We actually don't get to stuff on Din this chapter. Sorry. I should stop making so many promises in the 'next time' part. That should be the first scene of next chapter, though. It's a long chapter, so I hope that makes up for it. And at least it's on time, right?
Keleri – Hello! It does seem possible that the girl is deliberately trying to keep pokemon moving between trainers, but what would be the point of that? Maybe she just likes getting new pokemon. And it doesn't seem like the two pokemon we've seen her trade for had much in common…
Morbane – You made a lot of great points, so instead of listing them all, just thanks! I'll try to keep it all in mind.
Moonrabbit2 – I'm glad you like the characters (although I don't know why it's good he's not a she) and I'm happy you don't find them stereotypical.
Act – Typos? Ugh. I'd ask where but with FFN changing formatting I don't really want to upload changed chapters. I'm glad to hear you like Caw rather than Prowler, and mightyena seem pretty popular with most people.
Say, everyone who hasn't told me, who's your current favorite (or least favorite) and why?
Harsh Undercurrent
-
The next day, Elliot headed straight for the gym. There was still a guard in front, but he didn't speak as Elliot passed though the double doors.
Inside was a huge room filled with metal cylinders. Elliot walked across it and found a closed metal door. As he was examining it to find a way in, a teen came up behind him.
Without preamble, the other boy threw out a Greatball, releasing a magnamite.
"Huh?"
The other boy sighed. "It's a fight, kid, get moving."
"O-oh," Elliot said, staring at the strange, inorganic pokemon. He knew it was an electric type, based on the gym, but there was something else he couldn't remember.
It was bizarre. It had a huge, single eye that took up most of the 'body', which was a round metal ball, and there were two large magnets at either side that seemed to be attached by some sort of joint. There were also what looked like three screws hanging off its face. How was he supposed to fight something like that?
Elliot pulled out his pokedex. "Magnemite," it reported. "Magnet species. This pokemon is an electric/steel type. It is attracted by electromagnetic waves."
A steel type? Steel was weak against fire, wasn't it? "Howler!"
"Thunderwave," the other boy said instantly. A burst of golden sparks shot at Howler a moment after he appeared, causing him to yelp in pain.
"Ember, quick!"
Howler whined, tremors running through his body, but managed to open his mouth and aim small fireballs at the magnemite. Where they hit, Elliot could see the metal warp. The magnemite was silent but its magnets flailed and it wavered in the air.
"Again, Howler!"
The growlithe repeated the move, and the magnemite sank to the ground, magnets twitching.
The teen recalled it. He didn't offer any money. Instead he said, "In order to open the door, you'll have to find the two green switches. Behind the panel of each cylinder is a switch. If it's glowing green, flip it, and afterward the switch in a cylinder next to it will be green. If you find it on your first try and flip it, the doors will open, and if you pick wrong, you'll have to start over."
"But, um," Elliot started.
"Oh, and if you leave, you forfeit," the other boy added casually, heading off.
It didn't make any sense, but Elliot didn't know what else to do. He started checking cylinders.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Behind the panels of every cylinder he tried was a switch glowing a disappointing red. After working his way through an entire row without success, he found it.
Elliot flipped the switch and looked around. Which one should he pick? He chose one on his left, walked over to it, took off the sidepanel –
"Ow!" he wailed, yanking his hands back and dropping the panel to the floor with a clatter. He'd gotten shocked. Elliot blinked back tears. It had hurt. Was that what happened if he guessed wrong? He picked up the panel and put it back, remembering what the boy had said about starting over, and began to check the cylinders again.
It seemed to take forever. When he finally found the green switch again, he gingerly checked a nearby cylinder-
"Ow!"
His fingertips stung. He looked around for help, but the boy had vanished.
This is stupid, he thought angrily. What does this have to do with whether or not I'm a strong trainer?
He wanted to leave. But he couldn't. That'd be forfeiting, and then he wouldn't get a badge. He started looking again.
It wasn't fair. How was he supposed to tell where the second switch was? All of them were hidden behind the panel, and as soon as he checked, they all reset.
He was shocked a third time.
On the verge of tears, Elliot sat on the floor. It wasn't fair at all, and it hurt! Why did he have to get hurt just to get a stupid badge anyway?
Elliot looked around but there was still no one around that he could ask for help. He didn't want to continue – he'd just be shocked again! – but he couldn't leave. He didn't know what to do.
He had to do this. He checked the cylinder in front of him – red – and started to put the panel back on.
Wait...
Elliot dropped the panel to the floor with a clatter and moved on. He was most of the way through the second row before he found the green switch. When he pressed it, he saw a second one light up in the row behind him.
He reached out to press it but flinched, not wanting to be shocked. After a moment to regain his nerve, he screwed his eyes shut and pressed.
No shock. He could hear the doors open. Elliot opened his eyes and ran through them, in case they closed.
Only to skid to a halt. The man before him could be summed up in the single word imposing. Easily seven feet tall, muscular and wearing a rugged camouflage uniform, he towered over Elliot.
