The New Kids on the Block: Chapter Six
Celeste- "Leaving Comet Plains"
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Comet Plains Laboratory
Comet Plains, Silver Millennium
May 24, 2028
"I'm so sorry Professor Briarcliffe, it's just that Jory loves to dig holes and sometimes," she hesitated as she looked at her Diglett, "she winds up doing that in other people's grass."
"I understand Bayli, don't worry about it, I'll just have it filled up is all," Hyacinthe reassured her.
"Are you sure?" she pried with questioning eyebrows. "'Cause I mean, I'll pay for the dirt if that's what you want...I have some money left from dinner yesterday."
"Bayli," Hyacinthe said with a chuckle, "everything is fine don't worry about it. A pokemon will always be a pokemon and do what makes it happy. In this case, Jory is much more at home underground than she is on top."
"Really? Are you sure that I don't have to pay anything?"
"Yes," Hyacinthe said curtly.
Bayli rubbed her brow with a slender forearm and sighed as she collapsed into a vacant chair. "What a relief! Do you know how much I've had to pay over the past month or so? It's enough to make sure that I starve on my whole pokemon journey! I wish that all people were as understanding as you Professor Briarcliffe."
"Why thank you Bayli," she said.
Bayli Carson was a young girl that could not have been more than thirteen years old. Her hair was a pale brown and was pulled back into a short, nonetheless neat, ponytail. However, the rest of her clothing was anything but neat. She wore a pair denim Capri pants with frayed hems. I don't know how she accomplished that feat! And she wore an obscure olive green t-shirt with a telephone logo that read Ex-Phone Solicitor. I couldn't help but laugh at that.
She looked down at Jory and coddled her with her finger and then she perked up in excitement.
"What a cutie! Is he your poké-pal?" she asked me as she tickled Raja behind his ear, causing his eyes to close in glee. He laughed, causing me to smile.
"Yeah," I replied as I looked at him adoringly.
"What's his name?" she beamed.
"His name is Raja," I told her.
"What a wonderful name for a cute Phanphy like him!" Then she pointed at her Diglett and said, "this is my pal Jory of course. You probably saw her poking through the ground on the front lawn."
"Yeah," I said, as I looked at Jory a bit closer. I saw her shrink back from my gaze and hide behind her trainer's arm.
"Oh Jory," she said, lifting her into the air, "you're such a shy little pokemon; yes you are, yes you are!"
I personally thought that she sounded much like she was talking to a little puppy. However, Jory was just as, if not more, cute as a puppy. Her little eyes filled with glee as she was hugged close to her trainer.
"Have you ever been in a pokemon league before?"
"Actually, I've been in The Pokemon League. You know, the one in Kanto," she said proudly.
"Well, how far did you advance?"
"Well," she lingered, "I was in it for about five minutes."
"In a match?"
"No," she said as a smile spread across her face, her big blue eyes lighting up in mirth. "In the lobby! I got kicked out because I lost my license somewhere. If you ask me, I think that it could've been in the Safari Zone but I'm not sure."
"Oh, that's pretty bad." I'd wished that I hadn't said anything at all. It could've hurt her feelings, but surprisingly—
It didn't.
"It's all hogwash now. That was in the past," she chirped wistfully, "and now I'm looking forward to the future here in the Silver Millennium League! I have a feeling that I won't lose my license, but then again, I'd best not jinx myself by being optimistic."
"Don't think of it that way. I'm sure—"
"You know what?" she interrupted. Normally, I would have been highly irritated, but I decided to let it slide. "I find that when I think of things pessimistically, good things usually happen. Isn't that the weirdest thing you ever heard?"
"Not really," I muttered under my breath.
"What was that?" she pried, as she looked at me rather intensely.
"Nothing."
"Whatever," she said. She was silent for a moment before she chirped once more. I had a feeling that this girl was never at a loss of words. "Hey, would you like to have a pokemon battle with me?"
For some odd reason, the memory of my battle with that weirdo, Collin McGrith, came to mind and I absently shuddered in her presence. He still haunted me, much to my disappointment.
"Is something wrong?"
"Oh," I said as I snapped out of my recollection. "I'll have a pokemon battle with you." I then turned to Raja, "do you mind?"
