Journey to another world pr3 ch100 pt1
#10 of Journey to another world pt3 ch91
Journey to Another World 6 Ch. 10
"I can't believe that we were able to pull it off!" Undine said as I sat down on the bench in the room that we'd used before her performance so that I could talk normally with her, without alerting everyone to most of my Pokemon's ability to speak the human tongue. I couldn't help but laugh at that, as the whole way down from the stage Undine had been positively bouncing on edge with glee, knowing that their hadn't been a single flaw in her routine. "I mean...I was scared at first...," She then went into a recap of everything that she'd experienced, felt, and heard throughout her performance up on the stage.
I could only smile and nod to her as I watched her move back and forth in the room. 'I have to admit that she even surprised me a bit with how well she did up there. Not many people are able to go up on stage for the first time and keep their composure like she did. I'll really have to congratulate her on her performance once we get out of here.' I thought but my thoughts slowly turned back to that of the next part of the competition, as well as one thing that I hadn't been counting on...a battle contest.
While the two of us quickly left the stage, I'd heard a person from the crowd say something along the lines of... "If this guy's that good in a beauty competition, I can't wait to see what he's got up his sleeve for the dance and battle portion of the contest." Those words confused me a bit and when I'd asked the attendant in the waiting room about it, she confirmed that their was indeed three parts to the contest and that my decision on not competing in it was invalid. 'I know that I've used the girls in double battles before, but I've never even thought about a contest double battle before.' Sure I'd seen the show a few times and whatnot but I really hadn't been paying that much attention to when either Dawn or May had done their contest battle things.
"This could be a slight problem..." I said aloud as I thought more about what was going to happen in a couple of hours. Undine slowly made her way on over and stopped right in front of me, before I could do anything she used her long ribbon like hair to lift my chin up and look her strait in the eye.
"Do you honestly believe that a man who could calm a goddess when she's about ready to loose her composure, wouldn't be able to come up with something to come up with something to impress them again in a battle competition?" She said in a bit of mocking tone, but it was lost at that as she gave me a silly smile that I couldn't help but laugh at. "Though that isn't to say that I would've calmed down on my own before my performance." She then fanned herself for a moment then looked down at me out of the corner of her eye. "I am a goddess after all."
I couldn't help but laugh at that even more. "Not to worry Undine, I wont say a word to the others."
The judges took a break for lunch and said that the competition would continue with the dance portion after lunch or an hour later. Recalling Undine I went out to the local cafe and grabbed a quick sandwich and a bag of chips. The truth of the matter was that I really didn't have any idea about what I was going to do for the battle. All my focus was on that of the two parts of the competition, not the third. "All that preparation and I'm going to botch it at the finish line." I set down my cup of tea that I'd ordered after my meal and looked about me.
The whole area around me was strewn or full of other trainers that I'd seen earlier in the staging area before the Beauty contest, as well as several other kids who were imitating/talking about their favorite competitor/performers from the contest earlier. I even saw a few who were even talking about my performance as well, but their voices were to low to actually pick out what they were saying. Taking another small drink of my tea I took a long breath and coughed as a little bit of it went down the wrong tube.
A few minutes later, after my coughing fit, I let one last cough out and that one felt a little strange. "Are you alright. It looks like you got a little ketchup there on yourself." A voice said to which I looked over and saw that it was the waiter that'd come by to remove a few trays. Looking down I noticed that I had indeed gotten some ketchup on my shirt, but when I went to remove it, the stuff didn't have the thickness of ketchup, but more like...Blood.
I quickly straitened up and smiled to the man. "Thanks for your concern," I said as I covered over the smudge with my napkin and nodded to the man. "I'll just get home and soak it in something." I said as I reached into my pocket, pulled out my Pokemon credit card and handed it to the man as I gave him a bit of a forced smile with a little laugh. The man gave me a bit of a confused look, but accepted my card and disappeared into the restaurant to charge my card for my lunch. Once the man was gone I removed the napkin and looked down at the spot. There wasn't that much blood there, but any blood that you cough up is already to much. A shiver ran through my system as well as what felt like someone had just injected me with freezing water.
'It's happening again. I must be getting weaker there in the real world again.' When I tried to take a step I felt my knees nearly give out on me, but quickly recovered as I grabbed the chair's upper part to steady myself. 'I don't want to cause a scene. If I do they'll probably admit me to the hospital here and Rena and Jenavee will miss their...'
