Here you go; the next chapter, every friday as promised. This chapter turned out longer than I thought it would but I'm sure nobody will complain.
Chapter 4 : A life lesson
It had been a difficult two weeks for both Blue and Samuel. Energetic and rambunctious Blue had a very hard time staying inside the house, bored out of his mind and resisting the temptation to sneak out during the day while his grandfather was at work. It was near impossible, anyway. Daisy was watching his every move; plus, he didn't want to risk angering his guardian again. If he caught wind of him trying to escape, he'd get another two weeks of confinement, for sure.
So, Blue tried too keep himself entertained by playing with his toys and video games and annoying his sister (to get back at her for making him do chores). When the elder Oak was around, he stayed put and watched the pidgey longingly as the tiny birds flew effortlessly across the sky. Unbeknownst to him, his grandfather watched him intently, wondering how long he'd be able to keep up his good behavior.
Unsurprisingly, Blue grew more and more restless as the two week punishment neared its conclusion. The blonde pint-sized troublemaker mercilessly teased his sister, hid her girly stuff all over the house to annoy her and generally pestered her by asking the same questions over and over and talking back whenever she tried, and failed, to get him to shut up, flashing his cocky smile with one tooth missing. Samuel found that he didn't blame the boy for being such a pain. Two weeks was a long time for a kid. Since he never went overboard with his antics, Samuel refrained from making his punishment longer.
Blue was up and about as soon as the sun showed up on the morning the two weeks were up. Samuel caught him as he was about to run out the door, already fully clothed and not in the least interested in breakfast.
"Blue, wait a minute," the old professor said, taking a sip of his morning coffee, still in his pajamas and slippers. The young boy froze in the midst of opening the front door. A drop of cold sweat ran down his temple. The two weeks were up, weren't they? He wouldn't go and make his punishment longer... would he?
"I have something I wanna show you, today," the professor stated calmly, letting him know he was in fact, not in trouble. Blue let go of the doorknob and looked over to him, a confused and almost pitiful expression on his face. Everything about Blue's face said: But I wanna go outside and play! Samuel took another sip to try and hide the amused smirk that surfaced on his aging features. "I'm taking you to work with me."
The pokémon professor had taken good care to warn his colleagues several days ahead of time that his grandson would be visiting the lab. Some of them were happy to introduce a new generation to the world of pokémon research while others were wary about having a notoriously mischievous little boy around the fragile and expensive equipment. Samuel had assured them, however, that nothing bad was gonna happen for he would be watching the boy closely, with both eyes.
As he prepared to open the main door to the lab, dressed in his usual white labcoat, Samuel turned to the youngest Oak, who had obediently followed him up there, despite not looking overly enthusiastic.
"Now, Blue, you're gonna do exactly as I say. You stay close and you don't touch anything without my permission," he instructed. Blue looked up at him with his big, shiny hazel eyes, the fresh morning breeze playing with his wild thick mane of strawberry blonde hair. Who would have thought something so adorable could be such a handful? The little boy nodded. Samuel could almost see the aureole shining brightly above his head but he knew him too well to be fooled. The professor raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Put your hands in your pockets," he then ordered. Blue frowned but stuffed his tiny hands in the large pouch at the front of his teal hoodie. Satisfied, Samuel opened the door to the lab, grandson in tow.
The large, concrete lab was filled with desks, computers, screens, strange sci-fi looking machines and piles upon piles of paper. Left and right, a dozen of labcoat-wearing men and women busied themselves under the neon lights. The bunker-like room was slightly chilly. As Samuel made his way to his workstation, Blue looked all around him, mouth agape in unrestrained awe. The various scientists and researchers glanced at Blue as he passed them by.
"So this is where I work," Samuel said, sitting down on his computer chair as Blue came to a stop next to him.
"What do you do all day?" the boy asked bluntly. Samuel was not offended; rather, he was glad that his grandson showed some level of interest.
"I study pokémon," he answered simply. "Me and my colleagues here, we observe pokémon, perform experiments and document all of our findings." The professor tried to make it sound as exciting as possible but Blue didn't exactly seem sold just yet. "You've seen a good lot of pidgeys and caterpies around here but sometimes, people bring us rare and powerful pokémon from exotic places for us to study."
