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Eatacheesemonkey, you're so suspicious. Why believe there's something wrong with the murkrow? Is it that hard to believe a random trainer would jump Elliot, offer to trade with him by the second pokemon he mentioned, and offer a rare, higher level pokemon for his common, lower level one? Why, of course not. There's no reason the trainer would need an ulterior motive.
And Charles RocketBoy, why shouldn't we trust the League? Sure, we don't really know anything about them, but they must be nice. After all, I bet you've never known of a pokemon death or anything bad like that happening. So I'm sure they tell the truth.
I don't know why everyone's so mistrustful. Everything is going fine. Nothing is wrong.
Elliot and Gabrielle were setting up camp.
Mainly Gabrielle. Obviously used to it, she had chosen a good location, and was now directing her pokemon to help dig a shallow pit for the fire, and gather wood while she set up the tent. Elliot watched in amazement. "They really understand you," he said.
"Yeah," she said, smiling as she slid rods into the canvas. "They're really not as brainless as they're made out to be. They don't just understand me either, they can talk back."
"You mean, like us?"
She laughed. She'd been in a good mood for all of the walk through the forest. "No, I don't think any pokemon can talk the same way as humans. They have to say the same thing. But that's not meaningless. If you pay attention, it all starts to make sense. It's actually really easy to do. It only took about a week or so for me."
"Oh," said Elliot in a small voice. "But I've never…"
"That's okay," she reassured. "It's just a matter of trying. I knew trainers as old as me who couldn't understand a word, and others who learned it right after leaving home. You can't learn until you know there's something to learn."
It'd never seemed like Howler was saying anything. Elliot resolved to try harder. In stories, he remembered, the great trainers, the ones who became masters, they could sometimes talk to their pokemon. He wanted to be able to do that too.
Once camp was set up and the meal cooking, Elliot realized she'd only sent out five pokemon. He wondered if she just hadn't caught a full team, but didn't think it would be polite to ask about that.
Bored with the silence, he asked, "Why are you going to Cerulean?"
"There's a pokemon researcher there, and he's supposed to be interested in everything about them. I was hoping he'd take a look at one of mine."
"Why?"
"Well…" She looked reluctant, but then opened one of the small pockets of her bag and took out a pokeball. She broke it open, releasing a ponyta with a huge, distended belly. Elliot recoiled.
"What happened to it?"
"Oh, it's okay," she said, seeing his look. "She's pregnant, that's all."
"You mean, she's going to lay an egg?" Elliot knew a bit about pokemon.
"No, that's the thing. Come here." She placed his hand on the ponyta's side. He felt something move.
Elliot yelped, jerking his hand away. The ponyta shifted slightly, but didn't startle at the noise. "What was that?"
"I thought it was an egg at first too. But as far as I can tell, she's going to give birth live."
"But pokemon don't."
"I know." She recalled the ponyta, who had started to fidget uneasily.
"Why go all the way to Cerulean? Can't you just show it to one of the Joy?"
"I did," she said, her voice angry. "First thing I tried when I realized something was wrong. That stupid-" She caught herself. "She tried to convince me it was a failed egg – one where the shell hadn't formed. That's impossible. I worked in a daycare when I was younger. Pokemon lay eggs even if the shell isn't hard enough. Then she tried to tell me it was different, that the embryo had lodged inside her, that it would kill her it if wasn't removed."
"And you're sure?"
She nodded sharply. "Embryos don't just develop all by themselves. If she's carried it this long, if it's grown this big, she has to have been built to do so. If she's naturally only able to lay eggs, if this is really is just a mistake, she'd miscarry on her own, or she'd have died by now."
"So it is natural, then."
"I don't know for sure, but that's what I think. She doesn't know much either, she's something like tenth generation, raised by humans all her life."
-
-
Discord, Elliot's newly named jigglypuff, opened his mouth and began to let out horrible, grating noise.
The two trainers flinched. The wild rattata Discord was fighting did more than flinch. It screeched in pain, pressing again the ground.
This was not what Elliot had meant to happen. He'd meant for Discord to use a sing attack. He'd forgotten about how he'd found Discord to start with, and had given the vague order for Discord to 'use his voice'.
