Chapter 2: The Start Of Something Big
It was morning by now, Tracey and Todd were walking out in the open only a few miles away from the town destination. It was dusk but you could see the town getting closer on the horizon. Just then a flock of people trampled them.
"Ah!" The two cowered until they were gone, then they stuck their heads up.
"What was that?" Tracy asked.
"Dunno, looked like a group of reporters or something."
"Really?" Tracey stood up and put his hands on his hips. "I wonder what got into them?"
They continued their way, the sun was up higher now, it was later morning by now when they reached the town. It was more or less empty until they came up to where a whole herd of people was surrounding one house up on a hill.
"I think we're a little late." Todd looked around.
"It's a rush, that loudmouth man, he must've blabbed it to the whole world!"
"What exactly did he tell you?"
"I told you! He told me to look beyond what I see."
"So, maybe you're supposed to look beyond this town?"
"Hmm, maybe I'm supposed to look beyond this town." Tracey thinks, seemingly hearing Todd's voice as his mind and coming to the conclusion that this was his thought.
Todd was a little confused, "Well, let's look then shall we?"
"Beyond what I see..." Tracey repeated to himself as he looks around the crowd. "Oh, what do you know? That guy's got an eagle eye for real estate!"
"Tracey, look." Todd finally notices the ceremony where Mr. and Mrs. Ketchum were standing with Prof. Oak who was about to present their son, Ash, to the town.
"Hey, it's that man!"
"What's that thing he's holding onto?"
"Who cares, it's not important." Tracey began to walk through the crowd. "Come on, my dream home awaits."
"Uh, why don't we just go around?" Todd asked, trying to be polite.
"Don't you know that the shortest distance between two points is a strait line? Come on, just follow me." Tracey pulls Todd through the crowd.
"Oh, ow, excuse me, hello, goodness." The crowd was a little irritated at the shoving and bumping.
"Make room, watch it I'm walking here." Tracey moved through them.
Some of the tight squeezes between people banged Todd's camera, "Uhm, Tracey, maybe we should..."
"Todd, we'll have plenty of time to talk once we settle in."
"But I really think..."
"Don't worry, we'll have for that later time."
"But Tracey."
"Trust me, it'll be fine."
"But..." Finally somebody hit the camera hard enough that the flash went off.
"Ah, I'm blind!" The man cried.
"Hu" Tracey turned around.
"I told you." Todd gulped. "My camera."
"My eyes!" The man's crying was gathering attention.
"Let's get outa here!" Tracey began to pull him faster. Todd's camera was hitting more people now, causing random flashes to go off everywhere. Everyone cries out and begins to rub their eyes. Up on the house on the hill, Prof. Oak sees the commotion and thinks that everyone is rubbing their eyes in shock in awe of the young child.
"Look guys." He motions to the proud parents. "They can't believe it."
"Wow, what a special power." Tracey laughs when they make their way out. "So I guess that's you're weapon."
"Yup." Todd sighs as he checks his camera. "I hope they'll be ok."
"They will, don't worry." Tracey walks off. "Come on, let's go."
"Ok, lead the way." Todd follows Tracey as they finally reach their destination: it's a sheltered cave by a small pond, everything surrounded by greenery, flowers in the bushes, fruit in the trees, it was a great little patch of paradise.
"This is hit buddy, home sweet home." Tracey stretched. "Haha, and I don't gotta share it with anybody."
Todd stops, "But don't you get lonely?"
"Lonely? Try commitment free! All that shoving and bumping around reminded me too much of home, this place has everything. And it's all mine."
"Oh." Todd tries to take in the fact that he's not being factored into this. "Well, it's really coming together for ya Trace. So, uhm, I guess I'll just be going." He starts to walk off.
"Now, wait a minute. There's no law that says you have to go. I mean, if you want..."
Todd jumps back, "Oh, great! I already made up two beds, one for you and one for me."
Tracey smiles as he stretches, "Oh, gee, all this traveling really got me tired. I think I'll turn in early." He gets into one of the beds. "Ah, yea, this is the life."
Todd, also tired from their trip, get into the other bed, "Ah, good night."
"Sleep tight."
"Don't let the Pokemon bite."
They fall asleep and sleep all day and into the night, they wake up the next morning to hear noise and the commotion is literally shaking them awake in their cave.
