Cutter stepped into the bustling lobby of the Pokemon Center in Saffron City, well rested from the previous night's sleep. For once his pokemon had allowed him to sleep in. It seemed that they were just as tired as their trainer. Regina and her team had left while Cutter and his team still slept, and Cutter was grateful that they had left so quietly.
"Mr. Robinson," Cutter heard his name being called. He looked around and made eye contact with the Nurse Joy standing behind the counter. He forced his way through the crowd, not without suffering a few elbows to the ribs, before making it to her. "You have a few calls." She handed him a slip of paper with two names and phone numbers. One of which was his mother. The other was Wylie. He was dreading the conversation with his mother. He hadn't spoken to her in months and he could only imagine how she was going to react. But he had no idea how she had learned where he was. Only Wylie, Regina, Sabrina and Nurse Joy knew he was in the Kanto region.
Wylie, on the other hand. Well, he had no idea why Wylie was calling. He wouldn't mind the conversation though. He found himself blushing at the thought and forced it from his mind.
He smiled at the pink haired lady. "Thank you, Nurse Joy."
xx
Cutter sat down at the video phone, Patriot by his side. Even though he was only going to be talking on the phone, he wanted to get as much time with his newest team member as possible.
Patriot was loving it, too. He and Cutter had clicked extremely well very quickly. He liked his new trainer. He might have to teach Friend to lighten up sometimes, but it could be done, Patriot figured.
Plus, Cutter figured that seeing a pokemon would soften the anger his mother was inevitably harboring against him. Well, here goes nothing. He typed the number in and almost immediately his mother's voice and the sound of a mass of people sounded from the computer, but the video screen remained blank.
"Cutter! Hello!" She sounded very happy and not at all angry like Cutter was expecting which was a relief.
"Hey, mom." A pause. "Why can't I see you? And what's all that noise"
"Well, I'm not by a video phone. I'm on my new cell phone!" His mother was practically giddy with excitement and Cutter truly didn't understand what was happening. He had a few questions, to say the least.
"You got a cell phone?" was the first one he asked.
"Yes! And your father and I have some VERY big news! Dear, say hello to Cutter."
"Hello!" came his father's voice, sounding rather far off.
"Hey, dad!" He turned his voice back to his mother, "What's the big news, mom?"
"I want to tell you in person!"
"Well, I won't be back in Cherrygrove for quite a while. Can't you-."
"We're in Saffron!"
"What?! What are you doing here?" Cutter asked, shocked. "And how did you find me?"
"Meet us at the Polter Park, dear! We're at the Southernmost entrance!" And then she hung up.
"What the hell?" he asked Patriot, whose only response was to bounce the soccer ball and laugh in his typical AhAhAh fashion. Wylie's call will just have to wait.
xx
Thirty minutes later and Cutter was walking up to the Southernmost entrance of Polter Park, where his parents said to meet them. Patriot was walking along beside Cutter, his hard hat pulled back and his soccer ball wrapped up in his long, limb-like tail.
"Cutter!" Cutter turned and saw his mother rushing towards him, arms outstretched, and his father walking behind her, grinning slyly. They both knew that his mother could be a tad… overdramatic, to say the least.
"Mom!" he said, smiling, before the air was crushed out of him by her Ursaring-tight hug.
After what seemed like forever but in reality was probably only like twenty seconds, she finally released him, but her smile was bigger than Cutter had ever seen it before. "How are you?" she asked. "Why haven't you called? We've missed you so much but I didn't want to intrude on your journey. I knew you would call on your own time. But your father and I have some VERY big news, like I said, and we just HAD to tell you in person! I-."
"Let the kid breathe, honey," his dad said, laughing. His mother's eyes looked dejected but she perked back up quickly. "Shall we go find a place to sit and visit?"
xx
It took a few minutes, but they finally found a relatively calm, bright clearing in the park. It was the beginning of summer, Cutter realized, and children ran around, playing with their family's pet Growlithe or the occasional Skitty, both popular pet pokemon in Johto. His first summer vacation as a trainer.
"You know this park was named after one of the founders of Saffron. Jeffrey Polter," his mother informed him as they sat. Patriot ran about, playing with his soccer ball on his own. Occasionally he would toss it to a child who would laugh and toss it back to Patriot before running off to find their mother or Growlithe again.
"I had no idea, mom," Cutter laughed. "So, how did you guys find me?"
"Well, I called Bugsy," his father explained, "and he told me you had beaten him, so I figured the next stop for you would be Goldenrod and, subsequently, Whitney's gym. So, I called, and turns out Whitney isn't the leader anymore! It's her son, Wylie. I remember when he was just a kid."
