Chapter 9! ... And I have nothing else to say. Hopefully I didn't mess up my description of Azalea Town too badly, since it's been ages since I've watched the anime. Like, almost a decade since.

Chapter 9

The Spark of Willpower

We managed to make it out of Union Cave without too much difficulty. The sky was already darkening, and the marked route was tainted a shade of orange cast by the light of the setting sun. Thankfully, we could see the lights and smoke from a town not too far away, and Girafarig, wanting to be rid of its burden, trotted along with nary a pause, absolutely confident that Mareep and I would eventually follow.

We reached Azalea Town in under an hour, probably because Girafarig was nudging us along the whole way. It was smaller than Violet, but it was evident that it was just as prosperous, with craftsmen working at their shops, exchanging familiar calls with everyone that passed by. It was one of those towns where everyone knew everyone, so when Girafarig, still carrying Warren, and I entered the town, we attracted a decent amount of attention. Several helpful people pointed us the way to the Pokemon Center, and it didn't take us too long to find it.

Once we were within the safe confines of the Center, I quickly explained the situation to the on-call nurse, and she immediately rushed Warren off... somewhere. It seemed like he was in good hands, though the last time I saw him, he was being carried around on a stretcher by four Chanseys.

"That's not something you see everyday," I muttered. "Will he be alright?"

"Don't worry about it," the nurse said with a smile. "Your friend seems to have taken a nasty hit to the head, but from the preliminary, it doesn't look too serious. It's probably just a concussion, but we'll give him an x-ray just to be sure that he didn't fracture his skull or anything like that."

That was one scenario I had completely forgotten, and thankfully I didn't think about it inside the cave, or else I would have been panicking even more. That still didn't stop me from worrying though, even now.

"You came through Union Cave, correct?"

"Y-yes. The entrance to the Cave is blocked, there was a rockslide just about an hour after we entered. I think we were in there for what, four... five hours?"

The nurse nodded. "I'll alert the maintenance crew immediately. Why don't you take a rest now, Ms Eldridge? You seem to have been through a lot."

I handed my pokeballs over to the nurse and slumped down into a sofa in the common room, feeling as though I had climbed up Mount Mortar (though, technically, Union Cave must have counted for something). I glanced around- the Pokemon Center in Azalea seemed fuller than the one in Violet, with pokemon trainers ranging from ten- to twenty-years old loitering around, talking and merrily mixing around with others. I felt overwhelmed by it all, and didn't quite feel like joining in- for some reason, I kept thinking of them as a group of people I would never quite fit in with, and myself as an outsider that shouldn't even be there. All thoughts of socializing were cut short, however, when my stomach began to grumble.

"Oh, come on," I groaned, remembering that I hadn't had anything to eat since our break.

I figured the Pokemon Center must have served free meals, seeing as some of the other trainers were already eating their dinner, but I didn't quite feel like staying in an enclosed room filled with people I didn't know, and to be frank, the meal that they were serving looked awfully like gruel. The urge to feel the cool autumn breeze on my face was much louder than my aching legs' demands to rest, so despite myself, as soon as my pokemon were healed, I let Girafarig and Mareep out and left the Pokemon Center, ready to explore Azalea to its fullest.

The first thing I noticed about Azalea was that, for every human in residence, there was a certain pink, dumpy-looking pokemon sitting around doing absolutely nothing. This seemed unusual enough; but what struck my interest was the fact that, instead of ignoring them or trying to chase them off, the people of Azalea actually fed and played with these creatures- almost like they were encouraging them to stay. The pokemon, in return, took up space just about everywhere- in the park, in the streets, even on top of the houses! The most I had ever seen them do was yawn, for even movement seemed too much for them.

It wasn't hard to find something to eat- there was no shortage of restaurants and shops in Azalea, oddly enough. Girafarig and Mareep were pretty content to eat the leftover pieces of bread I still had in my pack and once they were done with that, we quickly hit the streets. It probably wasn't the best time to go shopping, but I realized that I had not actually stocked up on supplies, so the only shop we really went to was the local Pokemart, where I bought some potions, pokeballs and some pokemon food before handing over the last of my cash.

I sighed. I had been thankful that we didn't encounter any trainers on the way, but when I stared at my empty wallet, I realized there was no way about it: I would have to fight a trainer sometime soon; I just didn't know how. A small part of me wanted to simply charge into the pokemon center and grab a trainer, demanding a fight, but I doubted anyone of them would want to fight now. It was a well-known rule that the only time a pokemon trainer didn't fight other pokemon trainers on sight was when they were in a Pokemon Center. It would be considered extremely rude, then, if anyone actually did that. Plus there was that little fact that I still didn't know much about pokemon battles.

"What do you think I should do, Girafarig?"

