He looks extra paranoid today, Lucia noted, watching Riven wince as a faint outline of Petalburg could be seen from the air. Wonder why that is…
Currently, they were flying to Petalburg. Lucia and her brother rode on Marcus, her Braviary. Riven and Gale were riding on Gale's Pidgeot and Swellow. It had been a long flight that had been agonizing for their backsides but they were nearing the city. Finally. After being in Lavaridge for nearly a month, it would be nice to see how Petalburg was doing. Well, not nice considering what happened there a year or so ago. Hopefully nothing major would happen while they were there. Hopefully.
Will held out a finger, leaving a trail of smoke as the rushing wind snuffed the flames. At first, he was vehemently opposed to learning how to control his new found "abilities", but he stopped being a brat and wised up after Lucia gave him a big sister scolding. They were probably here to stay, so he might as well learn.
Fire flared out again, and an indignant squawk came from the Pidgeot, who swerved out of the way. "Watch it, Will. Don't pick up Quil's habits, now that you can shoot fire from your hands. Could be… dangerous," Riven warned with a glare. The little pyromaniac had gotten way too excited after seeing its trainer shoot fire from his fingertips, so much that he blew out a happy burst of flame and set a chair on fire. Which then toppled over and lit up a table cloth too, then half the store. "And don't shoot fire near Emile, he's traumatized."
The giant bird gave him the bird equivalent of a growl and smacked him with the side of its wing.
"He says look who's talking," Gale chimed in, in better spirits than Riven. Riven scoffed and looked forward again, fingers tapping nervously against the Pidgeot's feathers.
"Are you okay, Riven?" Lucia asked.
"What? Oh- I'm fine."
"You look pretty jumpy."
"I am jumpy. All the time," he stated pointedly. "When am I ever not?" Laid back was not a phrase he'd use to describe himself. He was a paranoid wreck, and he knew it.
"He's not kidding," Gale added. "Don't ever try to wake him up with a shove. It's a bad idea. Nearly attacked me when he was having those nightmares of his." She giggled. "Vivid. He-he."
"He nearly punched me in the face once. In the pokemon center. He was out like a light in the pokemon center's couch," Will said, dancing flame around his fingertips. "Shoved him and almost got a black eye."
Lucia shot a glare at Riven, who seemed to shrink in on himself, muttering something about accidents.
"Seriously though, you look really nervous. You're usually jumpy but not that jumpy. Most of the time…" Will mentioned.
"It's just… Petalburg," he explained. Well, more non-explanation than anything.
Gale's smile seemed to slip.
"What's wrong with Petalburg?" It was a decent city with good restaurants and lots of flowers. Will enjoyed staying there, it was fun. Maybe Riven was just gloomy and hated flowers because he was a sour downer and a joy killer.
The female flyer looked at Will and shook her head, pointing at the older boy flying ahead of her.
"Oh." Will seemed to understand, and piped down.
They flew in silence for some time, until they neared the city's outskirts. Riven began to fidget much more frequently."We're here," Lucia announced, patting Marcus to signal him to descend. They landed a few paces away from the city's northern entrance. Pokemon returned, they entered the city, heading towards the pokemon center.
Riven swept his eyes suspiciously around the city streets, looking for any signs of authority or police. Area scanned and deemed "safe", he relaxed his shoulders, some tension releasing into empty air. He continued to walk with a ready gait however, expecting anything to happen at any time. The police knew how he looked like, even despite having a bleeding and bruised face at the time. It was a small miracle his hair had grown out long enough to cover his eyes somewhat. No such thing as too cautious.
Will whipped around and pointed an accusing finger at him. "What is up with you? You're acting weird. More than normal. And you're pretty weird."
Riven blew out a breath and quickly scanned the surroundings again. "I don't want to stay in Petalburg any longer than I have to. I just want to get the badge, get the hell out, and head to Rustboro to go see Steven. Then be on my way again."
"Why don't you want to stay in Petalburg? You've were in the wild for months!" Will reasoned. He knew if he'd spent five months out there he'd want to go back to the comfort of a city again.
Riven gave him an annoyed frown. He had spent nearly two weeks in a bed being almost force fed that terrible food by the nurses and could hardly walk for most of it. He didn't want to rest, he wanted to move. And stay in Petalburg, of all places? Hell no. Too risky.
Gale put a hand on his shoulder. "It's because you're a city boy. Rivy here isn't. They make him uncomfortable. All those people running around- he doesn't like crowds; I'm sure you noticed that too."
Riven gave her a thankful look with a flick of the eyes. He really didn't want to explain why Petalburg rubbed him wrong in several different places. One, the authorities wanted him in chains. Two, he nearly died here. And three, this is where things went to hell for him. Four, there were roses everywhere. He was not going to relax here, at all.
Going through the pokemon center's doors, Riven was worried Nurse Joy would recognize him and blurt out "hello, GRAY" to the entire room, and effectively blow his cover. That reward on him was fairly hefty, and he didn't want to fight any experienced trainers to evade capture.
Nurse Joy's face did light up, but for a different reason. "Lucia!" She exclaimed, moving away from the desk to hug the older girl. "Where have you been?"
"Traveling," she said with a smile. "Went to Unova for a bit, I never thought snow could be so cold! I came back to Hoenn to visit family, I was getting terribly homesick. And it was nearing winter, so most of Unova would closed off for a while. I only managed to get six badges before heading back. Hoenn is lucky to have such tame weather."
Nurse Joy listened to her speak and returned the smile with one of her own before glancing down at Will. Her smile faded. She compared Lucia and Will, noting the eyes, hair, and facial structure. She grimaced. "Uh, Lucia?"
"Yes?"
"Is this… your brother?"
Lucia raised an eyebrow and looked at the nurse curiously, wondering why she would be asking that with such a dour look on her face."Yeah. He's Will, my youngest brother."
