Ch 6: Gord Lake
Losing nearly your entire team takes something out of you. It just kills all the momentum you built up and makes you feel like you just wasted months of your life. The time I spent trying to teach moves to them, the money I spent feeding them proper food and not the garbage they wanted to eat like dead Caterpie's on the ground. I had four fucking Pokemon, and now, after one night, I have only one.
I guess if I were to truly be honest with myself, I couldn't exactly blame Emolga for ditching me. She just comes back from delivering a letter, and finds two of her team killed and me and Skorupi getting our asses kicked by a single Arbok. Then she takes quite the beating trying to save us. So was it really fair to hate Emolga for leaving me? But I prefered to just consider Emolga a traitor and a waste of time, so fuck her.
Then there's Togepi. She never really did anything but bump her head against every static object around her, but she was technically my first Pokemon. The egg my parents gave me. She was supposed to be there for me down the journey to the Ilragorn League. And she had saved me from Arbok...that little dumbass saved me.
And Spearow. My trooper. Died trying to save Togepi. He had always been my favorite. Not that I liked the Pokemon. Just...I disliked him the least, I suppose would be better wording. I still felt that Pokemon were far more trouble than they were worth, and this was still all just a means to please my parents so I could go back home.
I considered heading home this morning, covered in blood and bruises. My parents would see the state I was in; I would tell them that I got attacked by a gang member of Team Anonymous, judging by the all-black he wore. They would instantly realize what shitty parents they were to send out their only good child to the Gord Woods for months, and they'd see how traumatized I am from having most of my Pokemon gone overnight. Then maybe they'd let me come back home, out of guilt.
But Evan would be there. And Evan would just shake his head at me, with undoubtedly a look of embarrassment on his smug face that I quit before even getting my first badge. That I let my entire team lose, to an Arbok. I don't care how much blood is leaking out of my mouth, there was no fucking way I'd go home and let Evan see me be that weak. I had too much pride for that. If it meant I had to go through 50 more Pokemon to beat all the gyms, and enter the league, and win the league, and face the Elite 4, and then beat that old bitch's Mega Metagross, that's exactly what I was going to fucking do.
I picked myself up, the sand of the beach rushing off of me like waves, and made my way over to my backpack so that I could release Skorupi. With that flash of red light, Skorupi rejoined me. He was clearly distressed after the events of the previous night, as I could see lines of stress under his eyes. He hadn't gotten much sleep either.
"I just want to thank you," I started, looking at him, face to face. "For not leaving me when you could have."
Skorupi closed his eyes and made a gesture with his claw, a wave as if to say "no big deal".
"It is a big deal. You're my only Pokemon, man. And that means a ton of responsibility is going to be put on you, which I know is unfair. We have to start all over again, and you're going to have to help me catch every Pokemon."
As I said the words, an overwhelming sense of the lack of control I had draped over me. All over again. I had to sift through the garbage Pokemon that the Gord Woods offered, and retrain them all over again. And they may just get killed too, next time some gang asshole tries to rob me.
Skorupi didn't seem at all pressured though, as he simply put on a smile of confidence and cried out his name confidently. It reminded me of myself, right before I got my ass torn apart at the Peltagrow Gym.
"But we're going to leave the Gord," I decided on a whim. Skorupi looked left and right, motioning around himself, pointing in various directions. "I'm not sure where we'll go. Not Peltagrow, and not Lunaris. Somewhere new. I'm tired of these fucking woods and the nasty Pokemon in them."
As if for emphasis, a Scyther darted out of the woods, in hot pursuit of a fleeing Butterfree. Skorupi excitedly pointed at the Scyther, hopping up and down. The Scyther slashed the Butterfree's wing off, and the poor bastard fell to the sand just 100 yards away from us. The Scyther began eating it, so I turned away, stared out at the lake.
"No bug pokemon," I said. "You're the only one I need." Skorupi looked down, dejected at my denial of his suggestion for a new addition to our team. Maybe he just wanted a battle. To boost his ego after almost getting killed by a snake last night, it wouldn't surprise me.
My mind started to wander, so I sat back down and watched the water. Just under the calm waters, blurry fish Pokemon were seen darting around. Goldeens, Magikarps, and Feebas'. Seeing them began to make my stomach ache for food, but the Vendor's Market was so far away, in the center of the woods. At least an hour venture. To keep my mind off of the pain of hunger, I thought about home. Which led me to reminisce about the past.
"You know how I ended up here?" I asked Skorupi. I don't know why, but I felt at peace in that moment, and felt like trying to bond with this guy. This Pokemon. He just settled himself into a comfortable position in front of me and looked up at me, waiting.
"I'm here because I screwed up in school," I admitted pathetically to Skorupi, unsure if he could even understand the concept of what school is. If he didn't, he did a good job feigning comprehension of what I was talking about. I continued, though I didn't look up from my lap, not wanting to look at him for some reason. "I stopped trying. I stopped going. I stopped doing the assignments. And once you miss one class or one assignment, it starts to not become a big deal when you blow off the rest. And that's exactly what happened. I failed, because I was an idiot.
