DISCLAIMER: See Chapter One.
Chapter Three
We're Going On A Bug Hunt
Carla felt something soft and warm snuggle into her neck. She murmured sleepily and wrapped her arms around it. It wriggled around, claws scrabbling against her pyjama top. Carla quickly opened her eyes and sat upright, placing Kess on the duvet.
"I'm sorry, Kess," she said. "You're hungry, aren't you?"
She looked at her phone; it was half past nine in the morning. Her dad's team usually ate around eight, or half past eight at the latest.
"Yup, you're probably hungry. Let's go downstairs and get some breakfast."
I can't sleep this late again, and I certainly can't neglect my Pokémon.
Carla quickly got dressed in a dark green tracksuit. Much to her surprise, the nurse on reception had said (after taking one look at Carla's wet, mud-stained jeans) that Pokémon Centres also offered a cleaning service. Carla eagerly jumped at the opportunity.
After locking her room, she headed towards the canteen with Kess hopping beside her. Most of the food was gone, but Carla got herself a bowl of cereal and a small selection of Pokémon food for Kess. She sat at a table and placed the food in front of the Torchic.
Kess tilted her head to one side and looked down at the bowl.
"Go on, Kess - try them!" Carla encouraged, hoping that she would show which food she preferred.
Kess ate the entire bowl in three minutes flat without stopping.
"OK, so you're not fussy. That's good." Carla finished off her toast. "Nadine's a really fussy eater. She won't eat anything unless its this type of food Dad orders specially. She must have been a nightmare to feed while they were travelling."
She looked at the table closest to them. The trainer sitting at it was a man possibly in his late twenties; he was wearing a dusty green jacket and worn jeans. His team consisted of a Scyther, a Heracross, a Combee, a Ledian and a Dustox.
Carla picked Kess up and walked towards the group. "Excuse me?" she asked.
The man glanced at her. His face was deeply tanned, making his bright blue eyes stand out sharply. "Yeah?"
"May I ask you something?"
He took a swig of dark liquid Carla assumed was coffee. "What is it?"
"You specialise in Bug-types, right? Well, I was wondering, do you know anything about Bug-types found in Hoenn?"
The trainer snorted. "Course I can. Names, locations, attacks, breeding stats...you name it. Why, you after something specific?"
"Rare and awesome. It's not for me," Carla added quickly when she saw the look on his face. "It's for my sister."
"Isn't she gonna catch one for herself?"
"I kind of said I'll do it. It'll be her starter."
He gestured towards the spare chair. "Take a seat and I'll tell you 'bout them. Name's Steve."
"I'm Carla." Carla sat down, holding Kess on her lap.
Steve leaned back in his chair and had a sip of coffee. "Guessing you're rulin' Wurmples out."
"Definitely."
"OK. You said 'rare', so she probably ain't gonna want a Nincada. Shame - their evolved forms are strong. I'd go for a Pinsir or a Scyther for power, but you said it's gonna be her starter and if you don't know what you're doing with those two, you're in trouble. Volbeat and Illumise are between Mauville City and Verdanturf Town."
Carla leaned forwards, resting her elbows on the table. "What do they look like?"
"I can show you." Steve pulled two photographs out of his bag and placed them on the table. Carla studied them closely.
"She might like that one," she said, pointing at the one on the right.
"That's Illumise; species is female only."
Carla nodded. She had to admit that Illumise were actually quite pretty, with big baby-blue eyes and dainty wings.
"But there's a Bug-type in Hoenn that's really rare. It's Surskit; you can find it around here, if you know where to look. It's half-Water, half-Bug and evolves into Masquerain. Wanna take a look?" Steve took another photograph from his bag and handed it to Carla.
Carla's eyes widened when she saw the picture. "Whoa. Now that looks awesome."
"And it knows some pretty neat moves too."
"You said you can find Surskit locally. Where do I catch one?" Carla could hear the eagerness in her voice.
