Angels Fall First.
Chapter 7: Footsteps
The academy was quiet and miserable. Many students hadn't bothered to come back in at all; the loss of their pokémon to Team Rocket was too devastating. Those who had made the effort to return simply slouched against their lockers or talked together in hushed voices, their eyes defeated.
Kira felt guilty as she walked through the hallways with her pokémon at her side. Bleak walked close at her heels his head lowered, and Whiplash rode on his back. Even the tiny mouse had sensed the sombre mood and he was silent.
People were giving her looks of resentment and jealousy, as well as the couple of others she noticed still had their pokémon.
There was a boy with a taillow on his shoulder and a girl with a shroomish, but those were the only pokémon she spotted on the way to her first class.
It was disheartening to say the least.
Later in the day she had an abnormally long lunch break, since her battle class was cancelled for the time being. After all, she was the only one in her particular class to have retained a pokémon. Several students from that class demanded to know how she'd gotten her pokémon back and why she hadn't retrieved others at the same time, and she had to uncomfortably explain that despite what it looked like, hers were never actually taken.
She was even given two separate offers of people asking to buy her pokémon off her! She'd just glared at them and refused flat out, throwing in a small speech about pokémon not being property and promptly storming off.
In an effort to escape the dismal atmosphere Kira headed up to Professor Redwood's office with her lunch. The cafeteria was not a happy place to be.
"Ah, Kira! I was hoping you'd stop by," the professor said, looking up from a microscope as she entered. "There were some people here asking about you earlier. I ... overheard them talking to the headmaster." He blushed slightly and Kira couldn't hide a smile at the thought of him eavesdropping.
"What kind of people?" She asked, only a little curious. People from social services checked up on her every so often, so it wasn't a terribly new thing. They didn't often come to the school though.
"Two young men. I believe they said they were friends of yours from out of town."
Kira's hand paused, the sandwich halfway to her mouth.
"Do I even have any friends from out of town?" She mused thoughtfully. "What'd they look like?"
Bleak looked up from his dish of pokémon food, following the conversation carefully. Whiplash on the other hand was stuffing his face happily, oblivious to anything other than his lunch.
"Well…" the professor began thoughtfully, thinking back. "Both seemed a little older than you, maybe in the age group of twenty-three to twenty-six? I'm not sure. One was a big lad, minty green hair. Looked like he worked out a lot. The other was blonde and a little smaller. He had a shifty look about him. Not to insult your friends, of course." He hurriedly added.
Kira nodded dismissively. She was pretty sure she didn't know any guys of that age, especially ones who weren't from round here. Although there was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that those descriptions did mean something to her. She sighed and shook her head.
"Nope, no idea. What did they want?" she asked with a little more interest than she'd had at the beginning of this conversation.
"They said something about having some news to give you. The Headmaster offered to go and find you, but they just took your address and said they'd rather talk to you at home." He shrugged. "That's all I heard."
She nodded again, finally biting her sandwich. Whoever they were it looked like she'd be seeing them again sooner or later if they took her address. She wondered if maybe they were friends of her family who had managed to track her down after all this time. As unlikely as that was, she was curious now.
Thanking the Professor for the information, she also asked him to keep an eye on Whiplash for the day, thinking it'd be better for him to be in a less miserable environment.
When she came to pick him up later she was greeted by the sound of hysterical laughter. Warily throwing a look at Bleak, she pushed the door open, her mouth dropping open in shock.
Redwood was frantically typing things into his computer and Whiplash… well… he seemed to be having a great time.
He was sitting on the professor's Jumpluff who was taking great, graceful leaps towards the ceiling, then floating smoothly back down. Whiplash seemed to love this and was giggling uncontrollably. Sparks jumped from his cheeks as he laughed but the Jumpluff didn't seem too bothered.
"I got him to speak!" Redwood exclaimed happily as he noticed Kira. "He's confirmed a lot of what I thought, it's great that he seems to like me more now!"
Kira looked uneasily at the hyperactive rodent. "How did you get him to trust you?"
"It was easy! I just gave him some candy. He seems to love the stuff!"
Kira and Bleak both groaned. "You gave him sweets? Oh shite. Is he on a sugar rush now?"
Redwood shrugged sheepishly. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
It took a lot of work to get him to come home with them, since he kept dodging his ultraball's beam. Eventually they just said they were going and started to walk off and then Kira soon felt the familiar weight of him bouncing onto her shoulder.
Kira was a little disappointed that her mystery visitors never showed up that evening. She was dying to find out who they were. It wasn't every day that she got a couple of older guys asking about her after all.
Still, by the time she went to bed there was no sign of them and she resigned herself to the fact that they must be waiting until tomorrow.
Kira was asleep that night in bed and Bleak lay on top of the covers with his forepaws and his head resting on her stomach.
