Chapter 9

Phillip:

We managed to sleep the rest of the night without further incident, but needless to say we slept a little bit later the next morning than normal. I got up first, surprisingly, and dropped into the chair in front of the TV after showering to watch some tunes. Gotta love anime. After a while a message came through the door mail slot. We were to go meet the police in the lobby when it was convenient. Brian was actually getting some really good sleep, so I decided we would wait until he woke up.

"Good morning." I told Brian once he finally woke up and rolled over.

"Uhn, what's so good about it…" he moaned like a zombie. He sure wasn't a morning person. I chuckled.

"Actually nothing. The police are doing some full investigation thingy and their having us stay here for the rest of the day." Brian leaned over towards him.

"Are you serious? Sheesh." he groaned. Brian stood up from the bed and stretched his muscles before heading into the restroom for a shower. When he got out I had put on my shoes and was getting ready to leave the room. "What's up?" He asked suspiciously.

"They just called us out to the front for a statement, so fix your hair and stuff, okay?" Brian rolled my eyes and picked up the comb that was by his bed. He combed his hair until it looked presentable and got fully dressed. I waited until he was ready and then opened the door. We walked out into the brightly lit hall and made our way out into the front lobby. The place was busy with a bunch of police officers running around everywhere and trainers who were staying at the center like we were sitting on the furniture observing the chaos. The front entry way was blocked off by yellow police tape. Officer Jenny saw us and walked up, taking out a notepad as she approached us.

"Good morning you two." She said nicely but briskly. "If I could just get you're statements about this morning's events then we can finish up here and get out of your hair, okay?" I nodded. "Good," she said. "Now, how was it that you came to realize that the intruder was in the building?"

"Well," Brian began to answer. "We were both asleep at the time, when I started to hear and odd sound at the door. I've been a pretty light sleeper lately. I brushed it off at first but then I could see shadows moving around underneath the door and we both woke up fully when we heard a loud crash." Jenny nodded and scribbled on her pad.

"Go on." She instructed him.

"We both jumped up and grabbed our Pokemon and rushed out into the hallway, where we caught a glimpse of the guy heading around that corner," I said, pointing behind my shoulder into the hallway. "We chased him out here, and when he made for the door and found that it was locked, he was trapped. He called out a Mightyena and I called Snorlax and a battle ensued. I defeated his Mightyena and then he sent out a second Mightyena and a Camerupt, double-teaming me. I bested those two Pokemon as well and that's about when you arrived, Officer Jenny." Jenny nodded as she continued her furious writing. She looked up after a bit and closed the pad, returning it to her pocket.

"Okay then, that all checks out with surveillance. We thank you for your time, but we are closing the center for the rest of the day while we gather evidence from the scene and…clean up." She said, looking back over her shoulder. There was dried blood staining the polished tile floor and walls near the entrance to the Pokemon Center. "If it isn't too much trouble, it would be a great help if you two could remain here for the remainder of the day so as not to interfere with the scene. I nodded my head and spoke up.

"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem, Officer." I told her. She smiled and saluted us.

"Excellent, we thank you for your cooperation," she stopped from leaving though, for just a minute and looked kind of sadly at Brian. Then she just turned around and walked off.

"What was that about?" Brian asked, puzzled. I shrugged.

"Who knows? Oh well, let's go see Nurse Joy, find out how long the recovery for that guys Pokemon is gonna be." Brian nodded slowly.

"Yeah…I…I didn't mean to hurt them so badly, you know?" he asked desperately all the sudden. I gave me a small smile and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah I know. Don't worry, it'll be okay." We walked up towards the front desk where Nurse Joy was filing some papers into a drawer. She looked up at us and tried to smile, but it didn't look to sincere.

"Nurse Joy, how are you?" Brian asked her.

"Oh, I'm okay. You?" she answered sadly.

"Well, I'm okay. I was actually wondering how that guy's Pokemon are doing? Mightyena looked especially bad. How long until it recovers?" Nurse Joy looked at him with tears nearly filling her eyes.

