Ch 1: Happy Meetings, and Hateful Goodbyes
Page couldn't stop him self from bouncing off the walls in his room. No one would blame him though, as it was his birthday and he was now five years old. Outside his door he could hear his mother and a few of the neighbors helping get everything set up for the party. For the hundredth time today he scurried over to his window to look outside.
Behind him, his best friend Jeanne, climbed over him to peek out the window too.
"Is she here yet?"
Page shook his head, "I don't see her."
Jeanne let out an exaggerated sigh and climbed down before sitting herself in the middle of the room that they had set up as a cardboard city with toy cars, tanks and planes scattered about. Picking up the closest toy airplane, she looked over at him, "you sure your big sister is coming?"
Page plopped down next to her, "yes I'm sure. She told me herself."
"She didn't tell me."
"Well she is my sister…and it's my birthday."
Jeanne stuck her tongue out at him. Beside himself, Jeanne looked up to his sister more than anyone. She was Jeanne's ideal. After meeting her for the first time, Jeanne began to immediately copy everything she could about her. When Page had first met Jeanne she would always wear bright yellow dresses with pink or blue flowers printed on them and her auburn hair would be tied into pigtails. However now days, her hair would almost always be hidden under her baseball cap, and she hated wearing dresses. It was always jeans now. Most of which had huge holes at the knee's from her ruff playing. Even today she had a fresh band-aid peeking through the torn fabric, and another on her cheek. At least she had a clean face. More often than not, she had dirt covering her bronze skin.
"It's your birthday…and your mommy made you wear that?"
Page blushed. He had been forced to wear a little blue suit with a red bow tie with white polka-dots. Worse yet was his hair. His brown hair was combed and cut into the shape of a soup bowl. Jeanne had only stopped laughing when her own mother told her she wouldn't be allowed to have any cake if she didn't stop.
"I wouldn't laugh at you, if you had to wear this."
Jeanne shrugged, "I'm older, so you can't laugh at me period."
Page puffed out his cheeks, "not that much older."
"You're five. I'm six."
When one of the cardboard skyscrapers tumbled down, both children gave mock gasps as Jeanne's Dratini crawled over onto it and gave a mighty roar. Or as mighty as a two foot long baby Dratini could manage.
Page grabbed one of his tanks, and some green army men, "oh no the evil dragon is back!"
Jeanne stood up and flew the toy plane around the little blue menace, "fire fire! Protect the city!"
Page moved his tanks up, "bam bam!"
Dratini moved down and began chomping at the tanks. Page crawled back pulling the tanks with him, "retreat! We need more fire power."
Jeanne brought the plane around low, "pew pew! Take that monster! Oh no! Mayday!"
Dratini rose up and plucked the plane out of her hand with its mighty jaws, and made a show of thrashing around.
Jeanne quickly climbed up Page's bunk bed, "Don't worry I'll send in the parachute troopers!"
Grabbing two fists full of green army men, she threw them up so that as their little parachutes opened, they floated down around the little dragon. With a flick of her tail she began to swat at the invaders. However since she was distracted, Page moved behind her with his tanks and loaded the bright yellow missiles into their cannons.
"Take this monster." The yellow missiles fired and bounced off the Dratini's side. Letting out a mournful cry the Dratini swayed before crashing down onto the ground, before she was quickly smothered by Jeanne, who had jumped down after her.
A knock at the door caught their attention. Page got up and went to the door. Opening it he found his mother, Michele, smiling down at him, "Hello birthday boy."
Bending down she gave him a big hug, and kiss on the cheek, much to Pages embarrassment. Jeanne snickered behind him.
When Page shot her a look, she pointed at Dratini, "it was her." Dratini gave an offended scoff before tackling her owner in retaliation.
Smiling Page's mother got his attention, "there's someone in the backyard who wants to wish you a happy birthday."
Page beamed, "Agnes is here!?"