"Not at all," he said. I began to believe that he had just thought of that horrible Growlithe, Kao (A/N: changed by the creator's wishes), and their battle. Then a smile appeared on his face. Maybe he felt that he could win this.
"Good! Let's go outside," she chimed as she grabbed me by the arm and practically dragged me out the door, with Jory and Raja hurrying to keep up us.
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"All right, let's have a three-on-three pokemon battle!"
"But I don't have three pokemon," I told her.
She did an animé cry and practically fell to the ground. I could've sworn that I saw a sweat-drop appear on her temple.
"OK, we'll just use one pokemon then," she then fumbled in a waist pouch that had been carelessly secured onto her waist; it sagged down her right leg. "I'm going to use my pal Chel," she said as she pulled out a round, red-and-white pokéball.
"Go!" she demanded as she threw the sphere; however, the sphere carelessly rolled off her fingertips and crashed to the ground. Bayli didn't notice so she took a step forward.
"Hey wait!—um, where is it?" She took one more step forward, and with a small shriek, she flew into the air, legs higher than any other part of her body, and crashing to the ground.
The pokéball rolled to my feet.
I had to stifle a giggle as I scooped the ball up and tossed it to Bayli, who, clumsily, lunged for the ball, which missed her hands completely, and fell back down. She hopped up as if nothing happened and finally called out her pokemon the right way.
A beam of red light signaled that this Chel was about to make an appearance, so I waited to see exactly which pokemon she was. Much to my surprise, a small Shuckle appeared on our mock-battlefield.
"Oh, a Shuckle! I remember learning about those in school," I said as examined the pokemon. She looked at me and then at Raja, and finally settled on her trainer. With a yawn, she retreated into her shell.
"What an incredible withdraw attack!" Bayli beamed as she jumped into the air.
I looked more closely, "uh, Bayli?"
"Yes?"
"I don't think that Chel plans on coming back out of her shell. I mean, you didn't even tell her to do so."
"Oh!" she cried as she fumbled in her waist pouch, "she's doing it again." She brought forth a carnation-colored Berry and shook it in front of her shell.
A snaky yellow head emerged from the shell and snapped at the Berry.
"That's the spirit! Now, if you participate in this battle, I promise you that you'll have this succulent treat as an award!"
Whatever you say, she said with anticipating eyes. She poked her slithery legs out and faced Raja.
"Let's do it," I said as I clenched my fist. "Tackle her!"
Phanphy kicked at the ground before going into a swift trot. Grass was flattened as he tramped across the ground, making a beeline straight towards his opponent. Chel stood still as Raja grew closer, not even attempting to make a getaway.
"Look out!" Bayli cried.
Chel remained still, withdrawing into her shell as Raja knocked her multicolored shell into the air. The shell soared throw the air and landed on the ground. Chel appeared seemingly unaffected.
"Good job Chel!" Her eyes narrowed as she quickly became serious. "Now use your constrict attack!"
"Raja, quickly use your defense curl!"
I had an idea, a pretty good one too. One that would probably make us win our first match together, no draws. Raja would be really proud of himself, and I would be proud of him.
Chel slithered over to my friend Raja, who was already in a neat, compact ball; it highly resembled a basket ball, just about the same size. Then, she extended her long yellow limbs around the ball and squeezed tightly in an effort to defeat him.
I could see the determination on her face.
"All right Raja," I said resolutely, "break up that constriction by unrolling yourself. Come on out!"
The ball slowly started to become a pokemon again. The four legs appeared, then I noticed his face, and most importantly, his trunk. Although Chel still bound him with her appendages, I knew that we still had a change.
"Just hold on tighter Chel!"
"Flail, Raja; flail!"
Immediately after I gave him the directions, he began to shake, rattle, and roll all over the place, which caused his opponent to let go of him after suffering a blow to the head.
"What?!?"
I smiled, I was going to win it. I suddenly remembered his trunk and decided to put that into good use. "Raja," I said, "use your trunk!"
Chel had already retreated into her shell when I ordered Raja to perform his maneuver, however, what she did not know was that a Phanphy, like an elephant, could suck things with their noses. This is what Raja did; he sucked out one of her limbs and, once it was revealed, wrapped his trunk around it and began to whip the turtle pokemon really hard on the ground, causing a major disturbance.
I held up my hand in order to tell him to stop attacking. I just had to say the efficiency of his attacks. Raja calmly stepped back.
