Rough Start
"Wow, a lot of people showed up for our going away party."
And so they had. The party was being held at Brian's house. A great deal many people from the lab had showed up to say their goodbyes. Amy and the Professor were among them; along with others from the job that Jet only recognized by sight.
Amy, apparently, decided not to leave for Cinnabar until next summer. She said she would train Bulbasaur against the local Pokémon to make it strong enough to defend itself when they set out.
"I mean," Amy began, "It's not even nice over there this time of year. Besides, I didn't save up as much money as you or Brian. I'd go broke in about two weeks."
Jet's mom had been the most upset about him leaving. She went on her own trip when she was twenty, though, so she understood the appeal. "Call me every day to let me know how you're doing, understand? If you don't, I'll get in the jeep and go find you myself."
Mr. Brown wasn't upset at all. In fact, he seemed positive that Jet would be back home in a couple of weeks. "Yeah, I did the same thing at your age. Took me four days to get to Viridian, and I didn't catch not one Pokémon! Then, when I finally went to the gym, I lost all my money to the Pokémon trainers there! It's just not the best career choice in my opinion."
Jet smiled and clapped his old man on the shoulder, "Thanks for the support, Pops."
"Anytime!" said Jet's dad before taking another sip Heineken.
The twins came over to Jet later that day and asked if he would catch them their own Pokémon. Jet laughed, "When you get a job and can support them, no problem!"
Jet was having a very good day, and then Brian came up and grinned at Jet. "You ok buddy? You're grinning like you're on something illegal."
Brian whispered in Jet's ear, "I just got finish making out with Crissy, from accounting! She let me get to second base!"
Jet laughed, "I thought you had the hots for Amy? She's single now you know."
Brian popped open a can of Pepsi and said, "All in good time, my dear boy! All in good time."
Jet rolled his eyes. Brian was as happy as could be for the rest of the night. Jet however, started to realize how much he was going to miss his little corner of the world when he goes away.
XXX
Jet was leaning on the waist high wooden fence that surrounded Brian's back yard. To his left, Thorn was sitting on the fence eating a barbeque pork rib with a great deal of enthusiasm. Together, the two of them watched the sunset.
Amy walked over to them and handed Jet a bottle of Blue Moon. "Have a drink with me before you go."
Jet smiled and twisted the cap off. They clinked their bottles together in a toast and commenced to watch the sunset. After a few minutes of silence, Jet said, "I'm going to miss this."
Amy took a sip of her beer, "There will be sunsets no matter where you go."
Jet shook his head, "Nah, I mean all of this," he gestured to the party behind him, "I mean you, us."
Amy put her bottle down and looked Jet in the eye, "I'm going to miss you too." She moved closer to Jet, "I'm going to miss you a lot."
Amy was close enough that Jet could smell the light scent of her perfume, which he found to be as intoxicating as the tequila that was now being served in generous quantities to his mother.
Jet smiled and asked, "Can I ask you a question? Exactly what is going on between you and Brian?"
Amy giggled, "What? Curiosity or personal interest?"
Jet scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly, "A little bit of both."
Amy leaned forward and kissed Jet lightly on the lips. It was brief, and the kiss ended just as fast as it began. Amy pulled away quickly and blushed.
Jet blushed as well, "Wow. That was just… kind of…"
Amy smiled, "Yeah, I know." She looked down and took another sip. She then looked back up and placed her hand on his cheek and said, "Just remember; where ever you go, I'll be watching the same sunset."
She then gave him a hug and walked away. Thorn, who was chewing on his bone through the proceedings, watched Amy leave. He then looked up at Jet and let out a kind of purr.
"Yeah," Jet said, rubbing Thorn's head, "I like her too."
XXX
Brian and Jet were walking down the dirt path of Route 1, headed toward Viridian City. They had left extra early in the hopes that the goodbyes would be short. They rode the bus down to the edge of town, where they decided it best to head to Viridian on foot in order to find some Pokémon. They had been walking down the same road for almost an hour and saw absolutely nothing but a wild Spearow flying past overhead.
