Chapter 4

The Bat

(-¤-)

She got mad. Turns out the fact that I was 'technically' attacked in the woods again stressed her out a bit. The resulting lecture was not fun, but I've had plenty of experience at ignoring authority figures so it was whatever. It's not like she could double ground me, not without me fighting back.

Jack fortunately didn't seem to take any issue with his name. At least no more than anything else. At first I thought he was just upset about being caught or surprised but pissed off seems to be his default mood. My current theory is that it's cause hes short.

I'm probably wrong about that.

Training him wasn't as hard as you might expect though. At this stage he couldn't really do much attack wise so the best thing to do was strength and endurance training. I tied some make shift sandbags to him and made him run laps for edurance. Timed him on hand built obstacle courses for agility. And made him dodge acorns and pebbles for evasiveness. Not all at the same time mind you, that would just be bullying the dude.

I also tried keeping him out of his pokeball as much as possible. Making sure to share food with him and talk to him often for his opinion on things. His opinions seem to be along the lines of a 'fuck everyone, y'alls is bitches'. He was still angry at me and everything else in the world though, but I think he might have been a bit more tolerant of me now.

Maybe.

He's stopped hissing at me when I try to pet him at least, now its just a deep growl. He's so soft! At least, he is until he gets sick of it and bites me.

I did find one thing he liked though. At some point he figured out how the tv worked, not sure when. He was fixated on this show called 'Daytime Hero' it was this super cheesy action show that reminded me alot of power rangers. The standard formula was a bad guy in a rubber monster suit would show up, cause trouble, and then Daytime Hero would show up and fight it. Lots of bad special effects, super cheesy onliners and and a hamfisted moral for every episode.

Not gonna lie, I turn it on every chance I get, and not just because Jack gets pissy if I don't. Its dumb but I like it. That and its the only thing we can bond over.

And so that was how a month went by. He was improving at a steady rate. I had increased the sandbag weight, added 20 laps to his routine, made the obstacle course far more eleborate, and I had convinced Nurse Joy to throw acorns at him with me by the handful. The only problem we had was that he refused to stop. We've had arguments about taking breaks. In the end I had to return him to his ball and force him to take a break. He was pissed about that, but he had started to relent and rest a bit more often, if only so that its on his terms.

Most importantly, I was now fully healed! Thats right boys and girls Alice Thorn walks once more! Tremble in fear!

Mind you I'm not quite up to snuff just yet. Alot of my muscles and bones had just gone under an extreme regeneration for the past few weeks and as such were stiff as fuck. They weren't used to being used after so long and to much exercise caused cramps, but that was slowly fading away as well. Also Nurse Joy stole my wheelchair, something about getting accustomed to walking again or something. But thats fine I have legs now.

Yes walking was quite convenient, and I was finally wearing real clothes. When I leave I'll have to leave behind all but 2 or 3 outfits, traveling light was important and with electricity and water just a pokemon away washing machines were super compact and efficient. I could wash and dry a set of clothes in just a few minutes, not that I was going to carry one around. They just have alot of them in the centers. But for now I had options. None with my particular taste in mind though.

Currently I was wearing denim jeans, a white t-shirt, some old beat up sneakers, and a red flannel shirt tied around my waist. Not the most punk rock look, but it'll do.

Also I had managed to find one of the joys of having something from my old life back, even if it was just a haircut. I used to do it myself at home all the time, its not that hard. It was now a much shorter under cut with the sides shaved down to less than an inch and the top jutting forward and a bit feathery. Odd thing, hair was easier to work with here. It stayed like I wanted it to with much less gel and didn't seem to want to stray throughout the day, no matter how much I messed with it. Maybe the hair products here are just that good. Or its more anime nonsense, its hard to tell.

Also Nurse Joy freaked the fuck out when she next saw me, so I got a good chuckle out of it to. Just wait until I get my piercings back. The tattoos will have to wait until I'm older though, if I got them now they would just stretch and warp as I grow.

With full function restored to my body I was once again free to run around town, and so I was rehired by Klygear with a pay raise considering I could actually help now. So instead of 10 bucks a day I was getting 10¥ per house we visited. Thats still not nearly enough for a full journey but I had a plan for that.

So now my days constisted of waking up, doing some light training in the morning, going to work with Klygear for like 6 hours and then spending the rest of the day doing more intensive training. We weren't even close to my goal yet, but we were on our way.

Right now I was with Klygear, and we were investigating some odd noises coming from the ceiling of a client. Said client was an older lady with coke bottle glasses, and floral print everthing. Even the refrigerator was covered in flowers.

We found the entrance to the crawl space in a random closet, I was holding the ladder while Gears was takeing a look around up above.

"Do you see anything?" I yawned, we had been here for like twenty minutes already.

"Hmm" he shifted around a bit before settling once more, "no I- GAAAH!"

Something must be happening because he managed to kick me and the ladder to the ground before unceremoniously hitting it himself. He quickly righted himself before scrubbing at his hair and then the rest of himself. Apparently satisfied with whatever the hell he was doing he stopped and looked at me.

