The young woman who had treated him to dinner and given him items to survive had directed him to an inn, where they parted ways and Ike rented a room for the night. The hotel was nothing fancy, but Ike, used to sleeping in a rather shabby fort and often on the ground with bugs to keep him company, found it suitable. His plan was to leave for that one city the woman had mentioned, whatever it was called, in the morning. He sat at the edge of his bed and unfolded the Town Map she had given him.
He was in a town called Fuchsia City, which was located in southern Kanto, the region he was currently in. If you shot an arrow straight north of Fuchsia, you would probably hit Saffron - that was the city the woman had mentioned - provided it went far enough, but no roads led straight to it. The road west of Fuchsia was labeled "Cycling Road." Ike heard that it was a steep climb up, and you were only allowed to traverse it if you had a bike. Ike didn't even know what a bike was, so that was ruled out. The eastern road led up east Kanto and eventually branched off to two different settlements, Lavender Town and Vermilion City. Vermilion City was right below Saffron, so that was where Ike was headed. It was a long journey, so he would be sure to pack well. He also heard there were a lot of Pokemon Trainers lining the path, and the more mean-spirited ones might give him trouble. Well, he had a big sword - surely nobody would challenge him when they saw he meant business.
He spent the next few hours making plans and asking questions down in the lobby. By the time it was ten o' clock, he was ready to turn in, satisfied that he had planned for every outcome.
He left early the next morning around seven o' clock. Tired as he was, time was of the essence, and he needed to reach the Linking Dimension quickly. He went to a local convenience store and loaded up food and other necessities in a pack he bought. He was unfamiliar with most of the food selections and relied mostly on beef jerky to get him through. That he was at least familiar with.
When all his preparations were complete, he left Fuchsia City on the eastern road. The view was beautiful. To his right, the ocean stretched on, broken only by a distant island with a mountain on it. It was a sunny and mostly cloudless day, which only enhanced the scenery. The ground beneath his feet was soft and sandy, giving him the impression of being on a beach. He'd only seen the ocean once, but it was for a two-month stretch on a sea voyage, so he had his fill long ago. Still, he wondered what his little sister would think if he brought her here. Maybe someday, when all this has been settled, I'll find a way to do it.
Every so often he'd have to respond to an eager Trainer's challenge, telling them he wasn't another Trainer and that he was too busy to talk. Most of them walked away with disappointed expressions. He also had to put up with delinquents on loud machines that roared by him and tried to bother him. They circled around him, occasionally reaching out and touching him when they came close enough. When he didn't acknowledge them, they laughed and rode away. From what they said, Ike got the impression that the machines they rode on were bikes. Why did they have to be so loud?
After nearly an hour or so of walking, Ike guessed, the route he was on turned sharply left, heading north. The ocean was still to his right, showing that he was on Kanto's easternmost edge. At this point, he was...1/3 of the way to Saffron, maybe? He took his Town Map out from his pack and checked. Yep, that sounded about right. No problems so far, annoying rebels aside. He continued walking, estimating his time of arrival in Saffron. He'd probably be there in another couple hours or so, making it roughly ten-thirty or eleven o' clock.
He entered a field divided up by fences, navigating his way through and eventually winding up on a dock which went out into the ocean. He hadn't seen many Pokemon so far, but being right above the water lent more sights. Large fish darted beneath the surface, and some occasionally leapt out, splashing him with water. His suspicions of the Pokemon playing with him were confirmed when the same orange fish Pokemon continuously leapt up and splashed water directly at him. It stopped when Ike held his hands out and growled at it.
Ike's journey up the docks remained pretty uneventful until he heard voices off to his left.
The docks periodically branched off to the left into small forested areas, probably where more Pokemon lived. The voices Ike heard now came from one such pocket of forest. From the best he could hear, there were two voices. The first was loud and angry, the second was curious and pleading. Although he knew he should probably ignore it and keep going, his protective nature urged him toward the voices.
"...do this all the time, do you?" the first voice yelled. "See a guy walking innocently along, and you just chuck a ball at him!"
"But...but I thought you were a Pokemon!"
"What are you, nuts? Do I look like a Pokemon to you?"
"Would it help any if I said yes?"
Wait a minute, thought Ike. That first voice sounds familiar... Young and energetic, coming out of puberty... He quickened his walk and rounded a tree.
"You'd better learn to check your target before you throw stuff!" Pit shouted. "See this mark on my forehead? It hurts!"
"But you've got wings!" the second voice, a young Pokemon Trainer, protested. "Are you sure you're not a new species of Pokemon?"
"Pit's a Pokemon? I've got to see this," Ike said, standing right behind Pit.
Pit whirled around in surprise. The anger melted off his face the moment he saw who was talking to him. "Ike? What the heck! I thought I was all alone out here!" He punched Ike in the shoulder, grinning ear to ear.
