"Yes ma'am," said Erin as the nurse in charge of the Pokecenter handed her the key to her room. "And thank you."
"Oh, you're welcome sweetie," the nurse replied. She was a short plump lady who couldn't help but be friendly to a customer. "I hope you and your pokemon have a nice stay."
"I'm sure we will," said Erin, trying to end the conversation and get away from all the sickening kindness. She hurried away and back to the seats in the lobby to find Charmeleon searching through her bad, taking out her meager possessions and setting them down carelessly. "Hey!" she yelled at him. "What do you think you are doing?"
Charmeleon looked up at her innocently. "I just wanted to see what humans keep in these things. Every time I would see a human walking down a path, they would have some variation of this thing on their back, and I wanted to know what was so important that they had to carry it with them all the time." He looked back at in the bag, moving it to see if he had missed anything inside. "But now I see that, besides the food, there's nothing of worth in here."
"Hey!"
"Well it's true. And what's this thing?" he asked, picking the pokedex up from underneath a blanket.
Erin quickly moved to conceal it from anyone who might be looking, even though they were the only ones in there at the time. "Don't play with that! It's not a toy." She delicately placed it back in her bag and then began to refold the blanket and other clothes that were now strung about the nearby chairs. "I have to go call the Professor now, and I don't want you going through my things again."
"But what is it?" Charmeleon asked, getting up to follow her.
"I'll tell you later. Hey, I want to surprise the Prof, so don't appear on screen until I tell you, alright?"
"Fine, whatever," he replied indifferently, continuing to poke around the room.
Erin dialed the numbers to Professor Chronal's laboratory and waited for him to pick up. His face appeared on the vid-screen a few seconds later and his mouth broke into a smile. "Oh, hello Erin! I trust you found your way to the city ok. Well, since you're talking to me, I guess you would've had to, right?" He made himself chuckle by saying this. "How was your journey?"
"It was easy sailing, at least until I got into town," Erin said, remembering the fight she had just a few hours before.
"Humph, I see," said Chronal, understanding once he saw the small bruise on Erin's cheek. "What city are you in?"
"I'm not sure, there aren't any signs anywhere, and I haven't cared enough to ask anyone. But that's not why I called you anyway. A few hours down the path yesterday, I saw a pair of manky cubs!"
"Really?" asked Chronal, excited. "Real wild Pokemon! Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure," replied Erin. "They were about this big," she said, indicating with her hands their size. "And were a dusty brown color. Everything was just like the pictures I've seen and disc-videos that they make us watch in class. They hopped away when they realized that I had seen them though."
"Erin, that's amazing!" said the Professor, ecstatic. "I would have loved to be there to have seen them. I would've liked to know right away. Why didn't you just call me using the call-feature on the pokedex?"
"The what feature?" asked Erin. But just then the voice of Charmeleon called out from near the chairs.
"I didn't do it!"
Professor Chronal looked confused and Erin glanced over in the Char's direction to see him with the pokedex open in his hand, with a vid-screen not unlike the one Erin was using to talk to the Professor out that he had activated. He was now pressing all the buttons frantically with the free hand attempting to shut it. He glanced at Erin. "I didn't do it!" he repeated.
Erin yelled back, not really angry, just frustrated. "Charmeleon! What do you mean you didn't do it? I'm sitting here watching you!" She stood up and hurried over to him. "I thought I told you not to touch it!"
"Well of course that was going to make me want to touch it more! Don't you know anything?" Charmeleon yelled back, still pressing every button on the pokedex while Erin tried to take it away from him.
Professor Chronal, who could hear everything but was unable see it, was extremely confused. "A charmeleon?"
He might as well have just been talking to a wall, because Erin and Charmeleon were too wrapped up in their own argument that soon resorted to pushing and shoving to hear anything he was saying.
"Give it back!" Erin was saying, attempting to pull the pokedex from Charmeleon's claws. "The professor gave it to ME!"
"You still haven't told me what it is!" Charmeleon argued. "I want to know! Wait," he said, suddenly still and sniffing the air. "Do you smell something?"
Erin too, sniffed the air and then glanced at the wooden table that was nearby and jumped back with a shout. Charmeleon's tail had come too close to it for too long and it had caught on fire. "Put it out put it out put it out!!!" she screamed.
"I'm trying!" said Charmeleon, batting the flames with his hands.
Erin stuffed the pokedex back into her bag and brought out the blanket. She began waving it over the fire that had begun to spread to the chairs, attempting to snuff it out.
The professor was still confused. "Erin? Erin are you still here? Erin are you all ri-AAHHH! Is that fire?" This was all he able to say before the heat from the flames melted to power-strip to the vid-screens and his screen went blank.
When Erin and Charmeleon combined their efforts, they were soon able to put out the fire, although they were powerless to save the table, a number chairs, and the power to the vid-screens. Charmeleon shrugged and gave Erin a sheepish grin while she shot him a death-glare fit to kill. Charmeleon then glanced behind them and blanched, all traced of his former grin now gone. Erin turned as well and what she saw froze her heart. The kindly nurse from the desk was standing there, her attitude drastically changed. Her hair was tossed about in anger; her near-white face was now blood red, and she was foaming at the mouth. As one, both Erin and Charmeleon pointed at the other accusingly.
"GET… OUT!" is all she said in a deep roar-like tone. It was all that was required of her, as they were out the door in a flash, Erin stuffing the remainder of her belongings into her bag as she ran.
When they thought they were a safe distance away from the Pokecenter to stop running and take a breath, Erin glared once more at Charmeleon. "I told you not to touch it."
"Oh, so now it's my fault, is it?" he said defensively.
"Of course it's your fault," snapped Erin. "Who else has a flame on the end of their tail?" She sighed. "Let's go and find a hotel now. You owe me for my blanket, by the way," she said as she stood up and began to walk down the street. Her blanket had sacrificed its life in the attempt to put out the fire.
"The table wouldn't have caught on fire if you hadn't tried to take that thing from me."
"You weren't supposed to have it in the first place!" Erin yelled at him, frantic.
"You could have asked nicely!" he yelled back, their argument starting up once more
.
Amazing how much alike the two were…