I do not own Pokémon.
But I do own Vincent, and all the other characters that doesn't appear in
the game
If you want to use Vincent or any of the other characters, you have got to
have my permission
A Grey life Chapter 15: Rough Start
You should know these things before reading my story
" " people speaking
( ) a persons thoughts
DJ slammed her cell phone shut - ending the conversation with the producer of the reality show that she was certain would claim her sanity. It wasn't the subject of the show. Nor was it the hard work of both filming and being the show host.
It was the main character of the show that would make her go mad. Vincent Grey. After only two hours he had already pissed her off and caused her to want to call the whole thing off. She had never been so wrong about a person in her life. At first sight he looked like another potential boyfriend being very cute and having one hell of a body. But she thought he might be a little slow underneath all that muscle. Many guys were like that. Now she thought very differently. She thought he was rude and arrogant. And she still wasn't sure whether or not he was slow but she definitely didn't think he was smart.
She walked back to the rude little prick determined not to let him know how much she wanted to leave. She held her head high and imagined her success when the six months had gone. She had a job and she would do it as damn well se could.
She sat down on the log beside the one Vincent sat on, leaving half of the log-square around the fire to the Pokémon that could use them. Meaning Slate-who had stopped glaring at her-Marowak and Scyther. But to DJ-who was inexperienced with Pokémon besides Fearow, they were 'the big one', 'the short one with the bone' and 'the green one with bigass claws'.
"Come to say goodbye?" Vincent started to give out bowls of food to all of the Pokémon.
"No." She said very shortly. "I'll stay and do this job until the end. I just called to see if there were any changes."
(Damn she's stubborn. But so am I! We'll see who breaks first!) Don't challenge guys like Vincent to anything. They'll do whatever they can to win.
"They have changed the name of the show after your last name. It's called 'A Grey Life' now."
(Then I'll make it more gray than they can imagine... It'll go to history as the most boring TV show the world has ever seen. Then they'll tear up that contract.) Vincent thought as he stared into his food.
"Is there enough for me as well?"
Vincent extended his hand and gruffed "Bowl" which sent DJ over to her bag and came back with a green camping-plate kit. Never used because it still had the pricetag on and it was covered in plastic.
Vincent was handed a plate that he quickly slapped some 'food' on and gave back to DJ.
"What is this?!" She held the plate with both hands and blankly stared at whatever was on it was called.
Vincent swallowed what he had in his mouth and answered while he was readying another spoonful. "Food."
DJ sniffed at it and scrunched her face. "The HELL it is!"
Vincent set down his spoon with a loud 'clank' and looked at DJ. "Look now, woman. That's oatmeal with extra protein powder. It isn't alive or anything and it wont bite you. So either be quiet and eat or make your own food." He went back to loudly stuffing his face with the oatmeal.
She poked the gel-like glob around a little before tipping the food back into the pot where Vincent took it from. "I need to loose some weight anyway..." she said only to explain herself to Vincent's glares.
Vincent extended his entire arm at her bags "Get your things. Now."
With lack of anything better to do and not wanting to fight with Vincent again, she got the three heavy bags and placed them with a loud 'thud' between her own and Vincent's log. He grabbed the one closest to him - her backpack - opened all the zippers and turned it upside down, dumping everything on the ground. He then sat down and threw some things over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?!"
When he didn't say anything, she stood up and went to get the things he had thrown behind him. Vincent saw this and before she could react he had stood up, picked her up like a bag of paper, hung her over his right shoulder and promptly sat her back down on the log.
"Sit!" DJ was far too surprised and shocked to do anything but sit and stare at him with her mouth slightly open. Vincent went back to her things.
"Close your mouth. You are attracting flies."
She snapped out of it. What the hell do you think you're doing?! Answer me!"
"I'm helping you woman! If you walk around with this much shit you are going to end up with a busted back and a bad neck! ...besides, you look really stupid lugging around three obviously too heavy bags." As he said that, he picked up a pink thong and looked at it cluelessly.
DJ immediately raced over and grabbed it, saying "Then at least let me keep the things most important!"
"Ok." He looked up at her from where he was seated and pointed to the thong in her hand "That important?"
"Argh! Let ME do it! Go away!" And so he did. With a large smirk.
"Just so you know, you need to dump at least half of your shit to even stand a chance of keeping up with me tomorrow." Vincent said, walking away towards his bag
"Half of my things?! I can't do that! I'll need this stuff!"
"Of course you will... Everyone needs two different frying pans when you're going to walk most of the day in places where there are no ovens!"
"Yeah... one regular and a wok..."
"And you will definitely need three cans of bugspray?"
"Well there ARE bugs here!"
Vincent sighed "You do whatever the hell you want. But if I were you I would lose one of the sidebags. Both actually."
As much as she didn't want to admit it, he was probably right. It had been difficult to walk with all the things she had. She would repack and try to get rid of one bag. The other held her camera. So she started to repack her things into the big backpack again. This time she left some of the more unimportant things only to be replaced with tapes or whatever had been in the sidebag. She left her sleeping bag and pillow outside because when she was done it was nearly dark and she felt the drowsiness descend upon her.
She turned around and saw Vincent standing on his hands with his feet against the trunk of a tree, doing slow pushups. The exercise seemed to be very strenuous because of the effort Vincent appeared to put in. She noticed that he no longer had hair in his armpits.
