Chapter 24 .:. Restart
Green and his Gyarados had managed to make it to the Seafoam Islands, and there we had dropped off the survivors we had managed to find. Green had insisted on going back to the island to check if there were any more people, or to alert any help that may have arrived that we were here on the Seafoam Islands. He had left me and Blaine in charge of taking care of everyone we had managed to gather.
"Well, what do we do first?" I asked older man. He was sitting on the ground, his chin in his hand as though he were pondering something. I bent down so I could look him in the eye, or at least into the lenses of his sunglasses, and asked. "Blaine, sir?"
"We're all soaking wet. Build a fire so they can keep warm and dry off. It's something the people will think to congregate around. That way people won't begin wandering about." He answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. I could only huff with annoyance and ignore the tone he had used to point out how blatantly obvious this must have been for him.
I scraped together a few random twigs that I managed to find on the shore of the island and set them up as best as I could. I released my Arcanine and it used ember on the wood, causing it to burn. Arcanine marched around the fire proudly and sat down next to Blaine. The elderly man began to pet my Pokémon gently.
"You have quite the Arcanine." He stated as he broke out of his state of thought to look up at me.
"Thanks." I sat down on the other side of my Pokémon and watched the fire, making sure it stayed generally strong.
"Have you been challenging the Gym Leaders? You never came by my Gym. I would have recognized a familiar fire-type."
"No, I'm not." I blinked at the elderly man, trying to imagine him as a Gym Leader. I supposed age couldn't affect one's skill. "So you're the Gym Leader? The Cinnabar Gym Leader is meant to be one of the strongest! Can I see your Pokémon?"
Blaine's mouth turned upwards into the tiniest of smiles before he released a Rapidash from its Pokeball. The Pokémon stood majestically in front of its master. It had a very commanding aura about it, one that managed to make my Arcanine stand stock straight out of respect.
"Wow." I stood up and held my hand out to the Pokémon before gently stroking its muzzle. It truly looked like a Pokémon worthy of a powerful trainer. "Do you have any others?"
"A Ponyta, but he was hurt during the eruption, so I'd rather keep him in his Pokeball for now. I also had a Growlithe and an Arcanine…" the Gym Leader's tone grew quieter as he spoke and I gulped in horror at the thought of what had happened to those Pokémon.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you think about that." I looked up at my Arcanine and instantly felt guilty for reminded the Gym Leader of his lost Pokémon. I had no idea what I would do if any of my Pokémon died. I leaned against my Arcanine, reminding myself that he was still alright.
"I have a greater puzzle to deal with right now." Blaine stated, pushing aside the topic as he recalled his Rapidash into its Pokeball. The rest of the survivors made their way over to the fire and sat around it in a circle.
"I've never seen Blaine so troubled." One woman muttered as she pulled off a wet jacket and threw it in front of the fire so it could dry off. "He usually knows how to handle any situation."
"Well, Blaine's lived on the island longer than any of us." A younger man stated. "What's he gonna do without it?"
"What are we going to do?" another man asked, "We have no home and nowhere to go! We can't just stay on this island, it's going to get cold by night fall." The man's stomach rumbled and he grabbed at it. "And we're gonna get hungry too!"
The younger man stood up and made his way toward me, "Miss, do you have a fishing rod in that bag of yours?"
I nodded and dug through my belt pouch, handing the rod to him. I hadn't used it since the day I went fishing for my Seadra when he was still a Horsea.
"Alright. Food won't be much of a problem then." The man held the fishing rod up proudly and said, "I was a fisherman back on Cinnabar."
"Yay!" a small group of children cheered and followed the fisherman to the shore where he stuck the rod in the water and they waited for a fish to bite.
"Well, that's one problem solved." I heard one of the women state positively.
"I just hope they don't accidentally reel in Green and his Gyarados." I shrugged.
"I wouldn't worry about that boy. He seems to be pretty well held together." The optimistic woman stated.
"Of course he is!" a teenager a bit older than me stated. "That's Green, Viridian City's new Gym Leader. He was Champion before he took up the Gym! That means he's the strongest trainer in the region! He'll definitely be alright."
"He's not the strongest in the region." Blaine stated as he seemed knocked from his state of deep thought. "There was another boy who took the Championship title from him almost immediately. He was a very powerful trainer. I remember his Charizard very well, it was a magnificent looking Pokémon."
"Red?" I guessed only to get a nod from the Gym Leader.
"Well, I didn't hear about this "Red" character. He mustn't be that great, he isn't Champion anymore."
"Red dropped the title in order to go train at Mount Silver." I explained. "I mean after tearing down Team Rocket and beating the Elite Four, he's been kinda bored."
"Wait, the kid who beat Team Rocket also beat the Elite Four and Green?" the teenager asked. I simply nodded. "Impressive."
"I'll say. But he doesn't seem to be much for heroics. Where is the boy now, if he's Kanto's great saviour?" one of the women demanded as she joined the conversation.
