VI: Charlotte and Desiree

"Anna took that better then I expected" I said to Michael, "I was impressed by how well she was able to interact with everyone" It was an hour later, and Anna was asleep. The others were asleep also. That may seem like a lot of sleeping, but pokemon generally spend sixteen hours a day asleep. "Did you notice?"

"Not really" Michael replied, "Because"

"I noticed" Virgil replied. "She is nervous though, I noticed that"

"Well I couldn't tell" Michael said.

"Also, Pecha isn't saying New Chu Order any more" I said, "And she's talking about herself in the first person, not the third. Did you notice that?"

"Once again" Michael began.

"I do not know that Pikachu" Virgil replied, "Though she seemed short tempered, arrogant, and filled with rage"

"Well, she's actually mellowed out. I mean a lot" I said, "Michael, you noticed that, right?"

"No! Of course I didn't!" Michael cried, "I don't speak pokemon!" We all looked at Michael for a moment.

"Oh yeah, you don't" I said. "Weird huh?" Michael sighed.

"Well, how is Anna progressing? Seeing as I can't understand a damn thing" I smiled, laughing slightly. "It's funny isn't it?"

"A little" I admitted. "Well, I told you when I popped Anna out, she was mad at me, and by mad I mean furious. She blamed Robin for all of her problems, and was scared to death of pokeballs, and other pokemon. Well, we let her out in the park, and she liked that"

"She got so much juice on her she sticks to the bed spread" Michael said. I looked down at the Treeco, pulling her by the sides. Her arms, legs, tail, and stomach stayed pasted to the cover.

"Well all be" I mumbled. "Anyways, I talked her into meeting the others, since if we're going to go on a long journey, she'll need to know who she's traveling with. Well, she handled it well enough, but she doesn't like Rush" I turned back to Michael. "I mean, she doesn't like Rush"

"Why not?" Michael asked.

"Well, she hates Mudkips. At the end of the day, Torchic and Mudkip get picked three to one more the Treecko"

"You made that statistic up, didn't you"

"Of course! Alright, I don't know how much more often Mudkip get picked, but Mudkip get picked a lot more then Treecko. Anna watched a lot of trainers not pick her, and in a few cases she got to hear them call her creepy. She's, well she's been hurt really bad. She handled Rush though a lot better then I though, she only attacked him"

"That's handling it well!"

"I thought she might succeed!" I said. "Besides, she apologized! She did it with a mouth full of bile, but it counts. Streak also talked to her, Streak of all pokemon"

"How is that strange?" Michael asked.

"Well, Streak generally made Virgil seem like a chatterbox" I said. "I know, well to be honest, next to nothing about him"

"Other then Dana originally had him?"

"Dana?" Virgil growled suddenly. "Where is Dana?" We both turned our attention, shocked at the (relative) uncontrollable emotional outburst from Virgil.

"You knew about Dana?" Michael asked.

"Dana visited Ms. Lisa once before she had met both of you. Dana has not earned the title of Ms. She is a horrible stain on the great Ms. Lisa, she has no right to possess pokemon, none to possess what she has. She is a despicable, loathsome woman, and I wish her nothing more then a slow death" With that, Virgils mouth clamped shut.

"Alright" I mumbled. "Well, it's late. Let's get something to eat"

I had another nightmare. More dead friends, except not friends any more. They wanted to eat me, they wanted me dead. This time I didn't wake up scream, just jolted awake.

The room was dark, and cold. No, not cold, that was me. I was shaking, my shirt clung to me with sweat. Anna was still asleep on the pillow beside me, Michael asleep in his bed. Virgil stood on the other side of the room.

"Virgil, are you?"

"I'm always awake" He replied. "Another nightmare?"

"N-No" I lied, "I just, a noise woke me up"

"I heard nothing"

"Of course you didn't" I mumbled, laying back down.

In order to enter into the pokemon league of a region, you have to register with the league. I once saw a TV show that said that waiting in the DMV was unpleasant because the DMV was actually a gateway to hell. If the DMV is a gate to hell, the Johto League Registrar leads to Satan's bedroom.