A few seconds later, four snaky arms slithered out of the red shell and was lastly accompanied with an equally long head. Swirls were conspicuous in the eyes and a sliver of tongue hung lazily on the side of her mouth.
"Cheloni!" she cried, "please tell me that you'll be all right." She rushed forward with the Berry and delicately placed it into her mouth. Chel slowly chewed the palatable fruit and steadily rose to her feet, rejuvenated.
"You did great Raja," I said, cradling my wonderful pokemon. He positively melted into my warm embrace. He absolutely, undeniably rocked out there.
Hooray! I actually won! He jumped into the air, well, as far into the air as a 1'8" foot tall, 75 pound elephant, that has yet to learn how to do a rollout, could jump. (A/N: These statistics were of course obtained from the fabulous www.Pojo.com! )
I took a second to sneak a peak at the very disappointed, yet content Bayli, who muttered soothing words to her pokemon, and then looked at us, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.
"Bayli," I purred, taking a few hesitant steps towards her while holding out a hand, "are you all right?"
She stepped back, a solitary tear descending down towards her cheek as she recalled her pokemon. "Just leave me alone!"
And with that, she dashed into the laboratory, yanked her things out of the locker, and fled from Comet Plains Laboratory.
My hand was still left suspended in the air...winning didn't seem so great after all.
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"I wonder why Bayli Carson flew out of the laboratory like that. I was dreadfully worried about her; she was crying," Hyacinthe asked as she stroked the side of a placid Dunsparce.
I absently sipped on my orange-carrot infusion drink. I wasn't sure if I should've told her or not because it didn't feel wonderful to know that I was the cause of the problem.
I sighed.
"I think you know something."
If I said something really fast, then she would know that I did know something. If I said it to too slow, she would know that I knew something and I was trying to make up a lie. If I said nothing, I would appear to be highly suspicious. So I just decided to tell her the truth.
"We had a pokemon battle earlier, and she lost. And she was really disappointed;" I took a breath. "When I went to comfort her, she told me to leave her alone, and she ran out of the building."
"I completely understand her," she murmured with a nod as she examined the Dunsparce a bit more closely.
I put down my drink and asked, "what do you mean?"
"I understand why she felt that way." She took off her glasses, "you see, Celeste, for some reason, two of her pokemon care more about resting than serving her in battles. You probably witnessed that her Shuckle needed coaxing. Her Quagsire is a little less greedy but still prefers to rest versus doing any real work. Jordan, however, is a little less reluctant to work but likes to dig holes, which causes Bayli a lot of money. Many times, she can't even eat everyday."
I frowned; this was all very sad.
"The purpose of her being here was to create a stronger bond with her pokemon, in an effort to convince them that a friendship is a two-way thing, or rather, a give-and-take. I would've liked to say that it worked, but you saw that it did not. I'm hoping that during the months of her journey, she and her pokemon will become closer, thus becoming a team, and thus becoming stronger."
God, she could be the President or something!
All I could let out was a perceptive 'oh'.
Just then, Quinn, along with Purin and all of the others came down. They both looked at us and Quinn, stepping forward said, "I think that we'd better leave."
"Why? Is there something wrong?" Hyacinthe asked.
"Not at all," he said nonchalantly, "I just think that we'd best get on our journey, especially since there's no gym or anything."
"I am here!"
"Yeah," he said, "I know." Then, with a raised brow, he asked, "you just don't want us to leave don't you."
"Of course I don't!" she snapped. "It's pretty lonely out here, especially when you live on a different planet." She nodded her head wistfully, "but I know what a trainer's duty is, and I would not want to deter you in any way."
"When did you become the boss, Quinn?" I asked. I had not had a say in anything at all! He must have threatened Charlize and Brian, for they looked like two robots standing at his side, not doing anything.
"Since Mom said I was," he rejoined.
I should've known that she would do something like that.
"Whatever bro," I said. I felt as if I was beginning to become closer to my big sister, I mean, I understood her more now that I had attended her sessions and lived with her for those few short days. She had left home so early that I didn't get to form that extra-special bond with her.
"Well you'd better gather your things for the morning."
Like a she was on Speed, Charlize quickly lifted up her bag, "already packed."
