.New Beginnings//
by: Rian S. Dillard
Published: July 4th, 2007
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or Any of the Cameos that Appear
Type: Self Insertion With The Narrator no one listens too
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Author Notes: The time line is based after Ruby and Sapphire. There is cursing but nothing more than what you see on TV.
(Beware of Regressions)
Lydia was sitting on of top her house, sighing, as she watched the sun sink into to the trees and in the very distance the sea. Two days. That was her final count down until she joined her friends as a Pokemon Trainer. That was, if they even remembered her or if she even found them.
'Unless,' she pondered in amusement, 'they got eaten by a wild Pokemon.' She toyed with the idea for a second with a smile. The smile however quickly turned into a frown when another thought entered her mind. 'Or maybe they'll already be Master Trainers... then what would they want with a friend like me? A new Trainer with no battle experience at all. I would just get in their way.'
"Daahhh!" she yelled flopping backwards as the dank thoughts plagued her mind. Why did she have to be the youngest one? Why? The youngest one never got anything! Unless maybe, just maybe, if she was lucky and could become a Master too. It didn't necessarily have to be a Pokemon Master though, she continued to think, but defiantly a Master of some type. Maybe she could be a Master Breeder or a Berry Master, she was after all some-what good with plants... okay not really.
The one thing that she was defiantly for certain though was that she did not want to become one of the fake 'Masters' that the people from Johto and Hoenn were proclaiming themselves as just because they had different Pokemon.
'I maybe half Hoean, but I'm not like those heartless bastards that released their Pokemon here and killed off all the Pokemon!' Lydia thought defensively.
"Bastards!" she growled brushing back a lock of hair that was threatening to engulf her face.
She sighed as the last sliver of sun disappeared over the horizon, she was always slightly sad when the sun finished setting. Soon after her mom's voice ripped through the rapidly dispelling twilight yelling at here to come in for dinner before it got too cold. Lydia got up quickly, not wanting to anger her mother, and headed over towards the gutter. She climbed halfway down it and jumped, landing in a ring of dust. She stood up and made a mad dash towards the front door where her mom stood scowling and scoffing at her for not wearing a jacket.
"Sorry mom," Lydia apologized slipping by her mother and into the house. She ate a hurried dinner, dodging her mother's scathing looks as she ate, and ran upstairs to escape any further wrath almost immediately after she had finished washing her plate.
Later that night she lay in bed staring at her star covered ceiling, wishing that sleep would come to her. Looking at the stars she remembered when her and her mother put them up.
Lydia would get so bored when she was young and she would need something to occupy her. So her mother went down to the store and bought a package full of stars and planers and the next day they hung them up. They had worked and from that point on Lydia had never had a problem falling asleep. She wondered briefly how she would sleep out there in the wild with out her stars.
'No don't think about the trip!' Lydia scolded herself, wide-awake again. She tried to coax herself asleep again but gave up after several minutes. She finally got up, dressed in some of her worn travel clothes, and walked over to her window. She unlatched it carefully praying that it didn't squeak. Sadly nobody was listening to her prayer because half way through the window gave a sharp creak and Lydia froze.
It felt like her heart was in her throat as she waited for any noise from her mom's room indicating that she was awake. After hearing none she slowly continued the process and after what seemed like forever she was sliding out the window and down the gutter.
She almost every time she snuck out she wondered why her mom her mom had given her the bedroom by the gutter. 'She must've forgotten that one day I would be a teenager,' Lydia thought landing on the ground with a small noise. 'Sometimes parents were idiots.'
She ran across front yard she was thankful and yet hating at the same time at the full moon that was outside. She was thankful because she could she where she was running but not because if her mom happened to look out the window right now she would be screwed. She got to the edge of the forest that surrounded most of the town with out mishap and she knew that she was home free. Nothing bad could happen to her now.
She found the main road that led through the town and took up a more leisurely pace as she strode down the road. She got to her town's main, which was all of two blocks, and stopped by the Pokemart thinking what they hey, if this was going to be one of her last nights in Blueburry Town she might as well make it an all niter. She bought an Early Bird Energy Drink, knowing that it would keep her up easily, and left the shop in no hurry.