"Ah!" Tracey falls out of his bed, he groans and gets a stick, banging the dirt ceiling. "Hey, keep it down up there!"
"We have neighbors, we should say hello."
"Noisy neighbors, there go the property values." Tracey moans. They both finally get up and get out of the cave, finding themselves in the middle of a huge party full of singing, among the spectacle are Ash and Misty. "Oh, perfect. Get a load of these guys, knock it off."
Todd just smiles and takes a picture, "We moved to the theater district, what a buzz." The flash startles some people and things start to get crazy.
Before Todd and Tracey knew it, everyone was gone in the dust and Brock lay somewhere among the rubble, unbeknownst to them, "I'm ok." He groaned to himself.
"Ah, phew." Todd sighs with relief. "Show biz people." Soon they were walking again, this time to find a new, better, location.
"Come on Todd, our dream home is around here somewhere." Tracey assured, once again Tracy quotes Prof. Oak. "I'm going beyond what I see."
Todd was confused, "But if you always go beyond what you see, how do you know when you're there?"
Tracey stopped to think for a moment, then continued walking, brushing some branches and tall stalks of grass aside, "Oh, I'll tell you how I know. We're there!" They stop, they're in the north field outside of Pallet. Todd is a little afraid. "This is a lovely spot, a little rustic, but don't you say it's picturesque? Home sweet home Todd." He turns to him and sees him a little unsure. "Ah come on, I mean sure it needs a little work. After all, this is a protected field, who would ever come here?" Just as he finishes, Mr. Ketchum leaps off a rock ledge above them, followed by Brock. Todd and Tracey duck. "Ah!"
"Mr. Ketchum, the Rockets are after Ash and Misty!"
Tracey and Todd watch in shock and fear from behind a log as Raichu attacks the Rockets. Tracey hides behind Todd, being remembered of home with Pokemon attacks. Todd reluctantly takes a picture. Later, Tracey and Todd resume their search for the perfect life. They're in a dark desolate area in the outskirts even beyond the north fields.
"Beyond what you see." Tracey laughs crazily.
"Uhm, Tracey, are you sure it's safe to be here?"
Ignoring him, Tracey stands firm, "Hey this is it baby, home sweet home." A geyser shoots up a stream of steam behind Tracey, causing him to freeze up. "Heh, steam, that's good, steam is water, gotta have water, you know, for the dream home. Steam home, dream home." He gulps, starting to get scared now, he bumps his back against Todd's by accident, causing his camera to flash a picture again. "I'm perfectly happy right here, it's remote, private, no unexpected visitors..." Before he could finish, an army of Rocket's appear. Todd and Tracey turn, Tracey is nearly white recognizing the R's on their shirts, they'd stumbled into Team Rocket's secret base. "Mommy." In a flash, it's the next day, and they're traveling again. "Beyond what I see..." They stop when their path ends in front of a huge ravine. They make their way down and walk some more. The sun is high in the sky at noon on what seems to be an unexpectedly hot day. "Well, what this place lacks in water and shade, it makes up for with searing heat and blinding sunshine. Home sweet home Todd." He flops down from the heat. The ground begins to shake, they look up to see the flock of Pokemon, being chased by Team Rocket, running right at them.
Todd nearly drops his camera, "Shall we run for our lives?"
"Oh yes let's." He screams and they both run off yelling in fear, running for their lives as fast as they can go. They don't watch where they're going and they run off a ledge and fall.
"Hang on Tracey!"
"This is it Todd, good by cruel world!" But they fall safely into water. "That's it? That wasn't too bad." He floats arrogantly as Todd swims to his side. "You can't knock me down that easy, yea, bring it on!" A loud roaring causes him to stop. "Uhm, Todd, question. Is it possible to fall of the edge of the world?"
"I don't think so, my tutor taught me that the world is round, so it's not possible since there's no edge."
"Whew, well that's good then." But they were about to soar off a huge waterfall.
"Ah!" And they fall, and fall, and fall into the rising mist of the huge waterfall that leads into a lake that rivers out into a stream off somewhere. By nightfall the duo wakes up, somehow they managed to reach shore, alive none to boot.
Todd crawls to Tracey, "Hey, Tracy, are you ok?"
Tracey wakes up, "Ugh, I give up..."