Riven saw Joy's face and used every ounce of mental steel he had left to hold his face in a neutral position. I'm not going to laugh, I'm not going to laugh...
"Oh, my. Uh… can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Sure?" Lucia agreed, and headed with Joy to the kitchens. This better not be what I think it is…
She returned a few minutes later, with a scowl that could freeze fire. Will gulped and tried to run, but his sister held him by the backpack. "Quil stays in his pokeball. AT ALL TIMES. You nearly gave Joy a heart attack the last time you made half the room explode, you little troublemaker. I should've known! After all those incidents in the house with mom. Now with your 'pyrotechnics', you'll need someone to watch you so you don't set the whole center on fire!" That last line drew some pretty concerned stares from some of the younger trainers in the lobby. She probably shouldn't have said that out loud.
"It was an accident!" He insisted, giving her his best kicked Growlithe eyes.
"Guess whose room he blew up?" Riven mentioned idly, having a staring contest with a lotad on the counter.
Lucia looked at him. "No…"
"Oh… yes."
Wide-eyed, she turned to see Will, who was shamefully staring at the floor. "How are you not dead or in jail?" She breathed. Either Riven had incredible patience or her brother had luck on his side. But she doubted both of those.
"He was about to kill me! Threatened to throw me off a cliff! But then we got stuck in the desert," the younger boy explained meekly.
"You forgot about my bike. You know, the one you turned into a contorted hunk of metal and rubber when you were teaching Nez rock tomb?" Riven snarled. "I had just gotten it. It wasn't even a week old. And you destroyed it."
"I'm sorry! I apologized before!"
"After which you gave me sass and snark the entire god damn way. Then I got stuck with you in the desert. And I lost my pokenav saving your ass from quicksand, to make things better."
"Yeah, well you attract bad luck! It's your fault!"
"And you're destruction incarnate. You can even set things on fire now, for added effect. Fantastic," Riven said through grit teeth, trying his best to win against the lotad. It was a worthy opponent.
This time Lucia was the one who was face-palming. This was ridiculous. Those two boys were walking disasters. She'd seen trainers like that before. She made a clear point to avoid them. When they crossed your path, you made sure to go the other way, because something was going to die, explode, or crumble into dust. With two or more of them in the same vicinity, most likely all of them. At once.
"I'm sleeping with one eye open," Riven said, blinking furiously. That lotad wasn't normal.
"As if you don't do that already," Gale laughed.
Riven raised a finger to interject, but accepted the fact that she was right, and promptly set it down again. Sighing, he headed over to the room they checked out. He was tired, his ass hurt, was one unfortunate call away from imprisonment, and he needed to use the restroom somewhat badly.
The next morning, after a slow start and a longer than normal sleep-in, they headed to the gym after breakfast. It was pretty brisk, for eleven in the morning. Low temperatures weren't common in Hoenn, especially this far south. It was no small wonder other regions called Hoennites lucky bastards. Unovan and Sinnohan winters weren't anything to sneer at. They literally made parts of the region inaccessible and high risk to most trainers, as well as pokemon. If you didn't have a fire pokemon, chances are you'd freeze to death if you got caught out on a route. No such thing here.
Standing in front of the gym, the four of them stared at the giant pokeball sign out front. "You know Norman isn't a pushover right?" Lucia reminded. "You aren't just going to stroll in there like it's another trainer battle."
"I heard he's a monster," Will murmured, slightly intimidated. "Like a total badass or something."
"He's not that bad," Riven said. "He's no Salamence or anything." The man was only human. Trainers tended to create ridiculous stories about seemingly nothing, then playing them up so much that the stories eventually became exaggerated tall tales. But the far off traumatized looks of the younger trainers in the Petalburg center were a little… offputting.
Lucia grinned viciously. "Oh, you'll see. You should go deposit money now and only carry a minimal amount."
"Why is that?"
"Because you're probably going to lose, and money is very precious for a trainer." She hummed an infuriating tune and gestured for Gale to follow her. "Meanwhile the boys fight like hell, let's go get something to eat. They're going to be there a good while. There's a pretty nice restaurant around here. You coming?"
After the girls left, Will and Riven looked at each other, nodded, and turned towards the direction of the nearest bank. Both of them were rather short on funds, having done more spending than actual battling; the culprit of that being a month of idleness and infrequent battling.
A few hours later, having gone through the strange status rooms and battling several gym trainers, they arrived at Norman. Riven held his breath, hoping he wouldn't recognize him. Luckily he didn't. That part that wasn't so fortunate was the fact that Norman's Slakings were absolute monsters. One of them took out Haona with a single focus punch, and gave Baron a beating, despite having the type advantage. Being indoors, Boagrius wasn't of much use, and got shredded by Norman's Vigoroth, who bounced off the walls and slashed him down. Aine was probably the most formidable and used her kicks in conjunction with her fire attacks, knocking out his Vigoroth and Tauros, but not the last Slaking.
Will had an even poorer time with him. Not having any fighting types was a major disadvantage and considering Norman's Vigoroth knew flamethrower, bad news for Nez. Rika had held her own- now a Vibrava- with dragonbreath and some nice aerial maneuvers, but the Slakings had practically brushed off the attacks like one would dirt. Quil was his strongest, and caused some debilitating burns on Norman's last Slaking, but that pokemon was built like a truck and a double-edge ended the match easily.
Now they were sitting outside of the gym, slumped on the pillars with the pokeball signs on them, looking absent-mindedly forward. Lucia and Gale returned, standing over them, and waved their hands in front of the two boys.
"Hey, are you two okay? Not traumatized are you?" Lucia grinned. "So how were those Slakings? Pretty sturdy aren't they?"
Riven peered up at her. "One of them took a close combat from Baron, barely blinked and sent him flying across the room. He's half fighting and psychic, and it still left him reeling."
