Hiya folks.
Here is what I have of this chapter, and thank you to all those who have supported this story. I'm afraid that I've had little in the way of inspiration in recent times. So, there is little here, as I can't quite make the progress I have previously. Furthermore, due to a combination of events over the last six months, my poor state of health and my work load, I can't honestly see this piece being finished, which is a shame. Anyone who is interested in what I had planned for the future can feel free to mail me, and I'll try and sum up the rest of the plots, along with the un- resolved twists and further changes.
I'd like to say I really am sorry once again to those who enjoyed this story. Maybe sometime I will complete it, I personally would love to. But the way things are now, I will not. So sorry, once again.
Well, I guess I should get on with things.
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"I swear if Pikachu steals my mints one more time, I'm gonna skin her alive and turn her into slippers. That's my last packet!" Hazel throws her bag down in disgust, barely missing my left hand, and storms off. I can vaguely hear high-pitched giggling, and the sounds of someone running very hard after someone else, including calls of "give them back!". Hazel and Mints, she used to use them as an alternative to brushing her teeth, until Misty made a jibe about her not having enough teeth already. That wasn't pretty.
("Ow! OWowowowowowwww!") Chikorita again. I TOLD her that climbing trees was a bad idea with her injuries, but boredom can defeat the shrewdest advice. I glance at my watch, then back the the map. So, half-eight, out of here by quarter-to, five miles, say three hours, maybe add half getting through Cerulean, should be there by, oh, half twelve easily. Then, time for some food, and check in to the centre, since Misty doesn't want to see her sisters right now..... A vivid recollection of last night echoes through my head :-
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I glance at the girl sat at my side, rigid as a steel rod, and try to break the freezing silence. "Tomorrow, we'll be back in Cerulean. I suppose we'll go to the Gym first."
"Why do we need to go there?" She sounds utterly disinterested, statue- esque as those Kingdras I saw at the bridge yesterday.
"Well, it's somewhere to stay. And you could say hi to your sisters again, I know they miss you." Sudden as ica cracks, her demeanor shifts from chilling calm to flaming panic.
"NO!" She seems to physically jolt at the idea, before clamping onto me with the force of a vice. "I can't see them, not them, please not them, please....." For what must have been the thousandth time that night, she lapsed into sobs. I held onto her tightly, rocking gently while willing her with all my heart to stop.
"Okay, we'll stay somewhere else. How about a Pokemon center? They're always happy to help, the one in Cerulean has lodgings attched." I try desperately to keep any tremor out of my voice, hold my tone level. I can't stop a tiny rivulet of water escaping my eyes though, thankfully unnoticed by the girl buried into my side. "They might know you there, but I'm sure Joy will not mind keeping quiet."
"Yeah - " The sobbing slows again, until she's silent and once again sat sentry-like beside me, gazing at a tree. "That might work." She keeps talking as if addressing the tree, never once looking at me. "But you've got to realise, I'm not going to be going out anywhere, I really need to prepare some more....."
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Enough about that for now, back to the present.
("No breakfast? Well, I will survive.") Cyndaquil lapses down beside the spread map, watching me work.
"And who's fault is it we don't have any food left, hmmm?" I catch his eye and grin, recieving one back.
("You can't blame someone for being hungry after a week in the wilderness, only living off berries and a few root plants. Besides, there was barely enough here for breakfast anyway -")
" - Before you ate it all last night." I finish, his grin growing sheepish.
("Okay, okay.") I shake my head gently, returning attention to the map, just checking for any major problems in our path which could lead to a hefty long-cut.
"But you have to admit, cold beans, gone-off saveloy sausage and chocolate rasins was an interesting meal, if a bit much." I chuckle quietly to myself, forgetting my work. "If I remember rightly, you said something like that yourself yesterday. It went something like : 'I think I shouldn't have had that last - Yuuuurgh.' although I might be wrong about the Yuuuurgh. Maybe more a Yaaaargh." He laughs alongside me, ruefully enjoying the memory.
("I could've eaten a whole side of, well, anything. I'd have even torn the leek from a Farfech'd's grasp. His cold, stiff grasp, after I'd eaten almost everything else.....") He seems to shudder for a second, blinking incredulously at his last statement. ("Sorry, I don't know where that came from. I must still be starving.")