"Oh, Brian, I'm so sorry but…I did everything I could…but Mightyena didn't make it." She told us, her voice full of grief. Brian's eyes got wide and his face went totally pale. He stumbled back and started breathing really heavy.

"N…no…I…I didn't mean to…that can't be…" he hit the wall and slid down it to the floor. He looked like he might start sobbing but he was apparently too much in shock to do that. He just stared at the ground stone-silent. "I…I killed it…I killed it…" he just sat there, repeating that over and over. Nurse Joy walked over next to him and bent down next to him.

"No, no Brian, you didn't do that. You were just protecting yourself. It's not you're fault." She placed her hand on his arm but he pulled it away.

"Please, don't touch me. Don't…don't look at me…" he sat there and began crying. Nurse Joy stood up and moved back behind the desk, she with tears streaming down her own face. I didn't know quite what to do. I had never had to face this kind of thing before, but Brian looked horrible. I thought I had better try something before he tried to commit suicide, which he looked close to.

"Brian, you didn't do anything wrong, okay? I know it's hard, but you can't beat yourself up for this. If anything it was that guy's fault for making his Pokemon battle like that. You did try to tell him to leave, after all." Brian waved me off.

"Just…please…just leave me alone for now…" What could I do? I said okay and headed back to the room. I dropped down into the chair but didn't feel at all like turning on the TV. What was I going to do? This was not going to help with the problems he already had. He sure didn't need this piled on too. I mean, I was no psychologist, how in the world was I supposed to help him? This is the kind of thing that can ruin a kind-hearted man like Brian. Was there any helping him at all? I sat there just staring off into nowhere for what must have been an hour when Brian finally staggered into the room. He didn't say anything as he sat and then lied down on his bed. He stared off into space for a long time.

"Hey Brian, let's go get something to eat, okay? I'm pretty hungry." I finally said. He didn't answer me. Didn't acknowledge me. He didn't even blink. I wasn't sure what to do next. "Okay then, you just hang out here and I'll go eat. You can always join me later if you want, okay?" No response. I got up and left since there was seemingly nothing I could do. I made my way slowly to the cafeteria, hoping that maybe he would change him mind and catch up to me. But it didn't happen. I ordered something, I don't even remember what, and ate with no real interest in the food. Brian never came to the eating area though. I went up to the counter and ordered him some food and carried it back to the room. He hadn't moved an inch in the hour I had been gone. I set the food on his bed-side table and dropped into the chair and turned on the TV, looking for some kind of distraction. I watched the news for a while and flipped around through some other channels, but my mind wasn't in it. We both just sat and lied around for hours and around nine p.m. I finally just didn't know what to think anymore so I turned off the TV and the lights and went to bed.

I woke up next morning around six and rubbed my eyes. Brian was lying awake on his bed, still staring out into nothing. I thought about saying something but what could I say? What could anyone say? There was a little light filtering in through the blinds on the small window in the back of the room and I used this to find my way to the restroom and the shower. When I got out, Brian was sitting up on the edge of the bed and was tying his shoe laces. I couldn't believe he was up around and moving all of the sudden having been on his bed for hours and hours with almost no sign of life. But there he was, wide awake and packing up his things.

"Ummm…Brian, what are you doing?" I asked him, already knowing the answer that I didn't want to here.

"I'm leaving." He said solemnly. His voice cracked a little bit; it was most likely the first thing he had said in twelve or more hours. "Come with me if you want." He continued getting prepared and then stood up and made his way to the door.

"Brian," I called him. He stopped near the door but didn't turn to face me. "I don't know if it's such a good idea to leave just now. Maybe you should rest here for a few days. Clear out your head, you know?" He just stood there in stone silence of a long time. He finally turned back towards me; tears were streaming down his face.

"I…can't do that Phillip. I have to put this behind me and not think about it…I just can't deal with anything more at the moment right now, okay? I can't face the fact that I'm…I'm…I'm a …murderer." I shook my head slowly.