Girafarig snorted in response, too busy grazing on the sidewalk to pay much heed to my question. Thus, I was totally caught by surprise when its tail swivelled to face me and grinned.

I had read that Girafarig's tail possessed a brain of its own, and some of my teachers had speculated that they may possess their own sentience (I didn't really pay attention to the facts, but stuff like that was easy to remember). Still, there was something inordinately creepy about the fact that Girafarig's tail (which didn't seem to do much most of the time, except maybe grin at random pokemon) was actually alive. Helpful, but creepy.

It chuckled at my confusion and jerked its head towards a big building on my right. A sign was helpfully placed nearby, dictating what the building was.

"Pokemon Gym," I read aloud. I sighed. "Not really much a choice left, huh." Warren had expressed his concern for the fact that Azalea was a bug pokemon gym, which would be bad for me to challenge, somehow. Still, I had made a decision back in Violet to become a pokemon trainer, and pokemon trainers collected gym badges... didn't they?

I bit my lip. If Warren's gym challenge was any example, gym leaders were a whole lot harder than your average trainer. And considering I had no idea what were bug pokemon's strengths or weaknesses (apart from flying), what were my own pokemon's strengths or weaknesses, or what my pokemon even knew, I would have ranked myself as a ridiculously-below-average trainer. Which meant...

"We're doomed," I groaned, my head in my hands. Mareep bleated in response, deciding to munch on my pants rather than comfort me. Girafarig merely snorted again before wandering off to yet another patch of grass. It seemed my pokemon were enjoying themselves while I had to juggle depressing thoughts in my head.

Then there was that other problem: the Onix's pokeball sat lifeless on my belt. I wasn't too keen on sending it out- I seriously doubted that a small little red-and-white ball would stop it from attacking me, but I had to let it out sometime, if only because I didn't want it to starve. I had no idea what to do- what if I released it and it started attacking anything in sight? Or what if Girafarig and Mareep failed to hold it back? Just the thought of looking into its eyes again sent shivers down my spine.

In fact, the only reason why I had managed to feed it was because we had simply left some food in plain view, hid behind a bush and let it out to eat. Thankfully, it didn't spot us, and since there was nobody around, I didn't have to worry about people getting hurt. Still, it was a new standard of low when the only way you fed your pokemon is by letting them out when you weren't around, for fear of them suddenly springing into a rampage and attacking you.

I wondered whether I should release it, but that just felt like giving up. Like I was saying that I couldn't handle being a pokemon trainer.

I sighed. I needed somebody else to back me up; someone to tell me what to do when it came to handling pokemon and training them- I needed to talk to Warren.

We returned back to the Pokemon Center sometime before ten. The nurse informed me that Warren had woken up earlier that evening and had suffered no long-lasting injuries, so I wasn't too surprised to see him sitting in the common room with Gnat and Jaws on either side of him, deep in conversation with yet another bug catcher. There was that disgusting bowl of gruel in front of him, and even from a distance, I could smell that horrendous stench wafting over in our direction. I was wondering how to break into their conversation when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Hey, aren't you Budew Eldridge?"

I jumped, startled by the touch and the sound of a completely unfamiliar voice. When I turned to see who was behind me, I found myself face to face with two trainers. One was dressed casually, with spiky, gelled black hair and gray eyes, while the other, a dark-skinned, dark-eyed, and slightly-older-looking boy, wore glasses and plain-coloured clothes. I had no idea who either of them were, and if it weren't for Girafarig nudging my shoulder, I would probably have stood there frozen until the Tauros came home.

"Yes, that'd be me," I replied, recovering from my fright. "Who are you?"

"Heh, you don't recognize me?" the first said. He leaned in close, so much so that I found myself backing up a bit. He sneered. "Aren't you the kid who didn't want to become a pokemon trainer? The one that didn't want anything to do with pokemon?"

I gulped. I still had no clue who these two were, and what they wanted with me, but it was obvious that they were trouble. Girafarig snorted, stomping a hoof by my side in warning, while Mareep's wool started to cackle with electrictiy. I was touched by my pokemon's loyalty, but we were already attracting a fair amount of attention from the rest of the trainers, and I sincerely didn't like the feeling of everyone looking at us.

"W-we don't want to fight," I said as calmly as I could, grabbing hold of both my pokemon before they did something rash. "Seriously. We don't want to fight." It took a gentle shaking, but finally Girafarig pulled back, snorting in disgust at the trainer's face, while Mareep's wool stopped sizzling, but the little pokemon continued glaring daggers in his direction.

"Nice pokemon you've got there, little Budew," the boy snickered. "Bet you mine could take them down easy. Especially this one-" He prodded Mareep's head with a foot. "Little weakling, isn't it? Mareep's are one of the worst possible electric types you could ever choose- no brains, no speed, no real aggression. Then again, a weak pokemon for a weak person."

