Memories

Chapter 2

Ready, Set, Go!

There was silence for a moment. He dropped his hands and let his mouth hang open. The bat slowly slipped from his hands and made a clang sound against the polished, wood floor.

He took deep breaths to calm down. It was his neighbor, Kimya. "How the hell did you get in my house? I had the front door locked! You almost gave me a heart attack! I was about to kill you!"

Kimya's smile stretched across her face to the point it looked like it was inhuman. Her smile opened up and she exhaled air at an alarming rate.

That just pissed him off. He pushed her to the floor with such force, that she slid across it about three feet. "Stop laughing! It's not funny!"

How he was reacting to her practical joke didn't make sense to her. "Why are you so upset? Is something bothering you? You know you can tell me anything…."

A few tears ran down his face like condensation running down a cold glass of soda. Slowly, he turned away from his neighbor. "You wouldn't understand….."

Sympathy filled her eyes. She wanted to ask what was bothering him, but knew he would tell her when he felt like it. She then remembered what she was going to ask him. "Do you have one?"

Now the expression on his face was confusion. "One what?" He had just been woken up and his brain wasn't functioning at full capacity.

A sigh escaped her lips like when you leave your windows open on a windy day. "A Poke'mon? We were supposed to start our journey today, remember?"

He felt utterly stupid. "Oh yeah….. No I don't have one…. I kind of gave up on that, since I couldn't find one I was able to catch or that liked me. I refuse to keep one that doesn't like me."

Kimya stared in disbelief. "Come on…. I'm going to help you catch one….." She got quiet after that statement. The last thing she said was mumbled. "Even though there isn't really any around here…"

The boy's face had a small, forced smile on it. "That's wonderful. Thank you." He didn't think there was even a chance that he would catch something.

The girl shook her head. "I know that smile is fake and those remarks are sarcastic. I have known you for a couple years now. It's easy to tell when you are faking it. Skully, can you be happy for once? I mean, you've told me of times you were happy when you were younger and you won't tell me why you aren't happy now. There are so many questions I want to ask you, but I know you won't answer them. I'm here for you. I hope you know that." She paused and looked away, only to look back a few seconds later. "You need to get ready before we go. I'll go wait downstairs in the living room." She looked at him one last time before going downstairs.

Feeling a bit better, Skully began to get dressed. The same basic outfit he wore every day. That's all he had; the same clothing to wear every day. He had a lot of clothing, but it was the same outfit. The black jeans he was wearing were still on from last night. The rest of his outfit was simply his black skateboarder shoes with neon green laces and neon green skulls, neon green, crew socks, the black jeans he already had on, a plain, neon green, short-sleeve, t-shirt, and a thick, long-sleeve, black hoodie. His hair matched his outfit; black and neon green, diagonally-striped, in emover style. He then put in his piercings; snake bites, a small hoop ring on the side of his right nostril, small hoop rings going up and down his left ear, and two small hoop rings through his left eyebrow. Then the jewelry; a single black, spiked cuff on both arms and a single black, spiked dog collar. The last part was simply putting fresh black paint on his nails, putting black lipstick on, and putting black eyeliner around his eyes. His pale, white skin made the black stand out more and his sky blue eyes complimented his outfit.

He grinned in the mirror and walked down the stairs to await criticism from Kimya. As he walked into the room, he struck a pose. "What'd I do wrong this time, Miss Perfect?"

Another sigh accompanied by the rolling of eyes was a good sign that this happened a lot to Kimya. "I just don't care for the outfit in general…. Aside from this conversation, I'd like for us to go. So how about we head out?" She walked towards the door, opened it, and walked out.

Hanging his head low, Skully walked out and locked the door. He's had enough of people just walking into his house. Quickly, he turned around and ran after her. "So where are we headed?"

Kimya shrugged. "I guess the forest on the outskirts of the city."

They arrived in the forest and hadn't searched for very long when an ear-splitting roar made them do a one-eighty degree turn and face the cliffs directly in front of them. There was a small mine shaft that no one dared to go into due to it being unstable.