"You shaved." Vincent just grunted in response and continued with his exercise.
She crossed her arms and leaned her weight on her right leg. "I think you should know what is supposed to happen yesterday."
Vincent stopped on his way down "I don't really care what is supposed to happen yesterday but if you feel like it means a lot to you, go for it. I can't guarantee I will listen though."
She took a few deep breaths only to keep herself from kicking him in the head. "I'll start filming as soon as we start walking and I, as the show host, will talk to you and ask you some questions that you, according to contract, are obliged to answer in the best way possible."
Vincent quickened his pace and did five more pushups. On the last one, he pushed as hard as he could, went up in the air a bit and landed on his feet. He turned around and walked for his backpack, not looking at her. "Sure. Whatever you say, woman."
She clenched her fists and stomped her foot down. "Stop calling me woman! It's not nice! Either Diane or DJ!"
Vincent pulled put his sleeping bag and unrolled it. "I don't want to talk to you anymore than I have to. Go to sleep." He took off his torn beige pants and noticed DJ staring at his... midsection. "What?! You never seen a pair of boxers before?"
"Sure I have. Just not a pair that I reckon would fall apart if you even look at them!" Sure, his blue sport boxers had some holes and had been efficiently used... scratch that. VERY efficiently used.
"Mind your own business!" he got in his sleeping bag, back down and his arms behind his head staring at the sky.
"Turn over."
"What?" he said, turning his head to the left, looking at her.
"Turn over! I don't want to undress so that you can see it!"
"I have no interest in seeing you undress! Besides, it's almost dark."
"Turn over!" she raised her voice that time.
"Ok fine..." he turned his back towards her and heard the frantic pulling of clothes and her sleeping bag.
"Are you done yet?!"
"Yes. Aren't you supposed to put away your Pokémon before going to sleep?"
"Do you want me to?"
"Yes... They might attack me in my sleep!" her voice was weak and Vincent, who still had his back towards her, could hear that she pulled the sleeping bag closer around her.
(Weakling woman...)
"Then they stay out." It didn't matter what she said. He would just try to annoy and irritate her as much as he could. He had done that the entire evening after he got back from the swim with Kingler.
"But I might get killed in my sleep!"
"No you won't! They are all very loyal and they wouldn't hurt you unless I told them to!" he paused a little for effect. "Except Scyther. He might do something. Now be quiet! I'm trying to sleep."
And so the night went on and made way for a new day. Some slept and some did not. You are all intelligent people so I'll let you guess who slept and who did not... The new day that dawned was not cloudfree with a large sun in the middle of the sky. No, the sky was filled with black clouds emptying water at the land below. Much to a certain camerawomans frustration. And that frustration came out verbally. And it came out very often. Much to a certain trainers frustration.
"YES! I have noticed that it rains!" He turned around again, away from DJ and her big camera. "Deal with it. I do."
"There you have it people. He said it himself. Whatever mother nature throws at him, he deals with it. Rain, hail the size of tennis balls, blizzards, incredible heat. It doesn't matter. He is a Pokémon trainer. He deals with it."
Vincent just rolled his eyes and balled his hands into fists. It sounded so stupid that she was talking like that. And it felt really weird having that bigass camera aimed at him all the time. He had woken up with it one foot from his face. He surely wasn't used to that so he was just a moment from punching it in self-defence. Then he realized what it was. And his urge to punch it grew larger.
Rain had started to fall moments after he had thrown his bag on his back that morning. He didn't mind it. It suited perfectly to the way he felt. And he didn't exactly become happier when DJ started to introduce him and asking him annoying questions like how long he had trained Pokémon, how long he had been on his own and all that other stuff so that people knew more about him. He thought it was both unnecessary and a little unnerving that many people who he had never seen would know things about him that only he had known before.
"So Vincent? She got up to his left side and filmed his profile. "Where are we headed today?"
"We are going to a town called Afollville. It's not far from here. Only about 13 miles." AN: Afoll is pronounced Ei-Fall
"And what are you going to do in Afollville? Challenge a Gym leader perhaps?"
Vincent just stared ahead, trying to ignore the camera as best as he could. "No. Afollville is a small town so it doesn't have a Gym."
"Then what are you going to do there?" She circled around so that she was directly in front of him, making him stop walking.
Vincent let out a sigh of frustration "If you must know, I am going to heal my Pokémon and exchange them for some of my other ones." He walked around her and watched as a bolt of lightning fell from the sky followed immediately with the roll of thunder.
(We are directly under the bad weather...) He looked at the nearby trees to see from where the wind blew. (The wind is blowing to our backs. That means we are walking with the rain. Not against it. Good. Then it'll rain on us as much as possible and if I am lucky, the camera will break.) A sly smile spread across his face.
The rain started to fall even harder, making his hair stuck to his forehead. He looked back at DJ who pulled what looked like to be a see- through raincoat out of her lonely sidebag.
"It's no use. You'll get wet anyway!" he screamed over the heavy rain.
"It's not for me." She lifted the camera off her shoulder and started to dress it in the covering plastic.
(Damn it! I have to be the unluckiest person in the world!) He started to walk away from her. He wished he never had met her. Or that he had never won that stupid fucking price anyway. It made him so mad he clenched both his lips and hands and just wanted to get as far away from her as possible.
