A warmth on Victor's cheek slowly dragged him out of his unconsciousness. Again, his eyes resisted his attempts to open them, but this time, he had more energy and managed to force them open. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was his poster of the anime character Naruto, his tall figure and blonde hair wrapped in a blazing orange cloak of energy in his Tailed Beast Mode and behind that poster was a warm orange wall that lit up as the sunbeams hit it. That was his poster, his wall; he must be in his own room.
Was…was all that just a bad dream? Pleease tell me that was a bad dream.
A curiously strong breeze coming from where his window was supposed to be answered Victor's question. Turning in the direction of the breeze, Victor saw that the wall facing the backyard had been blown apart, exposing his room to the elements. Victor immediately laid his head back on his pillow and covered his eyes with his fists before whispering to himself.
"Fuuuuuuck."
So...that really happened last night...that means that dad is still gone. Oh god, oh god.
Suddenly, once again, tears collected in his eyes, threatening to overflow. The fact that all of this was his fault fueled the tears forming in his eyes.
No! Stop it Vic! No crying...don't you dare cry. You've grown way past this. Maybe it's not that bad...I'm sure Officer Jenny and maybe even Pokemon Rangers are out there. maybe they already found him. Just don't panic. Now get up...you don't deserve to lay down while this is going on.
Victor removed his fists from his eyes, blinked back stars, planted his elbows next to him and then tried to sit up. A dull pounding pain in his side protested his ascent, but Victor shut his eyes and battled back the pain. When he finally arrived at his sitting position, the pain receded and he let out a quick grunt after his exertion.
Ugh, come on...get up all the way.
Victor then rotated to his left and let his legs dangle over the side of the bed before placing his hands on his knees and deliberately rising to his feet. Getting to his feet didn't hurt nearly as much as getting off his back.
He raised his hands over his head and bent backwards slightly in an attempt to stretch his abdomen. However, about halfway through the motion, a sharp pain thrust into his right side, causing him to jerk to a stop and press his left hand against his right side. Under his fingers, he felt a hard, rough cloth.
Victor looked down at his midsection and saw a thick white cloth wrapped tightly around his abdomen, a rib belt. A sharp intake of breath accompanied his next thought.
Jesus! I broke my rib.
At that moment, Victor's mom hurried into the room, a panicked look on her face.
"Oh my god Vic...you're ok!"
Victor's mom rushed forward and threw her arms around him but at the same time managed to avoid agitating his ribs anymore. Victor eagerly wrapped his arms around her, despite the slight pain in his ribs. He needed the support right now and it didn't get better than his mother.
Victor buried his face in his mom's shoulder and kept it there, holding back tears, for what felt like months. Eventually, Victor pulled away and his mother let go. Victor's mom was a tall woman, only a few inches shorter than him. She had light brown skin with black hair just past shoulder length. Her dark brown eyes were full of worry as she glanced over his rib belt. She stepped back and Victor could see what she was wearing, a simple black tee shirt and black sweatpants.
"Here," she said quickly and pressed a small cylinder into his hands.
Opening his hands, Victor saw that it was a pure white bottle for pills.
"Those are your pain pills" she continued. "With the rib belt, you shouldn't be in too much pain unless you move around. That Typhlosion really hit you hard Vic."
Then, with concern in her voice, she spoke again "what were you doing out there anyway?"
At a loss for words, Victor simply lowered his head and shook it.
"I...like Cyndaquil" he said tonelessly.
Victor heard his mom sigh and her footsteps leave the room. However, they quickly returned and Victor looked up to see why his mother had returned.
In her hands was a large tray with several plates on them each piled high with food. Pancakes, sausages, bacon, toast, scrambled eggs, and corned beef hash were all spread out over three plates. As soon as he saw the food, the wonderful aroma finally registered in his nose. Despite the events of the last 24 hours, the smell of the food managed to lift his spirits ever so slightly. Though he didn't want to admit it, he was starving.
"Now I know you're an eat-em-up, and you hadn't eaten for a while" she started, "so I made you a biig breakfast."
"How long was I sleep mom?"
"Umm...a little less than a day." And with that, she left out the room.
