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Speaking Parts: 'Thoughts' "Telepathy" "Vocalized Speech"
IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: I feel the need to stress that I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON RESPONSIBLE for this piece of work. There are going to be MANY different writers involved with this series and it will take varying amounts of time to edit and piece together each chapter for everything to make sense. Some parts of everyone's writing may be cut out for the sake of storytelling, flow, and sensibility. Yes I may edit some parts so that they aren't so choppy ESPECIALLY if there are A LOT of mistakes. So to my co-writers PLEASE DO NOT FEEL OFFENDED if I happen to cut out a sentence or a paragraph that I feel doesn't make ANY sense in the long haul. I SPEND HOURS going over EVERYTHING just to make sure ONE SENTENCE makes sense in the overall story. If it doesn't then it's removed.
Day One: Morning
Mewtwo didn't visit cities without good reason and he was questioning his reason for being out during the day every few seconds. Dante had asked him to come along if only to keep him from being so aimlessly bored in the Genesia Gym and to keep him away from the Hydreigon. The thing still wanted to eat him after chasing him all over the forest and destroying several of Blyse's buildings the year before. Nothing could change the beast's mind that the cat who'd all but moved into the Gym Leader's spare room was lunch meat marinating in a juicy skin sack.
The cat grew bored of the city and informed Dante that he would be waiting on the outskirts when he was done checking on the new batch of Trainers from Valerian's Lab. Without waiting for a confirmation Mewtwo flew far quicker than most cameras or eyes could follow. He landed in the tall grass just off the main dirt road that served as Route 1.
Belle, after rapping furiously on the door and getting no reply cautiously opened the door to the lab and peered inside. Lights on, nobody home. Creepy much? She stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. Shrugging she hurried up to the little platform where several Pokéballs sat. She'd contacted the Professor earlier to let her know she was coming, but she must have been out in the field or something. She crouched down, examining each of the little Pokéballs. After a few minutes of thinking she picked up the one containing what she deemed to be the cutest, smiling at it. "You're mine, sweetie-pie!" Cheerfully, she turned and retreated from the lab, shutting the door behind her and hurried to the city with her new Charmander in hand.
Belle's eyes, massive as she took in as much of Blyse as she could, roamed around with curiosity, fascinated by what she saw. It was far bigger than Iclea, that was for sure. Glancing down she noticed her new Pokémon, the Charmander, walking a little ahead of her, unconsciously leading her. She smiled and decided to follow the little thing. A small bench caught her eye and she called out, "Come on, dearest! How about we sit down?" The Pokémon turned around a stared at her for a long moment before complying and following her to the bench.
She sat down and watched as the little Charmander climbed her way up before sitting next to her and watching her new Trainer expectantly. "So... uh... You need a nickname! I can hardly go around calling you by your species name! How about, er, Celisse?" The Pokémon nodded, somewhat satisfied, and turned to stare straight ahead while settling back, tail hanging between her legs and off the bench's edge to avoid setting it ablaze. "Well, Celisse, it's a pleasure to meet you. Are you hungry?" Celisse did not turn her head so Belle could only assume that she was not. "Alright. Oh, right, my name is Belle. I'm your new Trainer!" Again Celisse did not react. Trying to think nothing of it Belle sat back, watching her new friend.
"So um. Did you want to go out onto Route 1 and train?" This time Celisse's blue eyes showed some emotion when she turned to look at Belle. She gave a single nod and slid off, waiting for Belle to do the same. Smiling the girl stood, pleased that she had gotten through to her starter. "Alright. Uh, do you know where Route 1 is?" Belle swore she saw Celisse facepalm.
Glancing around she noticed a little boy walking into the city from the same way she had come. On closer inspection he had a blue and white Pokémon walking behind him. Curious about the new creature Belle dug around in her bag for a moment before producing her Pokédex. She'd been too excited to wait for it so she had had Valerian's aide mail it to her. The whole way to Blyse she'd been pointing it at random Pokémon to see what they were. Now she pointed it at the blue and white creature. The red light beeped and the device came to life announcing, "Oshawott, the Sea Otter Pokémon. It fights using the scalchop on its stomach. In response to an attack, it retaliates immediately by slashing."
