Whoops another uber late update. Sorry guys. On the bright side, slightly longer chapter for once?
Also, new characters who may be of more importance later on yaaay.
The first half of the forest was covered quickly with an excited run, although Ryan soon realised he was going to get worn out if he tried to get all the way to the docks at such a speed. Jay had boundless energy as usual, skipping around him excitedly even when his pace slowed to a walk.
"We're going on an adventure!" he chirped, running in circles.
"Finally!" Ryan grinned, picking up on the Eevee's excitement. "So don't make yourself dizzy just yet."
Hurriedly Jay stopped spinning, falling into step beside the trainer instead. As he trotted along, his ears twitched curiously. "Where are we going? Are there going to be more battles? Can I fight and get stronger?"
"Of course! And before long, we might be able to beat really strong trainers too!" He gave a fist pump to emphasise his words. "I mean, we might need to find some more Pokémon to join us to make our team stronger, since there are some trainers who have up to six Pokémon with them, but I'm sure we can still win!"
"More Pokémon?" Jay blinked, the slightest trace of disappointment in his voice.
It was enough for Ryan to pick up on, at least. "Don't worry, Jay. I'm sure you'll be good friends with the Pokémon we find!"
"Okay…"
"And you know what? No matter what Pokémon join us, you'll still be my best friend."
"Really?" The Eevee's eyes lit up. "Yay!" He ran forward slightly to jump onto a nearby rock. "You'll always be my best friend too—whoa!"
Jay wasn't the only one who looked surprised when he fell straight through the rock.
"Um… Jay?" Ryan blinked in surprise. Yet a moment later, everything was explained. The rock illusion faded, revealing the old Zoroark, an Eevee on his head.
"Can I not go anywhere without someone falling on me?" the fox huffed, shaking Jay off.
"Um, sorry," Ryan apologised sheepishly as the Eevee fell to the ground with an 'oof'.
"Zoroark! Zoroark!" Jay squeaked. "We're going on a journey!"
"You are?" Zoroark was silent for a moment before a look of realisation flashed through his eyes. "Oh, yes. Now I remember. Natural was telling me about that not long ago. You're heading over to Unova to become one of those… trainers, correct?"
The fox had spat the word 'trainers' like it was a bad taste. Of course, Zoroark hadn't exactly had good experiences with humans in the past. "Don't worry, Zoroark. I'll be one of the good ones. Promise!"
"Well, I guess we can trust you not to purposefully hurt anyone," the dark-type muttered, wandering over to briefly ruffle the boy's hair with one paw, being careful not to claw him by accident. "And I doubt Jay will be causing any serious injuries for a while yet."
"Hey!"
"We won't, don't worry." Ryan managed to lift the paw away from his head, flattening his hair back down slightly with his other hand. "We'll miss you, Zoroark…"
The fox was silent for a moment, a quiet grumble echoing in his throat. "Yeah… I guess it won't really be the same without you here either, kiddo."
With a smile knowing that was probably the closest Zoroark would be to admitting he was going to miss them, Ryan reached up to quickly hug the fox. Zoroark seemed rather surprised by the action, but he didn't complain, patting the boy's back with one paw before he was released from the embrace.
"I'm not sure how long we'll be away, but… we'll see you when we get back, okay, Zoroark?"
"And I can enjoy not having you lot disturbing the peace around here," the fox mumbled, a smirk on his face as usual. "Good luck on your journey. I'm going to find somewhere quiet to go back to sleep…"
Ryan waved as the dark-type marched off through the bushes. Jay just watched him go, ears twitching.
"I wanna be like Zoroark someday!" the Eevee said, eyes shining in awe.
"What, you want to be a grumpy old fox?"
"No, I wanna be a strong Pokémon!" Jay squeaked excitedly, running in another circle.
"Of course," Ryan laughed. "Come on, let's hurry up and get to the docks before the boat leaves." He started off along the path once more.
"Okay! Okay!" Jay scurried after him. "What's a boat?"
"That is a boat, Jay."
"Whoa, cool…!"
It had only taken ten minutes to reach the far end of the forest. Now a slope stretched out before them, leading down to the lake. But the view from here was amazing.