"Brian, you're not a…" He cut me off sharply.

"Save it!" he yelled at me. "Just don't give me that crap, okay? The Mightyena was alive before it battled me, and when the battle was over it died, okay? That was me, Phillip. Snorlax and I. Nothing you can say will change that. Nothing anyone can say will change that, okay? So don't…don't even try." We both stood there in silence for a minute before he spoke up again. "Phillip, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you." I nodded.

"I know, I know, don't worry okay? We'll get through this, okay? If you think that you're up to leaving today, then let's go ahead and go while its still early." Brian stood for a moment thinking of what to say.

"Thanks." He said at last before opening the door. We left the room and headed out into the lobby. All the blood was gone from the floor and walls. I was relieved at this; I had been worried that those reminders of the battle would still be there to haunt him further. Nurse Joy was behind the desk and gave us a small smile. She was doing better but the sadness was obviously still there.

"Good morning guys." She said. "Are…are you going to be okay Brian?" she asked. Brian nodded slowly.

"Yes, I think so. I...I'm very…" Nurse Joy cut him off before he could finish his apology.

"No, don't say it. You are not a killer, but the more you say you are or try to apologize for it then the more you will convince yourself that its fact." Brian looked really sad.

"Okay then." He gave in. Nurse Joy nodded.

"Okay then, if you are going to be leaving I'll take the key now." We handed it over to her. "Thank you for…everything. Goodbye then." She put the key into a drawer and went off into the back room. We turned from the counter and made our way to the door. There were several trainers scattered around the lobby, chatting or just relaxing, but everything stopped and quieted down when we began to pass them. They all stared at Brian as we passed, some with angry looks, some with sad looks and some that just stared at the person who everyone was talking about. I felt like telling them all off but that would have made Brian feel worse so I just walked on and was thankful when we exited the center. We headed down the street and took a right on the corner of Redwood and Sabrina, heading west for only about five minutes to the entrance to the underground tunnel. We showed the guard the ticket we bought when we first went into the tunnel south of Cerulean and he let us pass. We walked into the tunnel and headed south through the nearly empty halls. It was still early for the tunnels shops and restaurants to open so the tunnel was pretty quiet for the first couple of hours. After a while though the traffic picked up, as usual. Shoppers, sight-seers, trainers and security guards ambled through the tunnel going about their days. No one looked at us much; we were just a pair of guys walking through and underground tunnel. As we went I idly wondered how many, if any of these people could relate. Did any of them know what it was like? Or did they just go on, living their lives without any real problems, unable to imaging what terrible times Brian was going through? We walked on, not really talking much, certainly not about anything of any real importance, and Brian would usually just answer me with nods or a quiet "yeah" or "no". It was a bit disconcerting but I tried to act as supportive as I knew how. We stopped at some burger joint around one for lunch before heading outside to feed the Pokemon. We called them all out and laid out their food while we hung out near a tree. I noticed Snorlax wasn't eating much, which is something to really worry about with a Snorlax. Brian called him over and it sat down next to us.

"Snorlax," he said. "Aren't you hungry buddy?" Snorlax just groaned sadly and shook its head. Brian and I sat there for a minute or two trying to think of what to do or say. Brian finally spoke up again. "Snorlax, it wasn't your fault, okay? You were just defending me, and I want to thank you for that, okay? Maybe things got out of hand a little, but that's okay. I suspect that Mightyena is happier now than it ever could have been with such a bad trainer. I think, maybe, it was destiny, you know? You maybe did it a favor. So please don't do this, okay? Just eat something and don't worry about it, because I love you just as much." Snorlax looked really sad and upset still but it climbed to its feet and moved back over to where Brian had set out some food and it began to eat it. The other Pokemon all went over next to Snorlax and began talking to it. They conversed for a while, mostly though it was Ralts talking, no doubt offering some comfort, before all but Snorlax started walking around and stretching out. Ivysaur waited for a moment and looked back at Snorlax who was just sitting, staring at the ground. It reached out with one of its vines and patted Snorlax softly on the shoulder before moving away to go check out some flowers near another stand of trees. I reached over to Brian and clasped his shoulder with my left hand and squeezed a little bit. He glanced over and nodded with a sad, tiny smile. But it was a smile, and that was something. We called back our Pokemon after another ten minutes and made our way back into the tunnel.