Victor usually ate an incredible amount of food, but with guilt eating at his insides, he could barely finish half of the food before him. After he finished eating what he could, Victor pushed the massive tray aside and stared down at his bed, mentally berating himself for his part in his father's kidnapping. After about 45 minutes of this, Victor came upon a realization.
I have to make this right. I just have to. It's all my fault, I just...I gotta do something.
With that, Victor swung his legs out of bed and, ignoring the pain stabbing into his ribs, he jogged out of his room, down the stairs to the basement and out the sliding door leading to his backyard. He stared out into the treeline separating his backyard from the woods behind it. There weren't many wooded areas around Slateport city, but of course it was Victor's dumb luck that he lived right in front of one.
Victor found himself gazing out at the forest for who knows how long, that is until something tiny emerged from the undergrowth at the treeline. Upon closer inspection, Victor saw that its fur was blue on top and cream underneath, Cyndaquil!
Anger seeped into Victor's bloodstream at the sight of that tiny Pokemon.
If that damn Cyndaquil had just stayed in the motherfuckin woods, none of this shit would've happened. None of this! My dad would still be here, there wouldn't be that bigass hole in the house, just...
Victor let out an strangled shout of utter frustration at the conclusion of his thoughts. The Cyndaquil's head snapped up, searching for the source of the sound. The moment it spotted Victor, it turned its head away like an angry child. The gesture made Victor think about that night, when the Team Aqua came.
Hmm...that Typhlosion that they took...was it...maybe.
Shelving his anger for now, Victor calmly walked over to Cyndaquil.
"Umm...Cyndaquil..." he started tentatively.
At the sound of his voice, Cyndaquil turned its entire body and faced away from Victor.
"Look Cyndaquil, did they take your parent too?" Victor prayed as hard as he possibly could that Cyndaquil would answer him. Agonizing silence stretched on for a whole minute before Cyndaquil nodded ever so slightly and let out a dejected sounding "Cynda."
Victor's body shuddered with relief at the fact that Cyndaquil wasn't completely ignoring him. But how would he get such an incredibly stubborn Cyndaquil to listen to him.
With a sigh, Victor continued, "Well...Cyndaquil, my father got taken too...maybe we can help each other out maybe."
Cyndaquil remained still, its back still facing Victor. Victor began gnawing on his bottom lip as he awaited a reply.
Hope rapidly drained from Victor as a minute passed, then two minutes.
Desperation saturated his voice as Victor mumbled "Cyndaquil...please."
With that, Cyndaquil pitched forward and began strolling away from Victor before angling for the treeline.
Anger flooded Victor once again as he watched his one hope to do something himself literally walk away. His fists balled and his biceps flexed as he fought to keep himself from doing something he would regret. However, his will was not enough to hold back a sudden outburst.
"GodDAMMIT Cyndaquil!"
With that, Cyndaquil froze and whipped its head around to face Victor, its face clearly displaying anger. It probably didn't understand the first word that Victor said, but it understood the tone of voice that he was taking with it.
With his anger refusing to let him back down, Victor was forced to continue.
"I need your help! And like it or not, YOU need my help too. So if you would just...WORK with me here, we can get both of our parents back and be on our way!"
Cyndaquil directed the full intensity of its gaze right at Victor's face, and Victor returned the gaze back at Cyndaquil. The standoff continued for almost a minute before Cyndaquil finally lowered its gaze, looked to the side slightly and nodded ever so slightly.
Relief washed over Victor's body, replacing the anger he held previously.
"Are you saying yes Cyndaquil?"
This was answered by another nod accompanied with Cyndaquil's high pitched voice.
"Cyndaquil."
Victor's face broke into a gleeful beam at Cyndaquil's reluctant truce.
"Wait here just one second Cyndaquil, please.
Victor immediately sprinted back into his house to prepare for this journey.
I can finally do something about this. I can make this right.
Lost in triumphant thoughts, Victor didn't notice that someone else was on the stairs until he nearly tackled them. As soon as he contacted this other person, he immediately ceased his forward movement and recoiled away. He was a big guy and didn't want to cause anymore accidents.
"Jesus boy!"
