This was so stupid. No, this was BEYOND stupid. This was HUMILIATING!! How on earth does a ninja go into battle and come out infected with her own poison?!
Okay, okay… think… uh, maybe overpowering the toxins with her own adrenaline would work. Okay, get ready, get set… GO!
Charine ran and ran and ran further still. She leapt into a tree, and hit a branch wrong, gasping as the full effect of this mistake took its toll. She crashed to the ground painfully. Wincing as she got up, she tenderly favored her bruised and twisted ankle. Great, just great. Now her ankle was useless, and she couldn't balance properly… due to the poison in her system. Thank goodness it was slow-acting, gave her some time to think.
Aww… how cute. Two Nidoran were… NO! FOCUS!! YOU WILL DIE FROM THIS POISON, IDIOT GIRL!!
"Hi there!" Charine gave a small yip and threw her head around to find the newcomer. She was greeted with a boy her age in an archeological outfit of some sort. (She never really understood this kind of thing- shorts in the desert, okay, but shorts in the jungle?) He had neck length dark purple hair and a rather cute smile.
"Hi there," he repeated. Charine felt her face heat up a few degrees, and mumbled a weak "Hi".
His eyes took on a softer expression. "You okay?" He looked strangely at her. "Your face is all red."
"I… I got poisoned in a battle," she admitted sheepishly. She would not say WHO poisoned her.
"Oh, that's too bad." He knelt down in front of her and felt her forehead.
"Wha… what do you think you're doing?!" she yelled, startledly slapping his hand away. "I don't know you at ALL!"
Unperturbed, he reached into a small bag he had been toting around with him, and true out a small spray bottle. He squirted it onto his hand, and licked it once. He paused, and then nodded.
"Hold still…" he ordered, and sprayed the wound she displayed to him after a moment's disconcert. After this was done, he smiled warmly at her. "The name's Bugsy. Odd, yes, I know, but I think it fits."
Charine stared at the newcomer. Okay, she supposed he was friendly enough.
"What are you doing out here? I've never seen you around before," she put out, and then realized how blunt she had just sounded, and winced. Bugsy, ever cheerful, just chuckled warmly.
"There are certain Pokemon in the Sevii Islands, called the Unknown. They also appear in the Ruins of Alph, near where I live," the boy explained. Charine listened to him go into every detail of his theories on how they were connected, even the little details involving Sinnoh to the north. She had no doubt that, under any other circumstances, she would've been bored beyond belief, but he did save her from the poison. Judging from his speech, he apparently had an intense knowledge of bugs, and to an extent, of poisons and other flying creatures. She studied his face, her indigo eyes admiring his excited, royal blue ones. He was kind of cute, she told herself, at least a little. And he was sweet and…
"…And that's the sign that the audience is bored," Bugsy laughed. Charine blushed self-consciously. "I'm so sorry! I …"
"It's no problem," laughed the boy. "That happens a lot, and you stayed awake through more than anyone else who's heard the story."
Charine smiled a little at this. She offered an apology, but blinked when he offered her his hand.
"You belong to the local gym, right? Your outfit certainly suggests it. The Ninjas of Fuchsia."
Charine nodded and accepted his hand. For a brief, tantalizingly small moment, there had been a small… feeling, or something similar, when their fingers touched. But then the moment was over, and they were walking back towards the city.
They were at the gates of the gym in almost no time at all, sadly. Charine bowed to her new friend, and then decided to help on his quest to the Sevii Archipelago by informing him that the only way there was through the port of Vermillion, fifty miles north of Fuschia.
From within the shadowed halls of the Fuschia mansion, Koga watched his daughter giggle (for the first time in months, he realized subconsciously) at her new friend's expression of disbelief. He disappeared into the darkness, awaiting her return.
Bugsy sighed as he began to prepare himself mentally for accepting the effort of the long trip back north. Charine laughed again, and pulled out a small piece of paper and wrote down a few notes, which she handed to the archaeologist. He smiled at her, and then blushed intensely when she kissed his cheek, and disappeared into her home.
Charine was giddy as she pirouetted a few times, undoubtedly attracting stares from her associates. She continued to move farther in, experiencing a whole new kind of pins and needles, similar to, and yet totally different from the feeling brought on by the numbing effects of the poison.