"Well since you oh-so-politely regurgitated our food supply a few seconds after finishing it, I'm not surprised." I chide gently, making an alteration to our path in order to cross a bridge just outside the city. "Although you made the saveloy more edible." I grab the rubber and scrub out a part of my line.
("I'm surprised our food lasted this long, especially with another glutton in the ranks. Honestly, the way Hazel eats, you'd swear that the food came with a recorded message stating that 'This meal will self destruct in..... 'BOOM!!'") I smile widely at the joke, pencil laying ready to draw in the alteration. I slowly etch out the carbon line, only half-listening to Cyndaquil as he keeps talking. ("We've been a bit slow too, I thought we'd be back a day or two ago. Mind you, I haven't been around for a while, that's saved supplies. And Misty hasn't been eatin.....") I bite my lower lip as he trails off, penicl frozen mid-way through it's journey but held with a viciously trembling hand. My eyes fix on a pair of words, just a knife edge from it's point. Cerulean City.
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"Why should I want to go back?" I shrug idly at her irate burst, maintaining the mask of calm.
"Well, lots of people like to go back to their home town now and then. I would like to spend more time in Pallet than I do." Misty stands stock still before me, staring with chilling fury in her eyes. It takes all my determination to hold eye contact.
"I don't want to go back." She snarls, fingers curling into her plams.
"But you have to. Day after tomorrow, well, tomorrow now, you've got a -"
"I know full well whatI have today, tomorrow, whenever it is. Doesn't mean I have to like the fact I'm setting foot in that sewer again." Her rage seemingly over, she sits down beside me, back ramrod-straight and arms set rigid in her lap.
"What is wrong with Cerulean? It's not heaven, but -"
"What's wrong with Cerulean? I'll tell you....."
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("Ash? Ash, if you don't say something this second, I'm going to, uhm, to, aaah, oh hell, just say something!") Cyndaquil's worried tone reaches me, and I lift the pencil from the map, trying to ignore the puncture the tip has just made through the paper.
"Could you go and get Chikorita out of the tree? I want to get going soon, and I know how much fun she thinks it is to pretend she can't hear me telling her to get down." He blinks slowly at my tone, which is devoid of emotion, before muttering a heartfelt 'sorry' and trailing off to where Chikorita's sprightly laugh is eminating from the Oak she's hiding in. My eyes watch an acorn smacking the returning Hazel in the back of the head, apparently much to her displeasure. But my mind doesn't register the scene, it's set off on another flight of memory.
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"Everything, that's what.""Everything?"
"Yes. Everything."
"How can everything be wrong with Cerulean?"
"Because it's Cerulean. You didn't grow up there. You didn't know what it was like." She starts fiddling with her hair, a sure sign of worry.
"Then why don't you tell me?"
"Because I haven't got a week to spare." I glance to the sky, which is still only lit by the radiant moon.
"But you've got all night." Misty sighs, gazing at her knees, fingers still twiddling with a stray lock of hair. Seconds pass. Minutes. All the time, staring down, hands moving restlessly. I feel my attention growing hazy, as the adrenaline and determination used through the dark hours begins to demand payment. Like the waves lapping at the shore as the tide approaches, my eyelids waver, dip, and inexorably slide closed.....
"It all started when I was around seven or eight" And they are wrenched open with a start as Misty's quiet, almost child-like tone enters my ears. "Not long after my parents became proprietors of the gym. When we were just some fairly affluent family who kept and trained pokemon, I was kinda spoilt, but happy. I'd taken after my sisters, loving music and ballet, and playing with water pokemon, along with all the usual little girl things." She speaks as if she's alone, unaware of my presence, just remeniscing through voice rather than just thought. "But then we took the gym over. Soon as we moved in, everything changed. I remember, I'd injured my leg slipping by the pool and it hurt to bend it. That night I had ballet, and I didn't want to go. My parents as good as dragged me there. My sisters laughed at me when I fell over because of it. It went that way with everything. What was play became work, and there was no choice in the matter." She sighs again, leaning back to gaze upawards, voice still careless. "I was taught, over and over, be the best. No choice. I'm sure my parents loved me, but all I can remember is their ambition. Success was everything. My sisters liked this, since they had looks and natural physical talent. Plus, they always had me to look down on. So I, well, resisted."