She left the store, making a point to ignore the group glare that she was getting from one of the local gangs, and continued down the road. She knew that she wasn't popular by the rest of the kid's standards, no matter how much all of the parents loved her; in fact that just made it worse.
At least she knew why the kids hated her though, even though it didn't help her that much. They hated her because of her blood. Her dad was from Hoenn while her mother was from Kanto, which made her a half-breed. The kids hated half-breeds and they were constantly picking on her so she wasn't really going to be in a heartbreak to leave Blueburry.
As she went down main street she stopped by all her favorite places, weather they were open or not. She finished that task and soon got bored so she decided to take the South Eastern Route that led out of the town. It did eventually lead to Pallet but while it stayed in the town it was a pretty nice walk that led through the forest and a few meadows; the perfect way to kill time.
As she was heading down the road she let her mind drift and it quickly settled on the topic of what starter she would choose. Would it be Charmander, the fiery lizard that would turn into a powerful Charizard, Squirtle, the small turtle who would one day become a mighty Blastoise, or Bulbasuar, the seed Pokemon that could transform into a grand Venasuar? The pictures of the three Pokemon flashed through her head as she pondered about each one of them.
Her thoughts were interrupted though as a growl echoed in the night air, shaking Lydia from her thoughts. "Who's there?" she yelled into the darkness of the wood. She felt the little hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as a far off stick snapped and she quickly grabbed a nearby stick and started to wield it like a sword.
She cursed herself as she looked around and saw that she had walked farther than she had wanted to go. She was almost at the edge of town and there was a lot of Wild Pokemon in these parts and many of them could be dangerous. She couldn't help but think of the rumors that she had herd that Poochyena and Houndar had recently been spotted around the area and they traveled in packs. Eek!
"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Lydia said scolding herself under her breath. She was just scaring herself even more and that wouldn't help a thing.
The bushes next to her started to shake violently and she prepared for the worst. She almost had a heart attack though when a stupid Pidgey hopped out of brush. She had been expecting a pack of Houndar, not a freakin bird!
"Stupid bird...," Lydia cursed as she kicked the dirt on the road defensively. How could she have let herself get so worked up over a Pidgey? And she hadn't even passed her towns borders too! If there had been any real threat out here they would have issued a couple of Rangers on patrol.
She dropped her stick, disgusted with herself, and started to walk back into town. While she was walking back she tried to bring up all the information she knew about Pidgey.
"Let's see," Lydia mumbled. "Pidgey are docile, they like to hide in tall grass, they'll kick up sand to protect themselves, they'll try to avoid battles," she kept going on through the list of what she knew until she realized something very important. Pidgey's didn't growl, they cooed.
"Then how could it have growled at me?" Lydia wondered out loud. She was still pondering the thought when a scream of pain echoed through out the forest. Lydia jumped about a foot into the air and was still looking around for the source when a second scream followed. It was then that she realized that the cries where coming from the grove where she had found the Pidgey.
'It couldn't be it could it?' Lydia thought turning and looking back down the road. She however showed no hesitation as she sped back towards the Pidgey as a third, higher and more horrible, scream sounded.
She got back to the grove slightly out of breath and looked around. At first when she looked around the path all she could make out was feathers and dark colored lumps, but the more she looked at it the more it made sense until it suddenly clicked and she knew exactly what she was seeing. A piece of a wing there, a beak here, a puddle of blood splattered everywhere.
Lydia stumbled backwards hastily feeling like she was going to be sick as she tripped over the stick she had used earlier and down she went. She put her hand out to break her fall and she landed with a wet 'plop'. She brought her hand up and it was at that moment that the moon broke through the cloud cover and she could quite plainly see the blood dripping off of it.
She gave out a scream and started to wipe her hand on her jacket, trying to get the blood off. It didn't occur to her for one second that she needed to run because what ever did that to the Pidgey could still be around, all that mattered was that she got the blood off.
A brittle snap sounded next to her and she looked around frantically for the stick she had tripped over. She finally found it about a foot away from her and she picked it up like she did last time, getting to her feet in the process. Another snap was heard, this time even closer to her and she had to bit her lip to keep herself quiet. It wasn't soon until she tasted blood but she barely felt the pain as her whole body concentrated on the danger that was around her.
