A Journey of Hope
Chapter 1
"Just another shit filled day. Honestly what else was I expecting," Reid York, the sixteen year old busboy thought to himself, as he looked himself over in the restaurant's bathroom. It was a disgusting mess, with urine stains on the toilet, tiled floor, and even the barf green painted walls. Looking at himself, he frowned in disgust. His black hair felt sweaty and greasy after a long shift, his slightly tanned face had pimples dotted here and there, and his brown eyes seemed to be the exact color as the crap in the unflushed toilet. Glancing down, he did his best to look over his physique, which proved challenging while wearing an apron. Even though he wasn't fat by any means, even having a more muscular build, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with himself.
As he walked out of the bathroom, he headed back to the kitchen area of the restaurant he worked at, which specialized in barbecue style food. Going over to the apron rack, he removed his and placed it alongside the dozens of other aprons that were there. Finally, with one last grudge, he took his ticket and clocked himself out. Having finished working for the past ten hours, he let out a loud sigh of relief as he cracked his neck.
"I'm headed off Mr. Knous!" Reid yelled out trying to sound chipper as he headed for the front door, not to piss off his boss. "See you on Monday!"
"Listen Reid," Mr. Knous shouted from his back office, "I know tomorrow's your day off but I'm going to need you to come in early to help out!"
Reid let out a sigh of defeat, knowing that there was no way around this if he wanted to keep his job. "Oh yeah sure thing Mr. Knous! Not a problem for me at all!" Reid shouted out trying to sound just as chipper as he had before, even though he felt like he could punch a wall at that moment.
"Alright then. Now get out of my store before I throw you out myself!"
"Freakin' dick…" Reid mumbled as he walked out the front door of the restaurant into the darkness of the night. He glanced at his watch, looking to see how much overtime he'd actually gotten, not having bothered to look at the clocks inside the restaurant. His eyes popped open when he saw it was 10:18 at night.
"God, another night wasted in this trash heap," He mumbled out loud as he proceeded towards the sidewalk that took him to his apartment that he had rented in the Oldale town suburbs.
Walking at a slow, yet steady pace he found himself thinking back about how he looked. Thinking about all of the flaws that stuck out on his bland personality made him sulk even more as he trudged on his way back home. Even thinking about home made him even more depressed. He lived by himself in a single bedroom apartment that had bug types crawling around in the walls. Thinking back to when he'd actually lived with his mother actually made him slightly better about living by himself. His mother had been drunk most of the time and she'd beaten him on a regular basis. Since his mother didn't work either, they both had to live off of the wages he was making at the restaurant he worked at. Any food that didn't require a microwave to cook was a luxury to them and owning a pokemon of his own was certainly out of the question.
Those days were passed through. Reid was happy about the fact that he was an independant person at the age of sixteen. Even if he'd had to drop out of school to be able to support himself, he didn't have all that many regrets about his living decisions. The one thing he missed about not being in school though was the fact that he didn't see his best friend Cami as often. Even though they lived in the same apartment building, Reid's schedule and her's simply didn't match.
After he had been walking for a few minutes, Reid stopped inside of a convenience store and picked up a can of soda. After paying the guy at the counter two ref for the drink, he walked back out and continued on his way back home, taking in the usual sights of the path that he used to take home. It was a path that cut through the edge of the forest that was between Petalburg city and Oldale town. Even though he knew it was dangerous to go into the woods without a pokemon, especially at night, he liked to connect with nature, even if some nature wanted to use his intestines as jump ropes. Plus it saved him another twenty minutes of walking.
Glancing into the sky as he strolled along, he saw that the moon was full. Seeing as how he'd been walking around the forest with how well illuminated it was, he was surprised he hadn't noticed it earlier. Just as he was about to lose himself in his own thoughts again, an eerie sound caught him off guard.
"Eeeekooooo"
Even with all of the other pokemon shouting out their cries, (being in a forest) this one stuck out to Reid more than the chirps of taillow and hoots of noctowl. It sounded more as if it was the sound of something suffering. As Reid walked further up the path, the sound of the groans only grew louder. He was starting to worry for whatever was out there because it sounded as if it was in a lot of pain. That's when he noticed what was making the sound. In the middle of the path lay a treecko, shaking in fetal position with cries of pain echoing through the forest. Diving into action, reid ran towards the small grass lizard. When he reached it he knew immediately that something was wrong with it.