"One of them one-shot Quil," Will added, still half-dazed. "He's my strongest pokemon! And that crazy Vigoroth can use flamethrower!"
"He's a monster," they both stated.
"He does advocate balance. He isn't as predictable as the specialized gym leaders." Lucia laughed. "Most trainers learn the hard way what the other half of the gym leader circuit is like because of him. Trust me, that man is holding back something fierce. If you've ever seen him go all out, it's not cowardly to run. So, you going to challenge him again?"
"Probably after more training, right?" Gale suggested. "You're going to have to get used to his pokemon's style. Rushing in there again is just going to get you beat again."
"Hmmm, good call."
Helping them both up, they decided to head back to the pokemon center. Being a fairly long walk, and the sun starting to set, the four cut through some alley ways to get there faster. The two boys needed to heal their pokemon and get something to eat, having been in the gym for the past few hours; their stomachs were practically begging for food after the shock of Norman's Slakings had worn off.
Halfway there, they were approached by one of the shadiest looking guys Lucia had ever seen. And she'd seen lots of them. Oversized coat, hands in pockets, shifty eyes, unkempt appearance, and vicious staring issues? This guy was up to no good. Nearing them, a gleam of silver came from the man's right pocket. He stood directly in front of them, holding out a folding knife.
"Don't move! I can stab any of you from this distance before you can get a pokeball out." He shifted his attention to Lucia and Gale. "I've been watching you two since you left the gym." Pointed the knife at Riven and Will. "Didn't expect them to come with you. But it doesn't fucking matter! I'm not afraid of some guy and a kid. Hand over everything you have, including pokemon! NOW!"
Lucia grimaced. She could easily take this guy with her team, but at that distance, he was right. Twenty-one feet. The lethality distance for knives. She couldn't do anything but comply. Gale and Will froze up, probably never having been assaulted before. The only one who didn't look nervous at all was Riven. In fact, he looked more calm(or absolutely done) than she'd seen in the entire time they'd been in Petalburg. In fact, he looked bored out of his skull.
Riven sighed and stared at him with dull disinterest, as if the guy wasn't a threat at all, despite waving around a sharp metal object. "Great…" he grumbled, and took a deep breath. "Look. You really should just drop it and leave. You're hand is shaking like a leaf- the tone of your voice suggests you're nervous and have never done this before. A good criminal would have the utmost confidence when robbing someone, not the half-assed show you have on here right now. You need to show that you're perfectly capable of killing your victims, that way your threat doesn't lose its substance. If you're going to do something, for fuck sake, do it right."
"Shut the fuck up!"
"All right then…" Riven rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket. The thief's eyes widened as he saw him take out a longer and deadlier looking blade. "Mine's bigger anyway." He twirled the blade around in his fingers, still looking extremely bored, then pointed it at the man. "There are arteries in your neck and one in your leg. I slash one of those, you're out in seconds, dead in minutes. Or a lung works too." He ran a finger along the edge of the blade. "See this? The grooves on this blade ensure that it doesn't get stuck in a skull when I drive it into one. Namely, yours. And I don't know about you, but I have no qualms about ending your life if I have to. If you're smart, you'll drop the knife and scamper away. I really don't feel like buying another set of clothes because of bloodstains. They're quite expensive and you're not worth the money."
The thief dropped the knife with clammy hands and ran away, nearly tripping over himself in an effort to get away. Riven shrugged and sheathed his own, then began walking as if normal, picking up the fallen knife and pocketing that too. Noticing that the others weren't with him, he turned around, confused. "What?"
They were staring.
Riven shifted uncomfortably in place, trying not to look at them in the eyes. "Uh- I… erm. Don't ask. I've dealt with these people before. We should get moving before we run into a gang of them. Cities aren't safe in inconspicuous areas like these." They'd been lucky it was only a coward with a knife and no pokemon. When he was a street rat before the army had picked him up, these types of bastards came with swords. Curved. Swords. And those, were much harder to scare. Being ten at the time certainly didn't help his threat factor.
The others caught up to him, staying back a few steps very cautiously. Riven sighed and turned around. "I'm not going to kill you or anything. Shit, it was just a bit of scare tactics. They work well on guys like that. Now can we please move on? I'm starving."
Lucia eyed him warily, and pointed at his pocket. "Is that why you carry that thing around? To scare people? And now you have another one?"
Riven snorted."I carry it around for several different reasons, one of them being to kill anything that tries to murder me first. And it's a knife, they're very useful. They just happen to be extremely effective at violence too." He caught her disapproving look and frowned at her. "Don't give me that look. Every trainer should learn how to defend themselves, whether it be with their fists or with a blade, you can't rely on your pokemon all the time. What's the use if they kill you before you can get a pokeball out?"
Lucia admitted he had a point. If he hadn't done that back there, that guy probably could have done some serious damage before she could let out one of her team. "Still, you are too cautious. You even took his knife!"
"Hmph. There's no such thing as too cautious or having too many knives. Oh, there's the center." Running towards probably the only thing that made him remotely happy, he stopped abruptly by a wall at the end of the alley. He was looking at something. Grimaced, tore what seemed like a poster off the wall, crumbled it into a ball, and tossed it as far as he could. Bad wanted poster.
"What was that?" Gale asked curiously, voicing everyone's thoughts.
"Nothing of relative importance," he said awkwardly, and gestured to the center. "Food?"
"One track minds, I swear…"
At least dinner was good; with well-done tauros steak, mashed potatoes, grilled magikarp, and pizza. They let out their smaller pokemon to eat as well. Riven and Will devoured the food like starving mightyena that hadn't eaten for days. They were similar, in some ways. Or maybe eating like Emboars was a boy thing. At least Gale ate civilly, and didn't have bits of sauce all over her face.
Cutting into her steak, Lucia curiously asked, "Riven, where are you from?"
Shoving a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth, he looked at her strangely. Said something that sounded like what-do-you-mean and went back to shoving food into his mouth.