The lake water glimmered in the sunlight, throwing flashes of light around as the breeze rippled the water. Not far away, at the bottom of the slope, a wooden pier reached out over the water. A couple of boats were docked there, the most noticeable being the large passenger ferry that stood out among the crowd of rowing boats. A sailor was stationed on the pier, welcoming passengers aboard.
"Let's hurry; I think they're leaving soon," Ryan muttered, heading off down the slope. Jay let out an excited squeak before hurrying after him, hopping up onto the boy's shoulder so he wouldn't get left behind.
It wasn't long before the grass underfoot turned to wood, Ryan's footsteps echoing on the pier below as he ran towards the ship. There weren't many people around today; the ferry here was only a small service, used mainly by people travelling to and from the nearby town.
"Why, hello there!" the sailor waved. "Are you heading off somewhere, boy?"
"Yeah!" Ryan halted in front of him, Jay nearly losing his balance. "We're going to Unova!"
"Ah, heading out on your journey, I take it?" the man asked, tipping his hat slightly. As Ryan nodded in response, he continued. "Well, you take care over there, son. Can you show me your trainer card?"
After Ryan presented the card for him to see, the sailor nodded and stepped aside, allowing him to get on the boat. With a thank you and a wave, Ryan headed onboard.
It wasn't a massive ship, but it was big enough that the rocking of the water was almost unnoticeable underfoot. There were probably no more than fifteen or so passengers on board. As they waited for the boat to leave the dock, Ryan headed over to the bow of the ship, leaning on the railing and looking over at the horizon ahead. The Eevee on his shoulder soon climbed around to sit atop his bag instead so that there was less danger of him falling off into the water.
He could see the land in the distance. Unova. From here, most of what was visible was just forest, yet there was one area to the east where the ground was a lot higher, almost like mountains. That was where the Pokémon League was. And that was where they intended to aim for.
A twenty-minute boat journey across the lake, and the ship docked at the other side. The boy and Eevee were the first passengers off the ship, racing for the land end of the pier, jumping onto the grass.
"This is it! We're here! We're in Unova!" Ryan whooped, giving an excited jump. Wow, he was acting as excitable as Jay right now.
Except the Eevee seemed even more excited than he did. "Yay! Unova! Unova! We're in Unova!" After frolicking around for a moment he stopped to paw at the ground. "Huh… doesn't feel much different than the forest…"
"It may not seem that different at first, but we're finally here! We're here in Unova!" It still hadn't quite sunk in yet. It wasn't that long ago he'd been told he wasn't allowed to go on a journey, and now here they were, in the region…!
His cheering was soon cut off however as he noticed that some of the people around him were giving him odd stares.
"Um… heh…" he grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Whether the people had been staring because of how loud he was being or for the fact he'd been talking to a Pokémon he wasn't sure, but he wasn't overly keen on being the centre of attention. At his embarrassment, though, the attention was lost, a couple of the passersby giving amused smiles, and there was a quiet mutter of 'kids' from somewhere.
"Why were those people looking at us?" Jay blinked.
"Never mind, Jay. Let's just find out where to go."
Heading across the grass and deciding not to take the direct path like the other passengers from the boat had, Ryan settled in the shelter of a tree, dropping his bag at the base of it and retrieving the map. As he sat on the grass scanning the paper, Jay put his paws up against the boy's leg to try and see what he was looking at.
Shifting his arm so that the Eevee would be able to see, he pointed to the icon at the edge of the lake. "This is where we are now. If we head directly south of here for a while, we should come out somewhere near… Route 9?"
Jay just stared at the map for a moment, ears twitching slightly before he glanced back over at the water. "But the lake is much bigger than that…"
"Scale image, Jay," Ryan rolled his eyes. With one last long look at the map, he folded it back into his bag, standing up. "It shouldn't take long to get there."
Without waiting for a reply, he headed off into the trees, glancing back briefly to check that the Eevee was following him rather than trying to work out why the lake was more than five centimetres wide. Realising they were leaving, Jay hurriedly trotted after, tail waving in the air with excitement as they headed into foreign lands.