"Oooh. Looks cute. What do you think Celisse?" The Pokémon stared at her. "Okay. Well, let's go say hi." She moved forwards, Celisse in tow. As she approached the little boy, she smiled, coming to a stop in front of him. "Well, hi, there. My name's Belle. Who might you be, little man?"
Dante Serven strolled the streets of Blyse City, keeping a careful eye out both for the object of his search - Professor Valerian - and for anyone who looked like a new Trainer. He'd arrived at the professor's lab earlier that morning, intending to drop by and check out the new crop of Trainers, but he'd found no one there at all - a mystery considering the professor's usual habit of greeting each new Trainer. With Mewtwo still out doing who knew what and no easy way to contact the cat, Dante had elected to comb the streets of Blyse for the errant professor, hoping along the way to find her.
As he walked, the Gym Leader noticed a pair of Trainers on the streets, evidently brand new given their enthusiastic discussion about Pokédexs and starters. Dante smiled ruefully, remembering his first day as a Trainer. "Hello there," he said, walking over. "You must be new Trainers."
Belle turned around when she heard another voice. Her eyes landed on a man a bit older than her. She smiled at him while saying, "Yes, we are." She extended a gloved hand. "Hello, my name is Belle, I'm from Iclea Town. Might I ask your name?" This was so interesting. She knew everyone back home, but a few minutes in a new city and she'd already met two new people.
"Name's Dante," the Gym Leader replied, forgoing his last name. After his literary career took off and he became the leader of Genesia's Gym, Dante found it necessary to operate under a certain degree of anonymity. Once Mewtwo started staying with him, it was more crucial than ever that he keep a lower profile than before. He didn't think the girl would know who he was even if he told her but discretion was usually a good idea. "I'm from Genesia and stopped by Blyse to take a look at the new Trainer crop. You just started your journey, huh? Why aren't you out on Route 1 yet?"
Belle grinned at him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Dante." The name Dante, coupled with that he came from Genesia was vaguely familiar but she couldn't place where she'd heard it from. Oh well. She was sure it would come to her later. At him asking her why she hadn't gotten onto Route 1, she flushed with embarrassment. "Uh funny story, really. You see, I've never been out of Iclea Town like this before, so I was kinda lost and I wasn't sure where the start of Route 1 was. Do you think you could point it out to me?"
Celisse, apparently bored with this conversation, stalked over to Dante and sniffed his leg for a moment before snapping her fanged jaws at it. Belle, horrified by this, reached down and lifted her Charmander up from the waist, holding her to her hip like a child and careful not to touch the lizard's tail.
"I am so sorry, Dante! I just got her, I don't know why she would do that." As for Celisse, she made a cheerful, "Chaaaaar," clearly pleased with what she had done. "You hush, dearest."
"Oh, it's quite alright," Dante replied, laughing a little. "I've seen a lot worse than a few nips from a Charmander in my time, let me tell you." 'Such as trying to control a three-headed, pseudo-legendary beast.' He shivered slightly. Training Xeon had been touch-and-go for the first few weeks after his evolution and Dante had spent more time at Rae's place getting treated for bites than he had spent at home. Compared with training a Pokémon that was known as "the Brutal Pokémon" a Charizard was relatively tame and a Charmander absolutely docile.
"Here, I can show you the way," Dante said, gesturing with his head in the general direction of the route. "Come on, let's get you started already."
Belle tilted her head, confused. What on earth could be worse than a Charmander bite? The horror of it! It might even draw - dare she say it - blood! She quivered at the very thought. Trying to shake off that terrible reflection, she nodded at his offer. "Oh, thank you so much, Dante! I really appreciate this." She put Celisse back down again - she was a bit too heavy for her - and hurried after him, the Charmander a bit more reluctantly than her new Trainer.
They approached the route pretty quickly with Dante leading. Rather foolishly she hurried out into the grass, excited to battle her first Pokémon. Celisse followed much more apprehensively. It wasn't long before Belle saw a small patch of grass tremble before something leaped out of it.