Brian:

We re-entered the underground tunnel and began our journey southward once again. Phillip tried making idle chitchat but I just couldn't get into the mood for it. I knew it wasn't my fault, but I just couldn't accept it at the time. I mean, because of the battle we had, a Pokemon died. And there are no bad Pokemon, contrary to what some people think. Just bad trainers. That's what the Mightyena had; a bad trainers. That fool continued to battle after I gave him a chance to stop and run without any pursuit? It truly was his fault, if it was anyone's. But that wasn't what was on my mind at the time. I could only see images of the battle; Mightyena being smacked by Snorlax, being used as a shield from the flames; its desperate squeals and yelps as its flesh was burned off by the Flamethrower and the Hyper Beam. I can still, to this day, remember those eyes, full of pain; full of fear. Sometimes even now it's all I can do to keep from weeping. I think Phillip understood how I was feeling so he didn't try any kind of cheap lines about me being a good person or it not being my fault. He knew that would do nothing for me right now. Bless him. He was there though, doing what I think was best at the time; pretending nothing had happened. Later I would have to deal, to sort through it, but now was not that time, and he realized that. He was a good friend, no doubt about it. I wish I could tell you more about the rest of our journey south to Vermillion, but the fact is that nothing really happened. We just walked south through the tunnel, mostly in silence, stopping a few brief times to run into a restroom along the way or just resting out feet. The depression was pretty bad though; I would reach up to my face and feel that nasty scar with my fingertips and sometimes in my grief I would foolishly think that it would have been better if I had died in the cave. I was able to keep going, and being with Phillip and my Pokemon helped improve my attitude a little. We continued south until we reached the exit to Symphonia, a medium sized town about halfway from Saffron to Vermillion. Seeing that it was already seven p.m. we decided to stay at the Pokemon Center in Symphonia. We headed up the stairs of the exit to the west and walked the two miles to the town. The Pokemon Center was a little different than most we had been to; although it was just as modern inside as any other, on the outside it seemed like a huge log cabin. It was kind of a nice change for me; most Centers looked pretty much the same and the less like Saffron City's center that this one was could only be a good thing for my then fragile mindset. We walked through the doors and made our way up to the front counter, where we checked into a room. We made our way down the hall and up the stairs to our second floor room. We dropped all of our things on the floor and relaxed in the double set of reclining chairs. Phillip offered to turn on the TV and I said it was fine. I told him that I actually felt like watching something and I suppose he took that as a sign of improvement so he clicked it on and channel surfed for a while. He stopped at the same time that I told him to when we saw a new show on; an animated series based off these games we liked to play called Fire Emblem.

"Wow, Fire Emblem as an anime!" Phillip squealed with delight. I started to perk up a little. It helped me to forget about the last few days.

"Hey, that's pretty cool." I said softly. "Let's watch it." Phillip smiled.

"You couldn't pay me not to!" he yelled with a wide smile. We watched both episodes that were being shown over the next hour and I think we were both hooked. Phillip went to a TV Guide channel and we discovered that it was going to be on each Friday night like this at eight. We made the decision to try to plan our travel around it so we wouldn't miss any episode. What can I say; when you're a fan boy you go to crazy lengths. When the shows were over Phillip went to shower but I didn't feel like one myself so I just switched off most of the lights and crawled under the covers. I fell asleep pretty quickly but I woke up several times that night with the sound of Mightyena's howls in my head and heart.

