Disclaimer: Pokémon is not mine. It sprung from the inspiration of Satoshi Tajiri, was made into a game by GameFreak, was adopted by Nintendo, and was bought in parts by 4Kids and Warner Bros. I'm sure I've missed something out. In conclusion, though, I have no right to it.
What I do claim is Zoe, my main character here.
This story is dedicated to Oddish, who is simply fantastic, Draconicality, a faithful reviewer and no mean writer either, and to Mega Mewtwo… as all my Pokémon fics should be.
Return, Zoe's Story
By Morbane
Five days, I thought. Five days. Or maybe it was four. The heat and the dust and the bright reflected sun-glare all combined to wear me down and confuse me, and addle my sense of time. Not long before I'd be in a sick delirium from the thirst. You wouldn't think it, but water Pokémon don't have great water reserves. In fact, we need to keep pretty wet to be happy. That is, Slowpokes, like me, do. But I think it's the same for the rest of the water types. I know a certain Psyduck would agree - but no. I tried not to think of him. I didn't know if I would ever see him again.
I stopped walking for a moment, to catch my breath. The day blazed all around me and a puff of dust rose up from the road and scattered over me. I wondered, briefly, if it would have been better to stay in the truck. The Team Rocket truck. I remembered the net and the jam of Pokémon and shuddered. No thanks. There had been no shade, and I'd gotten bruised every time someone moved. They hadn't fed us, either, in all the hours we'd been travelling, since they'd left their base late at night and headed out, cross country. We had escaped the next day.
I had been conked out for most of the journey. I awoke mid morning, when a terrified young Nidoking used its Thrash attack in a doomed attempt to get out of the net that bound us together.
I awoke battle-ready, as I had been trained. For the first few minutes I kept quiet, which was what they'd expect. No one thinks a Slowpoke could have brains. They're the ignorant ones.
"Slowww-poke poke!" (Quit it!) I yelled, reinforcing my meaning with a psychic command. My words cut through the confusion, and slowly the noise died down. Most of them didn't realise what type of Pokémon I was.
"We want to get out of here, right?" I asked. "So quit fighting each other! Everyone who's on the outside, next to the net, get your strongest attacks and aim them outwards!" They were tense and ready immediately. "Go!" I yelled.
Everyone was so keyed up that the combined attacks split the walls of the truck, which were only wooden, right apart. The Pokémon spilled out in every direction. But the Team Rocket pair, up front, who had been driving the truck, jumped out unhurt and called their Pokémon out to round us up.
Everyone was scattering, but the way things were going, the smallest and slowest Pokémon were going to get captured all over again. "Come back!" I yelled. That startled them. Most of them thought I was out of my mind. "Take down Team Rocket, and hurry!" I headed the attack with my Psychic move.
"Come over this side, Ross!" the female human yelled.
"I can't! They're ganging up on me! Help me out here, Vanessa!" her partner replied. They were outnumbered – and I can't remember ever feeling so satisfied as when we knocked them out. The noise died down, and everyone who'd been in the truck began to run away.
I wondered why I had been the only one sensible enough not to travel in the heat of the day. Everyone else was surely exhausted. I hoped they survived. Only I had hidden under a dessicated bush and slept until evening, to conserve my energy. Long before I stirred, Team Rocket and their Pokémon had picked themselves up and limped off with what they had. When I awoke, I was alone.
But now it was the heat of the day, and I was travelling. I hadn't slept for a day and a half. Despite the toll the heat would take on me, I knew I needed to get to water. My best hope was the mountains.
At least I generally knew where I was. I was in the Sunlands 'desert' behind a certain mountain range, under which ran a very famous tunnel, known simply as the Rock Tunnel. On the other side of the mountains was a hard-to-get-to, mysterious building called the Power Plant. I thought that in the mountains I would find water.
Where I was wasn't really a desert, with sands and all that, but it was hot and dusty and little grew there. I was just at the foot of the mountains, but I didn't know whether I would make it to the top. Wearily, I began the climb.
Right now, I needed water desperately. But if I survived... I would probably go down the other side of the mountains to Lavender Town, and from there begin the journey back to Celadon City. That was where I had been before Team Rocket had captured me, and where I had last been with my trainer, Raoul. I hoped I would find him there. What if he didn't wait for me?
Halfway through the afternoon, I thought I heard water. Oh, if only! I went faster, going from snail's pace to a normal speed. Surely - a water Pokémon's senses are never wrong when it comes to a particular element. Finally, I was there.
It was beyond what I had hoped for. A clear, pure mountain stream, cool snowmelt, flowing into a pool and down the mountainside. I bounded up the last few metres and jumped in. Wow, that felt nice.
For a while, I was happy just to swim and drink. But gradually, the afternoon deepened into evening and the evening got darker. With a gentle Psychic 'attack', I heated the water around me and fell asleep, floating on the surface of the pool.
The dawn was beautiful. From the pool, I could see so far! North, across the desert, I could see the sea. Over in the East, the sun broke the horizon and inflamed the clouds. "That means rain," I said thoughtfully to myself. "That's good. If it rains a little on the drylands, it'll help the other Pokémon who got captured by Team Rocket. I wonder where they are now." I also wondered where they'd come from. My trainer had brought us to Celadon City to take part in a special Pokémon tournament. But some members of Team Rocket had apparently kidnapped the tournament's organisers, and had rigged the tournament so that they could capture all the Pokémon. Each pair had split up with some of the Pokémon, and taken them away in all different directions. Our group of Pokémon had escaped, but who knew where they'd gone.
