On the edge
"It feels good to be on the road again," Max commented as Violet City disappeared behind them.
" Yes it does," Bonnie agreed. "Onwards to the next adventure!"
Laura smiled. "I wonder what Azalea Town looks like," she said. "It is a nice name, it sounds like a garden."
"Hey, maybe the gym is a grass one," Bonnie replied. "Do you know, Max?"
"Of course I know!" Max sounded slightly offended that his blond friend would question his knowledge. "And you're wrong Bonnie, the gym leader in Azalea Town specialises in bug types, not grass types."
"Oh! Well, that's pretty cool too! There a gym leader in Kalos with the same specialty, she's really good."
"You know, it always struck me as a bit strange that every single gym specialises in one type and one type only,"Laura said. "Do you know why that is?"
Bonnie and Max looked at each other.
"That's a really good question, Laura," Max replied. "To be honest I never really thought about it. For me, growing up in my father's gym, it was just the way things were."
"What's your father's specialty?" The dark-haired girl asked.
"Normal types. What about your brother, Bonnie?"
"He loves electric types above anything else. But he does have some other pokemon, like Chespin here, and also a bunnelby. I guess many people are just drawn to one type or another."
"It might also be that each type offers specific challenges, so having to battle one type after another is very good training for a trainer who wants to take part in a pokemon league," Max added. "That's the best explanation I can give you."
"That makes sense, in any case," Laura agreed. "Tell me Max, do you plan on taking over your father's gym some day? Are you going to specialise in normal types too?"
"Well, I haven't taken the right partners for that, did I?" Max replied. "With Ralts, Treecko and now Poliwag... Truth is, taking the gym over when my father retired was all I dreamt about a few years ago, but now I'm really not so sure anymore. There are aspects of being a gym leader which I continue to find really great, but I love all kinds of pokemon, I think I'd miss something if I had to choose one type only. Anyway, my father plans on staying a gym leader for quite a few years yet, so it's not a decision I have to take right now. I want to travel first, I waited long enough to go on this journey. Maybe in the end I'll go back to my first dream, maybe I'll find another one."
"You know, you've hinted several times that you wanted to start travelling sooner and you couldn't, but you've never told us why," Bonnie commented.
"My father was sick for a long time, most of the past two years actually, and I had to take over a lot of his duties at the gym. I wasn't qualified to do the gym battles themselves of course, but I did much of the training. My mum... well, she loves cute pokemon like my sister's skitty, but she's too squeamish for battles. May, that's my sister, helped for a while, she had just come back from her Johto tour. But after a few months I knew she wanted to go on to Sinnoh to have time to gather her ribbons before the next Grand Festival."
"So you delayed your own travelling? I'm impressed at the closeness in your family, it's really heartwarming," Laura commented with a slightly wistful smile.
"Well, we had no choice, we might have lost the gym! If we had had a surprise inspection and the inspector decided that the level had gone down and we didn't meet the standards, it would have been over."
"Oh, I didn't know that."
"On the plus side, I bet you had lots of great training opportunities in this way, and you gained a lot of experience!" Bonnie smiled.
"Yes I did. Though it made my sister mad when I trained too much with her munchlax against my father's pokemon, and it evolved. Munchlax already had a big appetite, but it was nothing compared to now! Though Snorlax has developed quite a fighting spirit, so on my advice my father has added it to his battling team. The gym needed some fresh blood, our slaking was starting to be too old for all the battling, but my father had not been up to looking for new pokemon either, so in the end that turned out quite well. And then I found an injured zigzagoon in the woods, and my mum nursed her back to health. She's grown very close to my dad too, always up for some cuddling, a real little charmer. So currently we have Snorlax, Zigzagoon, which I think will evolve soon, and Vigoroth, which absolutely doesn't want to evolve. It's a good normal-type mix. What, what did I way?"
Bonnie and Laura had been looking at Max with a strange expression on their faces. They both broke out laughing.
"You really sound like a gym leader," Bonnie explained with a huge smile. "That's exactly the kind of talk I hear all the time from my brother and his friends."
"Oh". Max looked embarrassed. "I didn't mean to go into that much detail, it just kind of slipped out."
"Hey, that was no criticism, don't worry. But with so much pressure on you for so long, I understand why you want to experience this trip with a free mind and not focus on the gym for a while!"