The Trainer, relieved to be free from the wing-boy's wrath, quietly walked back to the docks. Pit didn't notice him, for which Ike was thankful.
"What are you doing here?" asked Pit.
"I was about to ask you the same thing. I woke up in the middle of a safari south of here. I met up with a young woman who lent me some money and items."
"Do you have any food?"
"Yeah, I've got some in my - "
Before Ike could finish his sentence, Pit ripped the bag off his back and tore through its contents. He resurfaced with a bag of beef jerky, ripped it open, and wolfed down the dried meat. A short time later, Pit sat down on the grass, satisfied but still hungry for more.
"So how'd you get here?" Ike asked him.
Pit shrugged. "Woke up in the middle of the ocean. Swam to the docks, lay there like a lump for a bit. I got up and searched for food, and then that kid threw something at me, thinking I was a 'Pokemon' or something." Pit straightened up and looked around. "Hey, where is that kid, anyway?"
"Never mind. But look, I've got a lead. I'm heading to Saffron City, and there should be some clues there. If we're lucky, we'll get back to the academy and see what's going on."
"Seriously? Sweet! Show me the way!"
Ike grabbed his map from the ground and showed where they were and where Saffron was. Excited, Pit leapt into the air and started to fly away before realizing Ike had no wings. It bummed the young angel that he couldn't reach his destination quickly.
"I guess it's no big deal," Pit mused, walking alongside Ike down the dock. "I'm not a good flier. That's one ironic thing about me, captain of the Holy Guard. An angel who can't fly. Not well, at least."
"So you'll be joining us earthbound creatures," said Ike. "Don't worry, we should be there in...soon. I kind of lost track of time."
They chatted back and forth on the route, wondering what happened at the academy and what they were going to do in various scenarios. Ike filled him in on what had happened to him and why they were heading to Saffron. They continued on their path like this until it reached the edge of Lavender Town, where they had to turn left and head to Vermilion.
"You know what?" Pit muttered, glaring at the umpteenth stranger, who in turn was staring wide-eyed at Pit's appearance. "We need to get some decent clothes or something so everybody stops staring at us. Did that lady give you any clothes?"
Ike sighed. "No, but with the money we have, it would be an easy matter to walk into a store and buy some."
"You're a weirdo with a cape and I'm a freak with wings. We need to do something about that."
They soon reached Vermilion City, which was a settlement of decent size bordered by water. A harbor lay off to the left, lined with a few ships and small boats. Telling Pit to lay low, Ike went in search of the nearest convenience store. He asked a elderly man where he would find clothes and followed the man's directions.
"Wow, interesting fashion sense," the clerk said, looking Ike up and down. With her blonde ponytail and classy clothes, she certainly looked like she knew a lot about fashion.
"I don't come from around here," Ike grunted. "I'm buying some clothes for me and my friend so we don't...stand out so much."
"Okay. Are you going to need help with that?"
"Yeah, that'd be nice."
She stepped out from behind the counter and led him through the store. A golden tag on her shirt told Ike her name was Alyssa. They weaved in and out of aisles filled with different goods and items. The place was filled with people, many of who couldn't help but look twice at Ike as he passed by. There was also this smell throughout the big, gray store. Ike didn't know exactly what it was, only that it smelled "new" and that he liked it.
"This is the clothing section," Alyssa explained when they reached a particular aisle. "It's not as extensive as, well, your average clothing store, but we do what we can."
"I don't need extensive. I just need something that works."
"So, uh, what are you looking for?"
In truth, Ike had no idea what he was looking for. He tried thinking of a decent answer, but he really had no idea what constituted normal. Sighing, he decided to take the embarrassing way out.
"Well...what do people normally wear around here?"
Alyssa gave him a friendly and somewhat pitying smile. "Well, for you, I'd go with something along the lines of this..."
She took out shirts and pants one by one, occasionally directing him to a small room to try them on. Ike almost always settled on whatever she picked out first. In the end, he had a small pile of three shirts and three pairs of blue, denim pants Alyssa called "jeans."
Next, he had to buy clothes for Pit, who Ike imagined was getting rather impatient at this point. He'd asked Pit to wait outside the store, out of view from common travelers but not hidden enough to be considered suspicious.
"So, what size is your friend?" Alyssa asked him, adopting an amiable and professional air.
Ike drew another blank. He had no idea what all these terms meant. He again tried thinking of a smart-sounding way out and again got nothing.
"Well," Ike began, holding his palms about a foot apart from each other, "he's about this wide..."
He managed to give her an acceptable amount of information, and they worked from there. Ike intentionally went more for the bigger, looser shirts so Pit wouldn't look like a hunchback with his wings tucked inside his shirt. Thirty minutes later, he walked out of the store with a couple of bags in his hand and a wallet slightly emptier than it had been.
