The followed path ahead twisted like a crazed worm digging through the earth and hillside. Joe and Ralph walked and flew in awkward silence next to each other for most of the time. Occasionally they glanced at each other. They didn't talk because they didn't feel a reason to talk. After all they had only just met. They hardly knew each other. They hadn't had enough time to get to know each other. Now was the time to do that. Joe coughed subtly. Ralph turned his eyes to him, looking stern and strong but clearly suffering from a small amount of nerves and discomfort as well.
"So" Joe said finally. Ralph blinked at him. "Where did you come from? Why were you on the hillside last night?" Ralph thought for a second, then started making yapping, grunting, screeching sounds.
"Cro, cro crobat cro, Crrroo cro bat, crobat. Cro bat, Croooobat." Joe nodded slowly, pretending that he somehow understood what any of that meant.
"Rrrrrright…" He said, sounding completely confused. "Could… you possibly repeat that?" Ralph looked back at him and rolled his eyes. This time he explained it in a way that Joe could understand. He shrugged his shoulders. "You don't know?" Joe translated, a little surprised. Ralph nodded. "How do you not know where you came from?" Ralph shrugged again. "Not even where or when you were born. Were you even born?" Ralph gave him an expression that, if he were a human, would have said 'Seriously? You're asking me that?' Joe received the message quickly and fell quiet again. "How did you get your name, by the way?" Joe asked again after a while. Ralph looked at him again… then shook his head. "You don't want to say?" Joe asked, trying to understand.
"Cro." Ralph said.
"Was that a 'Yes' cro or a 'No' cro?"
"Cro!"
"Well that explains it all!" There was silence for a minute or two. Then Ralph began asking question. He grunted quickly and gestured about with his wings. "Sorry, I don't understand what you're trying to say. Could you say it in a way a human can understand?" Joe's interruption caused Ralph to sigh in annoyance. It wasn't easy being a Pokémon trying to talk to a human. Most of them couldn't understand poke speech. Most of them. He slowed down a little, turned to Joe and gestured a wing to his chest. "Me?" Ralph nodded his head closer, edging on another meaning. "Something about me?" Joe tried. Ralph nodded quicker and more frantically, clearly showing that Joe was on the right thought track. "You want to know about me." Ralph gave a single, heavy, strong nod, smiling proudly and relieved. Finally Joe had realised what Ralph was trying to ask. "About me?" He repeated, more to himself. "Well, there's not really much to say about me. I grew up with my uncle. He was the guy I was talking to this morning when we left the lab." Ralph nodded understanding. "I've lived with him for as long as I can remember. I don't have parents or siblings. My parents died when I was a baby." He fell slowly quiet as he reached the subject, not just because it made him sad but because he had nothing else to say on it. He didn't even know their names. What was there he could really say? Ralph looked at him, expecting more from him, but there wasn't more. Joe had nothing else to say. They remained silent for the rest of the walk.
After not much more than half an hour's walk in total from Pallet town, the duo came across a small hill. They walked up it, stopped at the top and stood upon the hillside, several kilometres away from the large town of viridian. The clouded sky opened up to reveal beautiful blueness and rays of the sun shone upon the valley below. Joe sighed with relieved exhaustion and chuckled.
"There it is. Viridian Town" He looked to Ralph who was smiling with mild excitement as well. Their first leg of their journey had just been reached. "Well so far it hasn't been so ba-AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!…" Before he could finish his sentence he caught his foot on a root and fell forwards. His face struck the ground but his body kept moving, flipping him over and onto his back. He began to roll uncontrollably down the hill like a rampaging boulder, yelling all the way, back over face over legs over back over face. Ralph flew after him, looking pretty stunned by what he was watching, but not amused. He tried to stop his new friend by flying in front of the falling boy, stopping, holding out his wings and preparing to stop the sudden force that he would receive. This nearly worked if he hadn't made one small mistake. He had no legs to push back against Joe's rolling force. The tumbling mass crashed into the large purple nocturnal predator and they both bowled onwards, a mass of limbs and wings.
Not too far away a girl sat beside a pond, her feet resting in the still silver water. Her long ginger hair flailed about in the mild, gusty air. She wore a yellow, short sleeved shirt and green shorts that matcher her eyes which were emerald like the shallow sea. Next to her a brown star shaped water creature called a Staryu, sat looking deeply into the water, its red jewel at the centre of its body shining with the reflection of the ripples that the girl's feet made. She leaned back, her arms resting on the grass behind her, her head raised, her eyes closed, and breathing in the country air. She had just spent the weekend in Viridian searching for new Pokémon to add to her team and was spending the last few hours she planned to stay there relaxing by a small pond outside the city wall. Unfortunately she didn't see the big ball of purple, black, pale and grey that was Joe and Ralph rolling towards her until it was beyond too late. She heard a quiet rumbling, cries of fear and confusion, opened her eyes in suspicion, turned her head to the left, and… 'CRASH!' The two physical bodies collided and continued rolling on down the hill. The Staryu looked around in sudden shock, watched the ball of three figures escaping into the distance and rolled after them, spinning on its five pointed body and following after its trainer. The huge human and pokémon bodyball rolled on down the hillside. It was eventually stopped finally by a big stone wall lying only a few metres away from the point that the hill touched flat land. The ball collapsed instantly and the three of them lay in a crushed pile, dazed and half conscious.
"…bad" Joe finished finally, managing to push his head out from, what felt like, an elbow. The girl pushed Ralph's wing off her face, sat up and shoved herself onto her feet. She was furious. Her face was steaming pink with infuriation and mild embarrassment.
"What in the hell do you think you are doing!" she shouted. "Watch where you're going!" Joe pushed himself out from under Ralph's other wing and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"I'm sorry." He apologised, rather uncomfortably. He started to get up onto his feet. The girl didn't look impressed.