"Exactly. But enough on me! Bonnie, I wanted to ask you, how was it travelling with Ash? He sounds like he hasn't changed much, so I'm sure you have lots of stories to tell!"
"Oh yes I do! Starting from the first day I met him, and Team Rocket – the other ones, not the ones we met – tried to steal a garchomp at the pokemon lab in Lumiose City. It went on a rampage, and Ash climbed to the very top of the Prism tower to try and calm it..."
With Laura's prompting, a lot of amazement and not a little incredulity on her part, Max and Bonnie swapped story after story until they stopped for the night.
xxx
The next day the landscape started changing. Up til now, their experience of Johto had been of a mostly flat land, with an alternance of forest patches and fields and villages. The next stretch, while no mountain region by any stretch of the imagination, was a lot more hilly and rocky, and they were all getting quite a bit out of breath after a few hours. When Laura suggested they stop on an outcropping to have a break and put together some sandwiches, Bonnie and Max jumped on the offer.
They got everyone out of their pokeball for a quick bite as well, and kicked back happily, enjoying the view.
Lunch was drawing to a close when Ralts and Espurr, who had been playing at lifting rocks and each other with psychic, suddenly stopped next to the edge.
"Hey, what's up guys?" Laura asked. "You should come back, we're packing."
But both pokemon emphatically refused to leave. Intrigued, Laura went to them, wondering why on earth they looked so confused, and why they seemed to be looking around for something.
"Err, did you lose anything?" She said. Gently, Espurr came to put a paw on her mouth. The message was clear: be quiet. The dark-haired girl listened intently, then: "Bonnie, Max, come down there! I'm hearing something, like a faint cry."
Her two friends ran to her. Again, they all stood silently. "…an…i…! …an…" The sound was almost inaudible: whoever was calling out was either exhausted or very far away. The three friends looked everywhere around them, but the origin of the calls was eluding them. Finally, Ralts and Espurr, who had been watching them with identical long-suffering expressions, took the matter into their own hands, so to speak. They marched right up to the edge of the cliff, apparently intent on climbing down.
"Hey, Espurr, watch out, you could fall!" Laura shouted.
"Espurr, espurr!"
"Alright, I'm coming. What do you guys have seen… oh! My goodness! Hey you two, there's a pokemon down there!"
"What?"
Indeed, a little blue form was huddling on a ledge halfway down the cliff. How it could have arrived there was a mystery, but it was one for another time. Even from the top it was obvious that the little one was in distress.
"That's a phanpy!" Max exclaimed. "Poor little guy, we need to get it out of there!"
Bonnie was already moving.
"Chespin, come out!" Her little friend jumped on her with an impish smile, only to turn around and cling to her, eyes closed, when he realized how close they all were to the big rock wall.
"Hey, it's alright, I'm holding you. There's a phanpy stuck down there, we need to help it up. Can you use vine whip to reach for it?"
Cautiously, the green hedgehog approached the edge and peaked down. He was looking quite uncomfortable perched like that, but the view of the little pokemon in distress seemed to steady him.
"Chespin!" His vines could barely reach Phanpy. He looked at Bonnie with determination, and the blond girl nodded. She picked him up and held him over the cliff, to help him extend his reach as much as possible. The baby elephant was startled when Chespin's vines touched it, and almost fell, as one of its feet slipped off the narrow rock ledge.
"It's alright Phanpy, we're here to help you! Don't move!" Bonnie called out. Slowly, Chespin managed to bring his vines around the trembling bundle.
"Very good Chespin," Bonnie praised him. "And now, heave!" The little hedgehog gave a mighty pull, muscles straining. But Phanpy barely moved.
"Phanpy is quite heavy for his size," Max commented. "I hope Chespin will be able to lift it… Oh, of course! Ralts, how about we give a hand to Chespin?"
"Ralts!" his partner responded happily, and targeted his psychic move towards the little elephant. As Laura's urging, Espurr followed suit. Thus buoyed, Phanpy was much lighter, and Chespin guided it to safety in no time. He set it besides Bonnie, safely back from the cliff. Phanpy looked at them with gratitude and started to extend its trunk in the blond girl's direction, but then its legs betrayed it and it slumped on the ground, barely conscious.