At around five a.m. I awoke again. This was the fourth time that night I had awoken suddenly after still more bad dreams filled my sleep. Phillip was still asleep of course, so I very quietly pulled the sheets away from me and slowly stood up out of bed. I might have been able to fall asleep again but I didn't much care to have any more nightmares for a while to I decided just to stay up. I crept into the restroom and took a quick shower and changed into a clean set of clothes. I exited the restroom twenty minutes later and Phillip was still sleeping so I put on my shoes and silently left the room. It was still dark outside so there was no light shinning through the windows in the hall but the artificial lights more than compensated. I decided that I would go and use the public computer before getting breakfast so I headed up the stairs to the third floor and paced down the hall until I reached the computer room. This Pokemon Center had two computers and one of them was free so I sat down and logged on to the GTN. I pulled up my email account which had two new messages; one was from Nurse Joy back home and the other from Misty. Oh boy, I thought with a sigh. And life keeps getting better. I opened up Nurse Joy's email and scanned it a couple of times.

"Okay then, I think I understand. I won't try to talk you into coming back or anything, you need to do what you feel is right. Please, keep me posted and keep safe, okay?"

Always Thinking of You,
Joy

I wrote her back a little reply, explaining the last few days, save the business in Saffron. That was not the kind of news she needed to hear about my journey so far. I sent the message and then took a deep breath before opening Misty's email. I was afraid of what I might find.

"Brian, you have left me again. It's okay, I understand your reasons, you're just trying to protect me and take care of everything yourself. Thank you for caring so much, it makes me realize what a good decision I made, despite all the hardships. I know you and I realize that there is probably no use in trying to get you to come back to Cerulean, so please just do one thing for me; trust Phillip. He is as good a person as I think I've ever met, and I know he wants to help you out. Don't try to do everything for yourself, okay? You can't close yourself off to others. Please, keep in touch with me."

Love Always,
Misty

I allowed myself to breath a small sigh of relief since she didn't sound too crushed, which was what I had feared might happen. I wasn't sure if I could write back to her, but I felt that at least for her sake I needed to.

"Misty, I knew you would understand. I promise you, I'll come back as soon as I can, but there are some things that I have to do first. Don't worry, everything is going fine."

Always With You,
Brian

Everything's fine indeed, I thought angrily to myself, about ready to hit myself for lying to her. But how could I dump even more on her? No, there was no way. I knew she wanted me to, but there was no way I could have brought myself to doing it. That was the problem with stuff like this; there was just no way to get out and not hurt her. I left because it was the lesser of two evils. But then she had the worry and there really wasn't much I could do about it. I hopped around the net to a few of my more frequently visited sites and posted some chatty messages on a few boards but I wasn't really into all of it so I eventually just turned off the computer. I stood up from the chair and turned to leave. The other guy who had been on the other computer had left, who knows when, and the rest of the center was fairly quiet. It was almost six so I decided to head down to the cafeteria and pick up some breakfast. I exited the computer room, flipping off the lights as I walked through the doorway and headed down the stairs near there. I went all the way to the first floor and entered the nearly empty dinning area, smelling the aroma of eggs and pancakes cooking on the grills in the kitchen. I made my way over to the counter and ordered about everything they offered and took my seat at a table near a bunch of plants. I stared out of a window facing east back towards the tunnel as I waited for my food to arrive and suddenly I was joined by Phillip. I had been so lost in thought that Phillip actually sat down right across from me before I noticed him.

"Hey Brian, how are you?" he asked, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes a little. I shrugged.

"Okay I guess. I woke up a little while ago and surfed the net for a while but I got hungry so I came down here." He nodded.

"So you did sleep?" he questioned.

"Yeah, a little off and on. It's an improvement I guess." He nodded back at me.

"So, breakfast and then head out?" he asked.

"I guess so, we're only about a half a day away from Vermillion. I figure if we leave in about an hour we can make it there for lunch around one and then register. Round 1 of the tournament starts tomorrow." Phillip was silent for just a moment.

