((Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, Nintendo, or... anything. Except the characters, places, things, and ideas I've created. I own those. I have no affiliation with the original creators of the original universe, or any of the people I'll no doubt be sued by at some point, though I love their products so. This is merely a fan-made work of art. Thank you, enjoy, and have a great day~))
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Prologue
Night would soon be falling on Cherrygrove City, and Orca sat alone on the sandy west shore. No one had come to bother him as he watched the sun set over the horizon, much to his relief. He wanted to go for a swim, but...
"It wouldn't be the same, anyway," he mumbled, as he closed his eyes and tried to silence the thoughts swimming in his mind.
"So this is where you've been sneaking off to," his sister's voice called to him, making him suddenly tense up and attempt to close his eyes tighter.
"How'd you get here?" the young man asked, without bothering to look up at her. He simply let his neck-length black hair - accented by red at the tips of his bangs - sag in front of his eyes. He didn't need to see the water to know it was there, right in front of his feet.
"I have legs, you know?" his sister replied. "I can walk."
"Shut up. You know what I mean. I thought you were busy unpacking."
"Already done." Here she sat down next to her brother, giving him a concerned look. "You haven't even started, though..."
"Big deal."
"We've been there three days, Orca! I know you miss Olivine, but you could at least give Violet a chance. I miss it too, but I-"
"Not as much as I do," Orca countered, as he picked up a handful of sand and let it sift through his fingers. "You don't understand. You can't understand. Why do you like that stupid, boring forest town, anyway?"
"Why do you hate it? You don't even try to give it a chance."
"...It's not just the town. I hate everything. And everyone."
"You don't mean that."
"Yes. I do."
"...Fine, then," the girl huffed, standing up and brushing the sand off of her clothes. "Whatever. You sit here all alone and boil in your stupid pot of self-loathing. Stay angry at the whole world. I don't care. I, meanwhile, am going to go back to our new home and be happy. At least one of us will be."
"I don't have anything left to be happy about, Shrimp."
"If you really think that, then I can't help you." And without another word, his sister turned and walked away. Orca remained in his spot, unmoving, for another twenty minutes before finally rising to his feet. When he turned to make his way back to Violet, a man wearing a PokeMart hat approached him with a panicked look on his face.
"Hey, you headed to New Bark Town?" he asked. Orca shook his head.
"...Not really, no. Why?"
"Well, I really need to deliver this package, but I can't take off work right now. I work at the PokeMart, see? And the guy who usually delivers for me is supposed to be out here, but I haven't seen him all day. This is really, really important! Oh man, oh man, oh man!"
"Whoa, chill! I'll deliver your package, geez!"
"You will? Oh, thank you thank you thank you!" The man handed over the parcel, and Orca rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, whatever. Don't mention it."
"The address is on the box! Thank you again, so much!"
"I said don't mention it." Orca said as he started walking east, toward New Bark Town.
\/\/\/\/\/
I. In Transit
'
Orca had delivered the package and left New Bark as quickly as he could. The recipient, an older woman wearing a large hat, thanked him several times and asked if he wanted to stay for dinner with her friends, but after his blatant refusal, settled with giving him a bottle of some sort of medicine. With that taken care of, he decided to head out as quickly as possible; the dark of night was already approaching, and he certainly didn't know his way very well. While he was walking down Route 29, he saw an odd sight - what seemed to be a large amount of Rattata swarming in a pile on something. He moved just a bit closer to take a look, and was suddenly attacked by one of them. He pulled it off of his knee and threw it fiercely into the woods while even more leaped onto him. After a long struggle, he had beaten or chased off most of them, and could now see that what they had been attacking was a Sentret. It was badly injured, with many cuts and bruises, and lying on the ground quite helplessly.
"Get OUT of here!" Orca yelled as he kicked away the last Rattata. "Irritating pests!" His eyes then shifted to the Sentret, which gave him a sad, pathetic look as it struggled to get back up. "What? You want some too?" The Sentret whined weakly, appearing to be ready to fall over at any moment. "What then?" It slowly crawled closer to Orca, crying weakly. "Hey, come any closer and I'll kick you to the next town! Now I don't want anything to do with you, rodent, so get moving!" It didn't make any more noises, but stayed put, refusing to take its eyes off of him. "Whatever. I'm out."
