Her clothes were drenched. Her hair was tangled. She couldn't see. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think.
She kept running.
There was nothing else she could do besides run. After everything she had done - snuck out, broken into a laboratory, and stolen a Pokémon - she knew there was no other option for her. She didn't belong in New Bark Town anymore. She was a criminal, a thief, a bandit. She was a trainer.
She was a trainer.
This simple thought made her skid to a sudden halt as she looked around. She owned a Pokémon. She could officially call herself a trainer.
Still, she didn't quite know what exactly she was training. In her haste to get out of the lab before she was caught, she had simply picked up the nearest ball. She had no idea what it contained, which, she figured, might be good to know. Slowly, she reached into her drawstring bag, digging around for the stolen ball.
Snap.
With a gasp, she started running again. Something had made that noise. Someone hadto be on to her! Because New Bark Town was so tiny, Cherrygrove's Officer Jenny acted as the police force for both towns. Was it possible she was already on Jojo's trail? She couldn't risk it. She kept running.
It wasn't long before the lights of Cherrygrove appeared before her. Route 29 was not a particularly lengthy path, and it was one she had walked several times before. On hot summer days with the sun beating down as she dragged her unwilling brothers along on errands she'd been left, the trip still only took about thirty minutes. Jojo was a familiar face to the inhabitants of the smaller town; they were enraptured with Jake specifically, who she watched like a Staraptor whenever they were out. If any of them saw her, she would be easily identifiable. There was no chance of safety if she stopped there. With a deep breath, she turned right and pushed her way through the dense trees, and continued up what she hoped was Route 30.
As she was normally in a hurry or in possession of two restless boys, Jojo had never ventured up the northern route without her mother, and those trips were few and far between. She had always been curious of the path that traditionally held wild Pokémon and trainers that, while inexperienced, were still far more advanced than she was. She used to dream of the day when she would walk along the route with Cyndaquil at her side, effortlessly blasting the other trainers aside as she made her way to Violet City to obtain her first badge. Somehow, running from the law in the dead of night with some unknown Pokémon buried in her bag wasn't exactly cutting it.
Sometime later – was it twenty minutes? Thirty? – she realized there was simply no energy left in her to run. She was quite surprised she had even made it that far without collapsing, though she wasn't complaining. Unwillingly to stop until she was absolutely sure she was safe, Jojo staggered along until a solid rock wall blocked her way. Upon closer examination, she realized it was a cave – Dark Cave, a random memory told her. I'll be safe enough here, she decided, and entered cautiously. She stumbled around for a while before finally picking a spot and thumping down ungracefully. She was too tired to bother with her sleeping bag, so instead she maneuvered her bag around until it passed as a semi-comfortable pillow, and fell asleep within minutes.
When she awoke, she was being crushed alive.
"Ouch!" she shrieked, immediately wide awake. "Get off!" Jojo wriggled futilely underneath the huge body that was now on top of her.
"Sorry, sorry!" a deep voice replied, and with a great heave, he pushed himself off of her. Angrily, she sat up and brushed her hair out of her eyes, sending a death glare at the man standing before her. Despite being at least three times her size, he still shrunk back a step at the look on her face. "I'm sorry, little lady. I was trying to explore this cave with Battle's sonar instead of Flash, but I guess you were too low behind this rock that it didn't pick you up." He motioned to the intimidating Golbat fluttering behind him. "Are you alright? Here, let me help you up." He extended his large hand down to her, which she stared at for a second before finally taking it. With little effort, the hiker lifted her to her feet. Still looking unhappy at her rude awakening, she dusted herself off. "I'll get your bag for you as well. Now tell me, what's a little lady like you doing in a big scary cave like this?"
Still upset, she thought frantically for something to tell him. "I was looking for a Geodude when I got too tired to carry on. It's not so bad in here, and besides, my Chikorita isn't strong enough to take on Falkner by himself. I figured Geodude would be a good reserve Pokémon."
The hiker let out a loud guffaw. "Now isn't this something? You can't have been a trainer for more than two days, but you're already talking like an expert. I guess you really know your stuff, don't you, little lady?"
With a grin, Jojo bent down to pick up her headband, which had fallen off while she slept. "I'm not an expert," she said with uncharacteristic modesty. "But I guess I'm alright. I've watched battles since, like, the day I was born, so I've learned a thing or two."
"Well, didn't your mother teach you not to talk to strangers?" Jojo froze, realizing he was completely right. This was a totally unknown man she'd met in a scary cave. Why on earth wasn't she running? He laughed again, and she glared once more. "I'm just messin' with ya. You should see the look on your face!" Still snickering, he handed her bag back to her. "Be careful, little lady. And good luck catching that Geodude!"
Jojo stood stock still, refusing to move a muscle until his footsteps faded completely and all she could hear was silence. Then, with blinding movement, she ran as fast as she had the night before to the entrance of the cave. As soon as she was out, she dug to the bottom of her canvas bag and pulled out the shiny red and white sphere that held the path to her future.
Her heart pounded in her ears as she pressed the center button once, and it expanded in her hands. It felt just like the empty ones she had played with for hours in her room, but at the same time, it was so, so different. This one ball held her starter Pokémon; her best friend, her most loyal partner, the one she could rely on through thick and thin. The one that would experience everything with her, the one she would cherish the memories with forever. Her starter Pokémon.
She pressed the button again.
Jackie Jones yawned as the bright light creeping through the blinds hit her eyes. She pulled the covers up over her face, trying to keep the pleasant dream she had been having, but eventually frowned as she remembered the fight she had with her youngest daughter last night. She decided chocolate chip pancakes, her favorite breakfast food, would be a good way to apologize to her; she did feel bad about delaying her journey, after all.
