(Even though it was very weird for me to write it, this chapter contains sexually explicit content. This will probably become regular. I hope this does not alienate some readers. This is also the biggest reason this fic is now M rated. Don't worry, this is for the plot. This will be expressed with an S in parentheses bolded before and after the segment that I'm referring to- or, in some way, bolded or noted. It will never come from nowhere. If you don't wish to read it, skip it. With all of this said, finally, move onto the chapter.)
XxXxXxXxXx
I'd searched for hours, and still, nothing.
It was probably as hard as I'd imagined it was going to be- maybe more, even. No one had heard of, or seen, Terry or Matt. In the gigantic, roving crowds, it was hard to spot anyone, and I never saw either of the two. I'd probably asked my hundredth person when I decided to call it quits, at least for that part of the city.
Jack, Brianna and I walked all around the place, talking to different people- businessmen, children, shopkeepers, and people just sitting outside and enjoying the day. None of them had heard of a Terry or a Matt, none of them had seen anyone similar to the descriptions I provided- because, once I started to really search, I gave detailed, accurate descriptions so that they wouldn't mix themselves up.
After that failed, Jack, Brianna and I turned to battling for the rest of the day. It was easy to pick up money when you were just beating on little kids- most of the money was from people that were much younger than us. That didn't mean that we weren't going to take it, though. They lost, so they paid, fair and square. It was that simple.
There were some more serious battles that we lost, though, and we did end up battling people that were our age, or older. There was a guy that had a grass and a water type that I lost to. Jack lost to a guy with a pretty strong Cyndaquil. And Brianna barely lost to some guy who had a Pidgeot. That guy was, by far, the strongest trainer around, and afterwards, he showed us his team and he had fully evolved Pokemon, not to mention several battles.
That fight hadn't been fair from the start.
We never caught his name, because after he beat Brianna, he left on his Pidgeot, saying that he had somewhere else to go. Then we went back to beating on the newbies.
In the end, we made a pretty decent profit. I don't even know how much we had- I only knew that it was more than we'd had before. I didn't really care that much- all I knew was that, for now, I didn't have to worry about money. That was one thing that I definitely didn't want to have to think about. I had enough on my plate already.
There was something else too.
I wanted to ask him about it, but I didn't think I should.
For most of the day, Jack moped around. I wasn't exactly sure, but if I had to say something, he was probably mad about Storm. He didn't make him battle hard or anything- Jack battle the least out of all of us.
We stopped battling at around eight, and stopped to get dinner at some restaurant. I didn't even pay attention to the name of the place- I just went inside and ordered, and ate. It didn't feel right to always scrounge off of the food inside the Center- and there wasn't a lot, half the time anyway. It was better to leave that food to people who actually needed it. With how much money we just made, we could afford to eat out for weeks, pay for all our supplies, and other little luxuries that would be nice.
We all had burgers, because that was the special of the week.
"You know, these are different than burgers back home," I said, before I took another bite. Jack nodded, then had a hard time swallowing before he finally got a difficult bite down.
"Yeah, but they're still good. The meat tastes… weird, but it's manageable," he said.
"What's different compared to the ones from your world?" Brianna asked.
I stopped, and tasted the meat in my mouth.
"More seasoning?" I said, but it came out as a question. Jack shrugged.
"I can't really say. I don't know anything about cooking anyway," I said.
There were some differences I was never going to get used to in this place.
After we were done with the meal, I paid for all of us and we left the restaurant.
"Now what?" Jack asked.
"I don't know about you, but it's only eight," I said, pulling out my two Pokeballs.
"We've already searched as best as we could for the day. I think I'm going to go try to train Einstein. We still have some time in the day left, and I'd rather go train, even at night, than just go wait in the room for a few hours, doing nothing," I said.
Jack nodded, but he looked uneasy.
"Do you think Storm will be okay?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Don't worry about it, man, it's alright-"I tried to say, but Jack cut me off.
"No, it's not okay!" he shouted, with intensity I rarely heard from him.
The weirdest part was how he yelled.
It wasn't directed at me, or Brianna, or anyone else standing around him.
He was yelling at himself.
"I'm supposed to take care of him. Me! I've hardly had him for long at all, and look what I do, at the first moment's notice? If that had gone on for much longer, it could've really hurt him," Jack said. I shook my head.
"You're being ridiculous," I said.
"You know what Nurse Joy told me, and what I told you. Even Mareep in the wild get like that sometimes. It hardly affects them at all. Don't worry about it so much," I said.
He didn't say anything.
"Are you going to come and train with us?" I asked. I was hoping he'd come. Jack would get like this sometimes: he was relatively easy- going, and he was one of the greatest guys I ever knew, but he let mistakes get him down way, way too much. I was surprised that he didn't blame himself in us coming here- I guess because it was completely out of his control.
But him making one small mistake? Something everyone does?
Fuck that, he's the Devil. That was how he acted.
I think the fact that Mareep was slightly malnourished wasn't even the worst part of it to him, either. That wasn't what killed him. It was the fact that he hadn't noticed. That had to cut him deeper to the core than anything else- because I knew Jack.
He was so nice and caring. He had a good moral sense- probably better than mine, though I'd never admit it to his face- and usually knew how to tackle a situation. But if he did something bad, then it was a problem.
It was like if Jesus Christ had an inferiority complex.
He shook his head, and I sighed.
"No," he said, looking in the direction of the center.
"I think I'll just go home and feed Storm," he said.
I sighed again.
"Alright, if that's what you want," I said, tossing him the key. He took it, and nodded, before walking off in the direction.
"Leave it unlocked for us in case you fall asleep!" I called to him, and he nodded, putting one hand in the air before turning a corner and stalking off.
"What's with him?" Brianna asked, confused and concerned.
I sighed again.
"Jack blames himself too much, basically. I don't feel like going into it more than that, but trust me when I say that he's always been like that," I said.
"Alright," she said, though I could tell that she didn't want to drop the issue.
"So, train?" Brianna asked me.
I grinned.
XxXxXxXx
"Again," I said.
Alright, alright!
Einstein levitated in front of me as he practiced lifting semi-heavy stones with telekinesis. They shook as they rose in the air. There was a difference in Psychic technique- or, from what both Brianna and Einstein told me. It was harder for him to raise five small rocks than one large one. They explained it as concentration over power, or something like that.
I didn't fully understand it, but I did understand one thing- he was weak and poor in some areas, and those were the areas that we'd work on the hardest. So the thing I'd had him doing was lifting many rocks at once. If it was too easy for him- and it had been the first few times- we increased the weight. He'd been bragging at first.
He wasn't anymore.
It was interesting getting to know Einstein, mostly because I could actually get to know him. Tina had personality- she was smart enough, it wasn't like she was stupid. But it was different talking to something that had intellect that rivaled mine- no, that was way too arrogant of me. Far excelled mine- or, it would, at least, once he grew up some.
He was almost like a twelve year old right now, but from what I gathered, he said he wasn't even six months old. That showed just how fast his brain developed in comparison to a human. He was already starting to get a little snarky and smarter.
Is that satisfactory?
I laughed.
"Sure, for now. We're not done yet, though, if that's what you're asking," I said.
I heard some sort of grumble that echoed in my head, and then he lowered the stones to the ground.
Well, what's next? I want this to be over with.
I frowned.
"Don't you want to get stronger?"
Not that much. There's only so much I can do as an Abra anyway. I'll evolve only due to knowledge anyway. The best thing you could do for me is to get me some books.
Seriously?
"Is he serious?" I asked myself, but I must've said it louder than I thought I did.
"Serious about what?" Brianna asked me.
"He said that books would help him evolve. Is that true?" I asked her.
"Flamethrower again, Ciri," she said, and the Ninetails obeyed, shooting flames out in a beautiful spurt of orange, red, and white.
"I think so," she said, but she sounded uncertain.
"I know that increasing brainpower is equivalent to training for Psychic types. Since their brains are their weapon, learning is literally training for them," she said.
Wow.
"Would they let him read in a public library?" I asked.
She shook her head, and I sighed.
"Bullshit."
Discrimination is what I say.
"Am I going to have to be fucking Martin Luther King or something? Jesus fucking Christ," I muttered. Not only was it bullshit, now it was starting to annoy me and get in the way of what I was trying to do- so, now it was becoming a problem.
"Who is either of those two people?" Brianna asked.
"No one you would know, it's not important," I said, sighing.
"It's just annoying and frustrating. I think I'll just go to some bookstore and buy fifty books there or something. That'd probably be best," I said.
Fifty? Alright!
I laughed.
"See if you can lift these, now," I told Einstein, laying out heavier stones, and more of them. I heard a groan in my mind, and then I waited a few seconds, and watched the stones rise. I smiled.
"Nice," I said.
It's nice to see that I get some appreciation around here.
At that, I casually tossed a rock and made it land on one of the levitating ones. I watched as the concentration nearly broke, and all of the rocks nearly fell to the ground. They stopped inches from the dirt, and I heard a sputtering inside my head.
Why'd you go and do that?
"Don't get snarky with me," I said, smirking.
"Now, again," I said, and I watched the stones rise.
XxXxXxXx
We trained right outside of Cherrygrove for a few hours, and then we went right back inside near midnight. Brianna and I were both tired, and we were ready to go to bed.
I'd let Einstein stay out, on his request. He said while he enjoyed the sleep inside the Pokeball, it was interesting to do something different every once in a while.
"Well, that's why variety is the spice of the life," I'd said.
He used the same saying again against me ten minutes later-which showed he was learning.
"Do you want to shower first again, or should I?" I asked Brianna as we were climbing the stairs. Einstein levitated himself behind us, and then right after I spoke, responded.
Variety is the spice of life.
I couldn't help but to grin.
"That really wasn't the right situation for that saying," I said, sighing.
I didn't hear any noise from Einstein, and I turned backwards to see if he was still there. He was still floating, following me around.
"Are you there?"
I heard snoring in my mind, and realized he'd gone to sleep. I sighed, and then chuckled.
Abra needed a lot of sleep, and he wasn't any exception to that. He did that a lot- even while talking, or training, he'd go to sleep. It wasn't even like real sleep- he could still understand some commands while asleep, and he could still use his powers.
But he didn't- or couldn't, I wasn't sure- communicate, and it took him more effort and longer to do everything. He needed his rest, though. And since we didn't need to do anything, I wasn't going to bother him.
"I'll shower first if you don't mind," Brianna said.
I nodded.
"Go ahead if you want," I said. "If Jack is up… I want to talk to him," I said.
Brianna smiled.
We opened the door, and I saw Jack lying on the bed, still awake, with Storm sitting next to him. He was petting Storm and staring at the ceiling.
"Hopefully, you can get through to him," she whispered to me, and gave me a soft kiss on the lips before she retrieved clothes from her bag and went inside the bathroom door, closing it.
I sighed, and then went over to sit next to Jack and Storm.
He spoke before I did.
"Did you guys have fun training?" he asked.
I nodded.
"I think I improved on Einstein's power. I also learned something about the Abra line," I said. He raised his head off the bed a little bit.
"What?" he asked.
"Apparently, it's knowledge that makes them evolve, not power or strength," I said.
He frowned.
"What do you mean knowledge? Like, literally the more they know?" he asked.
