Another delay, more excuses... I apologise for the huge gap. Beginning uni has left me drained and lifeless and lacking for the inspiration to actually write, and this chapter required a lot of focus to execute it properly. Very different compared to the previous chapters, but hope you will all enjoy away, especially after waiting so long for it!
Chapter Fifty Four: Leaving the Earth Behind
Alaska appreciated being rescued and flown away from danger, but she still would have preferred not being dropped onto a Snorlax.
Nitelite had flown her and Sandy out of Celadon and over Saffron City at lightning pace. The wind was bitterly cold at this altitude and speed, and Alaska could feel her blood freezing on her face as it dripped from the gash on her forehead. The wind created made her clothes constantly flutter and Sandy's hair got blown into her face, but Alaska could not complain as the Dragonite's thick orange arm was squeezing the breath out of her.
Sandy kept her eyes shut, her face screwed up in a way to show she was trying to disguise her discomfort with the entire procedure. Alaska, on the other hand, tried to view the scenes below, but everything was blurred and they did not stay over one area long enough to take it in. The skyscrapers of Celadon gave way to the surrounding forests and a small collection of houses dotted around Route 7 before the towers and high rise buildings of Saffron suddenly appeared. Alaska knew that there was a gym down there, waiting for her to arrive and claim her next badge, but it was clear that would not be happening today.
Nitelite had then turned right, avoiding going towards Lavender Town, and Alaska figured he was probably trying to take them as far away from Celadon as possible, somewhere that they would not be easily found. More forests appeared below, this time with a few earthen hills and miniature mountain ranges strewn in-between. Alaska could see the ocean spread out in the distance, glowing as the sun reflected off the surface, and knew that must be Vermilion. She would have liked to have seen how the city was recovering and potentially get some R and R at the local beaches, but Nitelite turned away from that, heading for the east of Kanto. Alaska had not ventured this way yet, but she could see more of the sea shimmering in the distance and figured this would not be a bad place to hide out.
During the flight, Alaska became nervous about her left arm. She had to let go of Sandy's hand due to the spreading pain, and she moved Bill's gun across so it was nuzzled between her body and Paige in order to lessen the pressure on the injury. Alaska dreaded the thought of having another prolonged injury, and she merely hoped that the pain would not last long.
"Dragon Nite Nite Drag," Nitelite said as they quickly moved over an expansive grassy field and came closer to the eastern ocean. It was the first time he had spoken for the entire trip and Alaska wondered what he was saying. She glanced at Paige but the Pidgeotto merely shrugged her wings, as clueless as she was. A moment later though, the Dragon Pokemon began to slow down, soaring downwards towards the earth as the world began to reform into its normal position. Alaska noticed the green roof of a gatehouse right beneath them, and she expected Nitelite to drop them there. However, he flew right over that, and Alaska saw a strip of grass leading towards the ocean, with something large covering most of that. Alaska thought it might be a boulder, but it was far too smooth, and they way the sun reflected off made it look like skin. The thing was mostly black but with a creamy white stomach that was the most engorged thing Alaska had ever seen….
It only clicked that this was a Snorlax when Alaska found herself hurtling towards it.
She had been taken aback to see a Snorlax in the wild that when she gasped in astonishment, it covered up the fact that Nitelite's crushing arm had moved off her stomach. But Alaska noticed that the world seemed to be tipping, and her stomach felt like it was lurching up towards her heart. Then Sandy began to scream, and Alaska put the pieces together and looked down as the wide stomach of Snorlax came up towards her.
"Pidge Pidge Pidge!" Paige cried and began to break free of Alaska's hold on her, knocking Bill's gun out of her grasp in the process, and tried to keep her trainer afloat using her claws. Alaska cried out as the talons grasped her arm and she was jerked upwards, but the sudden change was not enough to stop her falling and she crashed down on top of the Snorlax.
It was like landing on a very thick trampoline: the fat jiggled as Alaska thudded into it, absorbing the blow, though her entire body jolted from the impact. Despite her worry, it was a relatively soft landing compared to other places Nitelite could have thrown them. Alaska looked up over the engorged Pokemon's smooth stomach and saw that the Snorlax was fast asleep, and she felt the large body heaving up and down with every breathe.
