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Chapter 7
Departure
(-¤-)
Telling Joy about leaving was difficult to say the least. She cried even more, and I might have shed a few tears as well. Just a couple, I did not sob like a baby when the reality of my decision hit me, no sir. I'd say she took it pretty well though, she only asked me to stay a bit longer like, twice. Though those tears dried up when I told her how I got my sponsor.
I could see the internal conflict as she went through one hell of a face journey. On one hand I extorted a politician for money. On the other hand, that mother fucker sat there and watched me get mauled, again.
I hope that doesn't become a trend.
In the end she was just happy that I was ok. And then she asked if I had gotten my trainer vaccines while I was at the doctors office. I did not, which led to questions about my medical history, which I knew none of so I just shrugged at most of the questions. I don't even know my own blood type here. My old one was A positive. And then she asked about my relatives and family history, for the first time, I think her need to know if I was healthy overrode her need to be sensitive towards my feelings. Which of course led to me telling her my bullshit backstory. And ladies and gentlemen.
Hell hath no fury like a Joy.
Her whole face turned red in sheer anger as she started yelling and insulting these imaginary people. She even used some curses, a few of which I recognized as some of my own. At some point I think she swore vengance upon them. If it weren't for the sun having already gone down I'm pretty sure she would have marched me right back to the hostpital and done the tests herself. Luckily she tired herself out after awhile and we both just decided to go to bed. It had been a long day after all.
And now we're just gonna rush through the next week because nothing of particular note happened during it.
So the next day we went to the doctors office to get literally all of my standard medical needs taken care of. That consisted of a basic check up, drawing blood, and twelve shots. One thing I have yet to have mentioned was that I, Alice Thorn, girl who just yesterday faced down a murder machine made of meat, am afraid of needles. Like, really fucking scared of them. It stems from a incident from my childhood where I tripped into a open biohazard bin at the doctors office. My fear is justified.
I don't think the doctor and the four nurses it took to hold me down agreed with me however. I hope they got hazard pay for that, they clearly were not used to the patients attempting to fight their way out of the hospital. I did a number on them to, two black eyes, a busted lip and at least one broken nose. They had to hit me with some medical grade sleep powder to keep me down. Not bad for a preteen having a panic attack.
After I woke up Nurse Joy told me that they put a warning label in my medical records. For future reference.
After that it was mostly studying survival stuff and any pokemon catching tips I could find. Along with training of course. I quit being Klygears (that name is still stupid) assistant and thanked him for all the help.
The day before I needed to leave I got my first pay check and went on a little shopping spree. Mostly decent clothes and a pair of good boots, I wasn't hiking for dozens of miles a day in fucking sneakers.
I was now sporting a black t-shirt with a ribcage design covering it with a thin denim jacket that I planned on covering in patches and pins over time. The sleeves were rolled up and saftey pinned in place. Black skinny jeans with the knees worn away and black combat boots covered the rest of me. Several random bracelets and a cheap little blue crystal necklace completed the look. I had another set of close to identical clothes already packed.
I also bought a trainer belt for easy access to my pokeballs and more importantly a small set of paints to color them. Jacks ball was painted up like a spherical skull, I figured my starters ball should have a badass paintjob. Lukes on the other hand had a set of vampire teeth with purple tipped fangs, because he was a bat and it looked cool. I had some experience with painting so I did a decent job. Fortunately the balls shrinking feature had no effect on the paint. No more panicking over whose ball is whose.
I also bought a one gallon plastic jug, for reasons.
And then it was time to go.
(-¤-)
I awoke that morning already filled with anticipation. Jack slept at the foot of my bed, snoozing peacefully. Luke was hanging from the wall mounted TV stand, his wings wrapped around himself like a leathery blanket. Sunbeams creeped in through the blinds in a fiery orange glow, the whole place seemed like it was inviting me to drift back to sleep, to stay just one more day. It felt like home.
I sighed and threw off the blankets, the sudden shift of me getting out of bed brought Jack to the waking world once more. I gave Luke a lazy scratching along his head making him wake up, but for only a moment as he drifted back to sleep again. Jack stretched out and woke himself up proper, he knew what today was and he wasn't going to be late to it.
Ripping open a small pack of pokemon center provided poke-food, and pouring out two bowls I shook the sleep from my eyes. Jack jumped up to the dresser and dug in, already up and at em. Luke would eat a bit later, he liked to sleep in a bit while I took a shower. Evolution had made him just a touch lazier, he still held his enthusiasm for training, just not in the morning. I clicked on the tv for my rabbit before leaving the room to prepare for the day. The sounds of cartoons fading behind me as I walked the empty halls
On my way to the community shower I grabbed a sitrus berry for breakfast. The berry tasted like a less sweet apple with a satisfying crunch, I wondered if I would find any on the road. I knew some of the major routes were lined in berry trees to make it easier for trainers to travel, but it being the start of spring I wouldn't find any bearing fruit just yet.