"So, I found the problem" he gave me a hand and helped stand the ladder back up, "its a zubat"

"A zubat!" This is perfect! "Jack, get up. We got a new teammate to catch!"

Jack, seemingly eager to let some anger out on something that can fight back, jumped onto the ladder from his position on the floor. I keep him out everywhere, bunearys evolve based on 'freindship' levels, which is short hand for alot of stress and social factors. More on that later

He popped up into the attic before I was able to get a pokeball from my bag. By the time I got there several thumps had echoed through the house

The attic was dark, the only light source was a lamp Klygear had set up. It took only a second to find Jack, he was bounding around the cramped place using the wood supports as spring boards.

my prize was flitting in and out of the shadows. I couldn't make out alot of details, mostly just that it was blue.

"Jack try to grab it and use sweet kiss!"

The tight quarters worked well for us. If we were outside getting ahold of it would be next to impossible. The two played cat and mouse for a few moments, while Jack had alot to jump from the flyer clearly had more experience in tight quarters but couldn't seem to shake him.

Finally Jack managed the snag one of its tail things and drag it into the pillowy insulation below. However instead of seeing the pink light of sweet kiss I saw white light and a thump rang out. he had ignored me and used pound.

"Sweet kiss, use sweet kiss before he-" a high pitched ring stabbed at my ears spawning a rather nasty headache. "Does that."

Super sonic. Ever the bane of ten years old every where.

The bat shot out in a blur leaving a clearly confused rabbit to swing wildly at white fluffy insulation. And then something odd happened.

I felt a breeze.

Which quickly evolved into a torrent of wind and fluff.

"Is everything going alright?"

"NOT NOW KLYGEAR!" Such a fucking stupid name!

What the fuck is this? Does it know gust? Wheres Jack?

A solid THOK to my right answered my question. Poor bastard had been thrown into the wall by the wind. It seemed to have knocked some sense into him at least. He shook his head out before taking another battle ready stance.

I couldn't see the zubat. The insulation was making it hard to see it, but I doubt it's in the wind itself. The things even lighter than Jack, it would be battered by the supports. So it should be-

"THERE" I called over the sound of racing wind, " IN THE BACK LEFT CORNER, THERES NO WIND!" I had caught a flash of blue between the almost snowlike wads of white. But how to get there? The whirlwind had filled the room by this point. Hmm, what would Ash do?

I got it!

"USE THE WIND" I called to my starter "RIDE IT TO THE BACK AND BOUND OFF THE SUPPORTS!"

He gave me a rather bewildered look, the first expression I had seen on him that wasn't pure hate. "TRUST ME DUDE YOU GOT THIS!" I gave him a big thumbs up.

God I really hope he's got this.

He stared at the contained hurricane for a moment. Clearly weighing whether or not to listen to me and then steeled himself.

And jumped.

The wind snatched him up immediately careening him towards a pillar.

With a twirl he smacked into it feet first and bounced off towards the next and then the next. He was doing it, my bullshit was working!

And then he clipped the last one instead of landing it. He spun out of control towards the opposite wall.

Fuck! No no no nonono!

He slammed head first into it. And with a distintive crack that I had heard a hundred times from him, used his fucking ears to launch himself towards the corner!

I could barely see him at this point but he must have done something good because the wind was quickly dying down. "Jack use sweet kiss and THEN pound him into the dirt!"

I saw a pink sparkly flash and the several white ones after told me enough.

Silence.

And then I was given the challenge of dodgeing an unconscience flying rat. I did poorly.

I took it in stride of course and did NOT scream like a little bitch, don't beleive anything Klygear says, hes a liar.

I ignored the laughing from below and got my first good veiw of my about to be new team mate. He was covered in loose white fluff from the battle. Other than that it seemed to be a normal zubat, if a bit roughed up. Short blue fur, big triangle shaped ears, a rather impresive set of fangs, two wide wings and thin tails. Also no eyes, like at all. It was kinda creepy.

Jack crawled back to me with a rather smug look on his muzzle.

"You threw that at me on purpose didn't you." He made no indication that he was sorry.

I enlarged and tapped the empty pokeball to my first real opponent. Holding the orb as it locked it in. It rang with that oh so satisfiying click and I was now the proud owner of two whole pokemon.

"BITCHIN!"

"Alice you really shouldn't curse like that."

"I will curse however the fuck I want to! Your not my dad."

(-¤-)

Klygear sent me home in the aftermath. As much of a curiosity as I was to the towns folk they still didn't appreciate brawls in their attics. Apparently I gave the poor lady the scare of her life with all the shouting and noise. So I had decided to head back to the center. As I walked through town I started to think about its history.

About sixty years ago this place was actually pretty popular due to the local hot springs. People would make a detour through Eterna Forest to check them out and relax. Alot of people even moved up here to retire in peace. But for some reason the hotsprings started drying out. Without the hot springs the town stopped getting visitors. No visitors means no money, no money means bad things for the town.