"Vincent! Wait!" He heard her. But he didn't want to listen. He just focused on the sickening sound of his feet walking through mud and the occasional thunderclap. Damn woman. Having to come and mess up his life when he might have been able to finally go home.
He would walk on the narrow path as far as he could go. He would walk until she was so tired she couldn't possibly move no longer. Then he would continue walking just to make sure she would never find him again.
But Vincent suddenly stopped. He wasn't on a narrow path anymore. The path had evolved into a circular opening in the middle of the forest. About fifteen feet across with no exit. Vincent's eyes, that a few seconds ago had been glaring, were now wide open and frantically looking around to maybe verify what he was thinking. He looked back at the path from which he came and just now noticed that it had a constant line of grass in the middle. Like a very small vehicle had driven there. There was no or very little grass were Vincent stood and the trees standing closest to the clearing were either dead or on the ground, broken by the lower part of the stem.
"Vincent! You can't do that! You have to wait for me to be able to film you!" DJ came jogging from the path and stopped at the entrance at the clearing.
He didn't turn around "Be quiet woman!" Instead, he looked down on the ground. And what he saw caused his eyes to widen and his heart to pound like a sledgehammer. He was standing on numerous footprints the size of his hand with two noticeably short but very thick claws at the front. His heart was in is throat when he saw there was at least one pair of footprints the size of his head. On these, the claws were much bigger.
"Dammit Vincent! Stop calling me woman! It's really degrading! And just so you know, I am turning on the came-" She could not continue shouting because Vincent had his hand on her mouth. Normally she would have resisted but she didn't this time. The short time she had been with Vincent, his eyes had either shown annoyance, irritation or white-hot anger. What she saw now was something she had never expected to see in him.
Fear.
"I'll call you whatever you want as long as you stay quiet."
At first she just thought it was another thunderclap. It was when the ground started to rumble that she realized it was something else.
Vincent felt it as well and quickly turned around.
"We have to run!" DJ said as she turned around, camera rolling.
"We won't get far!" and with a swift motion, he had gathered up his six capture balls from his belt and tossed them. The six flashes illuminated the dark area as the six fighters took their respective form. Both Vincent and DJ watched as the forest was brutally tossed aside in front of them. Beside of the rumble of the thing coming at them, they could hear and see trees and branches snapping like mere twigs. They saw there was something coming at them. Something fast. Something big.
"Get ready!" the Pokémon were just as observant and got in their battle positions to brace themselves from whatever came out of that forest. The rumble increased along the violent shakings of the ground as the thing got closer. Vincent looked down on one dry spot beneath a tree and could see pebbles jumping up and down more violently with each passing second.
(This is bad...)
And with a mighty roar, the last tree was pulled from the ground by its roots and made way for three gray, heavily armoured Pokémon charging madly into the clearing where DJ, Vincent and the Pokémon were. The Rhyhorns didn't even stop charging, only took sight and lowered their horns at the three Pokémon in the center. Slate, Fearow and Jolteon.
(Shit! They have no chance!)
"Get out of the way!" He had seen Rhyhorns in battle before and he knew that once they had gained speed, it was nearly impossible for something to stop them. Sure, maybe some of the heavier Pokémon stood a chance like Golem or Snorlax. But Vincent's current Pokémon were far too light to be able to stop the Rhyhorns in their tracks.
But he said it too late. Jolteon was tossed aside like a rag doll by the one on the left and was flung straight over its massive head only to land in the mud a few feet back, knocked out cold. Fearow managed to take flight just as the one in the middle charged it and Slate managed to give the one on the right a kick punch with both his left arms before attempting to sidestep. But the Rhyhorn rammed into his leg and caused him to slam into the muddy ground face first.
Now that the Pokémon were out of the way, they took sight of Vincent and a few steps behind him, DJ.
(Dammit!) Right after Slate had fallen to the ground, everything went in slow motion for him. He turned around and grabbed DJ by the shoulders, lifted her up a bit over the ground and threw her to the side as far and hard as he could. She landed in the mud and skidded a bit and hit her back hard against a tree. Amazingly enough she still held the camera out of harms way and still rolling. Vincent couldn't help but notice that she really was very professional. But he definitely didn't have time to think about her anymore. He had three Rhyhorns charging at him very fast with intent to either knock him down and run him over or throw him to the side. Either way, he had to get out of there.
The Rhyhorn in the middle took aim on him and ran even faster, breaking free from the other two. When it was a few feet away from Vincent, he had just thrown DJ to the side and was turning around like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Acting on pure reflexes, Vincent jumped in the air and dove for the ground behind the Rhyhorn. When the Rhyhorn reached the place where Vincent had just jumped from, it thrust its head up in the air like it did on Jolteon. But instead of flinging him up in the air, it rammed its horn into Vincent's right foot.
As he went through the air, pain jolted from his foot into his entire body, spreading with the speed of lightning. He landed on the slippery ground with hands first, rolling over and quickly clutching his wounded foot as he gained balance again.
DJ was positioned against the tree Vincent threw her at and filmed the entire scene. She held the camera steady like she was used to. In it, she saw Vincent holding his foot with a very strained expression on his face. He took his hand from it and looked at it for a few seconds. During these seconds, she saw and filmed the Rhyhorns who had abruptly stopped and turned around, readying for another charge. She turned the camera back against Vincent. After looking at his hand, he pressed his lips together and glared at the heavily breathing Rhyhorns.