"Your card sir." A voice said right behind me, making me jump a bit. As I turned around I saw that it was the waiter again, holding out my card to me with the receipt pinched under the card.
"Thanks." I nodded to the man, accepted the card, and turned to leave.
"Are you sure that you're alright sir? You look a little pail." He said in a bit of a concerned tone to which he placed a steadying hand on my shoulder. "And feel like ice."
"I'm alright. Just got the chills for the moment there." I said, shaking off his arm from my shoulder, then quickly started to walk off at a pace that I hoped wouldn't put to much strain on my body and make me faint. Eventually I ended up back at the contest hall with two large boxes in my grasp. Sitting down in the same room as before, I pulled off both Jenavee and Rena's balls and looked down at them. "I hope that they like their..." Another coughing fit hit me right then and I quickly reached up to cover over my mouth, dropping their balls, and inadvertently releasing them inside as I quickly headed off to the restroom when I felt like I was going to be sick.
Quickly pushing open the door to the men's restroom, I quickly made my way over to the sink and finished my coughing fit into the sink. Looking down at the sink it looked as if someone had taken a spray-paint can and gave the sink a quick spurt of the red paint. My whole body seemed to loose pretty much all the strength it had after I'd finished coughing and I fell to the ground in a heap, unconscious. A small trickle of blood slowly flowing out of my mouth and onto the floor.
(Meanwhile, in the staging room)
Both Rena and Jenavee looked about the room in confusion as they'd just materialized out of their balls, but couldn't find Donovin anywhere in sight. The only thing they saw in the room was that of two brightly colored boxes on the bench in the room with them. One with a light blue rapping paper with a navy blue ribbon that was trimmed at the edges with gold, while the other was white with a green ribbon that was trimmed in red at the edges. The ribbons that tied the boxes closed were done quite nicely and had almost a fluffy appearance to them as if you were to push down on them that they'd just spring right back into place.
'_ I wonder if these were the boxes that Donovin had mentioned to us yesterday _?' Rena asked using her Aura like abilities to communicate to Jenavee, as Donovin had warned them that they shouldn't talk in a human like way as it'd just cause problems all around.
'I would believe so. Though where is Donovin?' Jenavee asked as she looked about the small room. 'I do not sense him anywhere.'
Rena quickly lept at her box, hugging it close to her chest and did a little spin with glee. '_ He is such a dear. He probably just stepped out for a moment to give us the chance to change into these wonderful outfits he got for us for our performance with him _.' She then set the box down on the table and began to undo the ribbon with as much speed and care that she could, without ripping the precious gift to pieces.
'I guess so, but...' Jenavee knew that that probably was the reason, but for the life of her she couldn't put the thought to rest as a shiver ran through her, making her hug herself. Something felt...off, no, wrong to her. 'I am going to step out for a bit and find out where he is. It is not like him to just leave us alone without telling us where he is going.' Though when she looked down at Rena she saw that her words had fallen on deaf ears as Rena was slowly beginning to open her fur colored box in slow motion, as if savoring the surprise to come.
Stepping out of the room, and closing the door behind her, Jenavee looked around the room. The room was still slightly empty, but several other trainers were using different things to add to their Pokemon's beauty (Balls of fluff on tails/ears, cute little dresses for a few smaller Pokemon, funny looking hats to others, etc...), while others were coaching their Pokemon on a few last pointers on their routines. Using her psychic abilities again, she sent out a mental probe through the surrounding area. 'Nothing. This is strange. It is almost like those times when he is in a deep sleep or that...' Another shiver ran through her as she recalled the last time she'd tried to contact him and failed to touch his mind. It was when he was rescuing Rena from those Galactic guys if her memory was right. 'I certainly do not see a reason for him to be in that state of mind. So their must be another reason why I can not sense him with my psychic powers.'
She continued to look around the room, but finally resolved to look elsewhere. She checked up the stairs to that of the main stage, nothing. Outside to those of the food vendors/merchants/etc..., nothing. After a while she finally gave up and returned to the staging area where all the other trainers were. She could sense in the room that she'd come out of earlier, quite easily as a matter of a fact, that Rena had opened her box and was absolutely thrilled at what she'd inside. 'Now, I am really starting to get worried.' Not to mention that the shiver that was running up and down her spine was becoming even more prominent as well as a sense of foreboding that something was really wrong now and that Donovin might really be in trouble.