"Aaaah!" she screamed. "Celiiiiiiiisse! Attaaaaaaaack!" The Pokémon appeared to be a blue cat-thing. Of sorts. She knew she'd seen it before but she couldn't place the name. "Celisse! Use, um - wait!" Belle waved her Pokédex at the Charmander, ignoring the introduction it gave her. She tapped a few buttons and two moves popped up. "Okay! I -" She broke off upon seeing Celisse be knocked backwards, arms wheeling.
Celisse growled angrily, tail flame flaring up. "Scratch it!" The Pokémon nodded at the command, launching forwards and slashing down upon the creature with her glowing white claws. Unfortunately the blue thing dodged before slamming its body into the lizard. Celisse tumbled to the ground while wincing. Aghast Belle yelled out, "Try to Scratch it again!" The Charmander leaped back on her feet but was somewhat unsteady. Before she could get around to attacking again the other Pokémon slammed into her and knocked her down again. This time Celisse could not stand.
The other Pokémon readied itself for another attack. Belle, terrified, rushed forwards and scooped her Charmander up into her arms, turning her back to the wild Pokémon and bracing herself for the impact.
Having sensed Dante moving out of the city and back out onto Route 1 where he'd entered Blyse Mewtwo had moved closer to the road. He was sitting hunched over in the waist high grass in ways only a cat wouldn't find uncomfortable to avoid being spotted by some green Trainer idiot that thought their newly begotten Charmander was the best and strongest thing alive. He wouldn't fight any maniac child that thought challenging him was a worthwhile waste of his time because it would only result in the poor Pokémon getting hurt and the kid blacking out as he erased their memory and moved them to a Pokémon Center. Telepathically the psychic called Dante closer to where he hid himself through a mixture of imparted visuals from his own mind and basically giving him a game of psionic Marco Polo. It was a very basic way of communicating for psychics and to be honest Mewtwo was just being lazy by not directly telling the Gym Leader where he was at.
All of his attention was rapidly diverted at the sound of what seemed to be a Pokémon battle. He allowed his powers to carry him just barely off the ground as he moved closer to what was sounding more and more like a losing fight. The Trainer was a newbie if her hesitance in giving her Pokémon commands was any indication of her skill level - which seemed to be lacking. For the moment he was content with "watching" the battle through his sixth sense and blatantly reading the girl's surface thoughts. She had no idea what she was doing despite being a late bloomer to the Trainer trade. One would think that she would have the advantage because of this but that was clearly not the case here.
Then came the moment that was the deciding factor in this match; the Trainer's starter couldn't go on because of her mistress' ineptitude and collapsed. Most normal Pokémon on the beginner routes would take that victory and walk away but the fallen Charmander's opponent - a Shinx - wasn't acting normally and was probably driven by hunger. It jumped at the defenseless girl as she held her fainted fire lizard; even weak Pokémon could do severe damage to a human. Before he could think or second guess himself the cat stood up and threw a dark sphere of energy at the feline. It was the only attack he thought to use to stop the creature and because of his superior strength the attack was super effective.
All he had to deal with now was the fact that he had allowed himself to be seen by someone other than Dante. Would Genesia's Gym Leader object to him mind-wiping the girl and anyone else who might have seen him?
Belle gasped in surprise when something dark shot past her, hitting the wild Pokémon squarely in the side and knocking it unconscious. She whirled around, staring at the unmoving Pokémon before glancing down at Celisse who gave a soft groan. She reached out and stroked the poor thing's head tenderly before realizing that the attack must have come from another Pokémon. Confused she turned around trying to find the source. She found it. It was - she didn't know what it was. Purple. Big. Clearly Pokémon but she'd never seen something like this before. It was humanoid but she'd never seen something look anything like this. Cautiously, she took a step forwards, calling out, "Uh. H-hello? Thank you for saving me."
Mewtwo turned his attention to the girl and shrugged. It hadn't been something he'd thought too long about, inaction would have been ineffective in the situation. She was inexperienced; the only other person who was capable of helping her had been off in la-la land so he was the only one left that could do anything.