Hyacinthe planted her hands upon her lips, looking like the spitting image of Mom when she was angry with us, "you guys sure don't waste any time."
"There's nothing like doing things in the present instead of procrastinating," Brian said.
I shot him a confused stare. They were completely robotic right then.
"All right," I said, this time planting my hands on my hips, "what have you done to my best friends, Quinn? Are you using a remote control on them?"
"Nothing," he said with an impervious shrug, "I just told them that we should leave now so that we could make it to the Emerald Forest by nightfall. And...that if they didn't get moving now, I would do something unpleasant to them."
"Why do you always have to threaten someone? Gosh," I said sarcastically, "if that's not being a bully then I don't know what it is."
He's not a bully! He's simply a man who wants what he wants, when he wants it. Right, Quinn? Purin explained.
I decided to ignore her.
"We're leaving now. And that's final."
"Wait! You forgot to remind me to give you your pokétalkies, Quinn. Wait just a second," she disappeared for a few breath moments, coming back with four, shiny gadgets.
"You may each take one."
I reached for the silver/navy blue one, Brian got hold of the orange one, Char took the pink, and Quinn, having no choice at all, took the jet black one. I placed mine in a special side-pocket of my messenger bag.
"I programmed your license into it but you still have the actual card in your wallets. Make sure that you never lose the both of them, or you are completely and utterly screwed. You won't be able to participate in anything that involves things pertaining to the Silver Millennium League."
That was pretty strict but I knew that it was important. After all, this country considered safety to be the most important aspect of a trainer's life. It made me wonder...was there once an evil organization like Team Rocket there? Well, I'm pretty sure that if there was, then the organization had been disbanded a long time ago.
"Wait," I said, still wanting to know what was the deal with their weird behavior. Sometimes I just don't know when to stop. Sometimes, not always. "Tell me what he did."
"Well," Charlie said, "he told us and naturally we wouldn't listen. I said that he wasn't my brother so I don't have to listen to him; Brian said something similar. He threatened to do something to us but I thought he was bluffing. Then, he just rushed Brian and gave him the most atomic wedgie that I've ever seen!"
"And my ass still hurts," Brian said as he patted he butt. His face was a bit flushed, he was obviously embarrassed.
She crossed her arms and said, "I obviously saw that he was not bluffing after all and took my hint from there. I mean, imagine getting a wedgie when you already have on a thong. I don't think so!"
I started laughing.
Quinn looked completely snug over there with his arms crossed, as if he'd done nothing wrong.
"Well, that's enough talk about people's asses," Hyacinthe interjected. "There's no time like the present, like Brian said. So why don't you all get to moving right now...unless you want to have dinner here..."
"We have capsules in our bags," Quinn answered.
"All right," she said, throwing up her hands in defeat. "I'd better give you your farewell hugs now."
She walked over to Quinn and hugged him around his chest, she was by far the tallest Briarcliffe woman at 5'9". Brian was next, she gave him a peck on the cheek. And after him, Charlize stepped up and hugged her, and lastly, it was my turn.
"You make the most out of this pokemon journey, okay?"
"I'll try."
"You will," she corrected as she squeezed me. I gladly returned her embrace. She put me away at arms' length and said, "promise me that you'll do your best."
"I promise."
"I'll call you periodically to check on your progress and to tell you about your pokemon. Catch as many as you can, but make sure that you can train them equally well. Remember, rarely does anything ever go wrong when one does things in moderation."
"I will."
She walked us to the door that led out to the main road. "Goodbye everyone. Have fun!"
She watched us as we walked down the streets of Comet Plains, the forest being a shadow in the distance. The teal sky was changing into a warm forest green and the moon, a special moon unique to Celestiette called the Crescent, for it was a perpetual crescent moon, that was how it was shaped, cast a mellow glow on all things that it touched. It was really beautiful.
"We're really doing it this time Raja! Are you excited?"
Yeah! I'm still excited over winning my first match today, he beamed.
He seemed excited so I took that as a 'yes'.
This was the beginning of a very long journey indeed...
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Thanks for reading and please don't forget to review. Thanks for everyone who has shown the least bit of interest in this fiction. I will try my best to make reading it worthwhile. Need a few more trainers. And please read the fiction if you plan on submitting one, I need to know if I interpreted them in the right way. Yours, etc.—The Duke of Briarcliffe