He turned and walked back in the direction of Cherrygrove, and the Sentret immediately followed him. After a moment, he turned around and saw it behind him. "What are you doing, pest? I told you to beat it!" The Sentret looked as if it were about to cry. "Don't whine at me! Get to steppin' before I knock you into the woods like I did to those rats!" Despite the cruel words, the Pokemon continued to crawl nearer to him, tears now falling down its furry cheeks. "Fine! If I take you to the nearest PokeCenter, will you leave me alone?" It cheered weakly and began to cuddle up to his feet. He quickly reached down, grabbed it by a handful of its fur, and yanked it off of the ground. "I didn't say I would carry you, rodent," he breathed into its face, which he was holding right in front of his so that his annoyed glare wouldn't be missed. "Don't try getting all cute with me. You've got legs still, you can walk!" He threw it roughly back the way it came, and it landed with a thud on the ground. After a short moment, it struggled back to its feet and slowly made its way back, this time not trying to cuddle. "That's better. Now, get moving if you're coming along."
Orca continued walking down the path, and the wounded Sentret followed steadily behind, forcing itself to keep going. Once back in Cherrygrove, he led it to the nearby Pokemon Center, opening the door for it as it slowly crawled in. An on-duty nurse, upon seeing the injured Pokemon, gasped and ran straight to it.
"Oh, you poor thing! I've never seen one this bad!" She picked up the Sentret, cradling it in her arms as she hauled it away. A second nurse, much older, approached Orca with a pad and a pen.
"Is this your first time at our Pokemon Center?"
"Well..." Orca mumbled.
"I was just asking out of courtesy, I know you've never been here. You're going to have to fill this out and sign it."
"I just came here to drop off that Pokemon."
"Yeah, uh-huh. Rules are rules." And with that, she shoved the pad and pen into Orca's hands. The young man sighed and took a seat. It turned out he had nothing to complain about, for it only took a few minutes for him to fill out the paper. Once he was finished, he trudged over to the desk and handed the clipboard and pen back to the middle-aged nurse, whose gaze grew darker and darker as she read it:
Last Name: Juice
First Name: Orca
Middle Initial:
Age: 17
Sex: Yeah, sure.
Occupation: Semi-professional swimmer & surfer
Hometown: Olivine City
Pokegear #: 951 - 744 - 6240
Trainer #: Not a trainer
How long have you been a trainer? Not a trainer!
How many pokemon have you caught? Zero
Is this the first Pokemon Center you have visited? Yes
If so, would you like to be registered into the Johto National Pokecenter System?* Yeah, sure.
*See second page for details on membership benefits and conditions.
As Orca yawned loudly, the woman glanced back at him and shook her head as if to say "you're unbelievable." She took the pen in hand and began scratching out several of his written answers, replacing the first "Yeah, sure" with "Male", "Zero" with "One", and the "Not a trainer" responses with "No Trainer Card yet" and "Just today".
"Can I go now?" Orca asked in a bored tone.
"Your Pokemon will be out soon, if that's what you're asking."
"It's not mine . I just found it on the road. It was... really torn up. I decided to take it to a Pokecenter and get it fixed up." The words themselves indicated great kindness, but the way he said them suggested that this was all an annoying, unwanted burden.
"Still, don't you feel an obligation to at least wait for it?"
"Hah! No," Orca scoffed. The nurse gave him an eerie look, which freaked him out, but said nothing. "You're a funny lady." Still nothing. "What?"
"What exactly happened?"
"What? When?"
"When you found it. It just approached you, looking like that?" Her tone was doubtful.
"...No... It was..." He sighed. "There were a bunch of Rattata piling on it, tearing it up. I don't know why, I mean, that doesn't usually happen, right? Isn't that unusual?"
The nurse didn't answer his question. "And you saved it?"
"What? Well... yeah. Actually, it was a matter of-"
"It was alone?" the nurse cut him off. "There were no other Sentret around?"
"...No. None at all. It was just the one Sentret, and the twenty-something Rattata."
"That's unusual."
"What? I don't..."
The nurse suddenly grabbed Orca by his shirt and pulled him closer. "I'm going to tell you something, and I want you to listen carefully. This Pokemon may have become attached to you. Very attached. Now, I know you may not be the kind of person who likes to take care of Pokemon. Honestly, to me you just look like a rotten punk kid. But if this Pokemon decides to stick with you, you'd better keep it. If you don't, its heart will break, and it will run back out into the wild and get hurt again."
"Ugh... Listen, Nurse...um..."
"Joy."
"Nurse Joy? Were your parents aiming for irony?"
"I'm serious! I want your word!"