"And I thought my father was a heavy sleeper," Alaska muttered, and she slid off Snorlax and onto the grass without the Pokemon even noticing. Sandy was lying on her back staring wide eyed at the clouds above, and it looked as though she had landed and then bounced off Snorlax's flab. Alaska resisted a smirk at the comedic image and extended her good arm to help her friend up.
"Thanks for the lift!" She shouted with a touch of bitterness up at Nitelite, but the Dragonite had not stayed to see if they were alright: an orange blur was soaring away into the distance, and would be back to Celadon within quarter of an hour. "That may be a fast Pokemon, but did he really need to throw us onto the sleeping fatty over here?"
"You do need to remember that that was the Dragonite that rampaged and destroyed the Magnet Train only a few years ago," Sandy said, looking unhurt from her fall. "Throwing us was probably his idea of being friendly."
"Oh, I can never keep up with what got blown up and when; it is all too repetitive and confusing!" Alaska tutted. "You'd think our creator or whoever is controlling us up above would write us all a story where maybe something didn't get blown up and we could just sit down and have a cup of tea every so often." Sandy nodded as she picked up her bag, and Alaska looked around, wondering where Bill's gun had gone.
"Otto!" Paige cried, and she fluttered forwards with the device clasped firmly in her claws. She appeared was unhurt, which was a huge relief for Alaska, and she pulled the Bird Pokemon into a hug before taking the gun off her.
"Shall we sit down for a minute and work out where exactly we are while I sort my mess of a bag out?" She asked, and Sandy nodded in agreement. They moved to a bench to the side of the grassy road they found themselves on, and Alaska moaned with relief as she sat down for the first time since lunch. The flow of blood from her head seemed to have stopped, but her arm still ached as she heaved the gun onto her lap and began to search through her bag for its case. Everything had been randomly shoved back in before they had flown off, and Alaska sighed as she was forced to move most things onto the bench between herself and Sandy: spare clothes, her pop up tent, a pillow case, her laptop, the tray of brownies, the knife following separately (making Alaska weary about how badly her landing could have gone), the new bag fill of evolutionary stones, assorted cans of Pokemon food and medical supplies, assorted cans of people food and the luminous pink band-aids that constituted her own medical kit.
"How do you fit everything in there?" Sandy asked, staring curiously at the mess piling up next to her.
"You carry a snake made of boulders the size of a skyscraper around on your waist," Alaska replied. "That is something that needs questioning." She finally found the case and slipped the gun back inside, wondering when she would use it next. It had been a while since she felt forced to pull the weapon out, and Alaska hoped that it would be even longer. She had chosen to focus purely on gyms for the time being, and it was time that she stuck to this: no more destruction, no more fighting in ways that caused everything around her to blow up, just travelling and training and making her way to the next gym.
"So what actually happened back there?" Sandy asked as Alaska began to pack her bag away. "I did not recognise the voice or see who that guy was, but they really seem to hate you for some reason." Alaska sighed and nodded, irritated to find another mystery was being added to the list that constantly filled her thoughts.
"I am not sure why, but I have a feeling that this is the person who has been sending the robots after us," she replied. "From what it said, it sounded as though he had been following my journey. He mentioned something about being 'misinformed of my antics' and how I had become too much of a bother. That clearly wasn't Gideon, as he would not bother hiding in the shadows, it wasn't his voice and he only attacks on his own: this is someone with enough money and resources to set up a meticulous plan such as blowing up the driveway and bringing in an elite hit squad, and knows me well enough to guess I would end up at the casino opening." Alaska was quite unnerved by this last bit; it was bad enough having all the Kanto Elites reading her blog and following her that way, but if enemies she had never met were able to read her so well, had she fallen into such an obvious pattern that people could guess her actions before she even knew what she would do?
"I have always wondered about those robots," Sandy said, staring sadly down at her shoes. "I always got the feeling that the others were holding back information about them: Steven, Daisy, Trevor, I am certain all of them began to mention other occurrences in Kanto but would fall silent when they realised the mistake they were making." Alaska could recall the same instances and she became unsettled to think that the people supposedly helping her were keeping key facts that could impact on her safety. There was the chance they did know who was after her but thought hiding the information would help her, probably imagining that Alaska would go after them for revenge, which she most likely would have done a few weeks ago. What would she do now if she learnt the identity of the latest man hiding in the shadows, when she had a gym journey to focus upon: Alaska could not let herself and Sandy continue to be targeted, but she had made a decision… hadn't she?