"Yeah. Einstein even said that getting him books would help him evolve faster than training him in lifting rocks with his mind. So, tomorrow, I'm going to go buy a bunch of books at a bookstore. That'll cost money though, ugh… I'm going to probably have to battle again after that," I said.
Jack shrugged. "The practice will be good for you," he said.
I sighed.
I might as well just tell him up front.
"Jack, it's not your fault, you know that?" I asked him.
He frowned.
"In a way, it is, Daniel. I should've noticed it-"
"It. Is. Not. Your. Fault," I said, making sure to say every word loud and clear.
"Do you understand?" I asked him.
He didn't respond, and I sighed again.
"Look, it's not like anyone expected you to notice the signs anyway. Even Nurse Joy said it was hard for newer trainers- and guess what, that's what we are- to notice it if they hadn't had either a Mareep for long or hadn't been training for long, both of which apply to you," I said. He stared down at the bed and stroked Storm's wool.
"Are you going to get over this?" I asked him.
"Eventually," he mumbled.
Good enough.
"Fine," I said, walking into the bathroom to get a drink of water.
The shower curtain wasn't exactly the darkest of colors.
What I meant by that was that I could easily see everything.
I heard a muffled scream, and then a shriek of confusion.
"W-what are you doing in here?" Brianna asked.
Brianna- in the shower.
How had I forgotten that?
I blushed, drank the water, and walked out.
Once I was back in the room, I saw Jack's smirk, and sighed.
"Don't even say it," I said.
He put his hands in the air like he hadn't been planning it in the first place, even though he had. While I was being an accidental pervert in the bathroom, Einstein had stopped following me- and, instead, had lowered himself onto the floor in one corner of the room. I was glad to see that he was resting.
I waited for Brianna to get out of the shower, and when she walked out, dressed but with dripping hair wrapped in a towel, she blushed at me.
"The shower's free," she said, before lying down in the bed next to where I was sitting.
I grabbed some clothes from my backpack and wasted no time in jumping in the shower. I took a quick shower, got out, brushed my teeth, and then decided I was going to go to bed early. Jack and Brianna both said they were going to stay up later.
I just went to bed. The day had been exhausting- and, beyond all, frustrating, mostly because we were no closer to finding Terry and Matt than we had been the day before. That alone annoyed me, but then this stuff with Jack and Storm that hadn't gone away yet annoyed me too. He didn't seem like he was anywhere close to forgiving himself yet.
I would just have to focus more on it tomorrow.
XxXxXxXxXx
(S)
When I woke up in the morning, it was still a little early. I saw Jack still asleep, across the room from me. I felt uncomfortable, so I tried to rearrange myself. Brianna's arm was across my stomach, and she looked like she was stirring.
I didn't like that, because I wanted to get out of bed before she could wake up. I tried to move, but the way she'd slept next to me, and the way we'd both moved at night- we were both people who tossed and turned, as it happened to be- my limbs were entangled in hers. Because of my situation, I was hoping that she just didn't wake up.
Not until I could calm down, anyway.
I felt myself throbbing- as it usually was in the morning, especially for most young, virile men- and tried to will it down. That really wasn't easy to do, especially for a virgin with a girl laid across his body. More than anything, at the current moment, I just wanted to screw Brianna. But I had a little more self control than that.
She yawned and woke up, probably because I'd been moving around so much, and then she smiled at me with tired, half-lidded eyes.
"Why are you so red?" she asked.
I was blushing for obvious reasons.
"O-oh, no reason, really-"I said, and tried to move, but that was my biggest mistake of all. Her arm was drawn across my body- I'd mentioned this before. What this meant, though, was when I tried to get out of bed- up and to the right, was the motion- I bumped into her hand. The tip dug right into her palm, and I groaned.
I froze, and didn't move. I looked over at her face, and at first, there was confusion. Then realization, and then she was blushing with a mischievous smile spreading her face.
Then she giggled.
"Someone's excited," she whispered, and she squeezed me. I moaned.
She crawled even closer to me- on top of me- and then started kissing me while jerking me off. At this point, I wasn't going to stop her. I was just going to let her do whatever she wanted. She cooed into my ear.
"Does it feel good?" she whispered.
"Y-yes," I said. I would've been lying if I said I wasn't nervous.
"Good," she breathed into my ear.
"Enjoy it," she said.
I moaned again and laid my head back onto the pillow and closed my eyes. I was confused as to how we hadn't somehow woken up Jack yet, who was less than fifteen feet away from me. I wasn't going to complain, though.
I tried to stay quiet, but it wasn't easy.
Brianna was… skilled.
That was probably the best way to put it.
She squeezed me harder, and rubbed my head through my pants, and I moaned louder and thrusted into her hand. She shoved her mouth on mine and crawled on top of me, and rubbed herself against me while she continued.
Her other hand was playing with herself. I saw her touching herself.
Then she stuck her left hand inside my pants and jerked me off directly, and that felt even better. So much better. Her hand was so smooth and soft.
"I love you," she said.
I was too busy moaning to respond, but I was sure that I managed to nod.
Her boobs were in my face while she rubbed herself on me, and that only helped me along more and more. I struggled to focus enough to look past her and glance at Jack, who was, somehow, still sleeping. He was a heavy sleeper, but…
Eh, screw it. A girl was giving me a handjob. A girl I liked. I wasn't going to complain about anything right now. I kissed her back and moaned into her mouth.
It was starting to get to be too much, not to mention I felt something wet on my leg, and guessing what it was only aroused me more. She squeezed me harder and rubbed me particularly fast, and that was it for me.
I moaned loud, and shot off inside my pants.
I felt my cock jump in her hand, and then I couldn't hold back any longer.
I must've coated her entire hand, and by the end of it, I was moaning so loudly I was certain I was going to wake Jack up. Brianna wasn't quiet either. She managed to close her mouth and let out a muted scream. She ground herself against me while on top of me for a second or two more, groaning, before she finally collapsed on top of me- while, at the same time, I slumped against the bed.
I was the first one to speak.
"Wow," I said.
She took her hand out of my pants and raised it up, looking at it. White liquid was still dripping off of it. She casually lifted it to her mouth, and started licking it clean- and she smiled at me while she did it.
All I could really do in response was open my mouth and stare.
If I hadn't just finished, I'd probably be even harder. As it stood, the most she got out of me was a twitch.
Brianna only grinned, and didn't say anything else.
I looked past her, over at Jack, who was still sound asleep.
"How could he not be awake?" I asked, more to myself than to Brianna.
"Who knows?" Brianna shrugged.
"Do you know how loud we were being?"
She smirked at me.
"You were the one being the loudest," she said, licking her hand. It was mostly clean by now. Then she blushed, and jumped off of the bed.
"Get your dick back in your pants before he wakes up," she said, pointing towards Jack. I only sputtered as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
I did put myself away like she said to, but what had happened still confused me- but there was no way that I could say I hadn't enjoyed it.
It was strange how her demeanor changed, though- she was much more dominant and powerful than I would've imagined- she was normally much more soft-spoken and submissive the rest of the time- at least, in comparison.
I sighed, and then got up to get ready for the day.
(S)
XxXxXxXx
Like I said, even while Brianna had been giving me that handjob, Jack hadn't woken up, somehow. Brianna went inside the bathroom to wash up and I spent a few minutes on the bed, breathing hard. That was the first time I'd done anything with anyone, but Brianna had totally initiated everything- there was no doubt about that in my mind.
That wasn't saying that I hadn't liked it. That was much better than anything I'd ever done on my own, and I was pretty sure that I was starting to love Brianna back, but not just for the sex, of course. I could tell she cared about me, and I cared about her- which was the most important thing about it. Still blushing, I breathed deeply, and jumped off of the bed.
I reached for a new pair of underwear, and I grabbed it. I didn't need to change my shirt or pants, but now, thanks to Brianna, my underwear needed to be washed. I waited on the bed with the underwear in hand and sat there, until she came out of the bathroom.
When she did, she grinned at me and I blushed.
"Changing?" she asked.
I nodded.
"Go ahead. I can't believe we didn't wake up Jack with that," she said. I couldn't help but stare at her cleavage as she walked past me, and she noticed my look.
"Do you want more?" she purred, leaning closer. I was pretty sure I could see deep into the Valleys of Heaven.
I blushed, sputtered, then ran inside the bathroom and shut the door. I heard her giggling from outside, and I shook my head, grinning. She was so forward about everything. It wasn't the first time she'd come onto me, but it was just so… weird. I wasn't used to women or sex at all, being both a virgin and fairly antisocial besides my close group of friends.
I sighed. I guess I'd just have to get used to it. It wasn't like I didn't like it.
Spending time with her wouldn't hurt, either. I was starting to get much closer to Brianna, and but I wanted to make it into something more.
I slid down my pants, and took off my underwear, before putting a new pair on and sliding my pants back on. Once I did that, I immediately went to take a piss. I'd had the terrible urge right when I'd woken up, but Brianna had managed to postpone that. Not anymore. I sighed, and almost moaned as I relieved myself. Once I was done, I flushed and walked out of the bathroom.
Jack was still asleep, though it looked like he was going to wake up soon- he was twisting and turning all over his bed. Sometime last night, after I'd gone to sleep, he'd recalled Storm back into his Pokeball, because he wasn't in the room anymore. Brianna was getting dressed, and as she slipped on her shirt, she turned around, and smiled at me.
"I guess we need to visit the Laundromat today, too," she said.
I nodded, blushing.
"Why are you so nervous?" she asked.
She stepped closer to me, and kissed me, before pulling away.
I sputtered again. Jesus Christ was I terrible at this. I was lucky that she was so nice about it. I rubbed the back of my head and blushed. I was so awkward it was ridiculous.
"Well, it's just… I've never…" I said.
She gasped.
"Never?" she asked. She seemed surprised by it.
"Well… yeah," I said.
"So was that the first time you've done anything with a girl?" she asked.
"You're the only girl I've ever done anything with," I said.
She looked surprised before she smiled.
"You're so handsome, though," she said. "It's just surprising."
I sighed, and didn't respond.
"It's not a bad thing, you know," she said.
"It's such an unimportant thing," she said.
It certainly didn't feel like it.
"Don't worry about it," she said.
I heard a yawn from behind me, and I hurriedly stuffed my stained boxers inside of my backpack. When we left, I'd take them, and the rest of my dirty clothes, but for now, I was leaving them in there.
"I'm… going to the bathroom…" I heard Jack mumble, and watched him shuffle off into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.
"I think he stayed up so late. That's the only reason he didn't wake up," Brianna said.
"I guess that's good, then," I said. "We would've had to stop."
She shook her head.
"Oh, I wasn't stopping," she said.
I blushed again.
XxXxXxXxXx
We went out to a waffle house for breakfast. The entire time, Brianna was hanging onto my arm and being much more affectionate than usual. And the entire time, I was blushing. I was slowly getting used to the idea of being intimate with her, but it was still so strange- until about an hour ago, I was only one who'd ever touched me down there.
Then she did, and now everything was different. Maybe I was making way too much out of it, but at the same time, I couldn't get over what had happened. A guy will always remember his first real sexual experience with a woman, and that was definitely mine.
Jack looked at the two of us together, as we all sat at the table.
"Something I missed?" he asked, smirking.