"I don't even know why I let this all happen. Honestly, I don't even have a good reason. I just started feeling so fucking down on myself, and started having these awful fucking nightmares a few months back. I've been having them at least once a week, I think. I can't even remember them by the time I wake up, but I just remember how terrible they made me feel about myself, about my life, about everything."
I looked up at Skorupi, who made a low growl of comfort. But I could tell it was supposed to be a kind of weird purr. The low growl he made sparked a memory that I hadn't thought of in a long time though.
"You know, my family used to have a family Pokemon. A pet Growlithe." I hadn't thought about this in years, but the memories of the pet came rushing to me like waves against the beach. "My parents had got it for me and Evan. Evan, my brother."
Skorupi perked up, his interest piqued that I'd had a Pokemon before him.
"He was a cute little guy," I hated to admit it, but it was true. "Big fluffy red fur coat. Huge brown eyes. All the neighbors loved him. Everyone who met him loved him." I paused, to think of how to begin what was to come. "My parents brought him home the day they'd decided to ground me. I can't even remember why, I'd gotten into a fight with Evan and something had broke, and the blame got pinned on me or something. Doesn't matter. The point is, Mom and Dad walked through the front door while Evan was in the living room, probably jerking off to Pokemon, and introduced the Growlithe to Evan. I was in my room though, grounded. So the first hour the Growlithe's introduced into the house, it latches onto Evan while I'm stuck in my room.
"Then, finally, Mom and Dad call me out to the living room to meet the new member of the family. The moment I see the little guy, Evan tells him to 'attack the intruder.' The little fucker just charges at me, and - keep in mind - I was, like, 6 or 7 years old when this happened. He charges at me, and tries to jump all over me, barking and trying to bite my hands off while I'm shouting and trying to run back to my room. And Evan's laughing, of course, being the fucking shithead he is, no surprise there. But my fucking parents were laughing right along with him. They thought it was cute. They thought their asshole son ordering the new pet to attack the youngest child was cute."
Skorupi made a low moan of empathy. I could hear the volume in my voice rising as I told him about my childhood, the emotions in me being exposed that I'd kept bottled up for all these years, my voice cracking with the threat of more tears. That's just what I needed. To cry in front of my last Pokemon.
"And ever since that day, because Evan fucking hated me, and because my idiot parents encouraged it all, the Growlithe treated me like a stranger in my own house without even needing any incentive from Evan. Would growl at me whenever I entered the room. Would bark and snap at me if I tried to sit on the sofa while Evan was there. After a certain point, enough was enough when the canine bit my leg so hard that I had to go to the hospital to get stitches. They finally put it down. And after that, Evan treated me like I'd done something wrong. Like I'd taken a knife and slit the dog's throat myself. And we were worse to each other more than ever, would fight so much, all over the Growlithe being put down. We hated each other for years. I think we still do."
I could feel the wetness running down my nose, the mucus coming, the tears start to emerge.
"All I wanted was the fucking Pokemon to treat me like family. Not scare me and try to hurt me whenever I went into the room with it." That did it. Finally, I could feel everything in my body start to break as the crying began. "All I wanted was it to just come up to me, and rest its head on my leg and care about me. But instead it bit me so hard I got an infection."
I threw my face into my hands to cover the redness and the tears and the snot and the ugliness of crying from my Pokemon. I didn't want him to see me so weak. I didn't even want to see the look of disgust he would probably show me for acting like a child. But instead, Skorupi ended up crawling over to my side, and leaning his head against my legs. For some reason, this just made me cry with more vigor.
I don't know how much time passed while the two of us just sat in the sand along the lake, leaning against each other. After a while, the crying that was wracking my body into convulsions slowly edged down to shudders and mere sobs. Then, suddenly, I felt a little better after letting all of that out of me, and the crying stopped. So I just stroked Skorupi along his tough back while he rested against my thigh, all the while looking out at the waters and wondering if things would finally start to change for the better.
Out of nowhere, a large shadow was cast over me, as something flew high in the sky right over my head, descending fast. My attention was turned upwards to see what was flying downwards to get a drink from the lake. The flash of yellow feet under a large brown body, with huge green leaves sprouting from its sides that acted as wings were all I can see, as the Pokemon was flying straight over me, blocking out the sun so that its features were darkened with the light blocked off. It flew in circles over me for a few moments, deciding where the best spot to land was. The Pokemon landed just 20 feet or so away from us, either unaware or our presence or uncaring. The long neck and the yellow fruit hanging off of its chin made it clear that I was looking at a Tropius. The Tropius lowered its small head to the waters edge, and began lapping at it delicately, as if it were in a manners class.
