James winced in pain as his body was being torn, at one end by the unknown power of the receptionist tugging like mad at his ankles, at the other, his one arm and his heart, the most powerful of his forces, for he saw the face of someone who he'd do anything for on the other side, staring into him with a pleading look in her eyes. He would pull himself above the top of the rubble near the wall for a fraction of a second and see her, and then be pulled back down the side of the rubble. James felt the great pain as his face was scratched and scraped as the sharp bricks tore deep into his worn face, which was followed by him soon feeling a soft flow of a red liquid, making his vision blurrier then it had been before, with only the tears of his life lost.
With a great force of strength, the woman pulled James's hand off of the top of the rubble at the wall. As he struggled to grasp the top again, he dropped the package that occupied his left hand and barely reached the top, but knew that he could not hold on for much longer. James turned his head around for an instant, to see the package clatter to the ground and break open, letting a small red-and-white ball slide out of the box-top. He tried to smile when he realized what it was, but his face just refused to move, for his pain was stronger than any force that he had met before.
It, like the box, split open, dividing the red from the white, and sent out a white burst of energy. Slowly, the whipping lightning-like burst began to take a form; the form of a circular pokémon took shape. James again attempted to smile, as he remembered why this purple circle was here.
START FLASHBACK
James jumped out of his king-sized bed and raced out of his room, for he knew what day was today. The boy thundered down the hallway and skidded ever so slightly every few bounds, for he was still wearing his socks from yesterday's outfit. The click-click-clicking of a puppy's nails followed James on the wooden floor, the ever-loyal Growly raced enthusiastically after his master.
"Mother! Father! I'm up!" he cried to his parents who were already waiting for him in the room down the glamorous stairway. As he ran to his parent's side, he looked up to them; with a love in his eyes that he didn't usually know was there. His parents smiled in affection back as his mother, who returned the embrace that he had given her as he jumped into her soft, warm arms. James felt calmed, for he rarely knew that she cared as much as she showed him now.
"Well, James-dear? What are you waiting for?" His mother asked him with more smiles.
"Yes, yes. Don't you want to see what you have received for this Christmas holiday?" his father added.
James's smile became too great for his little head, but it still was held in his blue-hair framed features. "Of course!" he barely could whisper the words in his great excitement. "Where should I begin?"
His mother's eyes lit up, more then before. "Well James, since you asked…" She smiled past her rose-red lipstick, which highlighted her hair. She glanced back over to her husband, who was sitting, tapping his foot, and looking away. "Edward-dear?"
The man looked back at his wife with a nervous, excited smile. "Hmmmm?" he began, smiling with confidence again. "Well, since you brought it up…" His hand slowly moved for his left coat-pocket which he pulled open with the other, which Edward did with especially time-consuming care, just to see his son's face of pure excitement, for it was twisted to show the true, innocent young child that he really was at heart, even now. His father slowly pulled an envelope out of his pocket, which at the very same instant was snatched from Edward's hand and instantly was being torn apart in the hands of his son. He read the letter once over:
James-dearest,
We're so glad and proud that you have finally accepted your duty as our son and decided to become a trainer in the way that someone of your stature should. As a token of our appreciation, we will be awarding you with a special something when you arrive. It'll be a belated Christmas present, dear.
Your ever-loving parents,
Mother and Father
He smiled even wider as he finished and began to pet Growly in his joy. The dog looked back up at his master, for he knew that this was a day for happiness. James then began to open all the rest of his presents as snow fell softly on the ground outside.
END FLASHBACK
"Koffing!" the creature said to its master.
James began to whisper to himself. "Thank-you, Mom and Dad. I love you…" He looked at the purple circle again and called an attack to it. "All right, Koffing! Smokescreen!"
The thing nodded as best it could, considering it had no neck to nod with. "Koffing, KOFF!!" The purple blob spun wildly and shot out a long stream of green gas flew from the volcano-like sprouts on the sphere of its body.
The woman released her strong hold as she placed her fingers over her coughing (no pun intended) mouth. This was all that he needed, for now he was no longer under an anchor of a person who was trying to protect him but ultimately hurting him, and was under the cover of darkness, which he was already now growing accustomed to. He scrambled over the wall to find his comrade, followed by his new companion. James was panting as he stumbled down the steep drop on the other side.
"James!" Jesse softly cried to her fallen companion. "James!" She wiped her hand across his now barely-conscious face. "What's happened to you?" Examining the blood that was now smeared across her hand. "James," she began as she started to attempt to pull him away from the school grounds, "we gotta get you to a hospital."
