Last time on Tony's Journey...
Tony had a battle with Bianca and Cheren, and managed to defeat them both, earning himself both rivals and friends in the duo, and Professor Juniper revealed her plan to her assisant Fennel to send Tony out on his Pokemon Journey!
What will happen next? Find out now!
"Mom..."
"What? What is it? It's the middle of the night!"
"I... I had a really bad dream."
"Go back to bed, Antonio."
"B-but..."
"Bed!"
"I'm scared..."
"Oh, for heaven's sakes... What are you afraid of this time?!"
"I... It's just... Yesterday... You..."
"I told you I was sorry."
"But you scared me..."
"Go to bed, Antonio."
"Mom... Why did you hit me...?"
"BED!"
Y-Yes, mom..."
Tony's eyes shot open and he bolted up. "Just a dream... Just a dream..." he repeated over and over, as if it were a mantra.
He silently looked around and sighed. It was late. It was almost Ten O'Clock. He had just gotten to sleep when he had one his dreams again.
He hated those dreams. They were nightmares, really. Nightmares that never let him forget, no matter how hard he tried. Nightmares about her - Tony's mother.
Tony shook his head and rubbed his eyes. His throat was feeling dry, and he was thirsty. He slowly crawled out of his bed. Sunny and Lucky were both fast asleep, Lucky in her hammock, and Sunny was curled up in Tony's bed again. Best not to wake them, Tony thought, rubbing his eyes and opening the door to his room. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light that filled the hallway. He was just about to take a step outside of his room when...
"Absolutely not!"
Tony blinked. That was Aunt Sally's voice... What's wrong with her? he thought, nervously.
"Sally, calm down."
"There's no need to yell."
Uncle Brad and Pappy too? What's going on? Tony slowly and silently edged towards the stairs, moving as silently as he could. He could faintly make out another voice, one he had heard that morning.
Juniper?
It couldn't be? Why would Juniper be here at this time of night?
"...I'm not telling you how to raise your nephew," the voice said. Yeah, it was Juniper. What was she doing here?
"How can you be so insensitive?!" Sally demanded. "We're all still recovering from the Braviary incident, and now you want me to... to send this poor child out into the world, all by himself?!"
Tony blinked. They were talking about him, and if they wanted him to hear it they would have asked should go back to bed...
"Sally, please, calm down..." his uncle said.
"No, I will not calm down!" Sally snapped. "I don't care that she's your boss! I am your wife! Support me!"
"Honey..."
"I'm not trying to cause an argument!" Juniper shouted. "I just wanted to talk about the possibility! I mean, well, he's a bright young man, he loves Pokemon and he seemed to enjoy battling enough..."
"The battle that you instigated!" Sally snapped. "You give him a Pokedex, you get him into battles again - and all of this to try and get him off on some... insane, dangerous journey, out there in the wild without his family?!"
Tony's eyes widened as he heard those words. A journey - a Pokemon journey. Leaving his home for weeks on end for a shot at becoming a pro trainer. A small shot. Tony forgot the percentage of trainers who actually did make the big leagues, but he knew it was small.
All things considered, Tony knew that a journey was more than becoming a pro trainer. Pokemon breeders, Pokemon Professors and scientists, caretakers, doctors... All of said occupations required that you went on a Pokemon journey. In those regards, a Pokemon journey was sort of lie college, except you didn't have to pay as much, ad you ran around a lot.
Well, Tony did like running around, and he did like Pokemon. But now, something was nagging in the back of his mind as he eavesdropped on his family and Juniper, something that made him forget the guilt he felt for spying on them.
Juniper had been flat out manipulating him. She gave him a Pokedex, fed him lines, and set him on a battle, and all for what? So she could send him on a journey? If he wanted to go, he would have asked his aunt and uncle. He didn't need a strange woman he had only met yesterday to try and get him going on his journey.
He silently inched closer to the steps, listening intently as Juniper began to argue her point downstairs.
"I am not trying to tell you how to raise Tony. I am not trying to take him away from you. I'm thinking of his future," Juniper said, with some surprising calmness.
"You don't think we can do that!?" Sally demanded. Tony winced at her tone. Sally was as sweet a woman that you could ever come across, but when she was mad, she was mad.