"Yeah, dad." Cutter could already feel himself blushing just the sound of Wylie's name, but he coughed into his sleeve to try and hide it from his parents. He looked up and his father continued talking, seemingly oblivious, but his mother stared at him. They shared a look that said "we'll talk later." Cutter fully planned on avoiding that talk altogether.
"Well, then Wylie told us that you had gone to Saffron, so we called Sabrina, who was a little harder to get in touch with. Apparently, she doesn't like phones. Who knew? But once we got ahold of her she told us what Pokemon Center you were staying at!" His dad was beaming and he couldn't help but smile too. He truly was a lucky guy to have parents that supported and cared so much about him.
"And we had just such big news," his mom added on, "that we just had to come and tell you person!"
"So you've said," Cutter groaned, his mom having said the same thing for the third time.
"But first, I want to meet all of your pokemon, Cutter!" his mom squeaked excitedly. "The last I saw, you just had your cute little Teddiursa and Silver!"
"I am also interested in which pokemon you've caught. We heard about your win in the Goldenrod Tournament, but other than that, we didn't catch any details," his father said before adding on, "other than the fact that you have an albino Girafarig. Practically everyone in Johto knows. I must hear the story about that one." Cutter groaned inwardly. If everyone in Johto knew that he had a pure white Girafarig, that couldn't be good.
"Well, you've already met Patriot," Cutter smiled, forcing that from his mind. Patriot heard his name and came bounding over.
"AHAHAH," Patriot screeched happily, baring his teeth the way Passimian did, and tossing his soccer ball to Cutter's dad. Baring their teeth was Passimian's version of smiling. It was something both Passimian and the Infernape evolutionary line shared, Cutter had learned after looking up why Passimian did this in his Pokedex. They, according to his Pokedex, had a common ancestor. But when some of the ancestor was taken to Sinnoh and some to Alola, they evolved and adapted differently, hence the two different pokemon in the two different regions.
"He loves to play," Cutter told them, scratching Patriot between the shoulder blades.
"I see that," his dad said, laughing. He was obviously reminiscing on his younger days, back when he was a trainer.
"And here is everyone else!" Cutter released the rest of his pokemon into the grass around him. Once his pokemon materialized, he told them, "Hey, team! These are my parents!"
The next several minutes were spent introducing his pokemon to his parents. They all took to his parents extremely well and his mother was in love with Nostradamus.
"He's beautiful, Cutter!" She had said, gesturing towards the pure white pokemon that she had begun brushing.
Father, I like her, Nos had told him with a slight smirk. Cutter just smiled and rushes of love washed over him from Nostradamus. He would never get used to that feeling, and he couldn't help but hope that Nostradamus could feel the love emanating from him as well.
Cutter's father was entranced with Patriot. "A seventh level pokemon, Cutter? That's incredible." There was a pause. "Would you like to have a one on one battle?"
Cutter's smile grew. He didn't think that he would be able to battle with his father for quite some time, for obvious skill differences. His father's pokemon were powerful, albeit old. That was the only reason Patriot would even be able to stand a chance. He was young and spry. He had youth on his side.
"Yes!"
"Now, dear?" his mother asked, not even looking up from Nostradamus.
"Yes, mom!"
"Come on, dear. It has been so long since I've had a battle. And having one against my own son? I've only dreamed of this day," his father argued, just as excited for the battle as Cutter.
She sighed, "Fine." But she was smiling nonetheless.
xx
Cutter and his father took their places some ways away from each other and Patriot ran out in front of Cutter, screeching happily. On the other end of their makeshift field, Cutter's father released his Primeape, Pygmaleon. Pygmaleon, a squat tan fighting type with a snout-like nose and large gloved hands, grunted at Cutter. They used to play together often.
Cutter frowned. As much as he liked Pygmaleon, the Primeape was very strong. He was on his father's team when he was in the finals of the Silver Conference all those years ago.
"Patriot, he's strong. Watch out."
"Pygmaleon, I know it's been a while, but don't go easy on him," he said to Pygmaleon. Then to Cutter he shouted, "you can have the first move!"
Cutter bit his lip. "Start with bulk up!" Bulk up was a move Cutter hadn't seen in action yet, and he was interested in watching it happen. He had read up on it the night before. Pokemon using bulk up released a rush of adrenaline, normally confined to release by fear in the wild, by riling themselves up. This involved jumping around and hitting the ground and screaming, much like Patriot was doing. It looked insane, but this released adrenaline allowed for the pokemon to both take more hits and hit harder at the same time. It didn't work so well for special attacks. Bulk up only affected the muscles of the pokemon using it, not the mind or overall body, and the pokemon did not literally "bulk up." It was kind of a misleading name for a move.