The place looked very similar to the forest back home; there were different kinds of trees here, but other than that, visually it was very similar. The atmosphere was not. It was easy to tell from the way that Jay kept scampering around and sniffing at the bushes and trees that there were a lot of Pokémon scents nearby, and the canopy echoed with the cries of young Rufflet and Vullaby.
After ten minutes of walking, a building was visible in the distance between the trees. It was impossible to see how tall the place was thanks to the blanket of leaves above, but it seemed pretty large, more important than a house. Were they nearly at the edge of the forest yet?
His attention was distracted from the building at the sound of rustling leaves ahead. Not really surprised considering they were in a forest, Ryan just shrugged it off, figuring it must be a wild Pokémon.
He definitely was surprised at the lithe pink creature that hopped out of the bushes in front of them. Jay let out a squeak at the sight of the evolution.
Deep purple eyes glanced from the Eevee to the boy, white pupils staring intently. "… Hello."
"Hi there," Ryan smiled to the Pokémon, noting how even though it had spoken to him, it hadn't actually let out any sound at all. "You're an Espeon, aren't you?"
"That I am, yes. This area is safe now. You are free to pass."
"Safe?" he blinked. Had something happened here recently? "Okay. And you don't have to use telepathy to speak to me. I can understand you normally."
"Really?" the Espeon spoke at last, double-ended tail flicking. Her actual voice was much higher than the sound in his head; he preferred Pokémon talking in their normal tongue anyway, rather than through telepathy. It seemed much more natural than having a strange voice talking through his mind. Jay had just looked confused since the other Pokémon got here, clearly not being sent the telepathic messages as well. Licking a paw and running it over one ear, the pink creature hummed quietly. "You certainly are an unusual one…"
Ryan was about to ask what the psychic-type was doing out here alone in the forest – it was extremely rare to see a wild Espeon – but before he got the chance, there was a call from nearby.
"Espeon! Where have you wandered off to?"
The Pokémon's ears twitched at the voice, letting out a quiet trill to let whoever it was find her more easily. It wasn't long before there was the sound of crunching leaves, and a person appeared from amongst the trees.
"Oh, there you are—wait, kid, what are you doing here?"
It was a guy, maybe in his late teens or early twenties. He was definitely dressed for the outdoors, thick trousers tucked into hiking boots and sporting an outdoor jacket, yet other than that he didn't look much like a hiker. He didn't really seem to have the build for it, and also taking away from that image was the long blond hair tied back, and the glasses that rested on the bridge of his nose.
As Ryan just stared at him for a moment, not really sure why he was asking, the guy sighed. "Well, lucky for you this area is safe now. You can carry on through." He turned to walk away.
"Wait!" Ryan said hurriedly. "What happened here? Why is everyone talking about it being 'safe' now?"
"Everyone?" the guy muttered, glancing back briefly. "Oh, Espeon must have been speaking to you. It's none of your business what happened here, kid. All you need to know is it's safe to pass now."
"What's he talking about?" Jay asked quietly. By now the Eevee was nearly hiding behind Ryan's leg, nervous around the strangers.
"Don't worry, little one," Espeon cooed. She let out a quiet mew to get her trainer's attention before the jewel on her head glowed slightly, signalling that she was using telepathy once more.
And that was when the older stopped in his tracks.
"He can what?" he sputtered, turning to face them once more with a somewhat stunned impression.
"I told him that you can understand me," Espeon explained nonchalantly, licking a paw.
"Um… yeah…" Ryan grinned sheepishly. "I can understand Pokémon. Well, when they're not using telepathy, I mean."
"Interesting…" the guy mumbled quietly, eyes narrowed in thought. "Tell me, kid, are you a Pokémon trainer? You have a Pokémon with you; I'd go by the assumption that you are."
Ryan nodded. Jay's ears pricked slightly.
"Then, unless you're in a hurry, how about a small battle? My Espeon versus your Eevee."
"A battle?" Ryan echoed. "Um, sure…!"
"Alright then. Espeon!"