"It's exhausted!" Laura exclaimed. "And hurt besides, look at that left front leg!"
"Can you heal it?" Bonnie asked.
"I can give it an oran berry to help relieve the pain and regain a bit of energy, but I'm no nurse. We need a pokemon center, and fast!"
Max was already peering into his pokenav. "There's no center nearby, unfortunately. The best we can do is go to the next village. Hawthorn Glade is the nearest. Either someone there will be able to help Phanpy, or they'll direct us to someone who can."
"If that's the best we can do let's do it! Don't worry little one, we'll have you feeling better real soon," she told Phanpy. She went to pick it up, only to give a big huff. "Whoa, you're a heavy one, no kidding!"
"I'll take your bag, Bonnie," Laura offered.
"And we'll take turns carrying Phanpy," Max added immediately. "Actually, I'm sure I can carry it all the way, no problem."
The two girls shook their heads at Max's boasting. "How about Ralts give me a hand instead?" Bonnie replied, and Ralts immediately complied with psychic, before Max could say a word.
"So, how far did you say was this village of yours?"
"About two hours from here, if we walk fast."
Grimly, Bonnie set out as fast as she thought she could walk for a while, her friends on her heels.
xxx
"Is that village moving further away from us as we try to reach it or what?" Bonnie exclaimed two and a half hours later, with no houses in sight.
They were all feeling almost as exhausted as Phanpy looked, though they hardly dared complain out loud. Bonnie and Ralts had carried the little elephant as far as they could, then Max had taken over alone, to give Ralts some time to rest. His boastful claim had not survived the reality of carrying Phanpy, and he had been grateful when Laura and Espurr took over after a while. Bonnie and Max had gathered a few branches on the go to whip up a very crude stretcher, and the phanpy was now lying on it, motionless, while both were sharing the load with Ralt's support.
Laura ignored Bonnie's outburst and touched Phanpy's forehead one more time. "I think Phanpy is starting a fever," she commented concernedly 'I could give it another oran berry, but the first one didn't do much good. Oh, I hope there'll be someone to help it in Hawthorne Glade!"
"We'll know soon, here it is!" Max replied with relief as the first houses of the village finally came into sight.
"Excuse-me madam, is there a doctor in the village? Phanpy needs urgent care!" Laura asked the first woman she came across.
"You're in luck, we have a doctor who does rounds in the region. He comes here one day a week, and that's today. But hurry up, because he usually packs up around that time. You'll find him in the big blue house north of the main square."
Hurrying as much as they could, the three friends ran into the indicated direction. Bonnie and Max collapsed with exhaustion when they reached the blue house. Laura gathered Phanpy in her arms once again, and she rushed through the door. The first room was empty so she went directly to the one at the back of the building. There, a man in a doctor's white coat was just finishing putting his accessories into one big bag, helped by a big Blissey.
"Please doctor, we have a phanpy in a very bad shape, can you see to it?"
The brown-haired man turned around with a smile.
"Of course I can. Put it on the table here, and I'll have a look. My, it looks like both of you had a rough day!"
"Well, my friends and I found it stuck on a cliff, two hours from here, we've hurried to find help ever since. I gave Phanpy an oran berry after we rescued it, but it looks worse and worse nonetheless. Are we in time doctor?"
"Don't worry, we'll get this little lady back on her feet. Why don't you go wait in the other room?"
Getting out of the examination room, Laura found Max and Bonnie, who were about to enter. She gave them the news, and they all settled down to wait. There was a drink vending machine in the waiting room, and the three companions guzzled down water and juice, slumped on the seats.
"My, that was more exercise that I care for," Bonnie commented at one point.
Thirty minutes passed, then an hour. Finally, the door to the examination room opened again, and the doctor came out with a smile. Max, who had been facing the other way, turned around at the girls' joyous cries, and gasped.
END OF CHAPTER 16
Again, it took me quite a while to write this chapter, my apologies. I do this for fun whenever I find the time, and free time is not something I have a large supply of right now.
By the way, what did you guys think of the pictures? Bonnie and Max are fan-drawn, they are the pictures I feel represent them the most like I imagine them myself. Laura I did myself by modifying a picture I found online (because I can't draw, especially anime).
