Chapter 8

Brian:

It was about three thirty and as usual I was no where near sleepy. I finally decided to get up and do something. The way Misty had looked at me, well, I knew she was on to me. She had to know, I mean how could she not? She knew me better than I knew myself and I had no doubts in my mind that I was messed up. I couldn't get her involved in this, not again. Not ever again. Our relationship had meant more after the events about a year and a half ago, and I just couldn't bear the thought of putting a strain or stress on Misty. I sat in the recliner for nearly two hours as I formulated a plan. I knew I couldn't stay, so I finally decided to leave. Right then. I packed up all my things and then found a little bit of stationary and a pen in the table's drawer that was near the window. I tried to think of the best way to tell her that I was leaving with all these problems but for her not to worry about me. I tried my best but I feel I may have not succeeded too well.

Misty, I am so very sorry. I wish I could stay here with you longer but I just can't bring myself to put our relationship through such strain. I have to move on, even though I don't want to. It's just something that I have to do. Please, don't worry about me. I may have some problems right now but since I have you in my heart they will never get the best of me, okay? So please, don't worry. I'm always just an email away, and I'll do my best to check it as often as I get the chance. I'll return, I swear it. Goodbye.

Brian

It was about the best I could come up with in such a short time, but I hoped it would help her not to worry too much. I grabbed my backpack and duffle bag and strapped my wristbands on firmly, then left my room. I considered not waking Phillip up, just letting him be and not keeping him tagging along for the bumpy ride. I can't explain it, but something told me to wake him up. A gut feeling I guess. I knocked on his door softly and then a little bit louder when there was no response. I waited for a minute and finally Phillip opened the door and blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

"Brian? What is it?" he asked, confused.

"Phillip, I'm leaving now. If you want to come, then I would welcome it, but I'll understand if you don't want to be dragged along with me and my problems." Phillip rubbed his eyes and looked me over. He seemed to register what I was saying and saw my bags were packed.

"No, Brian, no, you can't go," he told me, suddenly very awake. "Brian, you are having some serious problems right now and the last thing you need it to head out on the road. You need to lie low here for a while, clear out your mind and get better, okay? We can go anytime, but I think it would be best if we stayed here for a while, okay?" I shook my head.

"No, not okay. I will not do this to Misty. She doesn't need or deserve this right now and I intend to leave before I can but any burden on her or our relationship. So that's why I'm leaving. The choice is yours you can come with me or stay here. But I'm leaving and I'm leaving now, so decide. Whatever you choose, just know that it's okay with me and that you're one of the best people I've ever met." Phillip looked like he might argue the point with me more but he instead fell silent for a while, just staring at me.

"Hold on a minute." He finally said, sounding more worried than angry, although that was there as well. He shuffled back into his bedroom and began packing his things up. He sat down on the edge of the bed and laced up his sneakers and then returned to the doorway, ready to go. "Don't think I'll let you go off on your own like this, you fool." He said, but most of the anger was gone from his voice. I was just about to cry. I hadn't expected him to come along. I thought he was a nice person but he would want to just wash his hands of the whole sticky mess and go his own way. I found a small thumbtack in the wall and used it to pin the note to my door. "Brian, are you sure about this? I mean really, really sure about this?" Phillip asked me. I nodded solemnly.

"Yes, it's the only thing I can do." Phillip said okay and then we left Misty and her Gym just before the sun came up.

We made our way quietly out the front door and headed towards the south part of the city. We stopped only briefly at a bakery and picked up a few bagels and doughnuts before we continued out of town. This early in the morning there were few people out an about; mostly a bunch of office building workers carrying their briefcases and looking like they had somewhere important to be. The sun was still partially hidden behind the mountains to the west of us, which of course was technically the east, and it bathed me in a warm glow as the dew began to evaporate from the plants in the city. We walked in silence for a long time, almost an hour, and even after we had put the city behind us. I couldn't believe the pain that was eating me up. I knew I had to go, but I wanted to just stop right there and not move. It was a terrible effort to keep my legs moving me forward. We headed south through a long stretch of open grassy planes. The wind was cool and blowing pretty good too, which had a totally relaxing affect on the tall fields of grass as it whipped them into calm waves like a beautiful green ocean. We could see Pokemon from time to time, darting through the grass; mostly a bunch or Rattata though. Flocks of Pidgey would fly by from time to time overhead and then they would land on one of the few trees that speckled the landscape. We made our way directly south for hours. It was around noon when we entered a pretty heavily forested area just north of the underground tunnel routes we had planned to take to Saffron City, which was on the way to Vermillion City. The forest was so thick that the trees crashed together and blocked out the majority of the sunlight. Although it was day you couldn't really tell. We traveled south through part of the forest and decided to stop in a clearing about a half hour later for lunch. The clearing was one of the few places in the forest where there was enough of a gap between the trees so the sunlight could fully shine through. Phillip went searching the woods for some firewood and I rummaged through my backpack to see what kind of things we had that I could cook. I found a couple of cans of alphabet soup and decided that would do. Phillip came back in a few minutes with some wood and I pulled out my old lucky Zippo and lit one of the smaller branches. The wood wasn't too old or wet so it caught fire pretty easily. Phillip pulled a small metal pot from one of his bags and set it up on a stand over the small fire. I poured the cans of soup into the pot and we relaxed for about ten minutes while it cooked. Phillip pulled out a potato he had and suggested we cut it up and add it to the soup. After the soup had finished cooking we ate it with some crackers we had and cleaned everything out with water from a steam that his Pidgeotto found about a quarter mile more south. After we had finished all of that and packed everything up we continued south through the remainder of the forest and finally broke through the end of it into another stretch of plains. The breeze picked up again outside the woods and compensated for the addition heat from the sun, now that its rays shone freely down on us. We chatted about this and that, with real particular subject to talk about, as we headed south towards the tunnel.