"Oh, you're sorry." She replied, crossing her arms for a second before gesturing angrily with them. "Well that just makes everything better doesn't it? My head feels like it's been cracked like a raw egg shell" There was a quiet sort of rumbling sound in the distance. They both looked around to see the staryu that had been sitting next to the girl now rolling after them, cartwheeling down the hill like an escapee wheel. Ralph was attempting to get back up too, but as he did so he saw the staryu heading straight towards him. Before he could react it collided with him and knocked him flat back to the ground again. The two pokémon lay in a brand new motionless heap. Joe and the girl looked down at them, then back at each other. A storm just struck.
"Now look what you've done!" She exclaimed. "You just knocked out my Pokémon!"
"Me?!" Joe exclaimed in a surprised, angry screech. "Your Pokémon collided with mine!".
"Well maybe you shouldn't roll down a hill into people." She commented back
"I tripped."
"Then watch where you're stepping next time." The two teenagers glared at each other with malice and fury.
"What's going on here?" a new voice came from behind them. They turned, suddenly surprised. A tall boy with short blond hair and sharp, intelligent brown eyes stood behind them. He wore a black hoodie that was unzipped and black cargo pants. He had a dark black fringe that covered his right eye but was almost cut of completely on his left side, disappearing into the parting like shadow into a black hole. He looked to be about 4 years older than Joe and he had a sinister aura around him. Something wasn't right with him. Joe couldn't pinpoint what it was, but there was definitely something there. Maybe it was his eyes. They never stopped moving, staring, taking in information upon everything he saw. "Why are you two shouting?" he continued, sounding more monotone and calm now.
"It's nothing." Joe insisted, looking slightly ashamed of the ruckus he had just made. In the corner of his eyes he caught the girl glance at him, disapprovingly. The boy looked at the two unconscious Pokémon that were, to him, a Crobat and a Staryu.
"Really?" He said. Joe nodded. So did the girl after a few seconds. The boy raised an eyebrow, then lowered it back to his slightly suspicious stare. "Well if I were you I'd get those Pokémon seen to by the nurses at the Pokémon centre. They look completely exhausted."
"Pokémon Centre?" Joe turned. He hadn't even noticed what the wall really was. On the wall, only a couple of centimetres away from where they'd crashed, was a tarnished yet old wooden sign. Cut and painted onto it where the words 'Viridian City'. He hadn't even bothered to look at it before. The consideration to do so hadn't crossed his mind past the point where he began to fall. Thinking about it more he did remember seeing a low stone wall around the town from the hillside. It did make surprising sense, even without the sign to confirm it.
"Well thanks for the advice, but…" He had begun to say as he and the girl turned back around from looking at the sign, but suddenly found that the mysterious dark clothed boy had disappeared. There wasn't a sign that anyone had been there at all.
"Where on earth did he go?" the girl asked in genuine confusion.
Joe's mind turned back to Ralph, deciding for the moment that the disappearing boy was not important. He looked down at his new bat-like friend. "He's got a point." He placed his hand underneath Ralph's wings, curled him up into his arms and lifted him up with both hands under him. He was unusually light for being about the same size as him, but considering he was a flying creature it made some shred of biological logic. Ralph lay in Joe's hands like he was a baby being cradled, actually snoring like one, too (On a side note everyone knows that babies do not sleep. They instead spend every night screaming like banshees for reasons that the parents cannot figure out. Members of the Society for the Care, Protection and Healthy Sleep of Parents, or SCPHSP, have put up many complains about this behaviour in local meeting. Votes for a change were unanimous. The babies must go!) He started walking, heading for the wall and into the town.
"Where are you going?" The girl shouted after him. Joe looked back at her, emotionless towards her.
"To heal my Pokémon, not that it matters to you." Joe replied. The girl took out a pokeball and withdrew Staryu back in. She ran after Joe, holding onto her shoulder bag with her free hand, her hair wailing in the air behind her.
"Get back here. You still haven't apologised for crashing into me!"
It was reaching about midday by now and even though Viridian was not a terribly big town it seemed that everyone was out and about. Adults in smart suits walked quickly to and thro, busy heading from their lunch spots to their office building with quick strides. Little children were on a grass playing field, making pretend battles with plush dolls of pikachu's and jigglypuff's. In one area there was actually a proper battle going on. A trainer with a rattata was battling a trainer with a pidgey. The pidgey was winning. Even in one small side alley a duo of shady looking men were doing a deal with a figure completely shadowed in darkness. They chattered, glanced around in case anyone may be watching, then faded away into the gutter. Joe walked on down a large, open, well lit road crowded with traveling people of all ages (mainly middle). Ralph was still unconscious in his arms. He stopped near the end of the street as two very obvious, very unique buildings stood directly in front of him. They both had a Pokémon sign on the side and on the roof but one of the buildings was bigger and had double sliding doors with an orange roof, while the other one was quite a lot smaller with only one sliding door and a blue roof. Joe stood there for a couple of seconds looking up at the buildings. The Girl he had bumped into earlier had finally caught up with him now. She didn't like to consider herself to be following him, but it was pretty much the case, even though she already knew where the pokémon centre was.
"Aren't you going in?" she asked. Joe turned to her, taken by surprise and kicked out of his trail of thought.
"Hmm?" He asked, rather confused but trying not to show it.
"I hope you aren't planning to stand here all day." She told him. "The Pokémon centre is right in front of you, you know." With that she walked up to the orange building and its two sliding glass doors pulled themselves aside with a light rubber and plastic squeak.
"The Pokémon centre?" he asked. She gave him a look.
"What did you think it was?" She questioned. Joe's expression told her everything. It dawned on her. "You seriously didn't…" She started, but decided that making a comment about it probably wasn't the best idea. In the distance there was a bird screech and a cry of victory. The pidgey had won. "You're a new trainer, then?" Winter continued. Joe nodded. "And that is your starter?" She gestured to the unconscious Ralph lying in Joes arms. He was groaning loudly, tossing around like he was stuck in a bad dream.
