The Almighty
Chapter 4
"Well I guess it's better than nowhere," I said as I walked toward the city. Without any map or compass and with an unfortunate lack of knowledge of where the cities in Kanto are situated, I didn't know if I was any nearer to Viridian or not; then the enormity of my situation hit me. I had no idea about Kanto, the only thing I knew was that Saffron was the second largest city and that Viridian was a good place for starter trainers, and that it lay in the East. I had no idea which way East was. For all I knew, I could have been as faraway from Viridian as possible. And without a pokedex or knowledge of Phoenix's level or the level of the local wild pokemon, I wasn't sure wether I should start fighting any of them yet.
A crunching sound made me look down to see Phoenix tearing apart the small Rattata in her mouth as she ate it. It made me wonder how I would get my food from now on-it was obvious I couldn't buy much with my money-I would have to save that for vital supplies like potions. Not that I had much money anyway, but you know.
"Does that actually taste nice?" I asked, partly for something to do and partly because I was intrigued. She stopped chewing for a second and looked up at me, then saw I was looking at her food and narrowed her eyes, turning her back on me so she could eat it by herself.
"Take it I'll be finding my own food then," I sighed and turned again to look at the city. The first thing I noticed was the water. I had never before seen the sea, the dancing sapphire waves, the frothy white horses lapping at the port and the way the sun glistened on it's surface. A smell of salt hung in the air, tangy and refreshing to my nostrils; birds cawed overhead as they dived into the sea to catch fish or steal food from people walking along the pier.
"It's beautiful," I gasped, staring in awe. Then I caught myself, realising what I had just said. Beautiful was not a word I had used to describe anything before and it sounded strange and unnatural. The pokecentre then caught my eye and I walked towards it, my eyes glancing towards the sea every few seconds as I walked. When I reached the doors I heard an indignant growl and turned to see that Phoenix had not moved. Instead she was poised, ready to spring. A bird was standing infront of her, it was white and blue, with a long beak and a fiesty look in it's beady eyes. It was eyeing my Poochyena's meal with a hungry look and hopped closer, pecking it with it's beak. Phoenix growl intensified and she halted her chewing, her eyes fixed evilly on the pokemon.
"Phoenix," I said hesitantly. I wasn't too sure about what she was capable of and I wasn't sure if she could take on the bird.
I soon found out.
The winged pokemon let out a shriek and flew up into the air then let out a jet of water at Phoenix, who barked her throaty bark and spat the Rattata to the ground in anger. A feeling rose in my chest, a sense of purpose and pride when I looked at my pokemon ready to battle. It dawned on me that this would be my first battle. A smile spread across my face as I stood behind Phoenix, ready to defeat the scrawny bird.
"Phoenix use bite," I said confidently, knowing she had that move from the way she chomped down on that Rattata. I must have been wrong, because she just shot me an incredibly confused luck and got dowsed with another water gun. The smile that was on my face vanished, replaced with a determined snarl.
"Use another move!" I ordered. The bird had landed on the floor to rest and Phoenix ran into it, slamming it with her body. The bird then flew into the air with a cackle and nosedived towards Phoenix, who quickly jumped out of the way. The bird then swooped up the dead Rattata in it's beak and flew off across the sparkling water, cackling with joy. I just stared after it while Phoenix howled in misery. It was then that I realised that pokemon could be as devious as people.
"You just got owned off a Wingull!" a voice laughed. Snapping my head around I saw a kid (well he looked about the same age as me) laughing and pointing at me, evidently finding my pathetic attempt at a pokemon battle hilarious. Too bad I didn't find it so funny.
"Are you laughing at me kid?" I snarled, taking a step towards him.
"Of course I am! You can't even defeat a Wingull and you don't even know what moves your own pokemon has! I saw you battle, it was a complete fail!" he continued to laugh and I felt fury building inside. I was aware of my own stupidity, I didn't appreciate some kid pointing it out though.
"Go away," I growled, glaring at him menacingly.
"Woah, don't get so tetchy! How old are you anyway? You look about 13!" he said, his laugh had died away but a mocking grin remained on his face.
"I'm old enough to beat you up. I'm young enough to get away with it," I threatened, my hands twitching as I controlled the urge to punch him.
"No need to be so unsociable! I was just going to give you some pointers!" he said, pretending to have taken offense.
"I don't need help off a stupid kid like you," I spat, then walked off towards the pokecentre, Phoenix walking moodily at my heels.
"You won't get any friends talking to people like that!" he yelled after me. I just stuck my finger up at him and went into the pokecentre.
I knew I would have to get a pokedex; it was a crucial piece of equiptment for any trainer. So I asked at the desk to see where I could get one from. The lady at the desk was like no one I had ever seen before. Her hair was bubble gum pink, held in two big looped bunches that were tucked neatly away at the nape of her neck. The most suprising thing about her was the warmth that was in her smile.
"I'm sorry darling, you'll have to go to Oak's Lab in Pallet Town for a pokedex," she said, smiling at me again. I really wasn't used to people smiling at me like that. As if I could confide in her. I didn't know wether I should tell her that I didn't know how to get to Pallet Town, it would just show how stupid and weak I was; but something in her smile told me I could tell her, that she wouldn't laugh. She wouldn't judge me.
