…And We All Have A Hell

CHAPTER TWO

Twisted Fiction

You might think you've picked the scene

You haven't; the real one's far too mean.

Twisted fiction, sick addiction;

Well gather round children, zip it, listen.

We rematerialized on a stone sidewalk facing a large, brown brick building. Well, all of the buildings were brown brick, but this one was a lot more business-like. It had almost wall-sized tinted windows and sliding glass doors a little to the left of us. People of all ages, shapes, sizes, genders and colours barely allowed the doors to shut with the frequency they were rushing in and out. A quick look at the sign told me that this building was the Unovan Trainer Authority, or UTA.

The UTA was designed to test potential trainers, issue Trainer Licenses, enforce training laws and manage route systems to ensure the safest passage from one route to another. They employed the majority of Pokémon Rangers in the region and governed the region's Pokémon Centres. This UTA building was the largest in Unova. One would guess that it would be in Castelia City or some other huge city, but Accumula Town was where most trainers started their journeys. The only place south was Nuvema Town, which only had a small UTA office connected to its laboratory, but the gates to that particular facility had remained locked for years until now. Nobody really knew if the researchers were even still in there. Aspertia City had a large one as well, but Joel had never been there and thus couldn't teleport us.

We entered the UTA as soon as Joel's musharna was returned, waited for over half an hour before we were even called to the desk and then another half hour was spent filling out forms. Finally, it was time to do the actual examinations necessary to obtain a Trainer's License. The first of these was a general doctor's check-up and fitness test, which we had done a fortnight ago to save time. The examiner took the doctor's note from us and placed it in a pile of paperwork to be processed, then told us to head over to the touch screens to fill out the knowledge test. Wayne stood back, having already gotten his license over a year ago.

The test was simple, being mostly questions on safety procedures and where to go and where not to go on routes. Stick to the path, do not enter the thick foliage where the stronger, more feral pokémon reside, set up camp a little way from a water source and in an enclosed, safe environment. The number for emergency services was also included. Naomi finished the test first with an easy one-hundred percent of the questions answered correctly. I pulled through with just one wrong answer, sitting just above the ninety-five percent passing grade. Twenty minutes later and the four of us left the UTA grinning, brand new Trainer's Licenses in hand.

We shared a quick goodbye with Joel before he and his musharna disappeared.

"It's finally time to go!" Wayne yelled from excitement, earning stares from passersby and eye rolls from myself. "C'mon, I've been waiting for this moment for way too long. Can we just go? Please?"

Naomi giggled and released Wright, who perched wide-eyed on her shoulder, quacking at a pidove a small distance away. "Well, Route 2 is north-west of here and heads north to Striaton City. That's where we have to go."

"Well then we're north-west, but first, Wayne" – the young boy was already half running towards the route. He stopped at the mention of his name and turned around – "First we need to do one more check over our things." Wayne groaned and shuffled back to us, swinging his bag off his shoulders. I rolled my eyes. "We're not going out there without supplies. Remember all those ti –"

"Yes, I remember those times," he grunted, then mumbled something about Naomi and I being too scared to leave with him before.

I plainly ignored him as I pulled out the checklist. In actual fact, this check over was not my idea, it was Joel's. He was the one who had warned us about supplies and rationing and making sure we had enough stuff to last us the whole trip to the next town. Route 2, according to most trainer guides, was supposed to take about a week to get through, and contained a lot of tricky pokémon, such as purrloin, which were known to steal food from trainers. As it turned out, we had a lot more food than we needed, so we left the town through the massive northern gates.

Route 2 was grassy, hilly and lined with a thick forest that looked impossible to enter. I was interested to find that the path was packed with trainers, having expected a quiet. Within ten minutes, Wayne had Lucky out and was challenging the first trainer he saw to a battle. I let Marla out and followed the boy over to the young girl he was abusing.

"I bet my Lucky could smash your venipede in a battle!" he gloated, hands on hips and beaming nastily at the other trainer. "Fire against bug, you wouldn't stand a chance."

"Leave the girl alone," Naomi said, rolling her eyes. Wright let out a quack and fluttered into the air, circling my head.

The girl just shook her head, placing the bug in her arms on the ground. "Sure, let's do this."

The battle was short. The girl seemed to know a lot more about pokémon than she let on, poisoning Lucky right off the bat. The little fire ape began to shiver violently, and looked extremely sick in the face, but remained able and willing to battle, even if all he was doing was scratching and licking. The venipede was ordered to curl up and raise its guard a little, then to use a move called rollout. From that point on, the battle was lost and we were forced to return to Accumula Town to heal the pansear. I smiled the whole way.