At that, Blue went from looking distractedly around to focusing more of his attention on him. "Really?" he inquired, his interest sparked. Samuel nodded.
"Here in Kanto, there are over 150 different kinds. There may or may not be even more. That's one of the things we're trying to find out."
"Can I see one?" came the natural question.
Samuel took them both to a different room; a much smaller one where tall metal shelves lined the brick walls. On each shelf, dozens upon dozens of mysterious white and red round objects sat, perfectly aligned. Blue's eyes were were drawn to them like they were made out of candy. Stepping into the room, Samuel picked up a seemingly random pokéball, clicking the central button to unlock it. Blue made a conscious effort to keep his hands in his pockets, transfixed on the high-tech metal coated ball.
He jumped back in surprise when a bright flash of red light exploded out of the ball and revealed a small toddler sized creature. The creature was covered in a scaly sky blue skin and had a protective red shell around its body. Short, stubby limbs poked out from the shell and a big, bald rounded head came out of the top end of the shell. A long curled light blue tail was held high and proud behind the bipedal animal. It let out a happy squeal upon recognizing Samuel and then curiously looked over to the smaller human with matching curiosity and awe. The two stared at eachother with equally wide and bright eyes.
"Whoa! I've never seen one of those before!" Blue exclaimed, bending over to the be leveled with the creature's orange eyes. Samuel smiled. This was exactly the reaction he was hoping for.
"This one is a water type. Squirtle. It was one of my companions back when I was a trainer."
He totally knew he'd catch Blue's attention with that. Children were so predictable.
"You had pokémon!?" sure enough, the kid exclaimed, eyes wide with wonder. Samuel smiled proudly.
"I had dozens, in fact. I haven't kept them all, though. I've grown too old for battling. I gave most of them away. Except for three, including this one."
"What's a trainer?" Blue asked, petting the tiny turtle pokémon on the head which made it squeal happily.
"It's a person who catches wild pokémon and trains them for battling. They can travel all over the world in order to find the pokémon that they want. Here in Kanto, aspiring trainers can challenge gym leaders, very powerful trainers to earn a badge as proof of their accomplishment. And after that they can go after the Elite Four!" Blue was drinking in his every word, looking at him with his big hazel eyes, his mouth in the shape of an O. Samuel didn't think he ever saw his grandson pay this much attention to anything ever in his life. It was quite adorable.
The pokémon professor had planned things to go this way. He knew that at the mention of training, battling and especially winning, Blue would be sold. He had thought about it intently as he was trying to find something for Blue to use as an outlet for his energy and agressiveness and it didn't take long for his search to angle towards pokémon. Maybe Blue would be interested in research? He definetly had the smarts for it but unfortunately it would not be a good match with his level of energy and would do little to calm his violent tendencies. The more he thought about it, the more pokémon training became the obvious choice. Blue was extremely competitive by nature and he enjoyed nothing more than victory and attention. His intelligence would definetly be an asset but the difficult yet rewarding path of a trainer would teach him about responsibility and, hopefully, humility. Nobody could win it all. Not even the Elite Four. Blue was yet too young to become a trainer, but now would be a good time to start teaching him the basics to keep him occupied.
"When you turn ten, you can get a pokémon of your own and start your journey."
The blonde boy groaned after mentally calculating how many years he had to wait for his moment of glory. Squirtle nudged his hand to request more petting and Blue's smile quickly reapeared.
"I like this one," he said simply. The small boy straightened up to his full height (which barely reached his grandfather's elbow) "When I turn ten I'll become a trainer. Then I'll beat these gym leaders and then these Elite Four. And I'll be the greatest pokémon trainer that ever was! You'll see! You'll be proud of me!"
Samuel smiled warmly at his enthusiastic grandson. It was just like him to immediately aim for the stars. It wouldn't be Blue Oak otherwise. The pokémon professor ruffled his spiky strawberry blonde hair.
"I'm sure I will."
