50th chapter woo! Happy 50th chapter LSI!
"James… Please pick up…"
Kirralie had awoke pretty early for once. Perhaps it was because she was so used to Kelsie shaking her awake so that they could continue on her way. Or perhaps it was the sound of the rain thundering against the window and the occasional clashes of thunder.
The first thing that came to mind as she gathered her bearings, was the question of why wasn't Kelsie shaking her awake now? The alarm clock on the bedside table told her that it was eight am. An hour over Kelsie's usual waking time.
"Kelsie?" Kirralie turned to face the empty bed beside her. It took her a few seconds to register the covers thrown back and only a few stray hairs on the pillow. No body. Her pokemon were gone too. And her bag.
"Kelsie!" She jumped out of bed, searching the room, though she knew it was pointless. Her pokemon jerked awake at the commotion, blinking in confusion at her trainer, as she ripped open the door and ran down the hallway in her pyjamas.
After her panicked searching, Kirralie had dressed and whilst stuffing her stuff back in her bag, had come across four pokeballs that hadn't been there before. Pressing the buttons, jigglypuff, ampharos, Muzzy and Polly materialized before her.
"Jig…gly?" Jigglypuff's smile faltered, pausing in mid-spin, disappointed that it was Kirralie in front of her, not her trainer. "Jiggly, jigglypuff!" She puffed out her cheeks. The others noticed that their trainer wasn't around too. They glanced around, but all they could see was the room they fell asleep in, the pokemon they travelled with and the other trainer, who was sitting on the bed, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Oh god no…" She uttered. "No, no, no, no, no." She picked up her phone and dialled Kelsie's number. The bedside table vibrated loudly and Kirralie opened the drawer to find the ringing phone. "Crap."
All ten pokemon stared at her, waiting for an explanation. Jigglypuff had taken to her own exploring; crouching down to look under the bed, desperate for her trainer to jump out and surprise her. The fact that she didn't set the pink ball off bawling, hurrying over to ampharos and clutching her leg.
Kirralie didn't want to tell them the truth. It was far too harsh. Part of her didn't fully understand the reasoning, but part of her, right under the surface, knew it was all down to getting typhlosion back. How could she leave the rest of her team behind?
It was something she would never be able to understand.
"She's disappeared." She whispered, not daring to look at the three faces staring at her and the crying jigglypuff who was digging around in her bag, searching still for her trainer. "It must have been important, she loves you all very much, you know that." She wasn't sure if they were buying it, Muzzy certainly looked angered. Jigglypuff's angry squeaks became more muffled as her round body disappeared, fully, inside the large backpack. "Jigglypuff! Stop that! I'm trying to tell you some…" The ever-so-familiar bright light was back as Jigglypuff's hands brushed past the grey rock at the bottom of Kirralie's bag. "…thing."
She managed to scurry out before growing, her rounded physique shaping out into a more normal shape. Her ears elongated, becoming more rabbit-like. Her stomach was now a white colour, her eyes now green. Kirralie groaned, another evolution. "Wiggly." Jigglypuff, now a wigglytuff, was smiling, though the sadness was still in her eyes. (A/N: Reason for choosing igglybuff- wigglytuff. Originally, just igglybuff was going to evolve, but I had this brilliant picture of Kelsie surrounded by her fully evolved pokemon in my mind, so therefore my reasoning is over. *Spoiler* I don't plan on reuniting Kelsie and her pokemon any time soon, so I had to push the evolutions through. And this note is interrupting my story to explain that, so you all don't think 'Jeez…')
"Anyway, we're going to find her, she's going to be sorry, you're going to forgive her and everything will be great." Kirralie informed them; Polly, wigglytuff and ampharos nodded, though Muzzy still looked doubtful. "I hope."
Which was why she had dialled James' number. She needed his help.
The rain hadn't dampened her spirits at all. If anything, it had made her more determined. By dawn, she had managed to reach Saffron again, covered in mud and drenched to the bone. Only having her pokegear to rely on, as Kirralie was the navigator, Kelsie had to take frequent breaks to figure out her way forward. The pokegear wasn't very accurate when it came to specifics. Mind you, the map hadn't been all that reliable either.
Not so pleased with her progress, Kelsie pressed on. For the first time in three days, the lack of sleep was taking its toll on her. Her legs felt like lead; held down by the soggy weights of her trousers, making it hard to hurry along. More than once she had fell forward, landing in the mud, wanting to remain lying on the floor and fall asleep.
Teeth chattering, she forced herself to continue, leading herself to believe that if she stopped the lightning would strike, frying her to death.
She staggered through Saffron city, receiving strange looks from the townsfolk, mainly due to being covered in a huge amount of mud. She ignored them, grateful for the rain letting up and the sun breaking free of the clouds, and turned right, heading out onto route eight. She stumbled on a stone, twisting her ankle and fell to the floor. Exhausted, she collapsed.
"Yello, this is James." He sounded happy enough. Kirralie wondered how many badges he had now and how his pokemon were. "Hello?"
