And hark! The Fifth chapter is up so soon! I didn't have to wait for FireHybrid to finish his next chapter for this one, which takes place the second week of December. So you should imagine snow on the ground. . . or something. I don't actually live in New York. But as I promised, I start pokémon training. Enjoy!
Chapter 5
The Trainer
THWACK!
"Are you okay?!" Nurse Joy shouted from the counter, as I hit my head absentmindedly on the Pokémon Center's doorway.
"Okay of what? . . . oh. . . that thing. . ." I didn't feel anything. "I guess so. . ." I didn't even remember where I hit my head, so I rubbed it randomly.
I was here for a Trainer's License. My mind wandered for the brief second it took me to step through the automatic doors, so that's why I hit my head. Your mind would start to wander as often as mine if you had a girlfriend like Rai.
"I uh. . . want to apply for a Pokémon Trainer's License. . ."
"Alright, I'll need you to fill out this form, with proof of identification. . ."
"Right here." I took out my wallet and showed her my driver's license. She handed a sheet of paper to me. I unhooked a pen from the table and started filling the form out.
"You'll need to take a physical and few tests after that. . ."
Name. Rick Griffin. . . I looked at the name on my driver's license again. It said Rick P. Griffin. I wondered what the P. stood for. . .
"There's a ten dollar fee for the cost of the pokédex and six poké balls, two dollars for every additional poké ball. . ."
Address. Aw crap. . . I feel as though I'm going to say that a lot on this questionnaire. . .
"You'll get a starter pokémon, of course. Your choice. . ."
Social Security Number. I'm not telling anyone reading this. . .
"There's a lot of stranded pokémon we keep here. . . you can choose form those if you like. . ."
Age. Fiftee. . . er, Twenty-one. "Done." I handed Nurse Joy the form, and she signed something on the bottom. "Follow me. . ."
I hate physicals. I like tests, however. I guess it was a mediocre experience, all in all.
"Do you want to pick from. . ."
"You have any Farfetch'd?"
Joy blinked in surprise. "Um. . . yes, I believe we do have at least one somewhere. . ."
"I'll take it."
Joy punched something onto the computer. "Yes we have one available. . . I'm afraid we don't have much on the circumstances involving it's abandonment. . .
"That's okay. I'll take it anyway."
She punched a few numbers into the machine, then turned to a device near the back of the desk area. . . I think it was the poké ball transfer device, and she flicked a switch. In that oddly familiar red neon light, a poké ball materialized on the holder in the middle. I always wondered how they do that. . .
"Here he is. . ." Joy held up the red-and-white ball and pressed the switch on it, and in the Amazing Red Light of Glory and Such, on the desk appeared the small bird I had always wanted to see.
"Oh. . . hello. You must be my new trainer. . ." Though a Farfetch'd, he spoke in very clear and concise tones, usually in a down-trodden depressed way. His attack stick was fairly un-battered, and he didn't seem to have seen very many battles at all. But none of these issues were addressed at first hand.
"Aww! You're so cute!" I said, holing the vowel on 'cute, and I hugged him. I never saw a Farfetch'd before in my life, much of which I can only account for a few months anyway.
"I. . . beg your pardon. . ."
"Whoops. Sorry bout that, bud." I think I hugged him a bit too hard.
Joy butted in, "Here's your pokédex, and an additional five poké balls. There's material on the Pokémon League in the lounge area."
"Thank you. C'mon, Farfetch'd."
We sat in the lounge, somewhere near the children's area, in a red chair of some sort, at a table. The Farfetch'd was very willing to go with me. He seemed to have a sense of duty of some sort or another, and it made me wonder a bit about who his last trainer was. . .
"Did your last trainer give you a name?" I asked him.
"No. . . she just called me Farfetch'd. . . Is that a problem?"
"No. . . no. I just would prefer to give all my pokémon names. They're permanent things, I don't want to inadvertently name you something I'll regret later. . ." I would like to name them all after a theme of some sort. . . it would make it easy to remember if I were to even get up to twenty or so. . . aha! "Your name will now be. . . Cecil."
"Cecil?"
"The hero of the video game Final Fantasy IV."
"Well. . . my former trainer wasn't to big on video games. . ."
"Who was she?" I felt I could ask him now.
"I don't remember her name. . . but she abandoned me about last month I think. . . she had me for three weeks and decided I wasn't worth keeping."
Right now I felt very, very, sorry for trainers who couldn't talk to their pokémon directly. I hugged him. I don't know why. It felt like the right thing to do. . .