Due to his Early Bird ability he woke up far more easily than most pokémon, and a faint noise outside caught his attention. Instantly in full wakefulness, he sprung off the bed and dashed to the window, peering under the curtain.
Kira woke up with a shock as he leapt off her rather carelessly. She glanced around the dark room blearily, her mind scrambling to wake up. Risking a look at the glowing clock she saw it was 3:19 am. Far too early in her opinion.
"Bleak?" she whispered into the darkness. He had a way of blending into the shadows that made it hard to spot him in the dark.
"Shush." He hissed, head tilted as he listened intently.
She stayed quiet, wondering what had caught his attention.
After a few minutes he jumped back onto the bed.
"What was that about?" she asked, yawning.
"There was someone out there. I heard the front gate open." He shrugged slightly. "It looked like there was someone in the garden, but they just looked up at the house for a bit then left."
Kira frowned, "Why would someone do that?"
He flopped down against the covers. "No idea, maybe they were just drunk or something." He reassured her.
She nodded and eventually went back to sleep. Bleak on the other hand decided to stay on the alert, just in case.
A few days passed and there was no sign of Kira's 'out of town friends'. She was disappointed and still intensely curious about what news they were supposedly bringing.
Maybe the Professor had heard wrong and it wasn't her they were asking after at all.
She stifled a yawn and glanced at her watch. Oh crap! It was coming on for half eleven at night and her curfew was at ten. True her carers had become accustomed to her being late quite often, but and hour and a half was a bit of a push. Hopefully they'd all be asleep.
She'd been down to the local pokémon mart, once she realised she was out of pokémon food and her little buddies would have nothing for breakfast. At least the marts now stayed open 24 hours for travelling trainers. If they'd been shut she would have felt really guilty.
She was suddenly aware of an extra set of footsteps some way back. She paused and they stopped, so she looked around a little nervously. The fact that there seemed to be no one about worried her more than if she'd seen someone on the path a ways back.
Cursing the fact that both her pokémon were snugly in their pokéballs, which she'd left on her bed, she picked up her pace. Before she'd had Bleak she'd had to go into town on her own all the time. And she was only going to one shop so it seemed pointless to drag them along.
The plastic carrier bag she was holding seemed to rustle far too loudly and she was very aware of the thud of her boots. She wished she could just disappear into the shadows like Bleak.
She could hear the extra footsteps again. They were light and fast so she guessed their owner was in a hurry. Trying not to waver in her own steps, she spun unexpectedly to look behind her. Just in time to see someone drop out of sight into an alleyway.
Her heart was beating hard now. It could just be a coincidence but she was pretty sure that whoever that was, they were following her. It wasn't too unusual in this crummy part of town for people to be mugged or murdered or something. But Kira had never really considered that she could be one of the victims.
She started to walk faster, hearing the other set of footsteps do the same. Up ahead, she thought she saw someone peering out of another alleyway and she panicked. One guy, she might be able to handle, but how many were in on this?
She broke into a run, crossing the deserted road as she did so. No one was going to drag her into an alley and kill her, not after all she'd survived through!
She could clearly hear the footsteps pounding after her and she risked a look over her shoulder. There were two men a fair way behind, but it was too dark to make out their features. Not that she cared what they looked like. She tried to move faster, but the bag she carried threw her off balance a little and it was hard to run smoothly.
She could see home now and pushed her legs to move faster. If she could just get inside she'd be okay!
She threw the gate open, shoving it closed behind her. The footsteps seemed to have stopped, but she rushed to unlock the front door all the same. Once inside she frantically locked the door again, and then leaned against it breathing hard. That was too close for comfort.
"Kira?" a voice came out of the darkness of the hallway making her jump, startled.
"Daniel?" She asked, trying to calm down. Little Daniel was the youngest child there, being just six years old. "What are you doing out of bed?"
"My lights are flashing…" he whimpered sounding scared. "I think there's a ghost in my room!"
"Your lights?" she asked only half paying attention. She hoped he wouldn't notice she was trembling. She didn't think she could explain to him that she just nearly been jumped on the way home and probably only narrowly escaped being viciously murdered. The poor kid was still dealing with the loss of his parents.
He was nodding, eyes wide. "I thought it might be a storm, but it's not even raining!" he snivelled. "I knocked on your door. It looked like your lights were flashing too, but only your pokémon shouted something and no one opened up."
She nodded, trying to focus on the scared little boy and not think about someone bashing the door down with an axe. "Wait, which pokémon?" she asked, realising they were both supposed to be in their pokéballs.
"Your Pikachu, but I don't know what he said."
"Pichu," she corrected him. Of course he wouldn't understand him, as he'd never learnt pokéspeak.
"Come on, let's go see what the problem is." She suggested, leading him up the stairs. The landing light was on and the bulb kept dimming then getting brighter. She frowned that was certainly odd.
"See," Daniel whispered, "It's a ghost."