I groaned. It was sort of ridiculous that what he was implying actually had happened. Brianna only giggled and waited for our food to come. We'd ordered a large helping of waffles to start the day. It was probably going to be another day of frustrating searching for Terry and Matt, followed by battling to gather money slowly.
I could tell I was going to need my food. It felt like today was going to be frustrating- I could just tell. I really wasn't looking forward to running all over Cherrygrove and have every single person tell me that they hadn't seen Terry or Matt. But it had to be done. I didn't plan on giving up on either of them, and I was going to make sure that I found them.
They would do the same for me.
A few minutes after we ordered, the waiter came with three plates heavily stacked with waffles and left them on the table with us with forks. A few seconds later, and the man returned and left us with a bottle of syrup for us to use.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"No thanks. That'll be fine," I said.
He nodded to the three of us and left us to eat our meal.
We made quick work out of the waffles, Jack and I especially. Brianna took longer to eat after the both of us were done, but we waited patiently. When she was done, we paid and left. We didn't have time to lose. We'd only just started searching for Terry and Matt, and I knew that this was going to be an ordeal- and it wasn't even anywhere near over, either, sadly.
XxXxXxXxXx
The day passed in the same way, sadly. We made some money from battling, we ran all over town asking people if they'd seen anything, and of course, they hadn't, and they we met up and had burgers again at the same place at around the same time.
The excitement of the day started really late.
After we'd paid for the burgers and were walking to the Pokemon Center, I felt something rumbling in my pocket. I'd almost completely forgotten about the phone that Hank had given me. Since he hadn't called me in so long, it always was carried around with me, but it was a weight I'd gotten used to- it was almost like it wasn't even there.
I took the phone from my Pocket and stared at it. The call said Hank.
I answered it.
"Who is it?" Brianna asked, and Jack stopped as well.
"Hank," I said, answering both Brianna and Jack, but also saying hello to the man on the other side of the call. I heard heavy breathing, and then Hank finally spoke.
"You're there, right? Daniel, are you there-"
"Yeah, yeah! I'm here. What is it?" I asked.
"It's… It's Terry and Matt," he said.
I breathed.
"What about them, did you find them?" I asked.
"Not necessarily, but they were definitely spotted. Here… I'll send you a picture-"
I took the phone away from my ear and stared at the screen, waiting.
Where was it?
I was getting impatient until I finally saw a file being sent to me. I agreed to see the file and, then, slowly, it loaded. First, I saw Terry's face. It was comforting, in many ways- I hadn't seen him in so long. I felt someone bump into me and I turned around.
Some man walked past us, brushing into all of us. I glared at his back as he walked past us. I turned back to the phone. Now a different file was being sent. I said yes to this one as well, and this time, I saw Matt's face. I grinned, completely optimistic.
"This is great!" I yelled into the phone. I heard fumbling and then heavy breathing.
"D-do you want the bad news or the good news first?" Hank asked.
I froze for a moment before playing it off.
"The bad news? Pssh! What are you talking about, Hank? This could only be good," I said. I heard a deep, tired, frustrated sigh on the other end of the line.
Then, for several seconds, silence.
"No, Daniel, it's not only good," he said.
"W-well, what is it?" I asked, starting to get nervous.
"What's happening?" Jack asked me, but I brushed him away.
"We believe they may be working with the Rockets," he said.
He just came out and said it, just like that.
I waited a second before laughing.
"You got me Hank, you got me. Now, what's the real bad news? They're probably just hard to find, right? Well, a lead is better than nothing, and I'm surprised you even made it this far with how hard it could be to find two people-"
"They were arrested in Hoenn due to various charges- although they were small crimes, and they were dropped. They're suspected of criminal activity, Daniel- that's the bad news," he said. I sighed.
"You aren't joking, are you?" I asked.
Another deep, frustrated sigh.
"No, I'm not," he said.
He had to be lying. There was no way that they would do that.
There was no way.
I didn't believe him.
"I-I don't believe you!" I snarled into the phone.
"No- Daniel, wait-"
Too late. I hung up on him, shut off the phone, and put it back in my pocket.
Then I started stomping my way back to the Pokemon Center.
"What happened?" Jack asked.
Brianna was pestering me just as much.
I sighed.
"Hank said something weird- I don't believe it!" I blurted out, before they could even ask what he said.
"Daniel, what did he say?" Jack asked.
"He said that Terry and Matt had been arrested in Hoenn for suspicious activities, as well as committing several crimes. They're also involved with the Rockets, apparently," I said.
Jack stayed silent for a moment before issuing a short and efficient declaration.
"That's complete bullshit," he said.
"I know. That's why I was mad at him," I said. "Why would he lie to me?"
Brianna brushed up closer against me.
"Maybe he's telling the truth?"
I snorted.
"Brianna, I know you're trying to be fair to Hank here, but no. Just no. You never met the two of them, you don't know them. They'd never do something like that," I stated.
I was calm and confident when I said that.
They'd never do something like that.
Never.
XxXxXxXxXx
I was still sort of pissed off by the time that we got back to the Pokemon Center.
It was only by the time I'd reached the room again that I realized I'd forgotten to buy books for Einstein. Eh, screw it. I'd do it tomorrow. It wasn't exactly a pressing concern. Something more important had already come up.
Right on time, though, as soon as I entered the door, Einstein levitated up. I could feel it from him- hoping,
Books?
I sighed.
"Sorry, buddy. I didn't get you your books. Something came up," I said.
What did?
I heard the frustration in his voice- his mental voice, I guess, would be the way to describe it.
"We'll get them tomorrow, your books, but I got… a bad call," I said, holding up my phone. I glanced down at the phone, and then glared at it.
Einstein cocked his head, but said nothing.
I'm going to meditate.
He sounded mad at me for me not bringing his book- and I sighed, and he went into his corner. I wish I could've related to him more, but we were so different.
"It can't be real," Jack said.
I nodded, and went to sit down on the bed.
There was no way. I liked Hank, and I was really, really appreciative of him and everything he'd done for us, everything he'd given us… but I refused to believe it. Terry and Matt were better than that.
Then again…
I sighed and glanced at the phone. The pictures looked like mug shots- they were obviously done differently in this world, but the similarity was there, and that was all that really mattered. I found tears in my eyes as I looked at the phone.
I turned it off and put it in my pocket.
There was only one way to really check this out…
"Brianna, how much do plane tickets cost here?" I asked.
Brianna looked confused, but then she realized what I was talking about.
"No. You don't even know if they're there," she said.
I shook my head.
"I don't care. I need to check this out. If they're there, I need to see them. If they're not, they've still been sighted in Hoenn. It could all be a big mix up. I might be able to catch them in the same city, who knows? I need to see them," I said.
I was set on it.
"I need to," I said.
"They're very expensive," she said.
"What, tickets?" I asked.
"Yes… you're taking an international flight, across water, and we'll be paying for three people. That's probably…" she trailed off, staring at the ground for a moment. She was doing mental math.
"How much did you make so far?" she asked.
"Four thousand, but we have like thirty two hundred because of what we've been spending it on. I'm also going to buy books for Einstein so that'll probably be another setback," I said. "But that's just me. You and Jack made some too, right?" I asked.
"I have four hundred. I think Jack has a little more," she said.
I swore.
"Well, it can't be that much. How much is it?" I asked.
"Well," she said, trailing off and hesitating.
"Just tell me, Brianna. I need to hear it," I said, burying my face in my hands.
"God, why did it have to happen like this…? I need to think. How much, Brianna?"
"Thirty thousand, maybe?" she whispered.
I stopped, and then sputtered.
"Thirty thousand?" I asked.
She nodded, and then lowered her head.
"That's completely ridiculous! I don't have that kind of money… we're probably going to have less than two thousand total after we buy books for Einstein… that'll take weeks to save up and get!" I complained.
"I know," Brianna sighed.
"What are we going to do?" I asked- more myself than anyone else.
"Battle?" Jack asked.
I frowned.
"Of course we're going to battle! That's not what I was trying to say. We're probably going to get over there way too late even if we battle… damn it!" I yelled.
"Calm down, Daniel," Brianna told me, and put a hand on my shoulder. I sighed.
"Well, what are we going to do?" I asked her.
She stayed silent.
"Exactly," I said.
"Well, we need to go to Hoenn either way, right?" Jack asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"So, even if we get there late, we're still going, right?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't we?" I asked.
"Then don't worry about it," he said.
"What?" I asked. "Why wouldn't I worry about it?"
"Well, there's no way it's real, but let's just say that they're there, right? Arrested and everything," he said, even though he frowned while he said it.
"Alright, I'll humor you. What then?" I asked.
"Well, then they won't be leaving at least for a while, if they're actually arrested. But, if they're not in prison, or they've just been sighed over there and this is all a huge misunderstanding- hopefully, of course- then this just means that regardless of when you get there, you're either going to find them, or you're not going to. So, don't freak out," he said.
I sighed.
He was right, in a way. If they were arrested, I'd get to see them if even if I got there late. And, hopefully, if they hadn't done anything- which they hadn't- then they'd still be hard to find even if I got to Hoenn earlier.
"Alright, fine. We're just going to battle all day for the next few weeks to make enough money, and in the meantime, I'll ask Hank what city it was that they were spotted inside of- or, where they're 'being held,' I guess," I mumbled.
I sighed again.
"It'll be alright, Daniel," Brianna said, trying to comfort me.
"I hope so," I said.
Even as all of us got ready for bed and the night slowly wore on, I couldn't get my friends off my mind. Waiting for news, waiting for news, waiting for news- waiting, waiting, waiting, and then this? I felt like screaming.
It was interesting how quiet night was in this world. Even in a large city like this, it was almost completely silent. There was very small buzzing- people talking and making noise outside and there was the occasional loud car that passed by the Pokemon Center, but besides that, it was quiet. Extremely quiet. I could hear Jack breathing on the other side of the room. He snored. I could also hear Brianna breathing next to me.
I sighed, then groaned, and tried to wrap my pillow around my head.
It didn't work.
Why couldn't I sleep? It was so peaceful. I had Brianna right next to me- her red hair fell over the pillow and off the bed in beautiful heaps. There was no danger here. I was comfortable. I sighed and nestled in deeper.
Terry.
Matt.
Fuck. Of course I couldn't sleep. I wasn't really surprised, but I'd never been this deeply affected by something like this before. I'd never been that good at dealing with my emotions, but this was different. I was perfectly comfortable, but…
I couldn't stop thinking about them. They'd been two of my only friends for four of the last years, and now, I'd gotten such terrible news. I mean, 'your friends are in jail in another country?' What the hell was I supposed to do with something like that?
I sighed and groaned again.
"You can't sleep either?" Brianna asked.
I glanced over. She stared at me, perfectly awake.
(Citrusy material. Not a full sex scene, but still. You've been warned.)
"N-no. I thought you were asleep," I said.
She shook her head.
"I can't sleep either. But not for the same reason," she said, kissing me.
"What?" I asked.
"I can't stop thinking about you. You have me so hot," she whispered.
Her emerald eyes stared into mine.
Normally, they were calm, full of light and laughter. Now, I was seeing a darker side- not necessarily bad, but not necessarily good, either. Her emerald eyes were almost a darker shade- filled with desire and desperation. They shimmered with care and fascination, but above all, lust. She kissed me once on the lips, before pulling away and breathing.