"Well, I've been to other regions. You don't look or sound like you're from Hoenn. I know you said you're from Littleroot but I find that hard to believe. You don't have a Hoenn accent. In fact, I've never heard one like yours before. Knowing your 'prepared' nature, it's probably just a random location you picked to draw suspicion away from you. Immigration laws are pretty lax here, so you don't have to worry about deportation. And Hoenn isn't as xenophobic as Unova. Trust me on that one, I've been there. Where are you from, really?"
Riven looked at her, then Gale, who seemed to be watching him with the same curious interest. Will was still stuffing his face, secretly keeping a keen ear on the conversation. Baron, Haona, and Aine pretending not to notice didn't make him feel uncomfortable at all. Having so many eyes on him made him feel small, and he bristled in return, resisting the urge to bolt."I- um… I'm not… from around here."
"Well, obviously. Which region?"
"None of the main ones?" He said sheepishly, stabbing a piece of steak with his fork rather forcefully.
"Then which one?"
He looked extremely nervous, and way too uneasy, like he was getting interrogated or something. Baron, who was sitting right beside him, shoved him with an arm. "Gall-ade. Gall."
"He says to go on," Lucia translated, egging him on as well.
"I don't like talking about it. Bad memories."
Lucia and Gale looked at each other, and seemed to exchange thoughts. Given his disposition for caution, familiarity with questionable types, and general prickliness… Yeah, the result probably wasn't pretty. He definitely wasn't from any of the tamer regions. Lucia gulped and lowered her voice, "are you from… Orre?" She knew many people didn't like talking about Orre, so much that it was nearly taboo to speak about it. That place was… pretty bad, to say the least.
Recalling what information he read about that region in Rustboro, he more or less nodded. "Something like that," he confirmed depressingly. "It's not a very friendly place. Far from it actually. Crime, orphans, violence… lots of violence. Not unlike Orre. Definitely not like Hoenn. But that seems to be changing quite fast."
"Is that why you're so… like that?" Lucia gestured, pointing to all of him.
"Wonderful way to put it," he deadpanned, then smiled. Not a warm smile, but a painful, bitter one. "You grow up in a place like that, you see things. Live through things. Things that don't let you sleep at night, wishing that you'd forget them, but you can't. Point is, I'm not there anymore. I can't go back, I don't want to go back. This place is much better. Are the questions done now?"
Lucia and Gale reluctantly nodded. The boy's mood seemed to drop further than it already was, right into miserable territory. His Gallade stared at him with concerned red eyes, chest spike glowing a dull pink. It was probably picking up feelings, and not good ones either, judging from the psychic's pained wince.
"You guys are depressing, it's making me feel like Riven on a good day" Will said, and opened a pokeball, releasing a fluffy ball of brown fur next to him. The fox gave a sleepy cry, which seemed to attract female trainers from all over the dining hall. It helped lighten the depressing aura around their table at least, which made Riven feel slightly better. At least until the horde arrived.
"Is that an eevee?"
"It's an eevee!"
"Oh my god, it's so cute!"
Growing annoyed at the steadily increasing swarm of rabid girls, Riven shot them the deadliest glare he could muster. "Mind your own business. Go back to your food," he warned. They scampered off without a second glance, looking like they'd just seen a raging Gyarados.
"You really are intimidating," Gale teased. "It's kind of funny."
"Not when everyone thinks you're some kind of thug."
"Touche," she admitted. But they aren't too far off are they?
Riven eyed the furball, and brought up memories of that heart wrenching story he'd read in Rustboro as well. Eon Fable, I think. "Huh. So that's an eevee." He rubbed the back of its ears, and the brown fox let out a small, adorable(as the girls would say) yip. Taking out Charles, he scanned it.
"It's an Eevee, sir. Not from Hoenn. Evolves into many things. Too many for me to say out loud at the moment- it's quite a mouthful, so I won't. But it's a lot. By the way, it's adorable and extremely popular with the female trainers. For the love of god, do keep it away from them for the pokemon's own good," the pokedex stated matter-of-factly.
"Thank you Charles," Riven said, flipping the pokedex closed again. "Where'd you get it?"
Will was feeding it a piece of magikarp. "Remember that egg I got for my birthday?"
"The brown one?"
"Yep. It hatched while I was over there at my brother's place," Will said, proudly puffing out his chest. "I was hoping for something a little more fierce and awesome, but eevee's are great too."
"It was nice of Connor to give you an eon, they're pretty rare in these parts," Lucia smiled. "You have any idea what you want to evolve it into? If at all?"
Will thought about it but couldn't decide. "I'm not sure yet. Probably not a Flareon though, since I already have a fire pokemon. Maybe a Jolteon, or ooooohhh, an umbreon! They're so cool. An Espeon would be awesome too, right, Seren?" The eevee yipped and licked him in the cheek, voicing its approval.
"Seren? Is it a boy or a girl?" Gale asked.
"He's a boy. The name is kinda girly but I got it from a MMORPG. Supposed to be an elven god."
"A what?" Riven asked.
"A video game," Gale explained. Riven shook his head, he didn't understand such things. "It must not like the attention all the girls give him then."
"That's why I keep him in his pokeball. When I was in Goldenrod's pokemon center, he nearly got smothered!" The fox made several yipping sounds and curled up in Will's lap, stuffed with magikarp.
He says being squished wasn't too bad. The humans had very soft and cushion-y parts, Baron translated telepathically, pointing to the chest area with a chuckle. Lucia and Gale started giggling, and Will only smiled. Riven was lost, as always.
"What's so funny?" He asked, completely left out of the hilarity.
"You didn't hear what Baron said?"
"He said something?"
The others looked at him strangely, except for his own pokemon, who knew telepathy bounced off their trainer like a bullet seed on steel. "You can't hear his telepathy?" Gale asked. First the teleport and now this? What?
