Pre-Fic Author's Notes:
Erm, I know that this took a while. Much, much longer than it should have. I don't really have a good reason for that, so I'm sorry. I do plan on working on it on a regular basis now; I'm going to aim for a chapter about every two weeks, cause I'm reasonably sure I can make that happen. Might be faster, depending on work loads and such, but expect one every two weeks or so.
Kaze Uta belongs to Ara Moon
Rio Starbright belongs to GIRs Cupcake
Ryan Tani belongs to Raven Star
Time's Edge
Chapter 4
The Trail to Saffron
Kaze slammed the broad side of her blade against the attacking Ratticate's head, knocking it out cold but not fatally injuring it. With an annoyed huff, she resheathed her sword and released Espeon from her pokeball. "Espeon, could you teleport us to Kanto, please? I'm very, very sick of running into all of these wild pokemon. They're annoying, they're slowing me down, and they're leaving a big, bright, neon blazing trail through the forest for any rockets who come after us."
Erm, Kaze, you remember what happened last time I tried to teleport us to a city?
"That was a long time ago, and the stains came out eventually. It wasn't that big of a deal."
The stains came out, yes, but the smell was so bad you ended up having to get me a new pokeball.
"But it's all better now. The past is the past. Besides, you're exaggerating, it wasn't that bad."
Kaze, we landed in a pile of tauros shit. Fifteen miles from the nearest settlement. It was bad.
"Well, yeah, but think of all the time we could save this way! Besides, you're much more powerful now."
You're not going to give up, are you?
"Do I ever?"
Espeon sighed. Alright then. Where to?
"Saffron."
You realize that the Rockets used to have a large base there, right?
"Yeah, but it was shut down last year, so they probably wouldn't have had time to establish another large base yet."
Fine. I make no promises of how close I'll get us, though.
"So long as you get us somewhere in Kanto, I'll be happy."
Say that again in ten seconds, Espeon muttered. Before Kaze could respond, or even wonder how it was possible to psychically mutter, Espeon's eyes glew yellow and the pair vanished.
~*~
The sun had finished setting about an hour ago, and Rio Starbright and Ryan Tani had been chatting the whole time while walking uphill along the path to Saffron. The conversation had been that light getting-to-know-the-basics-about-you type. Thus far, Rio thought that Ryan seemed pretty cool. "So, if you're not going to be competing, where're you going to stay?" Ryan asked.
"Erm, I hadn't really thought about that," Rio reponded. Though I really should have, she added silently to herself. Now I sound like an idiot and have no place to stay. "I usually just stay at the local pokemon center, but I guess it'll probably be packed. I suppose I'll either find a hotel or camp along the edge of the city then. How about you?"
"I'm staying at a hotel that's owned by my parents' old friend; I could probably get him to give you a discount if you'd like."
"You sure? Asking for a discount for someone you just met might weird him out a little."
Ryan shrugged. "You gave me a potion for Puck when he needed it. He'll probably offer you a discount himself when he hears that. Don't worry about it. I mean, if you'd rather camp out or whatever..."
"No no no, hotel good. I just didn't wanna make it seem like you had to or anything, cause that might weird out your parents' friend, but I do wanna stay there and..." The words were flying out of Rio's mouth so fast that she realized that Ryan might not be able to follow them, as she was neglecting quite a few of the spaces between words. She trailed off and noticed that Ryan was laughing a little. "Wow, I sound like an idiot, huh?"
Ryan had stopped laughing by this point but still had a big smile on his face. "No no, you just reminded me of Casper there. He's my misdreaveous; he always talks at that speed."
"You have a midreaveous that can talk?"
"Yeah. You know how ghosts can use psychic moves? They can use those same psychic abilities to talk, though that's not widely known. Most ghosts don't really see the point in conversing with humans."
"Wow, cool. So how come Casper talks to you then?"
"I'd like to say it's because I'm a good trainer, but realistically, I think he just likes to talk a lot. A whole lot. Do you have any pokemon that can talk?"
"Actually, yeah. Both of my dark types, Nightrunner and Nightwing, an umbreon and murkrow respectively, can talk."
