23rd Move: Celebi Celebration

23rd Move: Celebi Celebration

Ilex Shrine, Johto.

The GS Ball wobbled.

Once. Twice. Again—each time gaining strength and reducing the interval between each belligerent sway.

Inside the dilapidated shrine, the dried webbing hidden in the corners broke off as the ball jittered sideways. Every successive inch of movement rattled the leaky, creaky wooden platform, threatening to collapse into dust. 

Previously dark, the cubby had all its secrets unwillingly revealed when the entire circumference around the GS ball’s seams flared with a thin thread of light. Its rust-pitted hinges strained in metallic agony as the long shut seal fought ‘til its death to keep doing its job. 

It failed.

The GS ball was shaking violently now. Any pull on our collectively offered aura had long since petered out. 

Pulses of power boomed out of the widened gap between the two sections of the ball, tingling across my body in a cascade of skin. Misty knew what I was talking about as I caught her shivering in my peripheral vision. 

My distraction was only momentary, though. Modern history unfolding before me stole attention back real fast.

Clank! The release snapped, the ball split in half, and a flash of brightness drove us all blind as a screech of long awaited triumph rendered us almost deaf. A warbling chime vibrated underneath a high-pitched whine in an ethereal, haunting cry—half yawn, half squeal. 

“Freee Biii!” Celebi had finally been freed, and was making it known to the world.

All around us, the forgotten clearing we were in breathed back to life again. Returning to a time when people actually remembered it existed. The age-ravaged lumber of the platform healed, grain by grain, in reverse. The cracks in the altar stitched shut as wounds in the wood retracted in rewind. Caked wax residue of years old, flame-consumed candles melted back into unlit wicks, ready for fresh prayer.

Even the browned, dead leaves littering the ground flit gently upwards, attaching themselves onto the branches they’d fallen from, and rediscovered the joys of chlorophyll. 

Celebi was enjoying basking in the sunlight, too. Floating above us all, at the epicentre of the apparent time dilation, stretched itself out to the absolute limits of its limbs. Arms akimbo, Celebi tilted its teardrop-shaped head to inhale fresh oxygen in who knows how long.

Pure relief.

I could relate.

I’ll admit, my plan was predicated on unreliable meta-knowledge; and there was always the chance that I’d made assumptions that Arceus might smite me for. But as I watched Celebi backflip while its fading echoes shattered the last spell of its imprisonment, I let my shoulders go from tickling my earlobes to dropping to their normal place.

Everyone else’s reactions weren’t quite as serene, however. 

Brock was pinching himself. “This can’t be real.” 

Misty was also pinching Brock on his other arm to confirm. “Sweet Suicune, it is!”

“Ooh, pretty!” April took unconscious steps with her hands outstretched to see if she could pet Celebi.

Kurt wasn’t prepared to give her that leniency. “Keep those grubby little fingers to yourself, girlie! This ain’t the time fer that—bow down!” He palmed his granddaughter’s scalp, crumbled to his knees, and dragged her into a kowtow with him. 

“Owie, that hurts!”

“Pay your respects. Our guardian has returned. Where’s that damned soot salesman when you need him?”

Naoko, in the short time I’d made her acquaintance, was seemingly a lot of things. Coy, terrifying (her and her Espeon both), and impressively decorous despite her penchant for teasing. Definitely not someone prone to getting dumbfounded. Yet, in this moment, her signature demurity had been replaced with her jaws agape. “Decades of searching, of chasing shadows until hope itself had fled into fairytales… How—? How could it just have been trapped in a ball?”

As for Ash, he was predictably himself. “Woah! Who’s that Pokémon!?” He immediately whipped out his Pokédex and aimed it at Celebi. 

“Celebi: the time travel Pokémon. Revered as a forest guardian, this mythical Pokémon was speculated to have used its powers to disappear into the currents of time into a different era.” Wouldn’t professor Oak be surprised when he saw that entry popping up?

Actually, it was a pretty good idea. 

Registering it on my own dex, I ensured I got the most picturesque photo I could. Neither could I resist pointing the lens and catching Naoko’s petrified mein, either. For posterity, and maybe blackmail—highly doubted I’d ever witness her catching flies like that again anytime soon. 

Done with its spree of freedom, Celebi hovered in front of us, and considered its audience. But before it could settle any inherent curiosity, Celebi shifted focus elsewhere. Pirouetting midair, it caught a glint of metal. Celebi’s wings beat once with precision, it zipped forward in a sudden blur, and circled around the shrine. Then—without hesitation—it raised a tiny, gleaming palm and slapped the interloper, staining the sacred confines of the shrine. 

The GS Ball.

Cracked, steaming faintly where it had burst. Now inert, it uselessly clattered to a broken stop a few short paces from where Kurt and April were kneeling.

Celebi descended after it like a crashing Minior. 

Landing hard next to the cracked orb, Celebi regarded it with the most hatred it could muster. Which basically amounted to little more than a petulant pout. 

A visible halo of dense aura erupted around its diminutive form; Celebi thrust both its pudgy palms out and wiggled its fingers to direct the concentrated power.

The air around the GS Ball twisted. Bits of the metal contraption protested in a metallic scream that painfully pierced the pulp of my teeth—sort of like chewing on aluminium foil. Until a lance of corrosive time arced downward. Its surface blistered and buckled, gold plating blackened and peeled, and the entire thing rusted into slag. 