"Hey," Reid called out to the treecko just a few feet away from him. "Are you okay?" The treecko didn't respond. Instead it just continued to shake on the ground in an uncontrollable manner.
Reid was finally within touching distance. He put his arm out slowly to signify that he wasn't going to hurt it. The treecko kept on its shaking as if Reid didn't even exist. Taking a deep breath, Reid reached out and lightly placed his hand on the treecko's head. He suddenly pulled it back though when he realized just how hot its head was. It was burning up with a temperature. Even not having a degree in pokemon medicine, he knew that a grass type wasn't supposed to be that hot. He had a feeling that if he didn't do something for the little grass type, that it was going to die.
"God, why do I have to be such an empathist," he complained as he scooped the treecko into his arms. He was surprised with just how lite the creature was. Even though the creature was two feet tall, it felt like it weighed only ten pounds or so. Refocusing on the treecko that was now shaking in his arms, he turned around and began to sprint as fast as he could towards the town's only pokemon center.
Cami was sitting behind the counter of the Pokemon center, bored as she ever was. Her long, blonde hair falling infront green eyes once again as it had been all night. Looking around the lobby of the pokemon center, which was barren, let out a depressed sigh. She'd recently gotten an internship at the pokemon center. At first, she thought it'd be great. She'd be able to help out with some of the care and treatment that happened in the medical area, maybe even help patch up some pokemon. Even if it was something as small as a papercut, she'd wanted to be on the front lines of medicine. Instead, Cami was working as a replacement receptionist while the original receptionist was on vacation in the orange islands…
"Freakin' dick…" She mumbled to herself, angered that she had to take up this kind of this late at night. She looked up at the electric clock that sat on the counter in front of her. She sighed when she saw that the time was 10: 42 at night. She let out another sigh as she finally buried her face in her hands.
There was a chime as the automatic doors opened to the pokemon center, which were followed with the loud thomping of tennis shoes against the tile flooring of the center.
Cami groaned even louder as she let her head hit the countertop. "Excuse me, please no running inside the building. If it's an emergency then please…"
"This treecko is going to die if you don't help it right now!" a voice boomed, catching Cami off guard. She shot back up, almost afraid to look at who whoever was sounding so desperate. She was surprised when she saw her best friend staring back at her.
"Reid?!" She yelled almost falling out of her chair. "Wait what are you…"
"No time to explain, just get this treecko help now before it dies!" Reid shouted towards Cami in such a state of panic that he'd hardly realized it was her he was talking to.
"Uhh right," Cami darted around looking for the attention button she was only supposed to when in a life or death situation. Quickly finding it, she pressed it.
Being the first time she'd had to press it, she jumped when a loud siren and red lights spinning all over the place. It was only a moment later that a woman dressed in scrubs along with a Mr. Mime ran out with a stretcher towards Reid. Immediately ripping the treecko from his arms and placing it on the stretcher, the ran to the back room and straight into the medical wing. The sirens stopped, leaving Reid and Cami with blank expressions, both confused as to what had just occurred. Cami noticed something pop up on her laptop that she was supplied by the pokemon center. It had a red outline and had only three words written in bold in it; disease stage 4.
"Wait, what just happened?" Reid asked looking in all directions of the lobby. "Is that treecko okay? Do you know what's wrong with it?" He asked, starting to calm down a bit.
"Great to see you too Reid," Cami said bringing Reid back down to Earth.
"Wait, Cami?" Reid stated confused. "Why are you here?"
"Didn't I tell you that I got an internship here?" She asked, slightly annoyed.
"Not that I can recall," Reid reminisce. "So back to what's actually important, is that treecko going to be okay?"
"Where did you even get a treecko?" Cami asked, unintentionally angering Reid for changing the subjects.
"Just tell me what's wrong with that treecko. Is it going to be okay? He asked growing impatient.
"Well…" Cami stalled looking back to her laptop's screen, the pop up still being there. "I hate to say it but it says here that it's a disease stage four...I don't like it's chances…"
"Well how bad is that?!" Reid said raising his tone.
"Let's just say," Cami started growing more worried for her friend. "Brain tumors are disease level 3."