A quick walk downstairs later, Jackie stood in the living room, looking at the worn sofa that her youngest son was nestled on. "Jakey," she whispered, softly shaking him awake. As his eyes began to blink sleepily open, she continued, "Would you like to make pancakes with me?"
The young boy rubbed his eyes blearily before nodding, his brown curls flying in all directions. "I'll get the flour!" he offered cheerily as the two of them walked over to the kitchen, and he started for the pantry. While he searched the back for the container, he suddenly remembered his conversation with Jojo. With a gasp, he immediately stopped searching and ran out of the kitchen. "Be right back!" he hollered, bolting upstairs towards Jojo's room.
"Where are you going?" Jackie called after him.
"Just a second!" he shouted back.
"Stop yelling!" she hissed angrily. "You'll wake your father!"
Ignoring her, he opened the door to his older sister's room and saw the empty, unmade bed and missing equipment. He grinned, looking around the suddenly unfriendly seeming space. "Mom!" he called.
"Stop yelling!" she repeated, walking over towards the stairs. "What on earth are you doing?"
"Can I have Jojo's room?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Jojo's gone," he repeated plainly. "Can I have her room?"
"Joanna is not gone," Jackie replied. "She's staying home for a few more weeks."
"No, she's gone! Can I pretty please have her room?" Jake tried again eagerly.
"Jake, what are you talking about?" she asked, walking up the stairs to peer into her room as well. "Oh Arceus…" she whispered. "Jim? Jim!" When she got no response, she turned to Jake. "Go wake your father. Now."
"On it!" he replied dutifully, and scampered away.
Jackie looked back into the room and gave a great sigh. "Oh Arceus. Oh Mew. Oh Arceus, please, no." She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together in anguish. "Oh Mew, please keep her safe."
"...slow?"
"Oh my Mew..." she muttered, blinking dumbly for a few moments. Jojo pinched herself once, leaving indents where her nails were. Finally, she squeezed her eyes shut tight, counting to ten in her head. When she opened her eyes, she gave a pathetic little moan and slumped down onto the ground. This could not be happening. This could notbe happening.
"...Slowpoke," the Pokémon said with a yawn before rolling lazily onto its side.
"Are you kidding me!" she shouted to the sky. A Slowpoke. Of all the Pokémon in that entire lab, she had grabbed the ball for a Slowpoke. "I think this is what Jillian called 'karma'," she said aloud, glancing disdainfully at the Pokémon next to her. "If you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. But she said that after I stole her brown boots and wouldn't tell her where I put them, so I thought she made that up." She stood up and walked over to her Pokémon, staring down at it. "And you? You are a very bad thing."
The Slowpoke looked blankly back at her, clearly not realizing what she was saying. In frustration, she jabbed the pink potato sack in the side with her foot; a full four seconds later, he reacted by turning to the other side and shooting a stream of water at the trees. In response, Jojo tilted her head back and screamed.
When she stopped, she was overcome with the urge to cry. She wanted to turn around, to go home, to apologize to her parents and get a big hug from them and then fall asleep in her own bed. She wanted nothing more than to not have to sleep on the ground ever again and to never have to refer to a Slowpoke as her starter Pokémon. She wished dearly now that she had decided to get a Cyndaquil after all. This was so unfair.
Jojo was surprised when a few tears managed to leak out of her eyes, but was more shocked by what happened after that. As she wallowed in her own misery, her Slowpoke walked up close to her and stared blankly. Then, with painstakingly slow movements, he nuzzled her cheek in a caring fashion, brushing the tears away as he was at it. She blinked a few times, dumbstruck, before allowing a small smile to cross her face. "Okay, I guess you're not terrible." She reached out to stroke his head, and even though he didn't have the warm fur of a Cyndaquil of a Skitty, his soft skin was comforting to the touch.
"I wanna give you a name," she said, thinking hard. The Slowpoke stared absently back at her, and she rolled her eyes. "I wonder if you even understand what I'm saying. Probably not. You've got nothing going on up here, am I right?" She knocked on his head, grinning when he didn't even react. "Yep, that's right. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Zero. Hey, zero!" With a look of surprise at her own brilliance, she beamed at her Pokémon. "Your name's gonna be Zero, alright? Ze-ro. Got it? Good! Because you and me, Zero? We're gonna famous. Everyone's gonna know our names. Jojo and Zero, the unstoppable duo! We have to be, because I'm not gonna stop until I'm known worldwide, and I can't do it without my starter. That's just…that's just not right, you know? So we gotta do it together, okay? Promise me, Zero, me and you. We're gonna be unforgettable!" She held her hand out, palm facing up, to Zero. Though it took him a good ten seconds, he eventually placed his own one-toed limb in hers. With a shake of finality, she gave her biggest smiled yet and stood. "Alright then, first things first. We're gonna take on Falkner!" She raised her arm to punch the air, but her stomach growled loudly.
"Maybe we should get some food first."
Author's Note
Yeah, yeah, it's not like updating is one of my talents, anyway.
However, everyone that enjoyed this chapter needs to go shower love upon Sage of Emeralds. She gets hugeeee props because without her, you may have never seen this chapter. Go. Love her.
If I haven't replied to a PM/review of yours, I'm sorry! I've been trying to get to them all, but I get super busy and forget which ones I have and haven't done, and then that just stresses me out and I go eat my feelings. I pinky promise to reply to everyone's this time, though! If not, feel free to bug me until I do. :)
Thank you for reading! With luck, chapter three will be on its way soon!
~Irene
