Chapter 9 - Melanie and Cerulean City
"And…. Ta-da!" exclaimed Jacob with a sense of pride as he presented a plate filled with what he thought was a well-made breakfast to his Bulbasaur. "What do you think?" he asked, a rather smug grin on his face. "I think I've finally done it." Bulbasaur seemed a little reluctant at the sight of the outcome of his trainer's cooking. "Well, take a sniff!" he said, much to the grass-type pokémon's dismay. "I'm sure you'll come to realize that I've really outdone myself!" His excited expression turned into an offended one as Bulbasaur smelled the food and then walked away while coughing with obvious displeasure. "Oh come on, it can't be that bad!"
He grabbed a fork and a knife before cutting himself a piece. "I'll show Jake… 'Horrible cooking' he says…" It took actually took him less than a full second to spit it out because of how dreadful it tasted. "Wow, this really is awful…"
It was now official: any attempt at cooking on his end was prematurely destined for absolute and utter failure. When Jake told him that he thought his cooking was horrible Jacob wanted to say that it wasn't fair because the latter had spent the last 7 years working in a restaurant for a living. However, he didn't say it when he realized that it would have been a rather tactless comment because he was pretty sure that Jake would exchange his cooking skills for a family any day.
"I'm still hungry…" he said with a sigh as he sat down, feeling his stomach grumble as he watched Bulbasaur and Bronzor eat some of their pokémon food, "You two are lucky your food comes prepared in a box." Watching them eat made him grow hungrier and hungrier. "I feel like I can eat anything…" his eyes fell on the pokémon food his two pokémon were eating, "I wonder if that tastes better than my cooking… No, what am I thinking? I can't eat that, I'm not that desperate!" He kept staring at the food, "But who knows when Jake's going to come back…"
"Bulbasaur!"
"Don't judge me when I'm hungry…" he said, frowning as Bulbasaur chuckled, "Just give me a small piece."
"I know you said that trainers should… 'bond' with their pokémon, but if you're going to eat pokémon food it just means you're a freak."
Jacob turned around and saw Jake standing there with Charmander sitting on his shoulders and a pokéball in his hand. Both Charmander and Bulbasaur seemed quite amused while Bronzor had its usual blank expression. Jacob felt his face turn red. Why did Jake always show up at the worst possible moments?
"This isn't what it looks like!"
"You tried cooking, failed miserably and then became so desperate that you were willing to eat pokémon food."said Jake with a roll of his eyes.
It wasn't that hard to figure out considering how his friend's terrible excuse for a breakfast was still on a plate right there for everyone to see.
"Oh… So it is exactly what it looks like…" Thinking of how to change the subject, Jacob suddenly noticed the pokéball Jake was holding. "So how did it go with Vulpix?"
"The sneaky fox thought it could get away with it…" said Jake with an amused chuckle as he tossed the pokéball in the air and then caught it again with a satisfied smile, "You know, I think it has a thing for Charmander. It totally tried hitting on her."
His friend blinked a few times. "You know there's a move called Attract, right?" he asked.
"Attract?"
"Yeah, it causes temporary infatuation when used on a pokémon of the opposite gender." explained Jacob.
"…Well that explains it. Boy, that makes things a lot less awkward." Jake mumbled.
"That Vulpix must be female, then." said his friend. He then stared at the pokéball in Jake's hand before suddenly putting two and two together. "Wait a sec!"
Jake looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?"
"Did you catch Vulpix?"
His friend looked from Jacob to the pokéball several times. "Huh... I guess I did."
"What... I thought one pokémon was more than enough for you?"
Jake chuckled. "I know I said that, as well as... A lot of other things not in favor of pokémon... The thing is, yesterday, I was scared out of my wits. I mean, going up against those bad guys, even if they weren't from Team Rocket... It didn't have a very positive impact on me. I kept remembering how my dad's pokémon ran away and... what happened after that... But then Charmander actually stood up to them... She stood up for me in a way, too... I had the worst possible scenarios playing in my head, but she... I know it might seem insignificant, but I'll never forget it."
Smiling, he grabbed the small fire type on his shoulder with one arm and held her in front of him instead. His friend also smiled.
"Besides," he added, "I figured the reason Vulpix stole my breakfast is because she was hungry. Maybe living in the wild is rough on her and she'll be happier with us."
"That's really sweet, Jake." he told him. "And I'm genuinely happy you feel that way now. After what happened and the 7 years you've spent on your own... Everyone will agree that you needed this. I promise you that you won't regret coming with me."
"Anyways…" said Jake as he looked at the pokéball he was holding with a somewhat evil expression, "Now to think of a punishment for the little rascal…"
Jacob suddenly became concerned for the poor pokémon's well being. He silently watched as Jake released the fire-type pokémon from its pokéball. The fox-like pokémon sat there on the ground with a guilty expression on her face and with her ears flat against her head.