'Rena...have you picked up on Donovin yet?' She asked as she sent her mental voice to that of Rena within the room as she didn't want to reveal the dress that she was probably wearing at the moment for their or her part in the dance competition.
' What was that? You still have not found Donovin?' She asked as her mood quickly returned to a more sensible one.
'No, and I am really starting to get this bad...vibe...feeling that something is really wrong here. Could you use your abilities to locate him. My psychic ones do not seem either to reach him or are to weak.' She said as she continued to look about the room.
'_ Sure...one sec... ' Rena said. There was a long pause for a bit and then a long sigh. ' **_Now that is strange** ,' Rena said as the door to the room opened and she stepped out to stand beside Jenavee, no longer wearing the dress that she'd probably just had on a moment ago.
'Did you find him?' She asked, but when she turned to look over at Rena she could see that she had a very confused look upon her face.
' I think so, but it is strange.' She stepped a little more into the room and had her dreadlocks vibrate even faster than normal. '_ I guess that since your psychic ones have failed, my aura ones should do the trick. After all, mine pick up on life itself _.'
'I know that...did you find him?' Jenavee asked in a bit of a panicked tone as she quickly walked/floated over to stand in front of Rena.
'_ I did, but it is strange. It is like he is not that far away, but far away at the same time...almost like he... ' Rena stopped talking to her as she slowly walked through the crowd of people. She stopped at the door to the men's restroom and set her dreadlocks to vibrate a little faster for a moment before going to lay silent behind her head once again. 'There you are.' Rena then laughed a bit as she turned to Jenavee and gave her a smile. ' **_He is in here Jenavee. Probably just changing into his...**' Rena stopped talking abruptly and a worried look spread across her muzzle. She quickly turned to look back at the door and set her dreadlocks to vibrate so fast that they began to hum in the air.
"What in the world do you two Pokemon think your doing. That's the men's restroom. You can't go in there." A voice said as Jenavee quickly turned and saw a man in a tux standing a few feet away.
But before Jenavee could respond to the man, Rena quickly shoved the door open. " DONOVIN!" She screamed. Jenavee quickly followed after her and screamed out at the same time when she beheld what was laying right there in the middle of the bathroom floor. Donovin lay there in the middle of the room, a small bit of dried blood lay crusted there on the side of his mouth with a larger amount there in a pool by his head, and nearly all the color drained away from his face. Rena knelt next to him on her knees, her left paw shaking quite badly as if that of a leaf in a violent wind storm as she reached out to touch him. Once she did touch his shoulder, she quickly jerked back her hand. " NO NO NO! YOU CAN NOT BE..."
With a violent lunge she quickly grabbed his shoulder and began to violently shake him. After a few moments Jenavee followed suit, slightly swaying back and forth as if in a drunken stupor, and knelt down beside Rena and shook Donovin. "Not like this...not like this. We can't loose you like this...DONOVIN!" She screamed out.
'COUGH....COUGH!' Donovin coughed several times, spewing out a lot of blood with each cough.
(Some time later)
Consciousness slowly began to come back to me and I found myself looking up at a slightly dark and cloudy sky that looked as if a storm had just passed and just now it was beginning to clear. I groaned a bit as my body felt quite stiff and the act of trying to sit up seemed to be an effort to accomplish, almost as if my body were just coming out of a dead sleep. Eventually my body heeded my whim and I sat up to look about me. 'Back again, I see.' I thought myself as I recognized the grassy slope that I lay upon, the forest that was nearly right at the tips of my feet, and the solitary tree on the tip of the grassy slope. It was then that I was wracked by a sudden coughing fit. Once the fit had passed I looked down at my hand that I'd used to cover over my mouth and saw a large amount of blood there. 'Damn. I guess that my condition was worse than I thought.'
Getting to my feet proved to be an effort and even when I did get to my feet, I was wracked by another coughing fit that brought me down to a knee. Once I'd expelled everything that was in my lungs, as after a while the blood stopped coming up when I coughed, I slowly took a long clear breath and sighed in relief. 'Finally. I thought I'd never get my lungs clear.' Standing up I raised my head to the sky, puffed out my chest, and took a long clear breath that felt so good that just wanted to shout in glee as my strength was finally coming back to me, and...it...felt...good. The smell of wet earth met my nose (As well as wet cloths as it seemed that I'd been caught out in the rain before it'd suddenly passed) and that of clean fresh air tickled my nose, almost prompting me to sneeze at how clean everything smelt. It was also then that my brain finally clicked and remembered the last time that I was here.