"And they didn't like that." The clouds of anger begin to gather on Misty's face, although her words remain calm.
"You could say that. I began to slack off, not refusing to go to ballet or music lessons, but fooling around or ignoring tutors while there. Of course, they noticed. They began to pressure me more, and I resisted more. What became obvious pretty fast was that they, my mother in particlar, wanted the gym to be less a training gym, more a theater. And all four daugters were to be the showpiece." Memory lane is definitely turning into a dark alley, as my friend's expression and tone grow blacker by the word. "That was where things went wrong. My parents didn't agree on many things, but the key point was the gym's status. Dad wanted battling to share the stage with shows. Mum envisioned the gym to as basically a theater, which I think was her reason for wanting the gym all along. Dad thought that this would remove the gym's status as a gym, which was true. Mum felt that training was not as important as the arts, and that such a grand, historic building would be better served to promote them. On, and on, and on it went, with my sisters and I in the middle." She clenches slim fingers, and I sense she's taken steps into the darkness. "My sisters loved the idea of a showbiz life, and couldn't really give a toss about the pokemon. So, they queued up behind my mother. I loved the pokemon, they were the little light in my harsh life. I couldn't bear the thought of them leaving. I-I couldn't take that....."
"Here, Mist." I hand her a tissue as her voice breaks, eyes, like storm clouds, threatening to overflow. She takes it without comment, just sighing deeply and shaking her head.
"So that was that. Battle lines drawn. Myself and dad against mum and the three sisters. I was a pawn, really, so were my sisters. Mum encouraged my sisters to neglect pokemon, and focus on their obvious artistic talent. In response, dad let me ignore the ballet and elocution lessons, so I could spend more time training, which I loved. My body grew lax, voice rusty. My sisters found yet more reasons to pour scorn on me. It all came to a head when dad actually reported mum to the league representatives. Because I found something.....someone....." She grits her teeth, face now slick with running water, but determined to keep talking. "My mother had been liasing with a major force in the media world, discussing plans for the renovation of the Cerulean Gym, or as they called it, Grand Theater Cerulean. And when I say liasing, well, you can take that word to the extreme. I ran. I told dad. Dad told the authorities. Ruthless as when dragging Hazel's father through the mud, he exposed both the plans and her adultery. The league was disgusted by her behaviour, but even more so her hidden ideas to transform the gym. Dad filed for divorce, everything was kept hush-hush, and mum vanished, intent on making a break with her reputation untarnished. Then the shit really hit the fan." She pauses, talking several deep breaths, eyes shut tight.
"Do you want to stop? You don't have to tell me everything if you can't." She shakes her head gently, hair black in the pale moonlight lapping languidly across her face.
"Can't stop. Stop, can't stop.....No, can't....."
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Then she did as the sobs came, again. I held her tight, again. It could have been an age until she regained composure, in all likelihood it was only minutes. And then she continued. But I don't really want to remember any more.
("Heeeey Ash! You done yet?") Because I don't want to start crying myself.
"Yep. Give me a second." I fold up the map, stowing it carefully away before hefting my pack onto my shoulders, staggering with the wieght. It's not lost on Pikachu.
("You okay?") She looks worried. After all last night, I must look like I feel. A big, steaming pile of shit.
"Ask me later." An ear twitches, and I expect the spanish inquisition.
("Come on Ash! Time to go. Bring the rat if you want.") Chikorita calls over, not attempting to hide the snide tone. Pikachu stiffens, and looks ready to crush someone's skull before I give her a slight shake of the head. Even so, she clenches her clawed paws into fists and hisses through her teeth.
"Okay, be there now." I cast a glance across the group, Hazel looking nervy, Chikorita unnecessarily perky, Cyndaquil anxious, and then a lingering look at a thin, solitary figure stood slightly apart, head bowed. Not the time for more dreaming Ash, let's get to Cerulean first. So, fire out, yes. Everyone set? Yes. Mind at ease? Nope. Well, two out of three is the best I'm going to get.
Next stop, Cerulean city.
Again, thanks to all of those who kindly reviewed. I hope someday I'll be able to conclude this work, but for now, farewell and goodnight.
Dan.