"Touch me," she said. She grabbed my hand and led my hand downwards under the covers that we'd cast over our bodies. It took her a second, but she got my hand inside her panties, and then I was touching her.
I made the slightest movement, and she moaned.
"Don't stop," she said, and I didn't.
It was so weird. I was so nervous that I'd do something wrong or that I'd hurt her, but nothing like that happened. She only made cute little noises and tried to get my fingers deeper inside of her. It was hard to get them inside of her. My fingers were completely wet because she was so soaked.
"I love you," she said.
Then she whispered something in such a low tone, I'm sure I wasn't supposed to hear it.
"You're so much nicer than he was."
What?
I took my other hand and she moaned as I felt up chest. I probably wasn't doing it that well, because I had no idea where to touch or what to do, but I tried my best. I tweaked and pinched her nipples and grabbed handfuls of her flesh. By now, I had gotten so hard from her. She didn't fail to notice.
Once she started, neither of us could stop.
She kissed me and moaned into my mouth, and grabbed my head with her free hand.
I went to sleep late that night, but at the very least, I went to sleep.
(XxXxXxXxXx the end of that citrusy scene.)
I woke up drowsy, but only because I'd missed so much sleep.
Blinking and groaning, I rolled out of bed. Brianna still was lying there with the covers barely covering her body. I was pretty sure she still had her shirt off, and I raised the covers a little higher to make sure that she was fully covered. I didn't need it to get awkward between Jack, Brianna and I.
Jack. I hadn't even considered him last night. Did he-
I turned and stared at his bed. He was still asleep. I wasn't sure if he'd witnessed anything last night, but I figured that it'd reveal itself before the end of the day. It'd definitely be awkward if he had seen us… doing stuff.
Soft language, like George Carlin said, I know.
If he'd seen us mutually masturbating each other.
There.
Still, I wasn't worried. The worst thing that could happen was that it would be awkward between the three of us, but he'd probably be happy for me that I was scoring, if you could even call it that. I guess you could. Women weren't just holes to me, though, so I'd never enjoyed that term. It was hard not to sexually objectify them, though.
That was just my opinion, though. That was only because it was hard to deal with lust without projecting it onto an image- and for a majority of men, that image was women.
I wasn't used to girls, and having all of this sex thrust upon me like this- excuse the very horrible pun- was weird. It was even weirder because Brianna was the one that was always initiating it. I enjoyed it. Very much. But I couldn't help but feel there was something deeper there- there had to be a reason that she was doing it.
I knew that women liked sex. The fact that they didn't was a complete myth. No, that wasn't it. It was more like I felt she was almost obsessed with me. Again, it didn't bother me. I didn't mind her being close all the time. It wasn't even that she was being clingy. I wasn't even worried about me.
I was worried about her.
I was wondering what kind of influence I was on her by being nearby. I knew she was damaged- she'd already told me about her previous relationship with the other man- I'd already forgotten his name. I'm sure she hadn't, though.
If sex made her felt better, then I'd do it with her. It wasn't like it hurt me. But I was worried that she used it as a crutch to not accept her actual feelings, or to put them away, or to have something else to do but acknowledge her pain. Something like that- I wasn't a psychologist, or a therapist, or even very particularly observant. But it was hard not to notice the kind of things she suggested with how she acted.
That wasn't even mentioning the thing that I'd heard her say last night.
What was that supposed to mean, 'you're so much nicer than he was?'
I mean, I knew what it meant, but… it only made me feel sorry for Brianna. He must've hurt her so much. And, now, she was clinging to me just because I didn't give her a reason to be scared. I sighed and buried my face in my hands.
I didn't have time to worry about this at this moment in time. I needed to go out there and start winning money by battling. I walked over to the sink after entering the bathroom and started washing my face. It woke me up and made it easier to think. After that, I walked back outside of the bathroom and walked over to Einstein, who was still sleeping.
I poked him on the top of the head until he woke up.
Fine, fine. I was hoping you'd leave me alone.
"We're going to get the books, so I'm surprised that you'd say that," I said.
Really?
It was impossible not to hear the excitement in his voice. It sounded like I was taking a little kid to the park and then to ice cream afterwards. I nodded.
"Yep. Not only do you deserve it, I want you to evolve," I said.
Well, this is the best way to do it. Once I evolve into a Kadabra, it'll be a lot easier for me to evolve in Alakazam by fighting, but it'll still be better for me to also read books during that time. The stronger I make my brain, the stronger I make myself.
"Well, let's go," I said.
I'm ready when you're ready.
I nodded.
I spent a few more minutes changing clothes, getting a drink of water, grabbing some money, and putting on a pair of socks and then slipping on my sneakers. As I was doing so, I couldn't help but notice that I still had an Earth brand. I laughed. These were some of the only pieces of the proof that I'd actually came from another world, and I wore them on the feed and dragged them in the grass and dirt.
What's so funny?
I shook my head.
"Nothing. Let's go," I say.
I can't wait! This is going to be great.
"What kind of books are you going to want?" I asked.
Well, I won't be picky, I can tell you that. I'd go for anything, really- informational novels, fiction, non-fiction, action, adventure, romance, mystery, almanacs- anything, literally anything. It's better than having anything, which is what I have right now.
I shrugged.
"Sure. That works for me if it works for you," I said.
It does.
When we left the room, I left Brianna and Jack a note and locked the door behind me. I took Tina with me and released her on the way, and I heard her make a rough, grinding growl of happiness when she saw me as she was released from her ball.
She says she's happy to see you.
I turned in confusion and stared at Einstein as he levitated himself behind me.
What? It's what she said.
"Really? You can read her mind?" I asked.
I don't even have to read her mind. I speak Pokemon, you know- I am one of them. But I can also do that, if you want me to, but I doubt I'd find much. She isn't… stupid, but she's not a genius either. I'm not going to find her contemplating life in there.
I shrugged, and then nodded. He had a point.
I leaned down as we walked out of the Pokemon Center and stroked Tina's rough silvery-gray body. She ground out a purr that sounded like she wanted to rip my hand off, but I knew that it wasn't the case.
"Happy to see you too," I told her.
She pushed herself along using her gases and her natural strength. The both of them kept up with me as we rounded a corner and continued on in the town. I knew that it was fairly close to the Center- based on Brianna had told me about the town, anyway, and based on how much of the town I'd seen already, which was a lot.
Barth's street. I'd been before here. Brianna had said it was right past 102nd avenue, which was right after Barth's… right over there.
I saw the street sign that numbered it as 102nd avenue, and giving one long glance down the avenue, I spotted a small store neatly squeezed on the corner at the end. I made a beeline for it. It was early enough that there weren't many people out at the minute, but soon enough,, they'd be filling every street like water running through pipes- taking up every space, moving fast, because they had places to go and things to do.
I sighed when I saw the sign on the front of the bookstore.
No Pokemon Allowed! It declared.
It showed an enlarged Pokeball spinning with a cancel sign firmly stamped over it. I recalled Tina, and she gave me a happy roar as she went back into her ball. I heard a frustrated growl from Einstein.
Is this thing serious?
I sighed.
"Unfortunately. I'm not going to recall you, though. Wait out here, and I'll bring you books out for you to pick. We're just going to go around their stupid rules," I said.
I guess that'll work.
Einstein levitated outside and looked inside the store through the window that was in the front. I walked inside and set off the bell that was set to ring when someone entered the shop. A middle aged man looked up from the book he was reading and smiled when he saw that he had a customer.
There were all kinds of books in here. I saw fat, thick novels that dominated and took up most of the space on the shelves. I saw small, thin children's books, almanacs, fiction, non-fiction, and everything else in between. He had a few posters up in the back for what I assumed were current popular fiction books that probably generated a lot of his sales.
"Here to buy? Or sign up for our weekly book club?" he asked, handing me a book pamphlet. I refused it, setting it back on the counter.
"No, I'm here to buy some books. A lot of books," I said.
"Oh, you're a big reader, huh?" he asked.
I shook my heads.
"I'm not even buying them for myself. I'm buying them for a… friend of mine," I said.
I was careful to word my sentences right. If he had a sign like that up, he probably didn't like Pokemon that much- or, at the very least, didn't want them coming inside of his store, for whatever reason. Either way, he considered them inferior, and because of that, I wasn't sure if he'd sell to me if I told him who I was buying them for, and the reason for it.
"Well, what does your friend like to read? Mystery, fantasy, action, thriller," he said, listing many, many genres. I stopped him before he really got into it.
"He wants to expand his mind. I think the best thing for him would be hard material," I said. "Really hard stuff. Like, the hardest stuff you have," I said.
"Non-fiction informational might be the best, but make sure to throw some good fiction in there," I said.
"Well, I usually only get young kids in here. Sometimes adults, but they're rarer. So, I have things organized by reading level and age, maturity, things like that. That'd probably be the best thing for you to use," he suggested.
"Do you have it listed physically, or is it only in your head?" I asked him.
He looked embarrassed.
"Yeah, just in your head, right? Well, what do you recommend?" I asked.
"Well, for starters," he said, and from there, he went into a list of literary accomplishments or works that authors had considered personal achievements. I tried to kepe up, but I ended up running all over the shop and fetching things as he listed them. I ended up with over thirty books stacked in five or six little towers on the counter.
"I think that's a pretty good start," the man said, looking at what had made me sweat. I'd ran all over the shop until he was done naming things.
"Can you total these up and tell me how much?" I asked him. He nodded, and it took him a minute to scan all of them, but it ended up being over two thousand. I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt to toss over the money. It would only hinder the gathering of money for the plane tickets, but it was worth it. If it was going to make Einstein evolve, it was worth it- plus, it wasn't like he'd ever asked for much before this.
"Thank you for helping my Abra evolve," I said.
"What!?" he asked.
I ignored his confusion and walked outside, holding the bags full of books. I set the down on the floor and pulled one out, and let Einstein grab it with his telekinesis. He opened the cover and flipped through the pages, and looked at the back. Then he set it back down into the bags and looked through all the other books I bought.
Thanks.
"Get to studying," I told him. "You're going to evolve," I told him.
With this, definitely. It might take me a while to read through all of us and learn enough for that to happen, though.
"It's fine," It told him. "As long as you're progressing. We aren't going to be moving around for a while after what happened with that call," I said.
What was that about anyway?
"Something that we're going to have to face fairly soon," I said.
What do you mean by that?
"You know how Jack and I are from another world, right?" I knew that I'd mentioned it to him before- though I couldn't remember if I'd told him the whole thing in detail.
Yes.
"Well, we had two other friends that were grabbed with us when we were first teleported here. We've been looking for them the entire time," I said. "Then, yesterday, Hank called us. He'd said that he'd seen the two of them- Terry and Matt, are their names. I'm hoping you'll meet them some day," I said.
What did he say about them?
I glanced behind me and couldn't help chuckling. I was walking in front of him, and behind me, there was an Abra floating in the air levitating and reading a thick, fat book in front of him. It was just such a strange sight, and I knew that most of the stares I got were from him. Off-handedly, I released Tina just so she could get some air. No Pokemon had to enjoy the Pokeball. It was only a necessary evil.
"He said that they'd been arrested for crimes and suspicion of being related to the Rockets- possibly even working for them," I said. I heard a groan inside of my head.