"What you do is you go to the small lake nearby, find a place to hide and wait. It takes ages and you need to be patient, but a Surskit will appear; wait to see if it gets close enough to you or it comes onto land. That's the best time to catch it. If it stays on the water, best thing to do is chuck a Pokéball at it and pray. Don't worry about it sinkin'; Pokéballs are waterproof and they're designed to float Hey, you might even get lucky and find a Surskit on land anyway."
Carla remembered seeing the lake the previous night. "Thanks, Steve."
Steve grinned and raised his cup. "Happy huntin'."
xxx
Carla leaned back against the tree, sighing heavily and tossing a Pokéball up and down. Steve had said catching a Surskit would take ages and would need patience. The trouble was that Carla had been waiting by the lake for two hours and she was nearing the end of her patience. During that time, she had seen two Surskit; one hadn't come anywhere near her and the other had drawn near but then skimmed away again.
"Let's hope it's third time lucky," she muttered.
The lake was peaceful and calm; sunlight gleamed on the surface. The leaves on the trees rustled lightly, the more slender trees swaying gently with the breeze. It was a beautiful scene, one that Carla found herself admiring despite her boredom.
Wish I'd thought to bring a snack out here.
Kess was nestled against Carla's side, eyes closed. Carla wasn't sure if she was dozing or sleeping.
Suddenly a tiny blue figure skimmed across the water's surface. Carla sat up, startling Kess awake. "Shh," she said quietly to the little bird. "There's another one."
They watched as the Surskit gradually came closer to them. It moved with ease, weaving on top of the water with a dancer's grace.
Come on, Carla thought desperately. Just a little nearer...
The small blue creature skimmed so close to the lake edge it looked as though it was about to jump onto land.
Carla hurled the Pokéball at it with all her might. The capsule hit the Surskit and opened, sucking the Bug-type inside. It splashed gently onto the lake surface and stayed there, rocking from side to side.
Latias, please let me catch it. Please please please...
The Pokéball stopped moving.
"Yes! Thank you!" Carla slipped off her trainers and socks, rolled up the legs of her tracksuit and waded out to pick up the capsule.
Let's hope Glennis likes it.
Whilst waiting for her feet to dry, she scanned the Surskit's Pokéball with her Pokédex.
Whoops - let's hope she likes him.
xxx
Posting the Pokéball to her house and retrieving her clean clothes from the Centre's laundrette took very little time. Once she was back in her room, Carla let Kess out, sat on the bed and called her sister's mobile. Glennis answered on the second attempt.
"Hey, Glen."
"Carly? What's up?"
"Nothing much." Carla leaned back against the pillow. "Just wanted to let you know your new friend is on his way to you."
"What? You've already found me something?"
"Yup. It's a male Surskit, rarest Bug-type native to Hoenn. He's half-Water, so..."
"Is it awesome?"
"He's going to evolve into something awesome."
"What moves does it know?"
Carla rolled her eyes. "The Surskit's a he, Glen. He's going to be your Pokémon; you can't just call him 'it' all the time. That's not nice." Quickly changing the subject, she said: "I've no idea what moves he knows; I forgot to look at that when I scanned him with my Pokédex. You can check at the Pokémon Centre."
"I can't go all the way to Petalburg just to check..."
"There's a Centre in Oldale, dummy."
"Oh. Well, what time will he be here?"
"Few hours, I think. I paid extra for a courier. How's Dad?"
"He's fine," Glennis said shortly.
Carla paused before speaking again. There was something that had been niggling away at the back of her mind ever since she had caught the Surskit. "Glen, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Was there a reason you wanted a Bug-type? I don't have anything against them; I just wondered why you'd want one as a starter."
"Oh. Uh...I just remembered that Mark started with a Grass-type and I guess I wanted something a little edgier."
Carla looked guiltily down at the Torchic that was now pecking at the straps of her bag. "Don't do that, Kess," she called, taking the phone away from her ear. Kess hopped a few steps away from the bag.
