Chapter 7: Routes and Centers
With the breeze flowing past us, I felt like it was whispering messages of our start to the paths beyond. We would follow it, and it would be our messenger.
Such was the hope we both felt.
I didn't really want to return Mock to his ball, so I kept him out. The turtle didn't seem to mind one way or another, but I thought he'd enjoy the sunshine as much as I did.
I couldn't believe my luck at gaining such a mild, helpful partner. For some reason, I'd always felt that if I'd ever fallen into the Pokémon world, then I would have to catch a Rattata or something. Not that I had anything against them. If I were to be truthful, then they were kind of adorable.
That was why when I saw the Rattata I didn't hesitate to throw a ball at it. I didn't want to fight, just wanted to capture it. Maybe I could train a halfway decent team to help me against the stronger Pokémon?
Fortunately for me, the ball made the clicking noise that meant a successful capture (after smacking the Pokémon in the side, ouch). I grinned, attempting a cheesy pose like Ash always did.
And at that moment, Red arrived on the scene.
Man, he probably thought I was insane by now.
My Pokédex made a beeping noise, and I checked it as a list of information on Rattata scrolled across the screen. Hmm, it seemed that they were like most rodents in needing to whittle their fangs down. Maybe I'd have to get it a block of hard wood like I had for my hamster.
Red tilted his head to the side and made a series of hand gestures that I realized was sign language. Wait, so was he literally mute then? Well, I didn't know any form of sign language, so I couldn't understand him. Did he think my cheesy pose was sign language, then?
I shrugged at him, to which he shrugged back and took out a notebook.
Professor Oak said you had something to ask me? He held it out to me, and I bit my lip.
Wow. He sure didn't beat around the bush.
"Oh…um, I was wondering," I'd only blushed once before in my life, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was doing it now. Stupid Professor Oak for putting me in these situations! I hated asking people for favors!
"Is it okay…if I travel with you?" I widened my eyes at him, desperation pushing my acting abilities to their limits. I could never tell if they worked or not though.
He shrugged and nodded. Wow. How…anticlimactic. Then again, this was Red we were talking about. He probably didn't care one way or another.
Professor Oak also signed you up as a trainer, he wrote. Wait, when did that old dude have time to do that? The boy handed me a blue card. I received it dumbly, my eyes skimming over it. Name: Catch M. Hall, Gender: Female, ID: 11041. Well, that was easy enough to remember.
Then he handed me a map, and I realized I'd forgotten to grab one from Daisy. Oops. Or oopsy daisy?
Okay, bad pun.
I followed the boy after pocketing the two items (I needed to buy a backpack), grateful for the way he just accepted me, without question. He'd seen me in so many stupid situations so far, but he didn't care, and let me be. It was…refreshing, not to be judged. I couldn't remember the last time I'd met a person that hadn't judged me.
The silence felt peaceful. Red and I both caught a Pidgey (he also caught a Rattata), though I wasted a ball on the first try. Hey, that bird was tough!
Some weirdo wearing a shop apron stopped us before we got too far. Well, I got a free Potion out of it so I didn't complain.
Before I knew it, we'd reached Viridian City.
I looked around. This place was bigger than Pallet Town. It had five buildings!
"You ever notice how small your cities are?" I asked the boy.
His forehead wrinkled before shaking his head. How adorable. He looked like a little lost kitten right then and there.
I chuckled, "That's all right. They'll get bigger," I looked up. All the buildings were facing the same way…again!
This place was…weird.
"Hey, Mock, do you want to heal up?" I asked him. The Squirtle nodded, and we both walked into the Pokémon Center.
The inside was exactly as I'd pictured, with the pretty scarlet and cream coloring the Centers were known for. There were a few people here, but they looked pretty harmless.
"Hmm," I hummed.
Red walked up to the counter, bringing out three Poké Balls. I looked at the nurse. She wore her pink hair tied back in two buns underneath a nurse hat. Yep, stereotypical generic nurse character.
While the boy somehow communicated to her (probably using his notepad again), I walked up to the "Personal Computer." A black screen. Curious, I clicked a button, and a login screen appeared. Great. Another one of these. Moving the touchpad over to "Register" I entered in all my information. Strangely, they didn't ask for your address (in fact, only your name and ID number were truly required, the rest was just fluff).
When I finished, I looked behind to see Red walking up to me, his hands in his pockets. He nodded at me, and I nodded back. Wow. This was pretty cool. I was exchanging nods with Red!
Okay, all joking aside, it was pretty dang awesome to actually meet Red. Especially since I always saw him as just…some avatar of the player. I never had really given him a personality. Granted, said personality was pretty quiet. But it was still a personality…right?