"I don't actually know how to get there," I admitted, looking closely at her for the sign that she was mocking me.
"Oh that's okay darling, there's a boat in the port that goes there everyday. It's free for trainers so they can access the pokemon lab there easily. It's due to leave at 2 o'clock though, and it's only 11 now. I guess that gives you some time to kill huh?"
"I guess," I nodded and turned to leave.
"You could at least say thanks you know," someone said. I turned to see the kid who had annoyed me outside. He shook his brown hair from his eyes and smiled mockingly at me. For a second I went to apologise and thank the pink haired lady but I stopped. I was not going to say thanks just because a stupid kid told me I should. Instead I shot him a dirty look and walked out.
I gazed around me, wondering what I was going to do for 3 hours until the boat came. I figured I should leave the training until I had a pokedex and knew more about Phoenix, so that left nothing else to do. I ended up walking over to the stone edge of the docks and sat down. I took off my shabby trainers and socks then dangled my feet into the water. Phoenix had other ideas. She wasn't content to just sit down, she wanted to be doing something. Suddenly she jumped into the sea, splashing me with the salty water before resurfacing with a Magikarp dangling from her mouth. That seemed to content her and she pulled herself (and the Magikarp) out of the water and lay next to me, crunching noisily on the lifeless fish.
"You like eating don't you?" I smiled, reaching out to stroke her face. She turned her head away from my hand and continued eating, not wanting to be interrupted. I just left her to it and stared out at the sea.
"You know there's a gym in this town?"
I closed my eyes in frustration. Why did the stupid kid have to follow me everywhere?
"Oh, you're ignoring me now are you? That's okay. I'll just talk to myself. Hi, how are you today? I'm fine how are you? Oh I'm okay, I'm just getting ignored off this stupid person though-I think there's some anti-social disorder going on," he rambled on to himself, irritating me.
"I haven't got an anti-social disorder. I just don't like people," I growled.
"That is a very anti-social stance to have. What's wrong with people anyway?"
"They're irritating and you can't trust them,"
"Oh, so basically you've had a run in with some untrustworthy asswhole and you judge the whole of humanity on one stupid loser?"
"I didn't say that,"
"You didn't have to,"
"Look. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. You can't trust anyone. You might think you can, but the fact remains that you can't," I snapped, getting sick of his stupid philosophies.
"Stop being such a pessimist,"
"Stop being such a fool,"
"You don't like me do you?" he laughed.
"Why would I?" I spat. I was right. I had no reason to like him.
"Why wouldn't you?" he asked infuriatingly.
"Just go away," I muttered. He was irritating me now-pulling some sort of personality evaluation thing that I didn't appreciate at all.
"But I'm bored!" he said, suprising me.
"What?" I said incredulously. He was just annoying me because he was bored? I had thought he was analysing me. And I hated being wrong.
"I'm bored," he whined, sounding like a stupid whiney teenage. Which I guess is exactly what he was.
"You are purposely annoying me. Because you're bored," I repeated, every word making me angrier.
"I'm annoying you?"
"Yes," I said bluntly.
"Oh,"
"You can go away now," I told him.
"Whatever," he sighed, getting up to leave. Before he did though, he bent down to stroke Phoenix, who growled angrily at him.
"Woah, you have an unsociable pokemon too. What town did you say you came from?" he asked.
"I didn't," I grumbled.
"So where do you come from? Is it Saffron? I've heard that people from there aren't as polite as people from other towns," he obviously didn't care about offending people. Good job I don't get offended easily.
"I come from near Saffron,"
"Near Saffron? How come?" he asked curiously.
"It's a small place, you wouldn't know it," I sighed. I couldn't be bothered to get into the conversation of my hometown. It was a place I wanted to forget.
"Enlighten me," he smiled cockily, lying back on the stone and staring into the sky. I sighed and looked down into the glistening waters swirling around my ankles.
"It's a small place west of Saffron hidden in some trees. It's called Charcoal Village," I scowled, begrudging this kid for getting me to tell him about my hometown.
"Never heard of it," he concluded.
"I told you that in the first place," I snapped, shooting him a dirty look. I didn't get why people didn't just listen in the first place.
"I come from Lavender Town, you know the place where the ghosts are? My sister always got creeped out because of them," he said conversationally, as if I was interested in anything he had to say.
"I really don't care,"
"It's weird because she ended up getting a ghost as her first pokemon. It was a Misdreavus, she went off to find a full team of ghosts. I think she's got three now," he continued as if he hadn't heard me.
"I really really don't care,"
"I don't really know which pokemon I want. Squirtle seems pure awesomeness, but I don't know. I'm planning on getting to Oak's Lab and seeing a pokemon and just knowing that it's mine. At least I hope that's what happens. Ah, either way I'm sure it'll work out. Things always do. Right?" he turned to look at me for an answer, but I wasn't listening. I hadn't been listening since he mentioned something about Oak's Lab. That meant he would be leaving on the boat. Which meant he would be annoying me all day.
Great.