"I'm not saying you can't!" Juniper said, a tinge of annoyance entering her voice. "Look... What does Tony want to be when he's an adult?"
No one answered. Tony swallowed nervously, as he felt a cold sweat trickle down his forehead. What did he want to be? An archeologist like Uncle Brad? Could he join with the Navy like Pappy did?
"Tony loves Pokemon," Juniper continued. "He was willing to risk injury to himself to save one. Maybe he'd like to be a trainer? Or maybe a Pokemon Ranger? Or maybe a researcher? You know as well as I do that to get into any job that requires knowledge of Pokemon, you need to go on a journey and win eight gym badges."
"Maybe he doesn't want to be a researcher or a ranger!" Sally retorted. "M-Maybe he'll be..."
"Look," Juniper said, "I just would like him to be my assistant, of sorts. He'll be working for me. I'll even pay him! And when he has all eight gym badges, he can do pretty much anything he'd ever want to."
"I... I can't..." Sally's voice was trembling. "He almost died not two days ago... I know what it's like for a trainer, I was one before."
"I think we all were," Pappy said.
"We know what it's like then!" Sally argued. "Cold lonely nights, walking out in the wild, sometimes going for weeks on end without seeing a single human being. Not to mention the demanding life, constantly battling gym leaders, often multiple times, and dealing with other trainers, some of whom are perfectly content to use their Pokemon to bully others... Tony's a wonderful, caring boy! I can't send him into that cruel, lonely world all on his own!"
"He won't be alone," Pappy said. "He'll have Lucky with him, and Sunny as well."
"Why are you siding with her?" Sally asked.
"I'm not taking any side in this," Pappy growled. "But know this - Tony wants to go on this journey!"
"He does?" Sally and Brad asked in unison.
I do? Tony thought, nervously.
"Surely, you've both noticed it," Pappy said quietly. "The long walks, sometimes walks that go on for hours on end. constantly looking for Pokemon and simply watching them for hour on end. Now, his love of battling has been rekindled. He has the wanderlust, or the adventurous spirit, or the restlessness, whatever you wanna call it. He has it. He wants an adventure. He has his Pokemon, but he hasn't been able to go - so, he goes on his walks, and he watches Pokemon in the wild. The only way to quell it, it to let the kid go on his adventure."
Tony stood at the top of the stairs, silent, as he listened to Pappy say those words. The walks, the Pokemon watching, the battling.. were all these symptoms of this restlessness? Did he really want to go in a journey that badly?
On one hand, if he went, he'd have no human company. He wouldn't have Uncle Brad, who had to work long and hard at work, or Aunt Sally, who was busy as a housewife and was currently looking for a part-time job, and Pappy who was sadly to old to travel on foot across an entire region. He'd only have his Pokemon with him...
On the other hand... seeing the world out there, being free to go where he pleased, and being able to train Pokemon regularly... It sounded... wonderful. But could he leave his home? Could he leave his warm house, with his family who loved him to death, where he was safe and warm and secure?
He somehow knew the answers wouldn't come to him while he was awake. He silently walked back to bed, his face expressionless.
Meanwhile, downstairs, the argument over Tony's future was reaching its end. Pappy's words had taken their toll on Sally and Bradley. Juniper remained silent.
Sally still felt a tinge of anger for the scientist - after all, she had been trying to get Tony into wanting to go on a journey. When Sally had heard from Tony that he had had a battle with their neighbors' children, Cheren and Bianca, and that he had enjoyed it. She hoped that maybe he was making friends - human friends - that he could spend time with. Then she learned they were leaving on a Pokemon journey, and that plan went up in smoke for the moment. Later that evening, after Tony went to bed, Juniper showed up and had the gall to ask if she could send Tony off into the wild all by himself. Sally had been enraged. How could this woman, who met them mere days ago and only met Tony yesterday. How could she even think of asking the boy to go out into the world for her?
But, now, with what Pappy said in mind, she knew, deep down, that Tony would want to go one day anyways. Almost every child with a Pokemon in the world wanted to go on a journey eventually. Tony was no exception.
The room was silent, until Uncle Brad spoke up. "What would he doing, if he was working for you?"
