Chapter XXI: An Awkward Reunion

[If I were Murr, I would most likely do the same thing. I believe he is justified in his opinions and actions regardless of what effect they may have on you.]

"You're only saying that because you aren't affected."

[I highly doubt I would change my mind about it all. If I were a human, I would be concerned but I would realize what's bringing about incoming demise was brought about by the vanity of humanity.]

"Not every human is a Champion. Not every Champion can't argue his or her orders."

[Humans are supposed to have more developed 'sense' than most Pokémon. That should have been enough to realize that the consequences must be reaped, that if anyone with such access to power would utilize it. The irony is that humans cannot handle being controlled while they control Pokémon.]

-Mewtwo (pt 2/6)

~*~*

For once, Rob wasn't all enthusiastic. He kept his head down, almost hiding behind Charizard who stood between us keeping us warm as we walked through the night along the highway. He barely held a conversation since we left Goldenrod yesterday, and I found it odd that I was more optimistic than him for once.

I was about to get my fourth badge. Once I got it, I'd be halfway done. How many trainers honestly had four badges who didn't choose to be trainers? I was kicking ass and still breathing after all that mess with Riley.

Riley and I did see each other before Rob made him run away with those two guys. What was going through his head when he saw me? He lied to me and pretty much had me set to be killed, so what goes through the mind of people like him?

My hype started to dissipate and become resentment toward Riley. He had no business doing me like that. How many other trainers had he tricked? Did he hang out around the library scoping out victims? My skin shivered from disgust and a sharp breeze.

The three of us were following a path fenced away from the highway. Teens and college students in passing cars would honk at us sometimes because they'd see Charizard. Some girls even parked close to the fence and talked to us (meaning mostly Rob). I expected Rob to use his charm to get us a ride, but he was so out of it that he gave them the cold shoulder, telling them to leave us alone. The girls laughed at him, called both of us filthy trainers, and drove off. Ever since then, Rob was mute.

The whole walk to Ecruteak was getting too awkward for me. My optimism was gone and now I was thinking about the most frustrating issue: What happened with June?

Talking about Pokemon may cheer Rob up, I figured. "Rob, can I ask you something?"

"'Bout what?" he exhaled. He didn't lift his view from the pavement.

With that kind of reaction, I almost kept my mouth shut. "June won't listen to me anymore. She attacked my brother when he asked her to light his pipe. What can I do about it?"

Rob's eyes got wide and he looked at me. "Damn, really? Is he ok?"

"Yeah, he said he was used to things like that. He also said I need to have her lose in a battle. He said the problem was that she's too cocky because she wins all the time basically."

He chuckled slightly. "He's right, but you don't want to go into a fight thinking you're going to lose. You gotta be serious, but pretty much just lose like normal. Try to win but lose. You know, like a losing battle? Get it?"

I shook my head. "If it was like that, then I should probably fight you so I can lose."

Rob scratched his head. "Ah, not like that…more like…" He put his fingers on his chin. I seemed to have pulled him out of his funk for a bit. "More like fight someone you think you can beat, but you don't end up beating him because he's good. That way, you and your Pokemon will put in enough effort and both will be all disappointed when you lose. Then your Pokemon will be willing to do whatever to win again."

I nodded in approval. "Has this happened to you?"

Rob smiled. "Yeah, twice. It happens normally with larger Pokemon. The mother of the Onix I used in the battle tent about last week? Yeah, she'd ignore me completely but I kept using her until she figured me and her make a great pair."

Comprehending what he said took a minute. "You have two Onix..es? How do you call a bunch of them anyway?"

"Just Onix, and yeah. They grow fast though. The one you saw is fully grown, but it's still not mature I think. I've had it a little bit over a year now. Its mother was one of the first few Pokémon I caught."

With that, Rob perked up. He explained that the mother Onix had evolved and he only takes it out of his Box for whenever he feels like scaring the hell out of someone. He pulled out his PokéDex and showed me the description of a Steelix. I remembered Dad talking about how he found some Steelix skin at the bottom of an empty well when he was a kid. He said that his parents had it turned into a fence.

"She's huge. About as big as my Gyarados," Rob said.

I gave him a blank stare, speechless.

He sneered. "Yeah, I'm actually gonna be a dick about it and brag. Yeah, I have a Gyarados. A male Ocean Blue. Caught him in the Southern waters of Kanto while I was on this special cruise for Trainers."