"HEAHEAHEAHEA," Patriot screeched as he jumped up and down, beating the ground with his fists and tail.
"Focus Rage!" called out Cutter's father. Pygmaleon closed his eyes and became completely still, concentrating all of his available focus and willpower into this battle. Focus rage was a combination of focus energy and rage. Focus energy allowed for Pygmaleon's attacks to occasionally hit harder than normal, and it worked for special attacks as well, unlike bulk up. Overall, it wasn't as reliable as a move like bulk up, but using focus energy once could be more effective than using bulk up once, if you got lucky or knew how to use it. A pokemon skilled enough could utilize focus energy in such a way that every attack would be able to hit harder than normal. Cutter didn't know for sure, but he figured Pygmaleon had once been skilled enough to do that. Maybe not anymore, as Pygmaleon hadn't had a real battle in quite a while. Cutter was counting on Pygmaleon and his father's rustiness in battle to help him out, at least a little. Rage was generally used by pokemon with short tempers. It utilized their ever-present anger, and so each time the pokemon was hit with an attack, the anger released a special kind of adrenaline that increased their strength during the battle. Cutter was beginning to realize that a lot of moves utilized adrenaline.
"Go in with iron head!" Cutter called.
"Thunder punch!" The two fighting pokemon ran towards each other, Patriot's head and hard hat glowing silver, Pygmaleon's gloved fist crackling with electricity.
"Get out of there!" Cutter screamed. Metal conducted electricity, and an electric type blow to Patriot's metal coated head could only end badly. Patriot disregarded his trainer's plea until the last possible second when he jumped over Pygmaleon, completely dodging the thunder punch.
Patriot twisted around in midair and slammed his soccer ball into the back of Pygmaleon's head. Pygmaleon stumbled and Patriot capitalized, landing a brick break to the back of Pygmaleon's head.
HEAHEAHEA
Patriot ran on all fours to retrieve his soccer ball as Pygmaleon pushed himself up, a new fire burning in his eyes. Primeape were known for their horrible tempers. If an inexperienced trainer stumbled across one in the wild and made it mad, which almost anything could anger them, the trainer would probably not survive. He had heard stories of young trainers found dead in the woods, presumably from the wrath of an angry Primeape. Primeape were strong and volatile pokemon. Cutter had never been on the opposite end of Pygmaleon's anger and he didn't like it.
"Mach punch!"
Pygmaleon disappeared into a blur, launching himself across the field towards Patriot. Patriot reacted quickly, rolling his soccer ball towards the incoming Pygmaleon. The Primeape was unable to slow his run and tripped over the soccer ball, giving Patriot a chance to hit Pygmaleon with another brick break before retreating once again.
AHAHAH
Cutter couldn't help but smile. Patriot was doing excellently. He needed to finish the battle quickly, before the Focus Rage got to be too much for Patriot to handle.
"Earthquake!"
PRIIIIIIIII
Pygmaleon slammed his gloved fist into the ground, and the super powerful ground type move began to shake the earth. Both Cutter and his father stumbled, there was no psychic barrier here to protect the trainers from the effects of their pokemon's attacks. Cutter was lucky that Pygmaleon was a fighting type, not a ground type, or else the earthquake would be far more powerful.
Patriot stumbled as well and dropped his soccer ball. He clambered over the shifting earth, struggling to get it back, but even this weaker earthquake made it difficult for him to move without suffering too much damage. Pygmaleon knew exactly what he was doing. The soccer ball had caused far too many problems for him already, and he needed to get rid of it.
"Patriot, hold on!"
Patriot grunted and gripped the earth with both his hands and his hand-like feet, holding on until the earthquake died down.
"Pygmaleon, mach punch!"
"Protect!"
Pygmaleon disappeared in a blur, and a large blue bubble appeared around Patriot. Pygmaleon struck the protect but bounced off, the protect holding strong. Pygmaleon was shaking his fist in pain angrily. It appeared that the blow to the impenetrable protect had injured the Primeape's wrist.
Patriot stumbled out of the protect panting. Even though he had taken no damage in the battle yet, protect was a move that took a lot of energy, and living in the city for so long, Patriot probably hadn't used protect in quite some time.