"But, you can't give up, we haven't found our dream home, our dream life."
"Forget it Todd, I've been dragging you down long enough, I'm going home... and I guess you should do the same."
Todd is reluctant, "Oh, I would if I could, but I can't."
"Aw sure you could bud, I'm not stopping you."
Todd sighs, "No, I mean, I can't... I have nowhere to go back to."
"You don't?" Tracey sits up as Todd turns his back away. "What happened, are you lost?" Todd shakes his head. "No place good enough for ya?' Todd slouches his shoulders as he grabs both legs and hugs them close. "What, you're all alone in this big empty world?" Todd finally turns to him, his eyes with tears. "Oh." He gets up. "Well, I have something to tell you. You're the only friend I've ever had."
"Seriously?"
"Yea, and I don't want to loose you. So I tell ya what, why don't you come home with me?"
"You mean it!" Todd has been restored.
"Yea, I mean, things are surely to be different there now."
"Aw, thanks Tracey." Todd hugged him.
Tracey froze but then returned it, "Yea, well, you know how it is Todd, we're friends, and friends stick together to the end." Todd smiled.
And so after a good night sleep from another long weary day, Todd and Tracey set out once again, only this time they knew where they were going. They retraced their steps back through their long journey until they passed the place they met, passed the place Tracey ran into Prof. Oak, they walked until it was night again and finally Tracey had let Todd back to his old home.
"Hey, wait a sec." Todd stopped.
"What is it?" Tracey turned, they were only about a mile from his old home.
"I used to live around here."
"You did?" Tracey was confused, this was the only town for miles around, that could only mean... "Wait, don't tell me you're from Crimson City too?"
Todd's jaw dropped, "You mean that... then..."
"Ah!" They both ran towards each other and hugged.
"Come on, let's go back to our home." Tracey smiled and they continued to walk. "So, why'd you leave, didn't fit in?"
"No it wasn't that, it was just... well, in an attack, Pokemon killed my parents. I left, I couldn't stand to live there anymore."
"Oh." Tracey sighed, he remembered hearing about something like that, it wasn't too long ago too. "Well, things should be different for both of us now, I'm sure my family won't mind having you there too."
"Thanks." Todd smiled.
"Ah, and here we are, home sweet...." They stopped in their tracks, frozen in shock at what they stood before.
"Tracey?" Todd finally spoke up. "What's going on, what happened?"
Tracey swallowed the lump in his throat, "Our home... it's destroyed, it's empty."
The town was all dark and gray, it was abandoned. They walked through the front gates hanging by the hinges and looked around. The walls and lookout posts were all torn down and broken into rocks and wood and rubble. The houses were all cold and empty, the wind in the streets carried dust and trash. Tracey was in shock, what happened, it was all gone. Finally Tracey led Todd to his old home.
"Everyone's all gone, looks like there was a battle here and they were driven away." Todd looked around and came up to Tracey who stared up at his door. "What is it?"
"A note." Tracey took it down and read it:
Dear Tracey, I hope this letter finds you well. I knew that one day you would return so I don't worry that you won't get it. There was rumor going around that an attack was going to happen on our city, and it did. But we were long gone by the time it happened, however, I can't say the same for most other people. I don't know how the town will be when this letter finds you, I only hope that all is going well. I hope you found what you were looking for, don't worry about us, so did we. By the time you read this we'll have long since left Crimson City. Someday I hope we meet again, but if time goes on and that doesn't happen, I just hope you're happy and have finally found your dream life. Remember that I love you and that no matter what happens you're my son. I'm proud of you. Love, Mom.
"I'm sorry Tracey." Todd sighed. Tracey was crying, he sniffed and rubbed his eyes.
"This letter." Tracey spoke up. "Was dated just a few days ago, so that means this happened not too long after I left." He sat down on the porch. "Should we stay here?"
"Of course, this is our home. It'll all be fine, you just wait." Todd assured and Tracey looked up at him. "You know, maybe one day they'll come back, you know?"
"Yea." Tracey smiled. "Things will all work out in the end." He remembered what his mom had told him before he left. "Todd, we can stay here, I mean after all, we have everything that we could need. And plus, nobody would come here, it's abandoned. And if they do, we have your camera to scare them off."
Todd smiled, "So it's settled then, our new home will be... our old home!"