It was a gray, rainy day in Pallet. That didn't stop the two eight year old boys from playing outside, not caring one bit about their soaked and muddy clothes. When it came to their games, it always had to be a competition. Who could run faster, who could gather as many white rocks as possible, who could climb the tallest tree... The restless duo always pushed the limit of boldness further and further every time, collecting a few bruises and cuts in the process (Red had once broke his big toe and Blue, badly sprained his ankle) but neither one cared. Sometimes Blue won, sometimes Red did but it was always a close call. As soon as the sun had risen, Blue and Red met outside on their neighboring front yards and Blue had immediately challenged Red to a foot race to the hills. Despite Blue's initial headstart, Red had managed to gain some significant ground when they neared the rocky cliffs of the town's western edge. Red saw his hand touch the big gray rocks before Blue's did but the latter denied him victory and instead challenged him to another race, this time to the top of the cliff. Again, Blue had an unfair head start, and Red struggled to scale the rocky, wet slope and his obnoxious neighbor ended up reaching the top way ahead of him.
"Ha! You're way too slow," he taunted mercilessly, flashing his most infuriating wide smile.
Red merely frowned at him, wiping off the mud from his hands on his already dirty jeans.
The kids found themselves into the woods which acted as their regular playground. The shadowy forest was silent, undisturbed by the noise of the nearby human life and all that could be heard was the whisper of the wind and the gentle sound of the raindrops hitting the leaves. Unphazed by the depressing weather, Blue happily ran across the forest, leaping effortlessly over the twisted roots and occasional fallen tree before finding one of the tall wooden giants which had the perfect shape for climbing. Agile as a mankey, the blonde kid climbed it and sat on a sturdy branch, letting one of his legs lazily dangle off the side and crossing his arms to rest his head on them. Red stood at the foot of the tree, staring up at him with an annoyed expression. What a show-off.
"My grandpa says there sometimes are ghost pokémon roaming about in the forest when the sun isn't out," he yammered on. Red was tempted to roll his eyes. Pokémon was all he ever talked about these days and he was always trying to frighten him with stories about ghost pokémon who were nearly invisible but played tricks on people and cast curses on them. Red refused to believe him; he had never seen any such creature and he was fairly certain that Blue hadn't either.
"You're lying," he said, turning away to pick up a few rocks and throw them into a nearby creek.
"And they especially like to prey on little kids," Blue continued on, visibly not caring about what his companion said. "Some say they snatch little kids who get lost in the woods and turn them into monsters!"
Red couldn't help but shiver uneasily at the unpleasant tale. It reminded him too much of a scene from a movie he just happened to see while it was playing on TV, in which the hero got attacked by a monstrous beast at night in a dark forest only to then turn into a monster himself.
"You always tell stories!" he accused, with the hopefully not too obvious goal to reassure himself.
"I'm not," Blue refused to let go. "Ghost-types are very mysterious. They can do things no other type can. I'm gonna catch one of those one day, you'll see." Blue smirked proudly crossing his legs as if he were on a long chair at the beach, looking up into the healthy green canopy.
He did not see or hear Red slowly climb up to his level, keeping himself balanced on a lower branch. The red capped boy suddenly grabbed Blue's ankles from below and pulled, with a frightfully accurate impression of a charizard's roar as the cherry on top. Blue's eyes widened and he sat upright instantly, flailing his arms about reflexively, letting out a terrified yelp. The shock nearly threw him off balance but he caught himself at the last second, scrunching up in fetal position, giving himself a few seconds, eyes round as saucers, to recover from his fright. He went red in the face when he saw his rival laught at him from his lower perch.
"Why you-" the blonde troublemaker tried to catch Red's laughing form, laying flat on his belly from his branch and grasping uselessly at the air as the trickster jumped off the tree well out of his reach. Angry and blushing from embarassment, Blue jumped off as well and started chasing his brown haired neighbor around the forest, shaking his fists angrily like a primeape. Red zigzaged across the mossy ground, still laughing his head off, while Blue ran after him, shouting empty threats at him. However, Red's foot unexpectedly landed on a flat rock and the wet slippery surface caused him to slip. He caught himself before he fell on his face but it slowed him down just long enough for Blue to tackle him, sending them both rolling in the mud.
