United we stand
Summary: Caleb and his family moved to the Unova region three years ago to get away from problems and met Elizabeth. Elizabeth is the great-granddaughter of Elesa, now renown the world over as a talented model and Gym Leader, whom Elizabeth aspire's to be. Together with their friends, the two set off into the great unknown hoping to find their place in the world. This journey, however, will test not only their skills as trainers and help them find their way to adulthood, but will also test their morals, their view of the world, and the relationship they developed and came to cherish. The future is not set in stone in this story, and they will not come out the same because, as we all know, sooner or later we all have to grow up.
Chapter 1: Where it all began
Over the skies of the Unova Region
"We will be landing in Mistralton City shortly," the pilot's voice on the overhead said. Inside the plane Agent Callahan tore his gaze away from his window and focused on the family that sat across from him. It was a family of four trying to escape from an abusive father. Assignments like this one were commonplace to him and he already knew the story, having seen it before. Woman gets pregnant, marries the father, he turns out to be a slob, she supports him and the kids, they wind up making a broken home unsuitable for raising any child, she tries to leave him, but in the end she finds that she still loves him and is hoping that he will change, only for things to remain the same, if not get worse. It happened more often than not and, sadly, the ones who pay for it the most are the children.
He looked the family over. The mother's name was Rose Sinclair a 26 year-old woman with wavy, light brown hair, blue eyes and a small nose, she was wearing a simple one piece white dress. Next to her sat her children which consisted of her nine year old, Caleb who looked just like her. He wore a blue and white hat that said 'Johto' on the side, a plain white t-shirt, and brown shorts. Beside him sat his younger sister, Tabitha (age 7), who wore a red shirt and yellow skirt and in her hair she had a yellow hair pin contrasting her black hair. And next to her sat their younger brother, Peter (age 5), who looked almost identical to Caleb, the only differences being his eyes, which were brown, he had a red hat, and he was wearing blue shorts.
"Now, let's go over this one more time before we land," Callahan said in an serious tone drawing the mother's attention, "I will personally escort the four of you from Mistralton to Striaton, where you will begin your new lives. There should be a cab waiting to take us there. The children," he said nodding to Caleb and his siblings, "have already been enrolled into the local school."
"Thank you," his mother, Rose said as she put her arm around the sleeping Tabitha and gently hugged her.
"However getting there is only the first problem," he continued, "maintaining your location a secret from your ex on the other hand is another and long-lasting matter all together. We need to have your word that you will not make any attempt to contact him in any way, shape, or form. I cannot stress this enough. If you do make contact with him then the we will discontinue our support. We need to know that you will not attempt to contact him."
"After what he tried to do..." Rose started, but stopped to regain her composure after almost going into a pain filled 'crying fest' as her now ex used to call them. "After what he said I promise you, I won't be calling, writing, or getting into any kind of contact with him ever again." Callahan took in the anger and pain in her expression, and smiled, assured she would be true to her word and nodded. The pilot's voice came through seconds later to inform everyone that they would begin there descent and reminded everyone to remain seated. Agent Callahan decided to take this opportunity to brush up on his partner's abilities and re-read the families file.
Taking the file out of his briefcase he began to quickly scan through the pages. His superiors had paired him up with a Golem that knew attacks that were less destructive to the surrounding area. He nodded again, assuring himself that if anything did happen his partner would be able to handle it. And he knew for a fact that the mother had a Chansey, Caleb son had a Mareep and an Abra, and Tabitha had a Machop and a Hoothoot.
The only problem would be Peter, who had no pokemon of his own and was for all intents and purposes basically defenseless. He would have to be near the boy at all times to ensure his safety.
'I highly doubt he will come after us, though,' Callahan thought to himself, as read the father's profile. He was scum. There was no putting it gently, everything about this man was sour. It seems as if the only reason why Rose had married him was that he had presented himself as a fine, upstanding gentleman. They dated for a few months before he proposed and she, obviously said yes. But the relationship quickly went south as he soon revealed he had a drinking problem and was only able to support himself with various cons he pulled, never scamming to close to home so as not to draw unnecessary attention. He had been in-and-out of jail for the past five years, had never been able to hold down a job for long periods of time, and was probably only now beginning to notice that his family had left him. If anything what put him on edge it was not the husband finding them, it was some random accident occurring, which was unlikely, but it never hurt to be careful.