"Personal choice." Joe answered. She continued to stare at him.
"Well this big orange building is a Pokémon centre. You'll find them in most towns. Very useful places. Whenever your Pokémon are hurt you can just bring them over here and get them healed up within an hour at usual. And the best part is it costs nothing at all." She gestured now at the blue roofed building. "While this is a Pokémart. Here you can buy medicine and equipment for your travels. You usually find them next to Pokémon centres and they also are in most towns. Now let's hurry inside before our Pokémon get any weaker or we both die of old age." And with that she walked inside the Pokémon centre. Joe looked a little shocked, then followed after her.
The inside of the Centre was huge. The floor was made up of different shaded orange tiles which at the centre of the room joined to become one giant poke ball sign. There was a counter at the opposite side of the room that had vases full of flowers on it, a charity box and behind it was a big, bed like structure that had six slots in it, each the exact same size as a pokeball. Beside that was a large, human sized metal and glass case, used for healing a single pokémon outside of its pokeball. Around the room where seats for the patients or trainers to wait at. A selection of doors dotted the back wall. Behind them were the many different emergency rooms and storage rooms needed by the nurses. Not many ever saw what happened in the surgery rooms. Joe stood in awe of the place. The girl was walking up to the counter, hardly seeming taken aback at all. Behind the counter stood a tall, pretty, curly pink haired lady in a nurse uniform and hat. Next to her stood a fat, egg shaped pink pokémon with a smiley face and an egg in its front pocket. The lady looked up and automatically smiled to her.
"Hello." She announced in a quirky, jolly voice "I'm Nurse Joy. I take care of all your Pokémon healing needs. What service can I perform for you today?" The speech sounded like it had been rehearsed a lot, even the smile seemed surgically attacked. Joe wandered if all the Pokémon Centre nurses had to give it to every visitor. He joined the girl at the counter.
"Hello." The girl replied in a more upbeat tone. Surprisingly enough it suited her more than angry did. "My 'friend' and I need to heal up our Pokémon. Would it be okay to leave them here for a while so they can rest up?" Nurse Joy nodded without a seconds thought. The girl had hardly even finished talking by the time she started.
"Of course I can. I'll have it done in a jiffy. If you hand over all the pokémon you're carrying I'll start fixing them immediately." The girl took out her staryu's pokeball and placed it on to the counter. The nurse took it and placed it into the healing device next to her. The pokémon beside her smiled and jumped up and down. The girl turned now to Joe "go on. Put him onto the counter." Joe stepped forward and lay Ralph on the counter. The nurse looked down at him, her expression changing from delightfully happy to intriguingly surprised.
"Now this is an unusual Pokémon." She stated, looking Ralph up and down. "Where did you find it?" Joe fidgeted with his hands.
"I saw him fighting off a bunch of bugs in the middle of the night." Joe responded. "Beedrills to be exact. I kind of saved him from them. It all went from there."
"Does he have a pokéball?" The Nurse asked. Joe nodded.
"Yes, but it's not the usual kind." He unclipped the white pokeball from his belt and placed it onto the counter.
The Nurse too it and lifted it up in her hands, examining it. After a couple of seconds she announced "I've never seen this kind of pokeball before. Is it a new kind that the pokémart are selling, or one of professor Oak's new inventions?" Joe shook his head.
"I don't think so. He never mentioned making one and I've never seen anyone else with one." Nurse Joy placed it back down on the counter. As she did so Joe caught a glimpse of a small carving on the back of the ball, just above the rim joint. It looked like a letter, but what it meant he had no Idea. The nurse clearly hadn't seen it. In fact the ball pretty much popped out of her mind completely within the span of a second.
"I'll heal your Pokémon for you then." She continued with the task at hand. She took the white pokeball Joe had just given her and placed it into the glass case machine. She then lifted Ralph and laid him into the same case machine, lying sleeping on his back with his wings curled around his body, the white ball positioned next to him. She flicked the switches and the machines buzzed with power. The glass case machine cover slid shut, closing Ralph inside. Within the pokeball healing machine the balls glowed almost as bright as the sun. Light flickered all around them. The pokéballs inside pulsed with light, going red, then yellow, then white, then back to yellow and then back to red within a matter of seconds, continuously pulsing. In the other machine Ralph stirred uncomfortably. His eyes flicker as he began to gain consciousness and energy again. His strength was slowly retuning. After a couple more seconds the flashing died down and the machines buzzing turned into a low hum.
"And that's it." Nurse Joy announced in her chirpy voice. "It will take time but your Pokémon will soon be fully healed within an hour."
"That's quite a long time" Joe moaned. "What am I meant to do during that time?"
"You could wait." The girl told him. Their eyes turned to the seats by the door. Five minutes later and they were sitting on those very seats, trying not to fall asleep. It was so boring just waiting and waiting. Joe began tapping his feet, only to receive annoyed looks from the girl who was sitting two seats away from him. He crossed his legs, he twiddled his thumbs, he hummed. All received the same look from the girl. Finally Joe snapped.
"Oh my god is this boring!" He exclaimed aloud, taking everyone in the pokémon centre by surprise. The girl groaned.
"Do you have any patience?" She demanded. "We've been waiting for only seven minutes." Joe groaned under his breath.
"Sorry. I'm not usually this fidgety, but…" He took in a deep breath. "There's nothing I can do while I wait."
"Oh stop moaning, already." The girl complained. "It's not as though anything will happen within that time." As if on cue the doors behind them slid open and there was a loud yelling. Joe and the girl, who was now pretty much waiting with him, spun around to see two men in black clothing had burst through the centre doors. One was tall and skinny while the other was small and chubby with shades over his eyes. There wore black suits and black hats on the top of their heads, with white gloves and boots. They had straw sacks slung over their shoulders and held long barrels handguns in their clenched fists. They were quite literally cartoon stereotypes of criminals. Their eyes locked immediately on the nurse at the counter at the other end of the room.