Jet sighed, "Maybe we should get off the main road? I mean, if you were a wild Pokémon, wouldn't you live over there in all those trees?"
Jet pointed to the wood line to their left. Brian nodded and said, "Good point. Besides, no one ever got anywhere without taking a few risks."
And so, the two boys headed toward the woods, in hope of finding some Pokémon to build a team. It was common knowledge that most of the Pokémon from Pallet Town to Viridian city were pretty weak. Partially because trainers hardly ever took this road, so the Pokémon didn't have to fight a whole lot. Mostly it was because the Pokémon that did evolve migrated elsewhere.
"I heard that there is a small population of Mankey somewhere around here," Brian said, "Maybe we can catch a few of those."
"Where did you hear that?" Jet asked.
"Online. There is a website that keeps track of Pokémon sightings in any given area, it's called-"
"Poké-Tracker? Why didn't I think of that?"
They found themselves going down a steep hill. At the bottom of the hill, there was a little stream. Jet was about to cross the stream on a log when Brian grabbed his arm to stop him. He pointed at the other side of the stream where a Sandshrew was getting a drink of water.
"Finders, keepers!" said Brian with a huge grin on his face. Jet nodded and began to climb a nearby tree to get a good view as Brian attempted to make his first catch.
Brian approached the Pokémon cautiously, but stepped on a twig. Sandshrew heard the snap and looked up, tense, at the new intruder. Brian then sent out Squirtle and said, "Use Bubble attack!"
Squirtle used Bubble but was too slow for Sandshrew who dug underground. Brian sighed, "Well, I guess-"
Then, suddenly, the ground beneath Squirtle burst forth as Sandshrew emerged. Squirtle was knocked in the air. Midflight, Squirtle reposition itself and dropped its tail down on Sandshrew with a pound attack; it was a critical hit.
Brian laughed, "Excellent, I didn't know you could do that! Hit him again with Bubble!" This time, the attack landed. Sandshrew cried out in pain as Brian said, "Finish him off with Tackle!"
Squirtle tackled Sandshrew into a tree. He then jumped out the way as Brian threw a Great Ball at it. The capsule rocked from left to right seven times before Brian heard a metallic, click, meaning that the Sandshrew was captured.
Below Jet, Brian whooped and celebrated his first capture. Jet smiled and said, "First try, not half bad." Then, he heard a coo, coo come from next to him. He turned to see what the noise was, and saw a Pidgey perched on the branch next to him.
The Pidgey gave another, coo, and then it flew right at Jet, as if to tackle him. Jet yelled and tried to move out the way, but as he was twenty feet in the air, this was no easy task.
Jet was about to fall off the branch when he grabbed on to Pidgey's leg for support. Jet was lifted of the branch as Pidgey tried to fly away. He yelled as he looked down and saw the drop below him, and reached up to grab Pidgey's other leg with his left hand.
Below Jet, he could hear Brian yell his name in panic. But if Brian was afraid, it was nothing compared to how scared Jet was. The Pidgey tried to get Jet to let go by knocking him into nearby trees. Jet used his feet to push off the trunks of these trees, messing up Pidgey's flight trajectory as he did.
After about thirty seconds of pure panic, Jet's weight became too much for Pidgey to handle and they began to drop. They didn't drop fast, as Pidgey was flapping for dear life, but it still scared the living shit out of Jet as he watched the ground grow closer and closer.
Six feet from the ground, Jet let go of Pidgey and hit the earth. Pidgey, once free, flew up high. It turned around midflight and began to fly towards Jet in order to attack.
Behind Jet, Brian called Squirtle's name, as if readying it for an attack. Jet, however, told them to stay back and grabbed a heavy stick that was on the ground next to him.
With reflexes born of years of little league baseball, Jet cracked the stick over Pidgey's head as it tried to tackle him. Pidgey gave a loud chirp, and fell on the ground, taking the momentum from its tackle attack with it. Floored, the Pidgey rolled over and hooted weakly.