Reid sighed, disappointed that the treecko couldn't be helped at all. Feeling even worse than he had before, he plopped down into one of the chairs that were in the deserted pokemon center lobby. He looked up to see that Cami was staring at him with worry filled eyes.
"It's fine," he said trying to play off his disappointment. "Circle of life and all that right?"
"Was that your treecko Reid?" Cami asked still behind the counter, though Reid could see tears forming in her eyes.
He sighed again, got up from his chair and walked over to Cami. "No, that wasn't my treecko." He said leaning up against the counter in front of Cami. "I was just walking home from work, I was on the pathway and I found it groaning and shaking in the middle of it. I brought it here as quickly as I could when I noticed that it was sick."
"Oh, well at least it isn't your pokemon or anything," She awkwardly laughed trying to break the tension.
Reid frowned from the statement, only feeling more down from it. Thinking for a moment, he came up with what he wanted to do next. "Hey Cami?" he asked grabbing her attention. "do you think the pokemon center would get mad if I slept on one of the couches until that treecko gets out of its...problem?" He asked, stumbling trying to find some of his words.
"Oh, no not one bit, here I can even get you a pillow and blanket while you wait," She said trying to get a little more peppy.
"Just a pillow is fine," Reid said stopping her for a moment while she ran into one of the storage closets in the lobby.
"Alright then," She said trying to sound a bit more cheerful. "Well here's that," She said handing the pillow over to him.
"Thanks Cami," He said getting a smile from her as he walked over to one of the couches. "One other thing though, would you mind waking me up if it ever wakes up?" He asked her with her simply nodding in response.
Smiling a little that his best friends was there for him, he tossed the pillow on the couch and layed down on top of it. Immediately closing his eye, hoping for the best for the treecko.
Reid felt something poking him, nothing sharp or anything, just little prods from something small, yet soft. Slowly opening his eye, he was surprised to see Cami crouching next to him, along with a big smile on her face. He took the hint to wake up, remembering that he was in the town's pokemon center after he'd brought that sick treecko in.
"Hey," Reid groaned sitting up from the couch, "what time is it?"
Cami glanced at her watch, "A quarter past noon," She replied without looking up.
"Awhh shit I missed work!" He panicked, realizing that he was probably going to lose his job.
"Isn't today your day off though?" Cami asked a little concerned for her friend.
"You know how my boss is a dick?" Reid asked getting a nod back from Cami. "Yeah, I didn't get today off."
"Oh," Was all she could reply with, frowning a little bit.
"By the way, is that treecko okay?" Reid asked with Cami's mood taking a complete 180.
"Yeah your treecko's fine! You want to go see it for yourself?"
Reid's crappy attitude turned around as he heard those words. "What do you think?! Yes I want to see it!"
Cami nodded as she stood up. She motioned for her friend to follow her as they both walked towards the doors that led to the medical wing of the pokemon center. As they walked in, Reid noticed that there were a lot of doors leading to what seemed like big room due to how spaced out they were. As he kept walking, he noticed that most of the rooms were labeled as surgical rooms, but every now and then came the occasional storage room. Finally, Cami had brought him to the room where the treecko was. The light above the room signaling whether or not surgery was in progress, turned off. She opened the door to the room, and bright, white light flooded into Reid's eyes. With his eyes finally focusing, he noticed the treecko was sitting on an operating table, talking to a Mr. Mime. Reid would have been excited to see that the creature was fine, but was taken back when he noticed that's it's skin had completely changed colors. Instead of it being the normal mixture of greens, the treecko was a bright blue color, with its belly being a smooth and somehow silky tan, along with its tail being a warm scarlet. Confused, Reid looked over to Cami to see her smiling.
"Why's that Treecko blue?" Reid asked still slightly alarmed.
"Well you see," Cami started to explain, "It had contracted a very rare disease that we call Pokerus," Reid nodded along, diving head first into her explanation. "It's a very deadly virus that basically boils the skin alive. Along with being incredibly painful, it has roughly a seventy percent mortality rate. If you do end up surviving from it though, your skin's chloroform pallets completely change, which is why it's not the usual grass type green anymore." Cami finished with Reid being surprised as to just how lucky that treecko was.