As soon as he was pulled to the thick forest surrounding the grounds, James began to speak, slowly, for it caused a great deal of pain to move anywhere with his body, especially his face. "Jesse," he began between long pants for breath. "Jesse."
"James, we gotta-" Jesse was interrupted.
"Jess," he tried to begin again. "My backpack. A first aid kit…"
She pulled away at the zipper and pulled a large white box marked with a red cross from the backpack. She laid some of the white gauze from the box down onto the cuts that sliced across his face. The boy winced as the cloths, wetted by some cold water in a bottle, were placed on his pained face.
"It's not that, Jess," he began again, sipping some water from the bottle through the portion of his face that wasn't injured. "It's…my ankle. Here," he began to pull the box over to him, "I'll do it."
Jesse fell back a bit in hearing this, for even in his weakened state he wished to take care of himself, and she thought about how that was what she had wanted. Jess also knew that with his injuries that he wouldn't be able to do as much as he thought that he could have. "No," she started. "You're hurt." She began to slide his jean shorts up a bit, and almost regretted doing so, for his ankles were all a bright purple color. "I guess that I'll have to be your big sister from now on."
"Jess," James began, bruised, battered, torn, and overall just hurt, gently took the girl's soft hand and brought it over to the side of his head to look at it. "You're sweet…"
Then he fell into a deep, feverish sleep.
{[NEXT SECTION]}
James awoke to the pitter-pattering of raindrops and crashes of lightning and thunder, lighting the sky with a greater brilliance then firecrackers. Despite this, when he first opened his eyes he did not notice the pouring rain, the forest that shielded him, the fact that he was in a different area then where he had passed-out before, or that he was placed under an unfamiliar blanket. The first thing that he noticed was that he was completely totally alone. Abandoned. Jesse was nowhere in sight.
"Jesse!" He tried to call into the woods, but all that came out was a whine-like whisper. As he attempted to sit up, he was immediately reminded of the pain from smashing into the wall time after time. So slowly yet surely, James sat up and looked around, only to find that it was not worth the pain to sit up. "Jess!" James cried with a voice, frantically looking around for his companion.
Slowly he stood up, the pain shooting through his ankles, but continued to try to walk to find her, knowing that he probably wouldn't. He stepped carefully down one path, shrouded by green leaves even though he could not even see them at his sides in the darkness. Soon James found himself stumbling down in the mud created by the rain, the whole time calling out time and time again for Jesse. Loosing hope, he collapsed to his knees and sat. Saying his companion's name over and over, he resorted to breaking down and crying, seeing that he was lost and injured and had no way out, for his other half had left him and he was all alone, which was the worst fate that any human may have inflicted upon them, for it is in each other that ourselves are found, and James already knew this.
"Jesse!" He cried out through tears. This was his final attempt, for he would lose hope if there were no answer. "Jesse!"
James stared blankly into the darkness, seeing that Jesse was nowhere to be found. Even if she was in earshot, he thought to himself, there's nothing that she can do. She couldn't find me in this…
The rain kept pattering on the leaves overhead, the lightning showing the way every few moments, and every so often James could have sworn that he had seen Jesse racing towards him through the darkness, racing to greet him, to help him, to comfort him. She was now all that he could think of, for he already knew that Growly, his beloved Growly, would not be able to keep him company in this weather. He smacked himself in the head again and again and again. Stop! He scolded himself. Why can't you just stop that! She shouldn't come for you! You'd both be goners! His thoughts tore away at the part of his mind that determined right and wrong, for it was evil for him to hope that someone would do something like that for him. Still, he kept on thinking that he was seeing her ghost-like image amongst the trees, but realized that they were all just caused by the blurry tears in his eyes. Or so he thought, until a farmiliar voice call to him.
"James!" a girl frantically cried after him. "James! Where are you?"
"Jess!" he yelled back, thinking that his imagination was just becoming even more cruel. There was no harm in yelling back to a non-existant figure, right?
"James!" she cried, still running to him. She, unlike the others, did not disappear, no matter how many times he tried to blink the image away.
The crying boy stood up and saw the girl running towards him from the other direction, opposite the one that he had come in. "Jesse!" He jumped. "It's really you!"
The girl ran towards him, but soon, James realized, something was wrong.
"No, Jess! Stop!"
Author's Notes: Another cliffhanger. Don't worry, it won't always be this way. But do keep in mind, I like to hear you people post what you think will happen next (hint hint for those reviews that you all are supposed to write). I think that maybe this will get a bit more sane after this, my brain is a bit Rocket-shippy at this point. I've got a pretty good idea of what will happen next, but if one of you gets it right… I dunno what I'll do, but something. So guess! Until then, I'm blasting off!
PokeMaster
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