That was his mom's voice, she couldn't know about what Victor was planning to do. To avoid getting caught, Victor wiped his face clean of the glee and excitement that he was feeling right now. He allowed his face to drop, his eyelids to droop, and and his posture to slump. He already came up with his excuse, he just hoped that that his mom hadn't noticed his happiness before.
"You shouldn't be running with that rib belt on," she continued, before her voice turned accusing, "what are you doing down here anyway?"
Maintaining his upset face, Victor looked away from his mother's face like he would if he actually was upset.
"I was just outside...looking at the woods. Then my ribs started hurting, so...I was trying to run upstairs to take some pain pills."
Victor heard a sigh from his mom and he heard the shift in her tone from accusing, to concerned...mission accomplished.
"Honey, you can't torture yourself like that. They'll get your father back, there are Pokemon Rangers on the case, don't worry."
Victor let loose a heavy sigh, "Yeah, you're right."
"Look babe, come here."
With that, Victor felt her arms wrap around his torso, and Victor found himself hugging her back. The fact of the matter was he felt scared and he wasn't faking that. Now that theeuphoria from the last few minutes was hidden, he felt the ull weight of what he was getting himself into. He had no clue what was out there waiting for him. Even with Cyndaquil with him, who knows what terrible things could happen. But Victor had to do something, this was all his fault, he couldn't wait for a Pokemon Ranger, he had to at least try.
"Umm, I have to go down to the Police Station to get some things in order, you stay here. Officer Jenny is somewhere near, she'll hear you if you need anything.
With that, Victor's mom released him and ascended the stairs, turned a corner and was gone. Victor waited on the steps until he heard his mom's car start up and drive away.
After that, he continued to jog up the stairs all the way to the 2nd floor. Once there, he turned into his parent's room. It was an exceptionally large, open bedroom with not much in the way of furniture except their king bed, two night stands, and two reclining chairs set a bit in front of the television. All the way to the right was their walk in closet which is what Victor needed. The one piece of furniture in the closet was a tall dresser with 4 drawers, all the way in the back which housed his father's relics from his days as a Pokemon trainer.
Victor knelt down and pulled aside a medium sized all black backpack that would sling over one shoulder. Messing with his dad's mementos from his past always filled Victor with pride as his dad was an excellent trainer. The effect was not lost on him this time either. However, this time, he was not here just to look.
Victor traced his fingers along the bag in order to find the zipper to open the bag. Once he did, he reached inside, grabbing and retrieving the first thing his fingers felt. It was a plastic spray bottle, nearly full. Turning it over to examine the label that read: Full Restore.
Now what is dad doing with a nearly full bottle of Full Restore? Hmm...
Despite the situation, Victor couldn't help but chuckle.
"You sure do hide it well pops."
With that, he tipped over the bag and pitched out the contents of the bag into a pile on the carpeted floor. He picked through the pile and identified each item: a patched up blue blanket, a length of rope, a multitool, one potion, one antidote, one full restore, and a few books of matches. In addition to the survival materials, there were several mementos from his previous adventures. There was his silver badge case, still shining, with all 8 badges inside. There was a gleaming gold medallion with a dragon spiraling around its face, probably from winning some contest. There was 2 ribbons, one red and one purple from a Pokemon contest. Two pictures also lay side by side on the floor. In one was his dad with what seemed like his newly evolved Marshtomp wrapping its arms around his dad's neck and clinging onto his back. The next picture was of his dad kissing the angriest looking woman on her cheek. Upon closer inspection, Victor noticed that the woman was none other than his mother. He couldn't help but let a sincere smile creep onto his face. But now he knew more than ever that he had to make this right. Victor tucked the picture into his pants pocket and scooped all the survival supplies he might need into his father's backpack. He then stood up, opened the top drawer of the dresser and retrieved five shrunk down Pokeballs. Those were the rest of his father's Pokemon: Gardevoir, Milotic, Flygon, Lombre, and Hariyama; it was safe to assume that Swampert was with him. If he could get these Pokeballs to his father, there was no doubt that his dad could help everybody escape wherever he was being held. Victor tucked them into the front pocket of the backpack before slinging it over his shoulder, gently pushing his father's mementos in a corner, and taking off out of the closet.