Did I really need a water-type pokémon to kick Wayne's butt? This venipede had a type disadvantage, yet it still literally rolled all over it. For some reason I had it in my head that Wayne was an okay trainer and he just couldn't handle the wilderness. I had it all wrong. Wayne was a terrible trainer. He had no other strategies but attack, attack, attack. The girl with the venipede was skilled enough to use both her pokémon's venom to weaken Lucky gradually while using a defence curl charged rollout to attack his type disadvantage to rock.

I decided that I would figure out how to beat Wayne without the use of water. I was confident that Marla could pull some tricks that could help beat the fire-type, and if she didn't know them yet, I would train her until she did. There was just that lingering problem: her timid nature and consequential fear of battle unless it really called for it. Just like me.

"You'll do better next time," Naomi said cheerfully, eyes on her ducklett, who was still fluttering around wildly. Wayne grunted, not convinced. "Training takes practise, just like everything else."

"You've never even trained before," he snapped, though it was little more than a mumble. Either she didn't hear it or chose to ignore. "I've been trying to train him for ages now and he's still losing to venipede."

"You mean he's lost like this before?" I questioned without thinking. The blonde boy just glared at me, hugging his shivering red monkey closer to his chest. "Sorry."

"Training is hard," he said quietly. "I was pretty good at it at one point, before I took like a year off to wait for you guys."

"I guess you just got rusty then," Naomi said with a shrug.

Wayne nodded. "Well, yeah. I remember this one time he beat three pidove in a row just with scratching. He's slowly learning to breathe fire. I think he'll be able to do it by the time we reach Striaton City."

"You might want to add a bit more strategy to your battling as well," I said, trying not to sound so condescending. It didn't work too well.

"You don't know anything about training!" Wayne barked, shooting forward and entering the red roofed building before us.

I had never been in a Pokémon Centre before, and needless to say I was impressed. The lobby was laid out with a large desk towards the rear, some padded seats closer to the front and some telephone-computer cubicles against a wall to the left. There was also a staircase situated to the right of the service desk and an archway on the other side which lead to a hallway. I assumed that the corridor lead to the cafeteria, laundry room and PokéMart. A few trainers were dotted around the room.

Wayne went straight to the service desk, which was manned by a pretty young nurse and two audino with black collars. Naomi and I chose to flop into the chairs near the entrance. Wright landed on my shoulder, quacking loudly.

"I think Wright likes you," Naomi said through a laugh. The ducklett didn't quiet and people were starting to stare.

"He sure likes yelling in my ear," I replied, tilting my head away from the bird, not that it made much difference. Then he went suddenly silent, puffed up his feathers, and pooped down my back before flittering off again. A few people in the room laughed and I shot a glare at Naomi for letting out a small giggle. "Really."

I got up and followed a sign indicating the location of the bathrooms down the hallway. I murmured a quick sorry to an older trainer I bumped into whilst taking off my jacket and headed into the ladies room. I stayed in there alone for a few minutes to wash the literal crap off my jacket and shove it into my bag. I was left with myself, the short, four-eyed girl with dull, flat hair and an inquisitive expression. I turned around to check if any of the ducklett droppings had somehow gotten under the jacket and onto the black tank top underneath. All clear of faeces, I decided to tie my hair back, throw my bag back over my shoulder and head back out into the lobby where Naomi and Wayne sat idly. Naomi had returned Wright to his pokéball.

Wayne burst into fits as soon as he saw me and I grumbled a few swears. I could do that now, since there were no grownups to stop me, but I still kept it quiet. Thankfully, Wayne didn't hear and began taunting me. "Welcome back, duckpoo."

Really. Duckpoo. I was going to retort with something, but decided it would be better to keep quiet. What with the venipede battle, he was already having a bad day. It was better for the three of us to let him have his fun.

It was mid afternoon by the time we got back onto the route and this time Wayne decided to dodge most of the trainers we encountered, preferring more to focus on defeating wild pokémon and teaching Lucky how to use fire attacks. I let Marla out for a stretch and Wright was allowed to fly around above us, quacking loudly the local fauna. The deerling, however, stayed close to me, occasionally nuzzling my face with a nervous whine. Wayne and Lucky ran off to battle a lillipup a small distance away while Naomi and I continued along the path chatting to pass the time.

"How are we going to get her confident enough to battle?" Naomi asked from the other side of the deerling in question. It was warming to know that my best friend was so willing to help me with my own training problems. She still had to actually teach her bird to battle. "I wonder why she's so scared of it in the first place."

"I wouldn't have a clue, but I'm sure we'll figure it out." I shrugged and continued to watch Lucky spit tiny embers from its mouth, though nothing really came from it. Instead, the fire monkey opted to scratch wildly at the canine's face. "Wright still needs to learn to battle though. You should teach him while the weaker pokémon are still here."