"We escaped today, that is all that matters," Alaska said, forcing a smile as she shook away dark thoughts.
"I guess so," Sandy replied with a more natural beam. "I am sure that everyone else would have been able to fight their way out as well." Alaska had not even thought of them and instantly felt guilty, shocked at herself for forgetting about them: Evelyn and Jericho may have hated her, but they had stayed behind to fight off the gunmen so she could escape, and Daisy had been with them since Lavender Town. Alaska looked up to see if there was any sign of Nitelite but the Dragonite had disappeared, heading for Celadon to see if his trainer was still alive, and she hoped all three of them were. Evelyn's last words were beginning to circle around Alaska's head, but she pushed them asides for now, not wanting to get distracted by any theorizing for the time being.
"So where are we exactly?" Alaska asked, glancing around: between the gatehouse and the heaving Snorlax, there was a stretch of inch high grass and the typical rows of trees that seemed to have been copied and pasted from all the other routes of Kanto. There was nothing distinguishable about this area, the sort of place where you may have a picnic or walk through on your way to a city, but when Alaska turned to her left, she was greeted with a far greater sight.
The small grassy lane suddenly disappeared, turning from solid land into sparkling blue ocean without any warning signs. Alaska stared out at the shimmering, never ending stretch of blue that quietly crashed against the edge of the earth, a sudden stretch of blue nearly hidden away from the rest of the world. The only signs of land out there were obscure rock formations shaped by years of rolling waves, but Alaska could not see anything on the horizon, the ocean simply carrying on seemingly forever: this was the very edge of Kanto, the spot where the region ended and opened up to the rest of the world.
"This is the Route 12 Walkway, I think," Sandy said. "I remember seeing something a few months ago about how the concrete walkway had been built to connect the eastern towns, cities and routes of Kanto together. It follows the exact path of an old wooden one that had been destroyed during a fierce storm a few years ago, and it goes from Lavender Town all the way down to east of Fuchsia City."
"So we can add pathways and storms to the list of things that were destroyed and did destroy," Alaska mumbled with an eye roll. "Is there anything in this region that did not get annihilated several years ago?" She glanced over the path of grey that snaked its way above the ocean: the bare, boring concrete was not particularly attractive, especially when taking into account the dazzling ocean that surrounded it and the green of the grass and trees along the coastline, but Alaska would be more reassured walking on something more solid and with a much lower chance of being broken up by a large wave than planks of wood.
"Who cares about the path though when the view is so beautiful," Sandy said, gazing out at the dancing cobalt waters. "Wouldn't you just love to live somewhere with a view like this?"
"I could easily retire here… after I go undefeated as Champion for thirty or forty years, of course," Alaska added, smirking and winking at Paige.
"Champion for forty years! That'll be a record!" Sandy gasped, and then she looked a bit down. "I wonder what I'll be doing in forty years time…"
"You'll be living in my house of course!" Alaska tutted. Sandy turned around, eagerness suddenly in her eyes, and Alaska could not help but smile at her friend's delight.
"Living with you? That would be amazing!" Sandy gasped. "Oooh, where exactly do you picture your house?" Alaska did not usually think about things like this, considering them far too girly and beneath her, but now that Sandy had posed the question, she could not help but begin to ponder.
"Well, I never really wanted a big house as a child, as I always thought that ours was nice and cosy and what a house was meant to be: a few bedrooms, a big backyard, a huge living space and kitchen all connected together, nearly all the houses in Viridian were like that. But then, a few years ago, my brother and sister, they went off to the Arcethian Academy in the Sevii Islands. When I saw all of the brochures and welcome packs they got that showcased everything the school had to offer, I knew that I wanted to have a place like that."
"I have heard of Arcethian; it's the really fancy school, right?"
"So fancy that it makes the Athlew Mansion look like a fricking outhouse," Alaska said, and Sandy snorted with laughter. "It basically looks like Hogwarts except with less magic and wars and more purple carpets."
"And you want purple carpets in your dream house?" Sandy asked, smirking.
