Run-ins.
The excitement of catching a new pokemon trickled into May's subconscious, waking her in time for breakfast. The teenager opened bleary eyes, confused about what she was anticipating. She was wrapped in the thin sheets provided with every cot, and noticed her clothes in a folded pile near her bed.
Still perplexed at what she had been excited for, she walked on sore legs into the public showers.
It wasn't until after May was sitting at the little café area, and had taken the first crunchy bite of the complimentary food, that she remembered the nuzleaf. Had she really caught a pokémon? It was hard to remember specifics when the entire night had been so brutal.
She'd been forced to walk to keep ahead of the oddish and the more powerful gloom that had taken over after sunset. She shuddered remembering the stench, and the ambient hisses, croaking, hooting and grumbling of the pokémon.
May took a cursory glance at the pokécenter receipt and realized she'd slept twenty-four hours.
She quickly ran through the days in her head. First day traveling to Littleroot Town, after spending the first night at her dad's. Day two and three, walking to Oldale Town and spending the day there. Day four, five, and six, walking to Petalburg City and spending two days with her dad recovering, kind of. Then day seven and eight, walking to Rustboro City and sleeping a whole day.
It'd already been a whole week, and she'd done more then she had at home in years. Four years to be exact. After the first six months of her first journey and the following six months of denial, all she'd done was work or look for work. Now she'd caught a strange pokémon!
In a mad scramble she got him and Staineth healed up, rented a locker for her large backpack, then headed into the city for better food. She also wanted a private place to meet him officially!
Rustboro was the largest city in western Hoenn and featured dozens of factories with flue-gas stacked chimneys pumping fumes into the air.
Koffing could be seen high above the city consuming the hot-flavored vapor. Painted magnemite hung out peacefully on powerlines right above people's heads, seemingly unnoticed. The tiny electric mice, plusle and minun, roamed the alleys, ever suspicious of the skitty and zigzagoon that occupied the more opportune areas.
The tall, compact buildings were well-built out of concrete and metal to withstand inclement weather, just like her hometown of Olivine City. The whole towering city was industrialized and railroad-centric, complimenting Petalburg City's commercial docks.
It was a balmy day with only a ten percent chance of rain, energizing the trainer and reaffirming the comfort of civilization.
By mid afternoon she'd explored the nearby tourist venues, bought heavily-advertised triathlon gear, and tasted all available street food. May was still physically sore, but sightseeing and public transportation had refreshed her mentally by sanding away the trauma of the "wilderness." She started searching for lunch, planning on introducing herself to the nuzleaf after.
There were butterflies in her belly, it'd been so long since she had a new pokémon.
Without warning she stepped out of the city and right onto Route 116. She back-tracked, wandering north onto another abrupt route labeled 115. She took a bus up the mountain road, reveling in the luxury, to reach the rich neighborhoods near the only proper beach in the entire city.
She decided to grab a meal at the ocean-side bistro overlooking the inlet and distant islands. The sun was low by the time May poked her head back down Route 116, determined to stop stalling. She summoned Staineth as backup, knowing the chances of the freshly caught pokémon turning on her.
"Figured you should be here since he was your choice."
Staineth hummed an all-knowing 'mmhmm.' It could feel the anxiety of its trainer, and prepared to give the new addition the business if it tried anything. Another electro ball to the face would convey the message.
The nuzleaf appeared from the red light, shielding his masked eyes from the evening light. He looked resigned, not hostile, although the churlish wrinkle of his lips revealed his bitter feelings.
"Hi." May smiled hesitantly. "Staineth, could you...?" She trailed off as the magnemite began the communications.
The nuzleaf's harsh voice was appalling. It was barbed, and rattled with hissed undertones. May fought the urge to run. She let Staineth do the talking since he didn't know the human language. "What's his name?" she asked when there was a lull in the conversation. Staineth buzzed the translation.
May thought she'd composed herself, but when the nuzleaf looked over, he sneered. The following snarl raised goosebumps along her skin. "Staineth?!"
Listen. Staineth blinked, and spoke to the nuzleaf again. The snarl came again, louder.
"Um, what?" The nuzleaf was scowling now. He snarled nastier, enunciating. "Scourge?" May said carefully, trying to mimic the creepy speech. She flushed red, chagrined when he glowered.