Before his mother could answer, he was already running out for the back yard. Opening the door, Page looked around but only found a few of the neighbors and other guests that had come to have a chance to speak with Agnes. While it was his birthday, Jeanne was the only other child that had come. The other kids around were older than him, and he didn't talk much to the kids at school besides Jeanne.
Before he could ask if any of them had seen his sister, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and lift him up.
"Gah! Hey!"
"Whoa there, you're almost to be too big for me to pick you up."
Page recognized the voice immediately even before he was turned around. Agnes smiled as she hugged her little brother who returned it with just as much enthusiasm.
When she put him down he wasn't surprised that she hadn't changed much since he had last seen her. She still dressed like those action heroes from the old Unova movies they used to watch together when mother had gone off to bed. Cameo slacks with black boots and brown belt with way too many pouches, a white shirt with its sleeves and lower part torn off, and a vest with more pockets than he could count. The only real change was that she had cut her hair so that it only just covered her ears.
And she had dyed it blue.
Page blinked at that, "your hair is funny."
Agnes sighed, "I already got a lecture from mom. Don't need one from you too squirt."
"Was mommy mad?"
Agnes smiled and ruffled his hair, "Meh a little maybe. But then I asked her what she was doing when she was 18 and she dropped it. But more importantly…what has she done to your hair?"
As if on queue their mother walked into the yard, arms crossed and with a look of mild annoyance, "I think it's respectable."
Agnes shook her head, "yeah, and what about the suit?"
"He needs to be presentable to our guests."
Page looked back and forth between his mother and sister, "you two aren't going to fight again? Are you?"
Agnes looked down and smiled, "don't worry. We're here to celebrate your big day. Hey, do you want to see my new badges?"
Pages eyes lit up, "Yeah! I wanna see!"
As Agnes reached into her vest, she looked behind her mother and saw Jeanne standing inside the house, "Jeanne? That you?"
Page turned and motioned for Jeanne to come out, "She got new badges. Come and see."
Jeanne hurried out, carrying her Dratini in her arms. Agnes smiled and gave the little dragon a pet on the head, "You're looking good Jeanne, and who's this?"
"This is my Dratini. I got her a month ago when I was visiting my grandma up near Snowbelle."
"Well you be sure to take care of her now."
Jeanne nodded vigorously. Smiling Agnes pulled out a metal case and opened it to them. On the top were the 8 badges from their home region of Kalos. Below were 3 new badges.
"I got these three from the Kanto league. This is the thunder badge, the marsh badge, and this one I got just before coming back here. It's the Cascade Badge."
"Wow sis. Do you plan on getting badges from all the pokemon leagues?"
Agnes smirk, "You better believe it."
Jeanne looked up at Agnes in wonder, "When I'm old enough you'll teach me how to be a great trainer too right?"
"Of course. When both of you are ready we'll travel all over the world together."
Soon after, now that everyone had arrived, food was served. Page and Jeanne dug in, and chatted away happily. Agnes put on her best smile as she was introduced to several of her mothers friends and associates. Having won the previous Kalos tournament she was used to these sorts of pleasantries.
Jeanne nudged Page, "looks like your sis is getting a lot of attention."
Page shrugged. He didn't really mind. At least all the guests brought him presents. Speaking of which, "Mommy, when do I get to open my gifts?"
His mother looked over at him, "I suppose now's a good time."
"Oh boy!" Page rushed over to the table where the presents had been placed. Jeanne followed close behind him. Most of the guests continued to go about their own business. Agnes politely excused herself so that she could sit next to her brother.
Working through the gifts, Page got several more toy race cars and tracks. Jeanne smiled, "we can use those to make more roads in the city."
Opening his mothers present revealed a huge bucket of little tan army men, "hey now when we're playing you won't be able to take mine and pretend that they were yours."
Jeanne scoffed, "I never do that."
"You took all my rifle men."
"Once."
Page held up his hand, "five times."
Jeanne blushed but didn't reply. She then picked up a gift, from the table, "here's mine."
Page smiled as he opened it, to see the box was filled with little planes.