"No."
"Hmmm, that explains why your Gallade's vocal cords are stronger than most," Lucia nodded. "I wondered why he could speak with such ease."
"They can't speak that well?" Riven asked. He didn't know that. "What are they defective or something?" Turned to his Gallade. "Are you defective?" The psychic smacked him, drawing a giggle from the others.
"Usually, psychics seldom speak, often using telepathy to speak to their trainers or other pokemon. As a result, their vocal cords often go unused. So if by any chance they lose their ability to speak telepathically, they have an extremely difficult time communicating," Lucia clarified, watching Riven and his pokemon glare at each other.
"I didn't know you knew that much stuff about pokemon," Will mentioned. "I thought trainers only knew about battle stuff. I mean, that's all I know."
"Well, you pick up a few things when your oldest sibling is a breeder. You really should listen to Connor more, you could learn something useful. It's good for a trainer to have some breeding knowledge in case they find themselves in trouble when in the wild and there's no center for miles," she explained, smiling at Baron. "It helped me when Roland developed a nasty infection. I freaked out and panic-called Connor, he sorted me out."
"Roland?" Gale asked.
"Oh, that's my Sceptile. He's an amazing fencer. Helped me win a contest once, when I was unsure of being a coordinator or a battler. Coordinating is pretty fun in itself, you should try it sometime." That seemed to peek the Gallade's interest quite a bit. The experienced trainer grinned. "You should battle Roland some time, I bet he would like that- worthy opponents and such. It would be good practice for you too. Blade to blade. Blade pokemon love having those friendly spars. Some kind of unspoken honor code or something."
Yes, that sounds exciting. Can you tell clueless over here? He can't understand me unless he puts on the translator, Baron replied. Not being able to talk to him like this is annoying. And we don't know why it doesn't work.
That shouldn't be happening, either. What isn't Riven telling us?"Yeah, I'm sure it is. I'll tell him."
"Who're you talking to?" Riven thought Lucia was talking to thin air, or making some strange sort of one sided conversation.
"Your Gallade. He wants to battle Roland some time. Would that be okay?"
"I guess, but not in Petalburg. Anywhere but here. Once we're outside of the city they can have their battle."
Lucia looked at him strangely, and decided she'd ask before she lost the chance. This guy always wanted to move, getting him to rest somewhere was hard enough. "Were you there? During the incident, I mean. You seem to have an aversion to this city, like you're allergic. I know it's spring but…" She shot a quick glance at Gale, who seemed to try her hardest not to wince. Even Will peeked his head up. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. But you do know Will's secret, at least tell us."
"Fine. I was there," Riven replied, all business. "But we're square after this, got it?" She nodded. "I was… I was the one in the video. I took up the alias of Gray and took the job. I didn't know what was going to happen next, but I wasn't about to let those men take her life and my pay as well. Now I'm on the regional watch list because of it, that's why I'm paranoid." And that's not even mentioning those fucking hitmen in Lavaridge."The police interrogated me and took my prints, whatever that means. They know what I look like." He then took a forkful of steak and lazily chewed it, staring at them straight in the face. "That's it. Don't believe me? Look at the wanted posters and do a face comparison."
Putting together what they'd seen in that alleyway, and what Will had also seen him do, none of them doubted him.
"Okay… that was pretty straightforward." Riven shrugged and Lucia paused, recalling the bounty on the so called Gray the league wanted so much. She didn't know what was more off-putting, traveling around with a dangerous and violent fugitive, or that he had a price on his head big enough to make the bigger bounty hunters salivate. "So that reward is for your capture? It's a solid one hundred thousand! Trainers and mercs are going to come after you left and right," she whispered urgently. "And trust me, those guys are ruthless."
Oh, I know. "Why do you think I don't want to stay here very long? If someone identifies me, I'm screwed," he said, instinctively looking around for any curious ears. "Luckily my face was swollen and bleeding at the time, so that might've helped me conceal my image. That and they don't know my real name either. I was afraid Nurse Joy would blurt it out back there, but I guess she didn't recognize me."
"Your hair is long enough to cover your eyes," Gale stated. "But you can't possibly hide them either. Mismatched eyes, one blue, one brown? If someone was looking for you, and they knew that, there'd be no way they'd miss you," she reasoned. Riven cursed silently.
"Better get my badge and move on then, before somebody catches on," he said, finishing his meal. "Which means I need to kick Norman's ass quickly."
"Aim for its legs, wear him down!" Riven called out to Aine, who ducked under a white fist and readied herself for an attack. Sending two powerful kicks into the Slaking's thick legs, she flanked around, wrapping fire around herself before slamming into the larger pokemon's back. She let out a loud cry, taunting the massive pokemon.
"Don't let her goad you! Shadow ball!" Norman ordered, still perfectly calm. The slaking opened its mouth, shooting a ghostly ball at Aine, who deftly flipped away from it, using the speed boost from the flame charge to her advantage. The gym leader's pokemon was far too slow, missing every shadow ball it used.
Smart kid. Flanking, hit and run tactics, not common from fighting pokemon, Norman noted to himself. He knows she can't take my Slaking on head to head, so he's trying other things. Not bad. Older trainers have much more interesting tactics than younger ones, that's for sure. Most of his challengers were children and young teens, so this was something he rarely saw. Granted, his challenger's younger friend was also fairly sharp and gave him a good battle as well. "Rock tomb, box her in!"
Norman's Slaking stomped on the floor, forming a prison of rock under Aine. She reacted fast enough and managed to jump out of the rocky trap before it caged her inside. Still in the air, the fire pokemon twisted, unleashing a lash of flames at the Slaking, followed up by a spinning, momentum packed kick to the head. In that time, the combusken slashed the staggered pokemon six times with her claws, before retreating again.
"Don't let that bastard breathe! Use flamethrower to close in, get into melee range," Riven called out, watching Aine slide in close while releasing a stream of fire at the Slaking.