Staineth hummed, and the nuzleaf glared but gave a curt nod. "Sorry, it's the best I can do. Scourge then." She addressed the magnemite now. "Did you explain what I need him to do?" Staineth bobbed affirmation.
The nuzleaf grudgingly obliged, still in disbelief that he'd been captured. The miscalculation galled. He thought back to the night as he slowly displayed his combat skills for the human. He'd followed the trainer through the forest looking for the right moment to scare her, but when she never dismissed the magnemite, he lost interest.
By chance he'd caught the human disrobing alone outside the building and had gone in for a closer look. Those canny oddish had spied him out in the open and spooked, thinking he was hunting them. Their attacks and alarm calls brought more to the rescue. He couldn't fight them all, and used torment to scramble their focus.
Unfortunately they had redirected their attack to the magnemite and brought its attention to him. Scourge finished the demonstration with his saber, and performed some defensive and enhancing moves. Torment was the only thing left to show, he turned toward the human with a corrupted grin.
Staineth loomed in his way suddenly, holding a crackling electro ball over its head.
"Uh guys, we good?" May asked, as the nuzleaf's surly face curdled into blistering scorn. "Guess not." She retracted him into the pokéball. "So, that was cool. I recognized Leaf Blade and Harden, but don't know the other ones. What happened there at the end? We were doing so well."
Torment.
May shuddered. "Oh."
The next day they went back to Route 116 with May's bag full of medicine and treats. She had Scourge fight every wild pokémon they could find so he could learn her words for his attacks. The sunlight aggravated and caused him headaches, spurring his natural insolence into open rebellion. Particularly when forced against bug types. The nuzleaf was sly and quickly picked up on May's aversion to the bugs.
He made sure to bring those fights closer to her.
Against May's wishes, Staineth strong-armed him into mordant compliance when he resisted out of spite and not pain or a malady. He was resentful, cagey, and skeptical, but with Staineth translating he started distinguishing the human words. Getting him to follow commands was the real challenge, he was loathe to relinquish more control and resisted bribes, until May offered him liberty for the night.
They ended the day with trainer battles against some construction workers near the train station, and satisfied with his strength and cooperation she made plans to check out the gym.
May leaned against Rustboro City's wrought iron, delineating fence. The nuzleaf was late, they'd agreed to meet at the trail marker at sunrise. She'd forgone sleeping-in for him. That's fine, he'll pay. No more freedom at night. If he didn't show up she'd spam the pokéball's recall and torture him back.
In fact, she thought, punching the button with her thumb.
She looked up to see Scourge's cranky face darken in disgust as he felt the summons. "Sorry, I didn't know you were right there, but we said sunrise." She held up the powdered muffin she'd brought him. "Sorry though." He curled a lip at the offering. "Fine," she said and pointed the pokéball at him. Red lights pulled him into storage.
On her way to the gym, after going back to sleep and having a lazy, late brunch as a reward for working so hard yesterday, May stumbled over trainers out for recess. They were lounging near the trainer school's elegant courtyard with their pokémon.
She took them up on the invitation to battle in the practice arenas, thinking she'd work any potential rebellion out of Scourge before the gym.
After May beat three trainers in a row, a teacher walked up to accept her challenge. "Why don't we make this interesting," the woman said, and got whoops of encouragement from the little crowd. "No aids, and if you beat me you get a prize."
"How much?" May asked suspicious.
The adult laughed. "It's priceless." More students gathered around them, chortling in glee.
"Whatever." May handed Scourge another activated potion to top him off. He squinted against the bright sunlight, eyes watering, and chugged the delicious tonic.
"Go, Tungsten!" The odd looking, waist-high pokémon that took form was an obvious rock type. It had a red magnet piece that dominated its front, and two chipped off legs and arms jutted out from the blue, main mass. Feeling confident May ordered Scourge forward.
"Leaf Blade!" The nuzleaf materialized a glowing, curved sword. He stalked forward, more than ready to fight something he had an edge over. The nosepass surprised May by trying to paralyze Scourge with a thunder wave before the nuzleaf could reach him. Then his sturdiness showed through as he managed to spike several rocky projectiles after getting stabbed by Scourge's green saber.
"Thunder Wave!" The electric move zipped along the curved blade, as the nuzleaf began jerking it out, and straight into the him. "Rest now."
"Harden!" May called, hoping Scourge could power through the paralysis. The nosepass slipped into a healing sleep and recovered from the wound the sword had left. "Harden!" May called again, encouraging Scourge to keep trying.