Dante hurried over to the scene, anxious about Mewtwo being seen in public, concerned for the girl's safety and a little curious as to the psycat's actions. From the time they'd spent together Dante had gathered that Mewtwo was not a selfless person. The mere fact, therefore, that the Psychic had defended a young Trainer - and revealed himself in the process - was astounding. 'Guess you do learn something new every day,' the man thought as he hurried to the girl's side.
"Mewtwo, get off the route, there could be people coming by," Dante said tersely to the psycat. "What are you doing? Someone could see you." In truth he was only concerned for Mewtwo's sake - there could have been any number of people who witnessed the event and would remember the white feline Pokémon. Fortunately the route looked somewhat empty.
"Are you alright?" Dante asked as he turned to Belle. "Sorry I wasn't able to intervene in time." He had, in all honesty, been too caught up with nostalgia to do much more than simply follow the girl onto the route, instead reliving the memories of his first day as a Trainer. He still remembered it now - Dahlia by his side, a Pokédex tucked into his jacket and an overwhelming feeling of optimism. It was a shame that the girl's experience had been ruined through his own inaction.
Mewtwo gave Dante a narrow-eyed Look that communicated his feelings for the Gym Leader's lapse in concentration and focus. It spoke of how the Gym Leader should have been paying attention to his surroundings even on a beginner route if not for the sake of the girl then for his own safety. Weak foundlings like the Shinx he'd knocked unconscious targeted humans that looked like easy pickings and lost in thought humans counted as such. The cat gave him another look that Dante had seen on more than one occasion since the two had known one another. It was asking if he'd actually mind if Mewtwo erased the memories of the newbie.
Dante gave the psycat a hard Look of his own. Mewtwo already knew his thoughts on altering memories, regardless of keeping his identity a secret. Erasing the memories of children seemed even worse - they had so few thoughts already. "Get yourself out of here, I'll deal with this," Dante said curtly to Mewtwo. "Go find somewhere to hide."
Mewtwo returned the look and flicked his tail crossly. Dante didn't have to worry about some overly eager idiot getting a hold of a Master Ball and capturing him. He would take the man's words as advice and not the command they made themselves out to be. In an over the shoulder sort of way, as he was making his way out into the tall grass that even most experienced Trainers avoided, the psychic informed Dante that the girl was completely unskilled in the ways most younger newbie Trainers weren't. The foolish child didn't have any kind of camping supplies! She probably couldn't light a fire or dig a necessity pit or do anything that would keep her alive on her journey.
In short: find the girl's family and inform them of the predicament of their woefully under-prepared daughter. Also convince her to forget that he existed.
Belle turned around when she heard Dante's voice. She thought she'd left him back in Blyse? Ah, well. It was good that he was here or maybe it wasn't. After all, she'd just completely screwed up in front of someone and a Pokémon. Ugh. She felt like a fool. He confused her as to how he knew the Pokémon. Then her confusion cleared up. It must have been his Pokémon. She nodded at him, "Yes, I'm alright." She looked down at Celisse. "But I can't say the same for my Pokémon here." She peeked back up at Dante, a guilty look in her eye. "I just screwed up big time, didn't I? I suppose most people don't completely screw up on their first battle." The newbie turned to the fallen Shinx, withdrawing a Pokéball. She threw it at the unmoving thing and it was caught inside, trembling for a few moments before settling. "Yaaay!"
With Mewtwo dealt with Dante turned back to the little girl. "Look you didn't screw up," he said, trying to sound encouraging. "Everyone makes mistakes alright? What's important is that you learn from it. And everything turned out alright didn't it? You even found yourself a new friend," he said, gesturing to her new Pokéball. "Here, take these." Dante tossed her a pair of Revives and Potions.
Belle nodded hesitantly at Dante's words. Still she felt rather depressed that she'd harmed Celisse so badly. She shifted the weight of her Charmander to one hip when he threw her the objects, catching them lightly. She wasn't uncoordinated so it wasn't all that hard. She tucked those away in her bag before smiling at Dante again. "Thank you so much!" Careful to balance Celisse, she picked up the Pokéball with the Shinx inside. "Hmm you can be Lucius!" Pleased with her nickname for it she clipped the Pokéball to her belt, turning to face the odd Pokémon again. "Uh thank you again, ma'am - sir - thing."