Dodging numerous swipes, Aine unloaded kicks into the pokemon's legs, wearing it down. She was gaining the advantage, until Norman ordered the Slaking to use earthquake. With one ground shattering fist, the Slaking shook the building, knocking Aine off of balance. Using the momentary slip up, the Slaking pinned her down on the floor with a giant hand, raising the other to slam a focus punch down to end the match quickly.
That wasn't good. Riven cursed mentally. Aine needed to do something fast, or she was going to get a massive focus punch to the face, and there weren't many pokemon who could take one from a Slaking and retain consciousness immediately afterwards. Looking at the position Aine was pinned down in, she did in fact have a way how to get out of this. But it was frowned upon…
Oh, fuck this! He decided. This is a fight, and in fights, anything goes. Doesn't matter if it's a life and death situation or not. "Shoot ember into its eyes!" Norman lost his composure for a second, and gave Riven a bewildered look, as if he'd seen something appalling. Riven couldn't contain a sly smirk.
Aine brought up what little breath she had and breathed a volley of ember at the Slaking's eyes, causing it to lose focus and hold its face in pain. "Use ember on its hand, free yourself!" The fire chicken did as told, and wrenched herself free. "Good, now cripple it, double kick its left leg!" Aine smirked back at her trainer, then launched two massive kicks into the Slaking's calf, dropping it to one knee. She didn't need any instructions after. Positioning herself on one leg, she unloaded a flurry of kicks into the pokemon's solar plexus, ending in an enormous blast of overheated fire.
The Slaking slumped to the ground, scorched and beaten. Aine turned around, waving at her trainer. Riven shouted at her to pay attention. Just as the larger pokemon was getting up from the ground, fist glowing white, she turned around and kicked it twice in the mouth, dropping it once and for all. "Busk," she snorted, huffing fire at the unconscious monster of a pokemon.
As she went back to Riven's side of the stage, he ruffled her head feathers. "An execution? Haona is definitely getting to you. That isn't a good thing. I don't need two of her, one is enough. I'm running low on money and patience, and with Will here, the latter is even lower. Good job though." He shoved her gently. "You might evolve soon if you keep it up. Then you can beat more things into the ground, me included, hah." Aine laughed and cried sharply. "Gah. I hope Blazikens aren't this loud," Riven groaned, cupping his ears.
Returning the happy combusken to her pokeball, he met a scowling Norman on the other side. Handing Riven a badge somewhat reluctantly, he held his cane menacingly. Riven didn't like where this was going. "That was a dirty attack." Nope, definitely didn't like where this was going.
He really hoped he wasn't about to get a moral tongue lashing from him. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. Well, second last- the first being you're under arrest.
"What did you want me to tell her to do? Sure, just take a focus punch to the face! So very appealing. That sounds like something a good trainer would say," Riven retorted sardonically, sending a scowl back at Norman. No one liked getting hit, it hurt. Screw honor, if it meant less pain, then he was all for it. Honor got people killed.
"You may have a point, but that was very uncalled for and extremely underhanded. Some trainers may not take so kindly to that. You best watch yourself," Norman told him carefully. "And don't think about using something like that in a tournament, they'll disqualify you without even blinking."
Riven waved a dismissing hand. "Don't worry, I don't plan to enter any of them any time soon. And I always watch myself. Always. Good battle, Norman. You were a fucking bastard to defeat."
"Nice mouth."
"And a nice badge. Have a good day," Riven sneered, and tried to exit as fast possible, but stopped dead in his tracks as soon as the gym doors opened to reveal a cheery looking May in the doorway.
Oh, fuck.
Will(who won his badge before Riven), stuck next to Riven like glue, pointing at her. "Riven, Riven, it's May," he whispered, poking the older boy in the side.
"I know, god damn it. I've seen her before," Riven ground out, praying she wouldn't recognize him. "Wait, what are you doing?"
Will went over to her, asking her questions with his fake little kid aura. Bastard was using his height and young appearance to seem like a little boy, when he was really one damn year from hitting puberty. Then he heard, "this is my friend, Riven!"
Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Will. Not. Strangle, Riven seethed, awkwardly walking towards the two while trying not to burn holes into Will's head at the same time. Fiercely so.
"Hi," May said, waving to him. Riven nodded in response, deliberately trying to say as little as possible."Ah, you two beat my dad! Good job! He's a tough old guy, heh."
"I heard that!"
May leaned in, examining Riven closely. "I feel like I've seen you before. Somewhere. You seem oddly familiar. Weird eyes you got there."
Will stared at him, chuckling to himself. Riven looked petrified.
That little shit! "I don't think so. This is my first time here. Grew up in Lavaridge. I've seen you before though, in the news," Riven replied with knife-edge caution, backing away slightly. "Sorry about what happened last year, are you all right? Heard you quit coordinating." Evade and distract. Make sure she doesn't recognize you.
"Yes," she said with a small smile. "I got lucky... I know they all demonize that guy that calls himself Gray, but… he saved me. And he saved my dad. That's all I'm thankful for. They think he's like one of those crazy Sinnoh trainers that went on a rampage. But he's not. He didn't seem like such a bad person, but the media doesn't care. Sad, isn't it?"
Riven tried his best sympathizing smile."What a world we live in, right?"
"Yeah… Well! I need to go, my dad gets impatient. Nice talking to you both! Good luck with your journey, go say hi to Winona for me!" She said, running to where Norman was waiting. They waved to her and left through the sliding doors.
Riven breathed a sigh of relief as they exited the gym. Then he smacked Will upside the head. "Why did you do that?"
"Ow! Hey, she's cute right? You need to get a girlfriend to calm those nerves. But I guess you have Gale so…"
Riven growled again, grinding his teeth in frustration. "She could have recognized me! Her father is extremely adherent to the laws. If he knew I was here, he'd notify the police, and I'd be fucked! And let me tell you, that detective in the precinct hates my guts. He'd love nothing more than to throw me in jail, and now he has the permission to do it." Did this little bastard want him to get a panic attack?
