Chapter 3

[Jay]

Man, the silence of the forest path is really unsettling. Walking along the worn down path through the trees, I contemplate talking to Chell again, mostly due to the silence, but also somewhat due to the emotions her face held when she was in a trance.

That was a look of surprise and uncertainty, most likely directed towards me. I can't help but feel like she's hiding something from me, something personal that she doesn't want me to know. I sure know how that feels…

But then again, why wouldn't she? She literally just met me, and I'd understand the idea of not sharing something so deep and/or personal with a stranger like me. The way I see it, it's best not to pry into matters of the personal level so quickly, lest I shatter what I've built with her already.

However, a successful team-up between Trainer and Pokemon requires communication and understanding, something I'd really want to clear out as soon as possible. Although I really don't see what the problem is. I haven't done anything to hurt her or offend her, right?

Pushing away all doubt into the back of my mind, I make a decision. It's time to figure out what's going on with my partner.

Clearing my throat to get her attention, which it does, I look at her with my usual smile, not letting any other emotions show underneath my grin. "Chell, there's something I would like to talk to you about."

This really peaks her interest, as she looks at me fully, confusion plain to see on her face. "What'cha wanna talk about, Mister Jay?" She's interested in what I have to say, so now's a good enough time as any to ask away.

"I wanna know what's been on your mind as of recently. I've noticed the spacing out during certain times of today, and I'd like to know why."

She's taken aback by the question, seemingly surprised that I had managed to pick up on her moments of thought. She seems almost uncertain about what to say to me. "Well, it's…"

As I was listening to her rather forced attempt to talk about her feelings, we hear a loud whooshing sound. Turning to look up, we are suddenly brought to the attention of a barrage of small, sharp blades flying towards us.

That's not important though. What we really need to focus on is getting the hell away from the area of the attack before we end up with a few more cuts than both of us would like. "Move!" My command get s across to Chell as we both dodge, the attack missing Chell by a hair, but one blade slicing into my right arm as I step to the left.

To say it hurt would be…pretty accurate actually. "Damn it, that hurts!" I hiss in pain, clutching my wounded arm. By the way that blood is leaking profusely I'd say that the attack hit something important. "Hey!" I shout, looking upwards at the bird Pokemon that made the attack. From the grey color scheme, I'd say that this is a Pidove that I'm looking at. "Not cool, dude! That was my one good arm!"

"Just you wait, Human! I'm going to hurt you a lot more than just that!" The bird retorts, anger clear to hear from the tone of voice it was using to address me.

Jeez, someone hasn't taken their chill pills this morning.

"Look, just leave us alone and wing it, alright? We don't want any trouble, we're just passing through." My attempt at reasoning with the agitated bird falls on deaf ears, as it takes my sentence as the cue to attack me with a Quick Attack.

"Shit!" Moving over to the right this time, I manage to sidestep out of the way of the Pidove's pointed beak, the sharp object just out of reach of my stomach. However, I step onto a rock, almost losing my balance as the bird glides past.

Fine. If Bird-Brain wants a fight, a fight it'll get. "Hey, Chell! You mind giving me a hand-or flipper, if you will?" I call out to my partner, looking around for any sight of her. Unfortunately for me, I catch no sight of her small form anywhere.

That is, until she spoke up. "You do realize I'm right here, right?" I look down to see the source of the voice, standing directly between my legs. Whoops. "Sorry, kiddo. Didn't notice you there." It seems that in my haste to avoid the bird, I had accidentally stepped right into the space near my partner.

Welp, that's not important right now. Moving away from the immediate area to be on the lookout for the small, swift attacking force hell-bent on tearing me a new one, I put a few feet of distance from myself and Chell, putting her in forward view.

Just in time too, as I once again notice the bird swooping down and readying another Quick Attack, closing in on me fast. "Chell! Blast it out of the air with Water Gun!" Chell's quick reflexes and aim allows her attack to strike true, knocking the offending PIdove out of it's attck and sending it spiraling to the ground. "Nice one!" I pump a fist as I cheer my partner on.

The Pidove doesn't go down easy, though. A quick outstretching of its wings quickly slows its rapid descent, and ensures that it doesn't slam head first into the ground below. Damn it. And here I thought I would finally get a break.

The Pidove, now back up in the air again, decides to aim straight for me again, launching a flurry of sharp blades made of air in my direction, making whooshing sounds with its small wings as it does so. This time, a few quick steps to the left ensures my escape from the grisly outcome of being cut to ribbons. My right arm decides to remind me of the damage it sustained during the initial encounter, however, as I feel a sharp, stinging pain flare up in my arm. Dust kicks up around me and obscures my vision, mostly due to the third attempt on my life.

"Fuck!" I hiss as the pain cuts through my coherent thoughts like a knife, causing me to temporarily slow down to stare at the wounded appendage hanging by my side. I can still feel my right hand, but the amount of red staining the blue of my hoodie indicates that that may not be the case for long. I need to finish this quick so I can seek medical attention.

However, Chell looks pretty beat after her fight with the annoying little shit of a Patrat, and the Pidove looks to be still in top fighting form. However, the bird has taken its eyes off of me for now, having turned to Chell and engaging in a conversation. "Why are you helping this human anyway? You could easily cut him down to size with that blade of yours, so why don't you?" The Pidove asks, clearly confused by the alliance I share with my partner.

"Because he hasn't done anything to hurt me. He even helped patch up my wounds when I got hurt!" Chell retorts, pointing to the three small, quickly fading claw marks on her cheek.