He found Pit leaning on the building behind the store, staring into space. He eagerly snapped back to attention when Ike rounded the corner and handed him a bag. Pit investigated its contents and pulled the top shirt out, turning it about and viewing it from every angle.
"Interesting," he muttered. "Rather plain, but they'll work. How come they're so big?"
"For your wings. Let's find a restroom in some building and change."
"Sure it's not going to look out of place?"
"Definitely not. Some of the people walking around in there had their pants right below their butts."
"Really? I wanna see!"
"No. We're leaving as soon as we change."
Pit groaned but complied. They went into a nearby restaurant, entered the restroom in the back, found a stall to occupy, and changed into the first clothes they pulled out. Ike put his old clothes in his pack. Hopefully he'd use them again soon - the jeans felt so strange.
Ike exited the bathroom wearing a pair of blue jeans and a brown short-sleeved shirt that read "I [heart] Kangaskhan." Actually, Ike hated Kangaskhan as the only one he'd met tried to kill him, but if this was what people wore around here...
Pit stepped out a few moments later wearing a large, black, short-sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans like Ike's. He kicked his legs out a few times, trying to get used to the new material. His wings were visible as two small bumps on his back, but it didn't look out of place enough to notice to the casual observer.
"Kinda feels weird," Pit frowned, readjusting the belt Ike had bought in addition to the clothes.
"Better than having people throw things at your head," Ike pointed out. "Come on, let's go."
They pushed the doors of the restaurant open and walked out. Ike looked at the map again to get his bearings.
"I got the heck scared out of me in there," said Pit, looking back at the restaurant. "That bowl of water in front of me kept draining on its own. I didn't even do anything. It kept refilling, too."
"The present day's technology," Ike murmured. "Alright, I know where we're going from here. It's not far, you can see Saffron in the distance."
He pointed his finger to his left. Several tall buildings rose up on the horizon, looking highly futuristic. Pit cupped his hand over his eyes like a visor.
"Wow. We're close. I'm getting excited!"
"It should be...another thirty minutes, I guess?"
"Shorter than that if we run. You're up for it, right?"
"Me?" Ike asked. Pit trotted ahead of him. Ike smirked and followed. "I'm not about to let a little kid like you outdo me."
"Little kid? You'd be surprised at what I can do!"
Although Ike was now dressed in what was (hopefully) normal clothing, he kept his sword strapped to his back. Ettard was one thing he was not willing to part with, especially after the recent events. They also received fewer strange glances, and nobody threw anything at Pit for the entire journey.
The scenery had changed considerably. Instead of oceans and beaches, trees covered the sides of the route. Aside from some tall grass Pokemon occasionally peeked out of and a pond, the environment didn't change much. Within fifteen minutes, they arrived within Saffron City's borders.
Despite the high-tech skyscrapers in the center of the city, the rest of the place was rather rustic. The ground was paved with bricks, and houses...well, they still looked advanced to Ike, but compared to other homes he'd seen in previous towns, they seemed simple, made mostly of wood.
"I like this place already," Pit sighed. "We're eating first, aren't we? Please tell me we're eating first."
"We're eating first."
"Alright! Let's go!"
Ike wasn't out of energy, but he had to hand it to Pit. There really was more to the kid than met the eye. He didn't seemed tired in the least. Wiping the sweat off his brow, he trotted behind the angel.
"You have to remember that I'm lugging a big sword and a pack around with me," Ike called up. "I don't run forever like you apparently do."
Pit slowed down a bit for him but didn't stop. Ike let him pick the restaurant, too weary at this point to argue. Naturally, he picked what looked to be the most expensive restaurant in the city.
"'Saffron Steak,'" Pit read, a grin growing on his face. "Awesome! Can we go here, Ike?"
"Looks expensive," Ike grunted. "If we're too loose with our money, we'll be broke before we know it."
"Is that a no?"
"No, we can eat here. Just don't expect us to eat like this every time we stop."
"Yeah, I know," said Pit. "I'm going to enjoy myself for now, though."
Once again, Ike felt out of place as he entered the restaurant. It was dimly lit and smelled heavily (and wonderfully, the two of them thought) of steak. Most of the diners wore fancy attire, including long dresses on the women and black suits for the men. Ike didn't care much for tradition and customs, but he couldn't help but reflect on what image he was presenting. Here, many people were promoting "I am smart, classy, and sophisticated," and Ike was telling everybody he loved Kangaskhan.
Nobody seemed to mind, though, as they hung back and surveyed the crowd. Pit picked up a menu lying on a pile of other menus and unfolded it. A few moments of silence filled the air between them. Finally, Pit spoke up.
"Just as I thought."
"What's that?"
"I can't make heads or tails of this. You try." He handed the menu to Ike.
Ike pushed it back. "Already did. Couldn't do it either."