"Why? Did you kiss him or what?"
"I gave him the philosophical equivalent of a backhand. Then I walked out of the precinct like a smug prick- on purpose."
"Yeah, I think I'd put you in jail too if you gave me shit too. Oh, wait- you do. Still, you won a gym badge, get happy. Or do you need Gale to do that for you? Hue." He chuckled mischievously. "I mean, she has a nice bod-"
"Will?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you want to know how hard I can punch?"
"Why?
"Do you want to find out?"
"Heh, why don't you show Gale how hard you can-"
Thump.
"Why is Will unconscious?" Lucia questioned, surprised that Riven had dumped her brother at her feet. And right outside the pokemon center. Way to go, Riven.
"Training accident."
"You guys went to battle the gym leader." Riven's deadpan look didn't change. Lucia sighed. "You punched him didn't you?"
"Yes."
Lucia maximized a pokeball.
Something deep inside Riven's mind told him; you should run. That was a sound idea. Maybe I can make thirty feet? Let's try that.
"Ilan, hydro pump!"
The next morning proved to be… different. The entire center had awoken to loud shouts and banging from outside. Riven peered out of the window, watching a crowd of people with signs angrily chanting some kind of slogan of sorts. He raised an eyebrow, thinking they were all mad. Future people were insane. He shook a sleepy Gale. "What are they doing?"
She rubbed sleep out of her eyes and yawned lazily. "It looks like they're protesting."
"What's protesting?"
"You're kidding, right?"
He gave her a long, flat look.
"They go out there, shout their message and hold up signs, sometimes preventing people from going to their jobs if they work for whatever they're protesting against," Lucia explained instead, fixing her hair. "It seems this time it's… trainers? That can't be good." Someone banged on the window, giving them the middle finger and saying something unintelligible.
"Polite," Riven grumbled. "Such lovable people."
"They remind me of you," Will sneered. Riven glared at him.
"You think the whole region is like this?" Gale wondered. "I'd imagine it's not only in Petalburg…"
Sure enough, Joy turned on the television, showing the protests-in some places riots- that were happening simultaneously in numerous cities, Petalburg being one of them, in open protest against the league and trainers. It showed farmers complaining about burned berry fields, businessmen showing damage reports in the millions due to careless trainer battles, and a crying woman, expressing the loss of her daughter in last month's festival.
The horde of people outside were blocking the center's doors. Riven had entertained the thought of punching the man right in front of it and forcefully moving him, but Gale and the others reminded him there were cameras watching that could spot him. Unsavory sorts had found him and Will through the television before, so naturally that got him off the idea rather quickly. Luckily, their room was on the first floor, so they hopped out of the window and left the center whilst avoiding the crowd of annoying protestors blocking the entrance to the center. It was kind of a dick move to leave Joy and the other trainers back there to fend for themselves but hey- Riven was already on a damn watchlist. He was in deeper shit than any of them were- he needed to get the hell out. The fact that these protests were happening was just another kind shove from the universe to tell him to haul ass to Rustboro.
Now in front of the Devon Corp. reception desk, Riven was talking(or shouting?) to the woman behind the counter, who looked impassive and not at all bothered to deal with random trainers."What do you mean Steven isn't here? Isn't he always here?"
"Not really. And I told you, he isn't here. Besides, you don't even have an appointment. Not everyone can see the CEO, even you trainers- what with your 'I'm special' mindsets. I just hope that fool Wallace would understand that," the receptionist said, lazily looking at her nails. "If you want to talk to him that badly, you should go to LaRousse yourself. It's an impressive city. Although, I'm not sure if you'd be able to talk to him anyway. He's meeting with Birch and other important science-y people in the Lund laboratories to discuss some dream visualizer thing. The high tech ferries that go to and from LaRousse are much faster than the normal ones, you should be there in a week if you catch one. Now shoo, I have work. Go do trainer things. Just not here, I've had enough of ice sculptures in the lobby."
Well, there went that option. They had spent a day and a half flying over to Rustboro from Petalburg, only to find out that the stone maniac had left shortly before they arrived. Riven did get a shiny new pokenav though, and LaRousse sounded promising. He had never been there before, and he'd heard impressive things about it from other trainers. It was supposedly some extremely futuristic city. He didn't know how futuristic it was, honestly, considering pokeballs continued to seem like wizardry to him. He made a mental note to buy some sort of adhesive to prevent his jaw from falling off his face, in case something awe-inspiring appeared.
But now they were sitting on a bench in the plaza, deciding what to do next. Will and Riven released their pokemon to go play in the small garden located to the south east edge of the plaza.
"What do we do now, genius?" Will asked Riven rather sourly, letting Seren out of his hands to run around with the others. "Maybe we can relax, finally? Rustboro has a bunch of cool stuff. Or are you paranoid here too? "
Riven held back the urge to punch him again. Getting hydro pumped by Lucia's Poliwrath hadn't been fun. Never thought water could hurt so much. She was watching him like a Staraptor.
"I guess if you guys really want answers, you can all go to LaRousse," Gale suggested idly. "They have a battle tower and everything, and it's only a ferry or two away from Mossdeep and Sootopolis. The seventh and eight gyms are there- you can get two badges in one fell swoop!" She exclaimed.
She does have a point, Lucia agreed. They can always go back for Winona's badge later. We need to get Will's affliction sorted out first. On that note, I've never been to LaRousse, might be fun! "Sounds like a good idea! What do you two think?"
"I don't really care, LaRousse has robots and stuff," Will brightened. "Robots are cool."
They all shifted their attention to Riven, who felt like a Sawsbuck caught in the headlights.