They tried a variety of things to draw people back here but nothing worked. In the end they resorted to farming and factory work but it was clear they were just prolonging the inevitable. The town was going to slowly die as more and more people moved away looking for work. It tugged at my heart, I bet this place was pretty cool back in its hay day.

Nurse Joy was sitting at the counter again, knitting something. With nothing to do for months at a time she had taken to arts and crafts, mostly knitting. She made a mean pair of socks. Chansey stood beside her, not really doing anything, just staring into the distance. Waiting for something to happen.

Joy looked up from her current project, a scarf I believe, and gave me a polite greeting before asking why I was back so early.

"Behold!" I held out the recently used pokeball, "The newest member of team Ass Kicker, he was living in someones attic." I smiled. I felt on top of the world right now, my starter had trusted my stupid plan, it worked, we won our first battle, and I now have two members of the team! sure I had been sent home early and wouldn't make any money for the rest of the day, but super powered monster!

She perked up at that, "Thats wonderful! But you do remember our talk about newly caught pokemon don't you?" Her eyes slid into that not quite mad yet mom look that she had gotten really good at doing over the past few weeks.

"Of course I remember" I might have forgotten, "I was just heading to the back to initiate the little guy." good save me, good save.

"Mmm-hm" maybe not so good.

I went ahead and rushed to the back.

The pokemon center was pretty intresting. As I walked along I passed by several rooms, most of which had something to do with healing. There was the emergency human care wing that held my room. The much larger pokemon care wing that nurse Joy cleans everyday and barely sees any use. Hers and Chanseys room was a bit closer to the front of the building and a indoor green house for medicinal herbs and berries. The back door led out side to a small clearing surrounded by trees.

Ever since I had caught Jack I had been using the area behind the center as a training ground. As such the place was looking more and more like a proper training spot. The center peice was an obstacle course comprised of sticks, logs, rocks, and thin rope. surrounding that was the 'track' a large ring of dying grass. Jack had ran hundreds of laps by this point, beating the grass down time and again. To the left was a much thicker log that I had dragged out of the woods and set into the ground. It was splintering at the base from absorbing so many strikes. the whole place looked rather well worn for only being a month old. it made me proud of the little monster.

"Alright," I motioned for Jack to get in front of me, "he should be awake by now. I'm going to let him out, if he goes for my face, punch him." he gave me the particular frown that I knew at this point meant 'fine'.

I readied myself to dodge just in case it was a vengful little thing. I tossed the ball, marveling at how it simply stopped in the air, releasing the crimson energy inside. It threw itself back to my hand as the energy coalesed into a zubat.

The little guy was in fact awake. He looked pretty roughed up and still had remnants of insulation on him. His ears twitch from side to side, I assume that's his version of looking around. He finally seemed to detect me and stood stock still. waiting for me to make my next move no doubt.

"Hey there dude" he jolted a bit at my words but stayed where he was. He was probably pretty confused about whats going on right now. The last thing he remembers is a bunch of things invading his home and kicking his ass.

"Don't worry were not gonna hurt you. We wanna be friends"

"Bun" Jack sneered.

"Ok, I want to be your friend" I corrected. "He just wants to get stronger."

Zubat perked up at that. Hmm, maybe I can...

"In fact, he's gotten alot stronger since he joined a up with me." I saw Jack puff his chest out just a bit at that, "I bet if you joined us you could get stronger too, you'll probably even evolve" I let that nice juicy peice of bait hang there. Most pokemon wanted to get stronger in some capacity. It helped them survive in the wild, attract mates and in some species climb up the social ladder. That's why you hear about pokemon seeking out trainers so much, they know trainers can making them stronger than they could be in the wild.

He 'looked' to me and then to Jack. He seemed to be mulling it over, finally he cheeped at Jack questioningly.

Ok I wasn't too nervous before, but now I was sweating. Jack never seemed to have the highest opinion of me and now it was up that opinion on whether or not this dude would join. I looked to my starter trying to psychically will him to yes. psychics were real in this universe, this might work.

After what felt like an eternity he gave a quick nod and an "eary".

Zubat looked back at me and gave me a wary nod. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

It was official. I was pretty hopeful for this one too, he didn't seem outright hostile. Now what to name him?

I named Jack after a guy I knew so I might as well keep the trend going. Let's see, he was in a place he wasn't supposed to be, he pulled something straight out of left field and he was blind. That sounds like a guy in my home town who managed to get on the roof of the courthouse with a cooler full of beer, while blind from a recent surgery. That dude ran circles around the poor cop they sent up after him.

"Luke it is."

(-¤-)

Alice Thorn

Feb 28

Team

Jack

Buneary

Moves: Pound, Foresight, Frustration, Sweetkiss, Defense curl, baby doll eyes, quick attack.

Ability

Limber

Luke

Zubat

Moves: Absorb, Super sonic, Astonish, Bite, Whirlwind.

Ability

Inner focus

160¥

In Box

N/A