"Not a dream house, Sandy m'dear, a dream mansion!" Alaska said with perfect emphasis, making Sandy laugh. "It will be four stories high but the same length as all the gyms we've visited lined up next to each other. The outside walls will be so white that it will blind you to look upon them on a sunny day. The garden will be roughly the same size as Lavender Town with Misty's pool directly in the middle. Inside, we will each have our own floor to serve our separate needs, with a massive indoor training area for our Pokemon and an indoor playground 'cause why the hell not! There will be a floor for guests with enough rooms for everyone we have ever met to stay, and then a ground floor where we will throw spectacular cocktail parties and get every gym leader, every Kanto Elite, everyone whose every pissed me off drunk off their faces and sell their shame to the tabloids! Could you see Evelyn dancing to Sexy and I Know It in her petticoat and stockings with Brock gyrating against her in the background?"
"That is the single most disturbing image you have ever put in my head," Sandy said, and Alaska cackled with laughter. "I do like the sound of your house though. However, I insist upon designing my own floor, I am not letting you go anywhere near it!"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Alaska asked, faking an appalled look.
"No offence Alaska, but you've pretty much worn the same red shirt and blue jeans since I first met you: it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence in your creative capabilities!" Sandy said with a judging look at her outfit, but she laughed when Alaska gasped in faux shock.
"I am extremely creative and decorative, thank you very much!" Alaska tutted, a smile creeping onto her face spoiling the image.
"True, I have seen how you have creatively redecorated quite a few of sites around Kanto," Sandy said with her eyebrows raised. "Though I don't think that the Power Plant or Alexis will be recommending your skills any time soon." Alaska was taken aback by Sandy's joyful humour that she could not help but laugh, surprised but delighted by her friend. However, it quickly became more than that: she began rolling on her spot, unable to control herself, the sound of her laughter echoing in their little bit of Kanto. It had been a long time since she had laughed this joyously, and she simply let all her built up emotions escape. Sandy began to laugh at her, and Alaska was not surprised considering she was snorting like some deranged animal, but soon Sandy was roaring with laughter just as loudly as she was. Paige looked embarrassed to be seen with them and flew away to a nearby tree, which only made Alaska laugh louder and she rolled onto the grass, clutching her sides and ignoring the pain that rattled through her left arm.
The laughter carried on for at least another two minutes, leaving both girls breathless and with pained side. As it began to die down, Alaska wiped the tears of joy away from her eyes and she found herself facing the endless sky above, dotted with wispy white clouds that seemed to be scuttling across the blue surface. When she had been young, Alaska had always looked at the clouds and managed to see endless shapes and creatures dancing across the sky, from stuff as simple as a flock of Mareep to gigantic castles and horrific monsters akin to the ones in the old horror movies she had once watched. Laying on the grass now, Alaska watched the clouds and tried to make something out, but all she could see was wisps of white fluff like smoke, no Pidgeot with its wings spread wide, nothing that resembled her father or mother, not even a pair of Mareep grazing upon a sapphire field, just clouds splayed against a blue backdrop.
"Oh god, I have not laughed like that in AGES!" Sandy said with a slight snort from up on the bench. "I was sure my chest was about to burst open!"
"Yeah…," Alaska mumbled back, only slightly listening to what Sandy had to say as she remained staring fixatedly on the clouds. A sea breeze washed over her, and Alaska began to find her mind slipping away as she thought of the bare, unimaginative clouds miles and miles above her and wondering why this was…
"Snoooooor." A deep, booming noise suddenly sounded, and Alaska shot up in shock, her entire body shaking. She looked around as Pidgey and Pidgeotto fluttered into the air in surprise from the nearby trees, and she turned to see Sandy retreating further up the seat, staring fearfully forwards. It was then that Alaska realised where the noise was coming from, and she scrambled off the ground as the sleeping Snorlax began to wake, letting out more growls as it emerged from its slumber.
"Should we run? What if it's hungry, it might have a taste for flesh!" Sandy whispered. Alaska wanted to say that was stupid, but she could not help but wonder those things herself. Paige appeared overhead, staying airborne in case she had to fight, and all three of them watched as the Snorlax began to sit up: the great beast seemed to struggle with its own frame, slowly rising like an oddly flabby drawbridge, fat rippling from the sudden movement. Arms ending in pointed claws were flexed, claws that looked sharp enough to tear them apart, and the black, shiny skinned Snorlax slowly made its way onto its squat, almost perfectly circle feet and heaved itself off the ground.