Cutter looked up and his father was smiling, despite seemingly being on the losing end of the battle.
"What's so funny?"
"This is the end of the battle, Cutter. You've done well, but this is the end."
Cutter grit his teeth. His father wouldn't make empty threats like that. If he thought it was the end of the battle, he must have something planned. Cutter couldn't let him capitalize on whatever those plans might be. Cutter saw Patriot's soccer ball off to the left, quite some ways away. He knew that Patriot was very dependent upon that ball in battle. They had to get it back.
"U-Turn, but don't come back to me! Go to the ball!" U-Turn was a move that allowed a pokemon to legally switch out of battle, much like baton pass or volt switch. But u-turn did not have to take the pokemon back to the pokeball. It could take the pokemon nearly anywhere on the field, so long as the pokemon using u-turn could maintain it long enough to get where it wanted to go.
Patriot bounded forward, a light green shimmer cloaking him. He leapt forward and struck Pygmaleon in the face, causing him to fall back. The moment Patriot struck Pygmaleon, the light green shimmer enveloped him completely and he threw himself towards the ball in a burst of bright green light.
"Pygmaleon, get in close! Use thrash!"
Primeape sprinted towards Patriot with a speed that Cutter would not have thought possible of the Primeape. When he was within ten feet of Patriot, who had just landed and grabbed his soccer ball, he leapt forward. Patriot waited until the last second to slam the ball into Pygmaleon's face, but it did nothing but anger the Primeape. With the rage having been built even further, Pygmaleon began hitting at Patriot with every body part he had, legs, arms, even head.
"Patriot, low sweep!"
HEAHEAHEA
Patriot swept one of his long legs out, tripping up Pygmaleon. He capitalized on the fall by landing a flurry of brick breaks to Pygmaleon's face. Cutter smiled. Even though Patriot was tired, he could still do this.
Pygmaleon's gloved fists shot up and caught both of Patriot's arms, stopping the barrage of brick breaks.
"Slam him!"
PRIIIIIII
Pygmaleon launched himself up and spun in midair, throwing Patriot into the ground. Pygmaleon fell onto Patriot with a fist cloaked in a purple energy, finalizing the battle.
Patriot disappeared in a flash of red light and Cutter mumbled some encouraging words to his pokemon before placing the pokeball back on his belt. Pygmaleon stumbled back to his trainer, obviously proud of himself despite the damage he had taken.
xx
Cutter and his parents were sitting at a café in downtown Saffron after dropping Patriot and Pygmaleon off at the Pokemon Center. They had just received their food and Cutter was waiting as patiently as possible for his parents to tell him the big news.
"So…?" Cutter began, tired of waiting
"Don't you want to eat first?" his father asked, smiling. He was just antagonizing his son and he loved it.
"No!" Cutter said, not helping but to laugh.
"Well," Mrs. Robinson began, "your father and I are moving. To Hoenn."
A silence hung in the air as Cutter tried to process what had just been said.
"To Mossdeep, specifically," his father added.
"Oh," Cutter said, pushing his fries around with his fork. "I see."
"Don't be upset, dear. This is a big change for us. Your father got a job there as head guard for the Space Center. It pays much better than his current job and it would allow for us to live in the same city."
There was more silence before Cutter continued. "No, yeah. That's great," he said, breaking into a smile. He really did mean it, too.
"Really?" his parents asked in unison, the surprise on their faces evident.
"Yeah! I've done some research into Hoenn and there are some super cool pokemon there. Plus a promotion? That's awesome dad!"
"That's the spirit, bud," Cutter's dad ruffled his hair.
"When? Is the move happening, I mean?"
"Not for another three months. But we would like for you to come with us when we first move in. We figured it would be more than halfway through your gym trek, and it would be an opportunity for us to be together for the last time for a while. Plus, you could see some of those awesome pokemon!"
"Of course! I mean, it would all depend upon what's happening, but yeah! Count me in!" Cutter could barely contain his excitement. Even though his parents would be far away, the fact that they were in Hoenn, home of some of the most extraordinary beaches and coolest pokemon, would make it worth it. Tropius, Flygon, Salamence, Gardevoir. He counted them off in his head and he couldn't help but smile wider.
xx
The rest of the day was a fun and productive one. Patriot did seem a little upset about his loss, but a few Nanab berries from the Center's buffet cheered him right up. Cutter put several Nanab berries in the bag with the Chople and Babiri berries to save for Patriot for later.