"Wow thanks!"
A few more gifts were opened; revealing tanks planes and many more cars. Everything he would need to make his little city much bigger. Not a bad haul.
Page called out to the guests, "thank you everyone."
A few guests smiled at the happy boy before going back to talking with each other.
"Come on Jeanne. Lets go play."
Agnes smiled and put and hand on his shoulder, "hold on a sec. You still got one more present left."
Page blinked and looked back at the table, "really where? From who?"
"Me silly."
Agnes reached into a pocket and held something cupped in her hands. Hiding it from Pages view.
"Now close your eyes and hold out you hands."
Closing his eyes, Page did as told. Something small and round was put into his hands. He could hear Jeanne whisper a 'wow'. Even a few of the guests had stopped talking.
"Ok open up."
Looking down, Page gasped, when he saw he was holding a poké ball.
"Happy birthday Page."
Page was speechless until Jeanne poked him, "come on. Open it up." Nodding vigorously, Page pressed the front button and the ball grew in his hands before opening up. In a flash of light the pokemon inside popped out.
It was an Eevee.
Page looked down in awe, as Agnes placed a small treat into his hand, "here, give him this."
Page knelt down and offered the little Eevee the treat in his open hand. The Eevee sniffed the treat before quickly nibbling on it till it was gone. After it had finished the treat, it leapt up into Page's lap and began to lick his face.
"Gah!" Page fell backwards laughing while under the tongue assault. While Page dealt with his new friend, a crowd formed around them as the guests came to see the little pokemon. Page's mother frowned slightly, "You don't think he's a little young for a pokemon?"
Agnes was still smiling from the little show, "I was about his age when I got my first pokemon."
Michele groaned at the memory, "oh lord help me, that Houndour was a monster."
"He wasn't that bad."
Her mother gave Agnes an even stare, "he almost burned the house down."
A bright flash came from Agnes' belt interrupting them, as a Houndoom popped out to stand beside his master. Agnes laughed as she knelt down and scratched behind his horns, "see, does this look like the face of an arsonist?"
Michele glared down at her daughter's pokemon, "you burned all my curtains."
Houndoom gave a quick happy bark, which also let out a few tongues of fire. Agnes laughed, "to be fair. Those curtains really needed a good burning."
Page sat up and held his Eevee against his chest, and looked up at his mother, giving her his best pity look, "I can keep him right?"
Michele closed her eyes and sighed, "yes of course you can. But this means taking on a big responsibility. You understand that right."
Page nodded, "I know."
Michele then looked down at the Eevee, "and you, no turning into a Flareon."
Eevee gave a little happy yip before returning to his attack on Page much to the boys joy. Jeanne giggled as she watched.
One of the guests looked down at the Eevee and gave a whistle, "look at the size of his paws. When he grows into them, he'll be huge."
Agnes nodded, "yeah no kidding. Made it easy to pick him out."
Another guest spoke up, "Where did you find him?"
"Oh from the same breeder I got my Eevee from."
"Same bloodline?"
"Yep, same mother and father in fact."
Many of the guests looked down at the little Eevee impressed. If he was anything like his older brother, who Agnes had; it was not unreasonable to expect great things from him.
Soon Page gathered his new toys, with Jeanne's help. Eevee jumped around excitedly, ready to play with his master. With Dratini's help, the four hurried into the house to play.
Page looked back, "you coming too Agnes?"
"You go have fun. I'm going be here for a few days, so we'll have plenty of time to hand out."
Nodding, Page hurried off. Already coming up with new games to play with his new friend.
-Lumiose City-
A large man walked down a dimly lit hallway. His boots sending echoes in all directions. If you were to meet him on the street, he would present himself as a business man. He would always wear a clean suit, have his black hair combed and neatly cut, and made sure he was clean shaven.
He rarely used his real name, and only a select few of his clients as associates even knew it. But they knew his title.
Der Lehrer.