"Be prepared to run," Alaska whispered, reaching inside her bag and feeling from the gun case. The Snorlax cast a large black shadow across the ground now that it was upright, and Alaska could not help but be afraid: this Pokemon was about the size of the mansion she dreamed of having, with sharp claws on its hands and feet, and a mouth wide enough to swallow them whole. The Snorlax's eyes were shut so it could not see them, but they could hear it sniffing the air, searching for its next meal.
"Snooooor," Snorlax roared, and Alaska tensed up as it turned towards them, lugging its giant frame around and causing it to jiggle. Paige flapped her wings more frantically, but Alaska could imagine she was as afraid of being eaten as they were. Sandy grabbed onto Alaska's right arm as if it would protect her, and for once, Alaska didn't mind, knowing that if they went down, at least they would go down together…
"Laaaaax," Snorlax boomed, and it began to waddle forwards, making the ground shake and leaves fall from trees. Alaska pulled the case out as a shadow was cast across her face, and she flicked the lid open, ready to fire whatever she had to in order to stop the beast. It got nearer and nearer, the entire seat wobbling, and Alaska slowly pulled her weapon out with a trembling hand as a giant cream belly filled her vision…
Snorlax turned right past them, its stomach missing Alaska's face by about an inch. She dropped the gun back into its slots and turned to watch as Snorlax went off into the trees, knocking about five falling over at once without even noticing. A trio of Fearow flew up in anger, but the Snorlax ignored them and waddled away, searching for the meal that smelt better than two teenage girls and a Pidgeotto.
"Oh my god, I thought we were done for for a moment there!" Sandy said, wiping her brow jokingly and sliding back along the bench. Alaska nodded and smiled briefly, but she turned and watched as the black blob headed away into the distance, crushing more trees as it moved.
So did I, for a second there, Alaska thought to herself. When did it become that I thought every slightly bad thing that happened to me was going to kill me? Have I become some paranoid, jumpy feeble thing? Paige landed on her injured arm, making Alaska wince and pulling her out of her thoughts, and she was forced to smile even as a new kind of fear began to settle upon her: the fear of how much this journey and this endless war against Gideon and the robots had changed her. Where was the care free spirit who had first left Viridian City with her head held high, ready for everything that had come her way? Where was the girl who had left with a determined focus on defeating the eight gyms and caring for little else? What had happened to the little girl that could sum. …
Oh joy, I have become a bitter, joyless shell of my former self… woo hoo… Alaska thought, resisting the urge to cry out in frustration. She sat up and watched as the Snorlax disappeared from view, only marked by the Flying types soaring away as their homes were destroyed. The path ahead was now completely clear, a large, flattened section of grass and slightly sunken earth showing where the Sleeping Pokemon had been. Alaska leapt to her feet, swinging her bag onto her shoulders and staring out towards the ocean as it lapped against the walkway. Look at this view: I should be enjoying my journey, not wasting it away stuck in a constant mood… I need to get out of my head.
"I think it is time we carried on," she said to Sandy, hoping that moving on would clear her head. "Daisy, Evelyn and Jericho held off that attack so that we would have time to get away, and we shouldn't waste it sitting around on a park bench waiting to find something to do." Paige nodded and fluttered onwards, joining the flocks of Pidgey and Pidgeotto fleeing from their destroyed homes.
"That's true, but what way do we go?" Sandy asked, grabbing her satchel bag and swinging it back over her shoulder. The two moved towards the edge of the earth, a clear change between earthen soils and the concrete path snaking its way above the waters. Alaska looked both ways, wondering what awaited her at either end of this pathway that was drenched by the waves lapping over the sides, before staring down as a wave flashed over the edge and onto her shoes. She could see her face reflected in the blue surface: battered, bruise, covered in blood, but mostly, Alaska could see the tiredness in her eyes. "I mean, we haven't really thought about what we are supposed to do here: we're in the middle of nowhere, far away from any friends of ours with no real clue of where we are and what we do next. So… what are we going to do?"
"Good question Sandy… good question."
The point/message of this chapter is meant to be kind of vague as spelling it out would have defeated the reasoning behind it, but if you did not quite get it, it will be explained more throughout this arc. There will (80% most likely) be a big change coming next time, one that will be apparent from the get go, and I look forward to write things a bit... differently ;) (And before anyone wonders, Pichu was inside its PokeBall, it was not shoved in Sandy's bag or anything, therefore getting crushed in the fall - in case anyone worried! :P)