"If you are here, you have an estimated two hour wait" Michael read off the sign. "Why exactly did you want to go through the Johto league?"

"I never got to go through Hoenn" I said. Anna was asleep in my arms. "I want to do a league challenge. For some reason. Had I known the line was to be this long, I probably would have reconsidered"

"Why are you complaining?" Virgil asked, "How will you be able to survive what ever horror your nemesis unleashes upon you if you can not survive a two hour wait?"

"Because I don't have a nemesis planning to unleash any horror upon me!" I replied. As I said this, the Irony Fairy pulled back her frying pan to smack me silly.

"Enemies are around every corner" Virgil replied, "When the time comes, you must be ready to end their life"

"Boy, you're a pleasant one" A new voice behind us said. The three of us flipped around to see two girls standing behind us. The first was tall, disturbingly thin, with short ginger hair, and dressed in denim. My God I mean denim. Denim vest, denim jacket, denim skirt. Under the vest was a top with a black and white hypno swirl, because that made sense. She also was wearing cowboy boots and a matching hat. Her eyes were brown, and bored. Around her belt was over twenty pokeballs, and over her back was a bag.

The other though was the one who really made you stair. She was short, fat, and looked like an escaped mental patient. Her clothing was a mash of various stripped, spotted, and solid neon colors, like she had decided to dye her clothes in a blender full of paint. Her hair was long, and matched the clothing, being blond primarily. It was also streaked green, red, purple, black, silver, brown, pink, and any other color you could think of. She had so much eye liner I thought someone had given her a double black eyes, and was wearing lipstick so red her lips looked like they were bleeding. She also wore a pair of yellow tinted goggles, and had a Chinchou on her head. Strapped to her back was an easel and canvas. I wondered if it hurt to wear that thing, but I was scared to ask. She also had a bag, neon purple, bulging with who knows what.

"Are you wearing a Chinchou?" I asked. The girl giggled.

"His name is Iggy!" She said, grabbing him. "He's blind sadly, but he's my inspiration. I use him to capture the essence of life!"

"...Okay" I said, "Sorry I asked"

"You'll have to excuse her" The tall girl replied. "You see, Desiree is...She just is"

"I am" Desiree replied. "My name is Desiree"

"Angela" I replied. "These are Michael and Virgil" Michael waved, Virgil stared. We took one step foreword.

"I'm Charlotte" The other girl replied. "And I assume one of you is a trainer?"

"I am" I replied. "And you're...a cowgirl?"

"I'm a professional capture specialist" Charlotte replied. Upon hearing this, my eyebrow started to twitch.

"Crap" Michael mumbled.

"A capture specialist?" I asked, smile plastered on my face. "As in someone who captures pokemon for people who buy them? Someone who sells pokemon professionally?"

"Not exactly" Charlotte said. "And what's it to you?"

"Capture specialists are evil!" I cried. "You're the group who can't make it! You're the group who, rather then try to train pokemon, just goes out and captures them to sell them to people who are to stupid to figure out how a ball works. You are the reasons morons can get their hands on pokemon, to abuse them or put them in the occasional soup"

"That may be true" Charlotte replied, "But I make twenty grand a year and don't pay taxes" I growled in response to this, getting looks from everyone. We took a few steps.

"Alright, you make money" I replied, "But is money everything? No! It's almost everything!"

"You are a strange little girl" Charlotte replied.

"Why exactly is a professional capture specialist in a registration line?" Michael asked. We took a few steps.

"I'll tell them!" Desiree chirped up.

"I'd rather you didn't" Charlotte said.

"We were in Olivine" Desiree said. "Some rich looser had accidentally released his pet Slugma in his hotel, and nutless was to scared to recapture the thing. So he got Charlotte to try"

"I found the damn thing in the lobby" Charlotte replied. "It took one look at me, and unleashed a flame-thrower, something I had specifically been told it couldn't do"

"What happened next?" I asked. She sighed.