I went looking for food – seaweed, lake plants, that kind of stuff. Then I had a nap on the bank of the pool.
What woke me was a trainer's footsteps, heavy in the bushes.
I blinked as a Pokémon materialised in front of my eyes. "Slow," I said groggily, but then I realised that the trainer wasn't just my dreams, and that he had sent out his Pokémon to Battle.
It was a Growlithe. His tail, mane, and spurs were pure white and his stripes were bright and distinct. He was obviously well cared-for, but behind his determined, optimistic expression (usual for all Growlithe) there was stress.
Immediately I was on my guard. I summoned my psychic energies, focussing them for a Confusion attack, but to my surprise Growlithe didn't obey his trainer's orders to attack me.
"Come on, Joel," the trainer said. He was younger than my trainer, Raoul; he had lighter brown hair, wide blue eyes and acne. "Help me capture this Slowpoke - you might even rise a level yourself!"
Through loyalty to his trainer, Joel the Growlithe spat a half-hearted, half-warm Ember at me. Automatically, I dived into the water. Now that he knew he wouldn't have to come after me, he sent a stronger Ember after me.
I couldn't understand why he'd done that. A fire move would surely dissipate in the water and cause me no harm at all.
However, his attack heated the water so much that I couldn't stay in it any longer. Joel looked more surprised than I as I jumped out hurriedly, feeling as though I was in a bath and someone had just turned on five hot taps at once.
I hit him hard with Water Gun. He didn't even attack back.
"Why won't you fight me?" I asked him in confusion. "I want to be captured." His eyes widened and he shook his head shaggily.
It might be risky to allow myself to be captured by a trainer, but I decided that I would need a human's help to make it back to Raoul. I could only hope that when we reached him, Raoul would help this trainer understand that I was his.
It was a very strange battle we fought. Neither of us wanted to win - I didn't because I wanted Joel's trainer to capture me, and for some strange reason Joel was holding back. Finally I put a stop to it.
I tweaked an empty Pokéball off Joel's trainer's belt with Psychic powers. As I opened it Joel's eyes went wide and horrified. "No! Don't! You don't understand!" he barked in Growlithe language. Too late. The darkness closed round me. I closed my eyes.
flashback
"Hey, Zoe," said Raoul, letting me, Kyle and Taz out of the Pokéballs. "You might want some exercise before the match." He grinned, giving us thumbs up. "Be back in a bit, ok? We're going to win this."
Taz and Kyle were full of optimism as we headed off to the Celadon City park. "Hey, anything wrong?" Kyle, my best friend, asked. He looked puzzledly at me - Psyduck eyes are very expressive.
"Oh... I've just got a weird premonition..."
Kyle concentrated as he accessed and focussed his psychic powers. "I can't sense anything," he said. "Maybe you're overreacting. Or maybe you sense something wrong that will only happen to you."
"I don't know," I said. "There's... many... involved in this... many... Pokémon. Not humans - well, humans are involved in it but..."
Kyle rolled his eyes. "It's confusing, isn't it," he commented. I nodded.
Kyle and I had more than Psychic powers in common. Psyducks and Slowpokes are seen as the dolts of the Pokémon world. But not all of us are actually burdened with low intelligence. I moved out when I was only level 1 because I couldn't bear my family. They were nice and kind but they just didn't understand - not because they didn't want to. Then Raoul picked me up. He only had Taz, Jag, and Sylvie then.
Raoul is the coolest trainer in the world.
"I need a drink," said Taz cheerfully. He flew off in the direction of the lake. He was happy flying now that it was dusk - you can't persuade a zubat to stir during full sunlight, usually. He'll fight during daytime in matches, however. Since he's fighting for Raoul.
Kyle went off with him and I sat on the grass at the edge of the park, looking at the sunset. My ey e was caught by a young woman in black, with a tiny red R on her collar. She was talking to a laptop computer. Sounds issued forth from it, replying to her. I inched closer, so I could hear and see better.
"All is ready, sir," said the woman, bowing her head briefly. "All of your patrols are in place. There will be no mistakes."
"There must not be, this time," said a snarling voice from her computer. A picture of a man took up the whole screen. He sat in a chair, a Persian beside him.
"Of course, Giovanni."
"I hope you understand the importance of this mission," said Giovanni coolly. His hair was dark brown and greying, and his eyes suggested didn't like to be disobeyed.
"Of course, Boss."
"A failure - like the last mission you took control of..."
"Will not be repeated. There were circumstances we had no part of, factors we could not control." She talked faster. She was scared, I thought.
"Very well. I expect to hear your report in two hours." He lifted a glass off his desk. "To your success." The Persian purred deep in its throat.
The screen blanked, and the woman hurried off, now speaking into a mobile phone.
"Let's go back," I said, when I found Kyle and Taz. "There's something creepy happening."
I couldn't convince Raoul that anything was wrong, when I got back. He thought I was nervous about the battle to come.
end of flashback
I drifted back from my memories. If only Raoul had understood...
The Growlithe was right. There were several things that I didn't understand.