"Look, lady, I was actually planning to just release it back into-"
"You can't do that! If it was alone, and no other Sentret came to help it, that means it was either banished or abandoned by its clan."
"Its clan?"
"Sentret live in groups consisting of their family and friends. Their entire nature and social structure is based around living in family groups. They can't survive without a family, especially not if they're young. And this one is very young. It can't fend for itself. It needs its family. Unless it doesn't mind parting ways with you, you're going to have to be its family. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, sure, fine. Get off me."
The nurse let go of his shirt, which he immediately straightened out. "You're crazy, lady."
"I mean it! If I find out you've abandoned that poor creature, I swear-"
"Okay, fine, psycho-nurse! I'll take it with me! I'll bring it home with me as soon as it's healed!"
As if on cue, the younger nurse from before appeared from a side door, with the tiny Sentret following right beside her feet. She knelt down and cheerfully said, "There's your friend, little one!"
The Sentret's face lit up automatically when it saw Orca. It covered the distance between them in less than three seconds, then leaped up and clung on to his T-shirt with its paws, hugging his chest. Orca twitched in irritation, but, seeing the nurses staring at him - the young one with a smile and the older one with a horrid glare - he managed to force a smile.
"Okay then... We'll be leaving now..."
"Oh, wait!" the younger nurse pleaded, running to Orca with a packet of papers in her hand. "This is the information. Don't worry, Pokemon Centers provide their services free of charge, so there's no bill. But we hand out copies of all patient information, in case the Trainers wish to look over it."
"Oh... Isn't that nice... Medical records..." Orca gave the papers a glance for half a second, wondering why he would ever want something of the sort, then rolled them up and stuffed them within an inside pocket of his jacket. "Bye, ladies. Have fun with your straightjacket, psycho-nurse." He turned and walked toward the front door as fast as he could.
Nurse Joy called out to him, as the door opened, "I'll be sending your new Trainer Card to your house!" As Orca was walking through the door, the Pokemon still clinging to his chest, he raised his right hand and made a rather rude gesture to the nurse, without even looking back. The door closed and he was on his way.
"What was that all about?" the younger nurse asked.
"You don't even want to know, trust me."
\/\/\/\/\/
Night had fallen by the time they had left the city. Once he was on the path to Violet, and he could be sure that psychotic nurse wasn't watching him, Orca grabbed the Sentret by a bunch of its fur, much like before, violently pulled it off of him, and threw it to the ground.
"What did I tell you?" he yelled, as the Pokemon quickly got back up to its feet and walked closer, looking upset. "Don't touch me! I'm not carrying you!" He immediately continued walking, not bothering to look back and check up on it, although it was still following closely. They soon reached a part in the road that was an uphill climb north. Orca managed it fine, but the Sentret seemed to be having trouble. But of course, he wasn't even acknowledging it, so he wouldn't know. Suddenly, there was a loud ringing sound emanating from Orca's jeans pocket. It echoed through the trees until he pulled out his Pokegear and pressed a button. He held it up to his face as he sat down on the hillside and said "What?"
"Son, where ARE you?" his mother's voice burst from the phone. "You were supposed to be home before nine!"
"Things happened. I got held up. Sue me."
"Watch that attitude! Hurry home. I'm locking the door and going to sleep at ten. You have less than an hour. Love you!"
"Yeah, sure. Bye."
The call ended with a click, and Orca put the Pokegear back up in his pocket. With a glance down, he saw that the Sentret had caught up, and was now lying on its back in the grass, panting harshly. He shook his head and stood up with only one more glance at it, before continuing on his way. "You'd better get up and get moving if you still wanna come with me, rodent."
The Sentret flopped back onto its paws and scrambled after him, frowning and sweating. Once they reached the top of the hill, it picked up its pace and began to walk briskly behind him. Now they were turning Westward, and the tall training center called Sprout Tower was in view. Just a bit more walking, and they would be in Violet City. But before they could quite get there, they were stopped by a young boy passing by. He was wearing shorts, an ugly brown and white shirt, and a Safari Zone hat. He was also carrying a bug net, making it obvious which kind of Pokemon he was after.
"Hey, you have Pokemon?" the boy asked.
Orca sighed. "Just the one. Actually, it's not even-"
"Hey, me too! This is my first one! I just caught it today!" the boy boasted, waving a red-and-white Poke Ball in the air. "What a coincidence! I think it must be fate that we would meet tonight."
"What? Fate? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Now get out of my way, bug nerd!"
"No way! I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!"
Another sigh. "I don't think so. Now quit wasting my time and GET LOST!"