"Are you sure you still want to do the tournament? I mean," he chose his next words carefully. "Are you ready to battle?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be? Tickets to Hoenn are expensive, and even though we could afford them if we loose it would be a big money saver. Not to mention the cash." Phillip gave me a 'come on now' look.

"What do you mean, 'why wouldn't I be?'? Are you kidding? Brian, this isn't something you can cover up."

"It is, like everything else. Look, there is a time and a place for everything, but right now is not a good time for guilt and dealing with personal problems. There will be a chance for me to break down later but right now we have things to do. So yes I'm ready, don't worry about me." Phillip looked at me oddly for a good few minutes before our food finally arrived, breaking the silence. The Chansey dropped the plates and drinks in front of us, and Phillip gave it a tip after seeing me back away from it a little bit.

"Okay then, if you say so Brian. I'll trust you on this." I nodded.

"Thank you." I told him sincerely. Trust was about the only thing I could ask from him right now. I really was feeling a lot better about myself, now that I had been allowed enough time to properly begin to suppress all the pain. It was a good defense mechanism, and it had worked in the past before. It was like I told him; there would be a time to sort everything out and work through the problems, but now was not that time. We had been careful enough not to be seen by anyone, or to make ourselves easy targets, but my dad's men had to be out there. I knew him and he would not let anything jeopardize him or his criminal activities, so the idea that he would simply let me go was ridiculous. I was worried that the televised tournament tomorrow would allow him to spot us, but he didn't watch a whole lot of TV and it was a one day event. He had never had a strong presence in Vermillion and so I figured by the time he could find out about it and get people over there we would be on a boat headed for another continent. We finished up our huge breakfasts; we wanted to make sure we wouldn't get too hungry and have to stop along the way for lunch. We picked up our plates and dropped them off by the counter and headed back to the room to pack up. I took a quick shower since I hadn't felt like one last night and gathered up all my possessions. We left the room after doing a pretty bad job of making it look like a hurricane hadn't come through. I guess we were both just messy people. I think I still am, for my part. We walked down the stairs and arrived at the front desk to turn in our room key. Nurse Joy took it and wished us both luck before we left the center. Outside it was about seven a.m. and the Pidgey were chirping all around the city. It was a nice autumn morning but it was a little bit too humid still since we were getting nearer to the cost line. We made our way back east and entered the underground tunnel once again, putting Symphonia to our backs. The tunnel, by the time we reached it, was just coming to life. It was a Friday so there were far more shoppers and tourists and the like than on the other weekdays, although me and Phillip both agreed we weren't trying to travel through here on the weekend. The thought made us shiver. We had gotten about a mile down the tunnel when business really started to pick up and in some parts, especially nearer to the exits the foot traffic was really horrendous, and we would have to walk single file for a time. We took a quick five minute break for our legs and feet after about an hour of walking and a keychain vendor with a cart ambushed us. We could see he wasn't going to leave quietly so we each bought one. Phillip got this awesome little Zangoose one that you could squeeze and the eyes would pop out. It was fantastic.

"That is the greatest thing I have ever seen!" Phillip chuckled.

"That is pretty awesome." I agreed. I almost bought one too but I decided on a Vaporeon. I planned to mail it back to Misty as soon as I had the opportunity. The vendor thanked us and moved along to harass some other tunnel-trekker. We each bought a bottle of water from a nearby drug store before continuing our travel down the tunnel. We walked past shops and shoppers of all variety. We happened to be passing by a department store just as an employee put out a sign that said "50 OFF EVERYTHING" in big, bold, all capital letters. It was all Phillip and I could do to keep from being trampled by a mob of women. We dashed out of the mob's path and continued down the corridor, trying to stay away from large groups of people.

"How come the stores with anime and manga never put out signs like that?" Phillip asked a little sadly. Around noon we began seeing little signs that were pointing south and informing us that Vermillion City was coming up. We continued south and at long last we reached the end of the tunnel and the exit into Vermillion City.