Chapter Ninety-Five: The Gate of Time and Space

A brief chime sounded, and Cheng Cheng hurriedly answered that he understood and would finish at once.

By then, he had already left Snowflake City and was on the road to Driftveil City. He had stopped in a meadow to prepare lunch, while his Pokémon kept urging him on, all of them ravenous.

“All right, time to eat.”

He divided the Pokémon food into portions and handed each one its share, then began eating his own meal.

After much practice, the Pokémon had completely accepted the taste of the food Cheng Cheng made. Even if they had not, it would not have mattered; they could have endured a little hunger.

Once everyone had finished, it was time for a nap. Cheng Cheng lay down with the Pokémon, chatted for a while, and then went to sleep.

When he woke, he found that two of the Pokémon were missing: Kadabra and Slowbro. Those two were always mischievous, and there was nothing Cheng Cheng could do about it.

But he was no longer the Cheng Cheng of before. Now he could swiftly sense the fluctuations of their psychic powers, and before long he had dragged the two little troublemakers out into the open.

“If you two like running off so much, then you must have plenty of energy. Fine. Today’s training will be eight against two: Chimecho, Gardevoir, Lunatone, Mr. Mime, Natu, Sigilyph, Gothita, and Spoink will gang up on you.”

Upon hearing this, Slowbro and Kadabra tried to flee at once, but the other Pokémon would never let them get away.

The result was obvious. In this two-against-eight battle, the two Pokémon were thoroughly beaten.

After that drubbing, they became much more obedient. Cheng Cheng called them back, then continued onward, hoping to reach the next place to rest before nightfall.

However, he had overestimated his own speed. Night fell, and he still had not found a place to rest, so he decided to camp out for the night.

According to the map, this should have been a mountain called Mount Coronet. Cheng Cheng vaguely remembered that something seemed to have happened here, but for the moment he could not recall what. To hell with it; he was only going to sleep here for one night, so nothing should happen.

When Cheng Cheng came out of his meditative state, he discovered that Slowbro, which had been sleeping beside him, was missing again.

“Slowbro! You bastard, don’t let me catch you today.”

“Gardevoir, let’s go.”

He searched for Slowbro’s presence and followed it until he soon reached the mouth of a cave.

“You bastard, you actually ran inside here. Unbelievable.”

Cheng Cheng forced himself to suppress his anger and calm down.

“Gardevoir, use Flash.”

In the light of Gardevoir’s illumination, Cheng Cheng walked into the cave. He found that it was full of lights, as though it were a mine; people must have been extracting ore here.

Proceeding cautiously, he soon encountered a group of people.

“Hey, who are you? Outsiders are not allowed here.”

There were more than a dozen of them, all staring at Cheng Cheng. Several of them walked toward him.

“I’m sorry, one of my Pokémon ran in here, and I need to find it.”

Cheng Cheng studied them. They seemed to be miners inside, but their clothing was a little strange.

“Is that so? We haven’t seen anything.”

“Now get out, or we’ll use force.”

Just as Cheng Cheng was about to leave on his own, one person stopped him.

“I saw it, I saw it. I just saw a Pokémon go by. I’ll take you to look for it.”

“Then I’ll be troubling you.”

Cheng Cheng followed that person out of the area and into another cave.

“I’m sorry, but I really didn’t see your Pokémon.”

“It’s all right. Thank you for helping me out.”

“Oh, right. My name is Teng Fu. I know this place well, so I’ll go with you to search.”

“All right, then I’ll be in your care. By the way, my name is Cheng Cheng.”

“Good, Cheng Cheng. Come with me.”

“Okay.”

As Cheng Cheng walked, he kept sensing Slowbro’s presence, and little by little, he became the one leading the way.

Very soon, the two of them discovered that there were many tunnels ahead. Cheng Cheng could only tell the general direction, not determine exactly which cave Slowbro was in.

“Let’s split up and search.”

Cheng Cheng chose the cave with the highest likelihood and went deeper inside. The farther he went, the stronger he sensed Slowbro’s presence. This was the right way.

Before long, Cheng Cheng found Slowbro, and there was no path ahead.

“Now let’s see how you run. All right, time to come back.”

Just as Cheng Cheng took out a Poké Ball to withdraw Slowbro, a shaft of white light suddenly appeared before him, forming a circular doorway.

“This is...”

Suddenly, Slowbro ran straight through the doorway. Cheng Cheng had no choice but to rush in after it with Gardevoir.

After Cheng Cheng entered the doorway, he found that everything here had changed, as though it were another world. The sun still hung high in the sky, the ground was covered in lush grass and trees, and many Flying-type Pokémon were soaring overhead. Yet these were not Pokémon Cheng Cheng had ever seen before.

He studied them carefully and found among them one species he did recognize: a Flying-type Pokémon, the long-extinct Proto-Phoenix.

Had he come to the ancient age again? Yet something seemed not quite right. The last time he had traveled to the distant past, he had discovered that the Pokémon there were enormous in size. But the Pokémon here, though mostly extinct, were not much different in size from those outside. It seemed this place belonged to a different era of Pokémon.

“Slowbro.”

By then, Slowbro had vanished again. When Cheng Cheng finally found it, a group of blue turtles was facing it, and they seemed to be terribly angry.

“Slowbro, what have you done again!”

Slowbro dashed behind Cheng Cheng and hid there. At that moment the turtles erupted in fury, and a barrage of Water Guns shot toward Cheng Cheng.

“Gardevoir, Teleport.”

With one hand Cheng Cheng seized Gardevoir and with the other he grabbed Slowbro, and all three were instantly teleported away.

After arriving, Cheng Cheng looked around and saw no other Pokémon nearby, which relieved him somewhat.

Thump.

He punched Slowbro on the head.

“Ow...”

Cheng Cheng shook his aching hand. He had not expected Slowbro’s head to be this hard. Were you secretly a Slowking?

“You damn fool, what are you running around for? There, are you satisfied now? I don’t even know if we can get back.”

He discovered that there were many extinct Pokémon here, many species he had never seen and whose names he did not know. It seemed the doorway from before must have connected two different points in time and space. Now he had to find that doorway again if he wanted to return; otherwise, he might be trapped here forever.

“All right, Slowbro. From now on we’ll move forward together and look for the time-space doorway. You are not to run off again, and you are not to provoke the Pokémon here, understand?”

Slowbro nodded once, though Cheng Cheng could not tell whether it truly understood.

“Come on, let’s go!”

He led the two Pokémon onward, returning to the place where they had first arrived.

There was no doorway there at all, not even the slightest crack. This was bad. Either the doorway appeared intermittently, or it appeared at random. What was he supposed to do now? At this point, Cheng Cheng turned his gaze to Slowbro again.

Slowbro hurriedly put on a pitiful look and begged for mercy. Looking at it, Cheng Cheng truly could not bring himself to strike it again, and his hand still hurt a little anyway.

“Right!”

A flash of inspiration lit Cheng Cheng’s eyes.

If he could not find the doorway, then he would open one himself.

He picked up the necklace around his neck, uncertain whether it could still be used. He infused psychic power into it and began to call for Celebi.

Celebi, I need your help. Can you come to me? Celebi, I need your help. Can you come to me?

He continued transmitting his request with psychic power, though he had no idea whether Celebi could actually reach him here.

After a while, a doorway of time and space appeared before him.