The showers in centers were communal and gender seperated with little privacy, most likely from their Japanese influences. I had enjoyed a rather private few months with it however seeing as Nurse Joy still hadn't had any visitors in the time I had stayed here. I stayed under the water for a bit longer than usual, aware that this would be the last time I would possibly have a nice private hot shower in quite some time. I was gonna miss mornings like this.
I turned off the water and dried off. A quick suit up and I was almost ready to go, I just needed to grab my things and say goodbye to Nurse Joy. I hadn't seen her this morning, maybe she had slept in a bit late or something, though I doubt it, she was a lady of the schedule, even if that schedule was boring. I picked up my things and pokemon, noting that Luke had eaten while I bathed.
I looked at my room one last time, I had spent last night cleaning it of any trace that I had lived here. The once barely visible floor covered in discarded clothing was now just cheap carpeting. The empty soda cans covering every flat surface had been thrown away and recycled. Whatever gifts the towns folk had given me that I couldn't take had been placed in the lost and found, just incase another body snatcher came through. Not that I expected that to happen again. Yes the place looked spotless, but no matter what this would always be my room.
With Luke returned and Jack resting on my shoulder I marched into the, dark lobby? Nurse Joy should have been at the front by now, chansey at the very least. Where were th-
"SURPRISE!" A cacophony of voices shouted out, making me jump out of my damn skin.
More people than I had ever seen in this place stood in the lobby, banging pots, pans and other noisemakers. One guy had a banner that read !WIN ALICE WIN! Most of these people I recognized, like Miss Abby and Klygear but I could pick out a few I'd never seen before. Nurse Joy stood at the front with a sad smile.
"What the fuck?" I was not expecting this, a teary eyed goodbye sure but not a fucking party. Is that Mayor Fucking Ron over there? Ooohh wait, I know what this is! This is like when Ash left Pallet Town and a bunch of locals wished him luck. I guess these people are really counting on me to bring in some revenue for this place.
Nurse Joy stepped up, "Alice" she opened her mouth again, and stopped, tears welling up in her eyes "I-" the words died in her throat.
I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her. She returned the embrace immediately. "Thanks for everything Joy." I sniffled a bit trying not to cry to much in front of the surprise crowd.
"Your gonna be amazing." it was a little thing just between us, but it meant the world to me. We let each other go and wiped our eyes.
"Ahem" Ron stepped forward "As a representative of Dellitown I, and all of Dellitown, wish you the best of luck. And" he grabbed a unfamiliar old man, that looked for all the world like he would rather be anywhere but here, by the shoulder and shoved him in front of me. "Mister Johnson, has something he would like to give you."
Wait the Mister Johnson, the guy that was indirectly responsible for my broken arm and almost killed starter? Oh this should be good.
Mister Johnson grumbled for a second, unwilling to play along with this. But all it took was Nurse Joy sidling up to him and grabbing the back of his neck in a classic mom move to change his attitude. I feel like he's not the most popular person around here.
A mumbled "I'm sorry." Was all I got.
"And?" prompted Mayor Fucking Ron
"And I will repair my fence to proper agricultural standards."
"And?" Nurse Joy 'encouraged' him to continue.
"And, as a sign of good will," he hissed out from between his teeth, "I would like you to have this." He then handed me a small leather bound journal. "I hope it helps with your journey." Each word sounded like Venom.
I took it, both amused at this jackass being forced to apologize, and confused as to why he gave me a ratty book of all things.
"Alright!" He elbowed Joys arm away, "I said sorry to the little brat, I'm leaving!" Joy and Ron, both apparently satisfied with his apology, watched him storm out the front door without incident. The crowd observed with little interest.
I flipped open the book noting that the pages had yellowed from age, several had stains from either minor water damage or coffee and a few even seemed singed. The papers contained a bunch of amautuer drawings of pokemon and moves with detailed notes accompanying them. As I flipped through I came to realize that this single item was the most valuable thing in my possession. It wasn't just some dusty tome, it was a pokemon training journal! Full of tips and skills that someone, I'm guessing Mister Johnson, had accumulated over their journey. This was without a doubt the biggest headstart I could possibly have, short of starting out with a mew.
"Holy shit." I looked back up to them "How did you convince him to give this to me?" This was huge! This was like if Ash had a battling mentor through the series. Hell, this was more useful than a goddamn masterball!
"Well the day after we came to an agreement about your sponsorship, I decided to give Mister Johnson a little visit. It seemed Nurse Joy here had a similar idea at the time. We both 'encouraged' him to make amends as best he could." Nice, strong arming a crotchety old man into swallowing his pride. I was actually proud of Nurse Joy, and not too surprised at Ron, gotta make sure he can't get sued in the future for the same shit happening again.
