Chapter 2

The midday sun beat down on the carpet of different coloured stripped stalls that was the marketplace. Crowds of people of all kinds swarmed around the streets, looking for a good bargain, or just a greasy barbecue stand to grab a quick snack at. The smell was overwhelming – there was always one close by, but never seen for the masses of people in the way. There was always a radio playing at one of the stalls, sometimes the tin-like sounds of more than one radio merged.

Dean was clearly uncomfortable. He had a blue baseball style cap on, sheltering his face from the sun's burning rays. Still, he frowned with his hands in his pockets and his backpack hanging low, how he liked it. He trudged after Davie who seemed just as frustrated with the crowds blocking the way. Davie grumbled, trying to keep his temper under control. In the Autumn heat wave, it seemed ridiculous that he wear his heavy coat.

There was a build up of people and Dean had to stop on his tracks. The human traffic jam had given him a second to eye up a girl, roughly his own age. She was in light pink and white, her dress in one piece and as light as a feather on her. She was looking at some CDs at a stall, giving Dean the chance to get a little closer. Long eyelashes and the glaring sun gave the impression that her eyes were almost shut. She wasn't paying any attention to the Hoppip on her head, sitting lazily between her pig tails. The creature's tiny mouth ballooned in size as it yawned.

"Dean, c'mon." A voice snapped him out of his stare.

"Dude, a trainer." Dean pointed at the girl, looking back at Davie for approval.

Davie stood and stared at the girl, who appeared to be moving closer to them as she casually browsed the stalls. His eyes went that squinted way again before he shook his head.

"She's got a grass type. It's not a good idea, we'll keep looking."

Dean swaggered off, away from Davie, and closer to the girl. He appeared interested at what was on the stalls, ignoring Davie's hissing at him to get away from her. He picked up a glass ornament and pretended to be interested in it. It was a polar bear. $15. A bit pricy for the size. She was getting closer. He took a quick glance in her direction, feeling her presence. For a second her eyes seemed to light up at the cute little ornament in his hand, before she caught his stare. She recoiled and swiftly made her way around him, pretending not to have noticed him. He couldn't help noticing the glumness in her face, before he reached into his pocket for his wallet.

He could see Davie flailing his arms angrily and mouthing obscenities, but his protests had no effect on him. Davie's hand went over his eyes as he shook his head, at the same time Dean tapped the girl's delicate little shoulder. Her round face turned to him reluctantly.

"E-Excuse me?" She whispered, barely.

"I… um…" Dean began, "This…" He presented the shiny ornament, "I thought you might like it."

She turned round to him with a quizzical frown. "Do I know you?"

"No. Are you a trainer?"

The girl rolled her eyes and smiled. She stared at him confidently smiling more before she answered in almost a whisper, "No."

Dean sighed quietly to himself, trying not to seem disappointed with her answer, but had let the grim expression on his face give it away. Nodding, he apologised and began to head off.

"Boy!"

Dean stopped. Her tiny voice tugged at him like a leash, and he couldn't go any further. Turning around he smiled, not thinking about the strange way she had caught his attention. No one had called him "Boy" before and had it been anyone else, he would have probably have taken it offensively.

"I'm not a trainer, but my Hoppip likes to fight now and then." The girl smiled sweetly in the glaring sun. From her head the red tomato-like pokemon slowly drifted like an umbrella down to the littered floor. It made a lot of odd faces, trying not to land on its back or on its delicate leaves.

Dean turned round to Davie and grinned smugly, gesturing that he was right, and Davie was wrong. In a split second Dean tore a pokeball from his belt and threw it at his feet, causing it to explode in a red falsh. Bystanders jumped and stopped to stare when Ancience was revealed. It didn't seem comfortable in the heat, on the solid concrete. As it walked its shell scraped across the ground and it seemed confused as to where it was meant to be going. A circle had formed around the two combatants as the small crowd eagerly anticipated a battle. When Ancience stumbled into the edge of the circle an old man kindly picked her up and sent her off in the right direction.

"Rouge!" Everyone stared at the girl. "Use that new move I taught you. Giga Drain!"

The Hoppip, much more active than it had been before, started to prepare itself for attack. It done a little dance as it went, just to show off.

"Ancience! Do… something…?" Dean's eyebrows disappeared into his fringe as he tried to think of what kind of attacks a low level Kabuto has. "Scratch?"

Before the Hoppip had time to attack, a blur tore across its body and sent it skipping across the floor like an odd-shaped bouncy ball. Ancience was now at the other side of the circle, making a vicious hissing sound. She stood up on her hind claws and extended her front pincers, hoping to delay the Hoppips actions even further by frightening it. The pokemon's prehistoric mouthpieces rattled from its underside.

The Hoppip appeared unfazed by the display and just stumbled over in front of Ancience with its mouth open. A green energy snaked its way through the air until it reached the tiny creature's enormous mouth. Ancience did not move, and neither did the Hoppip. When the energy was gone the Hoppip trotted over to its trainer, seeming quite pleased with itself.

Ancience was still standing in that same stance like a statue. The pink underbelly eyes had stopped glowing and her front claws were outstretched as if she were passionately reciting poetry. Dean crouched over to see his pokemon. He tapped her shell. She wobbled a bit, before falling onto her front with a painful snap, legs and pincers still outstretched. A sickening feeling came over Dean. Picking up the lifeless pokemon, he noticed one of her legs on the ground, the joint in a puddle of yellow slime where it had once been joined to the body.

Picking up the leg in one hand he cradled Ancience in the other. He looked into her underbelly eyes. Before they had glowed too bright to see in, but now he could notice two pinpricks of light, like pupils, in the primitive eyes. The dots shined, barely. They shot over in Dean's direction. For a moment Dean could swear she was looking right at him, as if she freely chose to look into his eyes. He hoped maybe she had some kind of rudimentary conciousness, an ability to feel on an emotional level. The mouthpieces crunched a little before the lights in her eyes faded completely.

"I wouldn't worry." The girl tilted her head, "Come with me. I'll help you take it to the pokemon centre." Dean looked up at her. " Don't look so sad." She smiled "It'll grow back."

"Don't you think you've caused enough damage here!" A gruff voice boomed from behind Dean.

The girl's expression turned from carefree to sheer terror. Dean stumbled as Davie shoved passed him, yelling and swearing at the girl. Dean could barely watch as the girl's eyes welled up and her lip trembled at the assault of words thrown at her. He could barely believe the words coming out of Davie's mouth. He could only yell about abuse towards pokemon. What had been a friendly fight to Dean was to Davie… abuse?

He'd had enough. Dean sipped away past the crowds of people and towards a pokemon centre.