"I didn't know dark types could talk...they're immune to psychic abilities, how can they talk?"
"Got me, but mine can. It sounds kind of like when psychic pokemon talk, but it's kind of different. I'm not really sure how to explain it. Every time I ask how they just tell me that it's better for some things to not be understood, and that dark type powers fall under that category." Rio shrugged. "I decided it's better not to press them about it."
"Huh. I wonder if my houndooms can speak then."
"Got me. I've never spoken to a houndoom before."
"Well aren't you the weird one," Ryan said, smiling.
"Beats the alternatives," Rio said, running her eyes along his body and making a disgusted facial expression. In truth he was actually pretty cute, she especially liked the silver hair, but she wasn't about to tell him that.
"Ouch. Burn." As Ryan spoke, they reached the top of the hill and Rio noticed Saffron was just coming into view. The city's lights made it stand out brilliantly against the rest of the scene and reflected out onto the grasslands. Rio stopped to admire the scenery.
"Wow, I'd forgotten what it was like to approach cities like this at night. I usually only travel during the day."
Ryan started to respond, but was interrupted by the sound of an approaching gallop. Rio turned toward it just in time to see a tauros burst out of the bushes and charge straight at them. Ryan started to turn too, but Rio realized that by the time he finished turning and reacted to try to jump out of the way, he'd have either been gored or trampled. Rio lept so that she slammed into his chest, knocking both of them out of the way just as he finished turning. The tauros charged past the pair, skidded to a halt, and turned back to charge again.
"That's two you owe me," Rio said, reaching for Zypher's pokeball.
"Let me handle this, I've gotta at least try to even things out a bit," Ryan said, winking and reaching for one of his pokeballs.
"Alright," Rio said. "Be careful though, it looks like it's at a pretty high level."
"Don't worry, won't be a problem. Go, Bruiser!"
Well, someone's a little cocky, Rio thought as the machoke materialized a few meters in front of them with a familiar white flash.
"Bruiser, use seismic toss!"
The tauros kicked up dust as it charged back at them. Bruiser waited until the last second, then grabbed the charging pokemon by the horns, lifted it up, jumped, and tossed it down at the ground. There was a loud crash as the tauros collided with the ground, followed by an expanding cloud of dust. Bruiser landed outside the dust, close to his trainer and Rio.
"Well, I guess that takes care of that."
"Don't bet on it. There aren't supposed to be wild tauros around here, and that one looked to be at a very high level." The tauros burst out of the cloud and charged toward them again.
"Bruiser, mega punch." The bull pokemon was knocked back several meters through the settling dust cloud and started charging again. "If there aren't any wild tauros around here, where'd that come from? Powerful pokemon like that don't just fall out of the sky you know."
As Ryan finished talking, there was a flash of golden light from overhead. Two seconds later, a girl with a sword and an espeon had fallen onto Bruiser and bounced off to land in front of him.
"You were saying?" Rio asked.
~*~
The first thing Kaze noticed was pain in her ankle, which had presumably been injured during the fall. The second thing she noticed was an angry tauros growling and charging at her.
"Holy shit! Espeon, use psychic on that thing, now!"
Espeon didn't need to be told twice. A blue glow appeared around the attacking pokemon, and it was hurled backwards over twenty meters. It would have gone further, but for a stubborn rock in its path bringing it to a violent halt. What is it with teleporting and tauros'? Kaze thought to herself. The tauros collapsed, unconscious. Hearing breathing behind her, Kaze threw herself forward and turned to land in a fighting stance. She found a machoke and a pair of rather bewildered looking humans facing her.
Kaze assessed the group quickly. The machoke looked to be somewhere between level thirty and fourty, it wouldn't be a problem in a fight. The guy, presumably the machoke's trainer as he was holding a pokeball in his hand, was rather short, with silver hair, blue tinted glasses, and all black clothing, save for red fingerless gloves on each hand. Kaze counted nine pokeballs on his belt, which ment he either wasn't registered with the league or was taking time off. If his machoke was any indication, he wouldn't be a problem in a fight. The girl standing next to him was about an inch shorter, with long purple hair and black clothing. Kaze counted six pokeballs on her belt. She seemed much less surprised than her male counterpart, meaning she was probably more experienced, and Kaze made a mental note to target her pokemon first if it came to a fight.