Jet dropped the broken stick he was holding and pulled a pokeball from his belt, enlarging it. Jet than pitched the Pokeball the same way he did to catch Thorn.
Pidgey was sucked into the pokeball, which began to rock back and forth furiously. Jet watched with anticipation and bated breath as it continued to rock around. After a few seconds, Jet heard a familiar metallic click, and the button on the pokeball turned blue.
Brian walked over and whistled, "Dude, did you just catch a Pokémon without battling it?"
Jet pointed at the broken stick on the ground, "What do you mean I didn't battle it?"
Brian smiled, "You got me there."
Jet picked up his pokeball and scanned it with the Pokédex. He registered the Pidgey under his name and checked its level, stats, and moves. It was only level four, but it had a decent speed and attack.
Its ability was Keen Eye, which meant that it would be extremely accurate. The only attacks it knew were tackle, scratch, and peck. Jet also saw that the Pidgey was a female.
"I'm going to name you, Sora."
Brian sniggered, "Like the Kingdom Hearts character?"
"Sora means sky, dick-weed," Jet retorted, "so shut up."
Brian laughed and said, "Well, we should head back to the main road."
"Wait, just like that? You don't want to catch more Pokémon or train the ones you already got?"
Brian looked confused, "How long were you planning on staying on route one? The Pokémon here aren't very strong. I figured we would just get some practice catching Pokémon and then head to the Viridian Gym to train them."
Jet scratched his head, "I'll tell you what, why don't you go ahead to the gym, and I'll meet you at the Viridian Pokémon center in a few days."
"Umm," Brian started, "Are you sure about that dude? I mean, I'm all for building a team and everything but I don't think you'll find anything special out here."
Jet shrugged, "Any Pokémon has the potential to be great, you just got to help them find that inner strength."
Brian laughed, "Well I agree, but you can't train six Pokémon at a time and beat a gym leader in less than a month. You remember how difficult it was raising Thorn and Squirtle?"
"That was different," Jet said, defensively, "I couldn't battle with them at the time. They'll grow ten times faster if I have them battle wild Pokémon."
Brian shook his head, "Do what you want, I'll be at the Gym getting some real training in. Hey, and when we meet up again, we can have another battle, see who's stronger."
Jet nodded, "Looking forward to it." They gave each other a half hand shake, half hug and said, "See you in a few days."
XXX
By the end of the day, Jet had not regretted his decision to stay behind. He no longer had only a Pidgey under his belt, but a Rattata and a Spearow as well.
The Rattata was also level four, but the Spearow was level five. That night, while camping out, Jet had healed his new Pokémon and informed them they would be going through some tough training over the next few days.
Tough training indeed, for Jet had gotten up early and had his Pokémon go through some strength building exorcises. Thorn and the Rattata ended up running suicides while picking up rocks and moving them from A to B.
While Jet timed them, he had Pidgey and Spearow spar after he showed them the proper way to dip a strike from an enemy. After about an hour of this they switched; Charmander and Rattata sparred while Pidgey and Spearow flew from A to B in a set amount of time. To help build strength and endurance, Jet would grab Pidgey's feet with one hand, and Spearow's with the other.
They had to ferry him back and forth for about an hour. He was dropped twice, but he made sure they kept him only five feet from the ground just in case of such an occurrence. After their workout, Jet washed all of the Pokémon in a stream and fed them berries for breakfast. They then took a two hour break in which the Pokémon sat in a half circle around Jet as he explained his battle strategies with them, drawing visuals in the dirt with a stick as he did so.
Afterwards, Jet recalled all his Pokémon into their balls except the one he wanted to battle with, and set out to find wild Pokémon to practice against. They battled all day, Jet rotating Pokémon regularly as the day progressed. None of his new Pokémon were particularly talented. Pidgey was a much better flyer than Spearow, and quickly grew to level five. She learned sand-attack, which Jet had designated an hour and a half out the day to practice.