"Oh," Kirralie snapped out of her daze, removing her thumb, that she was chewing on, from her mouth. "James hi, it's Kirralie."
"How did you get my number," Things went quiet, apart from an odd crackling noise, and then James' voice reappeared. "Why are you calling from Kelsie's phone?"
"Because I don't have your number." Kirralie answered, sighing impatiently. "Listen James, I need to-"
"Can I speak to her? Is she still mad?"
"Actually, she's not here."
Silence fell, apart from the background noise on James' side. Some trainers were obviously battling; Kirralie could hear two males shouting out commands. There was the occasional cry of a pokemon too, whether it was from the battling ones or wild ones, Kirralie didn't know. For the second time, she wondered where he was.
"Did she tell you to say that?" James was back, Rex could be heard sniffing around him, Kirralie imagined James swatting him away. "C'mon Kirralie, just let me apologise!"
"No, she-" Tears dripped down her cheeks, her pokemon cuddled up to her, feeling sad too. She had returned Kelsie's. James' cheeky demeanour faded, sensing something was wrong.
"Kirralie?"
"She ran away!" Sniffing, Kirralie managed to explain what she knew.
"I'm on my way." James gabbled and hung up before Kirralie could respond.
She took a few minutes to clear her head and then left the room, exiting the pokemon centre, sitting on a nearby bench to wait for James, however long he would be.
Surprisingly, it didn't take him long. Fearow was a pretty skilled flier and Mahogany town was quite close to the crossover between Johto and Kanto, give or take a few towns in between.
He jumped from his pokemon's back, just as fearow was coming to land and gave Kirralie a half-hearted grin. His hair had grown quite a bit; becoming a rugged, shaggy mane. It suited him. He had grown a few inches too and he obviously hadn't gone shopping as the bottom of his trousers flapped around his ankles. If things were different, Kirralie would have dragged him to the nearest shop and forced him to buy some fitting clothes.
Instead, she ran forward and seized him around the waist, burying her head into his chest, tears escaping yet again. James patted her, awkwardly, on the head, feeling embarrassed. "Hey, it'll be ok. We'll find her." He said, certainty in his voice. Kirralie nodded, wiping her eyes.
"We should split up. You go through Saffron and check out route eight, I'll go this way." Kirralie pointed past Diglett's Cave. James nodded, climbing back onto his fearow's back. Kirralie released Kelsie's pokemon to help her look and set off. James stared after them, gawping in amazement at the fact that Kelsie's egg had hatched and evolved so quickly. Not to mention flaaffy and Muzzy's evolutions. He felt surge of guilt; if he hadn't been so stubborn he could have shared those joyous moments too.
Fearow took off, keeping low so James could get a good look at the path below. Plenty of girls looked the same to him, brunettes weren't exactly rare. It only took the bird a few minutes to reach Saffron and James asked him to circle the skies, so he could get a good look at the town. However, it wasn't very accurate. James was forced to search on foot. He returned fearow and brought out his newly evolved houndoom to sniff out her scent. He lead him in the direction of the pokemon centre. Worried, James rushed inside, just in time to see Kelsie thank Nurse Joy and turn to leave.
"James?" She sounded terrible. In fact, she looked terrible too. She had dark circles under her eyes and she had scrapes on her arms from falling over. She didn't seem too pleased to see him.
She was happy to see Rex though. She gave him a quick stroke before pushing past and leaving. James hurried after her, catching up with her just in time, before she disappeared out on route eight. "Hold up." James grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She stumbled on her sore ankle and ended up falling against his chest. She pulled away, disgusted, trying to run off, but his grip was too strong. "They're all worried about you," He told her, forcing her to look him in the eyes, she twisted her face away, refusing. "I was worried about you."
"Bull." She spat. "All you care about is yourself. If you really cared you'd be here, with me, helping me."
"Incase you haven't noticed, I am here." He laughed, but the cold glare from Kelsie sobered him up. "Kelsie, this isn't you."
"And how would you know?" Her voice rose, people turned their heads, staring. She didn't care, she didn't seem to notice. "You don't know me at all! If I hadn't washed up on your beach, we would have never met! And I wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Would you just listen!" James' voice grew louder too. "I know you're angry, I know you're upset, but you can't take it out on us. Me, Kirralie, your pokemon. We want to help you."
"Bullshit!" Kelsie spat again, jerking free of his grasp. "If you wanted to help, you wouldn't have stayed behind. You're just a selfish-"
"Who's being selfish now?" James yelled back. Kelsie shut up, staring at him in disbelief. "You're the one who just abandoned her pokemon. And for what?" He shrugged, sighing. "I know how you must be feeling, but be patient, we'll get there. If it means that much to you, I'll stay. I'll help too."
Slap!
James staggered back, reeling from the blow Kelsie had delivered. "You know nothing!" She cried, tears rolling down her face. She shook her head at him as he held a hand up to his cheek, feeling how sore it was. "And to think, I actually liked you." She took off.
James stared after her, still reeling. Rex howled. His cheek began to sting as it glowed red and he dug into his pocket for his mobile. "It's no use," He said, emotionless. "She's gone."
