Flash points

"You monster," Jane whispered quietly to herself. Charles slowly wrapped the venomoth in his special casket. Though he said nothing, he felt a piece of himself wanting to wail in agony; like a screaming flare tearing through a brilliant night before it grow faint and turns aside again.

Suddenly, there was a humming noise. At first it seemed a little droning, and if the wind had rolled across a leaf at some ill conceived angle, but slowly the gray humming slipped into a steady chord that he had only heard about.

Jane paid no heed to the humming as she withdrew into herself in disgust. How could a creature be so foul in deeds and yet soft-spoken in speech? The thought of those dripping fangs poised over her made her sick. She hated that creature, that ariados! So why – Jane found herself lifted up with great force. She saw the dripping fangs a mere inches from her face and wanted to cry out in terror, but no sound formed.

Charles winced in pain as he felt the little drops of blood run down his face. He did not know the extent of his injuries as of yet; but if he was going to die here, it would not without a fight.

"Damn! That one's mine!" the scyther shouted at him. Charles instinctively rose into a threatening posture, taking his front most legs high above himself to make himself look bigger. "This one is mine!" Charles growled, the anger in his voice surprising himself a little.

The scyther merely gave him an amused smile and examined her blades in the light. "If I can't have one, I'll just take both," she said with a wicked delight, "I've never had ariados before." "Then I shall be proud to be your last meal," Charles replied with a power not his own.

The scyther narrowed her eyes at him. Charles did not falter. The scyther took a blade up to her mouth cautiously and licked the blood off of it. She spat it out on the ground and gave him a crooked smile. "You win today ariados," she said, "but mark my words, should we meet again I shall have to destroy you utterly." With that the scyther slipped back into the night.

Marcus let out a frustrated sigh as the screen flickered and died out. "Guys we need to stop up by this rock, Jan can I borrow magnemite again?" Marcus said. "Didn't you just charge that thing yesterday?" asked Janet. "Probably wasted it all talking to his hot piece-of-ass," said Tracy.

Marcus tried not to look upset or embarrassed. "No, it's these stupid trainers that keep on calling me every five seconds to talk about their pokémon!" said Marcus, "Like I care about your stupid rattata!" "Why'd you give them your number if you didn't want them to call you?" Blackjack commented. "I don't know," Marcus snapped back. Tracy waited for him to translate, but soon realized he was not going to. "I don't know what you said, but I bet it was awesome," Tracy jeered. Blackjack smiled and nodded for her, to Marcus' annoyance.

They found a good area to sit and rest while the batteries charged. It was a lovely day for a walk, all around them were happy people enjoying a stroll along the Goldenrod's outskirts. Janet pulled out a few sandwiches and passed them around, it would be an early lunch.

"Hey this is pretty good, you make this Janet?" asked Tracy as she broke off a little piece for Blackjack, who nibbled away at it happily. "Nah," Janet replied, "Paul gave them to me as a going away present for the road today." Marcus finished the last of the sandwich and took off his shoes. "Hey what's with that whole Paul situation anyways?"

"Well I talked to our professor, and he said that it would be good for Paul to come with us," said Janet, "Paul wants to become a traveling doctor rather than a hospital-ly doctor, so as long as he records all the people he treats the school's willing to sponsor him as part of one of those stupid outreach- here, it's all in one of my phone message thingies." Janet rummaged through the bottom of her bag and pulled out her phone. Then she promptly dropped it. Tracy picked it up with a sigh, "Honestly you two…"

Tracy read through the messages quickly and handed the phone back to Janet. "He says he can meet us up in Ecruteak in about two weeks," surmised Tracy, "I'm going to sign us up for the bug-catching so we don't have to wait too long and so you and I can get some training done."

"What's the bug-catching contest?" asked Marcus. "It's this three days long contest where people go out and try to catch the best bug pokémon, it's a Goldenrod thing," explained Janet, "Sign me up too Trace, I want to see if kinematic-interception would apply to…" Marcus frowned, "I already have a bug-type pokémon though." Tracy smacked him on the forehead, "So do I, it's also a great place to train bug-types and get cool prizes." "…which is why we must account for the moon's gravity…"

"And besides all that, they provide you with free rooms and hot showers, Arceus knows how I miss hot showers," said Tracy. She rested her head in the grass and imagined the sun's rays were streams of warm water. Janet nodded her head in agreement as she finished her rant along with the last piece of her sandwich. "Speaking of showers, how are the accommodations in Ecruteak?" asked Janet.