Rockets? Those people that attacked us in the forest?
"The same," I said.
I trust you, Daniel, he said, and it was strange to hear him call me that. He addressed me on a more personal level than I'd expected him to do- I'd always expected him to call me Trainer or Master, but it was really pleasing that he didn't. I didn't have an ego that needed stroking, and also, I'd rather have him talk to me personally than report to me like he was some kind of soldier.
If you say they didn't do it, then I'll believe you.
So, did they do it?
There was only the slightest hesitation. I opened my mouth, and then closed it, and stopped walking. Einstein stayed quiet. Tina looked up at me with her dark eyes.
I see.
I sighed, and we kept walking to the Pokemon Center.
XxXxXxXxXx
We didn't talk at all until we got back the Pokemon Center. I closed the door behind me as I walked into the room. Jack and Brianna were obviously awake by now. The bathroom door was closed and the light was on, so I was guessing he was in the bathroom. Brianna was sitting there, waiting for me, on the bed. Ciri was released on the floor, and Brianna was petting her, stroking her fur.
"Hey," I said.
"You bought his books?" she asked me. I nodded.
"Well, we're going to battle soon, right? Is he just going to stay in here and read?" she asked. I nodded. I picked out a few of the extremely thick books from the over thirty that I'd bought.
"Yep. He's going to be done with all of these eventually," I said.
"Well, we're going to go out and start battling soon," she said.
"You and Tina are ready to go, right?" Brianna asked me.
"Yeah, sure," I said. "We'll be out soon," I said.
"Alright, I'll be waiting outside the Pokemon Center for you and Jack," she said, and she kissed me as she walked outside and Ciri followed her.
You enjoy your intimacy with her, right?
"W-what?" I asked Einstein, stammering.
I hear you two moaning late into the night. You're so loud. How could I even hear anything else over the two of you? The only thing I don't get, he said, is how Jack doesn't notice it. It makes no sense to me. Neither does physical intimacy, but then again, as an Abra, I do not find physical traits sexual- to a certain point, anyway. The real only trait I seek in a mate is her intelligence. That comes before anything else.
"Thanks for sharing?" I asked him, sarcastic.
He didn't respond, instead choosing to pick a corner and go sit in it with his books. I sighed, and right as I was about to turn and go for the door, Jack walked out, smiling.
"Ready to win some money?" he asked.
"Yeah, sure," I said, but my hesitation when I'd been talking about Terry and Matt with Einstein was still fresh, and it was hard to put it away.
What if they really were criminals? What if they'd really been captured because they'd been committing crimes, working for Team Rocket, and the like?
What was I going to do?
I tried to get some control back.
I wasn't going to have to do anything because I knew that they wouldn't betray me- or themselves- like that. It wasn't something I should concern myself with. I had much bigger things to worry about- getting money to fly to Hoenn, training my Pokemon, finding Palkia if and at all possible- most likely not, but it was still a goal of mine, no matter how ridiculous it was. I didn't have time to worry about things that couldn't be true.
"You alright?" Jack asked me.
"Yeah," I muttered.
"I'm just fine."
XxXxXxXxXx
Battle, battle, battle.
Battlebattlebattle.
That was my entire day. Tina worked hard, and so did Storm and Ciri. We won our fair share of money- a little more than three thousand over the course of the whole day. That was all of us together. Usually, before, I'd been battling the most, and we hadn't been trying as hard to make money because we hadn't had the use for such a large amount of cash.
But now, all of us were trying as hard as we could to win as many battles as we could, and we did this all day long. Our Pokemon fainted multiple times and we had to go back to the Pokemon Center a few times. We lost battles of course, but we won many more, and we went home with a lot of money. We stopped at some random pizzeria for dinner and then we went back to the Center at night to sleep.
I noticed one small difference, though I wasn't sure if Jack noticed it or not. Storm was evolving. I noticed that his yellowish fur was starting to turn whiter across his entire coat, and it was starting to shrink upwards. His skin was also starting to turn from the deep blue that it was now into a more pink hue. He'd also attempted to stand on his hind legs today, though he'd failed at it, I knew what it was hinting at.
Once we walked inside and Brianna went into the shower, I decided to bring it up with Jack. I'd already recalled Tina, but Jack still had Storm out, and he was feeding him a bright red apple. The Pokemon wasted no time in chomping down on the apple and making one of the cutest cries I'd ever heard.
"Mareeeep~!"
Jack laughed and then pet Storm's head.
"Hey, you know Storm's evolving, right?" I asked him. Might as well just say it.
He looked at him, and then nodded.
"Yeah, I can see it. He's starting to turn into a Flaaffy, right?" he asked.
"Yep. I just wanted to make sure you knew," I said.
He recalled Storm.
"Yeah, I noticed it today. I think it actually really started last night, but it only really progressed today when we were battling because he fought a whole lot today. Maybe in a few days he'll be fully evolved. I might have to take it easy on him while he's evolving," Jack said.
I nodded.
"I'm not sure if it's the same across all Pokemon, but it's probably best that you do that. It probably wouldn't be good to push him while he's trying to get stronger. Do you want to just let me and Brianna take most of the battles for the next few days?" I asked.
Jack didn't respond immediately but he looked down at the Pokeball inside his hands. He sighed. He turned it over and over inside his hands before he finally spoke.
"Yeah, probably. It would probably be best for Storm," he said.
"What would be?" I heard a voice ask, and looking at the bathroom door, I saw Brianna there, done taking her shower.
"Jack's going to take a break from battling because Storm is evolving," I said.
Brianna nodded, clicking her tongue in her mouth.
"I was wondering whether you two noticed that. Yeah, just let him rest," she said, coming to sit down next to me on the bed. Jack nodded, and then went to use the shower. Once Jack went inside the bathroom, Brianna jumped me, immediately.
She pushed me on the bed and started kissing me, her hands skirting along my chest and pushing down on it as she crawled on top of me.
"Brianna, wait-"
She kissed me even harder, and rubbed herself against me. At this rate, we'd start, and Jack would come out when we were right in the middle of it.
"Brianna, wait!" I said, managing to get her attention.
She looked disappointed but stopped. She didn't get off of me, though.
"There are a couple things I wanted to say. Besides, Jack will come out of the bathroom. Do you really want him to see you like that?" I asked her.
She shrugged, and I gaped before I laughed.
"Anyway, Einstein knows what we've been doing. He's been hearing us at night," I said.
She had the sense to at least look the least littlest bit embarrassed by that.
"Not to mention, I have to ask you something, Brianna," I said.
She grinned. I saw the lust brimming in her beautiful green eyes.
"Let me guess, you want me to suck it?" she asked, hand roving towards my pants.
"I'll make you feel good," she said.
"Well, yes- no, wait!" I told her.
"What?" she asked me.
"Don't you think you're relying on sex too much?" I asked her.
"What do you mean?" she asked, and I could tell that she was starting to get frustrated.
"We've barely been with each other for that long at all. Don't you think this is a little too fast? Or, at least, that you're using this to evade something else?" I asked her.
"No?" she said. She sounded like she was really confused.
I frowned.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she was just really horny? But I didn't want to accept that- and all because I'd heard what she'd said the other day when we were with each other.
"I heard what you said the other night," I said.
"What? What are you even talking about?" she asked, frowning.
"That I'm much nicer than he was," I stated, repeating what she'd said.
She froze at that, and I knew I'd caught her.
"Just because I'm not abusing you doesn't mean you have to thank me with sex, nor does it mean I expect it. I can tell you're hurt, Brianna," I told her. She shook her head, but I could tell that she was losing it. Her emerald eyes began to water.
"Y-you're wrong," she stated, "that's n-not why. I-I love you-"she started, but I interrupted her.
"Are you really sure you love me?" I asked her. "We've barely known each other for such a short time," I said.
"O-Of course," she said, and I could tell she was going to break down into tears soon enough. But this had to be finished. I couldn't let her tears stop me from completing this. I wasn't trying to hurt her. I was trying to stop her from hurting herself.
"What did he say, Brianna?" I asked her.
"W-what did who say?" she asked. "Who are you even talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about," I said.
"I-I," she said, stuttering. She sobbed, once- twice, thrice.
"Brianna," I said, kissing her. She molded to me and wrapped her arms around my back. I held her for a few seconds, and I put my hands on her back. I rubbed her back, and I felt her start to tremble. Here it came.
"What did he say?" I asked her.
My voice quiet- almost silent, even. I whispered it.
She responded in an even quieter- if possible- voice. She sobbed while she said it- and I almost didn't hear it over her cries.
"I-It's all I'm good for," she whispered.
"What is?"
"I-I'm only good… for…" she said, but she didn't have to go any further.
I knew what she was trying to say.
Was that what he had really said? She was only good for sex?
She was so much more than that. Brianna wasn't just…sex. She was cute, wonderful; caring… she was even good at training and battling, even if she didn't want to admit it. She wasn't just a hole.
"Just… sit still," I told her.
She was crying now, and I knew that there wasn't going to be any stop soon. When Jack came out of the shower, he was surprised, but a harsh look from me let him know that it was between me and her, and that it wasn't any of his business.
I'm sure it was hard for him to go to bed with Brianna crying right there, but Jack managed it. Einstein was still in the corner reading, still.
Brianna cried for a long, long while- even after Jack went to sleep. I'm not sure how long she actually was sobbing for, but I held her for the entire time. I waited for her eyes to dry before I pulled away from her and looked at her face.
Her eyes were red and puffy, still leaking a little bit, but mostly dry. Her hair was even more frizzy and ruffled than usual. My shirt was extremely damp all around my right shoulder. I smiled at her, and she smiled back at me.
"Do you feel better?" I asked.
She nodded, rubbing at her eyes with her hands.
"Y-yes," she muttered.
I knew that she was lying- sort of, anyway.
There was no way that she already felt better just because of that. I'd helped her, but the only real cure for what had happened to her was kindness and time, mixed together.
And that was what I was going to give her.
"I'm going to take a shower, alright?" I told her.
"Yeah, sure," she said.
I got up and left her on the bed. Right when I was about to walk inside the bathroom, I heard her call me from the bed.
"Daniel?" she said.
"Yeah?" I asked her, turning around.
"Thanks," she said.
I smiled at her.
"No problem," I told her, before going in the shower.
I bathed quickly and then walked out, still damp from the bathroom. It had gotten darker in the room since I went to bathe, but Brianna was still there, awake, waiting up for me.
"Lay down with me," she said.
I did, and I expected her to come onto me immediately.
"D-do you not want to do anything?" she asked me.
"I'll do whatever you want to do," I told her.
She kissed me, and then she got much, much closer, giggling.
But, unlike before, her eyes brimmed with something else besides lust- it was still there, but what lurked inside there, intertwined with her lust, was stronger- and it supported the lust and kept it alive. She kissed me hard, and jumped on top of me, and she got crazier than she had ever been before.
I wonder how much we annoyed Einstein that night.
XxXxXxXxXxXx
After I'd talked to Brianna, everything just seemed to get a lot better.
While it didn't do much to curb her sexual appetite- she still wanted a lot of sex- she just seemed better than she had been before. She seemed just a little happier, a little more upbeat- and it didn't seem fake like it had been before.