Though she knew it was dangerous, Kimya pushed Skully to the entrance. "It sounds like a powerful one to me. Go for it."

Skully shrugged. "Whatever. I just hope I don't get hurt." Without a moment of hesitation, he walked in and blindly found his way through the tunnel. Within a minute or two, he came upon a room with a vast amount of space. Towards the back of the cavern, something was squirming. He could see that whatever it was, was pinned down by heavy rocks. The small amount of light shining from a few crevices in the roof didn't really assist him with seeing it from a far distance. Therefore he would have to get closer and he didn't want to.

The minute he got close enough to see it, he backed up. It was an Aerodactyl. One of its wings looked broken and it was bleeding a bit from its head.

The Aerodactyl roared again and snapped at Skully. It was scaring the hell out of Skully.

Skully knew what he was about to would probably kill him, but his kind heart made it to where he couldn't stand to see someone or something in pain. If he saw someone or something in pain, he felt the urge to help in any way possible.

The place shook and a few rocks fell. The place could go at any second.

The rocks were hard to move, but Skully managed it. After a few minutes, he had gotten all but a few rocks off. He felt the time was right to try and capture it. He would take it to the Poke'mon Center immediately afterwards. Though as he reached for a Poke'ball, his hand dropped and he looked down in disappointment. "Shit. I forgot my Poke'balls." Little did he know the Aerodactyl had gotten up and was making its way over to him.

It got in his face and opened its serrated jaws only to let out a deafening roar. Within a split second, it took off flying out of the mine shaft, bumping into walls.

Skully began to walk out with a disappointed feeling, but took off in a sprint when the place shook violently and rocks began descending from the roof. He was right at the entrance when rocks fell and blocked his way out. This only caused panic as he frantically clawed at the rocks, only to cut his hands up badly. "Kimya! Help me!"

Watching with amazement, Kimya saw the Aerodactyl fly out of the mine and crash-land a few yards away. Her attention was grabbed by Skully's cry for help. "I'm coming!" She ran over and pulled out a Poke'ball. "Go Jin! Use Strength to move the rocks!" Jin was Kimya's Shiny Mightyena that she received from her mother the night before.

Jin quickly began moving rocks until there was enough room for Skully to climb out.

Skully rapidly climbed up the rocks and out of the opening as soon as he got the chance. As he jumped out, a few specs of blood got onto Kimya's face. "Oops. Sorry Kimya. My bad."

She looked at his hands and then in the direction of the Aerodactyl. "What did that thing do to you?" A combination of disgust and concern infected her mind as she said this.

Skully shook his head. "It wasn't the Aerodactyl. It was the rocks. Now help me get it to the Poke'mon Center." He ran over to the Aerodactyl that was now unconscious form blood loss and began pulling on it.

The you-gotta-be-kidding look was as plain as day on Kimya's face. "Forget it. I'm not going near that thing."

No was not an acceptable answer for Skully when it came to caring for someone. "Help me. NOW!"

Scared and shocked, she made her way over and started pulling.

They were making progress, but it was going to be another ten minutes before they would get to the Poke'mon Center.

When they got there with the Aerodactyl, the nurse stared in horror. "Were you two trying to kill each other?"

Skully made a nervous laugh. "No… Our injuries have nothing to do with one another. And the Aerodactyl isn't mine. I just found it in the mine shaft. Please help it."

The nurse nodded. "I can try. As for your injuries, I can't help you."

Skully nodded. "That's fine. I would like to stay up there with the Aerodactyl to make sure it is okay."

The nurse hesitated saying what she was going to say. "I guess that is fine, but don't tell anyone I did this for you. As for your friend, she has to stay down here in the waiting room."

That was fine with Kimya. She would do almost anything for Skully. "That's fine." He called back Jin and sat down to read a magazine.

The nurse brought him up there and told him to take a seat.

Within twelve minutes, she had set everything up and left to let the Poke'mon rest.

The Aerodactyl woke up momentarily and went to sleep.

Skully was tired too and he passed out due to being tired.