"Hello," a man, obviously a waiter, said. With his black vest, white shirt, black pants, and brown ponytail, he fit right in. "I'm Jeffrey. I'll be your waiter today. Just follow me and I'll lead you to your table."
They followed Jeffrey through the steakhouse, staring hungrily at the plates of others as they strode by. More than once, Ike thought Pit was about to snatch a roll from somebody's basket and was glad he showed restraint.
Jeffrey guided them to a table for two near the window and handed out a couple of menus. He told them he'd give them a few minutes to think about what to order and left.
"Drinks," Pit muttered. "Drinks...here they are. Wait, what the heck is this? 'Fountain drinks'? They reserve a fountain just for this purpose? This is an expensive restaurant."
"Probably another term we're a thousand years behind on," said Ike. "I'll just have water. It's the only thing I'm familiar with on the list."
"What's 'hot chocolate'? Wouldn't that be something you eat, not drink?"
Ike shrugged. "Don't ask me."
"More importantly," Pit continued, "what are we eating? I still can't figure half this stuff out."
"I have a plan," Ike told him. He leaned back and looked at the diners at the table beside him. "We'll just tell the waiter we're having what they're having."
"Does it have steak?"
"Yeah, that and some cooked vegetables. Are you okay with that?"
Pit nodded. They made small talk while they waited for Jeffrey to return. When he did, they both asked for waters and what the other table was having. Jeffrey wrote their orders down on a small notepad, then looked back up.
"The Steak and Veggie combo is 21.49," he explained. "You're fine with that?" When they both nodded (having no idea what constituted "expensive"), he continued writing. "It comes with a choice of soup, bread, or fries."
Jeffrey looked at Pit expectantly. Pit thought for a moment, then replied, "What do you have for soup?"
"Let's see," Jeffrey said, extending a finger for every choice, "we've got beef vegetable, egg drop, uh, tomato, white herbal for the health-conscious, shrimp noodle...any of those interest you?"
Pit stared at Jeffrey with mouth open, then at Ike. Just pick one, Ike mouthed. After a few seconds, Pit chose egg drop. Jeffrey wrote the order down and continued. "Would you like our restaurant's specialty Cinnabar spice sauce? It's 1 Poke Dollar extra."
Pit looked at Ike again. Ike made a don't look at me gesture. Pit said no, and Jeffrey turned to Ike.
"And you, sir?"
"What do you have in the way of bread?" asked Ike.
"Garlic slices, breadsticks, beer bread, banana bread, toast..."
Ike frowned. "Beer bread? What's that?"
"It's a type of bread made by using beer. It's pretty good. It's got my recommendation."
"Is it...gonna make me drunk?"
Jeffrey laughed. "No, the alcoholic content's been baked out of it."
Pit looked at Ike. "This isn't working," he whispered.
"Well, uh, give me some of that, then," Ike said with a nod.
Jeffrey wrote down the information. To their horror, he looked up again and asked, "Would you like any appetizers while you wait for your food?"
There was a "no" from Ike and a "please no" from Pit. Jeffrey didn't appear to have heard Pit as he folded his notepad and told them their drinks would arrive shortly. Pit leaned forward on the table and ran his hands through his hair.
"Wow. Let's not do that again."
"I think we're surviving on dried meat and easy food for awhile after this," Ike admitted. "We're essentially cavemen in an advanced culture."
"I don't even know what my soup looks like," Pit muttered. "'Egg drop'...I half-think I'm going to look in the bowl and see a few broken eggshells in there."
"Eh, food is food. After this, we're moving out again."
"Where are we going again?"
"The Silph Co. It was the tallest building we saw on entering the city. There should be some information there. More than that, I think Pane and his guys are doing something in the building."
Pit nodded for a moment, then looked back up at him. "Pane? Who's Pane?"
Ike leaned back and rubbed his eyes. "Oh, I haven't told you about him, have I?"
With a sigh, he related the story of his meeting with Pane in Samus's dimension, how he had somehow saved Ike from death, and how Ike's last encounter with him went. Pit gazed at him silently through the whole story.
"He did something to the Teleporter, and I think that's what caused you and me to wind up where we did," Ike finished.
"That explains a lot," Pit responded.
"I can't help but think the whole incident at the academy was my fault," Ike said softly. "I should have known better than to go off with a stranger. If I hadn't, we'd probably be back at the academy, lounging around..."
"Don't go too hard on yourself," Pit told him. "You said he was wearing some sort of...scent thingamabob that made you trust him more. Besides, we can't change the past, so why dwell on it? Work on changing the future instead."
"You're right, Pit. Thanks for the motivational speech."
Pit smiled. "Wasn't much of a 'speech,' but thank you anyway."
Ike looked out the window beside him. Silph Co., the big building in the middle of the city. They could be walking into a trap as well as a vast source of information. Trap or no trap - either way, he'd make sure he got his answers.