It was morning by now, Tracey and Todd were walking out in the open only a few miles away from the town destination. It was dusk but you could see the town getting closer on the horizon. Just then a flock of people trampled them.
"Ah!" The two cowered until they were gone, then they stuck their heads up.
"What was that?" Tracy asked.
"Dunno, looked like a group of reporters or something."
"Really?" Tracey stood up and put his hands on his hips. "I wonder what got into them?"
They continued their way, the sun was up higher now, it was later morning by now when they reached the town. It was more or less empty until they came up to where a whole herd of people was surrounding one house up on a hill.
"I think we're a little late." Todd looked around.
"It's a rush, that loudmouth man, he must've blabbed it to the whole world!"
"What exactly did he tell you?"
"I told you! He told me to look beyond what I see."
"So, maybe you're supposed to look beyond this town?"
"Hmm, maybe I'm supposed to look beyond this town." Tracey thinks, seemingly hearing Todd's voice as his mind and coming to the conclusion that this was his thought.
Todd was a little confused, "Well, let's look then shall we?"
"Beyond what I see..." Tracey repeated to himself as he looks around the crowd. "Oh, what do you know? That guy's got an eagle eye for real estate!"
"Tracey, look." Todd finally notices the ceremony where Mr. and Mrs. Ketchum were standing with Prof. Oak who was about to present their son, Ash, to the town.
"Hey, it's that man!"
"What's that thing he's holding onto?"
"Who cares, it's not important." Tracey began to walk through the crowd. "Come on, my dream home awaits."
"Uh, why don't we just go around?" Todd asked, trying to be polite.
"Don't you know that the shortest distance between two points is a strait line? Come on, just follow me." Tracey pulls Todd through the crowd.
"Oh, ow, excuse me, hello, goodness." The crowd was a little irritated at the shoving and bumping.
"Make room, watch it I'm walking here." Tracey moved through them.
Some of the tight squeezes between people banged Todd's camera, "Uhm, Tracey, maybe we should..."
"Todd, we'll have plenty of time to talk once we settle in."
"But I really think..."
"Don't worry, we'll have for that later time."
"But Tracey."
"Trust me, it'll be fine."
"But..." Finally somebody hit the camera hard enough that the flash went off.
"Ah, I'm blind!" The man cried.
"Hu" Tracey turned around.
"I told you." Todd gulped. "My camera."
"My eyes!" The man's crying was gathering attention.
"Let's get outa here!" Tracey began to pull him faster. Todd's camera was hitting more people now, causing random flashes to go off everywhere. Everyone cries out and begins to rub their eyes. Up on the house on the hill, Prof. Oak sees the commotion and thinks that everyone is rubbing their eyes in shock in awe of the young child.
"Look guys." He motions to the proud parents. "They can't believe it."
"Wow, what a special power." Tracey laughs when they make their way out. "So I guess that's you're weapon."
"Yup." Todd sighs as he checks his camera. "I hope they'll be ok."
"They will, don't worry." Tracey walks off. "Come on, let's go."
"Ok, lead the way." Todd follows Tracey as they finally reach their destination: it's a sheltered cave by a small pond, everything surrounded by greenery, flowers in the bushes, fruit in the trees, it was a great little patch of paradise.
"This is hit buddy, home sweet home." Tracey stretched. "Haha, and I don't gotta share it with anybody."
Todd stops, "But don't you get lonely?"
"Lonely? Try commitment free! All that shoving and bumping around reminded me too much of home, this place has everything. And it's all mine."
"Oh." Todd tries to take in the fact that he's not being factored into this. "Well, it's really coming together for ya Trace. So, uhm, I guess I'll just be going." He starts to walk off.
"Now, wait a minute. There's no law that says you have to go. I mean, if you want..."
Todd jumps back, "Oh, great! I already made up two beds, one for you and one for me."
Tracey smiles as he stretches, "Oh, gee, all this traveling really got me tired. I think I'll turn in early." He gets into one of the beds. "Ah, yea, this is the life."
Todd, also tired from their trip, get into the other bed, "Ah, good night."
"Sleep tight."
"Don't let the Pokemon bite."
They fall asleep and sleep all day and into the night, they wake up the next morning to hear noise and the commotion is literally shaking them awake in their cave.
