After this chapter is the gym leader chapter, I would like to thank Flint-Flareon for submitting a gym leader idea. I can't use it for the first Gym but, I will use the idea for a future Gym Leader. I decided to take someone's advice on using imagery and other literary techniques to make the chapters I write a little better. Thanks for putting up with me this far and enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 10: Road to Verteon and The Murder of a Bellsprout
Sky was sitting on his bed in his small yet quietly pleasant room, thinking about what he would have to face and what's happened over the past few days. It was about somewhere after ten O clock in the morning.
"...So this is what life is like as a trainer..." Sky thought. "So far, it's been great! New friends, cool gadgets, I also get cool pokemon like Spike, Sora, and Scruf. Not to mention, I'll get to travel to a lot of new places, and with a friend too...trainer life is pretty sweet! But...those guys...Team Crimson...they said they'll be back...I don't really know just how dangerous they really are but, to me they seemed...psychotic...I could be putting Pearl in danger if she travels with me..."
His thoughts were interrupted by calls from his father. "Sky! Pearls here! It's about time for you two to get going!" He called from downstairs.
"I guess things will be ok..." He though before grabbing his yellow backpack, Pokedex (he spray painted it blue and silver now), and taking one last look at a picture before leaving, a picture, of his mother.
"Hey Pearl," Sky greeted as he walked down the stairs.
"Hi Sky, ready to go?" Pearl asked.
"Almost, I have to get Spike, Sora and Scruf first."
"Scruf? So, you thought of a nickname for your Growlithe?"
"Yeah, I made it so all their names begin with S!" Sky replied grinning.
"There out back," Sky's father said, sounding very angry.
This startled both Sky and Pearl, especially Sky. He was used to nearly nothing upsetting his father. In fact, his dads overly cheerful mode annoyed him most of the time.
"You ok pops?" Sky asked seeming concerned.
"Oh it's nothing, except your dog basically destroyed the house!" He replied, furious while pointing to the living room.
"What are you... Whoa!" Sky replied, startled after taking one look at the train wreck his father was pointing to. The dark red curtains were shredded, there were paw prints of mud through most of the living room's smooth, tan carpeting, and countless pieces of small furniture, chairs, small tables, were all pushed over, accompanied with a few broken vases.
"Um..." Was all that slipped out of Sky's mouth as he tried to think up something to say. "..er, who wants breakfast?"
Meanwhile, Spike and Sora were talking with Scruf at the backyard. The yard had a few flowerbeds since Sky's father was into gardening. A tree or two, and a few lawn gnomes, which Spike took care to destroy each and every last one of them.
"So, what did you do to get Sky's dad so mad?" Sora asked looking at the Growlithe, who was chained to a wooden pole that was a part of the house.
"Nothing! All that I did was tell him that I was hungry!" He yelled, tugging his head away from the chains, in an attempt to free himself.
"And wreck the living room." Spike added, chewing on the some blocks of Poke food that he placed inside of a broken lawn gnome.
"That wasn't my fault!" The dog pokemon snapped. "I was chasing a Rattata! It ran into the house, and I chased it out!"
"Oh, that explains things." Sora said, now understanding his situation.
Spike would have said something but his mouth was stuffed full of poke food, so he stayed quiet.
"I tried to tell the human about the rat but, he didn't listen and got real angry. Then he pulled out some rolled up papers and...I don't want to talk about it..." The Growlithe replied sadly with hints of fear in his voice while lowering his orange colored head.
Spike tried his best to hold back laughing since Sora was glaring daggers at him not to, but was failing miserably as Growlithe could hear his muffled laughs, which depressed the pup to no end.
"Anyway, what did Sky name you?" Sora asked, changing the subject.
"The smaller human calls me Scruf, the bigger one calls me 'crazy mutt'. Which one's Sky?" He asked, cheering up slightly.
Spike couldn't help it, he laughed so hard he fell over and began rolling on his back, then started choking on a piece of poke food. They both ignored him.
"He's the one who calls you Scruf, so that's your nickname. Since your new, want me to explain what a trainer is? And what we, as the pokemon, are supposed to do?" She asked.
"Mmm, ok." He replied, ignoring Spike as he started to rip the flowers out from Sky's father's flowerbed.
Sora looked over at Spike who was busy laughing maniacally at the destroyed flowerbed. "Ha! There is no escaped from you now, Mr. Yellow flower!" He declared to a Bellsprout that had been living in the flowerbed with a glimmer of insanity in his eyes. The flower pokemon just stood there, shivering while paralyzed with fear. Spike slowly moved closer to the defenseless bellsprout, he leaned his head down, opened his mouth, and picked the flower pokemon off of the ground with his teeth. Then he swung his head violently from left to right shredding the bellsprout to pieces, ignoring it's cries of pain. After he was through, he began to laugh like a complete maniac.