Like most people though, she had forgotten to look up and it was there that she realized that that was a big mistake as a branch above her creaked and a few leaves fell out of the tree. She looked up slowly and screamed as she saw a beast growling above her. It had blood red eyes and shinning yellow rings that only seemed to absorb the light around it not give it out.
She dropped her stick and without a second thought she ran back towards the town. She kept running even long after her muscles had started to complain and cramp, she kept on running until she had made it back to her house and into her bed. She didn't even notice the local gang stare intently at her as she passed by them covered in blood.
1 - 1
Beep!Beep!Beep!
Lydia smashed her hand into the alarm clock as she tried to find the off switch. When she finally found it she groaned as the clock flashed the numbers six'o two at her in revenge for being hit. She greatly pondered going back to bed but finally decided against it thinking that her mother might think that she would delay her becoming a Trainer again. She had done that before and Lydia wouldn't put it past her to do it again.
She had been almost fourteen years old when her mom did it last time and all her friends got to go and become Trainers without her. Lydia would have become one two because her birthday was only two weeks away but her mother had protested that she was too young to go and when she had it was for the first time right about as they were about to choose their first Pokemon. So because of that Lydia had to stay behind and watch, stunned, as all her friends went out and became Trainers and left her behind. The thing that had hurt the worst though was that not a single one of them had offered to stay behind another six months and wait for her. Not a single one. Lucky for her though was that she had kept the tears in until she got home and started to curse her mother out saying that she hated her.
'But this time I will become a Trainer no matter what my mom says,' Lydia vowed.
Lydia groggily got out of bed and looked dully at the floor where her bloody clothes from the night before lay. She shook her head as if to ward off last nights memories as she grabbed them and grumpily threw them into the sink with a bunch of soap and cold water. These where her favorite traveling clothes she would save them some how!
She washed the clothes vigorously happy to note that the blood was in fact coming out quite easily, brushed her teeth, and ran down stairs where she was greeted by the smell of blueberry pancakes and her smiling mother.
"Thanks mom," Lydia said as she sat down and grabbed her plate, viciously spraying the pancakes with maple syrup. While she was eating her mom talked about this being her last day and all and that she should have a special breakfast to start if off. Lydia just nodded and responded in the right spots as she ate.
When she was done eating her mother commented on her looking a little worn and asked if she was feeling well. Lydia made a hasty reply of just being too excited to sleep last night and that she was perfectly fine. The last thing she needed was her mother thinking that she was sick.
After breakfast she ran back up stairs to check on the clothes almost jumping for joy as she saw that all of the blood had come out, almost. She hung out the clothes to dry and decided that she would double check her back that it had everything she needed. It was a big day after all and it would look awful silly if she forgot something important.
But first before she was going to do that she decided to take a shower, a cold shower mind you. She was going to have to start getting used to bathing in rivers and streams and there was no better time to start practicing then now. When she was cleaned and refreshed she sat down and started to go through her pack, making a mental checklist to make sure she had everything.
"Let's see what we have in here, now," she said taking out everything she had. "TM case... Check. TM's...Check," Lydia said as she popped open the case and scanned through the few TM's that she had collected over the years.
It wasn't that big of a collection but most of them were from her father, so she cherished the case and the few TM's that were inside it.
"Berry Case, Running Shoes, Potions, spare set of clothes, pocket knife...," Lydia droned picking up each item and checking it mentally off her list.
"All ready," she finally said flopping back on her bed having finished her baggage check. She looked over at her clock and cursed when it only flashed ten'o clock. Yep, defiantly revenge.
The day was going by way too slowly for her so she got up and grabbed her hat deciding to go outside. 'I just stay away from the South Eastern Route though.' She added mentally as she closed the front door.
'It actually feels kinda weird leaving through the front door. I wonder if that's a bad sign,' she pondered as she laughed to herself.
Lydia walked lazily through town into she finally got to the center where she decided to watch some of the local Trainers battle. She sat down and watched some opponents be crushed whiled others barely won their battles, but after about an hour of this nonsense she got bored. These would be nothing compared to Gym battles, even she knew that, but the Trainers were treating them like their life depended on them. They would never make it to the big leagues with those attitudes.
She left the town square and headed over to, what the kids referred to as, the 'Sandlot'. The Sandlot was where the little kids would pretend to have Pokemon battles into they got bored with the game or finally got old enough to where they actually had Pokemon of their own.