"Well… it is efficient. I can't argue with that," Riven shrugged. "We should go with that. There isn't else we can do here of value." And I can investigate what Ben told me about mercenaries. If there's anything I know, it's that they're above the law and can go anywhere they damn well please. Useful, if he wanted to travel and find answers, as well as get paid and not have to worry about authorities coming after him; every second in a big city was another second in danger. "Where's the nearest port?"
Lucia took out her pokenav and frowned. She looked at all of them with a bitter expression.
Riven felt like pounding his forehead into the ground until it went numb. His ass was going to hate him. "Let me guess, Slateport?"
She laughed nervously.
"Why am I not surprised?"
"That's… a big boat," Will gawked. "Holy shit. It's so big!"
Indeed, it was a rather large boat. Pretty, sleek, and very futuristic looking. It probably wouldn't be as rocky as the normal ferries that went from Dewford to Slateport, or the ships that went even farther than that. Smooth was good.
"You said that already."
"Let me say it again. That's a big fucking boat," Will repeated, just to annoy Riven.
The older boy pulled down his hat.
"Training did a number on your mouth didn't it, Will?" Lucia remarked. "Do I have to wash your mouth out with soap and water?" She hadn't remembered him having such a potty mouth before.
Will pulled his hat up again, and kicked Riven in the shin. "It's his fault. He curses too."
"I'm nineteen. You're fourteen."
"So?"
"And I don't have a big sister watching me. I can do whatever I want- but that isn't the point. Let's just get on the boat instead of eating it with your eyes," Riven said, prodding Will forward with a finger.
At least staring out at the sea is nice, Riven thought, leaning on the rails of the ferry. Relaxing, after that near panic he'd experienced in Petalburg, and the constant flying from there to Rustboro, then Slateport. And Will's annoying little comments. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he didn't notice Gale lean on the rail next to him.
"Nice, isn't it?"
"When did you get here?"
"Wow. You're definitely a lot more relaxed than usual. The normal you is alert even in deep sleep. I'm surprised you didn't notice me," she smiled. "Being out on the sea calms you down?"
"A bit- I guess. No one can come after me here, and watching the waves and the sea is soothing, in a way. Gives me time to think."
"Yeah, it is soothing. I've never been on a ferry before, since all I do is fly. It's certainly something different. But not in a bad way- you know?"
He gave a slight nod. "How are you not sore from all that flying?"
"You get used to it. I heard riding on Ponyta and Rapidash is worse though."
"I wouldn't doubt it."
They remained watching the sea for a few minutes, hearing the sloshing of water below as the ferry made its way across the water. A pack of mantykes jumped out of the water. Gale kept looking at Riven from the corner of her eye, which annoyed him slightly.
He sighed, too relaxed to even get remotely annoyed."Okay, spit it out. You came here for a reason. And I'm pretty sure it isn't my charisma, because if there was such a thing as negative charisma, I'd be all over that," he said dryly.
She nearly giggled at that, but held herself steady. "What do you expect to find by talking to Steven? He may not even know anything. It's highly likely he's as lost as you are. What Will has, it's never been seen before."
Riven gave her a sidelong glance. Never been seen before? Little do you know. "Going there for Will is one reason but another is… Hmm, maybe I'm going to try something else."
"Like what?"
"Something."
"Still don't trust me huh?" She shook her head. "I'm not going to backstab you or anything. Is it something I did?"
"No. You haven't done anything like that. Complete opposite actually, which I still don't understand, to be honest." Closed his eyes, and breathed in the salty sea air. Then exhaled deeply. "Just… I tried starting anew here, and all that happened was me landing in another mess. It's like a fucking cycle that never ends; I get out of one mess, and into another. I don't want to get caught up in this world's problems too," he muttered dully. He leaned further into the rail, eyes still cold and blank.
"This world's?" She raised a puzzled eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"
Damn. "World, region- does it really matter?"
"I guess not." She tapped on the steel bar with her nails, and shifted nervously again. "Uhmm…"
"I told you, Gale. Ask me whatever you want, I don't mind at the moment. Too apathetic to care right now."
"Personal questions are awkward though. I get uncomfortable asking."
"They're only awkward if you keep fidgeting like a frightened wurmple, kind of similar to what you're doing right now. If you need to use the restroom, it's below deck." She reddened, and ceased her movements. "But if you want to ask a question, just do it. I won't reprimand you for it. Just no rhetorical ones, for obvious reasons. Those will be answered with biting sarcasm, make no mistake."
She bit the inside of her cheek, and shot an accusatory look at him. "But all you've been doing to Lucia, Will, and I most of the time is avoiding straight answers! You're hiding a lot of things." She jabbed him in the side with her thumb.
"So I am. I said I'll give you answers. I didn't say they'd be complete ones," he said wryly. That's going to bite me in the ass later, he realized. I'm probably coming across as an utter asshole, but it's for the best.
She was starting to get frustrated; it was like trying to solve a rubik's cube. We're not your enemies, stop treating us like that. "So you lied?"
"What? No. Lying is too much work. I prefer sarcastic confessions and telling the truth. Err... some of it."
"Half truths are the worst lies of all, you know." She put her hands on her hips. "That's a terrible habit. You're always going on about Will picking up bad habits, but you're full of them yourself."
He chuckled. "Irony is a wonderful thing."
"You're- argh! Forget it!" She said, burying her face in her hands. "Oh, and by the way, your absol looks about ready to freeze the entire deck and everyone around her, you should probably go stop her before you get the bill and get punted off the ship when you can't pay for it."
Riven saw Haona getting crowded and bolted. "Haona, STOP! NO! DON'T FREEZE THAT!"
Gale smiled and looked out towards the waves again. Oh look, a Mantine!
Sorry if this was late or underwhelming. I had final exams. This chapter is more of a setup chapter for what's to come, which will be very important. Almost 10k word chapter, whoa. I wished i could write this much on an essay.
Merry Christmas everyone.