"What are you going to do?" he worriedly, hoping that he wouldn't have to protect Vulpix with his own body or something of the sort.
"I'm going to-" He opened his bag and brought out some a potion, "-treat her wounds."
"Wait, what?" asked Jacob, surprised. "I know I'm going to regret asking this, but weren't you talking about a punishment just a moment ago?"
He still wasn't used to Jake's new attitude towards pokémon, even if he did understand where it was coming from, and with the way he'd angrily chased Vulpix just a few minutes earlier Jacob wasn't expecting his friend to suddenly be so relaxed.
"Well, I did some thinking just now and realized that she's stuck with me now. That's her punishment!" Jake has always been somewhat famous for the amount of self humor he had. "Charmander will most probably agree!" He placed another plate with pokémon food in front of Vulpix and began using the potion. "Aren't you just super cute?"
"Charmander!"
"Yes Charmander, you're cute too."
"So…" said Jacob after a short silence, "You have 2 fire-types on your team now…"
"I wouldn't say on my team..." Jake retorted, a little defensively. "Trainers have teams..."
His friend grinned provokingly at him. "Oh please, Jake... Just admit that you're a trainer like me now. But you know, most trainers have a variety of pokémon types…"
"Well... What about Gym Leaders and Elite Four members?" asked Jake. "They're all, like, very skilled, aren't they?"
"Yeah, obviously..."
"I like this Vulpix and Charmander showed me how cool fire type pokémon are. So there's no harm to it, is there?"
"Oh, of course there isn't!" said Jacob, smiling. "As a matter of fact, I totally think you should train the pokémon that appeal to you. Being a mono type trainer is really cool in my opinion. Think about it - it sure poses a challenge."
"Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacob!" the two turned in the direction of the sudden noise and saw a girl running in their direction.
She seemed to be around the age of 14. She had brown hair and she was wearing a hat that seemed a little ridiculous. She was also holding a weird looking side bag in her arm which looked as if it was about to slip out of her grip as she ran towards them.
"Who's that?" asked Jake, having never seen the girl before.
Jacob was about to answer when the brunette suddenly tripped over what had to be the smallest twig in existence and fell over.
Jake winced. "That's gotta hurt." They went ahead and ran towards the girl to make sure she was okay.
"Man, I'm so clumsy sometimes!" she said with a sheepish smile and a red face, having landed on it.
"Are you alright?!" asked Jacob as he helped her sit up, looking rather concerned as he did.
"I'm doing peachy over here!" all of a sudden she jumped to her feet with what appeared to be a huge burst of energy. "When I got to Pewter City I heard you'd already left for Cerulean City so I hurried and came here!" she said with a giggle.
Jacob sighed. It was obvious that she was used to tripping over everything but it was quite a worrying sight to see somebody fall on his / her face. He chuckled and looked at his friend.
"Jake, this is Melanie." he explained. "She got her first pokémon from Professor Oak when Brad and I got ours. She's from Pallet Town. Melanie, this is Jake. He's a friend from home."
"Hey Melanie, it's nice to meet you." said Jake, out of politeness. He looked at Jacob. "Just how many rivals do you have?"
Well, there was Brad and now he was meeting this girl from Pallet Town. Maybe Jacob had more adversaries Jake didn't know about?
"Oh, don't worry!" said Melanie with a giggle, "I'm the friendly type of rival! I'm not like Brad."
"That's good to hear." said Jake with a smile. "Because Brad's a moron."
"I know. All he does is brag all the time." said the brunette as she rolled her eyes. "I've barely seen him twice in my life and I already hate it when he talks."
Jake couldn't help but laugh. "I've known him since kindergarten."
"You poor thing!"
"I know!" Finally, somebody who understood his misery!
"Hey, Melanie, I don't want to sound rude…" said Jacob all of a sudden, "But it kind of sounds like you came here looking for me."
"Oh, right, silly me!" she said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head with one of her hands. "I know that this might look like it, but I'm not looking for a battle right now. I just thought it might be fun to have some company on the way to Cerulean City!"
"Well, I don't mind." he looked at Jake who shrugged, silently telling Jacob that he didn't mind either. "Okay, no prob-"
"Oooh! So tell me what happened since we met in Pallet Town! Did you catch any new pokémon?! Have you been to a Pokémon Gym already?!" For a 14 years old girl she sure had the energies of someone much younger.
"No, I haven't been to a gym yet. I did catch a Bronzor after a long time of searching in the cave. Jake caught a Vulpix and found an egg."