She'd always been a happy girl, ever since I'd met her- supposedly. But when I learned a little more about her past, I started to get a little suspicious of how she acted. And I knew it. I knew that it would be true- that she wasn't really happy, she was still hurting inside. They were empty smiles, empty laughs. There was no real feeling in it.
Until last night.
I'm not sure what it was about that, but ever since she cried, she seemed just so… content, happy- ecstatic, even. Whatever it was, I wasn't going to complain about it. She was happier- actually happier- than I'd ever seen her in a long time.
And nothing was going to ruin that.
I woke up with her arms wrapped around me. I didn't know how, but a lot of our clothes had come off even though we hadn't gone that far last night. We were both naked, all the way down to the waist. I didn't even have my socks on. I wanted to move and get up, but as I tried to pull away, Brianna only snuggled into me and grabbed me tighter.
I was trapped. There was no escape.
And then Jack started to wake up.
I heard him moan and toss and turn over on his bed, and I panicked. If he saw us like this, what would he say? Well, I knew what he'd say, but still! I tried to pull away from her, but it was no use. She hugged me close, and with my sexy, naked girlfriend clutching at me like that, Junior did definitely rise to the occasion, I'll tell you that.
I sighed and decided to just try to wake her up instead. The only reason I even wanted to leave the bed was because I knew that Jack would probably mess with me about it for a while, and I didn't feel like having him tease me. A satisfied moan escaped Brianna's mouth, and she snuggled into my chest closer still. Her chest was pressing into mine, and that was it.
"W-wait, what?" I heard Jack ask, and then he glanced at both Brianna and me.
"Niiiice," he drawled, glancing at both of us, clearly naked under the covers.
"I'll give you two a chance to get dressed. I'm going into the bathroom," he said, and grabbed some clothes to change.
I sighed. I knew he'd use this eventually, now.
"Hey," Brianna said, giggling.
Of course she woke up now.
"I love you," she told me, with tired, happy eyes.
She rolled out of bed, naked, and started to get dressed. I couldn't help but look.
She turned around, only her panties on, and giggled at me.
"Like the view?" she asked.
I nodded, trying not to let my mouth fall open. It was, at this point, nothing I hadn't seen, but that didn't mean I didn't enjoy the sight of her body.
I started getting dressed a minute later, and by the time that Jack was asking to come out of the bathroom, we were both dressed.
"Are you two decent by now?" he asked.
"Yeah, sure, come out," I told him, and he grinned once he walked out.
"So, nice. Really nice," he told me. I facepalmed.
"Whatever," I said, trying to do my best to blow it off. "We need to go out and battle some more for more money. Jack, you wanna come along and watch us? You could just release Storm here and let him rest or something," I told him.
Jack fiddled with his bag and brought out his Pokeball. After a moment of looking at it, he nodded. He released Storm, who was turning pinker. His fur was also starting to retract farther and farther up his body.
He fed him an apple, and then left another on the bed for when Storm got hungry.
"Don't eat it until you actually get hungry," Jack told him, "I won't be back for a while," Jack said. Storm looked a little sad that he was leaving, but he nodded and let out a small cry to show that he understood what he'd been told.
Then, we left to battle.
XxXxXxXxXx
I was surprised that Jack wasn't messing with me as much as I'd expected him to. Maybe he'd gotten a little more mature than I had realized. Besides one or two gags and jokes throughout the day that made both Brianna and I blush, he'd been mostly quiet.
Most of the battles were boring. The ones I lost were sort of interesting, but more often than not, it was because of my own inexperience. The ones that I won, I won through stomping. It was hardly fair when rocks collided with a Pidgey's wing.
I must've sent so many kids running to the Pokemon Center that day.
It was almost cruel, but in a way, I didn't feel bad for what I'd done- that is, practically beating up little kids and crushing them in completely unfair battles, and then following up by mugging them for money they were probably going to use to buy candy or something.
It sounded really mean, even evil to a certain extent, but I realized that it wasn't.
I saw the look on Jack's face, on other days before this, when he'd been battling with Storm and doing basically the same thing- he was confused, maybe even slightly disgusted with himself. But it looked like he'd come to the same realization that I had.
We'd been in this world for a while now, and having traveled in the wilds, but also having been in a town and then, now, a semi-large city, I'd had enough interaction with the people of this world to understand certain things.
One of those things was culture.
Unlike our culture, in which children were babied well into their teens, in this world, people expected you to have at least a small amount of responsibility, even at an early age like, say, seven. I say seven because probably half the kids I beat were that age or only slightly older, perhaps eight or nine.
Their parents gave them money. Whatever they used it on- or lost it in- was no real concern of theirs. They'd probably care if they found they were losing it endlessly in battles, but I'd found out that age was much less of a barrier, in general, here.
The legal age was much, much younger- fourteen. That surprised me- as, in the US, some people in this region would probably be considered sick pedophiles. There was more. Legal age for things like tobacco, and alcohol was also much lower. You could smoke at thirteen, and you could drink at fourteen, too.
It seemed irresponsible, at first, but reviewing all of it, it actually made a lot more sense than you'd think it would. Because people were considered mature much younger, it made them mature a lot, by default. Hardly any of the children I beat looked truly angry or really discontent with that had happened- like they knew they were probably going to lose from the start. Maybe they likened it to something like child gambling?
Either way, I'd obviously underestimated the maturity of people around here. It was just strange seeing younger people being much more mature than I was used to. Not only that, it made a lot more sense how young people could travel even though they were ten or twelve or whatever: they were considered adults, basically. It made so much sense now, that I thought about it.
Our cultures were so different, so, of course, at first, I'd been confused… but now, after having lived here for at least a short amount of time, I was starting to understand their culture a bit more. Their marriage was different- there was no ring. The churches and religions were different- the clothes were similar, here. The food was similar, too, but also different. Policies, ideas, and general do's and don'ts were also different here.
Everything was different.
I mentioned it to Brianna, and she agreed. She seemed surprised by a few of things that I shared from my world- the eighteen year old sex age, the age for drinking, and smoking, and a bunch of other things. Our calendars were even different. The names of the months were the same, but some of the days were different.
For example, February has thirty seven days.
When I say that, I had to say what the fuck.
We made several thousand dollars the first day- probably closer to four thousand, but I knew that it wasn't going to be this good every day. We battled more newbies than we do usually, and we also managed to avoid most of the harder battles. We won more than we usually did, and lost a lot less than we usually did today, basically.
That didn't get my hopes down, though. Making this much on the first day- using a method that Brianna said was colloquially called 'camping'- was great. It got me believing that it really wouldn't take as long as we thought it was going to. Which was good- I really, really wanted to see Matt and Terry as soon as was physically possible.
We ate dinner out, like always, and then went back to the Pokemon Center.
It had started to become a routine, by now. We'd been in town for several days and I was really starting to get used to the place. It was so nice around here- the people were really nice, most of the time, the weather was nice, the food was nice- everything was nice.
I wasn't even surprised that this place had such a high population- no wonder people wanted to live here. It was great. I liked it way more than I thought I was actually going to.
The place was so nice that it helped me deal with my stress- there was really nothing to worry about directly around me- problems were either with my group- Jack and Brianna- or far away, with Terry and Matt. It was relieving not having to worry about something for once- it felt like that was something I'd been doing constantly ever since I'd been here.
I sighed as I walked into the Pokemon Center, with Brianna and Jack right behind me. I didn't even bother taking Tina with me back to the room, and neither did Brianna. We just both handed our Pokeballs to Nurse Joy before we went upstairs. Me and Brianna collapsed onto the bed, groaning.
We'd been battling all day, and we'd worn ourselves exhausted. We'd hardly had any breakfast, and there was nothing that resembled lunch. We only really chowed down at dinner. So we were both tired, and bloated.
Jack took the shower first.
"Don't have sex while I'm in there," he said, chastising me with a playful tone. I rolled my eyes and waved him off with one hand. He slammed the door behind him, and thirty seconds afterward, the shower started squealing.
Brianna kissed me on the lips and sighed.
"Tired, huh?" she asked.
I nodded, taking off my shoes and peeling the socks off of my feet. They were soaked in sweat, and clung to my feet, being stubborn. I managed to tear them off, and then I moaned, and stuck my feet out in the air, trying to cool them down. Brianna started rubbing my feet, and I moaned in pleasure. It felt so good to have some of the pressure relieved.
"So, how tired?" she asked, continuing to rub my feet.
"Exhausted," was my immediate response.
"Too exhausted to do stuff?" she asked, giggling.
"You mean too exhausted to mess around after Jack goes to sleep?"
She gave me a quick, eager nod.
I sighed, and then grinned.
"Never," I said.
She kissed me again, and she rubbed my feet while Jack was in the shower for ten or fifteen minutes. When he got out, she went in, and then she left my feet to ache. I spent the next twenty minutes lying on my bed, breathing.
I was really tired, and looking forward to going to bed, but I knew that I was staying up because of what Elizabeth said. Still, it would be nice to not have to move around much for the rest of the day. I really wasn't up to it. So much running around and battling- ugh, I needed new shoes. These were making my feet sore.
Once Elizabeth got out of the shower, I took one. It was twenty five minutes- long shower, I know- of glorious warm water that pounded all of my muscles and loosened them up a bit. More than anything, I just wanted to sleep, now. I got out of the shower and toweled off, drying myself.
When I walked out of the bathroom, I glanced to one corner of the room where Einstein had, basically, formed a book fort out of huge, thick stacks of literature. I could hardly see his body because he was surrounded by so many books. They towered several feet into the air, and he was only so tall- and he was sitting on the floor, no less, not even levitating.
The only thing he was holding up with his mind was the book he was currently reading.
I shook my head, sighing. That damn Abra was crazy. He was probably going to be done with all of them before I even knew it. Still, I knew that it was a good thing I'd finally got him those books. At the obsessive rate he was currently devouring them at, he'd be a Kadabra in no time, something both he and I wanted very badly.
Jack was already asleep, but Brianna was still staying up, waiting for me.
She giggled, and then moaned. I saw that her hand, beneath the covers, was right at her crotch. She purred the next few words.
"Mmm, Jack fell asleep… it's just us, now."
I sighed, and then grinned.
"Yeah," I said. "It is, isn't it?"
XxXxXxXxXx
We didn't wake up naked the next day- mostly because we woke up before Jack did and made sure to put our clothes on. Today, we hadn't felt like going out to eat, and instead we'd went down to the Pokemon Center cafeteria and gotten ourselves a mediocre breakfast, if only because it had been too early, and we just hadn't felt like it. We left money, though they told us not to. Once we'd eaten, we headed back up to our room to get ready for the day.
I put on socks, and then my shoes. I made sure I had some money on me- I didn't take all of it with me, but I took some just so I could pay off losses whenever they happened. Brianna got ready and did the same.
"Hey, guys, if you don't mind," Jack said, releasing Storm and petting him, "I think I'm going to stay here today. Watch over both Storm and Einstein," he said. I nodded to him. There was no problem with that. It wasn't like he was going to be battling anyway.
Brianna and I finished getting ready and then we trudged downstairs and got our Pokemon back from Nurse Joy. They were growing stronger and stronger every day with how much fighting we were starting to put them through. Even if the majority of the daily fights were easy, one sided stomps, the few that were hard wins- or even the losses- made our Pokemon work the hardest, and improved their strength the most.