"I bet it's not." She smiled at him. But what could cause that? They walked to her bedroom door and she could see a lot of flashing lights coming from beneath it. They weren't in time with the landing light though and she frowned.
What could.. "Oh he wouldn't!" she suddenly growled and threw the door open. Just as she'd expected, the source of the lights was beneath her desk and her computer's power plugs were trailing out instead of being plugged in at the wall.
Keeping her distance and ordering Daniel to stay in the doorway, she crouched down to look under the desk.
"Whiplash, you bad Pichu!" she yelled, belatedly realising she didn't want to wake everyone up.
The electric rodent flinched dramatically and tugged his paw from the power socket, hiding it behind his back. Electricity was jumping around the highly charged pokémon, and his eyes were wide and panicky.
"I told you never to do that!" Kira fumed, pointing an accusing finger at him.
"I didn't!" He squeaked out, but it was an obvious lie.
"Do you have any idea how much that'll cost on the electricity bill?" He shook his head and his wide, green eyes stared up into Kira's.
She suddenly felt that she was being too hard on him. After all, how could she be mad at something so small and innocent? She shouldn't shout at him. Poor thing.
"Kira?" Daniel asked cautiously from the doorway.
Kira shook her head and glared at the twitching Pichu.
"Tell me you didn't just use your charm attack on me!" she growled unhappily.
He squeaked and backed up under the desk. "I don't want you to be mad at me! Sorry!"
She groaned tiredly. Couldn't she even get a break between crisis's these days?
"Look, just… get away from the computer. You blow that up and I'll never forgive you." She pointed at the bed. "Go and stand on the bed, close to the wall. And please try not to shock me."
The little pokémon gladly did as he was told, fighting to hold in the vast amount of electricity.
Kira pulled the rubber gloves she'd never really needed out of a draw and tugged them on, before edging towards the window.
She flinched as stray sparks hit the floor near her feet. Making it safely to the window, she peered out. There was no sign of anyone out there, not even her would be attackers. She yanked the stiff window open then backed away to the door where Daniel still stood watching.
"Stand on the window ledge and use thundershock into the empty street. See if you can get rid of some of the electricity." She ordered, hoping this would work.
Whiplash nodded enthusiastically and sped over to the window. He unleashed a blinding flash of electricity out into the night, then took a deep breath and did it again. After about five thundershocks, they became less intense and he was only sparking a little bit.
Kira nodded and ordered him to stay put, then turned to Daniel.
"I'm sorry he scared you, but you see… no ghosts!" she smiled weakly and ruffled his hair. "Now go back to bed before I get into trouble for keeping you up."
He saluted her with a grin and scampered off down the hallway, giving her one last smile and a wave before disappearing into his own room.
After he was gone, she closed her own door and flopped onto her bed, looking wearily up at the sad looking Pichu on her window ledge.
"I'm so sorry Kira! I couldn't resist the 'lectric was calling me and it feels so good to be so powerful and I know you told me not to but I was gonna stop after just a little bit." He tried to explain himself, all the while looking like he was going to cry. "Do you hate me now?"
Kira sighed but shook her head. "Of course I don't hate you, silly. I'm sorry I yelled.. it's just.. been a rough night. And this was the last thing I wanted to come home to. You have to understand that when I tell you not to do something there's usually a good reason for it."
He nodded, offering a cautious smile. His cheeks were still fizzing a little but he seemed almost back to normal now.
"I promise I won't do it again." He swore, a determined look in his eyes. No matter how much he was drawn to the electricity, he couldn't bear upsetting his trainer. He would ignore the urges to keep her happy.
She smiled gratefully and blew him a kiss, not daring to actually touch him whilst he was still shooting off random sparks every so often. Reassured that he knew she wasn't really mad, she returned him to his ultraball and lay back on her bed. What a stressful day.
Reluctantly she got ready for bed, then picked up Bleak's pokéball. She wasn't sure if she wanted to talk to any one right now, but he'd probably be offended if she left him in the ball all night. And even more so if she didn't tell him what had happened, not that she wanted to worry him.
She sighed, then let him out. He seemed to sense that she was unhappy about something and she carefully explained the night's events. Making sure to reassure him that she was fine of course.
He knew one thing as they fell asleep that night. He was never letting her wander the streets alone at night again. Who knew humans would just attack each other for no reason? What a stupid species. Even though Kira had told him it was no big deal, he could tell it had really shaken her. Next time he'd just have to be there to look after her then.
Author's note:
Ugh, I don't know if this chapter is really any good. I've had a fever for the last few days and I think there was a point where I was hallucinating whilst I was trying to write this. So if any of it is weird and rambles about floating clowns then just ignore it. I still feel crappy so I can't be dealing with review responses right now. But thanks aplenty to those who took the time to leave me a review. It cheered me up a lot. :)