"Wow…" was all he could respond with. He looked up seeing the treecko was looking towards him, then back to the Mr. Mime, who Reid presumed was explaining the whole situation to it.
"You think I can go and talk with it?" He asked Cami who nodded in return. Reid proceeded towards the operating table with the treecko looking up and watching him approach. It seemed to flinch as Reid stood next to the table, only to have the Mr. Mime calm it down.
"Hey little buddy, how you doing?" He asked as calmly as he could. The treecko looked back towards the Mr. Mime which gave it a warm nod in return.
The treecko seemed to smile, as it jumped into the air, landing on top of Reid's head and taking him with it to the ground. Cami gasped only to see Reid was laughing with the treecko jumping up and down on his stomach. She let a smile creep onto her face, having not seen Reid laugh like that in a long time.
"Down boy! haha, down!" Was all Reid could shout out as the treecko continued to smother itself on him. He quickly glanced up to Cami "It is a boy right?" He asked quickly with the treecko jumping around on him.
"Yeah it's a boy," She said with a chuckle as the two continued to play on the floor.
"Well," Reid started, getting up from the ground with the treecko climbing around his body. "What should I do about him?"
The moment he finished the treecko jumped off of him, and started to cling to his leg, as if to say that it wanted to stay with him. Reid looked down and into its pleading yellow eyes, feeling a bit of guilt for asking.
"I just don't know if I could support myself and a pokemon…" he trailed off with the treecko's grip only growing stronger.
"I really think he likes you though," Cami replied petting the treecko's head lightly.
Reid sighed, looking back down into the treecko's eyes. God, it was like a growlithe pup was begging him for his table scraps. "Alright," he caved in. "I'll look after it."
The treecko lept into the air, letting a cry of its own name out in excitement. It landed on Reid's right shoulder, balancing itself perfectly on it. Reid smiled, sort of happy that it was his pokemon now. His smile quickly faded though when he realized that there were a couple things he would need to do before the treecko was his.
"You guys sell pokeballs here right?" Reid asked getting a nod back from Cami. "I'm going to need a couple of those then, along with trainers insurance right?" He asked getting yet another nod back from Cami. He let out another sigh, knowing just how expensive trainers insurance was.
"I'm still not sure about the costs though," Reid said with disdain clear in his voice. "I don't have much money in my account, and I'm not sure that the job I have will be able to afford it. I mean, four hundred Ref a month is bloody expensive. Although," He trailed looking up towards his new treecko, its blue arms still messing around his hair in excitement. "I-I think I'd be able to scrape by."
Cami smiled, glad to see that her friend was going through with it. She motioned for Reid to follow her. The three of them proceeded to leave the medical wing and went back towards the front lobby. She went behind the counter, picking out three pokeballs from the small box of them that the pokemon center had. Being that apricorns (the red shell of the pokeball) were so hard to grow, pokeballs were quite expensive, with the higher tier ones only spiking higher in price. People signing up for trainer's insurance for the first time however, received a few for free. Cami also searched through a few drawers until she found what she was looking for. It was a small tablet, roughly the size of an average cell phone and handed it to Reid.
"That's your proof of insurance," She said as Reid began to fill out his information on the tablet. "Lose that and you basically lose the right to own your treecko."
The treecko panicked a bit, still on Reid's shoulder, with Reid petting it lightly to let it know it was okay.
"Don't worry buddy, I'm not gonna lose ya," he said getting more happy coos from the gecko. His attention drifted when he heard a clang come from the counter. Looking down he noticed a few of what looked like belts. "What are those?" He asked a little confused.
"They're pokebelts. Not the best name for them, I know, but you put your pokeballs here on the side of it." She finished, pointing towards a spot on the belts which had what looked to be suction cups. "You shrink your pokeballs down and place them on here and they stick to the belt until you expand them again."
"Huh, stylish and functional." He said sarcastically taking a belt that was a dark shade of black. He looped them through the loops of his jeans and placed the two empty pokeballs onto it. Taking the third pokeball and gripping it soundly. He knew what the next step was. He had to register his DNA to the pokeball to prove that the pokeball belonged to him. Also, it was needed for the psychological bond that had to take place. The thought of using a pokeball took him back to his days in junior high, where an entire semester was dedicated to how pokemon training worked and thought back to what his teachers told him.