"Thank you everybody, for everything. Don't worry, I'll make sure Dellitown gets put back on the map!" The small crowd cheered for me as I made my way to the door.
I was gonna miss Dellitown and its little cast of characters, but mostly I was gonna miss Nurse Joy. Because I'm gonna see that same face at least once a week and and be sad that its not my Joy.
I wasn't gonna miss Johnson though, fuck that guy.
(-¤-)
I was off on my journey now, the great blue sky above me was obscured by a thin canopy of leaves. The sounds of this new brand of nature were all around me, from bird song to the distant sounds of occasional minor explosions from battles between elemental monsters, this place was beautiful. my destination was Rowans lab to the south, well it was eventually. See I'm pretty sure I'm in the anime universe, with Ash and Pikachu. I figured this out by surfing the internet for a good while, I found several things pointing me towards this conclusion such as James's parents, who are part of the Kojiró family, and the presence of Hunter J, who was an anime exclusive character. I didn't find anything about Ash however which I'm guessing means he's either not started his journey yet, or he's not gained any fame.
And having watched a good chunk of the pokemon anime meant that I was privy to all sorts of valuable information such as the location to a rare substance known as enchanted honey. A quick pókenet search gave me very little information about it other than its only found in mega combee hives. Hives defined as being over a dozen generations old and housing over ten thousand individuals. Such places were only theoretical however as the location of one had never been discovered. They only know of the honey from old stories.
In the anime it took several episodes, a map and a mothim to track it down, but I remember enough to figure it out without those things. The hive was located in a cave sytem behind a waterfall, in a gorge filled with waterfalls and combee, that shouldn't be to hard to find, right? I'll just have Luke do aerial searches for the thing while we make our way deeper into the forest, after that we sneak in fill up my plastic jug and hightail it out, easy peasy. Something like that would surely sell big in an auction and so long as I don't damage the hive itself I should be able to do it again whenever I'm short on cash. Am I doing the same thing team rocket did in the show? Yes. Am I doing it for a good cause? What better cause could there be than to feed a poor hungry orphan. Besides the problem they made was that they heavily damaged the hive, which I aim to avoid.
Now I just gotta find the damn place. I was prepared for this to take awhile though. Eterna Forest was enormous. Miles and miles of untamed woodland. I had rations, I had a plan, I had determination and I had a jug.
I would not step foot out of this forest until I get that fucking honey.
Or until I run out of food, that was also a possibility.
I flipped through my newly acquired journal as I walked. I found weird facts and fascinating secrets in its pages, like most psychic type moves can be reflected with a mirror, and that water guns can actually change direction mid stream.
This thing was the most rare item I now own. See most trainers don't give away secrets easily, you usually trade for them. This includes champions, as such champions tend to make the mass production of advanced trainer tip books illegal. Sure you can get all the info you want about how to care for pokemon and how their biology works. But there is little to no mass literature about advanced battleing techniques. Trainers, being incredibly competitive, are stingy with them.
It's also why those book worm type trainers who use calculations to predict battle outcomes never get very far in the gym circuit. Data points stop being useful when every opponent is a wild card.
Hell, detailed hand written journals can sell for thousands at auction. I would need to hang onto this thing like its the holy grail. No pawning it.
I can't wait to try some of this shit out.
I'm gonna be unstoppable.
(-¤-)
Dr Kohn was attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes while taking care to not agitate his still healing nose.
Alice had been one of the more difficult patients he had treated for a long while. He had seen plenty of kids attempt to wriggle their way out of a shot but never one with what had cleary been experienced in fist fighting. He had wondered where she had learned such things before her blood work had come back.
Now he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
She had been given a clean bill of health and had paternity testing done as well at Nurse Joys request. The results had arrived just today, a day after she had set off on her journey.
Her father was deceased, a man by the name of Calvius Tucker. He had passed away from brain cancer a decade ago, he had no record of a child and no other known relatives.
His file was also heavily censored due to his work with the international police.
Her mother however was... well... he guessed one could say she was also involved with the global organization.
He sighed.
"I really need a drink."
(-¤-)
Alice Thorn
Mar 25
Team
Jack
Buneary
Moves: Pound, Foresight, Frustration, Sweetkiss, Defense curl, Baby doll eyes, Quick attack, Jumpkick.
Ability Limber
Luke
Golbat
Moves: Absorb, Super sonic, Astonish, Bite, Whirlwind, Wing attack, Confuse ray, Air cutter.
Ability Inner focus
1140¥
In Box
N/A
I hate writing emotional goodbyes. They always feel weird and awkward and bleh. I will improve in time and one day I might come back and rewrite this chapter. But for now its bleh.