"We don't wanna fight, calm down," the girl said. "Ryan, recall Bruiser." The boy, presumably Ryan, eyed Kaze warily but recalled the machoke.
"Who are you and why was that tauros attacking you?" Kaze asked.
"My name is Rio Starbright and this is my friend Ryan Tani, and as for the tauros, your guess is as good as mine. Now who're you?" the girl responded.
"I'm Kaze Uta, and this is Espeon," Kaze said, gesturing toward Espeon with her hands. Espeon nodded her head to acknowledge the humans. "I didn't think there were tauros around here. Well, if here is where I think it is anyway...where are we exactly?"
"Just outside of Saffron," Ryan said. "And there shouldn't be tauros around here, you're right."
"So where did that one come from then?"
"Nice to meet you too," Rio said sarcastically. "As I already said, we don't have a clue."
"He belongs to me," said a rather deep voice. Kaze turned to see a man in a rocket uniform recalling the tauros. "Just a little target practice. You're not too bad, though I think I'll still kill you." He released a pokemon that Kaze didn't recognize from his pokeball. "Go, Mightyena!"
"What in Celebi's name is that?" Kaze asked.
"It's a dark type," Ryan said, "I recognize it from the time I spent in Hoenn. Be careful, Mightyena are strong pokemon."
"Fuck. I hate dark types," Kaze commented. Because Espeon can't fight well against them, she added silently.
Rio glared at her and released an umbreon from its pokeball. "Go, Nightrunner! Faint attack!"
"Mightyena, use bite when it reappears."
Nightrunner vanished and reappeared, slamming into Mightyena from the side. Mightyena used the blow as momentum to swing itself around and bite the umbreon.
"Toss it up and finish it with a headbutt." Three seconds later, Nightrunner was sliding away from Mightyena, fainted. "You know, somehow I don't think that's what you meant by faint attack," the rocket taunted. Rio glared and started reaching for another pokeball.
"I've got it," Ryan said. "Go Bruiser!"
"Mightyena, quick attack." Faster than Kazes eyes could follow, Mightyena had slammed into Bruiser and fainted the large machoke.
"Umm, this is not good," Ryan said, stating the obvious.
Kaze sighed and leapt at the rocket trainer, drawing her sword while in the air. The trainer's eyes went wide as he realized what Kaze intended to do, but it didn't really matter. A split second later Kaze severed his head from the rest of his body with a quick flick of her blade. Mightyena let out a howl and turned to charge at Kaze, but Kaze just picked up its pokeball from its dead trainer's body and recalled it.
"You just...you just..." Ryan seemed incapable of finishing the sentence.
"Him or us, kid," Kaze said. "I voted us. You two have potions for your pokemon?"
"Yeah," Rio said. Kaze noted that she didn't seem too phased. A little shaken, but not unbelievably so. She must have had run-ins with higher level Team Rocket agents before. Rio opened her pack and pulled out two revives and two super potions.
She tossed one of each to Ryan and used the others on Nightrunner. Ryan caught them, mostly through reflex it seemed, and went to apply them to his pokemon. Kaze wiped her blade on the grass to clean it, then got the other pokeballs from the rocket.
"What're you gonna do with them?" Rio asked.
"Leave them anonymously at the Saffron police station with a note explaining that they used to belong to a rocket level two agent. They'll handle it from there. We should get moving. He might have brought friends, and I'd prefer not to meet them."
The pair nodded and Ryan recalled Bruiser. "Nightrunner, follow us in shadow and make sure no darks are tracing us. If you see any, don't fight them, revert to here and warn us immediately," ordered Rio. Nightrunner nodded and melted into the shadows.
"Espeon, you keep an active scan on the surrounding area. I'd like to know of any others before we meet them."
Will do, Kaze.
The four set off toward Saffron in silence, trailed through shadow by Nightrunner.
Post-Fic Author's Notes:
Review ^_^
I have chapter five written too, but I'm still editing it and I wanna have chapter six at least partially written before I post five.