Cutter and his father went out and trained together on one of the Center's battle plots while his mother watched. In the beginning, Pygmaleon helped Silver perfect thrash, and after only forty-five minutes, Silver had the move down perfectly. It seemed that having a good teacher really made things easier.
The rest of the pokemon his father had brought with him had friendly spars with his own pokemon. His father's Primeape and Patriot sparred together after Pygmaleon finished helping Silver. This time much more lightly than their previous bout. Pygmaleon was old and had won so he didn't carry a grudge, and Patriot was much more interested in having fun than being angry.
Rillo battled against his father's Heliolisk, Zeus, who was attempting to teach Rillo iron tail, and based on the silver sheen of Rillo's tail, it was working. Cutter was grateful for that. She needed an attack other than tackle that wasn't electricity based.
Gora, his father's starter Ledian, was flying around, dodging every rock throw and sand ball that Silver threw at him. Sand Ball was a technique they had recently begun working on. It was basically just a small, highly compact and pressurized sandstorm that could be thrown as an attack, instead of a move that effected the entire field.
Bellow was wrestling against his father's Typhlosion, Vulcan, hoping to work on Bellow's strength and stamina. Her speed didn't matter if her attacks didn't hurt the opponent.
Nostradamus was working with the other two of his father's pokemon, Ubi the Espeon and Talon the Staraptor. They were launching attacks at Nos constantly, forcing him to increase not only his physical reaction time, but his mental reaction time as well. From one angle, he would have to dodge an air slash, and from another angle he would be stopping a shadow ball with confusion. The air slashes were weak so even if they hit, they didn't hurt, and Nos's partial normal typing nullified the shadow balls.
Cutter smiled and visited with his parents while his pokemon trained, having more fun with it than they usually did. They all enjoyed the stronger pokemon taking time to mentor them, and the older, more experienced pokemon enjoyed the attention from the younger ones.
xx
Cutter said goodbye to his parents later that night and went back up to his room where Regina was already asleep. They had agreed to leave the next morning so they could get in a full two days of training before the bug-catching contest. He released his pokemon quietly and crawled into bed. By the time training was over, Silver had mastered thrash, which was perfect timing. He had learned it shortly before he was supposed to evolve. That way he could improve it even more upon evolution. The rest of his pokemon had improved their speed, strength, and reaction time as well, but by far Silver had shown the most improvement.
He hadn't mentioned Regina to his parents, and he had stayed away from the topic of Wylie giving him the mentorship later on. He had never spoken about his sexuality with his parents, but he avoided it nonetheless. He didn't think they would be suspicious about the mentorship, and really, there was nothing to hide. He and Wylie were just friends, and that's all that they would be. He was trying to become the best trainer he could be and he wasn't looking for any romantic partners. The same went for Regina, but he would have a harder time explaining that to them. His mom would make a big deal about it and his father would feel obligated to side with her. It was a mess that Cutter didn't feel like dealing with until it was absolutely necessary. But it didn't seem like it would be. His parents were moving to Hoenn, so they would never have to know.
xx
Cutter and Regina sat down on the train, ready for the fourteen-hour ride back. It was early in the morning and they had begrudgingly gotten up to make it to the station on time. The ride would last late into the night. For a while they entertained themselves by planning out where they would go after the Bug Catching Contest. For some reason, Cutter still didn't tell her that he would have to stick around Goldenrod a while longer to meet the two week hold Wylie had set on their battle.
xx
It was nearing midnight and both Cutter and Regina were getting annoyed that they were still on the train. They were supposed to have been back in Goldenrod a few hours before, but for some reason the train was moving more slowly than usual. An attendant came around, and he informed them that it would still be several more hours before they reached Goldenrod.
"Well, I want to stretch out. There's enough room underneath these seats for me to lay all the way out. And that way you can stretch out over both of our benches," Cutter told her, standing. She gave him a strange look as if saying "you're an idiot, but okay."
He climbed under the bench seat and lied on the floor, resting his head on his arms. From where he was laying he could see Regina's shoes and ankles, but the seat above him stopped him from seeing the rest of her.
The way the seats were made, there were three seats on each side of the compartment, each having an immovable armrest. That meant the only way to sleep on them was sitting up, and if there was one thing Cutter could not do, it was sleep sitting up. So, he figured that he could stretch out and lay down under the bench and actually get a little rest.
This is surprisingly comfortable, was the last thought that entered his mind before he fell asleep.
xx
The train lurched to a halt and Cutter opened his eyes groggily and pushed himself up. "Shit," he muttered, banging his head on the bench above him. The lights had gone out and the only source of illumination in the room were the dim emergency lights coming from the roof. He was about to push himself out from underneath the seat when he heard the compartment door open and two men's voices accompanied by the glare of a flashlight.
