Eddies

Chapter 41: Where are we?

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Eddies 41 – Where are we?

At first, there was no light.  No light, no pain and no conscious thought.

Then the irritation began, and it was very, very irritating.

"Wake up!"

His shoulder was shaken roughly.

"Is he awake yet?"

"Does he look like he's awake?"

"No, he looks like he's dead!"

"What?  No!  He's not dead!  He just won't wake up!"

"Have you tried hitting him in the head?  That normally wakes me up."

"No, I have not tried hitting him in the head!  

"Hmm...  I still think you should hit him in the head!  Move over, and let me..."

"You will NOT hit him in the head, Entei!  Move away!"

Raikou rumbled from beneath closed lids "If you two have kindly finished, I would appreciate you going away and leaving me to my peaceful afterlife, thank you."

The voices continued...

"He thinks he's dead!  What do we do?"

"I still think a good, solid thwack to his head would clear everything up!"

Raikou groaned, opening a bleary eye to regard the anxious blue face of Suicune hovering over him.  Standing at his shoulder was Entei, a manic smirk plastered across his face as he dwarfed over his smaller brother’s form.

"Oh, I can't be dead.  Father would not be so twisted as to leave me lumped together with you two in the afterlife."

Suicune looked affronted, sitting back a moment before returning to lean down over Raikou.

"Yes, well, given I have tolerated your presence up until now without complaint, I don't see how you can criticise...."

"Without complaint?" interjected Entei incredulously, one eyebrow raised high as he stared at his smaller brother in disbelief.  "I doubt a moment has gone by during your existence without some sort of whiny bitching from you, Suicune!  I'm surprised father named you as he did, rather than call you Mr Whiny McBitchmeister!"

Raikou closed his eyes again, concentrating on controlling the throbbing migraine splitting his skull that threatened to have him hurl up his breakfast over the bickering pair.  "If you two children have had enough, please stop your pointless noise and tell me where we are?"

Suicune's muzzle shut with a snap, before he turned around to stare out into the darkness around them.  "Well, then.  Umm, well...  We don't know really where we are."

"It's night though!" said Entei helpfully, as Raikou slowly rose to his haunches, swaying slightly as he used one paw to rub his aching forehead.

"Yes, that is very helpful, Entei.  I noticed the lack of it being day from the moment I opened my eyes and beheld the star filled night above us!"

Suicune snorted in amusement, as Entei looked bemused.  "I was trying to be informative.  If you prefer, I'll keep my mouth shut from now on!"

Suicune sniggered.  "Yes, do us the favour of withholding from us your vast pool of wisdom."

Entei didn't bother replying, as Raikou looked around into the darkness, his keen night vision working surprisingly well under the starlight.  Starlight from constellations that bore no resemblance to those he knew from home.

"We are not where we were, for certain." he started, before Suicune snapped "No, we aren't where we were.  There isn't a rubble filled building collapsed on top of us anymore, is there!"

The blue pokemon petered off at the sharp look from Raikou, who paused before continuing. "Thank you again for the insight, Suicune.  Now, as I was saying before your interruption, the stars do not match what we know.  Indeed, they seem to bear some similarities to those I studied when I returned with Chris to his home."

Entei looked upward suddenly, face scrunched up into inscrutability as he followed his brother's thoughts.  "Yes, they are different to home" he concluded, and Raikou rubbed his face tiredly, suppressing the desire to snap at him again for stating the obvious.

As the fog slowly cleared from his mind, Raikou noted another difference.  This landscape had changed markedly to that he'd encountered on his previous trip.   All red soil and low scrubby salt brush, it seemed a much more forbidding place than the heavy forest areas above Chris's family home.  The bare plain stretched off endlessly, broken only by the odd pile of rock scattered randomly amongst it, until it met the horizon at an unimaginable distance.  Seeing the vast scrub desert spread before them, Raikou thought glumly that they'd be doing a lot of walking to get anywhere from here, and went to bring this up, but missed the opportunity when Suicune said brightly "Well, we did find a sign though."

"A sign?" said Raikou sharply, glaring at his brother who wilted slightly under his glare.  "What sort of sign?"

"Well, umm, a big wooden one.  It pointed off in that direction, towards...  well....  that thing."

