Chapter two: Flight

Chris woke up from Kani's gentle nudging. With a groan, he slowly awoke.

"What?"

Instead of replying, she dropped something on his lap. It was the newspaper – with the headline of "Mysterious explosion in nearby hillside baffles investigators."

Chris read the article, and narrowed his eyes at the end. "Well, that's serious bad news. They found the remnants of my bike. Guess it wasn't such a good idea to scratch my initials on it."

(Do we have some time? )

"Yea. CW is common initials. I know at least three other people with the same initials. So we have a bit of time. But… we don't have much. A few people know I ride off in that direction all the time. Not to mention Boss Lady. I'd better wrap this, and then we'll have to leave."

Chris staggered up, and limped towards where he stashed his medical supplies. He'd made a habit of stashing everything he needed in his room – everything else grew legs and walked around the house. He took out a stiff bandage, and began to wrap his ankle.

Kani was scrounging around their room, looking for anything that would be useful on a journey. She came back with a pouch, just as Chris finished packing. He had a few changes of clothing, all his medical supplies, his stash of berries, a lot of food (both of them liked to eat, so he kept a stash of food for the two of them), some camping stuff, some stuff he'd intended to bring along (a few evolution stones, mostly), and a few pokeballs. He'd been planning to run away before, and has even packed most of it up, and never unpacked it. Living with an alcoholic / pokephobiac made you do that.

She dropped the pouch on his lap, with an inquisitive look. (What's this? You've never opened this, and I never could.)

"A TM case. We live in the city, you know. I bought a few TMs a while ago, and found a few."

(Like those I found? )

"Yes. You know, you managed to find some decent ones. Light Screen, Calm Mind, Return, Reflect, a few others…"

(Could you use Calm Mind on me? )

Chris grinned, with the TM already out. He figured Kani would want that, the moment he knew she was a psychic type. "Here." He placed the disk on her forehead, and it activated.

With a small flash of light, it was used up, and the remnants of the disk fell to the ground. Chris sighed, and tossed it towards his garbage can. "Well, that's that."

He slowly got to his feet, and staggered out of his room. Kani followed closely behind.


An officer looked up from questioning a woman at the residence. She had called earlier, saying something about the blast in the hillside. A teenager was staggering out of one of the rooms, with an Espeon trailing him. He looked to be in pain, and the Espeon was carefully trailing him. "Excuse me, but is that your son?"

"Yes. He's the one who told me about it. He said he was there when the blast happened."

The officer gently moved her aside, and stood in front of the injured teen. "So, were you there? What happened?"


Chris sighed. "I wasn't there. Dunno what," he gave his mother a look, "gave her that impression. Excuse me, but I've gotta go."

Kani gently touched him, and then teleported the two of them away from home, towards Cerulean City. They re-appeared outside of Celadon.


The officer looked a bit frustrated, looking at the place where the teenager had been. The look on his face had been enough – he HAD been there. He was running scared from the Rockets.

"I'm sorry, madam, but there's little we can do. If your son took it in his head to hide, there's little we can do to find him."


Sue slammed her door in the officer's face, and went off to find her bottles of wine. She'd find solace in those, at least.


Chris sighed, as he looked up from his supplies. "Kani… did I forget your pokeball?"

(I've never been in that since you adopted me. Why would you need it? )

He looked back up from his backpack. He'd found it in there – all the markings on it made it stand out. "Never mind, I've got it. You want to walk along?"

(Someone's got to look out for you. What now? )

"First, we're not going to stay in one place. Trainers are common enough – so I'll pretend to be one. We'll have to be careful, though. I don't have any of the trainer's gear. So we'll have to find some of that, too. Maybe even steal it, if it comes to that."

(Won't the Rocket's look for you? )

"Possibly. But they should be safe enough, now. Even if they're worried about us talking, how are they going to find us? We're on the road – it's hard to find someone like that."

(True. But wouldn't they look for someone who looks like you, with a bad ankle? )

Chris shrugged, and began to walk with a slight limp. "It's healed enough that I can walk. So long as I keep these stiff things on, it doesn't hurt. Let's get going."

Kani walked beside him, as the two left home, possibly never returning. She knew he was in pain, but they really didn't have a choice.


Well, that's something. They left home. It's actually true that you CAN walk on a twisted ankle – you just wrap it with some stiff bandages, to prevent it from flopping around, and it takes most the strain off it. I've twisted both my ankles, so I'd know. Still hurts, though. And if you badly twisted it… it's not a pleasant experience.