I released Tina, and the silvery gray little lug greeted me with a happy screeching roar that nearly shattered my ear drums. God, her voice could be terrifying when she wanted it to be. I knew that she'd never do anything to me, though. Brianna released Ciri, walking next to me, as we exited the Pokemon Center. Ciri's noise was much quieter and refined.
I noticed Ciri glaring at Tina and vice versa as we walked through the city to one of the most popular battling areas. It seemed that they still held a little animosity for each other ever since they had that one confrontation a while back. It wasn't that bad- they'd still work together and stuff like that- but I think it made them more like rivals then it did anything else.
"Always getting angry at each other, huh?" I asked, looking down at them
Brianna giggled.
"Yeah, I know. It's kind of funny," she said, watching them growl and make little noises of intimidation at each other. They wouldn't fight, but they were trying to get each other to back down without having to go to that. Obviously, with as stubborn as they both were, it wasn't working.
It was a few more minutes of this before we finally reached the park of Cherrygrove City. A lot of people hung out here, and most of them were always looking for a battle. By now, they knew us, though. The weakest ones who didn't stand a chance at all left- but some of them, new faces that I hadn't seen before, stayed to battle.
They thought they stood a chance.
I couldn't blame them. They probably didn't know what Pokemon we had- the fact that we had evolved ones instead of just Pidgey and Rattata was already a huge advantage in and of itself- and they probably figured that it was a fair fight and they wanted to at least give us a try. How wrong they were, though.
They probably should've listened to rumors that had been started about us.
Since we'd been crushing people for a few days now, most people in this park probably knew who we were. They might not know about our Pokemon, or exactly how good we were, but they knew that we'd beaten a lot of people, and wanted to try their own hand at fighting us. I, myself, thought it was a mix of confidence and arrogance that brought them here.
There were a bunch of kids that all looked similar- all in the range of seven, eight or nine- at the oldest, ten- and they all looked ready to fight. They all clutched a Pokeball or two inside their hands, and looked determined for how young they were. I had to give them at least a little credit for not backing down, especially after what they must've heard about us.
There was one kid in the front- and he looked the toughest out of all of them. He had a cap on backwards and he was riding a bike. Wordlessly, he got off and approached the two of us. He looked like he had more experience than the rest of them- he was older, maybe closer to eleven than then, probably. He clutched the Pokeball in his hand before announcing his intention.
"I challenge both of you to a double battle!" he declared.
That surprised me a fair bit.
A double battle? Was he serious?
"Well, where's the other person?" I asked him.
He shook his head, and then reached into his pocket, pulling out a second ball.
"Just me. Me with two Pokemon versus you two, with one each. Deal?" he asked.
I glanced at Brianna. She shrugged, and then nodded.
I grinned.
This was going to be easy.
Unless the kid knew what he was doing, he didn't know what trouble he'd gotten himself into. Now, I wasn't trying to sound arrogant- I knew I wasn't really a great trainer yet or anything, obviously- I hadn't even won a damn badge yet. But there was something else about this battle just besides the fact that we had been winning a lot lately.
It was the fact that he was trying to fight two on one.
Now, already, this sounded like a disadvantage, right?
Well, that's because it was.
I'd been in enough battles to know by now that controlling Pokemon was nowhere near easy, even if it looked that way or professionals made it look like a casual sport. There were many, many variables to a Pokemon battle, and to be a good trainer, you had to be in control and know what to do, and when to do it. Even saying it like that was oversimplifying it by a huge degree. It was much, much harder than it looked or seemed.
You had to think about typing, the surrounding of the battle field, the abilities and typing of the Pokemon- or, multiple Pokemon, in the case of a double battle- that you were currently fighting. You had to know how to respond to attacks, know what use to moves and when to use them, and most of all, you had to never lose your cool, along with a myriad of other tactics that I used when I was battling.
Brianna and I only had to control one Pokemon each against one Pokemon each. We could help each other out easier, design and implement dual attacks using both Ciri and Tina easier, and we could also communicate easier and control the battlefield with less stress between the two of us.
This kid had the opposite of that. It was going to be way, way more stressful and hard on him than it had been on us. He was going to have to control two Pokemon against two by himself, and basically have to deal with all negatives while we had all positives. Just factoring that in, I didn't think it was going to be much of a challenge for him to win- and that wasn't even insulting his skill, it was more like admitting the truth than anything else.
When he declared that he was going to battle us two on one, I heard people gasp.
"No way, is that kid really going to try to fight those two?" one of them asked.
"Yeah, I guess he is," another kid said, as he walked closer towards us.
They were obviously surprised at either his confidence or arrogance too, as they began to spread out and give us space to battle. They didn't leave, though- save a few, who were probably only going just to get some of their friends to watch the fight that was about to happen. Both the kid and Brianna and I backed up some more to give us room to battle.
"So," the kid said, "I'm willing to bet four thousand on this fight."
I gasped.
Four thousand? Holy shit. Most kids didn't get that much money in two weeks. Maybe this kid was actually good? He had to have a reason to believe he, at the very least, had a chance of winning. I glanced at Brianna again, and, this time, her face looked less soft, and she appeared much more serious. She was probably thinking the same thing I was.
"We better take this serious," I told her, whispering to her.
"Four thousand sounds good," I told the kid, calling across the small field that separated us, "but I didn't bring that much. Are you okay with two thousand if you win?" I asked him.
He nodded.
"Yeah, that's fine," he said.
I nodded. That's how it would be, then.
Tina stepped up from behind me, dragging and propelling herself until she was in the middle of the field. Ciri calmly strode into the center and waited, to see what Pokemon would be released. Even from all the way across, I saw the kid gulp, and I think he was maybe thinking that he made a mistake.
But he wasn't going to quit now, and he launched both balls towards the ground, catching them as they bounced back up. Two beings slowly formed as they exited the Pokeball. When I saw what he had, I couldn't help but stare a bit. It was impressive.
He had a Heracross and a Sudowoodo. Now, I already knew this was going to be a hard fight. Not necessarily impossible to win, but if we didn't play it safe, we were definitely going to lose. The typing and the kind of moves they could use were going to be the most dangerous part about this fight- that, and the fact that I had never battled against either of them before would also be bad.
Inexperience is never a good factor of a Pokemon battle.
"Ready?" I called to him.
He nodded, and I decided to make the first move. But, before I could go, Brianna yelled out a command to Ciri even before I told Tina to attack.
"Fire spin!" she declared, and before the Sudowoodo could even lift its large, strong brown limbs, a ring of blazing blame surrounded it. The flames, at first, only formed a small, short ring around the wooden creature, but before it had the chance to escape, the fire grew thicker, hotter, and taller until it towered over the Pokemon. After a few seconds, I couldn't even see the Sudowoodo anymore.
"No way!" I said, and then I turned my stare onto Brianna, who was now blushing.
"How did you manage that? You never told me Ciri knew that move," I said, still a little shocked at the way she'd used it. That had come completely out of nowhere.
"Well, usually, whenever I was away from you, I'd practice it. I had a little practice, also, from before I met you," she said.
I nodded to her in approval.
"Well, either way, good job. That's going to help us in this fight," I said.
"Yeah," she said. "Ciri is well trained enough that the ring should stay for a while. It should keep that Sudowoodo back until we can deal with the Heracross," she said.
I hadn't been paying attention, though, and I was going to pay the price for it.
"Brick break!" I heard, and I turned just to see Tina catch it to the face.
The attack slammed into her and sent her sprawling.
"Tina!" I yelled.
Once she stopped rolling, she cried out, and forced herself back up. I looked at her as she stood there. She stood there, after staggering back up and hardly moved. I was worried that she would fall, but she didn't. She stood strong and, and did not.
"Flamethrower!" I heard Brianna call from next to, and Ciri jumped into the air, cocking her head back before throwing it forward. White-yellow flames spurted out of her mouth, so wild that they almost seemed uncontrolled. They washed over the Heracross, who, while attempting to leap back, just hadn't been quite fast enough. I heard it screech and jump out of the path of the fire, but it already took a lot of damage either way.
It was burned horribly; I could see it, even from far away. It wasn't permanent, though- none of it was. Pokemon biology was amazing- most of them could recover from ridiculous attacks with little to not permanent damage, despite the fact that an attack even half as powerful would kill a human outright. It was just interesting- fascinating, even, the difference between humans and Pokemon.
Not only was it not permanently damaged, it wasn't ready to go down.
With a defiant roar, the Heracross rose back up, probably even madder- and stronger because of its rage, than before. In a charge, it tackled Ciri to the ground and sent her sprawling, but held on to beat down onto the fox Pokemon.
Already, I'd given Tina orders to go and help- and Tina launched herself at the Heracross and tried to knock him off, but the damage was already done. He'd torn several chunks out of Ciri's fur, and had given her bleeding patches on her body. Still, Ciri stood up, chest heaving, ready to fight.
I grimaced as I looked on at the sight of it. That Heracross was fucking mean, plain and simple. Most Pokemon battles that I'd been involved in so far had never gotten to this point- usually it was just bruises or maybe a little blood. That Heracross wasn't having that, though- not one bit. He was turning this wild, turning it into something far more savage- and, in a way, natural- than I was used to so far.
It hadn't hurt Ciri too much, though. She spat out some blood onto the dirt and growled at the Heracross, who'd moved further away after being batted off by Tina. One or two more good attacks and he'd certainly go down. He was strong, but not invincible.
The real question was how I'd catch him in those attacks. He wasn't going to stand still and just sit there- obviously not. I know that Brianna and Ciri had been a little lucky in this fight already- both with the Fire Spin and the Flamethrower, as both of those had probably, in all honesty, been evadable. But it hadn't happened.
I was glad that it had not. That would've only made the battle harder. I wasn't sure if we were going to win this one, but we had to- that was way too much money on the line to lose. That was probably at least a whole day's worth of money there- maybe more. I wasn't going to let that go, not when it could help me get to Terry and Matt so much faster.
I turned and looked at Brianna during the small break that we seemed have. No one was attacking each other, even if only for the moment.
"We need to start fighting together instead of separately," I said, and she nodded, agreeing. "Your fire will hurt him more than my moves do. I'm going to try to make him dodge to the right. Hit him with a flamethrower, end it then. The fire spin will come down soon," I said, "and then we're going to be in trouble with that Sudowoodo."
She nodded again, and since she had the plan, I got ready to put it into action.
"Tina, rock slide! To the left, cut him off!" I roared. Tina complied and raised her head, and I saw chunks of rock rip themselves out of the ground. These were much larger than when she was a Larvitar- and she had much more control over them, too. Turning herself towards the Heracross, she started smashing them down on him, from the left and then moving to the right- making him run in one direction.
Ciri was already in motion, sprinting closer as fast as she possibly could. She was bleeding, her coat was dirtied, and her tails lashed out in fury. When she got close enough, she aimed ahead and fired her Flamethrower.
White-hot flames washed over him, and once again, he was hit- only, this time, the Heracross wasn't going to get up after that. It had been a much stronger, and much more direct, hit. His bug was strong, but it could only take so much fire before it had to give up- and give up it did, going into unconsciousness in the dirt after the move impacted him.
I pumped my fist and cheered.
"Yes! Good job, Brianna!" I said.
She blushed, but nodded.