I begged him to tell me the story and he did. He won a ticket to ride a cruise ship to Cinnabar Island where he said he could learn how to make Charizard stronger. On the ride, an Ocean Blue attacked the ship. The trainers were more than enough to take it down, but there was a huge race to see who could catch it and have it stay in a Poké Ball first. The Ocean Blue kept busting out, but Rob's managed to work.

"I didn't want a Pokémon that was that feral and wild at first, so left it in my Box when I got to shore. Then I challenged the gym leader, Lorenzo. He completely owned me and asked me why I didn't use my Gyarados. So I got a rematch with him a few days later. All of our Pokémon were healed up, but I had Gyarados with me. So he ends up, again, completely wiping the floor with me and all I have is Gyarados left. I didn't let him out yet. I was down to one Pokémon and he had what . . . two or three I think."

"Damn. What'd you do?" Rob rarely talked about himself like this.

Rob cleared his throat. "Get this. Dude has this Infernape, right? Thing's so awesome; a monkey that lights its own cigarettes. But Lorenzo throws out his Infernape into the ring where Gyarados was squirming and twisting and roaring and stuff. Gyarados attacks Infernape. I've never seen anything so huge get its shit ruined so fast."

Rob howled with laughter and held his sides. "Oh God it was insane. Every time Gyarados got close, Infernape would jump on its head and punch or kick it. Then Gyarados decided to try and blow up everything with a Hyper Beam. He charged it up, but Infernape kicked him in the mouth and Gyarados lost all his teeth that day. It was like looking at a bloody firecracker, and I don't mean that in the Sinnoh context. You know, how they say stuff like 'bloody' and 'chap' and stuff."

So Rob continued to tell me about how he ended up helping Gyarados recover and trained him to finally beat Lorenzo. His Charizard led us down some offbeat path as we talked, and then we passed an old-timey elegant oval sign hanging from a post that read 'The Double Leek Inn' in black cursive letters.

"Where're we headed anyway?"

"The Double Leek Inn of course!" Rob answered with a bit too much energy. "I can get us a room for free cause I know the owners."

Hunting down birds and camping out was a pain at first, but Rob had gotten me into being a cheap bastard like him. Every time I saw some fast food place in the distance, I'd ignore it. Every time I saw a Pidgey, my mouth watered. Free was good.

Charizard eventually led us down some wide dirt driveway in front of a wide, one-story brick house with three smoking chimneys. Garden gnomes with winding Bellsprout growing on them stood in the front yard. Empty wooden rocking chairs rested on the porch and the wind chimes played their tune as a night breeze blew. An orange light from a fire inside glowed from the closed shutters in front of the windows. At the side of the house, a station wagon covered in mud and dust was parked next to a green family van.

Rob climbed up to the front door and knocked. I stood at the steps and looked around. Charizard had walked over to a bunch of trees and started snarling. The flame on his tail intensified.

I ran up behind Rob. "Hey…Charizard sees something I think."

Rob didn't turn around. "I figured. We're being followed. Just stay in the house. We'll talk when we get our beds."

The door cracked opened, locked in place by a chain. Of all people, Jim's face peeked through. His green hair was now cornrowed. He looked at us sternly and was about to ask us who we were, but he recognized us immediately.

He unlatched the door "Ed! Rob! Woah! I never thought I'd see you guys again so soon! Come on in!"

Rob returned Charizard to his Poké Ball and we stepped inside. The cozy warmth from the stone fireplace made me realize how much I wanted to lay in a snug bed and sleep. Five small kids were gathered in front of it cooking hot dogs on forks. An old bald man with a large black sweater and lumberjack boots was in a rocking chair smoking a pipe. His beady eyes watched us as we greeted Jim.

"Rob-boy, you know Jim? You two know each other?" he said. He took a puff and eyed all of us. The kids stared at us for a little while but went back to cooking.

"Yes sir, I do," Rob answered. "We met back in Azaela Town, right after the last time I came by." He went up to the man and shook his hand. The old man's forearm was thick and hairy.

"And what about the red-head there? You." He beckoned me. "Come here. Let me see you."

The old man wanted me to get closer to him and Rob wasn't doing a thing about it, so I went over to him. He got close to my face and started examining my neck, stretching my arms out, and checking my ears.