"Now if I can ask you a question. . ." He was a very curious one, even though he seemed to be quite disciplined, "You seem to be quite a big, strong guy, not to mention a Typhlosion hybrid. . . why do you want to train pokémon?"
"I was bored. I have too much free time on my hands."
"Do you have a job or anything?"
"I don't need one. I have $400 in my wallet right now and another $19,200 at home. . . or rather Xavier's home. . ."
"Who is Xavier?"
"One of my friends. I don't live anywhere in particular, and I usually stay at his house. Like maybe nintey five percent of the time. . ."
"Oh. Alright."
"Could you describe your former trainer?"
"Not to clearly. . . when you're inside a poké ball for a month, you tend to forget a lot of things. . ."
This guy was just absolutely pulling every one of my heartstrings. . . Cecil was a good name for him. . .
"Rick!"
"Rai!" I hadn't seen her in a long time. . . at least for a day.
She came over and sat down beside me. "You've already got through with the exams, I see." She said, noting my pokémon.
"Yup. Meet Cecil, my Farfetch'd."
"How do you do?" She asked him.
"As well as I can be." Cecil turned to me. "You know her?"
"You might say that." I replied, "I know, it must be the most amazing thing to know the most beautiful person on the planet."
"Oh, Rick." Rai smiled and giggled a bit. I leaned over and kissed her. She kissed back quite energetically.
"If you don't mind. . ." Cecil sounded impatient, and I quickly broke the kiss with Rai, "Did you have anything in particular you wanted to do with me? If not, I'll go back to my poké ball. . ."
"You don't have to do that. . . you don't have to go in there if you don't want to."
"But. . . most trainers usually. . ."
"Hop on my shoulder."
"What?"
"Hop on my shoulder!"
Cecil hopped up off the table onto my shoulder. I said to him, "That's not so bad, is it?"
"Why do you want me here?"
"It's one of those laws of coolness or something." I turned to Rai, "So have you considered restarting your pokémon training yet?"
"Well, I know I have to sometime. . . I can't dwell on my fears all my life. . ."
"Hey, if it would have any bearing at all, I'll help you once you do."
She smiled. "Thanks. . ." And there we were kissing again.
"Ahem." Cecil put bluntly.
"Oh, sorry. . ." I pulled back from Rai. "So I was going to be gone for I hoped the rest of the afternoon. See you tomorrow?"
"Alright. Bye, Rick."
"See you tomorrow then, Rai."
I watched her off. Then I turned to the supplies counter to buy a ruksak with enough Super Potions to last a few hundred battles or so, as well as a couple of various Heals.
I also got a notepad. "What's that for?" Asked Cecil.
"This is so I can keep track of everything. Mission One: Find a Cubone."
"You do ever so love your video games, don't you, Rick?"
"Oh, yes. Hop off for a second." This was indeed the place where one could most likely find a Cubone. A cemetery. It was still too light out, so we were going to check the woods behind them for their nesting grounds. Cecil hopped off of me as I took off my shirt and stuffed it into the bag. "We're going to try this my way. Remember everything I told you on the way here?"
"I think so."
"Good. If this doesn't work out, I could always subdue the Cubone by myself."
Cecil hopped back on my bare shoulder (I wished Rai were there right then. I love how she swoons over me every time I take off my shirt.) and we walked into the woods.
We had little lick, as dense vegetation usually attracts many species of pokémon, none of them were Cubones. I had Cecil fight in a few battles, but some of the pokémon here were tough, and I fought a lot of battles for him, giving him pointers on how to do some things.
He seemed distant the entire time, as though he was recalling something quite unpleasant. Wile in the middle of a battle with a Spearow, he just seemed to crack, and almost beat the poor thing to death. I stopped him, and the Spearow got away, but I couldn't help but wonder what made Cecil lash out in anger like that. . .
"Cecil. . . what's wrong?"
"The world. . . I'm sorry, master."
"Master?"
"Sorry. Rick."
That was odd. I never insisted that he call me master. . . "Buck up. Life's a blast, and we're gonna make the most of it."
"I'm very sorry. . ."
"Don't be! Please! I get depressed when others are sad. . ."
He hopped back up on my shoulder. I rubbed the back of his neck in sympathy.
It was at about that moment that I spotted a quite abandoned house out on the horizon. . . all run down and hints like that. "Cecil. . . Are we still near the graveyard?"
"I should think so. We were traveling with it, it should still be nearby. . ."
"Good. . ."