"That's not gonna happen! You can't back out from a challenge by another Trainer! You have to fight!" The boy let his Pokeball fly into the air, and it released a small Caterpie. The Sentret immediately jumped in front of Orca, as if to protect him, and growled at the bug Pokemon. Orca sighed once again, this time bordering on a growl.
"Fine. If I fight you one time, will you move out of my way and leave me the hell alone?"
"Sounds fine to me. Caterpie, use String Shot!" The boy's Pokemon executed the move as ordered, shooting out a stream of sticky, weblike substance from its mouth - or, what Orca thought might be its mouth, at least. The string successfully hit the Sentret, which then tried to scratch it off of itself for a short moment, then gave up and decided instead to fight. It only took a second for it to cover the distance; it then raked its claws against the Caterpie's skin with is Scratch move. In response, the Bug Catcher shouted for its Pokemon to use Tackle. The Caterpie raised itself up on its tail, then threw itself forward, tackling the Sentret hard. The furry Pokemon reeled back for a moment, then regained its balance and Scratched the bug again. It was dancing around the Caterpie now, far too quick for it. Until...
The bug used String Shot again. It hit the Sentret, coating it with even more of the sticky string. Orca now realized that it was lowering the Sentret's speed. "Sentret, just keep going! Use whatever!"
The Sentret charged again, this time a bit slower, but before it could make it, the Caterpie used yet another String Shot. The Sentret's retaliating Scratch knocked the worm over, and Orca, thinking it was knocked out, started walking away. But then the Caterpie crawled back up and took the Sentret unawares with a Tackle. Sentret countered with a Scratch as quick as it could, and knocked the bug down again. This time, the opponent was finished.
"Oh, man!" cried the Bug Catcher, as he returned the Caterpie to its Pokeball. "I can't believe I lost!"
"Well, start believing, 'cause it just happened," Orca said. "Now, I'll be on my way. See ya!"
"Wait!" the boy exclaimed, blocking Orca's way once again. "You're really good! We should form a team!"
"I think not. Now, you said you'd leave me alone if I battled you, so leave me the hell alone!"
"Aw, come on! I could help you out, you know! I know a lot about the Gym Leaders of Johto! I have a subscription to Battle Center Monthly!"
"Kid, I swear, if you don't get out of my way right now, I'm going to hurt you SO bad!"
"Are you collecting? Do you have a Pokedex? Which Gym are you going to try first? Can I get your phone number? What's your favorite kind of-"
True to his word, Orca caught the Bug Catcher by surprise with a quick punch straight to the mouth. The boy fell onto his back with a howl of pain. "I TOLD you!" Orca shouted, before finally making his way to the city. He turned back once to see the Sentret sitting in the same place, looking from Orca to the Bug Catcher, then back to Orca again. It looked confused, and worried about the boy. "What? I DID warn him! Now come on, unless you want me to leave you here with this loser." He turned back around and continued on his way, followed quickly by the Sentret.
\/\/\/\/\/
Violet City at nighttime.
I've conducted a nice little poem. Would you like to hear it? Ahem...
Not much went on in this sleepy little town,
especially once the sun went down.
The Gym, by far, was the biggest attraction -
that's where the kids went for all the action.
Then there was Sprout Tower - there's a lot of history there -
and the place where they held the annual fair.
It was a nice town with quite a few things to see.
But it wasn't where young Orca wanted to be.
ANYWAY, getting back to the story...
As he took a right turn past the Pokemon Center, Orca dug in his pocket for his Pokegear again, this time just to check how much time he had wasted battling the Bug Catcher. "10:04... Just great."
He turned left and passed the Gym, then another left and his house was in sight. The house they had recently moved into wasn't very big - it had an upstairs, but there were only two small rooms on the second floor. It had just been finished about two weeks ago - almost right before they had moved. Although it was right by Route 33, not many people passed by, other than the occasional traveling Trainer. No one much liked to take the detour through Union Cave, it seemed.
Orca walked around to the front door, which was painted white to offset the maroon of the roof and lavender of the rest of the house. According to the movers who had helped them unload their possessions, everything in Violet City was made to be more traditional. Or, as Orca put it, ancient, washed-up, and boring. He tried to open the door, but as expected, it was locked. He walked back around to the back of the house, where there was a used milk crate lying on the ground below his bedroom window.
The great thing about this house - in Orca's opinion, the ONLY great thing - was that the roof of the first floor extended outward enough to make a sort of walkway, and a balcony for the second floor.