"Why don't we battle each other?" Naomi suggested, mimicking my shrug. "Wright will get some battling experience and hopefully Marla will gain at least a little confidence."

It really wasn't such a bad idea. I agreed with a nod and created some pace between myself and Naomi to battle in, all the while Marla whined nervously. I tried to calm her with a scratch near the tail.

"Alright, you're going to be battling a baby bird," I said, trying to be as comforting as possible. The deerling just stared back at me with big eyes. "Wright is only newly hatched, it should be a cinch!" With another whine, Marla stepped slowly forward while Wright fluttered down in a spiral, quacking excitedly before landing in front of Naomi.

"Okay, Wright," the girl said firmly as she crouched down to its level. "Do you know how to use Water Gun?"

The ducklett just quacked obliviously at her. He was still not trained to battle yet and thus had no idea what a Water Gun was. I guessed I was at least lucky to have a pokémon that could understand commands. It was getting her to battle that was the problem. Wayne and Lucky seemed to be doing a lot better than the other two of us. A glance in their direction caught the fall of the lillipup as it fell to the side, wounded and unconscious. The two victors whooped and cheered, the smaller of the two attempting to spit out some flames, once again failing.

"Okay, now do that to Mar—" I turned back to see my best friend being saturated in her ducklett's Water Gun. The stream subsided and Naomi grimaced. "No, face the deerling, here." She proceeded to lift the ducklett by his sides and turn him to face Marla. He quacked and ruffled his feathers, then shot a weak stream of water from his beak which barely reached the deerling's hooves.

Marla yelped and bounced backwards. I sighed, feeling the soft nudge of her nose on my back.

"Marla, go use Tackle," I tried to say with as much of a comforting tone as I could. "I promise you won't get hurt."

It took another few minutes of persuasion for me to actually get her to do something. However, the move she used was nothing more than a feeble growl from behind me. It was, however, enough to intimidate the tiny ducklett, if only slightly. The bird quacked and hopped forward a little more, attempting to get around and see Marla behind me.

"This is the slowest and most boring battle I have ever seen," Wayne droned from his newly acquired position on the sidelines. He and Lucky both sat identically cross-legged beside each other, using their arms to prop their heads up and watch.

"They're still learning!" Naomi protested, crouching down to lift Wright off the ground. The baby bird instead took flight and landed on Marla's back, quacking wildly the whole while. Marla herself yelped again and took off like a bullet, knocking the bird off her back in the process. I had never seen a deerling move like that before. She was fast.

"She isn't," Wayne commented eyeing the jittery grass-type, clearly unimpressed. "She knows how to battle, she's just too scared."

I felt an urge to slap him and challenge him to a battle right then and there, but logic told me not to. I took pride in my ability to hold myself back from conflict. In my entire life, I had never broken a bone in my body. You could say that I was just an extremely careful person; I didn't like getting hurt and I didn't like being the cause of another being's pain. I knew that Lucky was far stronger than Marla at this point, even if Marla did get over her fear of battle. It was just smarter to not battle.

"Oh, stop being so…" Naomi folded her arms, face screwed in an attempt to find the missing word in her mind. "So obnoxious."

"Calm down, guys," I deadpanned, eager to just move on from there. It seemed to work and I returned Marla.

We continued down the road until the sun disappeared over the trees, at which point I stopped everyone to build camp. There seemed to be no objections. Wayne and Lucky were tasked with clearing the area of all the wild pokémon while Naomi and myself started to work on the fire and erect the tents.

I let Marla out once more to stretch her legs and graze a little. She seemed to be keeping her eye on Wright the whole time, who was perched on a branch a few yards away, focused more on Lucky's battle with a purloin below. The flashes of the tiny ape's strengthening fire-type moves were slowly getting brighter in the steadying darkness. Either he was getting stronger or the darkened sky just made the feeble flames more impressive.

Eventually every puppy, kitten, rodent and round pink pokémon decided it was better not to come near the area. Naomi and I had successfully erected three tents and gathered enough firewood for Lucky to set alight. The fire-type stood close to the fire, staring into its depths and occasionally reaching out to poke the blackening fuel. The three of us trainers sat on a long log at a safe enough distance to not freeze in the cold night, yet not turn into a pile of sweating flesh. The remaining two pokémon, however, chose to sit further away. The ducklett perched itself atop my tent while my deerling sat wide-eyed and cautious below it.