His Spearow had a nasty habit of diving in for a physical attack, but missing and plummeting to the ground. Rattata had very little strength behind his tackle's, which caused him to lose as many battles as he won.
Thorn was Jet's ace in the hole. Whenever one of his other Pokémon were in danger of losing life or limb; (which, annoyingly, seemed to happen far too often), Thorn would come to their rescue. It was as if he could do no wrong; he knew exactly when to move, how to strike, and always seemed to understand exactly what Jet was trying to communicate. If it wasn't for Thorn, Jet was sure his little venture would fail.
The next day, Jet had the Pokémon work on their weak points. Jet had both Spearow and Pidgey hover up and down, carrying Jet's weight. The purpose of this exercise was to help the bird Pokémon with their ascending and descending. As he watched them practice their dives, he saw that his exercise had definitely worked for the better. Spearow, as well as Pidgey, had improved their dives dramatically. Jet made a note in his note book to do this exercise every day.
All of the Pokémon, with the exception of Thorn, had to practice dodging and dipping. Aside from sparring, Jet would pitch rocks at them and get them to move out the way in time. They made a little progress, but not as much as Jet would have hoped.
By the end of the third day, everyone was exhausted. Jet was running low on potions and his Pokémon were tired of battle after battle. Pidgey was now at level seven, and easily his best Pokémon besides Charmander. Rattata had grown to level five, but Spearow remained where he was. Jet was impressed, however, by how much they had all improved maneuver wise. He agreed with Brian, though, that it would be a lot easier to just lighten his load when he got to Viridian.
Deciding it was time to hit the road, Jet was dismayed when he realized he had absolutely no clue where the road was. He headed east, guided by the sunset, in hope that a trail would appear eventually.
It was night time and there was hardly any visibility. Jet was sure he must have strayed, because he had not found a road, sign, or trail for all the hours he had been walking.
Jet heard some water splash nearby. He walked toward the water, thinking it might be a good spot to rest for the night with his Pokémon. He would simply head out the next morning. Jet figured he'll probably send Sora ahead to find a road.
Jet arrived at a pond. He couldn't see very well, because of the darkness, but he could make out a pale, white figure moving around in the pond. Was this a Pokémon? Jet thought to himself. If it was, it must've been a rare one. When Jet moved closer to get a better look, he realized that he was not staring at a Pokémon at all, but the back of a naked woman with a tattoo along the left side of her body.
Jet looked away and felt his cheeks turn hot. He decided it would be best to sneak way in order to preserve the woman's modesty. As he slowly walked away, he accidently stepped on a stick, which broke and echoed through the woods.
Jet heard a swish of water as the girl behind him turned around, and he stopped dead.
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?"
Without turning around, Jet said, "I'm so sorry! I swear I didn't see anything, I just thought you were a Pokémon."
The girl screamed back, "DO I LOOK LIKE A FUCKING-"
Jet yelled back, "My bad, it was dark! I only saw your back I swear!"
The girl did a sarcastic laugh, "Yeah, sure you didn't, you fucking perv!"
Jet felt bad for her, but didn't feel like arguing, "I'm just going to go now."
The girl behind him said, "I think that's a good idea."
Jet walked away and found a spot ten minutes later that looked like a good place to call it a night. Completely exhausted from the day's events, Jet laid back on a soft pad of earth next to a tree. Without bothering to set his tent, Jet used his back pack as a pillow. He leaned back and closed his eyes; his last thoughts were of the naked girl in the water.
XXX
"Hey, pervert!"
Jet awoke immediately. It was dawn, and Jet could now clearly make out the figure in front of him. At first glance, he would say that Laura Croft was glaring at him. The girl was a brunette, with her hair tied in a ponytail. She had big, grey eyes, full, red lips, and she had a beauty mark on her left cheek. She wore a brown t shirt, Daisy Dukes, and hiking boots. At her side was a growling Eevee.
Jet sat up against the tree trunk, "I'm guessing you're the one-"
"That you were spying on? Yeah, that'd be me."