She was taken off guard as the nosepass sniffed a berry in his hard hands, and woke up to quickly eat it. "Damn," she muttered. She'd counted on him sleeping for a while. "Growth!"
"Rest darling, he's not going anywhere!" the woman ordered. May was insulted as the nosepass once again went unconscious. "Snore!"
"Scourge, Growth, Harden! Do something!" May shouted, as snore took its toll. Two 'snores' later Scourge was able to twitch his head toward May. When he could see her, he glared, not understanding why she wasn't squirting him with the medicine. 'Sorry,' she mouthed, wincing.
He was starting to understand that word, starting to hate it.
Realizing he was on his own, Scourge struggled desperately and managed a Torment just as Tungsten woke up. He would've been more scared but he instinctively felt born to rule this rock, and focused on Growth. The sunlight actually helped with that one, and soon he was tingling with power.
"Rest!"
May grimaced, knowing snore did much more damage than rock throw against a grass type. The nosepass had trouble sleeping under the torment, but was able to lapse into a nap.
"Snore!" Came the command, but it appeared Tungsten was having a nightmare caused by the torment, and the attack never came. "Tungsten, Snore!" the opponent called again. Then a glowing, green sword hacked at the rock type in slow motion. Scourge's dastardly smile fought the paralysis, as his powered-up, super-effective hits cut into the nosepass.
After several more failed snores, the woman called it. "Alright, I've seen enough." She dismissed her pokémon, saving it the trouble of fainting. "You win." May quickly sprayed Scourge with a paralyze heal, and recalled him into the pokéball.
The crowd was mostly cheering, and through the excited shouting, May learned this teacher was the gym leader.
"No way you're the gym leader," she said as another teacher walked up calling for order and threatening tardy slips to anyone not inside on their count. Students ran for the doors.
"Roxanne is Rustboro City's gym leader," the new adult confirmed, giving lingering students hard stares.
"Meet me at the gym after school," the gym leader said, and turned to follow her colleague indoors.
May stared out the window in a daze on the bus ride out of downtown. She'd just won her first gym badge. It was no surprise, she had overly prepared with a nuzleaf and extensive training, but it still felt surreal. There'd been no paperwork, no official lingo, no nothing. Hoenn was so lax in pokémon battles.
She hadn't even gotten the gym leader's ID number for her handwritten battle form. It was a necessary evil since the data recording app that reported such things needed an electronic device. I'll get it this afternoon when I see her, she assured herself.
"Oh, there she is!" A familiar man remarked, walking up to her as soon as she entered the pokécenter. "Scrap that message, I found her. Thank you!" He called back to an assistant at the front desk.
"Uh hi, Arnold," May said reluctantly, wishing she could have avoided him. "Let me guess, the police need to speak to me?"
"I'm sure Petalburg's sheriffs definitely will, but I'm here on behalf of my manager, Mr. Stone. He's the patent owner of the gearball I gave you, and all of Devon Corps. I told you he'd want to thank you personally." Arnold smiled.
"Cool."
"I thought I'd find you here but this is lucky, even for me." Arnold grinned as he led her in to a waiting car.
"It sounds like you mean 'good' luck and that can't be right," May teased.
The man laughed. "I was lucky; lucky you were next to me, lucky you beat him and really lucky you caught him."
I didn't revitalize my team, she realized, mildly annoyed at herself. They had to come first, no matter what. Her polite laugh came a tad late.
"Something wrong?" the man asked, noting her distraction.
"Something right; I just beat the gym leader."
He flashed her a broad smile. "Impressive! And with a magnemite, wow!"
May smiled ruefully, ashamed. She didn't correct him. Winning the rock badge suddenly didn't feel that exciting. It would have been if she'd won with Staineth, electric against rock, but she hadn't. Hadn't even considered it. Old doubts rushed forward painfully. Did she really have what it takes to be a pokémon master? I'm sliding back into old habits, she thought, morose.
With the excitement burned off she relapsed into her defensively-aloof persona.
They were driven several blocks away to the sprawling complex of metal buildings. The towering, fenced compound sat on its own slice of shoreline, and consisted of offices, labs, warehouses, and aircraft hangars.