"Get up." The voice was deep and commanding. Cutter scooted back against the wall as much as he could, hoping whoever was at the door hadn't seen him.
"Wha," Regina muttered groggily, opening her eyes.
"Get. Up. We aren't playing around." The second voice wasn't as deep as the first man's, but it was even more forceful than the other. A set of black boots appeared in Cutter's sightline. He gulped and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make himself as small as possible.
"Is there anyone else here with you?" It was the first man again.
There was silence and then he heard Regina say, "my boyfriend. He went down to try and find out what was going on, but that was over an hour ago. He hasn't been back since." Cutter smiled. Nice thinking on the spot! And then Boyfriend? He blushed before pushing the silly thought from his mind. Now wasn't the time.
"Hm. Alright. Come on." He saw Regina's feet appear as well in the dim lighting before disappearing through the door, followed by the boots. He sat there in the darkness for a few minutes, making sure the men had gone.
Once he was sure they weren't coming back he climbed slowly out from underneath the bench, gingerly getting to his feet. He stuck his ear to the door and once he was sure there were no footsteps or voices approaching, he released Patriot.
"Patriot, you have to be silent. I don't know what's going on, but some bad men just took Regina," he explained to the Passimian in the simplest way possible. He knew that Patriot understood human speech better than any of his other pokemon, Nostradamus excluded, but still Cutter wanted to keep things simple in the moment.
Patriot nodded in understanding and followed Cutter into the hall, treading silently on all fours, his soccer ball wrapped up in his tail. They walked in silence and didn't hear anyone for several minutes. After what seemed like forever, they reached the end of their train car. Cutter bit his lip, struggling to figure out what to do.
Someone had obviously taken over the train. They had also probably subdued everyone, if them taking Regina was anything to go by. That meant that there were probably a lot of them, whoever them was.
Cutter pulled open the door separating two of the train cars and stepped through, pulling it closed behind Patriot. This car was the one that had been annoyingly loud earlier, but now it was dead silent, and it wasn't for lack of people, either.
As Cutter looked around, he saw that not only was every seat full of people, but the floors and aisles too, and none of them were moving. For a moment Cutter was afraid they were all dead, but he saw the rise and fall of their chests with every breath they took.
What the hell.
He looked at Patriot who seemed to understand the gravity of the situation, because he was completely still. Cutter and Patriot made their way through the aisles, carefully stepping in the tiny spaces between bodies. Cutter and Regina's car had been the caboose, so there was nowhere to go but forward.
The next car was also completely full of sleeping bodies. And the next. And the next. As they walked, Cutter kept an eye out for Regina, but he didn't see her. And they didn't see anyone awake, either.
How did they get so many people knocked out at once?
But as hard as Cutter thought about it, he couldn't seem to come up with any kind of answer. So he just kept making his way to the front of the train.
At one point, he tried to wake up a man that was passed out, but the most the man did was grunt. He didn't stir any more than that.
Cutter also noticed that none of the people had any pokeballs. It seemed that the train hijackers had taken them. Cutter debated sending out another pokemon to better protect him, but none of his other pokemon would be as effective as Patriot. And if these people were as strong as Cutter feared, Patriot was the only one that would be able to stand up to them.
Cutter stepped through yet another doorway and noted a sign that stated that he was now in the fifth car. Only five more cars until I reach the front. He noticed that below the Fifth Car sign there was a map of the train. The fifth car was a passenger car as well, but the fourth car was a bar, the third a conference room, the second the engine room, and the first the Motor Unit. Somewhere in one of those four cars, Cutter would find what he was looking for, even if he didn't really know what it was himself.
In the fifth car, which was an individual compartment car much like Cutter's and Regina, he saw no sleeping bodies for the first time. It was almost scarier than when there had been bodies. Instead of the sounds of hundreds of sleeping people breathing, it was just the sound of his and Patriot's breath and footsteps, along with the faint hum of the backup generator that powered the emergency lights.
They reached the end of that car without incident as well, but they paused before opening the next door. There were voices, and lots of them, coming from the next car. Cutter had no idea what to do. On one hand, he could barge in and demand what was happening, but based on what he had seen, that seemed like a near suicide mission. He contemplated releasing more pokemon again, but didn't think any of them could stand up to a truly powerful opponent. Then again, there was safety in numbers.
He looked to Patriot who was looking expectantly at his trainer, waiting for instructions. They didn't have to wait long because the door in between Cutter and the bar room opened, and a short, drunk woman stumbled into Cutter.