"Oh!" the girl exclaimed.
"What was that you were saying about nothing happening?" Joe asked, mockingly. She glared at him. The two robbers ran forward, heading for the counter. The nurse just watched, her smile falling a little yet somehow remaining on her face during the whole process.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen." She said, her tone not changing in the slightest at the sight of two armed men. "How can I help you two today? Heal your pokémon from a nasty brawl? Offer a place to rest, away from the offensive eyes of a rival gang? Give you all the money in our charity box? Take a pick, you're most welcome." Joe was amazed by how she was keeping up a charming, jokey perspective considering this was about to become a theft and possible hostage situation. That jolly smile must literally be stuck to her face! The chubby man turned to her and pointed a small, foreign looking gun at her, the log thin barrel nearly tapping her chest from the other side of the counter. The two of them stopped at the counter, hardly noticing the two kids that sat on the seats behind them. It wasn't likely to remain that way. At some point one of them would turn and see them.
"This is a robbery" The smaller robber announced. "Hand over all your Pokémon and pokéballs, now." The nurse gave a small roll of her eyes.
"Well that's an imaginative demand!" The Nurse laughed. Her voice had changed from being sweet and calm to being still sweet and calm but also with a hint of strictness and anger.
"Well go on, start handing them over!" The taller robber demanded, clearly annoyed by her taunting. The nurses smile finally began to fade away.
"You have no right to just burst in here and demand our Pokémon! What makes you think you can go around doing that to other people! I'll have you know that this is most unorthodox..." The smaller robber aimed the gun barrel and clicked the cock, causing her to fall silent from her mocking speech.
"You can either do what we say, or I put an extra hole in you!" He smirked evilly as the gun barrel poked into the nurses chest. The Nurse now officially looked intimidated. Her smile had disappeared completely.
"The boss says that we take your Pokémon, so that's what we're going to do." The taller robber smiled, revealing a full set of ugly yellow teeth. "Now, get back against the wall and put your hands up, Pink-Hair!" The Nurse backed up and held her hands in the air. "Good girl" The robber taunted. There was a small squeak of plastic behind them. Both robbers turned sharply. Even the nurse looked to see. Joe and the girl paused. They had tried to sneak away and call the police by leaving through the front door. Sadly they had forgotten that it squeaked when it opened. The taller robber raised his own gun of the same make and aimed it at the trying to escape children. "Freeze!" He yelled. The kids froze. Joe looked to the girl.
"Damn it!" he muttered as the tall robber began running towards them. They turned to dash through the open door.
"Stop them!" The taller robber shouted. The smaller robber immediately jumped over the counter, ducked under it and pressed a red emergency button on the underside of the desk. The glass doors slammed shut and stuck just as Joe reached it, leaving him and the girl trapped with the robbers. "Don't move!" The taller robber demanded. "Get those hands up in the air!" Joe and the girl held their hands up. The robber grinned evilly and pulled out something silvery and metal. He hung it from two of his fingers, swinging it about like a pendulum as he walked. Then he unlocked the handcuffs he was holding and snapped them around Joe's left wrist and the girl's right wrist. "That should make it tougher for you two to escape." He snarled, nearly spinning on them, his face was so close to theirs. He turned. "Lock them in one of the cupboards." He instructed. The smaller robber nodded.
"Yes sir" He replied. He trotted over and took the place of the taller robber who went back to the counter and began pushing the nurse into a corner. He stopped in front of the two kids and gestured to the right with his gun. "Move it" He growled. He pushed the two children across the room and into a small janitor's cupboard on the far left side of the centre.
"You can't do this!" The girl shouted at him. "This is child abuse!"
"No it isn't." The grunt argued. "I haven't actually hurt you. Well, not yet! Haha!" They tried to fight him but he hardly seemed to feel their punches or struggled jabs as he simply pushed them in and locked the door. Then he walked away, over to join the other robber who had tied up the nurse behind the counter and was beginning to rummage through the pokeball storage rooms.
The janitor's cupboard was cramped and dark. The lightbulb hanging from the roof was smashed and broken. There was no way any form of light was being made from there. The only light in the room was coming in from under the door. Brooms, overalls, mops and buckets were hanging on the back wall on pegs. And Joe was smashing his good shoulder against the metal door, trying to break it off its hinges. It wasn't working. On top of that every time he rammed the door he pulled the girl with him as their wrists were still trapped together. This was making her quite irritated.
"Stop it. It's no use!" She finally snapped after the sixteenth ram. "You're just going to hurt yourself." Joe didn't respond. He just kept ramming his shoulder into the door, desperately trying to break free. It still wasn't working.
"We have to get out of this room." He shouted, his full body and mind focused on bashing down the large metal locked door. "Ralph's in there! They might hurt him, or even kidnap him! I only just got given him this morning! I can't let them hurt him!"
"You named that giant bat thing 'Ralph'?" She asked. "And I was still struggling to tell myself that he was your starter pokémon. What is he?"
"He's a Crobat if you must know." Joe told her, bashing his shoulder against the door again.
"Crobat? What is that? A new species of zubat? A rare evolution I've never seen or heard of before?" She asked.
"Does it matter?" Joe snapped. "Those men are robbing the centre and Ralph, the Nurse and us two are all in danger! We have to get out of this damn… janitors… closet!" He grunted in-between rams, leading to saying the last of the sentence with a small delay in-between each word.
"Well ramming yourself against a solid metal door isn't going to help." The girl continued. Joe growled in anger. Then he winced suddenly and clenched his hand on his shoulder. He yelled in pain and leaned against the cold metal. Suddenly the girl was concerned.
"What's wrong?" She asked. Joe groaned, gripping his wound. The attack he had received from the beedrill that morning was opened again and stinging like hell. He clenched his jaw in pain.