He then extended his arm, hand bloody, at them. "Get em!!" Instantly the Pokémon, save for Jolteon, charged the Rhyhorns who were still not moving. Slate took the lead, fists clenched and pissed for having his face in the mud earlier, he unleashed a flurry of punches against the middle Rhyhorn while Kingler took the one on the left and Marowak and Scyther took the one on the right. Fearow couldn't really do much but it was trying by flying over them and pecking at their backs with little effect.
"Will you stop filming and get over here?!" DJ turned the camera from the ongoing battle to Vincent who had gotten up on his good foot and was trying to keep as much weight off the other as possible. She got up from the ground and jogged over to Vincent, away from the battle. On the way over, she first walked backwards and filmed the battle. But when she turned around to film Vincent, her face went pale.
Vincent, who still was pissed because of his hurting foot, looked at DJ who wasn't looking into the camera for once. Instead she was looking past him and up at something.
Vincent followed her eyes and turned around only to see a gray, plated belly. He looked up at a broad, dark head with two blazing eyes staring him down. The horn on its head was long, thick and patterned a little like an electric drill. The huge Rhydon reared its large head back and emitted a high pitched, challenging roar from deep within that would most certainly have set the bravest men on their way home to mommy.
Incredibly fast for something so big, the Rhydon whammed its left arm into Vincent, sending him flying a good five feet into a thick tree with his back first. The blow had done more than just knocked the wind out of him. When the Rhydon hit him, he could feel at least three of his ribs breaking and the hard impact on the tree dazed him. He fell to the ground, coughing and spitting out a little blood trying desperately trying to force air into his lungs.
He clutched his side and cringed whenever he gasped for air because of the overwhelming pain he felt both from the very new blow to his ribs and the renewing pain when mud and rainwater touched the wound on his foot. The blood he spat up quickly dissolved in the rainwater and mud that Vincent was laying in. It was now he realized that they might really be in trouble. Three Rhyhorns. One Rhydon. Five Pokémon left to protect them. Three that was able to do any noticeable damage. Scyther couldn't do much to the Rhyhorns thick armour and Fearows desperate pecks still had no effect.
"Help me!" And one completely defenceless camerawoman up against a Rhydon. Yes, they might be in trouble.
Vincent pushed himself off the ground, ignoring the pain, and stood up.
The Rhydon was advancing on DJ who still had the camera rolling on her shoulder whilst she backed away from the huge creature. It raised its arm over its head, ready to deliver a blow straight down on her. She quickly closed her eyes and got ready for it.
"AAARGH!" With a mighty cry from the top of his lungs, Vincent threw himself in between DJ and the Rhydon, punching it with all he could straight to the jaw, forcing its head to the side. However, his blow had little effect except confusing it for a second. Instead of hitting DJ, the Rhyhorn now slammed its arm into Vincent's other side, breaking more of his ribs. He slid a few feet and came to a stop lying on his side, head down in the dirt. He heard and felt the heavy footsteps of the Rhydon walking up to him, aiming for him instead of DJ.
"Heh heh..." He coughed up some blood that trickled down his cheek. "You are in so much trouble now." His voice was raspy and his foot, his ribs and now his right hand hurt like hell. But he still managed a sly smirk against the large Pokémon. A second later, a pair of powerful hands gripped around the Rhydons thick neck, lifting it up. Vincent heard Slates other two arms delivering blow after blow on the Rhydon, ending the abuse and revenge with swinging it around and throwing it straight into the woods, forcing it to break several trees before coming to a halt, completely knocked out.
His world became darker and darker. Not feeling the cool rain hitting him, washing away the mud. Neither did he feel any more pain. He just felt very tired. So he closed his eyes and let the darkness overcome him.
A/N:
I do not know why but I am actually kind of proud over this chapter. It might be that I am so pleased with myself only because I figured out that whole even with the Rhyhorns and Rhydon. Hey, wack me over the head if you think I am wrong but let me be happy over the little things! Anyway, I have figured out the storyline for most of the chapters now and all I need I the determination and the ability to write them in the best way possible. We'll see how that goes. People, I know I have been making excuse over excuse as to why I am not pumping out chapters faster. Here's another one. A very true one at that: I am a seventeen year old guy. A guy who earned money last year and got used to having it. But money is not forever. I learned that the hard way. So I am working at a theme park at the moment to earn money for clothes, sweets, parties, liquor, you get the picture. And to add to the misery, I train a couple times a week with both shooting and strength. Most of the time, I put my training ahead of my writing. Those reasons hinder me from writing as much as I want to.
That, and I am a lazy bastard who could use a slap in the face.
The Duke Of Briarcliffe: There never were any hateful mails from me and probably never will be. So don't worry about that.
Inferno719: Like I said in the mail I sent you, I had already thought about and decided to use that scenario. I like the way you think, Inferno.
Lunar Heart: Thank you for your reviews. They make me feel happy and...giddy? No. Not giddy. That sounds like something a little girl would feel. I'll leave it at happy.
KaiserEXE: 'Pure genius?' That was a new one. ^^ But thank you. It really means a lot. Hey, give me your e-mail and I will send you a mail whenever a new chapter is posted, ok?
Duo: Thank you for the help with the title. I was in a total meltdown...