I didn't know what came over me. I was terrified by this strange boy, and filled with embarrasment that we were causing such a scene. But the moment he touched Mareep's woolly head, I felt a chill down my spine and sprung into action without hesitation. "Keep your hands off my pokemon!" I snapped, stepping in front of Mareep.

As soon as I did that, I felt my courage return. It was one thing for anyone to insult or question me, but if he dared to even insinuate a threat to my pokemon's well-being, there would be hell to pay. I suddenly felt extremely protective of Girafarig and Mareep. After all, they were my pokemon; the onus was on me to safeguard their well-being and ensure that no harm came to them. They trusted me to do that much, if nothing else, and I didn't want to let them down.

"Why you-" I flinched as the boy raised his hand, anticipating the blow. It never came. When I glanced again, I saw a faint blue aura surrounding it. Girafarig.

"What do you think you're doing?"

It was Warren. He had gotten up from his seat, Gnat on his shoulder and Jaws at his heels. He shouldn't have looked so intimidating- but he did. There was a certain strength in his posture and his eyes, or perhaps it was because there was no trace of a smile on his face. He hardly looked like an injured person; in fact, he looked incredibly angry, almost like a different person entirely. He marched right up to my would-be attacker, every step punctuated by the intense, fierce look in his eyes.

Girafarig released its hold and the hand dropped immediately. "What business of yours is that, kiddo?" my would-be attacker snarled, massaging his hand, though his bravado was fading. "Just a conversation between school friends."

"Nat no veno!" Gnat snapped, eager to jump to my defense.

"Sure didn't seem like a conversation to me," Warren retorted. His brow was furrowed. "Sure seemed like you almost kicked the Mareep and was about to hit the trainer. Just count yourself lucky that I'm not going to report you to Nurse Joy." He swept a hand behind him- it seemed that we had garnered the attention of almost the entire center. "Although, I can't say much for them."

"Do you even know who you're talking to, you little-"

"Cool it, Alex." This time it was the other boy who spoke. He had been keeping quiet all this time, but his voice felt like ice, and the other boy- Alex- calmed down immediately. He was watching Warren carefully, his eyes betraying no emotion. "You- who are you?"

"Warren Brightly." Warren blinked exchanging a glance with Gnat, caught off-guard by the question. "What's it to you?"

Glasses-boy smirked and shook his head, turning to leave. "Nothing at all. Come along, Alex."

"Huh? Wait, Tony-"

"We don't want the trainers to start reporting us for pokemon abuse, right? You can continue your conversation with your classmate later."

They walked out of the Center as if they owned the place, but thankfully they were gone. The dread I felt quickly dispersed once they left, and once the potential for a fight had faded, the rest of the trainers went back to doing their own thing.

"Thanks, Warren."

"Maa!"

"Giiii."

My pokemon quickly tackled him, Girafarig licking his face while Mareep started rubbing itself against his leg, much to Gnat and Jaw's displeasure.

"Eh, it was nothing," he said, giving each of my pokemon a little pat before gently pushing them away. He looked at me with a big smile. "You saved my life back in Union Cave, didn't you? Just consider this as payback."

"Saving your life seems a little bit more than stopping a bunch of bullies," I muttered.

"Who were they, anyways?"

I shrugged. "Trainers from Violet? They seemed like they knew me. I was pretty well-known back in school for not wanting to have anything to do with pokemon."

"Well, then is then and now is now." Warren said, non-plussed about my own admission of the fact. "The circumstances have changed, though you might want to keep a careful eye out for them- Ow!" His face scrunched up in pain as Jaws started to eat his shoe. He quickly picked up the Trapinch, the pained expression on his face a contrast to Jaws' completely oblivous one, much to my amusement. "Anyways, there was something you wanted to ask me, right?"

"You said you could teach me about battles."

"Yeah, I recall saying something like that, before-" He winced and gestured vaguely into the air, Jaws gnawing on his hands. "The Cave, the explosion- you know. You actually want to learn? I thought after all you've been through, you'd be happy to return home. That's what most kids do anyways, give or take a few months."

"What, you didn't think I meant it when I said I was coming along?" I tried to look as determined as possible. "I said it before. Dad and I need the money, and this is the only way I can help him."

Warren grinned. He stretched out his free hand (the other one was still attached to a teething Trapinch). "Alright then, I'll see what I can do. But it's up to you- I can give you all the facts, but first you've got to have the will to fight. No more running away from battles. Pokemon training is a lot harder than it looks, and you need to have some guts and an iron will to keep going. You still interested?"

I took his hand and shook it, as hard as I could. "Warren Brightly, you've got yourself a deal."

Next: Dew and Warren set out for a training session, but it seems someone just can't leave them alone. Trouble lurks just beyond the horizon.