Unfortunately, the purple Pokémon showed no signs of understanding her. She sighed. She'd thought it might be something special, like a Psychic or Ghost type, but it just seemed to be a regular old one. Belle assumed that Dante wanted time to talk to the Pokémon, so she started moving back towards Blyse City. "I'm just going to the Pokémon Center; I need to get these ones rested up." She hurried back to the city, easily able to spot the colorful center. She entered curiously, looking around. It seemed to be nearly identical to the one in Iclea. Fascinating. She caught sight of Nurse Joy behind the counter, and approached her quickly. "Hello, there. My name is Belle. I was wondering if you could take care of my Charmander and Shinx - they were injured in battle."
"Of course, of course! Welcome to Blyse Belle. I haven't seen you here before," Joy responded, accepting the proffered Pokéball and Charmander and vanishing, a Blissey trailing in her wake. Belle shrugged, wandering over and sitting down on one of the seats, watching the others in the waiting area. Most were Trainers, urgent to get their teams healed up. Poor Nurse Joy - she must have countless patients and needed to work on them immediately. It wasn't long before she was called up and the Nurse gave her back her Pokémon, declaring them healthy again. Belle nodded her thanks and left.
Celisse was clearly annoyed at her Trainer. She walked a few feet in front, tail waving from side to side. "Err we're going to go back to the route okay? For some more training?" The Pokémon nodded, switching direction and heading back out to the others.
'Mewtwo, where are you?' he thought privately. 'We'll need to be going soon, this place is about to be crawling with Trainers.'
"Far afield," answered Mewtwo of Dante's thoughts. Living in close quarters with the man lent him a special sensitivity to his thoughts. Sometimes that was a problem but right now it wasn't. The simple "speech" that most psychic Pokémon used (direct sharing of emotions and memories and current thoughts) wasn't getting through to the man in his distraction with the child. "The girl has no survival skills or supplies. She has no idea what to do with herself outside of a city. As you are the only league official around you may want to make the girl invest in some equipment for her journey and guide her for a short amount of time. Otherwise her affluent family may see fit to try and remove you of your title as Gym Leader."
He hadn't had to read the girl's mind to know that she came from money; her clothing said it for her and her incompetence with directing her partner in battle let him know that no preparation had been made for her new path in life. It wasn't uncommon for Trainers just starting out to fumble some but most at least knew enough to keep their Pokémon from collapsing in their first battle against a wild opponent.
Besides if Dante lost his title as a Gym Leader then Mewtwo wouldn't have a place to crash or a person to challenge to chess matches anymore. The cat had quickly become spoiled - not that he would ever admit to it - by not having to live out in the wilds if he chose not to.
Belle approached Dante again as she reached the city's outskirts, Celisse beating her to him. The Charmander roughly tugged on the man's pants, indicating her desire for attention. The girl reached down and picked up her Pokémon again, hoping she hadn't disturbed him. "So, was that your Pokémon? That saved me? It must be very well trained, it acted without your command," she mused. She'd like a Pokémon like that, one that could know how and when to help others while she wasn't present but she knew that that would be a while away. Nonetheless, she considered herself lucky to have Celisse and Lucius. One step at a time, right?
Dante felt suddenly besieged. The Trainer he'd come out to the route with was asking him questions and on top of that he still had Mewtwo to deal with. 'I guess this is why I'm getting paid a lot to be a Gym Leader,' he thought with a half-smile. 'No one else would voluntarily take this job.'
"He's not really my Pokémon, per se," Dante explained to Belle. "We met a while back and I helped get him out of a sticky situation - well, it was mostly my fault to begin with, but that's a story for another day." He hesitated for a second, attempting to find the right words to say to the girl.
"Ah. So it just follows you around?" That was odd. She'd never heard of that before. Why did he not just catch it? What a confusing guy. He was so strange.
"Look, do you have any outdoor clothing or camping equipment?" he finally asked. "It's a long hard road from here to the next town and you need to be prepared. You look like you're walking around a mall, not traveling the region." He felt a little bad for telling the girl off but Mewtwo was right on both accounts - without proper preparation the girl would meet disaster along the road and Dante could be held liable.