'Jenavee?' I asked as I slowly looked around and turned towards the tree at the top of the hill. Not hearing a reply, I walked up to the tree and then looked around the area. "Jenavee?"
'Donovin? Is...is that you...' I heard her voice to which sounded quite strained, scared, and a bit relieved at the same time.
"Ya, it's me. I'm back here at our tree again. Where are you?" I asked as I looked around me and tried to find out where her voice was coming from, as it seemed that it was coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Almost like it was the voice of god speaking from the sky.
'You do not know how relieved I am that I can hear your thought once again. We were all so worried about you.'
"We? Who else is there?" I asked in confusion as I took a seat under the leafy tree to enjoy the sight/scenery and pulled up my right knee to rest my right arm on the top of my knee.
'Everyone. Even Kit and the kids.' She said as the sounds of a few sobs were heard.
"When will I see you? Are you going to show up here?"
'Your mind is still a little weak, but I will...' She broke off there as if deep in thought, but that was quickly changed as I looked down from the slope and saw a vapor like apparition coming out of the woods at the bottom of the hill that I was sitting on. As the vapor slowly drew closer I noticed that the vapor actually had color to it.
Getting to my feet I shielded my eyes to the sun as I walked out from under the canopy of the trees leaves. 'STAY THERE DONOVIN!' Jenavee's voice shouted out, making me slightly jump in surprise. Not wanting her to lash out like that again, as I knew that she could easily set off a migraine in my head if she wanted, I slowly walked back to the tree and sat back down against the trunk.
"Jeez Jenavee. You don't have to..."
'Your body is still weak and it seems to be recovering more swiftly when your there at the tree. So stay there until we get there.'
I guess what she said was true. Once I'd first spotted the vapor coming out of the trees of the forest, did they steadily begin to taken on a more clearer form as it approached, but when I was out from under it's leafy canopy did that all stop. The vapor began to take on a bit more of a fuzzy outlook and I began to become light headed and weak. But now that I was back under it, they were starting to look more solid again and clearer than before.
"We. You keep on mentioning, we. Is there someone else there with you?" I asked as the colors of the vapor began to become more distinctive, the forms more visible, and I realized that the vapor wasn't just one but two vapors now.
'Yes. Rena is here with me, but she can not talk to you like I can. That is beyond my abilities.' She said as the two forms were now distinct enough to tell that it did look as if it were Jenavee and Rena, but their forms looked a little fuzzy. They were only a little ways up the hill now but both had taken on much of their former appearances. I could now make out their faces and both looked a wreck.
"It looks like you guys have been through a lot more than I have. Just what happened to me out there?" I asked as both Rena and Jenavee finally made it up to the top of the hill and stood there at the edge of the canopy. They stood there for a moment before Rena's eyes started to leak and she tried to make a quick dash towards me, only to be stopped by Jenavee as now I could see that she had a hand on top of Rena's left shoulder.
'I know that you want to go to him right now Rena, but you have to wait. His mind and body are still to weak for us to actually do more than just talk with him at the moment.' Jenavee said as Rena turned to her and mouth something to her. 'I told you. That is beyond my abilities right now and we can not put Donovin in any more stress than what he is dealing with already.' Rena nodded to her and when she turned back to look down at me I could see that tears had matted the fur under eyes and her eyes themselves looked very bloodshot. All in all it looked as if she'd been crying for some time. Jenavee wasn't that much better off.
"It seems like I've put you girls through the wringer again. I'm sorry for that." I said as I got up from sitting against the tree to stand before them and gave them an easy/happy smile. Before either could speak though I reached out with either of my hands and brought them to their faces, though instead of actually touching them my hands phased right through their heads. "What the?"
'Now that felt weird.'
"What happened? Why can't I touch you here. I was able to the last time we were here." I asked as I held up my hands and looked down at my palms, wondering what had was going on here.
'As I said before. Your mind is still to weak. You have just regained enough mental strength for us to talk and reveal ourselves to you,but not enough so that we can feel.' She said as I looked at each of the girls in turn and saw that they wanted to fell my touch as much as I wanted to hold them tight and tell them that everything was going to be alright.