It was his job to acquire and train pokemon for his clients. Clients that often had particular needs, and were willing to spend a lot of money to get what they wanted. He was very good at his job. Which is why people came to him with money. Tonight however, things were going wrong. Tonight he was trying to convince a client not take their money elsewhere.
Holding his phone he continued to try, "I am aware that I have taken more time than what we agreed upon. Yes sir I am well aware of my promise. I would also like to point out that the Scyther was ready well before the agreed upon cut off date."
Lehrer stopped walking and pulled the phone away as he took a deep calming breath. Bringing the phone back he continued, "I can assure you that the Scyther will make an excellent member to the team. And he will be ready to ship by the end of tomorrow."
"Yes sir, I know you didn't call me to talk about the Scyther. You want to talk about the Ralts."
Lehrer used a great deal of control not to snear when he mentioned that pokemon. Up until now, he had never failed to deliver a product to a client. That streak look like it was about to be broken.
"Yes sir…Yes I know what you paid upfront for the product. Yes I know that…sir I think it would be a mistake to look elsewhere. Sir sometimes with every product there are defects…No sir my methods are not to blame here. Sir…if I can…yes I understand. Yes sir, if you are willing to give me more time I will deliver to you what you want. However, I believe it will require me to start from scratch."
Lehrer pulled the phone away as the person at the other end responded to his suggestion, "I understand your are unhappy, however the product is defective. I would much rather deliver to you a working product, then a defective one that I shaped into something like you want. No I would never ask for more money…HALF!?"
Lehrer took a deep breath, "No, no I agree, under the circumstances, a price cut is needed, but…no, no there no need for that. Half it is. I will send word when I have news…Yes sir. Good…bye."
Lehrer closed his phone with an almost feral growl, and hurried down the hall to his destination. He practically tore the door off its hinges as he entered the small room.
The room was dark, save to the flickering dim light that hung from the ceiling. His eyes scanned the room till he found his target, cowering in the far corner. A little Ralts tried desperately to hide from the towering man.
"You…do you realize how much money you have cost me!?"
He stalked over to the corner. The Ralts tried desperately to crawl away, but was not fast enough. Reaching down he yanked the poor pokemon up by its red sensory horn. The horn that earlier that day, had been crushed by a pair of pliers during her morning lessons. She cried out in pain but the man didn't care, "I lost half of my price. HALF! Now I won't break even on this job. All because of you."
Enraged he threw her across the room. But even as she slid across the floor he kept after her. Pushing her into the wall, he started to kick her.
"Money I spent to catch you. Gone! Money I spent to train you. Gone. Money I spent to teach you to speak. GONE!"
She wanted the pain to stop. She was desperate for the pain to stop.
"Pl…plea..se. No…"
He didn't. And for his final act of cruelty, he step down on her leg. Putting all his weight down on her. She cried and cried till she couldn't scream anymore. Only then did he finally stop.
"Rick! Rick get in here!"
A smaller man quickly came running into the room, "yes boss?"
"Get this trash out of here."
"What do you want me to do boss?"
Lehrer pulled out a cigarette and lit it, "throw it into the sewer, off a building, I don't care. Just get rid of it, now."
Later that night Rick pulled his truck over as he crossed a bridge. Getting out he pulled the Ralts out of the back and held it by its arm. Walking to the side he tossed it over the side and into the cold water below. When he heard the splash, he got back into his truck, and drove away.
The Ralts floated down the currents of the river, and into the darkness.
Authors Notes:
Boy…not the easiest thing to write .
So I started playing Pokemon X and decided that as I play through it, I'll write this story. I know I'm not the first person to go the whole pokemon abused route, especially when Gardevoir is concerned, but I hope you all will stick around and give me a chance. Trust me, things will get happier. If I kept it this dark, I'd get to depressed.
Also for you readers, do you prefer if the pokemon have nicknames, or would you like it if I just used their normal names? Like Eevee, Ralts, Dratini etc., etc.
And for any readers that know about my other story I'm writing, don't worry. I'm still working on it. I'm planning on it being done some time in April…hopefully.