"Oooh! What type of egg? What pokémon is going to hatch from it?!" she asked with noticeable enthusiasm as she ran past them, having spotted the egg which was still lying on Jake's sleeping bag.
"Well, we don't know yet." said Jake as he and Jacob walked after her. "I've been thinking about asking the professor about it. Maybe he'll know."
"Aw, it's so cute!" said Melanie with a smile.
Jacob couldn't help but walk over to Melanie and take the egg from her when she decided to pick it up. She was so clumsy that she might end up dropping it.
"So, uh… What pokémon have you caught since we met at the professor's lab?" he asked her.
"Oooh! You will not believe what pokémon I've caught!" she opened her bag and began looking through it. "Just a moment, s'il vous plait!" A few long moments went by. "Oh, there they are!"
It sure took her some time to find the 2 pokéballs, which made both Jake and Jacob realize that she wasn't a very organized person either.
"Alright! Go, Onix!" she tossed the first pokéball as far away from them as possible (so to make sure they wouldn't get crushed as the pokémon materialized).
"Talk about a big pokémon…" muttered Jake to himself, feeling slightly uncomfortable at being next to a pokémon that was so big.
Hopefully this pokémon wasn't as clumsy as its trainer, because if it was then somebody was going to get injured for sure. Charmander, who was now sitting on his shoulders again, seemed much calmer than he was.
"Caterpie!" she dropped the other pokéball on the floor. "Aww, isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?!" she exclaimed as she picked up the little bug-type pokémon and hugged him.
"I see you've been busy." said Jacob with a chuckle as he looked at Melanie's pokémon.
"Wait, I just thought about something…" said Jake, looking at Melanie after a long moment of being unable to look away from Onix because of how impressively large the rock-type pokémon was.
"The two of you and Brad got your starter pokémon at the same time, right?"
"Yep!" exclaimed Melanie, continuing to hold Caterpie in a tight embrace. Caterpie seemed rather happy about it though.
"So, if Jacob chose Bulbasaur, and Brad chose Squirtle…"
"That's right!" said Melanie as she winked in his Charmander's direction before taking out another pokéball from her bag and tossing it into the air. "Come on out, Charmander!" She giggled as her own Charmander appeared next to her. "Oooh, you know what will be super cute and will make like the best background for my laptop's desktop?"
Without asking for permission she took Jake's Charmander from his shoulders and placed her down in front of hers.
"A picture of two adorable Charmanders in a completely romantic situation! Oooh, maybe you two can sit on a hill in front of a beautiful sunset or a rainbow!" she went ahead and nudged the two towards each other with a leg and a hand while looking for her camera with her 2nd hand. Jake's Charmander seemed a little uncomfortable while Melanie's Charmander had a rather goofy expression on his face.
"Um… That is cute and all, but…" muttered Jake awkwardly.
"Oh, come on! Do just a small nuzzle for the camera!"
"So, about the whole part of getting to Cerulean City…" said Jake as he rescued his Charmander from the unpleasant situation by picking her up, "We should get going."
"You have to turn on the charm! Try showing some muscles next time!" said Melanie quietly to her Charmander who still had a noticeable blush on his cheeks.
After that she returned her 3 pokémon into their pokéballs while Jake and Jacob began packing up their sleeping bags. Jacob also returned his pokémon into their own pokéballs after he finished packing everything.
Jake placed Charmander back on his shoulder and looked at his newly-caught Vulpix. "I don't mind letting my pokémon stay outside of their pokéballs all the time. If you want you can walk with us."
"Vulpix!" The pokémon's happy expression indicated that she liked the idea of staying outside.
The 3 trainers went ahead and continued making their way towards Cerulean City. All the time Melanie talked on and on about pretty much everything that came to her mind. She didn't seem to ever run out of energy, and whenever they spotted some wild pokémon she always tried to capture it but always ended up scaring it away with her enthusiastic remarks about how she was going to do it. Then, after the pokémon got away from her, she would endlessly complain about how cute it was and about how badly she still wanted to get it. Sometimes she said it was because her Charmander was too busy looking at Jake's Charmander in order to pay attention and fight their target. One could definitely say that things weren't dull with her around.
"There it is!" exclaimed Melanie at some point while pointing at the open fields ahead of them. "That's Cerulean City!"
After squinting his eyes Jake was able to notice the city in the distance. Jacob then decided to give Professor Oak that phone call he and Jake had decided upon the previous evening. The professor was unable to identify what pokémon was going to hatch from Jake's egg but he was able to give Jake some useful advice on how to take care of it. When Jacob was about to hang up the phone the professor suddenly said something else to him.
"Oh, Jacob?"
"Yes?"
"Don't ride your bicycle indoors. I will find out immediately."