"So," he said, the derisive sneer of his voice making Elliot feel even smaller. "A little runt like you got in?" Lt. Surge laughed, an explosive booming sound. "I suppose you want to fight for a badge?"Elliot nodded nervously.
"Fine. One on one." A raichu appeared.
Absurdly, the first thing to come to Elliot was the irrelevant fact that this was the first one-on-one fight with a gym leader since his first battle in Cerulean.
Howler was paralyzed. Caw and Sono were flying types. Discord…he rarely thought of it, but he knew Discord wasn't that strong. Din and Prowler…
He couldn't use them. But it'd be okay this time, this was a gym battle.
He'd have to use somebody.
Prowler'd understand if he used her for a gym battle, wouldn't she? This was important. If he won here, he'd get his fifth badge, and he'd be more than halfway to having all eight.
"Go!" Elliot yelled, trying to sound confident. Or anything but the nagging feeling he was doing something wrong.
The ground was hard, flat, rough. Prowler recognized the strange white lines as looking similar to those she'd seen when she fought the magmar. She quickly looked around – was there danger here? – but didn't see any obvious inanimate threat.
The pokemon in front of her wasn't one she'd seen, but from the look and smell she recognized him as being a relative to the yellow pikachu. That told her little but the type, which she could figure out from the warning sparks on his cheeks. She could hear his name as he breathed heavily, charging.
The raichu looked quick, aggressive, but tired, as if he'd fought earlier and had yet to recover. Prowler's ears flattened down and she growled.
She was aware the boy behind her was talking, but that she ignored. The raichu was a strong opponent, and dangerous.
For an instant her thoughts flashed back to Elliot, warn him, get him away because he was frail and slow and the raichu could attack him easily, but she knew the pokemon she met now never bothered with anyone but her. This one looked no different. He was watching her, bracing for her attack. She could tell he was preparing to strike her with electricity.
She spat out a cloud of bubbles and dove to the right. The raichu looked confused. For a moment, she wondered if she'd overestimated him and he was just like the others she'd fought.
Then his cheeks sparked again and he began blasting apart the bubbles. She jumped out of the cloud to tackle him.
"Shock her, now!" Surge ordered.
"Rai…"
The flesh under her paws tingled, then exploded. She ignored the pain, then bit.
It hurt. It hurt. She locked her jaws, grinding her teeth in as deep as she could. She tasted blood, heard the raichu scream. The electricity faded. Painfully she released it and backed up, looking around for any new pokemon.
Lt. Surge recalled the prone raichu. "Not bad, kid. That persian's something else. You train her that way?" Elliot didn't know what to say. Surge laughed again, somehow less harshly. "Didn't think so, from the way she ignored your order. Smart kitty. How'd you get in, anyway?"
"I – I took the panels off," Elliot admitted. It occurred to him now that he'd cheated. Lt. Surge wouldn't give him the badge.
"Good!" boomed Surge. "The last bunch of trainers I fought just kept going around until they got lucky." He tossed Elliot a badge.
"But I-" Elliot started.
"Pokemon training is a fight, kid, not some game. You figure out a way around the rules, run with it. You try to fight by the other guy's rules and you'll lose in the end. Understand?"
"I, um, I-"
"Good."
-
-
Elliot sat down in the restaurant. He ordered pizza. He usually ate that or hamburger when he was in a city. In part it was that he wasn't a very adventurous eater, and in part it was still just that he'd had restrictions on eating it when he was at home.
Surge's pokemon choice was strange, Elliot thought as he sucked Caterpie Cola though a straw. Raichu were kind of pudgy and cute. It wasn't the sort of pokemon you usually associated with giant men in military fatigues. It hadn't done that well in the fight, either.
Elliot opened his pokedex, looking for information on raichu.
Raichu it read, the mouse pokemon. Its electric shocks can reach up to ten thousand volts. It uses its long tail as a ground to discharge surplus electricity. This pokemon is capable of knocking out a dragonite in a single shot.
Wow. Maybe it was stronger than he'd thought.
Elliot's food showed up promptly, and he didn't continue to wonder about the raichu.
When the waitress showed up to collect the plates, she paused. "Have you been to the park yet?" she asked.
"Park?" Elliot repeated.
"There's a park set up for trainer's pokemon." She pointed. "It's just down that street.
Elliot would have gone there, but he remembered Howler had been paralyzed by the magnemite, and Prowler was probably tired. He headed in the other direction, toward the Pokemon Center.
Pokemon battles seemed perpetual in Vermillion. He saw a small group starting to form around two boys, and stopped to watch as well.
For the more experienced, of which Elliot and anyone else in the crowd was not, the outcome of the battle could be seen just by looking at the two trainers.
One was young, probably ten. He looked desperate. The other was much older, fifteen or sixteen, and he looked bored.
The pokemon on the field was a massive nidoking, who had swept aside each of the four pokemon the boy had tried to use.
Biting his lip, the younger boy tossed his fifth pokeball. A rattata appeared.
The nidoking lunged, not bothering to wait for his trainer's order, which had been the same for the past four. He tackled it easily, knocking it to the side and fainting it.