He stepped onto the crate, then jumped up and grabbed onto the edge of the balcony, and pulled himself up. Once he was on his feet again, he turned around and looked down at the Sentret. It was hesitating, looking at the wall nervously. After a moment, it raised its short little stub arms up at him, apparently expecting him to pick it up.
"What, you want me to CARRY you? I don't think so, rodent. If you wanna sleep inside, you're gonna have to climb up here yourself. If you can't manage that, you can just stay down there. The choice is yours."
With a disappointed cry, the Sentret used its underdeveloped claws - which were actually more like sticky, prickly pads at this stage - to scramble up the wall. It fell many times, but after taking a short break, it tried again, determined, and finally managed to pull itself up onto the roof. By that time, Orca had already opened the window and slipped inside his room. He was clicking a knob on his small lamp, adjusting the level of the light in the room. Once he had it down to its most dim level, he flopped down onto the frameless matress which served as his bed.
"Well, are you coming in or not, rodent?" he coldly asked the Sentret, who had paused outside the window. It finally stepped through the window and, with a smile, started wandering around the small room. It seemed large and spacious, because Orca truly hadn't even begun the unpacking process. There was the bed, where Orca sat, on one end of the room, and on the other, a bean-bag chair, a mini-fridge, a huge black boom box, and several large, brown cardboard boxes. The soft, thick carpet was dark green, and the walls were a deep purple color. There was another door, which opened to his bathroom, framed in the wall opposite the one with the window. "Don't touch anything, rodent. You can sleep on the floor. Here," he tossed an old shirt from the bed onto the floor as he spoke, "you can use that to cover up or whatever. Now, I want you to be quiet and leave me alone. I'm making a call."
Orca grabbed his Pokegear and selected a number from his short list, then waited as the phone rang. After the second ring, a woman with a very cheery tone picked up. "Thank you for calling Olivine Gym, how may I help you?"
"Manta?" Orca asked, recognizing the voice.
"Oh my gosh! Orca?"
"This is he."
"Ice cream sundaes! How've you been? It's been like forever."
"About four days, give or take. Why did you answer this phone? Are you working at the Gym now?"
"Yep! I hang around here a lot more than all of us used to. I'm actually... well, we don't know yet."
"Know what?"
"I'll tell you later."
"Sure."
"How've you been?" she repeated. "How do you like Violet City? Are they treating you okay there?"
"No. I hate it. Everyone is bitches. This town blows Miltank for milk."
"Aw, that sucks. Chin up, mister unenthusiastic voice."
"Is that even a word?"
"I think so. Anyway, would you feel better if we wrote you letters or something? We haven't done that in a while."
"I guess. Hey, is Jazz there?"
"No, sorry hon. She's at the Lighthouse, doing some kind of intensive training or something. Why, what's wrong?"
"I don't know, just need advice, I guess."
"Pokemon-related advice? Thinking about jumping on the bandwagon with us?"
"No, just... I got threatened by this psycho-nurse lady, and all kinds of stuff. Everything is insane. Guess it doesn't really matter. I should sleep or something. Nothing else to do. I guess it's late. And stuff."
"You sound different."
"I SOUND different? How?" Orca asked as he grabbed a bottle of soda.
"I dunno. My brain's not working correctly."
"I am so not surprised."
Manta gasped. "Meanie! I don't know, I mean... You just sound different. Like a different person. Like you're somebody else. Where's my buddy? Where did Orca go? Who are you?"
Orca chugged half of the soda in the bottle, then sighed. "I really don't even know right now. I'll let you know when I figure it out." He took another quick swig of soda and cursed himself inwardly for forgetting to buy gum.
"Orca?"
"Yeah?"
"You know you're like one of my best friends, right?"
"...Yeah, I guess."
"...Kay."
"What?"
"Nothing. Go to sleep, Orca. I'll talk to you later."
Orca let out a long, frustrated sigh. "Alright. Goodnight, Manta."
"Goodnight."
Orca hung up the phone on his Pokegear and tossed it onto the bean bag chair resting next to the window. The Sentret was fighting the T-shirt - it had somehow gotten tangled up in it, and now looked like a fuzzy clothes monster. Orca shook his head. "You're ridiculous. Get some sleep, rodent. I'll figure out what to do with you in the morning." He switched off the lamp so that only the moon illuminated the room, then curled up under his blue bubble-decorated blanket and gave himself up to oblivion.
\/\/\/\/\/
((This chapter has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to not suck as much as it used to. Catch you on the flip side~))