He pulled out a small flashlight from his khakis. "Open your mouth so I can check your teeth and throat."

I pushed his arms off of me. "Rob? What the hell man?"

The old man's pipe dotted me across my forehead. "No foul talk."

"Oh yeah, introductions. Dr, Leek, this is Ed. Ed, Dr. Tim Leek. I don't even know what kind of ologist he is, but I wouldn't doubt he's all of them."

I rubbed where he hit me. "Uh, hi. And sorry."

"Just be sure to be respectful to everyone in the house," Dr. Leek said. He pulled my hair sharply. "Healthy hair. Very red. Typical for you to have freckles. Minor acne, which is good. Trainers tend to be the most fit. You are healthy but you need sleep. You have bags under your eyes. Talk to Bernice. You can get a bed and clothes from her."

Rob grew bright. "Mrs. B? Mrs. B! Where's she? Come on Ed, this lady's like a mom to me."

The kids cooking the hotdogs watched us as we left, following Rob. None of them looked older than six or seven years old. They were very thin and bony, wearing clothes that were too big with tears and loose strings hanging off. All five looked radically different from each other skin tone to hair and height, so I figured they were orphans.

"So Ed, you get any new badges? New Pokémon? What's up?" Jim asked. He was wearing a suiting green sweater. I felt out of place wearing my vest and short sleeves.

"Got one, but no new Pokémon. I got the Plain badge from Goldenrod," I answered. "Now June won't listen to me anymore. Rob says she thinks she's too good for me and my other Pokémon."

Jim shook his head and rubbed his nose. "Yeah, that sucks man. That happens to a lot of captured Pokémon when they're teenagers, or whatever you call it for them when they're at the 'age of knowledge' equivalent to humans. Just angst. I'm sure you get that way too. I know I do."

He laughed at his joke but I didn't get it at the time. Rob snickered. "I gotta admit, I can't figure out whether or not I wanna call myself an adult or not. I mean I'm 17 goin' on to 18 but I…" he looked over his shoulder briefly, and then whispered. "But I've fucked nine girls already, and I've done and seen a lot compared to most people. So really, what am I?"

Jim rubbed his chin, "Well I'm 17 too and I already have two kids. I'm called Mr. Linus. Chloe is called Mrs. Linus. We were pretty well off and I never really did think about if we were unprepared for parenthood. We always come through."

With all this talk, I considered myself a kid and left it at that. Jim had said something that made me worry. "'Were'? What happened? Why aren't you back at the Azalea Gym?"

We had been following Rob down a hall and stopped in front of a kitchen. An old lady as tall as me was cutting some tomatoes on a cutting board. She wore a plain pink nightgown with pink slippers and her white hair was tied in a bun. She reminded me of the pictures Mom would show me of my late grandma.

Next to her was a young girl with cinnamon-colored hair that came down over shoulders. She was putting ham on two slices of bread and covered them with mayonnaise and mustard. The girl wore a baggy bright yellow sweater with grey sweatpants that were too big for her.

When I started to notice her face, I felt an odd familiarity. Only the side of her face was toward me, and she didn't seem to notice us, but I could still see the color of her eyes. Brown, but extremely and puffy on the sides. Her face was flushed and she sniffled. She had a small nose with a round face. Her mouth was slender, but I imagined it hid a great smile.

"Mrs. B!" Rob shouted. He ran inside and me and Jim stepped in just beyond the doorway.

Mrs. B's eyes were as blue and large as Dr. Leek's. Her wide smile showed off her pearly white dentures. "Rob! Dah-ling, it's good to see you!"

The two embraced and the girl took some tomatoes from Mrs. B's pile and put them on her sandwich. She watched Rob and Mrs. B embrace with a small smile people will have when they're just trying to be friendly even though they have nothing to do with what's going on around them. I stared at her face, trying to place it to the right person.

She was about my age, a bit older.

She used to be taller than me, but now we were even.

She was a trainer.

My heart skipped a beat. She was Alice without the blonde hair and blue eyes. Who was this girl? I thought.

Rob and Mrs. B reminisced over many things while we just stood around, and then they finally noticed us. The girl who looked like Alice popped the final piece of sandwich into her mouth. Her eyes were already clearing up.

Rob brought me over to Mrs. B. "Mrs. B, this is Ed. You think we can get some beds?"