"We hope you enjoyed your flight and hope you will fly with us again," a flight attendant's voice came through on the PA system. He had been so focused on reading he hadn't even noticed the plane land. Across from him, Rose had already woken up her children.
"Where are we," Tabitha yawned.
"Are we there yet," Caleb asked, grumpy at having been woken up.
"Not yet," their mother responded. Callahan could only silently offer his condolences to the now single mother. Though he and many other's would agree that she was making the right decision, it was nonetheless a difficult one, one that would be a fierce struggle uphill balancing her children with whatever new job she found, her kids always thinking she cared more about her job than she ever did them, never realizing how terrible a man their father really was. His eyes shifted to Peter who was now beginning to stretch his body.
'He might never understand,' Callahan thought to himself, sadly.
Mistralton City Airport Food court
Caleb looked around to see the restaurant he wanted to eat at. There was, sadly, a burger joint on the other side, his brother on, the other hand, wanted tacos instead. Shame really, burgers were better. Their cab had, unfortunately not shown up yet, an apparent and unfortunate rock slide, and now they were stranded at the airport and he was bored. His mom told him and Tabitha to not to play with their pokémon as the cab might arrive soon. She also said something about Peter being jealous.
"Crybaby," he and Tabby muttered under their breath.
"Excuse me," said a voice behind them. Turning around Caleb found himself face to waist with a woman wearing a black dress.
"May we help you?" Callahan asked his hand going under the table and grabbing the pokéball that contained his Golem.
"Yes, you see we were just waiting for our cab," the woman said taking a step to the side revealing a little girl about the same age as Caleb, "when my daughter noticed your children. She's terribly shy I'm afraid so she wanted me to ask if you would allow them to play with her while our cab arrives." Callahan stared at the woman for a few seconds before asking the one question that was on everyone's mind.
"If you don't mind me asking, who are you?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Linda, Nimbasa City's Gym Leader," the woman said taking out her badge as proof. Rose weighed her options before consenting believing she could trust the gym leader.
"Just don't go too far away," she called after the children who were excited at the prospect of making a friend.
"So what's your name?" Caleb asked when they were out of earshot of their parents. The girl blushed and looked away, but Caleb was certain he had heard her mutter something. "I didn't catch that, what did you say your name was?"
"Elizabeth," she responded still unable to make eye contact.
"My name's Caleb, this is Tabby, and that's Pete," Caleb said trying to break her out of her shell. Elizabeth merely looked back at them for a second before looking away. An awkward silence fell over the four as they tried to find something, anything to talk about. In the end, Caleb couldn't take it anymore and decided try to break the ice. "Where do you live?" he asked.
"Nimbasa City," she answered, "Where are you from?"
"Goldenrod City," he replied. There was an awkward pause that followed. "So do you still live there?"
"Hmm...y-yeah," she replied, "You?"
"I hope not," he replied, "My dad is mean as heck. He would hit me and my mom a lot."
"No he's not," Peter yelled before Elizabeth could respond. This caused everyone in the area to look at the four children
"Peter!" his mother yelled, embarrassed that they hadn't even walked eighty feet without causing a ruckus. "Get over here, right now!" The young boy sulked back to his mother, angrily whispering how his father was the best there ever was.
"So..." Caleb started trying to steer the conversation away from his little brother's emotional episode.
"What was that about?" Elizabeth asked.
"Oh, don't mind him," Tabby said, "He's always been daddy favorite. So he REALLY gets mad when someone says anything mean about daddy."
"So was he really mean?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yeah," Tabby said, "he would yell and hit mommy and Caleb a lot. Look." As if to prove her point she grabbed her brother's shirt and tried to yank it up before her mother called her over to her side, embarrassed that two of her children were misbehaving. Not seeing much choice Tabby walked back to her mother's side, leaving a humiliated Caleb alone with their new friend. For her part Elizabeth just gasped as she briefly saw a bruise on Caleb's stomach as Tabby lifted his shirt.
"I hate them sometimes," Caleb whispered.
"Do they hurt?" Elizabeth asked.
"A little," he replied. "I got used to the pain though. He would hit me and mom when he was drunk mostly." Elizabeth didn't say anything; she couldn't.