"Wait, who?" Carla asked, turning her attention back to the phone call. "Who's Mark?"
She heard her sister sigh on the other end of the line. "Mark Bolaine, Carly. Come on, you've got to remember the Bolaines."
"Um...no, I don't."
"What? They lived on the street next to ours. The family moved to Fortree about...what, four years ago now? You must have met them at least once."
"Maybe I did. I just can't remember them."
"OK. Both the Bolaine boys had black hair. Does that ring a bell?"
Seven-year-old Carla was walking back to her house with her sister on one summer afternoon. Both of them were carrying ice-cream cones. The sun's rays touched Carla's skin and the chocolate-flavoured ice-cream was cold on her lips and tongue.
Suddenly Glennis pushed at her shoulder, almost making her drop her ice-cream. "Let's go, Carly." She walked on, Carla hurrying to catch up with her.
Carla turned her head to see two boys on the opposite side of the street. Both of them had black hair and they were glowering in Carla and Glennis' direction. Carla quickly looked away and followed her sister.
"...Yeah, I think it does. Good luck with the Surskit."
"Thanks for getting him for me. See ya!"
"You're welcome," Carla said, but Glennis had already hung up. She put the phone down on her bed, walked over to Kess and knelt beside her.
"Hey," she said softly. "We're going to have to do some training after lunch. You ready for that?"
Kess chirped loudly.
xxx
Three hours later
Carla trudged wearily back to the Pokémon Centre, clutching Kess' Pokéball in one hand. I guess training is just as tiring for the trainer as it is for the Pokémon.
The training itself had started quite well. It had been easy to find some wild Pokémon - mostly Zigzagoon and Poochyena - and battle them. Carla quickly found out that training wasn't going to be easy even though Kess responded to orders.
She tried hard not think about what would have happened with the Zangoose if Kess had chosen to ignore her.
Only two trainers challenged them during that time. Luckily for Carla and Kess, their opponents only had had Wurmple, Zigzagoon and Seedot on their teams.
"You're lucky I didn't catch that Lotad I saw this morning," one of the trainers had said as she was walking away. "I'd have thrashed you and your chicken."
It was only when they encountered a particularly vicious Poochyena (that knew Ice Fang of all things) that Carla decided it might be a good idea to actually catch something. Unfortunately, she had forgotten she didn't have any spare Pokéballs. Their only option was to defeat the Poochyena and then head back to Petalburg City.
"Hello again, Miss Delarue," the nurse said as Carla walked up to the desk. "The Torchic again, is it?"
"Yeah. Thanks." Carla placed Kess' Pokéball on the counter, smiled at the nurse and headed over to the giant television set on the wall. At that moment, the screen showed a cartoon of a young boy walking down a path with his Butterfree flying alongside him.
"Boring." The voice belonged to a spindly boy with short red hair. He pressed a button on the side of the screen and the picture changed.
"Hey! I was watching that!" someone protested.
"Not any more, you aren't. Can't believe people still like that old garbage." The boy pressed another button.
An image of what looked like a burned house appeared on the screen. The little house had stood in the middle of a wood, but now all that was left of it was smoking remains. Some broken and blackened planks stood upwards, looking as sharp as knives. Text ran along the bottom of the screen, but Carla paid no attention to it.
"Turn on the sound."
"What?" the boy scoffed. "I can't do that. There is no sound on these things."
Bile rose up in Carla's throat. She recognised that place. It looked different in the daylight, but there was no mistaking it.
It was the cabin in the woods.
I'm going to be sick.
Carla turned around and ran towards the ladies' toilets, holding her breath to keep the bile at bay. She pushed open the door, darted past a black-haired girl and knelt in front of the nearest toilet, retching violently until nothing came up.
She couldn't stop shivering. The entre Centre was heated, but Carla felt very, very cold.
To be continued…