The house had no doorbell, which was a good sign that it was nice and old. It might as well have been a Marowak breeding ground. . .
"Cecil. . . remember all the moves, the footwork. . ."
"Yes I do."
"Good. This is just a little experiment." Cecil cringed at that word for some reason.
I opened the door slowly, enough for it to make a satisfying creak. I pulled a flashlight from my bag (The soft glow of my natural flame isn't enough to see very well in the dark, and it's also behind my eyes. . .) and flicked it on. The house was indeed very old. . . as evidenced by the size of the Radio in the corner of the living room. There was a thin layer of dust on it. A thin layer. . .
A thin layer?
I looked over by the bottom of the stairwell. The dust was even thinner, and pushed around in several places. And there were small, circular places of non-dust. . .
"Cubone tracks." I whispered.
"It would seem so." Cecil whispered back, "Lucky find."
A clatter of noise from up the stairs. "Cubone. . ." the voice said without saying anything in particular.
I fingered the poké balls in my pocket. I made it a point to store my master ball in my ruksack, so I wouldn't accidentally pull it out. I'm saving it for the ultimate mission. . .
"Cecil. . ." I whispered him as we ascended the stairwell, "Be on the lookout. The Cubone will more than likely hear us. . ."
"Who's there?" A voice echoed in very obvious Cubone language.
"This is the newbie trainer, Rick Griffin. Come out with your hands up or I'll be forced to capture you."
Though I couldn't see him, I knew the Cubone actually had to think about this for a bit, as indicated by the long pause. "Are you. . . nice?"
Not surprising. Cubones had a tendency to be depressed for most of their childhood. "Just come out and look at me. . ."
The Cubone which I was sure I had talked to stepped into the light. "You're a hybrid. . ."
"Not by choice, I can assure you."
The Cubone readied his bone club, and lowered his eyebrows a bit. "Fight me. I won't run."
Battle-enthused. I like that. "Cecil, ready position."
Cecil hopped off my shoulder and pulled out his twig into the sword fighting position.
"Strike!" I yelled. Cecil lunged forward, only for his twig to meet with the Cubone's in a loud cracking noise. This continued for a minute or so, and I tested, "Cecil, Dark Knight Strike!"
Cecil backed down for a second, holding his stick in guard position, waiting. Cubone made the mistake of attacking. Cecil quickly struck at his defenseless side, then again at the other when Cubone reacted to it. Cubone swung, but Cecil had hopped back far enough to dodge it.
(That was basically the extent of his training, I wanted to get some more moves for him, but I didn't have any Trainer's Manuals.)
Cubone was breathless, so he swung his bone again in anger. Cecil took the advantage and jabbed him right in the stomach before he could hit. Cubone fell over.
"You win."
I walked over to the Cubone. "So you accept me as your trainer?"
"I've lived here for most of my life. Bored out of my skull, so to speak. Go ahead. . ."
I knelled down and tossed the poké ball on him, and he flashed inside. Then he was outside as I once again pushed the button.
"You're letting me out?"
"You don't need to stay in there. . ."
The Cubone hugged me around the knee, which was pretty much the only thing he could almost get his hands around. "Thank you, master."
"Rick, please." I almost laughed. "You'll need a name, too."
"A name?"
"Yes. . . I think. . . Butz. . ." Say it: Bah-tzu. Hero from Final Fantasy V. Now I had the theme going.
"Yes mas. . . Rick, sir." Butz was very willing to do what I said, but in a much different way than Cecil was. . . like out of enthusiasm instead of duty. "Master Rick, why Butz?"
"He was a hero in a video game. . ."
"A Video Game?"
"Think of it as a fantasy story."
"Okay, Master Rick." I don't think he really cared. He was too excited from finally having someone look after him. "Master Rick, what are we going to do now? Do you live nearby? How many pokémon do you have? I'm hungry. . ."
"Whoa, slow down there. . . let's get something to eat, first." I picked Butz up and held him in my arms, and he hugged me as hard as he could, not letting go in the least. "Come on, Cecil." Cecil jumped onto my shoulder. I walked down the stairs and back out the door, rucksack on my back and Butz in one hand.
Amazing how some things just work out that way.
TAH-DAAAAAAAAAAA! There was a hamburger inside. Ness takes it. *smack* Ow. . . sorry bout that. My mind was wandering.
Next time on Vagabond? I have no clue yet. I'll wait and see what develops. So. . . Final Fantasy: The Last Hero. You know, that one I thought I was going to get to at the beginning of summer. See my Bio page. Go. Now. Ciao.