"My shoulder." He managed to reply between gritted teeth. "Stung by a beedrill. Last night." He winced again and slid down till he was sitting propped against the door. "It hurts like nothing I've ever felt before." He exclaimed. The girl thought for a second, then lifted her waist bag.
"One second." She unzipped the bag and rummaged around for a couple of seconds. When she finally pulled her hand back out she was holding a small rectangular plastic vile of purple liquid with a spray nozzle on the top. It looked like some kind of strange medicine. She lay the bag down and knelt down by Joe's side.
"Show me where you were stung." She said. Joe pointed to his left shoulder. He lifted his sleeve up to show a bandage that Professor Oak had placed on the wound to keep it clean and uninfected. The last time he'd checked on it, it was pale red and looked to be healing. Now it had gone crimson. Joe fought back a desperate need to scratch it. The girl unwrapped it slowly to reveal his shoulder underneath. The skin had gone pail around the cut and the purple red venom still in it was beginning to ooze through the gap and poke up the skin. Joe fought back a desperate need to scratch it. "Hold still" the girl told him. She lifted the plastic vile up to the wound and her finger squeezed the trigger in. The purple liquid sprayed out in a small cloud of water droplets. Joe expected it to sting as the liquid hit the wound but it didn't. If anything it numbed the pain. He looks at the wound and saw that it was already beginning to heal over.
"Antidote" the girl told him. "They're meant for Pokémon but are just as useful for fixing up poisoned people. Nifty stuff they sell in the pokémart, isn't it. "Joe looked away from his wound and up to see her kneeling in front of him. Their faces were so close to each other, hardly a noses width away. He suddenly realised that her eyes were incredibly bright. He looked away. She sat back, giving him more space after realising the awkwardness.
"Thanks." Joe replied eventually, as he began lifted himself back up onto his feat. He felt his strength coming back to his arm and the stinging had almost stopped completely. "I, uh, don't think we've properly introduced ourselves." Joe pointed out. He held out a hand "My name's Joe." The girl took his hand in her own and shook it.
"I'm Winter" She told him. Joe gave a raised eyebrow smile.
"Winter, huh." He repeated "Great name. Do you have two sisters called Summer and Autumn and a brother called Spring?" She blushed.
"Not exactly." she said, her face turning pink. "I'm a single child. No siblings."
"No kidding." Joe said. "So am I. What a coincidence." They chuckled awkwardly. There was a following silence.
"We should try and get out of here." Joe said finally. "But how do we do that?" The two of them looked around in the dark for a possible answer.
"Well there aren't many options." Winter noted.
"I don't imagine ramming the door down will work, will it?" Joe asked, hopefully.
"No, I don't think it will." Winter told him.
"Oh." Joe looked crestfallen. They looked around in the dark for another several minutes. Then, finally, they found something.
"Over here." Winter called. Joe joined her. She was looking up at a small ventilation shaft in the wall side, just big enough for a child or young teenager to sit or crawl in. Surprisingly convenient for their situation "Here." She continued. "If we took the vent cover off we could crawl through the shaft till we found a point we could get out through."
Joe smiles at her "Brilliant!" he exclaimed. She blushed.
"Thank you!"
"Only problem is…" Joe pointed out. "How are we going to get the vent cover off? We don't have any tools or Pokémon that could take them off."
"Actually we do." Winter interrupted. Joe looked at her.
"We left our pokémon at the counter. How do we…" He paused, his expression becoming both excited and stunned. "Don't tell me you have something like a screwdriver or something in your pocket!" She looked at him.
"What? No!" She unhooked a lone pokéball off her belt and held it in her hand. "I have a second pokémon." Joe felt a little humiliated.
"Oh. Of course." Winter nodded. She threw the pokeball up into the air. Before it hit the floor the ball stopped and flicked open. A ray of white light shot out and reformed itself. When the light had fully left the ball it slammed shut again and flew back into winter's held out hand. Where the light had hit stood a small, blue circular Pokémon with a white and black swirl on its belly, a short flat tail and two large, innocent eyes.
"What kind of pokémon is that?" Joe asked.
"A Poliwag." Winter replied. She then turned to her pokémon. "Stream" She called. The poliwag turned around to face her.
"Poli?" It asked in a high pitch cute voice.
"See that vent up there?" Winter pointed at the vent. Stream the poliwag turned, looked up, then turned back and nodded. "Could you shoot the cover off for us, please?" She instructed. Stream nodded and turned fully around. It breathed in, its mouth pouch swelled up, and it shot a jet of water out of its mouth at the vent. The vent bent slightly. "Try again." Winter told it. Stream fired again. The vent bent a little. "Again." Stream fired another jet, then another, then another, then another, then another. Finally, after several minutes of trying, the vent cover swung off, still hanging from one hinge.
"Good job, Stream." Winter told her pokémon, then she opened up the pokeball and pulled him inside again.
"Great, now let's get out of here" Joe said with relief. The two of them hurried up to the vent and stopped at the now open hole.
"Give me a boost up." Winter instructed.
"Ok" Joe held his hands out low. Winter lifted her leg up onto his flat palms and pushed herself up and into the vent. Joe kept his eyes down for the sake of decency. Winter was just about able to kneel down and crawl on all fours to get inside. When she was fully in she twisted around and held out a hand for Joe to grab. He took it and pulled himself in to join her. The two of them struggled to lift him in but did manage to do so. Once they were both inside the vent they sat with their backs to the cold metal walling and their necks bent so they didn't keep hitting the roof with their heads.
"Now where?" Joe asked, after banging the back of his head for the second time. Winter shrugged, unsure.
"We should probably find a way into the entrance lobby." Winter decided. "Maybe we could find a way out of the building all together. If not then there'll be a button under the front desk that can unlock the doors. That's what that grunt pressed to shut them in the first place."
"Good Idea. But how do we get there?" They looked down the ventilation shaft they had crawled into. It went on ahead for a few feet or so before taking a sharp right turn.