When the noise stopped, Gabrielle suggested mildly that he might want to use his pokedex to check the attacks jigglypuff learn. Mareepishly, Elliot recalled Discord and began to scroll through attacks.
A minute later, he looked back up, bewildered. "The only vocal attack they're supposed to know besides sing is perish song, and that doesn't hurt to listen to."
"Really?" Gabrielle said. "Well, send it back out and show the pokedex the attack."
Elliot did. "But quieter this time," he told Discord. "Okay?"
Obediently, Discord opened his mouth and began a softer version of the sound he'd made earlier. Elliot pointed his pokedex.
"Jigglypuff, the balloon –" it began.
"Tell it to analyze the attack," Gabrielle hissed. "And hurry up."
"What attack is Discord using?" Elliot said.
The screen fuzzed. "No data."
"Aw…" Elliot sighed. "Okay Discord, thanks." He recalled the pokemon. Turning to Gabrielle, he asked, "So now what?"
"Maybe the attack is from a region you don't have information on," she said.
"But why would a pokemon here know an attack from another region?"
"Oh, it happens a lot. Trainers release a pokemon they caught in one region into another or something."
"But I caught him in the Safari Zone. And besides, he's not that strong. Who'd catch him somewhere and bring him here?"
"I meant that his parent might have been from somewhere else. That's usually how it is. You catch a normal pokemon like a little pidgey and you learn it knows steel wing or something. Does your pokedex have the Johto information?"
Elliot nodded.
"Hm, maybe it's a new attack. Or…it could be from..." she paused. "Hoenn, that's it. It might be from Hoenn. Does your pokedex have that information?"
"No," Elliot said.
"Mine doesn't either. Let's see if you can get an upgrade at the Center," she said.
-
-
They were walking down a path. It wasn't a strange path – it was ordinary, absurdly neat, with plants growing exactly up to the edges, then stopping as sharply as if the dirt road was paved. The rest of the forest was green, full of vibrant life. There was a body off to the side.
Elliot stopped, staring with a blank, uncomprehending look. Gabrielle's step faltered for a moment, and she took a steadying breath. She bent over the body.
It was a boy, who'd been perhaps twelve. He hadn't been dead that long – there was no sign of rot or marks from scavengers. Gabrielle was grateful for that. His skin was ashen, still damp from sweat.
An inexpertly tied bandage wrapped around his leg. It was white, with no sign on blood on the outside. She unwrapped it and found only a small smudge of red.
"Did someone kill him?" Elliot whispered beside her.
She shook her head. "He must have gotten sick." She pulled back the sliced cloth of the jeans to see the wound, recognizing it. "He got cut on a rock or a piece of wood. It was just a scratch, so he didn't think anything of it. He bandaged it just to keep blood from making a mess." She could see the dirty imprints where the boy's fingers had touched the gauze.
"But how come he's dead?" Elliot asked. It was just a cut.
"He got sick. Probably feverish. He got sick and lay down and died of exposure. There wasn't anyone with him to help."
Gabrielle took the pokeballs off his belt, then rolled the body onto its stomach.
"What are you doing?" Elliot said, shocked.
"I need to find his pokedex," she said, unzippering the bag. "So I can bring it back so they'll know which family to notify." She pulled the red gadget out.
"How can you be so calm?"
Gabrielle bit her lip. "There's nothing I can do for him. At least I can let his parents know what happened to him. They'll take the body back, bury it somewhere." She stood. "Come on, let's go."
Without looking back, she started walking, taking even, measured steps. Elliot didn't move immediately, staring vacantly off. Finally he turned and started to leave as well.
A fluttering sound made him look back. A spearow had landed, perhaps attracted by their voices. Its thick, twisted beak glinted in the sunlight. It bent, tearing off a bit of the face.
Elliot screamed, fingers wrapping around a rock. He hurled it at the bird and it hit with a wet snapping sound.
-
-
The Joy took the news well.
Elliot wasn't paying much attention, but he was aware of what was happening enough to think how odd it was that her cheerful smile didn't even falter. She thanked Gabrielle, took their pokemon, and left to phone an officer.
"You okay?"
Elliot looked up. Gabrielle had walked back over. He didn't answer.
"I'm sorry you saw that," she said. "If – if it makes you feel better, he didn't suffer much."
"It was just a cut," Elliot said, his voice a whisper.