"Well, he'd be a research assistant," Juniper explained. "Not full-time, of course. If I need help and he's in the area, I'll ask him for his help. It's nothing dangerous. Besides, it would be a good experience for an up-and-coming trainer."
Sally folded her arms. "So you say..."
Juniper sighed as she reached into the pocket of her lab coat. "Here, this is for Tony," she said, pulling out a small, watch like device, with the same black and red color-scheme as the Pokedex.
"What is it?" Pappy asked. He was never a huge fan of all the ridiculous amounts of technology that were being pumped out these days.
"It's called the xtransceiver," Juniper explained. "It's a video-phone, of sorts, that lets you make four-way calls. I bought one for Tony and for you Sally, so you can stay in constant contact, no matter where he is."
Sally raised an eyebrow.
Juniper sweatdropped and coughed. "Uh, just in case you decide to let him go, that is," she said, handing Sally her own xtransceiver. "Uh, I brought the manual, if you don't know how it works..."
Sally groaned as she took the phone. "I'll be fine," she said, quietly.
The room became silent again.
Juniper swallowed. Sally was still glaring at her. Maybe she could make a bolt for the door before the woman snapped...
Sally sighed. "W-We only just got here... and already we're going to be separated?" she asked.
"H-hey, it's your choice," Juniper said.
"We wouldn't have to make a choice if you didn't force it upon us!" Sally snapped.
Juniper nodded. "...Sorry..." she said quietly. She sighed, feeling exhausted. "Look... A long time ago, a trainer named Cedric left Nuvema Town to start his own journey. While he was on his way to Accumula he saw something. He saw another trainer beating his own Patrat." She paused and took a deep breath. "He was a higher level than Cedric was, and he knew that he could get beaten badly - maybe even killed... He attacked that trainer, and managed to beat three of his Pokemon before his own Pokemon was knocked out. Then, when he had no Pokemon left, and the other trainer thought he had won... Cedric attacked him. He leaped at this older boy and gave him everything he had until he had knocked him out." She paused again, before going on. "Cedric ended up in the hospital - but he also ended up with a friend. That Patrat stayed with him for the rest of his life." She looked at Sally and Brad with determined eyes. "Cedric... Cedric Juniper was my father. He risked his life to saved that Patrat, and he went on to become one of the most recognized names in Pokemon research. I thnk that Tony has what my father had - he's not crazy, he's not stupid, he's compassionate."
Bradley nodded. "He is. He always has been."
"Back in Pallet Town," Pappy muttered, "whenever he found a hungry or sick Pokemon, he'd always come and get us, and he'd always help make it better again."
Sally sighed, remembering. She looked at Brad. "What do you think?"
"I think..." Bradley began, slowly. "I think that Juniper is right, in one regard. If Tony wants to work with Pokemon, than he needs to have trained and earned badges. On the other hand, she should have asked us before she got him into battling again, and she should have let us know earlier." He gave his employer as hard a glare as he dared to give her. "I think that Tony..." he finished, slowly, "should make his own decision."
Pappy nodded. "Almost every child in the world trains and earns badges sooner or later," he said. "It's a long kept tradition that my generation and yours' have kept. I went on a journey, and you three did as well... I think that Tony should be allowed to make a choice."
Juniper gave a grateful smile. "Oh, thank goodness..." she gasped.
"But..." Sally said, her original fierceness returning, "if anything happens to Tony - anything horrible at all - I am holding you solely responsible." She gave the professor a look that let her know she wasn't joking. Juniper may be the one signing the Miller's paychecks at this moment, but Aunt Sally, was, in a way, Tony's mother figure. She would kill for her nephew, if she had to. "Do I make myself clear?"
Juniper smiled nervously. "Crystal."
Author's Note:
Well, this was dramatic.
Looks like Aunt Sally might actually let Tony go on a journey! But the choice is ultimately Tony's - will he take it?
Well, methinks we all know who wears the pants in the Miller family, now, don't we?
Tune in next time to find out!
Tony's Party:
1: Lucky, female Butterfree
Ability: Compund Eyes
Move Set: Silver Wind, Confusion, Sleep Powder and Dream Eater.
2: Sunny, female Larvesta
Ability: Flame Body
Move Set: Ember, String Shot and Morning Sun