It took her a moment to realize what was happening, and her reaction was even further delayed by her drunken stupor. It seemed that she hadn't been expecting anyone to be there and awake.
They stared at each other for a few seconds before she pushed herself off of Cutter and drew a pokeball. But before she could release whatever pokemon was inside, Patriot dropped his soccer ball and wrapped his tail around her neck and snatched the pokeball from her hand. In a matter of seconds, she was knocked out cold and Patriot lowered her to the floor.
Cutter just stared at Patriot, amazed. "What was that?" Patriot handed the pokeball to Cutter and picked back up his soccer ball that he had dropped. Cutter continued staring before snapping out of it and bending down to take the rest of the pokeballs from the woman's belt. He didn't know how long she would be out for, but he didn't want her to have any pokemon when she awoke.
As he grabbed the last pokeball, he noticed something he hadn't seen before. A gun. Guns were illegal in both Kanto and Johto, and unless you were with the police or the League, citizens did not have access to them. Even then, they were rare. Only the highest ranking among them had them.
His face whitened and he was scared to even touch it. He had been warned of the dangers of guns. Whereas pokemon could stand up to attacks from other pokemon with only damage, even if it was sometimes serious, guns had the ability to kill instantly. Few moves could do that. Suddenly, Cutter was a lot more afraid than he had been. But he knew he had to get the gun so he sucked it up and gingerly took the gun from the woman's waist. He had never touched one before and it was cold and foreign in his hand. He debated keeping it, but he had no idea how to use it, and he didn't want to risk accidentally shooting himself, or worse, one of his pokemon with it.
He turned and saw that the compartment next to him was open. He put the pokeballs and gun under the seat so they weren't visible and closed the door. He leaned back against it and took several deep breaths. He hadn't even realized that he was hyperventilating until that moment.
Releasing any more pokemon was completely out of the question at that point. He wouldn't risk any of their lives. In fact, he wouldn't risk Patriot's life either. It was time to return him.
He lifted Patriot's pokeball with shaky hands from his belt, but Patriot grabbed it from him and threw it, the sound of the pokeball hitting the plastic tile echoed loudly in the otherwise silent hall.
"What the hell?" Cutter whispered, angry with the Teamwork pokemon.
Patriot bared his teeth at his trainer, and the message was obvious. Patriot understood the danger they were in and refused to let his trainer and friend go at it alone. Cutter nodded and put his hand on Patriot's shoulder. Thank you, Cutter mouthed. Patriot gestured at the pure white pokeball and Cutter understood. Nostradamus could listen to the thoughts in the other room and communicate with them. And if not, at the very least Nostradamus could momentarily stop their opponents with a confusion. No. Not opponents. They're our enemies. I don't know who they are, but they put everyone on this train to sleep and they've got guns.
Cutter released Nos after another moment of deliberation. If the people in the next car saw Nos with his pure white coat, they would immediately want him, Cutter knew. But if the people in the next car apprehended him, they would take his pokeballs and get Nostradamus that way. Either way, Nostradamus had a chance to be taken. He might as well help them out.
Nostradamus appeared in a flash of light, his pure white coat glowing softly in the dim light. He was silent and after a second, nodded. I understand. I cannot hear what is being said. Some sort of dark type energy is present in the room. I don't know how to get through it.
That's alright. Cutter frowned. A dark type would easily take down Nostradamus. Is there anything you can tell us from her? A pokeball, Patriot's, floated into Cutter's hand. He put it back on his belt and nodded in thanks to Nostradamus.
Nos looked down at the woman lying there and back up at Patriot. The Playful One did this? Cutter nodded solemnly. It seems his history is more colorful than we thought. I will look into that. I try not to pry into the other's memories, but I may have to make an exception with this one.
Nos. Focus.
Yes, Father. I apologize. There was silence as Nos focused on the woman lying there. Tycoon. That word keeps popping up. But I am not yet advanced enough to truly delve into people's dreams. Perhaps if I learned the dream eating technique I might be able to, but as for now, all I can gather is the word Tycoon.
Tycoon. I don't know. Cutter bit his lip. This woman still hadn't returned to the bar car and Cutter feared that the people in the bar car would become suspicious and send someone to investigate.
Father, what shall we do?
Cutter was silent. I don't know. I think I'm going to return you. There's a dark type in there and I don't want you to be hurt by it.
No. Cutter had never felt such force from Nostradamus before, but there was no mistaking the assurance that flooded through his body. He would not be returning Nos. Not yet anyways.