We finally arrived there around four in the afternoon and paid the dollar toll each. The tunnel entrance was a fairly normal looking building on the outside, white brick and only a few windows here and there. We entered through the doors and rode an escalator down into the tunnel. The tunnel system had been changed in the last few years; the tunnel actually went all the way through to Vermillion city, directly south of Saffron, but Saffron City bought into it and made a huge stop off point in the middle of their city. Through some places in the tunnel you could exit and be near some little town or something, but it gave you the feeling that the surrounding area was built around the tunnel. We planned that we would travel to Saffron and stop in the city for a night before getting back into the tunnel and continuing on to Vermillion. The tunnel used to be pretty plain but it had become a really big business and the rent on its property had skyrocketed. There were underground shops, restaurants and even a Pokemon Center that we planned on sleeping at for the night, since there was no way we could have made it to Saffron that day. We mostly just traveled on through the tunnel and only stopped briefly at a few stores. One in particular was a really nice and elaborate Pokemon gift shop that we just couldn't refuse to check out. Phillip bought a nice CD collection of music from his favorite anime shows. I found a book on Pokemon food. Suggestions and recipes for nearly every Pokemon known to man were inside the thick paper-back. I also found a cool little Snorlax pendant. Well, you know me; I just couldn't pass it up. We left the shop and continued down the tunnel. It was about seven now so the crowds of people had begun to dissipate and it was a lot easier to walk through the corridor.

"So, are you planning on being a breeder?" Phillip asked me.

"No, why?" I replied. He shrugged.

"You got that book on Pokemon food and I saw you giving Scyther something that smelled really funky yesterday. I just thought that people who study Pokemon food usually become breeders is all." I nodded.

"I guess. Well I've just been reading about it for a while. It always interested me, so I started making my own food. It was cheaper than store-bought food so I figured it would be a good idea. I always wanted to try out my skills with it," I told him with a smirk. "But Snorlax loves all food, so I never could tell if it was right. Then I caught Scyther and he seems to approve, so I guess I'm not a horrible cook," I rolled my eyes and frowned. "Now if I could just figure out how to cook actual human food I'd be set." Phillip chuckled.

"You and Misty really are good friends; she must be rubbing off on you." He joked.

"Yeah, maybe she is." I said, saddened a little. Phillip could see he had said something a bit stupid.

"Oh, hey, sorry." I waved him off.

"Nah, don't be, its no big deal." We walked a ways more and Phillip decided to try lightening the mood with more small talk.

"So, can you make anything for Ralts?" he suggested. "She can be a little picky at times, so maybe it would be a good test for you."

"Hmmm…" I considered. "Sure, I'll give it a crack sometime. I have to learn some sort of recipe first and get the ingredients from a breeder's shop." He nodded.

"Cool." We continued walking through the tunnel until we finally reached the underground Pokemon Center. We were about halfway through the tunnel to Saffron, and it was already almost nine at night. We headed into the center, which was considerably smaller than most other ones we had ever been to. There was a small lobby in front of the front desk, where we checked in and received a room key from Nurse Joy. The rooms were in a small circular hall that led from one the left side of the desk around and back out on the right side. We got room number eighteen; there were only twenty rooms to begin with, so we felt lucky that we had arrived before they were all booked for the night. We entered our room and Phillip took the first shower as I brushed my teeth while I sat in a chair watching the news on TV. After he had finished I took my turn and we both turned in. I, surprisingly enough, was able to fall asleep rather quickly that night.