Lydia had never been a big fan of these pretend 'Pokemon Battles', but it was a nice place to go thought in all reality the Sandlot was just a small meadow at the edge of town that had a small pocket of sand in the middle of it. Nobody knew why the grass wouldn't grow there or why there was only sand but it was a fun mystery to try and solve.
Lydia entered the grove to the Sandlot and was pleased to note that it was deserted so she found a nearby log and lay down on it, watching the clouds go by in slight boredom. Blueburry Town was just too boring to find anything to interest anybody for long periods of time.
She stayed there for a couple of minutes trying to ignore the voices that were steadily coming closer. 'Probably some little kids coming to imitate the newest battle they saw,' Lydia thought thinking that they would ignore her and she them. Unfortunately for her it was not the little kids coming to play but somebody else far more unpleasant.
"Hey what are you doing here? This is our territory. Kanto, not Hoenn," a voice Lydia hated to hear echoed across the Sandlot. Lydia opened an eye and peered side ways to look owner of the voice.
"Leave me alone Ruben," she growled sitting up. "I'll be outta here tomorrow and so will you. Can't you just leave me alone for once?"
"No. Not after what you did last night. Don't try to deny it half blood!" Ruben said noticing Lydia's surprised look. He took a couple steps towards her, his flunkies circling behind him. His fiery red hair was almost iridescent in the afternoon light and Lydia had to squint slightly, having to fight the strong urge to take a pair of scissors at his head.
"We saw you covered in blood. You killed a Pokemon last night and we found its half-eaten corpse along the road. I knew Hoean's were sick, but not that sick!" Ruben continued pointing an accusing finger at Lydia.
Lydia's grey eyes clashed with Ruben's red ones as they glared at each other. Both of them were nothing but rivals sworn rivals. Ruben always getting on Lydia's case because she was half Hoean and Lydia kept on bugging him just because it was fun and amusing as hell.
"Bullshit. You have no proof that I did such a thing Ruben," Lydia said standing up and walking towards them. She knew that it was a bad idea but she couldn't let Ruben stand her up, could she?
"Do we now," stated Ruben with confidence, smiling as Lydia took the bait. "Part of my gang saw you running from the South Eastern gate last night covered in blood, so we investigated." He made a small motion indicating them all before he continued. "And guess what we found? Go on guess!"
Lydia gave him a cold look and said that she had absolutely no idea what a bunch of idiots would have found out in the middle of the woods at night besides their sexuality.
"We found the half-eaten corpse of a Pidgey!" he yelled ignoring her last comment. "The Hoenn blood must finally be kicking in half blood. Now we know why all the Pokemon are dying! You're eating them just like your crazy father-"
Thwack!
There was a stunned silence in the clearing as Lydia held her fist in the air and with Ruben sitting on the ground suddenly clutching his now bloody nose.
"Don't you ever talk about my dad," Lydia warned.
"You'll regret that half-blood!" Ruben yelled trying to stop the blood with one hand and with the other he made a gesture to the rest of his gang. They quickly made a small circle around Lydia and she started to curse as she realized that she had no escape route.
One of the kids stepped forward and threw a clumsy punch at Lydia who easily dodged it and kicked at the kid's knees from a slightly upward angle. She smiled when she herd a sharp crack as the kid went down howling in pain with nothing less than a dislocated knee cap.
She turned to face the next kid and was about to pull off a similar move but she was caught off guard as suddenly a pair of arms circled her stomach from behind, entrapping her arms in the process. She kicked backwards with her feet and had a small moment of satisfaction as she heard a hiss of pain as she connected with somebody's shin. Her little victory was not long lasting because suddenly there was a pair of arms grabbing her legs. She was then slammed hard to the ground with the weight of the two people holding her riding her down so she hit hard and the air was completely knocked out of her.
"Oh how sad is this. You might have to wait another six months before you can become a Trainer, what an awful shame," Ruben said crouching down in front of Lydia.
Lydia just spat in his face and retorted by saying that he would never have had the gut to do this if he didn't have his gang to back him up.
"That's it!" Ruben yelled wiping the spit off of his face. "Make it so she won't even be able to walk in the morning."
'Maybe I over did it,' Lydia thought closing her eyes as Ruben's gang circled closer to her with fists raised.