But something was wrong. The nidoking let out a cry, then fell to the ground, twitched, and stopped moving.
The older boy shouted, running to it. From the crowd, Elliot watched in confusion.
What had happened?
-
-
The crowd had dispersed as though they'd seen something they shouldn't, and not knowing what else to do, Elliot had done the same.
Now, sitting in the Center, he felt badly unsettled, the short burst of happiness from winning a badge completely forgotten. The nidoking…he hoped it'd be okay. But of course it would. Pokemon didn't –
Elliot started to look up at the Nurse Joy and flinched. But the ninetales had been okay. No one had died – pokemon didn't die.
It didn't look like it was breathing. The trainer hadn't recalled it. Gabrielle had said the nidorina –
But it hadn't been hurt. It was fine, maybe it was just tired.
Tired. It was his own thought and even he could tell it was stupid.
It must have been hurt earlier…he remembered Howler. Maybe it'd gotten shocked. That must have been it. Paralysis could do that.
Elliot settled down in his seat, feeling better.
-
-
With his pokemon healed, Elliot headed back in the direction the waitress had pointed. There were two trainers fighting in the same place, neither one the same as before, and there was no sign of the nidoking. Still uneasy, Elliot looked away.
There were two people standing off to the side, a boy Elliot's age and a girl who looked like she might be as old as seventeen.
"But Sis!" the boy was whining.
The strangeness of the phrase made Elliot pause. Was that his sister?
It wasn't as if it was so odd for a trainer to have a sibling. Plenty of people had brothers or sisters. It was just it was…odd for a trainer to have a sibling.
Elliot had never actually considered it; it was just understood. Thinking about it, it was obvious why. Many trainers were only trainers for a year or two, so a lot of the time, the first kid would have gone home before the other started. And even if they were both traveling at the same time for a little while, it wasn't likely they'd meet.
"No! You use Inferno, you think they won't notice?" the girl said, waving her finger in the boy's face. "I didn't raise him to be wasted like that. You pull that and you give him back. Jon can have him."
"Nobody'll notice, I won't show off, I'll just use him."
"Nobody'll notice Inferno?" the girl hissed scornfully. "Don't be stupid, Miguel. You let them see him and you can kiss leaving goodbye. You need at least four badges to even have a chance of getting out, you know that. You wanna be stuck in Kanto? You wanna be a 'lithe trainer?"
"…no."
"Then you listen to me. You use Tammi and Sammi and Sting if you want. Inferno's your protection, not your pet, and don't get that confused. Not unless you like the idea of him walking off when you really need him."
Elliot headed on. Up ahead he could see a sign for the park. He paused at a popcorn vender and bought a bag, then headed inside.
-
-
"Say hello, Prowler," Elliot was saying when she appeared.
Before her was a persian.
She sank to the ground, ears flattening down and fangs displayed. She growled.
((What's wrong with you?)) he said, looking nonchalant.
"Prowler," Elliot scolded. "It hadn't done anything. We're not fighting." She ignored him. He turned to the other trainer apologetically.
The other persian sighed, glancing away quickly to break their staring contest. ((Are you one of their pets? I was hoping we could talk.))
((She talks,)) said Caw. ((Nutty, though. Best to have your conversations elsewhere. You wouldn't believe the garbage she tried to tell us.))
Prowler glanced up. ((Stupid Bird.))
The other persian's ears perked. ((So you can talk! It's been a long time since I met anyone.))
She growled.
((Hey, I'm not going to do anything,)) he said, prancing backward playfully, tail held high as if completely oblivious to her behavior. His posture refused to acknowledge her threat. She watched him suspiciously.
((Hi who are you?)) Din said, running past Prowler.
Prowler snarled, jumping between the two.
She was only inches away. Before she could do anything, the other persian leaned forward and sniffed. She froze in place.
He pulled back, half-closing his eyes politely to again break the staring context. ((My name is Dance,)) he said. ((You're Prowler?))
Din tried to go past. She wanted to see the new pokemon who was like Prowler.
((Go and play with the other pokemon, Din,)) Prowler said, not daring to look back.
((But-))
((Please Din!)) Prowler said, her voice strained.
((Okay,)) the mightyena said, sounding confused.
Dance's head turned, watching the other pokemon run off.
((Please don't hurt her,)) Prowler blurted out.
He looked at her, confused. ((What do you mean? This isn't a fight.)) She was still rigid, holding perfectly still. He flopped down on the ground casually, belly exposed. ((You really should relax. When were you caught?))
((Days ago,)) said Prowler. She wasn't sure of the exact date. She couldn't tell how long it had been outside the pokeball.
((Oh, so he wasn't your first?))
((My first what?))
((Trainer.))
((He is.))
((Oh. Then…?))
((I was on my own.))
((For that long? How'd you manage that?))
She didn't understand what he meant exactly. She was young. ((Where I was, there weren't people. He caught me because I left there.))
((No humans?)) A persian smile. ((Then why'd you leave?))
If you lie fast enough, sometimes you can avoid thinking about the truth. Images swelled on the edges of her thoughts, threatening to break loose. ((I wanted to.))