I grew quiet as I knew what the answer was. Red had never fought Team Rocket to be recognized or to become a hero. He'd done it out of boredom. There was no challenge for him in helping out with the eruption. Aside from that, he had sworn to stay on the mountain until he found a decent challenger.
"Mount Silver's in the Johto region." Another man insisted. "He may not have even known about the volcano blowing up. Fact, I don't know how he'd have found out. They don't exactly have cable on top of mountains."
The woman let out a huff, angry at having been proven wrong. As we continued talking about Red and Green which eventually led to the teenage boy proudly showing off his knowledge of the Gym Leaders in the region the fisherman brought over a few Magikarp that he had managed to catch.
"Make room around the fire so we can cook these guys." The fisherman insisted. We all backed away and the little kids had gathered some twigs and they stuck the freshly caught fish on them so they could cook in front of the fire.
"Ugh! I hate eating fish!" the teenager complained. "I'd rather a big juicy Miltank burger."
"You know what, you figure out how to get a Miltank over here and someone to cut it and cook it properly, and you can have one." The fisherman stated as he picked up some of the twigs and stuck the fish in the fire so it could cook.
"Has anyone seen Blaine?" one of the men asked and I looked around Arcanine to see that the Gym Leader was no longer sitting there. The island was tiny, there was nowhere he could have gone that we wouldn't have seen. The only option seemed to be that he went inside the cave.
"I'll go look for him inside the cave." I pointed to the fisherman, "You're in charge until Green gets back."
"Aye, aye!" the fisherman gave me a nod before turning back to the fish he was cooking. I heard the angry grumbles of the others as they complained as to why I got to choose who was in charge. I ignored them and walked into the cave with Arcanine.
"Blaine? Sir?" I called. When he didn't respond I commanded Arcanine to use ember near his paws, making the patch of ground there catch fire and allowing me to see. I could see Blaine in the back of the cave, with his sunglasses off, looking around as though he were contemplating something big. "Blaine?" I called again and made my way over to him.
"It's perfect!" he exclaimed as he threw his sunglasses back on over his eyes. "My quiz machines will have been destroyed in the eruption, but I can create a new puzzle! Now if I rearrange the stones and place Gym Trainers in designated areas…"
"Blaine, are you alright?" I made my way over to the Gym Leader and shook him gently, "Everyone got worried about you. What are you doing in here?"
"This cave entrance will make the perfect gym! It's large enough for an arena for sure! I'll just need to rearrange a few things, but a little hard work is never a bad thing." Blaine continued rambling and I shook him again, harder this time.
"Blaine! I'm really happy for you and all, but can you come back outside? We managed to cook some Magikarp. And Green should be coming back with a rescue team!" when the Gym Leader continued to ignore me, I pointed out, "If you've got everything planned out, there's no point in you sitting in here, because you can't carry out anything yet. So come outside, where there's a warm fire and food." I let out a shiver, noting that it was freezing inside the cave, especially since Arcanine's fire was beginning to die out. "And if you build a Gym here, you're going to need to put in a heater."
He blinked down at me. I sighed with relief, I had finally managed to get his attention. "Not now, I'll be out in a bit." He insisted and motioned with his hand to shoo me away. I felt my eyebrows knot furiously as I felt like a little kid getting bossed around again. Insulted, I let out a frustrated snort and led Arcanine outside. The old man clearly needed to get his priorities straight.
Outside I saw that Green had arrived and that he and the others were joyfully eating the Magikarp the fisherman had cooked. "Hey!" I waved glad to see the younger Gym Leader was back. I did a head count and noticed there were a couple extra people in the circle.
"Help finally arrived." Green stated. "They're gonna continue searching and after they're done they'll come here to bring people to Pallet."
"That's good." I sat down and one of the kids handed me a stick with a piece of fish on it and I bit into it.
"Where'd Blaine go?" Green asked as he looked around the circle and realized the Cinnabar Gym Leader wasn't there.
"He's inside the cave. Crazy old nut's planning to build his new Gym there." I pointed to the cave in question.
Green blinked at me questioningly before stating, "Sounds like something he'd do. Apparently he loves coming up with crazy solutions to problems. The man's a genius, if he says it'll work, it'll work."
"Still sounds nutty to me." I stated through a mouthful of Magikarp.
But perhaps it was good for him to be so optimistic about something. At least one of the inhabitants of Cinnabar Island had managed to find a solution to his problem. Perhaps helping the others with their problems would be just as simple.
I looked over at the island which was invisible behind a layer of ash. Or it could just be one difficult puzzle, one with a complex solution that only few could see…
(A/N I always did wonder what happened to that Growlithe and Arcanine of Blaine's in gen 2. They just poofed. So, my headcanon has interfered. What can I say, I prefer assuming things are dead for some reason *shrug*
Also, Blaine is a little cuckoo, because hell, it's fun.
Guess who's coming back next chapter?)