After another while of walking the three trainers finally arrived at Cerulean City. It was already afternoon by the time they got there
"Finally, we're here!" said Jake as he stretched his arms and his back. It felt so good to finally be in another city after being stuck in Pewter City for the past 7 years.
"I think we should go to a pokémon center first." said Jacob, only to have Melanie interrupt him.
"I'm going to the daycare on the outskirts of the city first!" exclaimed the brunette. *
"What for?" asked Jacob, confused.
"Silly!" she said with a smiled, holding out a hand and a pointed finger as if she was about to give off a lecture. "I can meet all sorts of pokémon there and that will help fill my pokédex pages! Wanna come too?"
"Hmm… That really might help me progress on my own pokédex, so okay!"
Jake would have asked them what a pokédex was but he knew it would result in a very long speech from his friend's rival. Plus he didn't really care much. So instead of questioning them he just silently followed without saying a word. Maybe he'll get a chance to see other kinds of fire-type pokémon in that daycare.
"After that I'm gonna go take a look at the Gym!" said Melanie as they walked.
"Do you think you can take on the leader? I heard she uses water-type pokémon." Jacob did come to notice that her pokémon weren't the best choice for facing a water-type pokémon expert. Both her Charmander and Onix wouldn't stand much of a chance if Melanie decided to challenge the Gym Leader.
"Well, no… not yet… But I do want to see what the gym looks like! Maybe I'll get to see a challenger battle the Leader. Seeing how she battles will certainly help me prepare! I also think that battling some of the trainers who train at the Gym can help you get stronger against the gym's type, so that can also help me prepare for facing the Gym Leader."
"True, I never really thought about it like that…"
Perhaps he should go to the Gym as well at some point, even if he didn't feel ready to face a Gym Leader yet. Bulbasaur could gain a lot from battling at a water-type Pokémon Gym. Bronzor might also be able to get some good training there as well. While steel-types didn't have an advantage over water-types like grass-types did they didn't have a disadvantage against them either, so he might as well give it a try.
"I think I'll go with you." he concluded.
As they began making their way southwards Jake noticed that Vulpix seemed a little tired. Walking for such a long time must have exhausted her. Smiling, he went ahead and picked Vulpix up, deciding to carry the fire-type pokémon in his arms in order to allow her to get some rest. He wasn't going to tell Jacob, but he was rather interested about seeing how the daycare functioned and about seeing the Cerulean Gym as well. He couldn't help but wonder just how different it was from the Pewter Gym, which he had been to about a week earlier in order to hang that poster inquiring about Charmander's potential old trainer.
"The daycare should be located only a few minutes' walk from the city." said Melanie with noticeable enthusiasm.
Getting to the daycare and meeting all the pokémon that were staying there, however, was going to have to wait. As the three left the city they suddenly saw somebody running in their direction. He seemed rather frightened and out of breath.
"Is something wrong?" asked Jake as the man came to a stop in front of them.
"Oh, it's just terrible!" said the man as he tried catching his breath. The three confused trainers in front of him waited for him to continue. "You have to help, it's… It's horrible! Call the police! Call the Gym Leader!"
"What's the matter, mister?" asked Melanie.
"Oh, you three are pokémon trainers! You have to go to the daycare and help! I'll go get some help from the city and-"
"Sir, we need you to tell use what's going on." Obviously the man was too upset about something in order to focus.
"Some thugs are stealing all the pokémon from the daycare! You have to stop them!" He ran past them and headed in the direction of the city. "I'll go get help, I must get help!"
Jake frowned as he watched the man run off. "Sounds like Team Plasma." he said, looking at Jacob. Charmander began to growl. It wasn't a very intimidating growl because Charmander was adorably tiny, but it was still a growl.
"Who's Team Plasma?" asked Melanie, blinking in confusion.
"They're a bunch of bad guys who steal pokémon from people." said Jacob as he looked through his bag and found what he was looking for; Bulbasaur's and Bronzor's pokéballs.
"What?! That's terrible!"
Jake looked at Charmander and then at Vulpix. "This time I won't just freeze there..."
The thought of some trainer being separated from his / her beloved pokémon was enough to fill anybody with rage. He already felt bad enough about not having even tried to get the stolen pokémon back from the two grunts they met outside of Mt. Moon. Plus, he now knew he could count on Charmander. Melanie and Jacob would obviously help him out as well.
"Char!"
"Come on, we should stop them!" The three of them would certainly be able to handle those two morons from yesterday.
"Wait for me Jake!" said Jacob as he began running after his friend.
"Oh dear oh dear oh dear!" said Melanie as she stood there nervously and watched as the two hurriedly make their way towards the daycare. "Hey, wait up!"
* In case you guys don't remember there's this daycare on route 5 to the south of Cerulean.