"I don't think so. Quick Attack!"
Lydia looked up in surprise as a boy that was on top of her went flying through the air, landing with a 'thud' a few feet away from her. The boy didn't move after he landed but Lydia had no time to worry about that because she looked behind her and saw the rest of the gang either crumple up in pain or go flying through the air in a flash of white light.
Finally when every member except for Ruben was either on the floor in pain or unconscious the white streak stopped moving and Lydia finally saw what it was.
"A Jolteon...," she whispered in awe while thinking why such are rare Pokemon was here and was protecting her.
"What the hell is happening here?" Ruben yelled in confusion taking a step back as the Jolteon advanced on him with bristling fur that sparked and crackled with electricity. "Who would help this bitch?!?!"
"Lightfoot stop!" a voice echoed from the trees along with a sharp sound that sounded, to Lydia, like somebody snapping their fingers. "You would do best to run now little boy. Unless of course you want to feel the full sting of my power," The voice ended with a hint of laughter.
"I'm outta here!" Ruben yelled as the Jolteon advanced another step in warning, baring its fangs now. Ruben turned tail and ran from the clearing, leaving behind all his 'buddies'.
Lydia climbed slowly and shakily to her feet watching the Jolteon with wearily eyes, not having any clue as if it would turn on her or not so she called out to the forest. "Are you a friend?"
"Course I am I just saved your ass."
Lydia turned and squinted into the trees where she had herd the voice echo from and slowly she saw a person materialize from the shadows. The Jolteon jumped over to the person's side and as they got closer Lydia could tell the person was female and maybe 19 at the oldest. She had brown hair that was a similar shades to Lydia's and the only thing particularly noticeable about the person was, other than the Jolteon of course, maybe her eyes that were an awkward shade of brown that looked like they were tinted red.
"Good job Lightfoot," The girl said leaning down and scratching behind the Jolteon's ear.
"Who-Who are you? Why did you just help me?" Lydia asked suspiciously. It wasn't like she wasn't thankful for being saved, quite the opposite actually, it was just that her life had always taught her to be cautious.
The person just gave her a small grin and took a couple of steps towards her while Lydia took a couple of steps backwards keeping the distance the same. The other girl frowned slightly, but only for a second.
"Who am I?" she seemed to genially ponder the question before she continued, "Well you can just call me... hmmm... I have so many names now. You can call me whatever you want and as for why I helped you I just so happened to be in the area and I saw you and your little heh... domestic squabble." The girl ended her sentence with a small flourish of hand.
Lydia officially labeled her as weird and thought 'Great first I get mobbed and then I get saved by some loony. Wonder what her version of a non-domestic squabble would be.' Lydia rolled her eyes slightly before she asked "Well what's your middle name then?"
The 'loony' seemed to think about for a second and then slowly said "Apples. My middle name is Apples."
'Yep, she's lost it.' Lydia thought as she watched 'Apples' bend down and whisper something into her Jolteon's ear giving Lydia a sideways glance a sideways glance in the process. When she was done the Jolteon dashed forward and away into the trees.
"Aren't you afraid it won't come back?" Lydia asked watching the Jolteon run away.
"My Pokemon love me. They always come back," Apples said walking foreword again, putting a slight accent to the always. Lydia held her ground which seemed to anger and please Apples at the same time.
"You're a good child, but you should know not to talk and associate yourself with strangers. It can be dan-ger-ous," Apples whispered the last part into Lydia's ears. Lydia had to suppress a shiver as Apples breath tickled her spine with every word. She was about to tell Apples, stupid name anyway, to back off when she did it herself; backing away abruptly, wide eyed and staring.
"I have to go now. You do your best to keep out of trouble now, Lydia," Apples said walking back over to the forest and disappearing between the trees.
Lydia watched the fading figure of Apples and thought 'How do I meet these people?'
She was pulled from her thoughts however when one of the boys next to her and one slowly tried to get his feet and failing.
'Gotta get out of here they won't be too happy when they wake up,' Lydia thought high tailing it away from the Sandlot and back to the safety of the town.
Only did she realize latter that night right before she went to bed that she had never told Apples her name. "Must have heard one of the boys say it," Lydia mumbled incoherently at the verge of sleep.
Author's Notes: Whatcha think?