Now people, review and tell me what you thought! ^^
Yorun out.
A Grey life Chapter 15: Rough Start
You should know these things before reading my story
" " people speaking
( ) a persons thoughts
DJ slammed her cell phone shut - ending the conversation with the producer of the reality show that she was certain would claim her sanity. It wasn't the subject of the show. Nor was it the hard work of both filming and being the show host.
It was the main character of the show that would make her go mad. Vincent Grey. After only two hours he had already pissed her off and caused her to want to call the whole thing off. She had never been so wrong about a person in her life. At first sight he looked like another potential boyfriend being very cute and having one hell of a body. But she thought he might be a little slow underneath all that muscle. Many guys were like that. Now she thought very differently. She thought he was rude and arrogant. And she still wasn't sure whether or not he was slow but she definitely didn't think he was smart.
She walked back to the rude little prick determined not to let him know how much she wanted to leave. She held her head high and imagined her success when the six months had gone. She had a job and she would do it as damn well se could.
She sat down on the log beside the one Vincent sat on, leaving half of the log-square around the fire to the Pokémon that could use them. Meaning Slate-who had stopped glaring at her-Marowak and Scyther. But to DJ-who was inexperienced with Pokémon besides Fearow, they were 'the big one', 'the short one with the bone' and 'the green one with bigass claws'.
"Come to say goodbye?" Vincent started to give out bowls of food to all of the Pokémon.
"No." She said very shortly. "I'll stay and do this job until the end. I just called to see if there were any changes."
(Damn she's stubborn. But so am I! We'll see who breaks first!) Don't challenge guys like Vincent to anything. They'll do whatever they can to win.
"They have changed the name of the show after your last name. It's called 'A Grey Life' now."
(Then I'll make it more gray than they can imagine... It'll go to history as the most boring TV show the world has ever seen. Then they'll tear up that contract.) Vincent thought as he stared into his food.
"Is there enough for me as well?"
Vincent extended his hand and gruffed "Bowl" which sent DJ over to her bag and came back with a green camping-plate kit. Never used because it still had the pricetag on and it was covered in plastic.
Vincent was handed a plate that he quickly slapped some 'food' on and gave back to DJ.
"What is this?!" She held the plate with both hands and blankly stared at whatever was on it was called.
Vincent swallowed what he had in his mouth and answered while he was readying another spoonful. "Food."
DJ sniffed at it and scrunched her face. "The HELL it is!"
Vincent set down his spoon with a loud 'clank' and looked at DJ. "Look now, woman. That's oatmeal with extra protein powder. It isn't alive or anything and it wont bite you. So either be quiet and eat or make your own food." He went back to loudly stuffing his face with the oatmeal.
She poked the gel-like glob around a little before tipping the food back into the pot where Vincent took it from. "I need to loose some weight anyway..." she said only to explain herself to Vincent's glares.
Vincent extended his entire arm at her bags "Get your things. Now."
With lack of anything better to do and not wanting to fight with Vincent again, she got the three heavy bags and placed them with a loud 'thud' between her own and Vincent's log. He grabbed the one closest to him - her backpack - opened all the zippers and turned it upside down, dumping everything on the ground. He then sat down and threw some things over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?!"
When he didn't say anything, she stood up and went to get the things he had thrown behind him. Vincent saw this and before she could react he had stood up, picked her up like a bag of paper, hung her over his right shoulder and promptly sat her back down on the log.
"Sit!" DJ was far too surprised and shocked to do anything but sit and stare at him with her mouth slightly open. Vincent went back to her things.
"Close your mouth. You are attracting flies."
She snapped out of it. What the hell do you think you're doing?! Answer me!"
"I'm helping you woman! If you walk around with this much shit you are going to end up with a busted back and a bad neck! ...besides, you look really stupid lugging around three obviously too heavy bags." As he said that, he picked up a pink thong and looked at it cluelessly.
DJ immediately raced over and grabbed it, saying "Then at least let me keep the things most important!"
"Ok." He looked up at her from where he was seated and pointed to the thong in her hand "That important?"
"Argh! Let ME do it! Go away!" And so he did. With a large smirk.
"Just so you know, you need to dump at least half of your shit to even stand a chance of keeping up with me tomorrow." Vincent said, walking away towards his bag
"Half of my things?! I can't do that! I'll need this stuff!"
"Of course you will... Everyone needs two different frying pans when you're going to walk most of the day in places where there are no ovens!"
"Yeah... one regular and a wok..."
"And you will definitely need three cans of bugspray?"
"Well there ARE bugs here!"
Vincent sighed "You do whatever the hell you want. But if I were you I would lose one of the sidebags. Both actually."
As much as she didn't want to admit it, he was probably right. It had been difficult to walk with all the things she had. She would repack and try to get rid of one bag. The other held her camera. So she started to repack her things into the big backpack again. This time she left some of the more unimportant things only to be replaced with tapes or whatever had been in the sidebag. She left her sleeping bag and pillow outside because when she was done it was nearly dark and she felt the drowsiness descend upon her.
She turned around and saw Vincent standing on his hands with his feet against the trunk of a tree, doing slow pushups. The exercise seemed to be very strenuous because of the effort Vincent appeared to put in. She noticed that he no longer had hair in his armpits.
"You shaved." Vincent just grunted in response and continued with his exercise.