"Down there, I would guess." Winter decided. They crawled forwards, trying not to crush
each other in the narrow space and quickly they found the short trek very uncomfortable.
"You know, when I thought about what my adventure with pokémon would be like this wasn't what I had in mind." Joe muttered, more to himself. His quiet whisper echoed of the metallic wall. Winter sniggered.
"Yeah, well neither did I." A few seconds later they could hear the distant sound of heated communication. It sounded like the two criminals. They were talking to each other about something, but at this range it was tough to understand what. As Joe and Winter crawled on they could make out more of it. They eventually came across another vent cover on the steel floor. The sound of conversation was coming from this point and it sounded much more audible here, too. Joe cocked an ear and was able to pick up some small details mentioned.
"Keep rummaging. We need to nab as many of these balls as we can. The boss said we need around a hundred or so. Keep looking for full ones."
"One hundred pokéballs." Joe gasped and pondered. "Why would criminals want pokéballs? They only sell for a pound each at most stores. They're worthless in comparison to jewellery or other expensive stuff." Winter shook her head.
"Didn't you hear the last bit? They're looking for pokéballs that are full. That means pokéballs with pokémon inside them. Pokémon which the nurses here keep and take care of for trainers and for doctors."
"They want to steal pokémon?" Joe asked in a slightly less hushed whisper. "Why would thieves want to do that?"
"Because they sell well." Winter explained. "If you sell them to the right people." She paused for a second. "There was a group eight years ago that run on activity like that, buy they disappeared ages ago." She looked at them. "You don't think it's possible…" She stopped. Joe looked at her.
"What?" He asked. She was motionless for a second, thinking of into space. Then she shook her head.
"No. Sorry. It was a silly idea. That can't be." Joe continued to look at her.
"What where you going to say?" He pestered. Winter waved a hand, dismissing him.
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it. Now, shut up a second. I have a plan." Joe sighed and let the thought fade away to the back of his head. Winter saw that he was listening again and began to speak her plan.
Ralph lay motionless in his glass coffin, or at least he had assumed it was a coffin. It was rectangular. There was constant sound. The sound of constant movement. Someone was struggling to his left. It sounded like someone was tied up next to the coffin. He kept his eyes closed, just in case this wasn't a situation in which he wanted to be seen as awake. He could be surrounded by anything. In a situation like this it was best to wait and listen. If he looked asleep or dead then maybe, whatever it was moving about, wouldn't bother him. He heard muffled moaning and crying. His ears twitched. It sounded like a person. His mind began piecing the sounds together. Struggling. Muffled cries. Someone had been tied up and gagged and left beside him. He heard more noise now. The sound of rummaging to his far right. Multiple objects bounced of the sleek plastic flooring. They sounded circular in the way they bounced for a short time then rolled. More voices became audible to him now. These ones were distinctly masculine and not muffled or distorted in any way.
"Watch how you grab those things! Do you want to drop them everywhere?" One voice snapped.
"Uh, sorry. There's just so many and I can only carry so few." Another voice complained.
"That's why you have a bag!" The previous voice told the second voice. Ralph felt confused by the words they used. They had such a slang form of accent it was tough to understand each word. When his mind finally figured out what they had said his eyebrows shot up. They were thieves. His combination of the sounds from a person tied up and the use of words like 'Bag' and 'Carry' and 'Things' had hinted the idea to him. He decided it had been a good idea to remain quiet during this escapade. Then another sound came in. It sounded like a metal grate being slowly and carefully removed from somewhere above and to the right of him. Ralph stayed motionless, his eyes closed shut. He didn't know what this sound was. He didn't want to alert or upset it. Then there what the sound of quiet grunting and something relatively light landing on the ground, followed by a small gasp as it landed on all fours. Ralph felt confused. That didn't sound right. What was there that made a metallic scrapping sound, then a landing on four legs sound? He heard quiet whispering. It sounded like 'Ok. I'll go get Ralph and Staryu and unlock the door. You get ready to run out and call the police.' Another whispering voice said 'Ok.' Then he heard something crawling towards him in his glass cocoon. He tensed his body, ready to attack whatever it was if it got too close. Then the sound of a button being pressed and machinery whirring. Finally Ralph decided to open his eyes. He was looking up at the light orange roof through the top of the glass case. To his surprise it was sliding open to the right and left. Someone was letting him out of the coffin. Then a face came into view. He was about to lash out and strike when he heard a voice.
"Shh! Stay quiet, Ralph! It's just me! Don't make any noise!" As his vision became used to the light he realised who it was standing over him. He smiled, gratefully and tensed down. It was Joe.
"Wake up, buddy." He whispered. "We've got a job to do."
Ralph slowly and carefully pushed himself into a sitting position on his tiny feet, careful to not make any noise. Joe helped him up and hugged him awkwardly.
"Thank god they didn't get you." He whispered. Ralph looked a little shocked. Then he embraced his trainer. They stood hugging for only a few seconds. Then Joe let go and knelt down to Nurse Joy who was lying with her back to the wall under the counter, tied up with rope and a gag in her mouth. "I've just got to free the nurse, quickly." Joe muttered as he tugged on the rope. Ralph climbed slowly onto the glass case he had been trapped inside, now free. He remained quiet, watching the freeing in progress.
"Hurry up and get the door open already." A girl whispered from a few feet away from the counter. (At this point Ralph didn't know that she and Joe were helping each other or that she even had a name. He had only seen her for a few seconds before being knocked out by her Staryu.)
"Nearly done." Joe whispered back. Ralph jumped down from the glass case and floated to the ground by Joe's side. He looked at his trainer who looked back, leaned forwards and bit into all three ropes around the nurse. He chewed on them for several seconds before eventually spitting out the cut cords. The nurse shrugged the ropes free and pulled out the gag. She breathed gratefully. Then she began cursing.