At her trainer's call, Espeon flicked her tail, getting back to her paws to pad forward, watching Jay curiously. The Eevee picked up on the atmosphere, jumping out from behind Ryan to land among the leaves in somewhat of a battle stance.
"A battle! A battle!"
"By the way, the name's Jeremy," the man stated, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "We'll let you move first."
It almost seemed like they were testing him. "Ryan. And okay then." Well, Espeon was a psychic type, so… "Jay, use bite."
At the command, Jay raced forwards, jumping towards the Espeon. Her ears twitched, but she didn't make any attempt to move out of the way. When the Eevee reached her, he sunk his teeth into one of her forelegs.
Even though the dark-type attack was super-effective, Espeon barely seemed to be affected at all.
"Huh!?" Jay gasped, eyes widening in shock.
"Sorry. Was that supposed to hurt?" Espeon smiled cheekily, shaking the Eevee off.
"Is that all?" Jeremy snorted. "Fine then. Espeon, use Psychic."
Ears twitching briefly and forked tail flicking, Espeon's eyes narrowed slightly. "Sorry about this, little one…"
"Huh?" Jay blinked. He tipped his head to one side as Espeon closed her eyes, the jewel on her forehead glowing once more.
The second she opened her eyes, a fierce wave of energy spread out, centring on the Eevee. Jay still looked confused as it headed for him, realising too late that it was something that could hurt him. He soon found out. With a wail, the normal-type was blasted back across the clearing, falling limply to the ground a few feet in front of Ryan, ears and tail flopping against the leaves.
"Jay!"
After a few seconds with no response, Ryan ran over to the defeated Eevee, frantically lifting him into his arms. Limbs flopped limply, but to a sigh of relief, the little creature was still breathing. Thank Arceus, he's still alive…
"You're not a very experienced trainer, are you?" Jeremy commented plainly.
"You didn't have to hit him with something so powerful!" Ryan snapped, glaring at the man. In the Pokémon battles he'd been in so far, none of the Pokémon had been attacked fiercely enough for them to actually be knocked unconscious.
Was this why his father didn't like battling?
"Hey, don't go blaming me." The older guy held up his hands in defence. "With your abilities, I expected you to be a stronger trainer."
That was a real slap to the face. Ryan's eyes widened in shock.
His first battle in Unova, and he'd lost. Not only that, but he was weak…
"Just put the Eevee back in its Poké ball and take it to the Pokémon Centre. Should be right as rain after that."
"I… fine…" Ryan muttered, standing up. He hugged the unconscious Pokémon tighter, hoping he'd be okay until they got to the centre.
"Like I said; put it in its Poké ball."
"He doesn't have one."
Jeremy blinked in surprise. "Is he even your Pokémon?"
"Of course he is! He just doesn't have a Poké ball!"
"Okay, okay, no need to shout at me, kid."
"My name's Ryan."
"Fine then, Ryan," Jeremy tutted, rolling his eyes and taking something from one of the pockets of his jacket. He tossed it to the boy. "Here."
Just about managing to catch the item while avoiding jerking the creature in his arms, Ryan just stared at it for a moment.
"Makes carrying Pokémon a lot easier," the older commented. "See ya, kid."
And with that, Jeremy strolled away into the trees. Espeon trotted after him, pausing briefly to glance back at the boy and mumble a brief 'sorry' before padding after her trainer.
And then he was left alone, the Eevee still unconscious in his arms and an empty Poké ball in one hand. Of course, there had been many lessons at school about using the capsules to catch Pokémon, but most of the Pokémon he met were wild. Still, Jay wanted to travel with him, which kind of made him his Pokémon, so it was okay, right…? Besides, trainers usually kept them in these things, so it wasn't as if they harmed them in any way…
And besides, it'd be easier to get Jay over to the Pokémon Centre this way. Finally making up his mind, Ryan gently tapped the capsule against the Eevee's fur. A light briefly surrounded the creature before retreating back into the Poké ball, taking the normal-type with it. The orb shook for a moment before falling still with a quiet click.
Letting out a faint sigh, Ryan glanced around. Now he just had to find a Pokémon Centre. Too bad that guy hadn't pointed him in the right direction.