The next morning around seven we check out of the Pokemon Center and ate a quick breakfast at a nearby pancake place; Flapjack House. We were both surprised that pancakes were ever called that anymore, but they were darn good so we shut up and ate them. Afterwards we continued down the tunnel. The shops didn't open until eight so for a half hour things were pretty quiet, mostly just janitors and store owners, along with a few other trainers walking the opposite direction. Around nine things started to pick up and we actually had to watch where we were going so as not to crash into busy shoppers. Around noon we stopped in to a sandwich shop for lunch and took an exit nearby outside to feed our Pokemon. After they had finished eating and stretching we went back down into the tunnel. We were both grateful that we had the tunnel to walk in because just as we were going back inside the sky opened up and it started to pour. I mean the rain was coming down in buckets. So far the weather had been really nice since we had been traveling, but we both thought it was a good idea to invest in some ponchos, so we stopped by an outdoors supply store and picked up a pair of them. We continued through the tunnel all day long and finally reached the Saffron City exit at six. We went up the escalators to the outside and ended up in the north end of the city. Saffron may have actually been bigger than Cerulean. There were lots and lots of building everywhere and as we headed into downtown the buildings only became taller and taller. Most of the city was lit up even though it was dark out by the time we reached the Saffron City Pokemon Center. The surrounding buildings cast heavy shadows on the center and would have made it difficult to see had it not been for the many lights that hung from the roof. We walked through the lobby and checked in with Nurse Joy. We headed to the room we got and went to bed.

Phillip:

It was about three o'clock when we heard a crash outside of our room. Brian and I bolted up from our beds and searched for the light switch. Before we found it though, we both spotted a shadow that was visible under the door in the hallway's outside light.

"Phillip, grab your Pokemon and let's go!" Brain yelled. I snatched my belt from the table next to me as Brian finished strapping on his wristbands and flung open the door. We saw a broken vase that the intruder had knocked down and we caught a glimpse of someone running around the corner. We took off after him down the hall and caught up with the man in the lobby.

"Hey, hold on there!" I called after him. The man was in black clothes, or at least it looked that way since there was hardly any light coming thorough the windows. He tried the door but found it to be locked for the night. We both approached him and he turned around, being trapped. I saw a light switch on the wall nearby and flicked it on. A few lights near the door clicked on and revealed the man's true colors. And I do mean colors. His clothes were actually black as I had thought, but he wore what looked like a short-sleeved red over shirt that connected with an odd red hood with black ear looking things sticking up from them. On his chest was a sort of odd stylized "M". Defiantly weird. "What…what is he wearing?" I asked, trying not to laugh at the intruder's ridiculous looking Halloween costume. The man didn't seem to find anything funny about it.

"Hey look kid, let me out of here and nobody has to get hurt." He threatened, reaching for a Pokeball that was on his hip. Brian chuckled, obviously not too worried about the guy.

"Right, because we have the keys to the door," he shook his head with a smile. "Man, are they hiring anybody now? They must be desperate." I looked over at him puzzled.

"They? Who are they?" I asked him. He answered me without taking his eyes off the man.

"Team Magma. They're a criminal organization based on Hoenn. General bad guys, but most of them can't be as bright as this guy or else the group would all break into Pokemon centers late at night and then ask a couple of travelers for the door keys." Brian shook his head again and laughed some more.

"Hey, I'm not gonna be insulted by some little punk kid," the man said angrily, completely ignoring the fact that Brian, at six three, stood a good five inches taller than him. He pulled off the Poke Ball and enlarged it. He tossed it on the ground and in a flash of red a Mightyena appeared.

"Wow," I said. "I guess he really is from Hoenn, you don't see to many Mightyena here in Kanto." Brain looked amused.

"You really wanna rumble? Fine then." Brian jerked one of his odd looking poke balls from his wrist and called out his Snorlax. It appeared lying on the ground, totally asleep. My jaw almost fell to the floor.

"Brian? What are you thinking? How can it fight asleep?" Brian glanced my way and winked. Then he addressed the man in red.

"If you're sure you want to do this, then I'll wake him up. But you had better be ready. He doesn't like being woken up in the middle of the night you know." The guy seemed to be un-phased by Brian's threat.

"Just bring it on, kid!" he yelled back. Brian shrugged and let out an odd, low whistle. It was a tune I had never heard before but it sounded nice. He could whistle pretty well apparently, but I didn't see how it was going to help us.

"Ummm…Brian?" I said to him. He ignored me and finished his tune. To my and the burglar's surprise Snorlax began to stir.