She put her wrinkly hands on my shoulders. "Of course! Any friend of Rob is a friend of mine! You two can have room 3."

She asked me regular questions like where I was from and how old I was. The more I talked, the more the girl would look at me. I'd keep my eyes away from hers in case I was being weird, but I came up with an idea.

"So yeah," I said, "after coming from New Bark Town, I went to Cherrygrove and got some supplies."

I kept her in my peripheral vision. "That's where I met my first trainer, well, as a trainer. Her name was Alice I think."

She froze up and her eyes grew wide, as if from fear. She looked over at Mrs. B. Mrs. B's own eyes darted across the floor. Rob crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. Jim was just dumbfounded at everyone's reaction.

I was going to tell the girl she looked just like Alice, but something kept me shut up.

"Well, Ed," Mrs. B said in a surprisingly cheery voice, "You sound like you have quite the story to tell the rest of us over tomorrow night's dinner. But now it's getting late and everyone has to follow the Inn's curfew!"

She clapped her hands. "Alright everyone!" she shouted. "Bedtime!"

The girl hastily walked out of the kitchen. Jim had to hop out of her way or she would've knocked him over.

"Yeah Ed," Rob said, pinching his chin. "We gotta talk about girls again."

---

Rob and I got in our nightwear, which was just our underwear and jumped into the twin beds. Jim was sitting on the floor between us, talking about his current situation. His son, Jonas, was in a deep sleep, lightly snoring.

"Alfred went into the well and killed Dialgarice and the rest of the pack, but he ends up accusing me for hiding all the Slowpoke children."

For the second time that night, my heart stopped and flushed me with guilt. On top of that, Rob shot a glare at me.

"He was upset about the Slowpoke missing?" Rob asked.

"God yeah. The guy just started fussing and fussing about how 'we people' don't appreciate what Champions do for everyone and how me and Chloe only wanted to screw up his reputation. So me and Chloe tell him to fuck off, and he's all bitchy this time. Then he says that we've 'shown an example of inadequacy as Gym Leaders' and he offers us a choice to decide which one of us will lose our Gym Leader license or both of us would be arrested."

Rob shot up. "The fuck?" I had to look away from both of them, so I stared at the ceiling. My mind was calling me an idiot.

"Yeah, so me and Chloe argue with him and he says that this was what was going to happen even if the Slowpoke were still in the well. He said the fact we didn't clean it out meant we'd have to suffer the consequences. So he gave us a day to decide on what to do. Me and Chloe talked about it, then we talked about how we got no money since Alfred took over the Gym for so long, and then I decided that I'd give up my license."

"So why the hell are you here?" Rob asked. "You gotta take care of your family!"

Jonas squirmed and squealed at Rob's outburst. Jim gently rocked him. "Well, I decided I could do better for my family. I figured I could train up my Pokémon and see if I could place in the Elite Four in a League Championship. Fourth place gets half a million dollars. I get that, me, Chloe, Jonas, and Liz won't have to worry about Champion bullshit anymore."

I wanted to say something, but the guilt was overwhelming.

"Nice man. You're going to compete in the one coming up?" Rob asked.

"Nah, but next year I will. My strongest team is just the team I use for eighth badge gym leader battles. I'd get smoked by trainers in the Victory Road challenge. I'll get better though. This morning, I went to the old National Park on the other side of the woods and caught some bug Pokémon still lurking around in the tall grass."

Jonas was wide awake now, reaching out to the wooden floor to be put down to crawl. "Oh yeah, Alicia said she wanted to go by the National Park to see if she can find some bug Pokémon to train on and catch. If you two are thinking about going by there, then maybe you can cheer her up. I've been here for three days and everyday she looks like she's been crying."

Alicia was spelled too closely to Alice. Twin sisters? I thought. Where was Alice? It wasn't any of my business but something strange was up.

Jim got up and sat Jonas on his shoulder. "Well I'm out. Gotta get some sleep so I can head back to Goldenrod tomorrow so I can catch the Mach Train to Kanto."

"You're heading to Kanto too?" Rob asked. Rob was heading to Kanto?

"Yeah," Jim said. "I'm going to spend some time training in all three regions. Only for a few months each though. Why are you going to Kanto?"