"Hey, wake up," I whispered, nudging Skorupi until his eyes opened. He appeared groggy and tired, but the moment he saw the Tropius, energy seemed to fill through him as he stood straight and assumed a fighting position, his claws extended outward and his stinger raised high. "Ready for a fight?" I smiled down at Skorupi, which surprised me as I don't remember ever doing that before. He smiled right back, then returned his fierce gaze to the Tropius, which still continued to ignore us. I counted to three in my head, then whispered: "Poison Fang."
Skorupi charged toward the Tropius, which had its eyes shut as it savored the taste of the lake water in the morning heat. However, it heard Skorupi's approach, and turned its head in curiosity, just in time to witness Skorupi leap into the air, jaws agape, and sink his venomous teeth into the Tropius' grass wings.
Tropius cried out in both pain and shock, flapping its wings furiously to shake Skorupi off, and flying into the air. Why did flying Pokemon always panic and go into the air to try and get Skorupi off? I received my answer: Tropius flapped its wings, despite Skorupi's strong hold with his teeth, and conjured up an impressive Gust, which sent Skorupi flying into the lake, trapped in a mini tornado.
"Skorupi! You okay?" I cupped my hands over my mouth, hoping he'd hear me from under water. He popped his head out and waved at me cheerfully. We both looked upwards at the Tropius, which gave Skorupi a look of disdain, then turned around mid-air, and started flying away. I was okay with not catching it, but Skorupi apparently had had enough of a losing streak. He attacked despite me not calling out an attack, firing 5 Pin Missiles at the Tropius, 3 of them connecting and hitting it square in the back, knocking the grassy pokemon out of the air and causing it to crash headfirst into the sand, splashing the sand everywhere as it did.
Damn, Skorupi.
Skorupi quickly swam out of the lake, eager to continue his fight against Tropius in an
act to prove he was still a good fighter. As Skorupi emerged from the lake, the water leaking off of his little purple body, Tropius was the one to charge toward him this time. Only Tropius had his powerful wings to propel him through the air twice as fast as Skorupi could run, so Tropius rammed Skorupi's little 2 foot tall body with a painful-looking Headbutt from that 6 foot tall vegetable. The two of them went sailing back into the lake, the sound of heavy bodies splashing in water ringing through my ears.
Tropius raised its head out from the water, gasping for air, wide-eyed in fright. Skorupi had latched its claws onto the yellow fruit hanging from its neck, and dangled there now as Tropius furiously shook his head back and forth in an attempt to knock Skorupi back into the water.
"Poison Sting it! And Bite!" I ordered. Skorupi's stinger reacted to my words quickly, jabbing into the long, fragile neck, while Skorupi bit his teeth into Tropius' face.
Tropius flew into the air once more, but this time he seemed to have much more control of himself and remained calm despite the little scorpion hanging onto his neck for dear life. Tropius soared high into the air: straight up, up up. And then, 100 feet into the sky, he started coming back down, fast. He was using Fly.
Skorupi was using his claws, his jaws, and his stinger and was giving it everything he could to incapacitate the fruit Pokemon, but Tropius was determined to fly himself straight into the ground in an attempt to save itself from being beaten by Skorupi.
"Skorupi, at the last second, jump off!" I screamed, unsure if he could hear me.
Tropius was getting closer and closer, and the loud sounds of his gigantic leaf wings flapping frantically through the air as he fell were ringing throughout the beach. Skorupi stopped biting and looked down at the ground, but still held on to Tropius' neck using his stinger and claws. It was nearly impossible to read his face due to how fast they were moving. They were about to hit the ground, face-first.
"Let go, now!" I shouted.
Skorupi listened, and he released his grip right before Tropius smashed itself into the ground, causing a cloud of sand and dust to rise into the air in the aftermath of the battle. Tropius had knocked itself out.
I just stood there like a rock, staring at what we'd just done. It had been so long since I'd caught a Pokemon, I had forgotten that rush of excitement and confidence you get when you capture one. Well, one that isn't some crap like Metapod. A smile slowly slept crept over my face. This was the first time catching a Pokemon had actually seemed...rewarding? Fun? I don't know.
"Skorupi!" I was jolted out of my thoughts to see Skorupi pantomiming a throwing animation at the Pokemon he had just beaten.
I jogged over to my backpack, having nearly forgotten about it since last night. I opened it to see if the Team Anonymous member had stolen any of my cash; it was all still there. And so were my 5 pokeballs, and that sense of dread and depression began to sink over me again. I took the 3 used up pokeballs that I recognized as Emolgas, Togepis, and Spearow, and placed them in the sand next to the backpack. I left Skorupi's in the bag and took the fifth and final pokeball that I was given about 2 months ago out of its bag to capture the newest member to the team.
After Tropius was settled into his ball, Skorupi and me took the 3 pokeballs that belonged to our former teammates, and buried them in the sand of Gord Lake. No words were spoken. I'm not sure if this was a kind of funeral or maybe it was just more environmentally sound of us to bury them rather than throw them in the water or in the woods for some dumb Pokemon to choke on, but it seemed like the right thing to do. And I think it's about time I start doing shit right.