"Snorlax, hey Snorlax, wake up, buddy." He told it. Snorlax moved around a bit and then slowly climbed to its feet. I had never seen a Snorlax woken up before like that. I guess Brian and Snorlax were really close. It stood up and rubbed its eyes. Then it looked back at Brian, a little annoyed. "Hey, don't blame me, it was that guy over there," Brian explained, pointing an accusatory finger at the man. "He tried to break into our room a little while ago." Snorlax spun back around and glared at the guy. I had never, ever seen Snorlax this angry. He was always so happy and kind, but no it just looked enraged. I almost felt like crawling behind the front desk from it. The guy didn't seem to be afraid of it though. He either was a stone-cold man who feared nothing or he was just plain stupid.

"Mightyena, use your Bite attack on it!" the guy yelled. The charcoal wolf-like Pokemon howled and then dashed forward. Brian didn't seem to be overly concerned and didn't even bother telling Snorlax to dodge it. I couldn't figure out why until I saw the Mightyena leap through the air, its fangs ready to sink into Snorlax. But it never happened. Snorlax raised its right paw and swatted it out of the air like a Yanma. Mightyena yelped and went soaring back the other direction and slammed into one of the doors, sending cracks going through the glass in every direction. If it hadn't been such thick glass there is no doubt in my mind that it would have shattered. The Magma man told his Pokemon to get back up and it obeyed as best it could, wobbling to its feet on shaky legs, but we could both see blood beginning to trickle out of its mouth. He had Mightyena bum rush Snorlax again like a fool, and once again Brian stood by silently as Snorlax sent it crashing back the other way, this time skidding to a halt on the slick floor next to its master's feet. It took the Mightyena a full twenty seconds to get up this time.

"Listen," Brian told the intruder. "There is no reason to drag this out. Why don't you just walk away and save your Pokemon the pain, okay?" The guy should have known sound advice when he heard it. But he didn't.

"Mightyena, what are you doing?" he screamed. "Use Double-Edge now!" The battered Pokemon charged in at full speed and caught Snorlax in the belly. It stumbled back and nearly fell over. The Mightyena flew back from the force of the attack as well. The guy called back his Mightyena, now pretty severely battered, and tossed out another Mightyena and a Camerupt.

"Hey!" I shouted at the guy. "You can't use two Pokemon! That's cheating!" I reached for Pidgeotto's Poke'ball and was about to join the battle when Brian waved me off.

"It's okay Phillip. There might come a situation like this in the team tournament in Vermillion. Besides," he said with a smirk. "This guy is pathetic. He couldn't beat us with ten Pokemon." They guy from Team Magma was really angry now.

"What did you say? That's it!" he hollered. He commanded the Mightyena to use Bite and the Camerupt to use Flamethrower. The new Mightyena dashed across the floor with its mouth open, its teeth gleaming like knives in the dim lighting that was on. The Camerupt launched a powerful looking Flamethrower that blasted through the room, instantly raising the temperature in the lobby many degrees.

"Snorlax, use your Mega Punch and then dodge!" Brain told Snorlax. His Pokemon obeyed. It struck Mightyena on the top of the head with a glowing "fist". We heard a horrible crunching sound as it smashed into the ground below. Blood began to seep out onto the ground in a large puddle around the Dark-type Pokemon. I didn't think Snorlax could possibly dodge the Flamethrower in these close quarters, and it didn't. Snorlax actually picked up the Mightyena that had been knocked senseless by its Mega Punch, dripping blood everywhere as it was raised off the ground, and used it as a shield from the fiery pillar, like you see in movies, where the knights block the dragon's flame breath with their shields. The Mightyena yelped and squirmed around as the fire hit it, burning it badly. Once the Camerupt saw what was happening it quickly stopped its attack. All of us, Brian included, looked on shocked at what Snorlax had done.