"I live there," Rob said. "I wanna go back home for a good moment before I take on the upcoming League Championship. You know, train and stuff. But first I'm heading to Ecruteak to train in one of those two towers since they're filled with Ghost Pokémon. Then I'm going to head back to Kanto, go to Lavender Town, and train around the radio tower there. That place is definitely haunted since it used to be a tower where people cremated their Pokémon and left the ashes."

Jim nodded. "Sounds like a plan. I think it's crazy how we're talking about fighting ghosts when we should be afraid of the dead."

Rob shrugged. "Only with Pokémon."

Jim chuckled. "Yeah. Well I'm out. If I'm gone before you two wake up, it was good seeing you both again. Good luck with your training Rob and we might end up battling each other one day. You too Ed, I'm just a trainer now so you'll have to go serious on me. When you get five badges more badges, look for me because I feel like you'll get really good and I'll need a sparring partner."

I gave him thumbs up and he gave one back. He turned around and closed the door behind himself. He more or less spoke the truth about me encountering him again, but it would be a few years down the line.

Rob got on his elbow and looked over at me over the counter. "So now for you."

I laid on my back and continued watching the ceiling. "I swear I've seen Alicia before. She's that girl I told you about, but she changed her hair and eye color somehow. Unless she's a twin or something. They seriously look just alike."

"I see," Rob said. "Let me explain it so it'll make sense to you. Based on what you said today, what you're saying now, and her reaction, chances are it is really her."

I was taken aback at how easily he believed me. "So what's going on?"

"She probably got in some mess. Goldenrod has a huge underground market that kidnaps weaker trainers. She probably got caught in it and now she's running away from her captors, owners, or whatever."

What if Alice was that girl people were talking about in Azalea Town? Did she go through the same thing as me? Being treated like a tool by criminals? Did Riley get to her too?

"But then again, you did say you couldn't remember how she looked like," Rob commented, " so she could probably be someone different and just looks like what you think Alice looks like."

"No," I said sternly. "It's her. Seeing her face made me remember."

Rob smirked. "Well, tomorrow morning, I'll get you up so we can go with her to the National Park, alright? You can talk to her about it then, but you'll have to be quiet about it because I think her hunters are watching her. We gotta keep her safe. I don't think Jim knew that much."

"So we should sleep now then?" I asked.

"Yep," Rob replied. He turned off the lamp and curled over in his bed. I kept looking at the ceiling. A new question irked me.

"You think she's going to Ecruteak to join Team Zero?" I asked.

"Sure do. That's one thing I'm sure of. My guess is that she got rescued and recruited in Goldenrod and now she's heading north. It's obvious we're trainers by just looking at us. She didn't say a thing. And her reaction to what you said to Mrs. B was way too weird. Besides, the inn is a checkpoint for Zero recruits coming from the south."

His assumption was my guess as well. I turned over to my side away from him. "When we do get to Ecruteak, will we have to fight Team Zero members? I don't think I can take on swarms of Pokémon."

Rob chuckled. "Nah, they'd think twice about messing with us."

I turned over again and looked at him through the darkness. "Why?"

"Well from what you told me about what happened to you in Goldenrod, they like you enough to save you. As for me, there's only a few of them that would lay a hand on me, but they like me too. Probably too much."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"What kind of answer are you looking for?"

"Why do they like me?"

"Because you're with me?"

"Then why don't they mess with you?"

"Did they mess with you?"

Rob's question stopped me. I chose the wrong words. I was forced to say they didn't.

"Don't worry. The members of Team Zero aren't stupid. Neither of them will ever fuck with us. I can promise you that. Now go to sleep, we gotta be up early cause Mrs. B makes breakfast at the crack of dawn."

I could see Rob's outline in the dark take his sheets and pull them over his shoulder. I did the same thing and fell into slumber like a Geodude in a lake. Tomorrow, Rob and I would finish our conversation, when I'd have more of an understanding on what was going on.

~*~*~*

Sorry for the long LONG wait. I've been busy with schoolwork and on top of that, I had to figure out some things about the story, like how and where I want to go with it. I had a plan at first but I sort of tweaked it here and there. I mean, I'm still tweaking it.

Chapter 22 should be finished up pretty soon. I want to hurry up and get Part 1 of the story done while work has toned down. If I do go on another hiatus, I will make an update about it, I promise!

With that out of the way though, I would like to say thanks to all of the readers who are enjoying the story. Like I said earlier I think, as long as there are readers, I will keep writing. You guys give me purpose.