"Ah!" Tracey falls out of his bed, he groans and gets a stick, banging the dirt ceiling. "Hey, keep it down up there!"
"We have neighbors, we should say hello."
"Noisy neighbors, there go the property values." Tracey moans. They both finally get up and get out of the cave, finding themselves in the middle of a huge party full of singing, among the spectacle are Ash and Misty. "Oh, perfect. Get a load of these guys, knock it off."
Todd just smiles and takes a picture, "We moved to the theater district, what a buzz." The flash startles some people and things start to get crazy.
Before Todd and Tracey knew it, everyone was gone in the dust and Brock lay somewhere among the rubble, unbeknownst to them, "I'm ok." He groaned to himself.
"Ah, phew." Todd sighs with relief. "Show biz people." Soon they were walking again, this time to find a new, better, location.
"Come on Todd, our dream home is around here somewhere." Tracey assured, once again Tracy quotes Prof. Oak. "I'm going beyond what I see."
Todd was confused, "But if you always go beyond what you see, how do you know when you're there?"
Tracey stopped to think for a moment, then continued walking, brushing some branches and tall stalks of grass aside, "Oh, I'll tell you how I know. We're there!" They stop, they're in the north field outside of Pallet. Todd is a little afraid. "This is a lovely spot, a little rustic, but don't you say it's picturesque? Home sweet home Todd." He turns to him and sees him a little unsure. "Ah come on, I mean sure it needs a little work. After all, this is a protected field, who would ever come here?" Just as he finishes, Mr. Ketchum leaps off a rock ledge above them, followed by Brock. Todd and Tracey duck. "Ah!"
"Mr. Ketchum, the Rockets are after Ash and Misty!"
Tracey and Todd watch in shock and fear from behind a log as Raichu attacks the Rockets. Tracey hides behind Todd, being remembered of home with Pokemon attacks. Todd reluctantly takes a picture. Later, Tracey and Todd resume their search for the perfect life. They're in a dark desolate area in the outskirts even beyond the north fields.
"Beyond what you see." Tracey laughs crazily.
"Uhm, Tracey, are you sure it's safe to be here?"
Ignoring him, Tracey stands firm, "Hey this is it baby, home sweet home." A geyser shoots up a stream of steam behind Tracey, causing him to freeze up. "Heh, steam, that's good, steam is water, gotta have water, you know, for the dream home. Steam home, dream home." He gulps, starting to get scared now, he bumps his back against Todd's by accident, causing his camera to flash a picture again. "I'm perfectly happy right here, it's remote, private, no unexpected visitors..." Before he could finish, an army of Rocket's appear. Todd and Tracey turn, Tracey is nearly white recognizing the R's on their shirts, they'd stumbled into Team Rocket's secret base. "Mommy." In a flash, it's the next day, and they're traveling again. "Beyond what I see..." They stop when their path ends in front of a huge ravine. They make their way down and walk some more. The sun is high in the sky at noon on what seems to be an unexpectedly hot day. "Well, what this place lacks in water and shade, it makes up for with searing heat and blinding sunshine. Home sweet home Todd." He flops down from the heat. The ground begins to shake, they look up to see the flock of Pokemon, being chased by Team Rocket, running right at them.
Todd nearly drops his camera, "Shall we run for our lives?"
"Oh yes let's." He screams and they both run off yelling in fear, running for their lives as fast as they can go. They don't watch where they're going and they run off a ledge and fall.
"Hang on Tracey!"
"This is it Todd, good by cruel world!" But they fall safely into water. "That's it? That wasn't too bad." He floats arrogantly as Todd swims to his side. "You can't knock me down that easy, yea, bring it on!" A loud roaring causes him to stop. "Uhm, Todd, question. Is it possible to fall of the edge of the world?"
"I don't think so, my tutor taught me that the world is round, so it's not possible since there's no edge."
"Whew, well that's good then." But they were about to soar off a huge waterfall.
"Ah!" And they fall, and fall, and fall into the rising mist of the huge waterfall that leads into a lake that rivers out into a stream off somewhere. By nightfall the duo wakes up, somehow they managed to reach shore, alive none to boot.
Todd crawls to Tracey, "Hey, Tracy, are you ok?"
Tracey wakes up, "Ugh, I give up..."