Following his brothers outstretched paw, Raikou spun slowly to meet the awesome sight of a massive dome of red stone rising out of the desert sands, to block the horizon behind them.

In awe, he said "What in Arceus's name is that?"

Suicune shrugged, and said "Well it's a huge dome of sandstone standing 348 meters high, is 3.6 kilometres long and 1.9 kilometres wide.  It's also around 600 million years old...""

When he noticed Raikou and Entei looking at him in slack-jawed amazement, Suicune stuttered to a stop, before shrugging his shoulders and saying "I read the sign!  It was very informative, and had pictures!  Apparently, this place is called "Uluru"."

As the trio stood regarding each other numbly before turning back to the monumental rock formation, a deep, quiet chuckle began from a clump of rocks in the darkness nearby.  The trio started, Entei swearing loudly while Suicune let out a high pitched squeal of surprise, as a tall, dark form stood up on top of the rocks, revealing itself in the starlight as a middle aged, dark skinned human, dressed in a black shirt and navy pants, and wearing black leather hiking boots.  Looking down on them from above, he chuckled again, lips parting to show brilliant white teeth as he said jovially "I'm taking it you boys ain't from around here, huh?"

All three legendaries shook their heads speechless, as the human dropped nimbly to the ground, brushing soil from his palms onto his jeans as he approached them fearlessly.

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At the sound of the scream, Scott started, giving Chris a wide eyed stare which was returned, before the pair bolted towards the source of the sound.  Even with their haste, it took them several minutes to race through the maze of paths crisscrossing the zoo, and by the time they arrived in the area, a large crowd of people had already begun milling around a toilet block, where the source of the excitement had originated.

As they skidded to a halt, Scott spied the two kids who had given them lip service at the entrance, sitting on a nearby bench white faced and shaking, under the care of one of their teachers.  Without preamble, he marched towards them, even as Chris put a restraining arm on his shoulder to calm him down.  The look he gave Chris was furious, but the pause did seem to achieve something, and his florid face began losing some of its colour.

Regardless, his mood wasn’t booking any further stupidity, and he leant down before the shocked pair and demanded in a chill voice “What did you do?”

The pair froze, and then exchanged a frantic glance, before one spoke up hesitatingly “Umm, mister, we didn’t know...  I mean, we were only kidding around, and we had no idea...”

The other cried out “We’re sorry!!  We didn’t mean to let him out of the...”

Scott’s eyebrows drew together angrily, and he was about to continue berating the pair when an angry female voice piped up in his ear “Who, exactly, are you to criticise these children?  Are you a park official?  Or do I need to call the police?”

Scott stood slowly, turning to glare at the woman, who blanched at the look of fury on the Ranger’s face.

“You are going to call the police, are you?  Well, let me explain something to you about your young kleptomaniac charges here.  They stole something extremely valuable, and potentially dangerous, from me.  You have my word if anything bad comes from this, both they, and you, are going to be very, very sorry, as I guarantee that the authorities involved will take an extremely dim view of their actions.  Do I make myself clear?”

She took a step back, nodding silently as she gauged his demeanour, before Scott returned to grilling the two kids.

“Where is the ball?” he asked menacingly, and one reached into a pocket, handing over the pokeball with shaking hands.  Gripping it tightly, the Ranger turned to leave, as one of the kids piped up “We’re sorry, Mister.  We didn’t know it was real!”

Scott gave the kid a long look, but started as a metal whistle sounded from behind him.  As he spun, a group of park rangers raced into view on a modified golf buggy, demanding that everyone keep their distance while they dealt with the reported escaped animal.

Chris, standing behind Scott, gave him a helpless glance.  However, the Ranger was through tolerating stupid, and hissed at him to distract the group while he made a beeline for the toilet block himself.

Chris nodded, springing forward even as the three park rangers pulled to a stop nearby.  In a falsely shaking voice, he told them he thought he saw “some big thing” race across the path in front of him to take refuge in the reptile house, as he pointed towards the large building nearby with a wavering finger.

The three exchanged confused looks, but the leader shrugged, bringing to bear the tranquiliser dart rifle he’d been shouldering as the trio headed in the direction of the facility.  In the corner of his eye, Chris spotted Scott slip into the toilet block behind him, and breathed a sigh of relief the Ranger hadn’t been seen by the local authorities.