'I guess that kind of makes sense. Either one of these apparitions before me are the representations of Jenavee and Rena minds. And since my mind isn't strong enough yet to actually interact with them, they can only show themselves to me.' I paused for a bit as I tried to wrap my head around all of this. 'It's like that of a divided freeway. I can see the other cars on the road, but can't touch them. I'll have to wait for my mind to get stronger and then it'll be like a two lane road and I'll be able to interact with them.' After another pause I looked up at them and nodded. "How long have I been out of it?"
Rena opened up her mouth and spoke/said something, but like before the words didn't seem to reach my ears. "What did she just say?" I asked Jenavee as I turned to look at her.
'Huh? Oh.' Jenavee turned to Rena and the two conversed for a while, before she turned back to me and smiled. 'Rena says that you have been unconscious for at least a couple of hours.' From there they recounted everything that'd happened up to that moment. How they'd found me lying on the floor of the bathroom, the staff at the contest rushing me to the hospital, the contest itself being put on hold for a while until things went back to normal, and Jenavee had contacting/asked Kit to bring the kids to the hospital.
"How are the kids taking all this?"
'Fairly well actually. We told them that, 'daddies sleeping with a bit with bad cold and not to disturb you' as you need your rest to recover.' I knew the look in Jenavee's eyes and it spoke a volume or two on how she really didn't feel comfortable about telling lies to the kids, but knowing that some lies can be good, as the truth hurts at times.
"And did the doctors say anything about my condition?" Both girls knelt down in front of me. Jenavee tucked her legs under her dress which reminded me of some old pictures I'd seen of women back in the old days would do when they were out on a pick-nick and about ready to read a book that they had underhand. Rena on the other hand did the same but without a dress on I could see that she was sitting on the back of her legs like someone from the old Japanese era. "Will I be out for the rest of the contest? Do we have to forfeit?"
Rena looked like she found what I'd just said quite funny as her form shook a little in mirth, while she covered over her mouth to hide the non-existent sound. Jenavee just gave me a smile, lowered her head, and shook it a bit which made her hair move slightly with the shaking. 'It is nice to know that you are thinking of us and all, but you really should be more concerned with your self. I mean, what were you thinking,' Her voice quickly changed to a more serious tone. 'Why did you not tell us that you were not feeling so well?'
"Because I knew how much the two of you were looking forward to this competition." I lowered my head in shame as I knew that she was right. "I have been sick before and thought that I could tough it out."
It was then that I saw Jenavee leap to her feet and open her mouth to shout something at me, but before she did Rena reached out and tugged at her dress, stopping her from breaking the contact that she needed to stay/remain visible in this/my world. Jenavee turned to look down at Rena and the two seemed to converse for a while. I didn't know what Rena was saying to Jenavee but whatever it was took the wind out of sails/anger and she began to calm down. Eventually she nodded to Rena, took a good long sigh, then leveled her gaze at me. 'Rena is right. I am probably blowing all of this out of proportion, but you do have to realize how scared you made everyone when we found you like we did.'
To that I couldn't help but nod in defeat. She really did have a point and I really had to start taking better care of myself. Lord knew on how upset this would probably make my little sister back in the real world, but that was a thought/situation that I'd have to deal with at another time. "I'll do my best to make sure to alert either of you if I start to feel ill again, but I'm still curious about my condition. Did the doctor say when I'd be able to get out of bed?"
'Rena is working on speeding up your recovery by using her aura abilities to heal most of your internal injuries. While she is doing that I have been working to keep you from slipping into an even deeper coma.' Jenavee looked down at Rena, as did I turn to her, and we both saw that she did have a look about her of great concentration. 'She has been working on you the whole time that we found in the bathroom.'
Slowly getting up to my feet I walked a step over to her and reached out to gently place my hand near her face, but knowing that I couldn't actually touch her or either of them felt a little strange to me. She seemed to know what I was doing and reached over with her hand and placed it near mine. "Thank you Rena, just make sure that you don't push yourself to hard..." I broke off at that as a small laugh escaped me as well as a bit of an after thought. 'That's calling the kettle black.'
She gave me a nod and then slightly leaned her head to the side as if she wanted to lean into my hand and just enjoy the feel of it against her furry face/muzzle. 'We should probably get going. Just make sure that you remain under this tree until I return.' Giving her a bit of a nod, I saw Rena slowly get to her feet. 'Is there a draft around here?' Jenavee asked which got me to look slowly down her form and to the area that was now exposed to the air.
"OH MERCY."
To be continued in chapter 100 part 2