"I dived out of the way, the flame-thrower set the tapestry behind me on fire, which then set the hotel on fire, and we all got out in enough time to watch the building burn to the ground"

"They charged Slappy McNoballs for the damage" Desiree said, "But as for Charlotte, she got her license revoked, instead she's now got a capture permit"

"Not my fault!" Charlotte replied, "I'd rather loose a hotel then my life. Sadly, I was given two options. I can reregister where I first registered for my license, which may or may not be excepted. If not, I have to travel with a licensed trainer, and retry in a year"

"Why a licensed trainer?" I asked.

"So a licensed trainer can make sure I don't violate the rules of my probation" Charlotte replied. "A licensed trainer has just as much to loose as I do. Huge fines and prison time, whoopee" We moved foreword again.

"Why are you hear?" I asked Desiree, "You don't look like a professional capture specialist"

"Oh no, I'm a painter" Desiree replied. "I just follow Charlotte, waiting to create my opus!"

"What?" Michael asked. We moved past the one hour marker.

"I am trying to capture life in paint!" Desiree said. Her eyes seemed to be glowing behind the goggles. "I have used Iggy, and I will continue to use him, for he is my muse!" Oh Christ, I'd found the human Pecha. Except instead of world domination, she's just fucking insane.

"Alright" Michael replied, slowly stepping behind Virgil. We took a step foreword.

"Sadly, I have yet to capture the essence of Iggy" Desiree replied. "When ever I fail, I must destroy the attempt, for nothing can be learned from it"

"It's why she tossed her last one from our window" Charlotte mumbled. We moved foreword.

"Why not use other pokemon?" I asked. "Also, what's with the goggles?" Desiree giggled.

"I'm trying to get a new perspective. In this case, what would the world look like if everything were covered in movie theatre butter!"

"What have you learned?" Michael asked.

"...That I'm hungry for popcorn" Desiree replied. Not much going on behind those eyes. We moved foreword again.

"So, which one of you is becoming a trainer?" Charlotte asked.

"That would be me" I replied. "Yes, I'm becoming a trainer, someone who should actually be allowed to capture pokemon, not a specialist" Charlotte smirked.

"Why are you becoming a trainer? Scared of money, or watching two pokemon beat each other to a bloody pulp some kind of entertainment for you?"

"It's a challenge" I growled. "You see, being a trainer requires more thought then throw ball A at pokemon B. It requires strategy, training, the ability to forge relationships with pokemon, and view them as more then pay checks. To be a trainer, you have to use that thing between your ears called a brain"

"Really? Does being a trainer mean you get a loveable personality like yours?" Charlotte asked. "Cause in that case, I'll stick with being likeable and making a lot of money" We took a step foreword.

"Angela" Michael began.

"Not now Michael" I growled. "I bet if I challenged you to a battle, I could beat all of your pokemon with one of mine"

"What would that prove except your some kind of neurotic freak?" Charlotte asked.

"Hey" Desiree said, "Shouldn't you be registering?" I flipped back around, to see the registration counter in front of me.

"Oh...shit" I ran past Michael and Virgil, accidentally running stomach first into the counter. "Hi, I'm Angela Duncan, and I need to register" The man at the counter looked at me funny, then at the Treecko slung over my shoulder.

"Alright" The man said. He handed me a piece of paper on a clipboard and a pen. The sheet asked your traditional questions, name, age, gender, bla bla bla. I filled the thing out so fast I nearly burned through the clip board, and handed it back to the man.

"Here you go, gimmie my pokedex" The man startled clicking on his computer.

"Alright Ms. Duncan, tell me, are you now or have you ever been a terrorist?"

"No"

"Have you now, or ever been, a serial killer?"

"No"

"Are you now, or have you ever been, Wally?"

"....What?"

"Standard questions" The man replied. "Will you be using your own starter, or require one to be provided for you?"

"I'll be using my Treecko" I replied, holding up Anna. The man suddenly pulled out what looked like a scanner gun, and flashed a blue light over her.

"Treecko level five. Johto rules require all outside starters be at highest level five, so you may use her" The man pulled out a pokedex. He inserted it into his computer, it beeped like crazy, and he handed it to me.

"Thanks. Wait, does this mean?"

"Step to the right, they will take your picture and upload it to your pokedex. Welcome to the Johto league Ms. Duncan"