"But, you can't give up, we haven't found our dream home, our dream life."
"Forget it Todd, I've been dragging you down long enough, I'm going home... and I guess you should do the same."
Todd is reluctant, "Oh, I would if I could, but I can't."
"Aw sure you could bud, I'm not stopping you."
Todd sighs, "No, I mean, I can't... I have nowhere to go back to."
"You don't?" Tracey sits up as Todd turns his back away. "What happened, are you lost?" Todd shakes his head. "No place good enough for ya?' Todd slouches his shoulders as he grabs both legs and hugs them close. "What, you're all alone in this big empty world?" Todd finally turns to him, his eyes with tears. "Oh." He gets up. "Well, I have something to tell you. You're the only friend I've ever had."
"Seriously?"
"Yea, and I don't want to loose you. So I tell ya what, why don't you come home with me?"
"You mean it!" Todd has been restored.
"Yea, I mean, things are surely to be different there now."
"Aw, thanks Tracey." Todd hugged him.
Tracey froze but then returned it, "Yea, well, you know how it is Todd, we're friends, and friends stick together to the end." Todd smiled.
And so after a good night sleep from another long weary day, Todd and Tracey set out once again, only this time they knew where they were going. They retraced their steps back through their long journey until they passed the place they met, passed the place Tracey ran into Prof. Oak, they walked until it was night again and finally Tracey had let Todd back to his old home.
"Hey, wait a sec." Todd stopped.
"What is it?" Tracey turned, they were only about a mile from his old home.
"I used to live around here."
"You did?" Tracey was confused, this was the only town for miles around, that could only mean... "Wait, don't tell me you're from Crimson City too?"
Todd's jaw dropped, "You mean that... then..."
"Ah!" They both ran towards each other and hugged.
"Come on, let's go back to our home." Tracey smiled and they continued to walk. "So, why'd you leave, didn't fit in?"
"No it wasn't that, it was just... well, in an attack, Pokemon killed my parents. I left, I couldn't stand to live there anymore."
"Oh." Tracey sighed, he remembered hearing about something like that, it wasn't too long ago too. "Well, things should be different for both of us now, I'm sure my family won't mind having you there too."
"Thanks." Todd smiled.
"Ah, and here we are, home sweet...." They stopped in their tracks, frozen in shock at what they stood before.
"Tracey?" Todd finally spoke up. "What's going on, what happened?"
Tracey swallowed the lump in his throat, "Our home... it's destroyed, it's empty."
The town was all dark and gray, it was abandoned. They walked through the front gates hanging by the hinges and looked around. The walls and lookout posts were all torn down and broken into rocks and wood and rubble. The houses were all cold and empty, the wind in the streets carried dust and trash. Tracey was in shock, what happened, it was all gone. Finally Tracey led Todd to his old home.
"Everyone's all gone, looks like there was a battle here and they were driven away." Todd looked around and came up to Tracey who stared up at his door. "What is it?"
"A note." Tracey took it down and read it:
Dear Tracey, I hope this letter finds you well. I knew that one day you would return so I don't worry that you won't get it. There was rumor going around that an attack was going to happen on our city, and it did. But we were long gone by the time it happened, however, I can't say the same for most other people. I don't know how the town will be when this letter finds you, I only hope that all is going well. I hope you found what you were looking for, don't worry about us, so did we. By the time you read this we'll have long since left Crimson City. Someday I hope we meet again, but if time goes on and that doesn't happen, I just hope you're happy and have finally found your dream life. Remember that I love you and that no matter what happens you're my son. I'm proud of you. Love, Mom.
"I'm sorry Tracey." Todd sighed. Tracey was crying, he sniffed and rubbed his eyes.
"This letter." Tracey spoke up. "Was dated just a few days ago, so that means this happened not too long after I left." He sat down on the porch. "Should we stay here?"
"Of course, this is our home. It'll all be fine, you just wait." Todd assured and Tracey looked up at him. "You know, maybe one day they'll come back, you know?"
"Yea." Tracey smiled. "Things will all work out in the end." He remembered what his mom had told him before he left. "Todd, we can stay here, I mean after all, we have everything that we could need. And plus, nobody would come here, it's abandoned. And if they do, we have your camera to scare them off."
Todd smiled, "So it's settled then, our new home will be... our old home!"