No one begrudged Celebi that flight of fury; but even if they did, everyone’s laces and tongues seemed tied in equal measure. A state that left them devoid of caution so near a creature retributively tossing around its reality-bending powers. So, I piped up to avert any potential catastrophe. “Uh, Kurt… you might wanna pedal back a smidge. You’ve only got minutes left as it is. Let’s not risk a glancing blow from Celebi—or we’ll be putting fairy dust in your urn instead of ashes.” Kurt’s glare told me he didn’t appreciate my warning; or indeed, any implied slight against the Johto region’s mythical mascot.

Kurt, nor anybody else, voiced even a whisper. Still, my interjection garnered Celebi’s attention, at least.

Content with its cathartic conniption, Celebi dusted its hand and wholly acknowledged us again.

It hummed, almost purred, in that same reverberating tone. Celebi rose again with a flutter that scattered shimmering dust in its wake—each beat of its wings twinkled cheerily as if reflecting its elevated mood.

It darted straight towards Naoko first, who stood fossilised on her spot at witnessing the relic come alive. “A—ah…” Celebi waved its hands in front of her eyes, but grew bored and flew off when no comprehensible response was forthcoming. 

Brock and Misty were next. “Ah—! Hey, that tickles!” Perpetually squinted eyes were on the verge of snapping open when Celebi zig-zagged around their heads before it settled on his shoulder and took a deep whiff from his neck.

Swapping over to Misty, Celebi stayed perched where it was, choosing instead to sweep its arm forward and fiddle with Misty’s ponytail. Then, in a blink, it was gone, leaving only motes shimmering pollen swirling around the two. “Did—did it just bless us or something?”

Kurt, during this whole inspection, stayed knelt with his palms clasped together in worship–frantically and piously reciting a string of mumbled scripture. Celebi poofed before him and April, but he dared to only eke open a single eyelid to catch a glimpse; very much unlike the wide-eyed wonder April exhibited. “Oh! No, wait—don’t go!” Unfortunately for April and her burly biceps, Celebi wasn’t quite as keen on an embrace as she was, and shyly skipped out of reach.

Skimming along the ground, feet tickling the blades of grass, Celebi zoomed low, then juked high. Approaching Ash’s sneakers, Celebi bounced up and slipped in beneath Ash’s shirt. “Take it easy, bud!” Ash laughed while swatting at the travelling lump, until Celebi popped out of his collar.

Pika!” Vaulting off Pikachu’s head, Celebi sailed and plonked itself on top of mine. 

A short while ago, seeing Celebi leaning over me upside down would’ve been supremely worrying. Had I not already relinquished all faith in leading a quiet life of loud luxury, I’d have pissed my pants. I was squarely in the gelatinous thickness of the plot, whether I liked it or not. 

All eyes were on us now. Even Naoko managed to meander out of the maze of her stupor. Her jaw audibly clamped shut; her eyes had a particular glint in them as her gaze bounced between me and the Celebi flopped above me.

A look that spoke of some unknown ulterior motive that I was dreading more and more.

Our silent showdown was disturbed by crunching branches and rustling bushes. Could just be a Pokémon investigating the noise, or it could very well also be some remnant of the Rockets. Either way, between Naoko and a potential source of viral news to the wider world of Celebi’s miraculous reappearance, it was probably best Celebi get to savour its newfound liberty before becoming a celebrity. 

Reaching up, I patted its bulbous head to get its attention. “I’m stuck here, but you aren’t, anymore. If I were you, I’d skedaddle. You’ll be put under a microscope and scrutinised from every angle–with all the poking and prodding that entails.”

Heeding my sound advice, Celebi chirruped a goodbye trill to our party, abused my cranium as a launching platform, and bound into the open air before vanishing in another dusty puff.

The mythical may be tiny, but it had phenomenal cosmic power. So, despite everyone shouting at me for letting it get away so easily, I was confident it’d find us if it ever wanted to. Knowing my Arceus given luck, that’d be sooner rather than later.

Speaking of ‘later’, a figure we’d all been anxiously waiting on with even more anticipation than Celebi, had finally deigned to make himself known.

Toppling out of the foliage was a young man—boy, really. Lavender hair in a bob cut littered with twigs. A dirt-stained beige boy scout outfit. And bringing in the ensemble was a bug net slung across his shoulders. 

“Oh—! Er, wow… wasn’t expecting so many people to be in this abandoned portion of the forest. A few familiar faces, too. Well, I guess it explains all the raucous I’d heard earlier. Got worried that I’d missed a hive of Beedrill this close to town. By the way, what’re you doing so far away from your workshop, Kurt? It’s still not safe to be roaming around after the earthquake a while back.” 

Bugsy, Azalea’s gym leader, and nominal protector emerged from the wilderness. 

His chipper attitude died quickly, though. “Um… did I miss something?” Replaced instead by bewilderment, because he received none of the typical warmth his presence in and around Azalea typically would have constituted. 

No smiles, just a lot of grinding teeth and popping knuckles. 

Yes, Bugsy, you’d not only missed the revival of a legend—more pressingly, your absence happened at a time where your beloved town had been invaded by the most prolific criminal organisation within two regions. Which meant that it became our unwilling responsibility to pick up your slack.

As much as I would’ve preferred to crow about his inadvertent dereliction of duty. The Pokémon world had a much more efficient means of solving disputes.

“I challenge you to a gym battle!” Ash may have been the first to step forward, but I’d been waiting the longest; so he’d have to get in line ahead of Brock and Misty, as well. 

Bugsy’d skived off earlier, but he wouldn’t be able to skip this punishment. 

Good for him then that he’s a bug type trainer, because with all the deserved frustrations the four of us were about to let out on him, it was adios Ariados.