She crossed her arms and leaned her weight on her right leg. "I think you should know what is supposed to happen yesterday."
Vincent stopped on his way down "I don't really care what is supposed to happen yesterday but if you feel like it means a lot to you, go for it. I can't guarantee I will listen though."
She took a few deep breaths only to keep herself from kicking him in the head. "I'll start filming as soon as we start walking and I, as the show host, will talk to you and ask you some questions that you, according to contract, are obliged to answer in the best way possible."
Vincent quickened his pace and did five more pushups. On the last one, he pushed as hard as he could, went up in the air a bit and landed on his feet. He turned around and walked for his backpack, not looking at her. "Sure. Whatever you say, woman."
She clenched her fists and stomped her foot down. "Stop calling me woman! It's not nice! Either Diane or DJ!"
Vincent pulled put his sleeping bag and unrolled it. "I don't want to talk to you anymore than I have to. Go to sleep." He took off his torn beige pants and noticed DJ staring at his... midsection. "What?! You never seen a pair of boxers before?"
"Sure I have. Just not a pair that I reckon would fall apart if you even look at them!" Sure, his blue sport boxers had some holes and had been efficiently used... scratch that. VERY efficiently used.
"Mind your own business!" he got in his sleeping bag, back down and his arms behind his head staring at the sky.
"Turn over."
"What?" he said, turning his head to the left, looking at her.
"Turn over! I don't want to undress so that you can see it!"
"I have no interest in seeing you undress! Besides, it's almost dark."
"Turn over!" she raised her voice that time.
"Ok fine..." he turned his back towards her and heard the frantic pulling of clothes and her sleeping bag.
"Are you done yet?!"
"Yes. Aren't you supposed to put away your Pokémon before going to sleep?"
"Do you want me to?"
"Yes... They might attack me in my sleep!" her voice was weak and Vincent, who still had his back towards her, could hear that she pulled the sleeping bag closer around her.
(Weakling woman...)
"Then they stay out." It didn't matter what she said. He would just try to annoy and irritate her as much as he could. He had done that the entire evening after he got back from the swim with Kingler.
"But I might get killed in my sleep!"
"No you won't! They are all very loyal and they wouldn't hurt you unless I told them to!" he paused a little for effect. "Except Scyther. He might do something. Now be quiet! I'm trying to sleep."
And so the night went on and made way for a new day. Some slept and some did not. You are all intelligent people so I'll let you guess who slept and who did not... The new day that dawned was not cloudfree with a large sun in the middle of the sky. No, the sky was filled with black clouds emptying water at the land below. Much to a certain camerawomans frustration. And that frustration came out verbally. And it came out very often. Much to a certain trainers frustration.
"YES! I have noticed that it rains!" He turned around again, away from DJ and her big camera. "Deal with it. I do."
"There you have it people. He said it himself. Whatever mother nature throws at him, he deals with it. Rain, hail the size of tennis balls, blizzards, incredible heat. It doesn't matter. He is a Pokémon trainer. He deals with it."
Vincent just rolled his eyes and balled his hands into fists. It sounded so stupid that she was talking like that. And it felt really weird having that bigass camera aimed at him all the time. He had woken up with it one foot from his face. He surely wasn't used to that so he was just a moment from punching it in self-defence. Then he realized what it was. And his urge to punch it grew larger.
Rain had started to fall moments after he had thrown his bag on his back that morning. He didn't mind it. It suited perfectly to the way he felt. And he didn't exactly become happier when DJ started to introduce him and asking him annoying questions like how long he had trained Pokémon, how long he had been on his own and all that other stuff so that people knew more about him. He thought it was both unnecessary and a little unnerving that many people who he had never seen would know things about him that only he had known before.
"So Vincent? She got up to his left side and filmed his profile. "Where are we headed today?"
"We are going to a town called Afollville. It's not far from here. Only about 13 miles." AN: Afoll is pronounced Ei-Fall
"And what are you going to do in Afollville? Challenge a Gym leader perhaps?"
Vincent just stared ahead, trying to ignore the camera as best as he could. "No. Afollville is a small town so it doesn't have a Gym."
"Then what are you going to do there?" She circled around so that she was directly in front of him, making him stop walking.
Vincent let out a sigh of frustration "If you must know, I am going to heal my Pokémon and exchange them for some of my other ones." He walked around her and watched as a bolt of lightning fell from the sky followed immediately with the roll of thunder.
(We are directly under the bad weather...) He looked at the nearby trees to see from where the wind blew. (The wind is blowing to our backs. That means we are walking with the rain. Not against it. Good. Then it'll rain on us as much as possible and if I am lucky, the camera will break.) A sly smile spread across his face.
The rain started to fall even harder, making his hair stuck to his forehead. He looked back at DJ who pulled what looked like to be a see- through raincoat out of her lonely sidebag.
"It's no use. You'll get wet anyway!" he screamed over the heavy rain.
"It's not for me." She lifted the camera off her shoulder and started to dress it in the covering plastic.
(Damn it! I have to be the unluckiest person in the world!) He started to walk away from her. He wished he never had met her. Or that he had never won that stupid fucking price anyway. It made him so mad he clenched both his lips and hands and just wanted to get as far away from her as possible.