Jet sighed and said, "Look, it was an accident, and I only saw your back. I'm sorry; I don't know how many ways I can say it."
The girl glared at Jet for a few seconds and then said, "Tackle."
Before this registered to Jet, the girl's Eevee tackled Jet harder than he had ever been hit in his life. He felt his shoulder pop.
"Ahh, what the fuck!"
Jet gritted his teeth and grabbed his right shoulder with his left arm. He braced himself and shifted his shoulder until he felt it pop back into place. He let out a cry of pain and said, "You fucking psycho, IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"
Jet's eyes began to water and the girl said, "Yeah, well so is this."
Eevee bounded forward to attack. Jet got to his feet and jumped up and grabbed one of the branches of the tree he was leaning against. With tremendous effort, he climbed the tree just high enough so that he was out of range of the girl's Eevee.
The psycho bitch laughed, and then reached down and picked up Jets back pack. She called up the tree, "Bye, bye now!"
And she started walking away with his stuff, Eevee heeling at her side. Jet jumped back down from the tree and pulled a pokeball from his belt, "Hold it!"
The girl turned around; her Eevee began growling again. Jet knew his Pokémon were exhausted, but he hoped they had rested enough to take out this bitch's Eevee. Enlarging the pokeball, Jet threw it and said, "Go Remi!"
Rattata popped out of the pokeball and hissed at his new opponent. Jet said "Use tackle attack!"
Remi charged the Eevee, who easily side stepped the attack.
"Oh please," the girl said shaking her head, "Eevee, use Dig!"
The Eevee dug underground. Jet told Remi, "Move around! Don't let him hit you!" Remi nodded and began to prance around so as to avoid the attack.
"Funny how you people always think that will work." Whoever this girl was, she seemed to be really enjoying herself.
Eevee popped out of the ground and hit Remi mid bound. It was an instant KO. Jet recalled Remi. The mystery girl laughed and said, "Not exactly the best trainer, are you?" which really made Jet mad.
He was about to send out Thorn when he remembered that Thorn had been working harder than any of his other Pokémon the last few days, and was surely exhausted. That, coupled with the fact that Eevee's dig was not only powerful, but type effective against Thorn stayed Jet's hand.
He put Remi's pokeball away and said, "Please, you got your hit in, don't take my stuff."
Jet was not the type to beg or plea, but his Pokémon's safety meant more to him than his bag or his pride. The girl considered Jet for a moment.
"I'm sure we can work something out. Right Eevee?"
Eevee gave a kind of barking laugh before the girl continued, "You've seen me naked right?" She looked at Jet from head to toe and smiled, "Take your clothes off."
Jet didn't move, "You can't be serious."
The girl grinned, "Oh, I'm deadly serious." Eevee laughed again.
Jet could think of no other way to get his bag, so he began to strip. He blushed and began to feel very self-conscious about the way his body looked naked. After all, no one besides his doctor and his parents had ever seen him nude before.
The girl had a devious little smile on her face as she crossed her arms and pointed to Jet's underwear, "All of it."
Jet shook his head, "I only saw your back."
The girl raised her eyebrows, "I guess you don't want you stuff then."
Jet grumbled as he dropped his boxers, blushing and avoiding eye contact as he did so.
The girl smiled again, "Not bad. Not the best I've ever seen, but not bad."
Jet covered his privates with his hands, "Yeah, whatever, can I get my bag now?"
The girl dropped his bag on the ground and said, "Fine. C'mon, Eevee."
The turned around and began to walk away. Jet pulled his boxers back up and called out, "By the way, I lied about only seeing your back. I saw half of your ass too and I got to say, I've always been a big fan of back dimples."
Jet didn't know what made him say it, (probably the humiliation she just put him through), but he regretted saying it immediately. The girl turned around, and smiled.
"You don't say?" the fake smile melted away as she said, "Eevee, Head-butt!"
Eevee jumped at Jet. The last think Jet remembered before the blackness was thinking, Just learn to keep your fucking mouth shut!