Right around then, the Sudowoodo came out of the Fire Spin, and it looked extremely pissed beyond all belief. Seeing the unconscious Heracross probably only made it madder, and it rushed forwards, going for Ciri right away.
"Jump away, Ciri!" Brianna commanded. "Dodge!"
Ciri jumped backwards, using her lighter weight and agility to her advantage as she made the distance between her and the raging Sudowoodo larger. Across the field, the kid had a flustered, red face and looked angry- probably because he was having trouble controlling Sudowoodo. He was telling it to come back to where he was- make some distance, so he could plan and try to fight smart. Good idea, but the Sudowoodo just wasn't listening.
Probably wasn't a good idea to battle with a disobedient Pokemon.
The Sudowoodo wasn't done. It was too mad over the fact that its friend had been beaten, and, now, apparently, it wanted revenge. I heard a roar from across the field, and saw it charging headfirst, with no real plan or tactic. I shook my head.
It was rock, so…
"Tina, use Mud Slap!" I told her.
Even a weak ground move would do a lot of damage, and Mud Slap would also make it harder for it do… well, anything, basically. Tina obeyed, and a wave of mud appeared from the ground when she propelled herself in the air, then slammed back down into it.
I didn't think I was ever going to understand how Pokemon made moves like that, especially when it was out of nothing. There was some moisture and dirt, but there weren't any real huge puddles of mud around, or anything like that.
But, nevertheless, a huge wave of mud rose up from the ground and moved forward, at, for the Sudowoodo, must've been an alarming pace. I saw it stop its charge, even if only for a second, and try to change direction, but it was too late.
The Mud Slap slammed right into him, and it raised high enough to slap him in the face. The Pokemon stumbled backwards, breathing hard, but I could tell that the one move wasn't going to be enough to bring it down. These were evolved Pokemon, or, at the very least, better trained and much stronger than what we were used to fighting.
It was going to take more force, and more effort.
So I did Mud Slap three more times.
Three more times, the giant wave of mud rose up from the ground, rushed forwards, and slammed into the Sudowoodo. Two more times, he got up, and I sighed, and then told Tina to do it again. The crowd was silent, probably because even though we were also still really new at both training and battling, this was one of the most interesting battles that they'd seen here in a while- because, at the very least, it was lasting.
Both Ciri and Tina were starting to tire- terribly fast, too. They were breathing hard, and even though it was Ciri who had all the real wounds, Tina was tiring too. She had, after all, taken that fighting move, and now I was having her fire off attacks nonstop. She'd gotten better with both endurance and speed since evolution, but she was still relatively untrained. I still had a lot more work to do with her.
I had to take Sudowoodo out before we did.
Thankfully, the last Mud Slap did it. It rose up, rolling from the ground, a wave of dirty defeat that slammed into the Sudowoodo, and, finally, made the loss a reality. When it hit Sudowoodo, it staggered for a moment- and, at first, I almost thought it was going to stay standing, which would've been ridiculous. But no- it fell, scraping the dirt with its branches as it was knocked into unconsciousness.
A moment of silence as it happened. I saw both Ciri and Tina, shaking with exhaustion, fall over on the ground. They weren't unconscious, but they were resting. I saw their chests rise and fall. Ciri's coat was dirtied and browned, and I knew that Brianna would have to wash her before the day was through. Tina looked especially tired, and her silver shell was muddied with dirt and mud, as well. Both of them looked beyond exhausted.
Silence, then applause.
The thirty or forty kids who'd been watching the spectacle suddenly sped closer, eager to see the participants after the battle. They got too close, though, and we ended up recalling our Pokemon because we were getting mobbed. I heard all kinds of questions being thrown our way- both me, and Brianna. Needless to say, they were impressed.
"How did you get a Pupitar?"
"Wow, Fire Spin and Mud Slap? I need to learn how to teach my Pokemon that!"
"How did they last so long against those two?"
The questions didn't seem to end, as they probably hadn't had a reason to be this excited in a long, long time. I ended up fighting my way to the front, out of the crowd. I walked over to the younger kid. He was still looking at both Pokeballs in his hands. He wasn't crying or anything, but he did look disappointed in himself.
I guess he'd expected to win.
"I… lost," whispered.
I didn't say anything right away, but after a moment, I nodded.
"Yeah… yeah, you did."
He sighed, then looked up from his Pokeballs and stared me in my eyes. He shoved a hand in his pockets, and dug out four thousand in bills, and handed them to me.
"You won," he said, and then he got back on his bike and rode away, even with kids following him to ask him things.
I stared down at the money in my hands.
That had been hard won.
"We need to go to the Pokemon Center," I said, once I walked back to Brianna.
She nodded, and we recalled our Pokemon and walked away from all the kids asking questions. As we did, I sighed.
That had been crazy.
XxXxXxXxXx
There was more damage than we'd originally thought, and it turned out that both Ciri and Tina would have to be out of commission for the rest of the day so that they could recover. It didn't bother me, though, because we'd already made so much money. It was fine if we couldn't battle. The only question was what to do with the rest of our time.
I suggested that we go out and try to catch new Pokemon, because I wanted to make my roster bigger, but with no Pokemon to do it with, it would be a little dangerous, and I'd had enough of danger recently, and so had everyone else- so, we didn't risk it. It ended up being a lot of lying around waiting for time to pass and things like that. We went out for lunch, and then came back. I tried to talk to Einstein, but he was far too buried in his books to respond.
All in all, it was just extremely boring. Brianna and I ended up hanging out in the lobby of the Center, trying to find people to talk to. Jack stayed in the room. Most trainers didn't bother going into detail, but we did catch one conversation that had us interested. Two trainers- who looked far stronger and more experienced than either of us- were talking about a cave outside of town.
One of them had brown hair with a red hat, a red jacket, and blue denim pants, and the other had brown spiky hair without a hat, a black shirt, and green pants. Both of them looked tired, but the one with the hat looked truly exhausted.
"So, you went inside, right?" I heard the one with the green pants ask.
"Yeah. There were some good ground types and rock types in there, but it went really, really deep. I didn't get to the bottom, but I bet you anything there's some Beldum at the bottom of there. Dragon types too, and maybe a fire type or two. I didn't want to go that deep because it was starting to get dangerous," he said.
I got too curious.
I had to ask him.
"Hey, where's the place you're talking about?"I asked the guy with the hat.
He turned to me. He looked me up and down, then narrowed his eyes.
"How many Pokemon do you have?" he asked me.
I raised an eyebrow.
"Why does that matter?" I asked him.
"Just tell me," he said.
"I have a Pupitar," I said.
His eyebrows rose a little.
"Nice. Just a Pupitar?" he asked.
I hesitated. I technically had two, but I had an idea on what he was talking about- Pokemon that could actually fight. Until he evolved, Einstein didn't really count for that.
"Well, I have an Abra, but he isn't evolved," I said.
The other trainer whistled, and the one with the red cap chuckled.
"You have a team of rares," he said.
"I… guess?" I said.
"What's your team, then?" I asked him.
"A Pidgeotto, a Croconaw, and a Graveler," he said.
Wow, his team was a lot more diverse than mine. Three second evolutions, and only the Croconaw was really rare- and I had a feeling that even that one wasn't as rare as the Pokemon that I had.
"Alright, so I have a team of rares. I have two- one that can fight, really. Where's the cave?" I asked him. "I'm trying to catch more."
He chuckled again.
I frowned.
"What? What's so funny?" I asked him.
"You're pretty new, aren't you?" he asked.
How did he know?
"Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?"
He sighed.
"Most trainers know the cave I'm talking about. It's pretty dangerous. I'm just recommending that you don't go in there," he said, "not until you're stronger."
I kept trying to ask them where it was, but they refused to tell me, which was annoying, even if they were looking out me. I was pretty sure that I could handle it. They weren't going to tell me, though, so I just accepted it. I wasn't going to get into it any time soon.
Annoyed and a little frustrated, I just went back to the room. While we were walking, though, Brianna admitted something that surprised me.
"That place he was talking about? I've been there before," she said.
I stopped.
"Really?" I asked.
She nodded.
"If it's the same place I'm thinking of, then yeah, it is. I went in there before back on my last training trip. But, Daniel, he was kind of right. I had a stronger team than you did when I went in there and it was pretty dangerous. All of my Pokemon got badly hurt, and I almost broke my arm inside there- and, the biggest part about that was that I hadn't even gone that deep. I'd stuck to the upper levels of that cave and that had still happened," she said.
I thought about that. I wasn't exactly scared of the cave, but I wasn't stupid. If there aws reason to be cautious, I probably would be. It didn't mean that I didn't want to go- I wanted to try to catch some strong Pokemon in there. Just as much, it'd be cool if I could find a better place to train. That kid that we battled shouldn't have been so hard to beat. I wanted to much, much stronger than that.
I wanted to be better than that.
I turned to Brianna.
"Can you take me there?" I asked her.
She looked at me like I was crazy and then shook her head.
"No! That place is dangerous! Didn't you hear what I just told you?" she asked me.
I nodded.
"That doesn't change the fact that I want to go. Don't worry, we'll be careful. We won't go deep or anything- we'll stick to the very beginning. You've been in there before, right? You can just tell us when we start to get too deep inside of it," I said.
She looked uncomfortable.
"Jack's coming too. It'll be three of us. It won't be so bad," I said, trying to persuade her. There was multiple reasons for going in there, but the three largest were the fact I wanted and needed new Pokemon, I wanted to get stronger, and boredom, too. We did the same things every day. Routine was nice, but a break from routine was nicer, at least every once in a while.
She still looked unconvinced.
"It'll be fine," I said.
She sighed.
"Fine," she said, "but if something happens, it's not my fault."
I smiled.
"Of course not," I said.
"Now, c'mon, let's go tell Jack," I said, and turned back towards the room.
Long story short, I told Jack about the cave and he agreed to go, which fully sealed Brianna's fate. She told me that it was at least a few hours out of town, and that almost discouraged me- because, after all, that would be a lot of time not battling or gathering any money. But it hadn't been enough, and I'd decided that we were still going.
It would be worth the time spent, I was sure of it. I was going to catch some strong Pokemon inside there and make sure to train Tina hard too. Then battling would be easier and I could probably earn enough money to make up for the time I'd missed while I was out there.
It was getting closer to nighttime. We'd be leaving tomorrow, early in the morning, after we'd gotten Tina and Ciri back from Nurse Joy. Additionally, Jack was going to leave Storm here with Einstein, food out, and catch a new Pokemon with me, if he could. I was hoping the search wasn't going to be as hard as it had in times like before.
I thought about it for the rest of the day. I was pumped, I was ready to go.
It was hard to get to sleep, but I eventually managed to, promising myself that when I woke up, it was going to be time to investigate that cave and see what was inside of it.
And I couldn't wait to do it.
XxXxXxXxXxXx
Alright, that's another chapter done. The sex stuff might weird some people out, but as you should see in the chapter, it's for the plot. I've read this up before- depressed or damaged or abused women linking sex like it's some way to heal all their problems. And Brianna was designed as a damaged character anyway, and there's been sexual tension present since chapters ago. It was going to come to this eventually, anyway, and I'm not the kind of person to not write something just because it's hard for me to write it.
So, yeah. Not much else to say. Review.