"He's mad!" Growlithe said slowly backing up as Spike glared at them before running as fast as a Rapidash into the house.
"He'll be alright, Sky gave him coffee this morning." Sora said.
Scruf cocked his head, showing he didn't have the slightest clue what coffee was.
"Nevermind.." She sighed. Then she explained everything she learned from Spike awhile ago about what a trainer is and stuff.
A few moments later, Sora finished her explanation and Spike was drinking water from in the house somewhere, the effects of the coffee slowly wearing off.
"Oh ok, I think I get it now. Thanks!" The young pup said happily, understanding the basics of being a trainer's pokemon.
"Anytime!" Sora replied smiling.
A few moments later, Sky walked through the door along with Pearl and Spike. The little blue alligator was holding his stomach since the coffee caused a little bit of indigestion.
"Sora, Scruf, let's go!" Sky called as he unlocked the chains holding Scruf. Then they began walking to Silver Forest on their way to Verteon City.
An hour had passed and they were somewhere in the middle of the forest now, with rows of trees that seemed basically endless, tall grass, and the occasional Wurmple that stummbled their way. They stopped at a small clearing to take a break, Sky strained himself trying to figure out where they were.
Spike, Sora, and Scruf collapsed all at once on the ground, exhausted from walking and flying through the maze of a forest.
"Face it already Sky, we're lost." Pearl said sitting down on a tree stump.
"No we're not! I just don't know exactly where we are at the moment..." He replied, straining to find their location on the map of the forest.
She sighed then let Flora out of her ball for some fresh air, then continued to wait for Sky to find out where they were on the map.
Flora looked around briefly before realizing she was in some part of a forest. Afterwards, she went over to talk with the other three pokemon, knowing only Spike out ofthe three.
"Hey Spike," Flora said walking over to him. "Who are these two?"
"Not now, I can't shake the felling that I murdered something," Spike replied, straining to remember since he couldn't remember a thing he did while the coffee was in control.
She left him alone to think, slightly freaked out that he said he murdered something, then went to introduce herself to the bird and dog pokemon. "You two are Spike's friends right? My name's Flora." She greeted happily.
"Hi, my name's Sora, and this is Scruf." She said pointing to the growlithe.
"Hey." Scruf replied, sitting down to scratch his cream colored muzzle with his paws as dogs often do.
Spike, who gave up trying to remember, decided to get up and explore a nearby stream that happened to catch his eye earlier. He knew Sky would probably get angry, but he didn't care too much. He looked over at Sora who went to see what Sky was doing, while Flora and Scruf were playing a game of tag, "Flora's a evil genius when it comes to that game, Scruf will never win." He though, remembering when he played tag with Flora as he started on his way to were he spotted the stream.
Shortly after leaving, he found the sparkling stream somewhere near where he had left his friends a few minutes ago. He took a look at the water, glimmering in the sunlight as he could hardly wait to jump in it. He stood near the edge for a minute to get into his diving stance, before hopping into the crystal clear water and began to swim around happily.
"Swimming here reminds me of the days back at the swamp where I used to live...I wonder if my friends there miss me?" He though while swimming through the clean, cool water. He swam back up to the surface, still thinking of his life back at the swamp. His thoughts were interrupted by rustling in some nearby bushes on the other side of the stream.
"Better not be anymore pidgeys.." He though, remembering how he first met Sora, but was glad he did. He swam to the bottom of the stream to pick up a rock, after reaching the surface again, he waited for whatever it was to move again so he could hit it with the stone he had clutched in his hand. As soon as he noticed the slightest amount of rustling, he chucked the stone into the bush, getting a satisfying thump like noise.
"Ha! Whoever you are, you can come out now. There's more stones were that came from!" He threatened. But his satisfaction turned to fear as he heard a furious buzzing noise coming from inside the bushes. "That can't be good..."
Suddenly, A rather large yellow and black striped bee pokemon, with needle like arms and a rather painful looking red knot on it's head, flew out the bushes.
Spike gulped.
"It's just one of you, I can take you on!" He shouted nervously.
The bee glared him down with it's intense red eyes before turning around and moving it's huge needle arms in a beckoning motion.
"That's not good..." He thought before slowly and quietly climbing out of the stream. He looked back at the bee pokemon, only to see there were about six more of them there now. They all glared at him buzzing menacingly. Spike turned pale. "You know, if you let me go and don't kill me, I can tell you were to find the sweetest smelling flowers at this place I know," Spike offered nervously, forgetting he destroyed those flowers from the effects of the coffee.
"Azzack!" The bee with the knot yelled pointing it one of it's needle like arms at Spike as if it were a sword.
Spike couldn't understand bee language, but he knew that meant; run like bloody heck.
This chapter took a LOT of editing, so I kept editing until I was finally happy with my work. I'm sort of proud of this chapter. (wipes away a tear) Hope you all liked it! I'm working on the next chapter right now. Don't forget to review!