"What's it like?" Caleb asked snapping her out of her thoughts.
"I'm sorry."
"Your hometown," he answered "what's it like?" He really did not want to talk about his father. Not now, not ever again.
"It's nice," she replied, "It's really big. It has a ferris wheel, umm... a pokemon musical, uh... two really big buildings, umm... a roller coaster."
"Sounds fun," he replied, "Goldenrod just had some places to shop and umm... there was a radio station and-" he trailed off. He really wanted to impress his new friend, but so far he was just mentioning parts of Goldenrod that would fascinate no child. It was then that he remembered the places he always wanted to go, but couldn't because of 'age restrictions' and money problems. "There was a really long tunnel and a game corner there too."
"Game corner? What do you play there" Elizabeth asked.
"Voltorb flip, I think," Caleb answered, "but mom never let me go in. Something about 'developing a bad habit."
"That's too bad, I bet it was fun," Elizabeth responded. They were beginning to fall back into an awkward silence again when Caleb thought of something that would help them pass the time and get more acquainted with each other without the need of a conversation. He looked behind and saw his mom still yelling at his siblings.
'Perfect' he thought to himself . "Wanna have a battle?" he asked her, aching to show the girl his level of skill. The effect was immediate. Her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and the timid girl had all but disappeared in that instant. They ran off to a more open space to begin their battle.
"So have you battled before?" Caleb asked Elizabeth.
"Twice," she replied, "what about you?"
"All the time," he answered, "that and study. They were the only things I could do to get out of the house." Finding themselves outside they quickly stood ten feet apart from each other. "Okay, I only have two pokémon with me,"he said, "What about you?"
"I have three," she answered, "but I'll only use two."
Okay then," he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Ready," he asked as he exhaled. She nodded and sent out her first pokémon, an Aron, while he sent out his Abra.
"Aron, use Tackle," she commanded. The Iron Armor pokémon charged at the Psy pokémon.
"Abra, use Teleport," he commanded. The Abra quickly vanished and reappeared a few feet away. He called back the psychic type and sent out his second pokémon, a Mareep. "Mareep, use Thunder Wave." The Wool Pokémon let loose a thin electric jolt, that quickly hit its target. She called back the Iron Armor pokémon and sent out her second, a Blitzle.
"Blitzle, use Quick Attack," she commanded. The Electrified pokémon lunged forward at high speed knocking his opponent back a couple feet.
'Not bad,' he thought to himself, 'let's see how she likes this.' "Mareep, use Hidden Power," he commanded. The Wool pokémon released a wave of energy from her body.
"Blitzle, dodge and use Tail Whip," she said. Before her pokémon could react it was hit by the energy wave, knocking him on his side. The Blitzle stood up, shook his head to regain his sense of direction and wagged it's tail in an attempt baffle his opponent.
"Mareep, use Hidden Power again," Caleb commanded. Unable to move in time to evade, Blitzle was struck and collapsed for a second time.
'Let's switch tactics then,' she thought to herself. She recalled her Blitzle and sent out her Aron again. 'If speed won't work I'll just use a strong defense.'
"Mareep, use Hidden Power," Caleb commanded.
'Here it comes,' Elizabeth thought to herself. "Aron, use Protect," she commanded right before Hidden Power connected.
"Okay you two,that's enough," Elizabeth's mother said. "Elizabeth, we're leaving, say goodbye to your friend."
"Oh, ok," she said, sounding disappointed, "can we do one more thing before we go?"
"Make it quick," her mother responded.
Grabbing Caleb's hand, she pulled him to the nearest trading station.
"You know people say if you trade pokémon with someone, that person becomes a part of your life for as long as you keep that pokémon," Elizabeth said, "So why don't we trade. My Aron for your Mareep?"
"Yeah, sure," Caleb said, smiling. Trading over the two pokémon Elizabeth scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Caleb.
"Here's my phone number," she said, "I really want to talk to you again." Caleb nodded, wanting to one day finish the battle they had started. She pulled him in for a quick hug, and walked back to her mother, leaving the boy to wonder if he had gotten himself a girlfriend. Shaking his head after a few seconds of standing there looking foolish he made his way back to his family eager to start a new life, in this region that was filled to the brim with mystery for the young boy.