The building they'd seen before turned out to be much larger than he'd originally expected. A sign by the door dubbed the place as 'Shopping Mall Nine', and a quick check of the map showed that the nearest Pokémon Centre was in Opelucid City to the east. Ryan wasted no time hurrying along the road, avoiding the motorcyclists that patrolled the area.
The gate attendant gave a friendly wave as he raced past, and in good manners he briefly waved back before emerging into the city. On any other occasion he probably would have paid attention to the architecture of the city, how amazing the whole place looked, but that was in the back of his mind right now.
The bright colours of the Pokémon Centre stood out amongst the faded buildings. Ryan nearly tried to shove the doors open before realising they were automatic, and narrowly avoided falling through them in his haste. His skirmish with the door attracted the attention of the nurse behind the counter, and she gave a friendly smile as he hurried across the room.
"Hello, what can I do for you?"
"Y-you can heal Pokémon here, right…?" Despite the common knowledge, Ryan had to ask anyway. He was worried. It was a force of habit.
"Yes, yes," the nurse nodded. She held out her hand for the Poké ball. "Are you a new trainer?"
Ryan handed the object over, never letting it out of his sight. "Yeah… I only arrived in Unova today."
"Well, be more careful from now on, okay?" She went over to place the capsule in some kind of machine, which lit up in reaction.
"Try telling that to the guy who was battling me."
"Oh, you were in a battle with someone? Now I see. There are a lot of strong trainers around these parts, seeing as the Pokémon League isn't too far from here. Maybe challenging them isn't such a good idea if you're not that experienced of a trainer."
"Duly noted," Ryan muttered, watching as the machine's light faded.
The nurse returned the Poké ball to him, the same friendly smile on her face as before. "Here you go. You have a trainer card, right?"
He nodded, about to retrieve it from the zipped pocket of his hoodie.
"Oh, don't worry; you don't need to show me. Just remember that if you're in need of food or a place to stay, or if your Pokémon need rest, just come to a Pokémon Centre, okay? They're all open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and services are free to Pokémon trainers."
"Okay, thanks," Ryan nodded. He wanted to make sure Jay was okay. Since being on the machine, the Poké ball had been rattling slightly, as if the creature inside was trying to get out.
With a brief wave to the lady, he hurried back outside, pressing the button on the capsule.
As the light released the creature inside, Jay was left squirming around on the old path, wailing loudly, almost as if he was in pain.
"Jay!" Ryan cried, crouching down to try and rest and hand on the Eevee's side to calm him down. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
At the sound of his voice, the creature froze, snapping back to reality at last. The second a hand brushed against his fur he jolted, jumping away hurriedly and pressing against the ground, trying to hide behind his tail.
"S-something… s-something really w-weird happened…" the Eevee whimpered quietly, his words coming out fast and almost incoherent. "Espeon did that funny wave thing, and… and then everything was dark, and then I was in this weird place all alone, and—!"
"Jay, Jay, it's alright." Ryan interrupted before his panicked train of thought could go completely off the rails. "You were just inside a Poké ball, okay?" He held the capsule up. "I just put you in there so I could get you to the Pokémon Centre so they could heal you."
"But… but…" Jay's eyes widened as he shrank back further. "It was you! You made the creepy place appear! And, and… and you didn't tell me... you said you knew a lot about this place! You never said anyone could do horrible things like that!"
"Look, I'm sorry if you don't like being in the Poké ball, okay? It was easier to carry you that way. Anyway, all Pokémon can be put inside Poké balls; it's not as if it hurt you."
"I don't care!" the Eevee snapped, scrambling away from him, ears pressed flat to the back of his neck. "I hate you!"
As Jay turned to race away, Ryan was left staring in shock for a moment. He soon shook his head brusquely, snapping back to reality and jumping to his feet to hurry after the Pokémon. "Jay, come back!"
The Eevee didn't listen, vanishing into the tunnel back out to Route 9 just as it came into view.
He can't have really meant that. He's just shocked still...
Yet by the time Ryan emerged back out onto the route once more, Jay had vanished.