I was learning that Marla was scared of absolutely everything and I wanted to know why. I figured that if I got to the root of her fear I'd be able to cure her of it. Maybe then Marla would find the confidence and fearlessness to battle and I could actually do well as a trainer. There was really no point setting out on this adventure if I wasn't going to succeed. But how was I meant to know her past, or learn of it? I couldn't talk to her about it, and good luck to me finding a psychic willing to translate. It was virtually impossible.

"The first night is always the worst," Wayne grumbled. I noticed he was staring into the fire with as much enthusiasm as the log they sat on. I grimaced. This was very out of character of him.

"It's not that bad," Naomi said with an optimistic glance to the night sky. "It's peaceful."

"My first night ever as a trainer, Lucky attacked me in my sleep."

It was as if everybody had stopped breathing. I had never experienced such a timeless sensation. How had we been best friends for this long and never found out about this? I felt no rage, no offense, just confusion. I found myself asking, "Why?"

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat on the log. "We didn't know each other well at all and he literally caught a few days before he was given to me. He was still wild."

"But… his pokéball," I questioned, still in shock. "Don't they form bonds or something? He should have been tame."

"Come on," Wayne replied with a raised brow. I knew what he was about to say without him opening his mouth. "You're smart enough to not think that a ball of metal and wire can tame a wild pokémon." He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes. "That was why I suggested we make a pact. We will travel this whole journey together, even if we are separated. We'll always have each others' backs, from start to finish and we will always find a way to each other if the other is in danger."

"What did you do with Wayne?" I asked, still taken aback by how suddenly humble he was. He didn't reply, instead just stared at me.

"I think we should do it," Naomi said with a nod and held out her hand. "Seal it with our hands."

As much as this seemed silly to me, I couldn't stop myself from placing my own hand atop her's. Wayne looked somewhat comforted as he rested his hand lightly on mine and the pact was finalized. My two best friends couldn't seem to hold back any kind of smile. I smiled back at them, feeling content with how this journey was turning out already.

With all of the mayhem of the day and the restless night before, falling asleep was easy. Staying asleep was the hard part.

My first night's sleep on the open road ended after a mere two hours. I woke up to a single voice having an argument with silence.

"Shut up, what would you know?" The voice was young and masculine, and he sounded frustrated. I kept my eyes closed, but my ears alert. There was no response to his rhetorical question, but the boy's voice replied to the nothing. "Are you serious? This is nothing about that. This is about protecting what I love. I can't let her do this."

There was a buzzing and a loud ringing noise in my sleeping bag and my phone's light flashed brightly. I cursed at myself in my mind as the talking outside stopped. I shrunk into my sleeping bag to check the text message I had just received. It was from Wayne, of course. He was the only one in our trio stupid enough to make noises and lights when there was a potential thief or murderer outside our tents. They were still out there, too. No sound of movement, no voices, but I knew they were staring at my tent.

'r u awake? r u hearin dis?'

I ignored the message, set my phone to silent and kept it inside the sleeping bag. A pokéball opened on the outside of the tent, causing a flash, but no sound came from the pokémon that came out.

"Fūma, check the tents," the boy outside whispered. In the dead of night, he might as well have yelled it out, but at least I knew to tuck myself further into my cocoon of fluff and cloth. There was silence for a few seconds before the zipper at my feet began to open. It was slow, trying to be as quiet as possible in case I was actually asleep. Unfortunately, I was very much awake and fearing for my life and safety every time the zipper clicked. "Fūma. The red tent."

Wayne's tent. My zipper was left alone.

My phone received another text, but did not pierce the silence this time. The trainer outside didn't seem to notice.

'get marla out when i giv u the signel
naomi has rite redy.'

Not a second later, Wayne's zipper sounded like it was ripped upwards and a hot, orange light flared in a stream, flashing past my tent. Lucky screeched in surprise and I could hear Wayne let out a small cheer. The monkey had done it. He had actually learned to create a real jet of flames. This sounded like the most stupid plan, but I had to go along with it. There was no time to object and I figured that a column of fire was enough of a sign for me. Naomi's screamed from the next tent and the fluttering of Wright's wings sounded.

The boy outside yelped. "Fūma, take the little shit out. Lilith, do something."

I grabbed Marla's pokéball and unzipped the tent as quickly as I could, then jumped out into the scene. Needless to say, I was not prepared for it at all.

A/N

And so my little angels have run into their first obstacle.

This took a long time to get out. So much has happened though, and I'm happy for that. The reason I stopped, though, is that the only inspiration for this fic was just me wanting to do a darkfic, but I had no real plot. So now I've slowly but finally begun to develop one and it's just great.

I also came up with a few other ideas, but they probably won't happen for a while.

I would like to thank Y-ko for the inspiration to finish this chapter. Though it was a while ago that we actually talked about it, it really motivated me. Thanks, dude.