"She's right about that, you know." I say, now within a few feet of the conversing pair of Pokemon, taking both by surprise. "I thought I'd hit you with more blades that that, human." The bird looks up at me again, narrowing its eyes in hate. "Look here, Bird-brain. Just because you kicked up a big dust cloud round your target, doesn't mean you hit 'em." I shrug, getting more anger out of the Pidove.

Taking off again, the bird looks back down at us. "Then I'll make sure to hit you next time." It retorts, launching a few more blades at me in a more focused manner. This time, due to the way that it fired the blades, I was quick to dodge the small area of effect that the attack had. "Nice try, Bird-brain. But I'm not just gonna let you hit me." I yawn, egging it on even further.

Now flaring up with anger, the Pidove starts to yell at me. "My name isn't Bird-brain, you stupid monkey!" It shouts, my attempts at pissing it off working like a charm. "Yeah whatever, Bird-brain. You gonna actually try and hit me this time, or what?" I yawn, a bored look etched onto my face.

Screaming out in anger, the Pidove glides downwards, readying another Quick Attack to try and gut me a fifth time. This time around, I was ready. The second the bird neared the ground to attack, I stepped to the side and issued my next command. "Now, Chell! Water Gun!" Another quick blast of water knocks the Pidove out of the air, causing it to give a startled yelp as it crashes into a low lying rock behind where I just was, causing its right wing to stick out at an awkward angle. "Nice job, kiddo." I give Chell a thumbs-up from my standing position, which she gladly returns with a wave.

Giving a cry of pain, the Pidove tries to get up, but fails miserably as its recently broken wing allowed it no chance to get back up into the air. Walking up to the struggling Pokemon, I kneel down next to it while it shoots me another hate filled look.

"What are you still looking at? Aren't you going to finish what you started?" The bird spat, its glare unchanging. Sighing, I shake my head. "That's what I should be asking you, Bird-brain." "My name isn't Bird-brain, idiot!" It shouts back. I shrug in response. "Then what is your name then? You didn't exactly tell me your name when you tried to kill me five seconds ago." The Pidove stops at that, face heating up in embarrassment. "Shut up." It turns its head away, stuttering a little.

"You gonna tell me your name then?" I ask, moving my head around to meet her gaze. After a few awkward seconds with no response, I turn to the Oshawott next to me, currently gazing at the sheer amount of blood covering my arm.

"Are you okay, Mister Jay? That looks really painful..." She trails off as I pat her on the head, my light scratching causing her to relax into my hand with a small sigh. "Yeah, kiddo. I'll be fine." I reply while scratching behind her ear. "What about her, Mister Jay?" She points to the Pidove, still trying to ignore us with that wing of hers.

"So it's a she, then?" I ask my partner in turn, earning me a deadpan look in response. "Really? You didn't notice the way her voice sounded, Mister Jay?" I sheepishly shrug and grin at her, turning back to the small bird. "So, shall we get going?" I ask Chell, getting a nod in response. "Alright then." I scoop up the Pidove into my embrace while making sure not to touch her wing, earning a startled yelp from the bird.

She looks up at me with that same glare she had a while ago. "What the hell do you think you're doing, human!?" She shouts at me, pecking at my arm in an attempt to get me to let go.

As she says this, I stop in my tracks to look at my unwilling passenger. "So, you would rather I leave you here to die?" I ask her, my gaze staring straight into her soul. She flinches for a moment under my gaze, but glares back at me. "It's better than being a slave to a lowly human." I raise an eyebrow in response. "What gave you that idea? I don't enslave Pokemon, or at least I don't think I do…" I trail off as I take a glance at Chell, who looks back at me in confusion.

"Am I enslaving you, Chell?" I ask her. But before she could give a response, I answer the question for her. "I am!? Oh, no! I have become the evil person I have sworn to defeat!" Chell catches on to the joke quickly, acting along with me. "It's true! This evil human has made me his personal plaything! Whatever will I do?" We both laugh for a little while after that little fiasco, Chell giggling like mad and me following soon after.

The bird, needless to say, was extremely confused. "What? But…huh?" She stammers, unable to process the sight before her. Noticing her stunned expression, I stifle my remaining laughter and look back at her.

"Told you. I don't enslave Pokemon, otherwise Chell here would have cut me down in a heartbeat." I gesture over to my partner, still riding out the last wisps of laughter in her system.

"Anyways, like I was saying before, I want to help you. We're just on our way to the nearest town, so you could join us over to the nearest Pokemon Center and get your wing fixed up. After that, you can leave whenever you want. Sound good to you?" I ask, waiting on her reply.

"…Fine. But this doesn't mean we're cool, got it?" She replies, her face still holding a look of anger, but it was slowly softening up. "Alright then, Chell. You heard the bird, let's go!" I motion for her to follow, slowing down my pace for her to catch up to me.

As we walk, I hear the bird poke at my chin with her good wing, causing me to look down at her. "Alita." She mumbles in a voice that could easily be blown away in the cool breeze. "Who's that?" She growls at my response. "That's my name, alright!? It's Alita." She says, a little louder this time. "And…and thank you." She mumbles in that barely audible voice again. I catch on to that sentence, though.

Cracking a smile, I extend my wounded arm to give her a pat on the top of her head, the blood slightly staining her soft, grey head. "Mine's Jay. Nice to meet ya, Alita." I reply, smiling at her.

"Mister Jay, I'm tired…" Chell moans as she walks, the fight having aken quite a bit out of her energy. Sighing, I pick her up and place her into the arm I'm cradling Alita with, holding the two small Pokemon close together. As Chell snuggles against my chest and Alita buries her head in her wing, I refocus on the road ahead, the small town of Accumula now slightly visible in the distance. About time too, as the wound on my arm isn't about to heal itself…