"The pokémon center was a dump, but we can always rent a room at one of the hotels," Tracy said. She shifted to her side, trying to get more comfortable. "Ecruteak is a historic town like Azalea," said Blackjack via Marcus. "Yeah that's right," said Tracy, "I don't remember what's interesting there though." She pulled out a guidebook and thumbed to Ecruteak. "What does it say?" asked Janet after a few minutes. Tracy began to read off the list.

"There's an ancient civilization museum - that sounds boring. There's a walking tour - just in case we weren't getting enough walking done. There's Cultural Hall – that could be interesting on the right day. Of course there's the gym for Markie-warkie. There's a little war memorial – those are always depressing, so no thanks. The rest is just a bunch of old buildings," said Tracy, "Everything but the Cultural Hall and the gym are pretty boring."

Marcus rubbed his watch. "I'm going check out the memorial," Marcus said. "For…" Janet said with a weak smile. "Yeah, it's only right," he replied quietly. "Oh I'm sorry Marcus, I didn't mean to-" "- It's fine," said Marcus. "Why am I so stupid!"Tracy cursed herself. Marcus laughed a little and slipped his hand out of his pocket and said, "We should get going if we want to get those hot showers."

Motivated by the prospect of good housing, the group carried themselves unusual vigor. Tomorrow they would be a short walk to the national park, but for now they set up camp and set their minds on the to-morrow.

"Laura, help me catch us something to eat," Blackjack asked. "I'm trying to sleep, why don't you do it yourself?" Laura replied with a yawn. She rolled over to her other side to face away from him."C'mon get up, I'm getting hungry," said Blackjack. He nudged her until she stood up with a groan. "It's always about you isn't it," growled Laura. Blackjack just rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, I'm doing this for my benefit."

"Fine! Whatever, I'll go," Laura said with a melodramatic sigh. "Thank you," said Blackjack, "Now, you can be the flusher again." Laura let out a whine. "I'm always the flusher, you always get the easy job," she moaned. Blackjack gave her an amused smile. "Tell you what, you can catch today," he said.

"Auggh!" Laura barked in rage, spitting out a tuft of fur. "Did you catch it this time?" asked Blackjack, barely suppressing a laugh. She had been failing for over an hour now. Every time she grabbed on to something it seemed to just slip out of her mouth, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was the stupid grin that had been plastered on Blackjack's face the whole time. "Well have to just try again," said Blackjack. "Oh, do it on your own!" Laura barked as she ran off in tears. Blackjack just stood there with a puzzled look on his face, but shrugged it off and continued his hunt without her.

Charles dipped his head in the pond and took a sip, watching the magikarp swim beneath the surface in little schools. He loved water, it was the reason he first wanted to go with Marcus. His earliest memory was when he was a tiny spinarak floating on the wind high up in the sky looking down on the ocean. Since that - something was watching him. "Reveal yourself if you will," said Charles.

"Damn, I must be out of practice," grumbled Jerry as he stepped out of the bushes. He dipped his head to take a drink from the pond, eying his surroundings suspiciously. "So how are you Jerome?" asked Charles. Jerry stared at the ariados and continued drinking. "Why are you always so polite?" he asked with a mocking tone. "I just am," replied Charles.

Jerry tried to think of something to say, but for a long time thought of nothing. He wasn't exactly social by any definition of the word. Finally he settled on something. "What are you thinking about?" asked Jerry in an attempt to make a friend. "Oh I was thinking about the ocean, have you ever seen it?" asked Charles. "Once or twice, it was really…"Jerry stopped talking as a strange noise grew louder. Laura burst out from the bushes in tears.

"Laura what is the matter?" asked Charles, who was not startled in the least. "Charles I hate hunting, why can't I just trap things in webs like you," sniffled Laura. "Couldn't catch anything huh?" asked Jerry with a derisive snort. "What the hell are you doing here?" Laura growled. "We were just conversing a little," said Charles. Laura gave him a confused look. "Why would you talk to him?" asked Laura. "I'm right here you know," said Jerry.

"He's just a thief," said Laura. "Will you stop saying that!" shouted Jerry. "Well it's true," Laura retorted. "Well look Miss I-make-someone-catch-my-food I haven't stolen anything since I was forced into your little gang," said Jerry, "In the real world, it's steal or die!" "Aughhh! They're all the same! Just shut-up!" howled Laura and she left the pond in a frustrated rage. Jerry grumbled as he headed off too.

"Well okay then," Charles mused aloud. Little did he know, a great change was rapidly approaching.