"God damn lazy sacks of putrid stagnant sons of…" Joe shoved the gag back in her mouth.
"Quiet!" He hissed. "They're right next door." He pointed to the doorway on the right, leading into one of the storage rooms. The nurse nodded slowly in understanding.
"Right. Sorry." She whispered as the gag was removed again. Joe nodded then looked over the counter to Winter.
"She's ok, I think." He whispered.
"Great. Now pass me Staryu's pokeball!" She whispered back. Joe reached into the healing device at the counter and threw Winter her pokeball. She caught it with ease. "Ok, now get the door open." Joe knelt back down under the desk and reached for the button. Before he pushed it he quickly turned to the nurse.
"Once I push this they're likely to hear the door open. That means they'll come running out and see that Winter's got out. We need to give her time to get the police here and keep the criminals occupied so they can't get out." He waited for her to take the information in before continuing. "Do you have any pokémon on you that can fight?" He asked finally.
She nodded "I have Chansey." She told him. Joe nodded in approval.
"That'll do." He said, and he pressed the button.
…
"I must have around enough by now" The taller robber said.
"Keep collecting." The smaller robber replied "We need to get as many as we can. We won't get paid if we don't find at least a hundred." There was the sudden, quiet sound of plastic squeaking from within the lobby. Both criminals froze. They looked at each other.
"That sounded like the front door." The taller one said. Then they both dropped their bags and ran through the doorway. They entered just in time to see the sliding glass doors sliding shut. The smaller grunt roared in anger.
"They're escaping!" He thundered. "Get after them!" Both grunts ran for the door. Then, suddenly, something struck both men in the legs and tripped them up. "Gyaaah!" They cried as their faces struck the cold tiles. They rolled onto their backs and looked around. Nothing was there.
"What was that?" The taller one groaned in pain, rubbing his face.
"I don't know." The smaller one told him. "But somehow they've gotten out. The rest of them must be hiding in here somewhere. Find them!" The tall grunt stood up. Something large, white and oval shaped came flying out from behind the counter and smashed into his face, knocking him to the ground again.
"Ouch!" He yelled, grabbing his face and wiping yolk and shell of it. "That was an egg! A freaking egg!" The smaller grunt stood up himself. He was not pelted by large flying eggs. He walked forwards slowly, gripping his gun.
"Meddling kids!" He muttered. He began aiming his gun around, searching for something to shoot. "Where are you, you little punks?" He scowled. From somewhere in the room a response came.
"That's rich coming from a criminal!" The smaller robber growled in frustration. He walked under the vent in the roof. Unfortunately he did not look up. If he had he would have seen two large yellow eyes looking down at him from inside. Something dropped down behind him. Four purple wings spread out from his back. The taller criminal gasped from where he was lying. The smaller criminal turned around slowly. He stared at the thing in front of him.
"What the…" He managed to say. Then the wings closed around him and he disappear. Only his legs were left visible hanging out from the bottom of the grip. The taller criminal watched as his partner was hugged to pain by a four winged man sized purple bat. From within the embrace he could hear the muffled yells of surprise and fear from the smaller criminal. Ralph spun him around in his grip, scaring the living daylights out of the man. Then he let go, sending him flying across the room and across the floor, sliding to a stop at the other criminals side. His gun went skidding away to the side, harmlessly out of reach. Both criminals lay on their backs, exhausted and beaten, looking at the creature in front of them. It shot forwards with hardly a flash of colour and suddenly it was face to face with the two of them, its long edged wing pushing against both of their necks. It growled at them with a large fanged mouth. It glared deep into their souls with two huge yellow eyes. Both men whimpered like babies under its gaze.
"Please, for the love of god don't eat us!" The taller criminal pleaded.
"Or take us back to your lair and save us for later!" The smaller criminal added. From behind the counter there was the sound of laughing. Then three figures came into view, standing up from behind it. One of them was a nurse and beside her was a rather happy looking chansey. The other was a boy, the same boy they had locked up earlier. The boy walked around the counter and strolled calmly up towards the two criminals, hardly seeming concerned by the huge winged beast pinning them to the ground.
"That was truly amazing, Ralph." Joe told his man-sized bat friend, patting him on the back. Ralph smiled at him. He was glad for the appreciation. He had just risked his life and come out unharmed.
"Get this thing off of us!" The short grunt exclaimed, terrified by Ralph. Joe looked at him.
"Don't call him thing. He has a name, you know." Joe snapped at him. The criminal looked annoyed and terrified. This was an interesting expression to look at it. It was wide eyed and panting with tilted in eyebrows and an unhappy mouth.
"Please! Just let us go! We won't hurt you! We swear! Just let us get out of here, before…" Before he could even finish he was too late. The two glass doors slid open and seven police officers rushed in, aiming guns and shouting 'Freeze!' The grunts saw them and tried to crawl away, but Ralph grabbed them by the collars with his teeth and dragged them kicking and screaming to the police officers. The officers grabbed the criminals by the wrists and held them still.
"Are these the criminals you saw earlier?" One of the policemen asked. Winter pushed her way through the group and in front, looking at the two crooks. She nodded immediately.
"That's them, officer." She said, a hint of malice in her voice. The officer nodded.
"Right! Take 'em away, boys!" The two police officers holding the criminals pulled out handcuffs. The two criminals began struggling again.
"Hey, we ain't done nothin'!" The taller one tried. The police officer dragging him scoffed.
"Yeah, right. Like we haven't heard that one a million times before."
The smaller criminal didn't struggle or say anything. He simply looked back at Joe and cursed him. "You've made yourself a big enemy today, boy. You cross Team Rocket, you pay!" Before he could say anything else the two criminals were dragged from the pokémon centre and shoved into a police car. Once they were gone the remaining five policemen began clearing the area for evidence and any other criminals hiding anywhere. One of them went into the back room and brought out the bags the criminals had stuffed full of used pokéballs. He handed the bags to the police sergeant who then handed it to a rookie to be packed into another police car and taken for evidence. Joe and Winter were standing in the middle of the room, congratulating each other.