Okay. Okay. His thoughts were cut short by two men coming through the door, neither of these drunk, unfortunately. His pokemon turned towards the door, Patriot baring his teeth, this time in rage and not laughter, and Nostradamus whinnying and pawing at the floor.
"What the hell?" the shorter one asked, seemingly unsurprised. Cutter recognized him to be the deeper voiced man that had taken Regina. He looked down and saw the woman lying there and realized what was happening. But instead of being shocked, like Cutter expected to happen, he smiled. "Hey, Titus, this kid knocked out Sam."
"What's going on?" Cutter choked out, barely hiding the fear in his voice.
"Shut up, kid. You're going to return your pokemon," he said, his eyes resting on Nostradamus, "and you're going to give us their pokeballs. Then you're going to come with us. We won't knock you out like the rest of them, so consider yourself lucky." He gestured to an area behind Cutter, apparently meaning all of the sleeping people in the cars behind them.
"No."
"No? No. Huh. Did you hear that, Titus? The kid said no." The taller of the men, Titus, chuckled.
"No. I'm not going to give you my pokemon," Cutter said, his bravery returning. He cared for his pokemon more than anything and he wouldn't just give them up to these jerks that decided to take over the train.
"Well, I guess we'll take them then, won't we Harry?" Titus raised a pokeball, but before he could release it, he was knocked out cold by a hypnosis from Nostradamus. But before Nostradamus could turn his attention to Harry, a mean looking Weavile materialized.
"Slash them," he smiled a sinister smile and for the first-time Cutter was genuinely scared.
Chaos ensued as the Weavile disappeared and Patriot screamed and fell to the ground, clutching the back of his knee, the white of his leg stained red with blood. This was no ordinary battle. This Weavile was playing with the intent to maim or, Cutter feared, kill. Patriot spun around as best as he could and shot out a fist, attempting to hit the fast dark type with a mega punch, but Weavile was too quick.
Cutter returned Nostradamus before he could get hit by the powerful dark type. This was not a fight for him. He panicked and didn't know what to do. He tried to return his hurt Passimian, but he instead released Bellow and immediately she picked up on the situation. She roared and the Weavile, apparently startled, slowed down just enough for Patriot to use a low sweep with his uninjured leg and knock it down. He was on it in a second, punching and kicking. The Weavile disappeared in a flash of red light and the man turned and ran through the door, still laughing.
Cutter and his pokemon followed through, Patriot limping along but still refusing to be returned, try as Cutter might.
In the bar car were at least fifty more men and women, all wearing the same black uniform. Various powerful pokemon were out and Cutter's eyes zeroed in on a large purple and black one. He didn't recognize it, but its pink beak and luminescent purple body caused Cutter to freeze in place. Another roar from Bellow brought him back to his senses.
"Well, hello." A tall, gray haired man stepped forward. "I didn't expect anyone to still be awake, let alone some kid. How did you wake up?" Cutter remained silent. "Not talking, are we? That's fine. We'll take your pokemon and knock you out regardless," he said, turning. "Take care of him." He continued walking and a large, angry looking man with a menacing smile took his place. He had a pokeball in one hand and a gun in the other.
"You got it boss," the angry man said before turning to Cutter. "Time's up, kid," he laughed, this laugh even scarier than Harry's. Harry at least seemed sane. Even from where Cutter was standing, he could see the crazy in this guy's eyes.
There was a loud pop that came from what Cutter figured to be the gun, a mean looking Dusknoir appeared, and Cutter heard Patriot scream and Bellow roar. They rushed forward, adrenaline pushing Patriot through the pain and Cutter looked around, scared one of them had been shot. Pokemon were appearing all around the room. There was a Feraligatr. A Furrett. An Octillery. A Vaporeon. A single Ursaring and an injured Passimian to battle all of these pokemon.
Cutter reached down to grab their pokeballs and return them, but instead he noticed that there was a warm tightness on his thigh that he hadn't realized was there before and a warmth that made its way down his leg. There was a hole on the side of his khaki shorts that was stained with some red. He touched it, the roar of the battle around him fading away. The last thing he remembered before he passed out were two white and red pokemon bursting into the room through the windows of the train car and a soft lullaby being sung. And then he was out cold.
xx
Hey guys! As usual, thanks for reading! This was a super important chapter. Part two will be coming soon! I feel like this one had a lot of character development for both Cutter and Patriot, so I'm super happy with it! As always, please leave a like, review, or PM me! Thanks!