By the time he finally left his house again, Victor was very prepared for what lay ahead. His father's backpack had all the supplies he'd need: the survival gear he found earlier, some of his leftover breakfast in a plastic bag, and his painkillers in one of the pockets in the backpack. He left a letter for his mom when she came back. He felt guilty about the worry she was sure to feel, but he hoped that she understood how much he needed to do this. And he'd be back soon anyway, so she won't have to worry for long.
Cyndaquil was actually waiting where Victor had left him. He ran up to Cyndaquil, excited that it didn't run off.
"Cyndaquil, I'm so-"
The moment Victor neared Cyndaquil, a whoosh sound reached his ears, followed closely by heat washing up on his body as Cyndaquil ignited the flame on its back. This action was accompanied with a contemptuous glare from Cyndaquil. Victor backed away ever so slightly.
"I'm sorry I made you wait," he started, "but I had a lot of things to get."
After a long glare, Cyndaquil's fire dissipated. It then turned its back to Victor and dove into the forest. Victor quickly ducked into the foliage and fell into step beside Cyndaquil.
"You can smell your parent, right Cyndaquil?" inquired Victor.
Cyndaquil gave him a curt nod, "Cynda."
Victor nodded in approval, "Good, good."
And with that, the duo crunched their way through the large forest surrounding Slateport city.
Minutes passed by with Victor walking awkwardly next to a silent Cyndaquil.
"Err soo...what moves do you know Cyndaquil?" said an uncomfortable Victor.
Cyndaquil's head snapped up to deliver Victor a curious gaze.
"I...I mean, we might have to battle, and it would be nice to know..." Victor's voice trailed off.
Silence hung in the air after this; Victor glanced hopefully at Cyndaquil for any signs that it may want to acknowledge him.
Without warning, Cyndaquil lifted its snout upwards and opened its mouth, unleashing a torrent of blazing white stars. The attack slammed into an unfortunate tree, gouging out bits of bark from the trunk.
"Oh cool!" exclaimed an ecstatic Victor, "so you know Swift then."
Cyndaquil answered with a curt nod.
"Anything else?" Victor tentatively asked.
Cyndaquil considered for a moment, head inclined to the side, before it dug its foot into the ground and exploded forward. A blur trailed Cyndaquil's tiny figure and leaves flew out of its way as Cyndaquil rocketed through the undergrowth.
"Ohh, Quick Attack!" shouted Victor as he crashed through the forest after Cyndaquil. "Wait, where'd you-"
Victor's voice stopped on its own accord as he caught up with Cyndaquil.
Two Team Aqua agents clad in their standard uniform stared at the pair of them as they broke through the trees into a small clearing.
Victor froze in fear, his body refusing to respond to his brain's instructions.
A high-pitched growling and a cry of "Cynda!" snatched Victor out of his fear-induced trance.
A smirk arose on the face the very pale Team Aqua member at the sight of a teenager practically shaking in fear. He reached into his back pocket and retrieved a shrunken pokeball. The smirk grew into a large, malice-filled smile as he tossed the pokeball in the air, causing it to enlargen.
"Alright kid, scram," he crooned in a reedy voice. "This area is off-limits because of important Team Aqua activities."
Breathing deeply, Victor summoned all the courage spawned from his will and retorted. "I'm not going anywhere!"
The second Team Aqua member stepped forward in front of his partner. He was a large man that had a golden color to his skin that implied a hispanic heritage, however, he spoke with a perfect Hoenn accent.
"Is that right?" he asked in a quiet tone that still carried a threat in it. He then reached back and retrieved a pokeball as well. "I suggest you leave now kid."
"You're outnumbered!" the pale gangster burst out. "And you only have that bitch pokemon to fight with."
Victor, still going on sheer willpower, responded with a humorless laugh. "Ha! My Cyndaquil can beat the hell out of whatever you two morons have." With that, Victor pointed to the Team Aqua duo and shouted "Cyndaquil, go!"
Cyndaquil leaped forward onto the battlefield just as the two gangsters tossed their pokeballs right in front of it.