"You managed to convince them to get over here?" Joe asked. She nodded.
"Yep. It wasn't actually that tough. All I said was 'There's a robbery at the pokémon centre' and they came riding over in no time flat." She smiled at him. "Why? Did you doubt me?"
"No. Of course not." He said disarmingly. Then he smiled back. "Not for a second." She blushed a little.
"The plan worked then?" she asked, rhetorically.
"It sure did." He replied. "Thankfully Ralph had his strength back by then. He took them both out with ease." Ralph smiled happily at the mention of his name. Then the trio noticed the police sergeant standing over them. They turned. He bowed his head in thanks.
"We're lucky you were here." He told the two children, speaking in a thick stereotypical cockney policeman accent. "If you hadn't stopped them, these two would have gotten away with almost one hundred Pokémon. It was very brave for you both to put your lives at risk like that. Good work, kids" He patted Joe and Winter on the shoulder.
"It was nothing." Joe said sheepishly. Being hailed as some kind of hero felt weird to him. He'd just done it so that he and his friend wouldn't be in danger. From his perspective what he had done was more selfish then protective. The sergeant smiled.
"Oh, and just between us. If you ever get in trouble again in the area just contact me at the station. Ask for Sergeant Winston of C division at the desk and me and the boys will come running." He then walked away and joined the other officers. Winter and Joe smiled at each other.
"Was this anything like what you were expecting on your first day as a trainer?" She asked. Joe chuckled and shook his head slightly.
"No. I was excepting it to be less exciting." She laughed. So did him. Then the doors slid open and a bunch of journalist with camera crews came running in, shouting their claims.
"Hold the inquiry!" The loudest one up front shouted, running up to the police officers. The cameramen and other journalists followed closely behind her. "We would like to interview the witnesses for the news."
"Well they're going through a bit of stress at the moment as they've been under captive for the last ten minutes, and there's nothing that me or my men can add about the situation as of this moment…" The Sergeant then gestured to the Nurse who was now back at the counter and she seemed to be gaining her confidence back. "But I think that she may be able to answer any of the questions you have." Immediately all the camera crews rushed over to the counter and ganged around Nurse Joy and Chansey who were sitting on a foam chair, recuperating from the shock of the event. The sergeant winked at the two children and flicked his head to the door.
"I think it's time we got out of here." Winter decided..
"Good idea." Joe agreed. "Before they start interviewing us, too. Let's go."
…
Half an hour later they were outside in the cold air, sitting on a bench, drinking cold beverages, watching the sun start to fall slightly from above. Just the three of them. Joe looked down at the new silver pokétch that he had just bought with his money. It was a new style of watch that had come all the way from Sinnoh, across the sea. The time on it said 5:47PM. Ralph was flying around, which was pretty much his way of enjoying his spare time. He was grateful to be free from his glass prison in the pokémon centre and was wasting his renewed energy on being as free as he could possibly be at that point. The two trainers sat in silence for a while. Then Winter turned to Joe.
"What are you going to do now?" She asked. She sat here drink down on the side of the bench next to her bag.
Joe pondered this for a second. "I don't know." He simply replied. "I'll probably head on through Viridian forest to the next town. Professor Oak asked me to help him fill up his Pokédex so I'll probably work on that." Winter nodded, understanding.
"There's always the gyms." She pointed out. "They accept trainer battles. You beat all eight of them and maybe you could even end up facing the elite four, up at Indigo Plateau. Joe scoffed.
"I don't think I'll ever be that good." He told her. She shrugged,
"Well you don't know till you try. I mean you and Ralph basically took out two armed criminals without being hurt or killed. That's got to mean something." Joe thought about that. It had seemed surprisingly easy. He had just assumed that the criminals where dumb, but Ralph had known exactly when and where to hit them to take them out so easily.
"I guess I could." He ended up saying. "But to get that far I'd have to train really hard and for a long time. And I'd have to catch more Pokémon for my team. Ralph's good and all but if he takes on an electric type or an ice or rock type he'll really struggle." She nodded in agreement.
"That sounds like a good plan to me. And it also means you'll have more friends in your pokémon party." If Joe hadn't heard this phrase before he would have assumed Winter was mad. A Pokémon Party is the group of pokémon that a trainer carries around with them and uses in battle. Usually it consists of a maximum number of six pokémon, minimum of one, but there have been some exceptions. For example in some cases a trainer may have an extra pokémon with them that doesn't participate in battles but instead just watches and accompanies the trainer. Joe already knew this information.
"Alright then." He said, standing up suddenly. "Yeah. I'm going to take on the Gym Leaders and collect all eight badges. That shall be my first target in my journey."
"That'll take you a long time." Winter told him. "Several months if you're lucky. Several years if you're not."
"I'm still going to try." Joe said to her. "I can do it." He called over to Ralph. "Hey, Ralph. Come on. We're going." Ralph turned and flapped his way over to Joe.
"Well good luck." Winter said. Joe looked down at her, a little surprised.
"You could join me if you want." He invited. She shook her head.
"It's alright. I've got my own Pokémon to train as well. Besides, I can't make you take me along." Ralph arrived at the scene. His smiling, happy face looking at Winter. Winter found herself smiled back, much to her embarrassed wish not to.
"Go on." Joe persisted. "We make a great team." Winter sighed. She gave in fighting it. She wanted to join them just as much as they did.
"Well I'm heading to Cerulean City anyway and you're going that way." She stood up. "So I guess I'll join you. For now at least." Ralph did a small summersault in the air in delight.
"Fantastic" Joe declared. "Well what's the point waiting around here? Let's get going!" The three of them turned and walked of the grass park, following the road and heading for Viridian forest to the north. Unbeknown to them a shadowed figure watched from the distance. They looked, smiled and faded into the black shadows around them.