-.-.-
"The reason why you have to have a psychological bond, is so that pokemon captured don't rampage and slaughter whomever it was that had caught them," Reid's teacher lectured on as he hurriedly took notes on the subject. "A mental bond was created so that people could hold a mental grasp over a pokemon, forcing it to do whatever it is that the trainer says for it to do. There are however physical restrictions to this though," A few people raised their hands, probably curious as to what some of those restrictions were.
"What are some of those restrictions?" yup.
"With the more control a person had over a pokemon, the more exertion it puts on the trainer," Their teacher went on with some of the students "ooh"-ing in the background. He pulled out a pokeball and sat it on his desk, opening it with a small Slakoth appearing on it.
"With a red control level of 1.0, you have complete control over a pokemon. However, having it on this level will most likely make you feel nauseous after a prolonged period of time. A green level allows you to have some control over what your pokemon, and is typically what you'll use whenever you battle with somebody due to how it grants input from the trainer while still allowing the pokemon to follow some of their natural instincts," he finished as he flipped a tiny switch on the pokeball turning the ring in the center to a bright neon green.
"A green level has a 0.5 point value. This level will only really cause headaches after a few hours. Finally blue level has a point value of 0.0 and lets pokemon have total control of themselves with trainers not really feeling any side effects," he finished as he returned the Slakoth to its ball and putting it back into his pocket.
"Now, I'm sure a question all of you are wondering is, do these points stack onto each other? The answer is yes, they do. And the consequences for prolonged exposure to these points can be damaging. Don't go thinking that you're a hotshot and send out six pokemon on red level at once. It can permanently damage your brain if you do. Pokemon masters and elite four members are only able to handle 2.5 point values; and is after years and decades of mental training."
-.-.-
"Well that was a nice flashback" Reid thought to himself as he placed his finger on the ring in the middle of the pokeball. He pricked his finger, swearing slightly to himself as the pokeball registered his DNA. A soft ping was heard confirming that the DNA was accepted and was ready to capture whatever he threw the ball at. Reid glanced up at treecko, who was still playing with his hair, picked him up and placed him on the counter.
"You really sure you want to be my pokemon?" Reid asked getting a happy cry as a response.
Smiling back at him, Reid took the ball and lightly tapped it on the treecko's head. The treecko was instantly sucked inside the ball with a red flash of light. Without putting up a single struggle, the ball shook once in his hand before letting out another ping to acknowledge that the Treecko had been captured successfully. Reid smiled, happy that he no longer had to live alone. Keeping his smile on his face, he took out his wallet and handed Cami his debit card. She swiped it, making Reid flinch knowing just how much money he was spending on his Treecko.
"I think it'll be healthy to have a pokemon living with you, ya know," Cami smiled handing Reid back his card.
"I know, it's just I'm probably going to have to make some budget cuts," He laughed awkwardly.
Looking at the electric clock on the counter, he noticed that it was almost one. Seeming panicked again, he placed treecko on his belt and headed for the front door.
"Don't forget to name him!" Cami yelled out, getting a wave back in response from Reid. She let a deep sigh, hoping that this would help bring back to the way that he used to be.
Rushing into the restaurant, Reid noticed that it was busier than it normally was. Swearing under his breath, he tried to sneak to the back and start working without his boss noticing him coming in. Unfortunately for him, he did.
"Mr. York!" His boss yelled at him from across the restaurant, catching the attention of most of the patrons there. "You were supposed to come in early today. And what did you not do?!" He erupted as he began to pace over to him.
"I'm sorry, I found a sick pokemon last night and I've been at the hospital with it since…" Reid tried to explain but was cut off by his boss.
"And what's my policy for excuses?!" He blared seeming even more mad than before Reid had tried to explain things.
"Look it was an emergency. If I hadn't done what I did then…" Reid tried to get out, now with everyone in the restaurants attentions focusing on the scene that his boss was making.
"I don't care if it was your own mother that was dying! When I tell you to be here, you be here!" He blasted, with people gasping and even some leaving due the scene. "Now get out of my restaurant Mr. York because you are fired!" He yelled.
Reid had, had a feeling that this was going to happen. Standing up tall, he cleared his throat and raised his middle finger towards his now former boss. Without saying a word, Reid made his way to the door, finger still raised, and left to go home.