"Vincent! Wait!" He heard her. But he didn't want to listen. He just focused on the sickening sound of his feet walking through mud and the occasional thunderclap. Damn woman. Having to come and mess up his life when he might have been able to finally go home.
He would walk on the narrow path as far as he could go. He would walk until she was so tired she couldn't possibly move no longer. Then he would continue walking just to make sure she would never find him again.
But Vincent suddenly stopped. He wasn't on a narrow path anymore. The path had evolved into a circular opening in the middle of the forest. About fifteen feet across with no exit. Vincent's eyes, that a few seconds ago had been glaring, were now wide open and frantically looking around to maybe verify what he was thinking. He looked back at the path from which he came and just now noticed that it had a constant line of grass in the middle. Like a very small vehicle had driven there. There was no or very little grass were Vincent stood and the trees standing closest to the clearing were either dead or on the ground, broken by the lower part of the stem.
"Vincent! You can't do that! You have to wait for me to be able to film you!" DJ came jogging from the path and stopped at the entrance at the clearing.
He didn't turn around "Be quiet woman!" Instead, he looked down on the ground. And what he saw caused his eyes to widen and his heart to pound like a sledgehammer. He was standing on numerous footprints the size of his hand with two noticeably short but very thick claws at the front. His heart was in is throat when he saw there was at least one pair of footprints the size of his head. On these, the claws were much bigger.
"Dammit Vincent! Stop calling me woman! It's really degrading! And just so you know, I am turning on the came-" She could not continue shouting because Vincent had his hand on her mouth. Normally she would have resisted but she didn't this time. The short time she had been with Vincent, his eyes had either shown annoyance, irritation or white-hot anger. What she saw now was something she had never expected to see in him.
Fear.
"I'll call you whatever you want as long as you stay quiet."
At first she just thought it was another thunderclap. It was when the ground started to rumble that she realized it was something else.
Vincent felt it as well and quickly turned around.
"We have to run!" DJ said as she turned around, camera rolling.
"We won't get far!" and with a swift motion, he had gathered up his six capture balls from his belt and tossed them. The six flashes illuminated the dark area as the six fighters took their respective form. Both Vincent and DJ watched as the forest was brutally tossed aside in front of them. Beside of the rumble of the thing coming at them, they could hear and see trees and branches snapping like mere twigs. They saw there was something coming at them. Something fast. Something big.
"Get ready!" the Pokémon were just as observant and got in their battle positions to brace themselves from whatever came out of that forest. The rumble increased along the violent shakings of the ground as the thing got closer. Vincent looked down on one dry spot beneath a tree and could see pebbles jumping up and down more violently with each passing second.
(This is bad...)
And with a mighty roar, the last tree was pulled from the ground by its roots and made way for three gray, heavily armoured Pokémon charging madly into the clearing where DJ, Vincent and the Pokémon were. The Rhyhorns didn't even stop charging, only took sight and lowered their horns at the three Pokémon in the center. Slate, Fearow and Jolteon.
(Shit! They have no chance!)
"Get out of the way!" He had seen Rhyhorns in battle before and he knew that once they had gained speed, it was nearly impossible for something to stop them. Sure, maybe some of the heavier Pokémon stood a chance like Golem or Snorlax. But Vincent's current Pokémon were far too light to be able to stop the Rhyhorns in their tracks.
But he said it too late. Jolteon was tossed aside like a rag doll by the one on the left and was flung straight over its massive head only to land in the mud a few feet back, knocked out cold. Fearow managed to take flight just as the one in the middle charged it and Slate managed to give the one on the right a kick punch with both his left arms before attempting to sidestep. But the Rhyhorn rammed into his leg and caused him to slam into the muddy ground face first.
Now that the Pokémon were out of the way, they took sight of Vincent and a few steps behind him, DJ.
(Dammit!) Right after Slate had fallen to the ground, everything went in slow motion for him. He turned around and grabbed DJ by the shoulders, lifted her up a bit over the ground and threw her to the side as far and hard as he could. She landed in the mud and skidded a bit and hit her back hard against a tree. Amazingly enough she still held the camera out of harms way and still rolling. Vincent couldn't help but notice that she really was very professional. But he definitely didn't have time to think about her anymore. He had three Rhyhorns charging at him very fast with intent to either knock him down and run him over or throw him to the side. Either way, he had to get out of there.
The Rhyhorn in the middle took aim on him and ran even faster, breaking free from the other two. When it was a few feet away from Vincent, he had just thrown DJ to the side and was turning around like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Acting on pure reflexes, Vincent jumped in the air and dove for the ground behind the Rhyhorn. When the Rhyhorn reached the place where Vincent had just jumped from, it thrust its head up in the air like it did on Jolteon. But instead of flinging him up in the air, it rammed its horn into Vincent's right foot.
As he went through the air, pain jolted from his foot into his entire body, spreading with the speed of lightning. He landed on the slippery ground with hands first, rolling over and quickly clutching his wounded foot as he gained balance again.
DJ was positioned against the tree Vincent threw her at and filmed the entire scene. She held the camera steady like she was used to. In it, she saw Vincent holding his foot with a very strained expression on his face. He took his hand from it and looked at it for a few seconds. During these seconds, she saw and filmed the Rhyhorns who had abruptly stopped and turned around, readying for another charge. She turned the camera back against Vincent. After looking at his hand, he pressed his lips together and glared at the heavily breathing Rhyhorns.