Scott’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the relative darkness within the bathroom, as with the lights turned off, the only illumination came through the tree-covered skylights above.  Stepping past the urinal, he opened the door to the first two cubicles, only to find them empty.  The third was locked, the “occupied” sign visible beneath the catch, and Scott knocked on the door softly, spooking the occupant, who shuffled noisily.

A gruff voice from within said “I’m busy!  Use another cubicle!”

Despite himself, Scott grinned wryly, knocking again and saying “Well, if you don’t come out, I’m coming in, Storm, decent or not.  Open the bloody door!”

A brief pause was followed by further movement from within, until a click from the lock cycling allowed him to pull the door back.  Within, a rather dejected looking typhlosion sat on the toilet, one leg soaked to the calf and dripping water on the floor.  When Scott looked at it, Storm shrugged helplessly and said “I stood in the loo!  I couldn’t help it!”

Nor could Scott; his shoulders began shaking as his mouth quirked involuntarily.  Even then he couldn’t stop himself, and he began laughing loudly, his body leaning against the brick wall as he stood gazing at his grumpy partner, who swore under his breath as he began dabbing at his wet fur with scrunched up toilet paper.

“Not fucking funny!” growled Storm, even as his chuckling partner brought up his pokeball, capturing the typhlosion mid-rub.

Outside, Chris caught the flash of ruby light from within the toilet block, even as the three park rangers returned, one sporting an angry look.  They approached him immediately, their leader demanding to know what he was playing at!

“There was nothing in there, anywhere!  Other witnesses state it was those two kids over there who said they saw something in the toilet block, and nothing had run out of it since.  What stunt are you trying to pull?”

Chris shrugged and said apologetically ”Hey, I thought I saw something!  Obviously I was mistaken!” even as Scott left the building and approached the group.  “Well, there’s nothing inside there now” Scott interrupted, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.  “Place is empty.  I’m thinking the kids must have imagined they saw something.”

The park ranger’s lips thinned and he nodded to one of his colleagues, who split off to check out the block for himself.  The head ranger then turned to the far bench where the kids continued to be watched over by their supervising teacher.  At his approach, the older of the pair stood up, and said ”I’m sorry, sir!  We thought we saw something in there.  It could have been a shadow or something.  We’re sorry to have caused such a fuss!”

The man stared down at him tiredly, before nodding.  “Alright, but no more mistakes.  It caused a lot of panic, and you scared quite a few people.”

As the two kids nodded, the ranger looked to his colleague who had returned from his check and had shrugged; indicating nothing was still inside the toilet.  At that, the trio returned to their vehicle, hitting the gravel track with a squeal of spinning tyres. 

Once they’d gone, Scott gave a prayer to Arceus they’d escaped without further issue, but turned to the two kids and the teacher, asking her for a moment alone with them.

She hesitated, but at his look walked a few meters away, where she continued to watch him closely.

Bending down to the pair, Scott said wryly “Now, I’m going to forget what you two did this time, alright, on the condition that not a word of this goes further than here.  Otherwise, I will be left with no alternative than to hand this over to my police colleagues, who won’t be looking kindly at you opening your mouths further.  Do we understand each other?”

The pair nodded in unison, before one asked “Was he real, mister?  Are you really a Pokemon Ranger?”

Scott gave a dry laugh.  “Sometimes I wonder that myself, kid.  Yes, he’s real as you and I, but I’m not admitting that to anyone else, alright?”

Stepping back from the wide eyed pair, he moved to rejoin Chris, but paused.  Over his shoulder, he gave them one last, long look, and said “Besides, if you tell anyone, I’ll really have my friend here send his lucario after you...”

The pair nodded.  There wasn’t much more they could have said.

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Suicune let out a meep, slipping behind Raikou as the strange human approached the trio.  Raikou’s eyes narrowed as he regarded the man, whose fearless approach had him impressed, albeit slightly intimidated.

The human stopped a few meters away, putting his hand on his hip as he gave them a frank stare.  “Interesting lot, you brothers are.” He began, until Suicune interrupted.