"He thought so too." Gabrielle held out a pokeball. "Here."
"What's that?"
"The spearow."
Elliot recoiled. "I don't want it!"
"I've already got my team, and you need more. The spearow's pretty strong for a wild pokemon, maybe about as good as your growlithe. Besides, you're the one that injured it."
"But it- it-"
"It's been caught. Someone needs to take it."
"Just let it go."
"Can't. We're out of its territory here. You'll have to bring it back to the forest." She dropped the pokeball in his lap.
Elliot stared at it silently. After a minute, he reached out and picked it up.
The pokeball opened. In the light of the Pokemon Center, the spearow no longer looked so evil. It cocked its head at him, like it had earlier, then cheeped, the sound smooth and pretty, not harsh like he'd expected.
Gabrielle returned. "The Joy's agreed to give you the Hoenn information. Let's hurry up before she gets a good look at you." She tugged his arm. Elliot recalled the bird and stood.
The Joy was still cheerful, although her smile was mostly gone. She took his pokedex, inserted it into a machine, and then handed it back, along with their pokeballs.
"That's all?" he asked as Gabrielle pulled him back out. "What was the big deal?"
"Hurry up, it's best if we leave quick." She pushed him out the door.
"Why? I don't understand."
"Joys don't like giving trainers information on other regions. I'm not sure why, but it's best to leave for a few minutes so they don't remember you."
"Oh," said Elliot, who thought that sounded strange.
"Well, now that you have the information, why don't you see if you can find the attack?"
"Okay," said Elliot, accessing the move list. "Um…there's something here called hyper voice. Maybe that." He sent out Discord. "Can you use that attack again?"
The jigglypuff swelled up and started making the racket. Elliot pointed his pokedex, remembering to tell the computer to analyze the attack.
"Uproar," reported the pokedex.
Elliot recalled Discord and looked back to the list. "It's still not on here."
Gabrielle shrugged, looking unconcerned. "They probably don't have complete data on jigglypuff there, that's all. It's weird it knows it, though. There aren't a lot of pokemon trainers coming out of Hoenn."
They entered the park square, where an impromptu pokemon battle had started. Elliot headed into the gathering crowd.
The two trainers were around eleven, just old enough to be a bit worldly and young enough not to know how much further they had to go. They were showing off, their attempts obvious, clumsy like puppies. The crowd, made mainly of those even younger, were rapt.
One of the two trainers called back his fainted bulbasaur. He selected another pokeball.
"I just caught this one in the Safari Zone," he said, voice filled with pride. He was young enough to consider the place exotic, impressive, to consider going a mark of his sophistication. "I haven't gotten the chance to try it out yet."
The crowd perked up, watching with bright, interested eyes. The trainer tossed the pokeball, releasing a nidorina.
This was impressive to the children. They were not far enough along yet for evolved pokemon to have lost their novelty.
Gabrielle stiffened and averted her eyes.
The nidorina didn't move. It took Elliot a moment to realize she was shaking, tremors running through her body every few seconds.
The trainer, oblivious, ordered an attack. The nidorina did not appear to notice. The shudders worsened. Suddenly she jerked, the sudden motion alerting even the trainer that something was wrong.
Before Elliot could look closer, he felt Gabrielle's hand grab his arm. She pulled him away, walking quickly.
"What is it?" he said, going along without struggle. He was looking at her, but she was staring ahead. "What was wrong with the nidorina?"
She didn't answer for a few minutes, and something about the scene prevented Elliot from repeating his question.
"That idiot," she whispered at last, to herself.
"Will it-"
"She won't be okay!" Gabrielle snapped. Her voice was kept low, but the words were sharp. "Nidorina, they can't be used by themselves. She's dead."
Elliot stared at her.
"They can't be used by themselves," she repeated bitterly. "Wild nidorina die if they're separated from their packs. They're paralyzed by fear and they die."
"But…" Elliot didn't know what to say. He wanted to deny it – pokemon weren't killed in battles, everyone knew that. They didn't – they couldn't die. But the ninetales… "Why didn't you do anything?"
"What could I have done?" she yelled at him. "Don't you think I wanted to?"
He cowered. She saw this, turned away. When she spoke again, her voice wasn't angry. "Let's go," she said, not meeting his eyes.