He then extended his arm, hand bloody, at them. "Get em!!" Instantly the Pokémon, save for Jolteon, charged the Rhyhorns who were still not moving. Slate took the lead, fists clenched and pissed for having his face in the mud earlier, he unleashed a flurry of punches against the middle Rhyhorn while Kingler took the one on the left and Marowak and Scyther took the one on the right. Fearow couldn't really do much but it was trying by flying over them and pecking at their backs with little effect.
"Will you stop filming and get over here?!" DJ turned the camera from the ongoing battle to Vincent who had gotten up on his good foot and was trying to keep as much weight off the other as possible. She got up from the ground and jogged over to Vincent, away from the battle. On the way over, she first walked backwards and filmed the battle. But when she turned around to film Vincent, her face went pale.
Vincent, who still was pissed because of his hurting foot, looked at DJ who wasn't looking into the camera for once. Instead she was looking past him and up at something.
Vincent followed her eyes and turned around only to see a gray, plated belly. He looked up at a broad, dark head with two blazing eyes staring him down. The horn on its head was long, thick and patterned a little like an electric drill. The huge Rhydon reared its large head back and emitted a high pitched, challenging roar from deep within that would most certainly have set the bravest men on their way home to mommy.
Incredibly fast for something so big, the Rhydon whammed its left arm into Vincent, sending him flying a good five feet into a thick tree with his back first. The blow had done more than just knocked the wind out of him. When the Rhydon hit him, he could feel at least three of his ribs breaking and the hard impact on the tree dazed him. He fell to the ground, coughing and spitting out a little blood trying desperately trying to force air into his lungs.
He clutched his side and cringed whenever he gasped for air because of the overwhelming pain he felt both from the very new blow to his ribs and the renewing pain when mud and rainwater touched the wound on his foot. The blood he spat up quickly dissolved in the rainwater and mud that Vincent was laying in. It was now he realized that they might really be in trouble. Three Rhyhorns. One Rhydon. Five Pokémon left to protect them. Three that was able to do any noticeable damage. Scyther couldn't do much to the Rhyhorns thick armour and Fearows desperate pecks still had no effect.
"Help me!" And one completely defenceless camerawoman up against a Rhydon. Yes, they might be in trouble.
Vincent pushed himself off the ground, ignoring the pain, and stood up.
The Rhydon was advancing on DJ who still had the camera rolling on her shoulder whilst she backed away from the huge creature. It raised its arm over its head, ready to deliver a blow straight down on her. She quickly closed her eyes and got ready for it.
"AAARGH!" With a mighty cry from the top of his lungs, Vincent threw himself in between DJ and the Rhydon, punching it with all he could straight to the jaw, forcing its head to the side. However, his blow had little effect except confusing it for a second. Instead of hitting DJ, the Rhyhorn now slammed its arm into Vincent's other side, breaking more of his ribs. He slid a few feet and came to a stop lying on his side, head down in the dirt. He heard and felt the heavy footsteps of the Rhydon walking up to him, aiming for him instead of DJ.
"Heh heh..." He coughed up some blood that trickled down his cheek. "You are in so much trouble now." His voice was raspy and his foot, his ribs and now his right hand hurt like hell. But he still managed a sly smirk against the large Pokémon. A second later, a pair of powerful hands gripped around the Rhydons thick neck, lifting it up. Vincent heard Slates other two arms delivering blow after blow on the Rhydon, ending the abuse and revenge with swinging it around and throwing it straight into the woods, forcing it to break several trees before coming to a halt, completely knocked out.
His world became darker and darker. Not feeling the cool rain hitting him, washing away the mud. Neither did he feel any more pain. He just felt very tired. So he closed his eyes and let the darkness overcome him.
A/N:
I do not know why but I am actually kind of proud over this chapter. It might be that I am so pleased with myself only because I figured out that whole even with the Rhyhorns and Rhydon. Hey, wack me over the head if you think I am wrong but let me be happy over the little things! Anyway, I have figured out the storyline for most of the chapters now and all I need I the determination and the ability to write them in the best way possible. We'll see how that goes. People, I know I have been making excuse over excuse as to why I am not pumping out chapters faster. Here's another one. A very true one at that: I am a seventeen year old guy. A guy who earned money last year and got used to having it. But money is not forever. I learned that the hard way. So I am working at a theme park at the moment to earn money for clothes, sweets, parties, liquor, you get the picture. And to add to the misery, I train a couple times a week with both shooting and strength. Most of the time, I put my training ahead of my writing. Those reasons hinder me from writing as much as I want to.
That, and I am a lazy bastard who could use a slap in the face.
The Duke Of Briarcliffe: There never were any hateful mails from me and probably never will be. So don't worry about that.
Inferno719: Like I said in the mail I sent you, I had already thought about and decided to use that scenario. I like the way you think, Inferno.
Lunar Heart: Thank you for your reviews. They make me feel happy and...giddy? No. Not giddy. That sounds like something a little girl would feel. I'll leave it at happy.
KaiserEXE: 'Pure genius?' That was a new one. ^^ But thank you. It really means a lot. Hey, give me your e-mail and I will send you a mail whenever a new chapter is posted, ok?
Duo: Thank you for the help with the title. I was in a total meltdown...
Now people, review and tell me what you thought! ^^
Yorun out.