“How did you know we were brothers?” he demanded, sticking his head past Raikou’s flank to regard the guy.

The human tapped his ear with a long finger, and chuckled.  “Ain’t too hard to hear you three bickering from a long way away.  You three make more noise than a horny cockatoo!”

Raikou shook his head, turning to glare at his brothers who returned his stare guiltily.  With a sigh, he met the eyes of the human, and said “You do not seem especially concerned by our presence, though.  Why are you not afraid?”

The human shrugged, before dropping to sit cross-legged before him.  Reaching into a shirt pocket to remove a packet of cigarettes, he tapped one into his free hand with a practiced flick.  Slipping it between his lips, he patted his rear pocket for a lighter, stretching forward to retrieve it with his fingertips.  As he lit the smoke within a cupped hand, Raikou said dryly “That is not a healthy habit.  I have a friend who does that, and as I told him, it cannot be good for you.”

The human grinned, drawing a long breath and breathing the smoke out the side of his mouth.  Turning back to Raikou, he reached out an arm, palm open and said “Rodney Tjuta.  Mutitjulu community elder.”

Raikou looked down at the outstretched hand before engulfing it in a paw.  “I am Raikou, and these are my brothers Entei and Suicune.”

Rodney nodded, feeling the strength in the warm, furred grasp, as he pressed on the large pads firmly.  “It’s good to meet you, wanderer” he said, drawing in another breath, the red, glowing tip of his cigarette lighting his face for a moment.

Raikou nodded, sitting on his haunches as his brothers followed suit behind him.  Rodney sat back, arms stretched behind him, and said past his cigarette.  “I will say you happen to be some of the more unusual visitors we have had up here for a long, long time.  Indeed, it hasn’t been since my great, great grandmother’s time that spirits have come in the flesh to greet us.”

Raikou looked puzzled for a moment, then as understanding dawned, he shook his head negatively.  “No, we are not your spirits.  We have just been sent here from... well, from our own world.”

The broad grin returned, as Rodney chuckled again.  “If you say so, spirits.  But I see the need to offer you some help, I think.  Why do you think you are lost?”

Suicune answered, his long neck stretching forward as he replied “We weren’t supposed to be here at all.  In fact, we have no idea where here really is!”

Rodney nodded, and opened his arms to encompass the world around them.  “You are at Uluru, a sacred place for my people.  It is an area that contains the essence of the Dreamtime, where our ancestors, gods and living mortals come together to learn about the heritage and customs.”

Pointing to the huge rock, he said quietly “Uluru was created at the beginning of time by ten of our ancestors; the ancestors of the Anangu people.  Before it was created; before the Uluru dreamtime; the world was a featureless place.  Then the Anangu ancestors emerged and travelled across the land, creating places like Uluru.”  Turning a long look at the legendaries, he concluded. “Uluru is one of the physical manifestations of their time on this earth, and is one of their most dramatic and inspiring creations.”

Raikou blinked, then exchanged a look with Suicune.  “Perhaps it is the power of this place that drew us here, from our unexpected journey” he said slowly, as Suicune nodded.  Entei just blinked, before a loud gurgle interrupted the moment.

Raikou sighed, even as Entei sat up and rubbed his stomach.  “Hey, I’m hungry.  I haven’t eaten since...  Well, since forever!”

Rodney Tjuta nodded, flashing the big pokemon a toothy smile as he sat up, before slowly getting to his feet.  “I think we can help you with some tucker” he said, putting out his cigarette on a nearby rock and carefully stowing the butt back into its packet.  “How about you come with me, and we shall see what we can rustle up?”

The brothers exchanged a quickly whispered conversation, which ended as Entei said loudly “I don’t care!  I’m hungry; he has food; so let’s eat!”

Raikou groaned, but followed the huge bulk of Entei as he lumbered after the aboriginal elder. 

Besides, perhaps the guy knew how to make pancakes?

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Authors note:

What the hell.  Thought I’d throw in some native Australian culture to be informative.

Mind you, there are many, many stories about the dreamtime, so nailing one wasn’t easy.

Still, I hope it integrates well into the story.

Anyway, who’s happy the terrible trio are alive?

Rocko wavies madly!  ME!! ;)