I walked up to Nurse Joy, passing Red, who was presumably heading to the PC to register.
"Welcome to our Pokémon Center!" she beamed at me, the epitome of cheer.
"…Thanks?" I raised an eyebrow (something I'd worked on being able to do).
"Would you like me to heal your Pokémon back to perfect health?" she just said it all so…peppy-ish. It was almost alien. I could definitely see a Pan-Am smile here. What would it be like to work here, and deal with grumpy trainers day and night? I wouldn't want to get on her bad side, that's for sure.
Wait. I still hadn't replied to her.
"Yes, thank you," I said, quickly reaching in my pockets and handing over my Poké Balls (that could be resized at will, which was pretty cool). I remembered Mock was still out, and recalled him before handing his Poké Ball over.
"May I see your ID please?" she asked.
Well, this was new. Sighing, I fumbled around for my ID before finding it and handing it to her. She barely glanced at it, passing it underneath a beeping scanner. Well, that was ominous. Would all of this go under a trainer tab or something?
"It's just used to track the activities of trainers," the nurse explained, probably having had to do that many times before. "Although you don't pay for our services, it's helpful for the Pokémon Center managers to know that these facilities are being used, and if not, then why. Some Centers, like the one near Mt. Moon, aren't as frequently used, but we get a lot of traffic through here, what with our proximity to the Indigo Plateau."
I nodded. Wow, so this could be used to track trainer activity. So how did Team Rocket slip through then?
As the nurse had been talking, she'd also been stuffing the balls in scooped-out hollows on a machine that looked like the one in the game. You know, the one that looks like some giant alien device.
The machine beeped for some time, and then it was done.
"Thank you for waiting. We've restored your Pokémon to full health. We hope to see you again!"
I paused in the process of leaving. "You do know that sounds ridiculous, right? Why would you want to see me again? Doesn't that mean you want my Pokémon to be injured?"
The nurse smiled, "No matter what, your Pokémon are going to be injured. Better to bring them here than otherwise. That's all."
"Oh," I felt kind of foolish now. "Well, if that's the case…"
Shaking my head, I approached Red, who was sitting down on one of the many pillow-chairs surrounding a glass table.
"Well, all done," I spoke, thoughts elsewhere. My mind was busy wandering over the concept of five-second healing.
The boy nodded, and something about it sharpened my focus. I realized now that he had a very strange atmosphere. The calm way he sat, (actually, more like lounged) with his hat shading his eyes, eyes that seemed to look right through you, unnerved me. He had his arms folded over his chest in a relaxed position, but there was a readiness to his posture. It reminded me of an eager girlfriend waiting at the phone, for a call she's sure will come. That was Red. He was waiting for…what exactly?
And no, it wasn't me. Not specifically.
Suddenly, I realized it. He was waiting for somebody to challenge him. Right here and now, in a Pokémon Center! Where battles weren't allowed!
"You need to chill," I advised, sitting down beside him. "Nobody's going to battle you here."
He said nothing, but he didn't need to. I could sense the disagreement. It was expressed in little ways, from the tightening of his arms to the narrowing of his eyes.
"Battling's not allowed in Pokémon Centers," I explained, glancing around. Everybody around avoided my eyes. Yep. Even eye contact was forbidden, it seemed. The old gentleman sitting nearby was tending to a Pidgey. The youngster-trainer person was looking at some Pokémon magazine, and there was a boy…just standing there. …What the heck was he doing? Well, whatever. He wasn't looking at us, wait…was he checking out the nurse?
"Should we go then?" I asked Red, feeling a tad uncomfortable. That other guy was just so…blatant about it. It was kinda creepy actually, the way he just…stood there, staring.
Nodding, Red got up and headed for the door. A bit abrupt…but I got it. At least he held the door open, so he had basic manners (not that manners would really count for much in this world, though).
"Thanks," I muttered, and walked past to look around. I knew what I wanted to do now.
"First shopping for a backpack and stuff, and then…exploration time!" I ended with a chirp, grinning broadly. I would explore this five-building town to the utmost! Wait a minute…that meant barging into random people's houses, talking to them, and taking their stuff.
This would be a lot harder to do in real life.
Well, Red was an expert at it (if the games were any indication). I'd just follow his lead.
"It's time…to buy things."
Wait a minute… Did I have money?
The ID number was actually gotten from Bulbapedia, looking through random ID numbers. I thought it'd be cool if I chose that one, since an Audino is the main charrie of my other Pokémon fanfic.
Thank you very much Fallen Vanguard, Pinkypink342, kenegi, and awesomeness127 for reviewing!