"Ummm…Snorlax tends to get a little vengeful when it's woken up." Brian told me with a sort of weird look on his face. I nodded and made a mental note to stay far, far away from it in the future while it slept. Snorlax raised the squealing dog high above its head before slamming it back to the ground, splattering itself and the entire entryway in dark plasma, and then dashed towards Camerupt to hit it with a Mega Punch. The fire-type went screaming through the air and smashed right into its trainer, and the two of them fell back on the floor in a heap of people and Pokemon. "Snorlax, ummm…they have had enough, why don't we finish this, okay?" Brian called to his Pokemon. Snorlax turned and nodded at Brian. It reached down and picked up the well-done Mightyena. Its burns looked pretty bad and it was bleeding profusely, and I felt a little sorry for it since Brian had warned its trainer. Snorlax hurled it through the air and it crashed into the Magma man and Camerupt as they were trying to get to their feet, smearing them with blood and sending them crashing back to the floor and sliding around in pools of their own plasma. Then Snorlax unleashed a Hyper Beam. All the darkness left in the front lobby area of the Pokemon center was gone as the angry ray of intense energy blasted through the air. The walls that had been painted with blood were illuminated and it looked like we had stepped into a horror movie. The intruder and his Pokemon couldn't move out of the way because they were still trying to stand up and get their bearings back, except for the Mightyena. The Hyper Beam connected with them and washed over them with the searing energy. We could hear desperate screams and squeals from inside the beam of energy as it flared around them, engulfing them in its destructive force. Brian called for Snorlax to stop and it obeyed, worn out by the exertion. When the light faded we moved over to the group, who were sprawled out on the ground, unconscious and lying in smeared puddles of blood and pieces of flesh. The trainer didn't look too bad off, considering what had just happened. His clothes were horrible tattered and he had some pretty bad burns too. The Camerupt was just as bad; it had burns all over it and was bleeding from its side. The Mightyena, however, was the worst. It was more blood and charred flesh than fur, and we weren't even sure it was still alive. We got closer to it and saw that it thankfully was still breathing, but its legs were obviously broken and it was missing several teeth. It was all I could do to keep from vomiting at the carnage that lay before my eyes.

"Oh my gosh!" I gasped. I had never seen a Pokemon battle end this bad. That Hyper Beam was unlike anything I had ever seen; it was as if Snorlax's rage had fueled it. Just then Nurse Joy came out from behind the desk where none of us had seen her hiding.

"Oh my, I just called the Police, they should be here very soon," she reached where we were and stopped with a gasp. "Oh my goodness!" she yelled as she bent down over the Mightyena. She pulled a small communications device from her apron pocket and talked urgently into it. "Chansey, we have an emergency! I need a stretcher out in the lobby now, and prep for surgery!" Just then the Police arrived. Nurse Joy rushed to the door and unlocked it. A few officers swarmed in followed by Officer Jenny, stepping carefully so as not to loose their balance on the blood-slicked floor. An officer grabbed me and another one grabbed Brian, unsure of weather we were the ones called in about. Snorlax began moving towards them but Brian told it to back off.

"What happened here?" Officer Jenny asked, clearly stunned by the destruction that she could see.

"You can let those to go, they were the ones who protected the center from him," Nurse Joy told Officer Jenny, pointing to the man laid out on the floor. The two officers released us.

"Ummm…that guy over there tried to break into our room and we chased him out here," I began my explanation. "When he found out he was trapped by the locked doors he attacked us with his Pokemon. Snorlax…well…defended us, as you can see."

"That Snorlax did all this?" Officer Jenny asked with wide eyes. I nodded and I could see the other policemen inch away from Brian's Snorlax a little. "Alright, I understand. Get him outta here!" The two other officers pulled the guy up and cuffed him. He was in pretty bad shape so it was likely he would be headed to the hospital first. "I may come by later to get a few statements from you too if you're still in town." Jenny informed us. She saluted. "Thank you for your fine work here. Even if it was on the brutal side." Brian nodded with a slightly dark look on his face.

"I know, but I did offer him a chance to back down a couple of times." Jenny nodded, hoped on the motorcycle parked just outside the doors and speed off. Just then the Chansey arrived with the stretchers. They carefully loaded the battered Mightyena and Camerupt onto them and dashed off down the hall. Brian turned around and got Snorlax back into its ball.

"I had better get into surgery now," Nurse Joy told us. She looked over at Brian's arm and picked it up with her hand. One of the larger cuts Brian had gotten in the cave had been having a hard time healing and had opened up a little. "What happened here? Are you okay?" She asked, seeing the various other scars he had, most noticeably the one across his face.

"Oh yeah I'm fine. I just hit something in the dark back in my room during the confusion." Nurse Joy nodded.

"Oh I see. Why don't you come back with me? I'll be busy but I can have one of the Center's Chansey fix you up." She offered. Brian's eyes widened with fear and he jerked his arm out of her grasp.

"Oh, no, no, that…that's okay, I'll be okay, really!" he cried desperately. "I have some first aid stuff; I can take care of it!" Nurse Joy looked at him funny and then shrugged.

"Well, okay then. Hope you two can get some sleep now." She turned on her heels and took off towards the operating room. Brian let out a huge sigh of relief. I couldn't help but snicker a little. Brian looked over and rolled his eyes.

"Oh sure, laugh it up, Phillip," he said, annoyed. "Wait until it happens to you." We headed back to our room and he doctored up his arm before we went back to bed.