The whole place was beautiful in an unapologetic, dusty teal. She instantly recognized it as electrochemically oxidizing iron, not paint. It reminded her of Jasmine's gym, the outside was styled in carefully rusted iron and tin for an intricate, mottled mural of teal and ochre. What should have been a small comfort made her homesick instead.
On the way inside Devon Corps, she learned the gearball's capacity could hold as much matter as an ultra ball. The one drawback was, just like a capture ball the gearball could only store one item, but Arnold said she could just fill a big cabinet or bag to get around it.
"Could I store a small house?"
"Unfortunately, no," the man said amused, as they stepped out of the elevator into Mr. Stone's personal office.
"Ah, come in, come in." Ushered a robust elderly man. "The nameless vigilante." He smiled, getting up from his desk to shake May's hand. "It's a pleasure, and I have a reward for you!" He rounded a large desk to sit in the plush, leather chair.
May kept the polite smile plastered to her face as she spoke. "Arnold already gave me a gearball. That's more than enough."
"Nonsense! That was his reward, this is mine," he said, holding a tiny disk. "The latest PokéNav Plus. It's not even out yet!" The trainer's eyes widened. Okay, that would be awesome, she thought, running through reasons she could still accept even though she couldn't use it.
"I don't have a pokédex..." she admitted, resigned.
"Well, that's an easy fix. Take this one." He opened a desk drawer and pulled out a shiny, red device.
May's stunned face slowly melted into regret. "That's so generous sir, but my magnemite would fry it."
"Oh," Mr. Stone said, tapping his chin.
"Sir, a pokéblock case wouldn't be affected by any electronic pulses."
"Yes, but surely you already have one?" Mr. Stone asked turning back to May.
"No..."
"Well it's not what you deserve, but here." He walked to a cabinet and retrieved a small case. "I'll have to think of something more appropriate."
"I'm happy with this," May insisted, "thank you."
He waved that away, still visibly considering options. "Now let me ask you, couldn't you train the magnemite to leave such things alone?"
"It's paramagnetic, and has the Magnet Pull ability"
Mr. Stone looked at Arnold concerned. "Now where did you find that? I thought we'd shipped the last of those to Wattson."
"They're common in Johto."
"That explains it. Do you have time to sit? I'd like to know how Johto deals with this. Excellent! Arnold would you mind getting us some refreshments?" He asked at May's nod.
The young lady was given ice-tea as the men explained the Curie treatment they'd planned for the magnemite, until Wattson offered to take all the magnetic ones. He'd claimed they were perfect back-up generators, and rumor was he was using them to power Mauville City. How he was keeping the strong magnets and electrical waves from ruining the city's energy grids was a mystery.
On the way out, Arnold finished telling her the magnemite were painted different colors to keep track of how many appeared in the city and how many stayed over time. The ones allowed in the city had become an important aspect of the hurricane preparations and survival plans. The symbiotic relationship wasn't new to May, as Johto also used pokémon to mutual advantage.
She did find everyone's paranoia about hurricanes new. "In Johto we call them typhoons, they aren't that bad..." she said.
"They are here. Once the waters heat up for the summer we start expecting them."
He dropped her off outside the pokécenter. As she got out of the car they saw a familiar red hoodie sprinting down the sidewalk. "Stop yer man there!" an old man wheezed as he came to a limping halt next to them. He put a hand on her shoulder to steady himself as he gasped. "Took…me…Peeko…" He managed.
"Call the police!" she yelled and got back in the car.
"Follow that guy!" Arnold told the chauffeur. They watched the culprit jump into an idling car and speed off. They followed the car down Route 116, chatting anxiously amongst each other. "Rusturf Tunnel is closed, what's the fool thinking?"
The Team Magma grunt whipped the car to a stop and ran down the train's boarding platform, headed right for the tunnel.
They came to a screeching halt in the station's parking lot. Arnold ran to alert rail-traffic-control. May released Staineth once off the ancient, brick road. The magnemite resounded ominously with a metallic sound, looking for the immediate problem. "This way!" May said, before it decided to disable the entire area for the unseen threat.
The train tunnel was lit with the construction team's flood lights at regular intervals, showcasing the walls of unsettled dust.
"Walk away, girl," the cowled man warned in a gruff voice when May cornered him against the collapsed area. The peeko pokémon was nowhere to be seen and May wondered if it was the pokéball the man had stolen. The guy pulled out a hand gun and pointed it at her. "I'm not fucking around."