"You'll pay for that!" Blue threatened, further infuriated by the amused expression on Red's face. He was clearly not being taken seriously and it ticked him off even more.
The two rambunctious kids wrestled on the damp forest ground for a while, Red still laughing uncontrollably, grappling eachother like judokas, though not really hitting. Their play-fighting was abruptly interrupted when they heard an alarming noise coming from the bushes, fairly close to them. The pair stopped what they were doing, letting eachother go. Their eyes were fixated on a specific bush, from which a high pitched hissing noise was emitted. The noise didn't seem to be human. It was very unfamiliar, sounding like nothing they'd ever heard. Blue gulped uneasily, his eyes wide with worry.
"I don't like this. We should leave," he said hastily, backing up a little. Red didn't answer. He kept on looking at the bush, mesmerized by the subtle shiver it gave off. Despite Blue's warnings, Red found himself stepping closer to it, careful but deliberate. "Red! What are you doing? It could be dangerous!" he warned again, refusing to come any closer to catch him, but, despite himself, unwilling to run away and abandon his rival.
Said rival crouched in front of the bush. Behind the leaves, he thought he saw something move. It didn't seem very big or particularly threatening. Another especially loud hissing sound came and he heard Blue gasp somewhere behind him. Red extended a slightly trembling hand towards the low branches and pushed them out of his field of vision. His eyes widened when he saw what it was.
On the ground was a small purple ratatta lying on its flank, hissing in pain, exposing its impressive incisors. On its side, a wide red gash oozed with blood, probably from a run-in with a predator. The tiny rodent looked up at Red fearfully and agitated its short legs in a useless attempt to run. The small creature was weak and soon gave up trying to get away.
When Blue saw that Red hadn't come across anything dangerous, he slowly advanced towards him, looking curiously over his shoulder to see what had distracted them. When he saw the helpess pokémon, he frowned deeply and squatted next to his rival.
"It's hurt. We should help it," Red said, empathic to the little being's suffering.
Blue, all traces of fear gone, looked at the pokémon, which by now had stopped moving and closed its eyes, panting heavily, with a grave expression. He saw the blood drip out of its wound and even at his young age, he knew that the creature's life was nearing its end.
"There's nothing we can do, Red. It's hurt. It's suffering. We should put it out of its misery." The red capped boy looked up, confused, at his rival, not quite sur what he meant. Blue was uncharacteristically serious, his hazel eyes never leaving the bleeding animal. "It's in pain. If we kill it, its suffering will end."
Realisation dawned on Red and he immediately got scared and frankly, outraged by what Blue was suggesting. "No way! We can't kill a pokémon!" he protested.
"We have to, Red," Blue persisted. "If we don't, it's gonna keep suffering for who knows how long. We're doing it a favor, at this point."
Red felt tears slowly fill his eyes, refusing to harm the poor little animal. He didn't understand his rival. He was eerily calm in this situation, like he had seen it happen before. The blonde boy looked around and picked up a rock roughly the size of an apple and held it up to Red's face.
"We'll do this together," he said, then felt the need to reiterate: "We're putting it out of its misery."
Eyes filled with sadness, Red grasped the rock with Blue still holding it and the latter raised up both their hands high above the ratatta's agonizing form. As soon as he felt Blue bring the rock they were both holding down, he closed his eyes, not wanting to see the macabre spectacle. He heard an unpleasant crunching noise and then total silence. Red felt Blue take his hand off the rock and stand up.
"There. It's over, now."
Red opened his eyes but when he caught sight of the pool of blood in his peripheral vision he immiediatly let go of the rock like it'd burned him and looked in the opposite direction. Blue stood there and Red was again puzzled by how eerily calm and unphased he was about it. He didn't realize that Blue knew a thing of two about death already.
Maybe, just maybe, Blue didn't chose the squirtle just to be an asshole...
Thanks for reading. I'd be most grateful if you took a couple minutes of your time to review!