Dante's question confused her. "Er, outdoor and camping equipment? You mean like sunscreen? I'm pretty sure that I can just get that at the mall here. Besides, I'm meant to look like I'm walking around a mall. I mean, what else would you want to look like? Like you're doing manual labor?" She wrinkled her nose. "Don't be silly, Dante."
If he could have facepalmed without making the girl feel bad, Dante certainly would have. 'Does she know nothing about being a Pokémon Trainer?' he thought to himself in exasperation. "Sunscreen is important, yes, but you need more equipment than that. A tent's probably a good idea, as are cooking materials, fire starters, a sleeping bag and mat, and food. You're going to be outside for long periods of time, in the wilderness, without any companions save your Pokémon. The mall's going to be a long ways away." He gave her a pitying look. "I can get you what you need if you're unsure of where to buy that equipment but you need that stuff."
Belle stared blankly at Dante. "I what?" She was bewildered. A tent? Stuff for cooking and fires? Sleeping equipment and food? 'Out in the wilderness for long periods of time?' What? She didn't sign up for this! What happened to the posters of kids cheerfully frolicking alongside cute-looking Pokémon? That was what she after, not something where she'd have to actually get her hands dirty. Her! A Rutherford! Her friends back home would have her head if they even thought she was doing this. Oh the horror! Looking down at Celisse though she knew she didn't have much of a choice. She'd made the decision to leave home, she'd made the decision to go through with her plan. There wasn't really anyone else to blame - except maybe the people who make those posters. Yeah, she'd see about getting them fired.
Struggling with her realization, she sighed and hung her head. She was going to be so screwed in the following weeks. Somewhat reluctantly she said to Dante, "Very well. Which store do I get all this at?" She kept the part where she couldn't believe that they didn't have chefs for hire to take around with Trainers to herself. She wasn't particularly sure but she'd heard old rumors in Iclea Town that some people didn't actually have chefs, maids, butlers, servants or cleaners. It was concerning to say the least and she deeply pitied anyone who had this terrible thing befall them.
"Just follow me," Dante said, relieved that the girl seemed to understand. "You can pick up most of this from a Pokémart since they cater specifically to Trainers. We'll need to visit a supermarket as well to get you some food supplies, but you should be ready to head off to the next town in about an hour. This way," he said, taking a few steps in the indicated direction. 'Mewtwo, I'll be busy for a little while helping the girl,' Dante thought, still hoping that the psycat was monitoring his mental processes. 'Keep low until I come back.' He didn't doubt that the cat would but it always paid to be cautious.
Belle nodded motioning for Celisse to come with them. She did so and her mistress fell into step with Dante. "Okaaay. But don't I need to challenge the Blyse Gym first? I know I definitely need to get stronger but I don't want to leave and have to come back, you know? And how am I meant to carry all this stuff? I mean, if I wanna train where am I gonna put all my stuff? On the ground? That's highly unhygienic." She shook her head. Was this how all the common folk were? Dirty? It was disgraceful, really. Besides, she'd never actually been inside a supermarket - she knew malls inside out but supermarkets? No. That was for the servants to use. Oh the things she was lowering herself to.
Elsewhere the cat gave Dante a semi-affirmative response. He wasn't going to sit around doing nothing while Dante and the newbie shopped. The girl was probably going to be very particular about what she wore no matter what the Gym Leader's advice and experience said.
"Good luck with her Dante," Mewtwo chuckled, grass flattening with invisible hands into a bed. He allowed his feline nature to take control and as soon as he was settled was napping comfortably albeit lightly. No sane Pokémon on this route would dare attack him if they didn't want to find out what the horizon looked like up close.
Dante Serven – Akai Shi-Koret
Belle Rutherford – Kat the Strange
Mewtwo – Kenocka
Written by me and my guild members on Gaia. Woot for RP to fanfic adaptations.
Author's Notes: This chapter underwent heavy editing and the others that have been uploaded anywhere online are undergoing heavy editing right now. I'm hoping that this is the last time that I have to edit this chapter. Thanks for helping me out SO MUCH Akai. This chapter wouldn't flow half as well if you hadn't stepped in and helped me out bro!