Staineth's sensors picked up on May's accelerated heartbeat, and the "eep" of terror she emitted confirmed the new level of danger. Locking onto the target it amped up the volts producing its magnetic field, like a vocalist striving for a higher note. The little sphere pushed hard, blasting radio waves along the hot-rolled, steel tracks.
The man suddenly couldn't hold the gun anymore, it jerked out of his hand and zipped down the rails to ding on one of Staineth's magnet pieces. The magnemite glared with its one eye, punching its electromagnetic field further than it ever had before to pick up any other metal weapons. The railroad tracks responded to the pull, vibrating on the ballast.
Two magnemite suddenly zoomed through the rock funnel to Staineth's side.
One was dull grey and rusty, the other had flecks of neon yellow paint. When they touched Staineth the bright, piercing light of evolution surrounded them. Both humans shielded their faces, but May was too terrified to take her attention off the man for long. When the light began to fade every hair on the humans raised as an electrical hum filled the air.
The menacing vibrations didn't relent and prompted the man to reach for his pokéballs.
"Thunder Wave!" May called out just as a high-voltage arch snapped straight to the man and sizzled like grease in a hot pan. His screams rang out as the bolt jumped all over him, stinging. His cries had May gasping then choking on dust.
"Stop, Staineth!" she yelled finally when she caught her breath. The bright current retracted, flipping over the magneton like long hair tossed over a shoulder. "I don't know if you should hold the gun, but I don't want to," she commented, looking up at her new pokemon as the man collapsed.
Neither the hum nor the body hair had settled down, and she wondered if this was Staineth's normal equilibrium now.
May spent all afternoon with the police, who didn't charge her with battery because the criminal had threatened her life. But they made sure the foreigner understood pokémon weren't to be used on people, especially once they made the connection to her previous citizen's arrest in Petalburg Forest. Like it's legal anywhere else, May thought, irritated.
Mr. Briney offered his sincerest thanks and the use of his sail boat whenever she wanted, and Mr. Stone had sent Arnold to the police station to collect the invaluable schematics the police had recovered from the terrorist.
The police also contacted her dad, who mysteriously was already in the city.
"MAY!" Norman's furious voice whipped through the police station, making her jolt.
"Dad! What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" His eyes flashed dangerously, ""You never checked in. What happened?"
"I-"
"Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere." His austere expression caught the attention of an officer, who then explained the event.
Her dad's scowl when he finally turned back to her was scary. "This is over."
"I'm fine." May replied, ignoring the comment. Norman grabbed her by the arms, but stopped short of shaking her.
"Where have you been?" the bleakness in his voice had May dialing down the attitude.
"I stayed at the pokécenter, then-"
"That's the first place I checked." He interrupted, angry he'd caught her in a lie.
"Well, I was out on the trail earlier this morning."
"I checked both routes." He said carefully, daring her to continue with the tale.
"I was at the pokécenter - I went back."
He sighed angrily. "May-"
"I beat Roxanne today."
"The gym's been closed all day. I checked there too." He released his grip before he did start shaking her. When had she become so obstinate?
"I know, but I did. I found Roxanne by accident at the trainer's school."
"Let's see it."
May's face fell. "I don't have it yet. I was suppose to go back to get it."
"I'm done with the lying," he said bitterly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We're done here. I'm taking you home, where you will stay." His tone hardened further at her outraged expression.
Angry tears swamped her eyes, and she forwent the warning on his face. "I'm not going anywhere without Staineth."
"It's not with you?" He was livid now. "Of course not," he answered himself in dark humor, but stopped short of being cruel. "We'll get that magnemite and then I better not see it outside of battle again. Let's go."
They reached the minivan before Norman's irritation boiled over. "Call it back now."
"I have been...it's not coming..." She was starting to panic. "Staineth!"
"Listen to me-"
"No dad, I know! I swear I'm calling it back! It evolved and flew off!" She took off running toward Route 116.
"Stop! What did I tell you?" Norman growled, dragging her to the van, uncaring of the scene they were making.
"NO, dad! Staineth!" She yelled desperate now.
Her dad lifted her into the van, and pointed an angry finger in her face. "Now stop," he threatened. Her trembling made him reconsider.
"It saved my life," May whispered.
He sighed and nodded, softening. "I know, but you don't leave my side again."
"I'm sorry."
A/N not a "full" chapter since it's only half of what is written, but eh. Enjoy, my treat.