had been given a chance rest first. Not that she was really bothered – she never really liked to stay inside anyway – but, being in a place she didn’t know, she didn’t really fancy attempting to rest outside!
“Do any of you know any where I could stay at?” she asked
“Yeah,” replied Misty “you can stay for free at the Pokemon Center in the village over there” she pointed to the direction of the village. Domino hadn’t a clue what a Pokemon center was, but hey, it was a place to stay and it was free, and she’d be darned if this place – wherever it was – would accept Gil. As Domino went to follow Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu, her cloak moved back slightly and Misty caught a glimpse of Domino’s tail, however not being sure if she really saw it or not, she decided it was best not to say anything and just carried on going.
Although it had been dawn when Domino and the Bandits had ambushed the Jewel carriage, here in Johto, the sun was beginning to set, and it was because of this bizarre time difference that Domino was still awake at midnight. She had now fully recovered from her battles with the numerous Gaian monsters and was itching to do something. She still hadn’t told the humans about being a Genome, not because she was worried about being labeled a freak, but because she didn’t know how these humans would take to it. For all she knew, they could have never seen any other humanoid species other than their own before. It could become very awkward, so her tail had remained hidden. Finally, unable to contain her energy any longer, she got up and walked out of the Pokemon Center.