Chapter 82

"No…" Cherry shook her head, "no, you're lying. You're lying, right?"

Mark stared at the poor Charmander-girl, filled with pity. He felt wretched. He had just crushed the girl's dreams of becoming a Charizard and flying through the air.

But there was no way to avoid it. Cherry would have figured it out sooner or later.

"Maple," Cherry turned to her new big sister, "he's lying, right?"

"Umm…" Maple looked down at her feet. Mark was usually right about these kinds of things. He was their trainer. It was his job to know.

"There might still be a way," Mark began, trying to comfort her, "something we haven't thought of yet."

"Like what?!" Cherry snapped.

"I don't know…" Mark thought for a bit, "maybe you'll evolve when you get a little bit older…"

"But training won't do anything?!" Cherry demanded.

Mark sighed heavily. He studied the Charmander-girl, wondering what he might say. She looked small and weak sitting in front of him. Her hair was matted against her forehead from the rain. It had turned an even darker shade of red. It really was as dark as a cherry right then.

"I'm sorry."

In a way, he thought he deserved what happened next.

"No…no…" Cherry repeated. Her eyes widened as the realization seeped in. All of her training, all of her hard work…what did it amount to now? A few new tricks? What good were they if she was still stuck with the body of a weak little Charmander?

"I HATE YOU!" she screamed at her trainer, "I thought I'd get stronger if I went with you! That I wouldn't have to feel weak and useless anymore! I wouldn't have to stay all alone and be scared anymore!

"Cherry," Mark started, "you're not-"

"SHUT UP!" Cherry continued to scream, "You're no better than Master Vince! I HATE YOU!" She stood up and ran.

"Cherry!" Maple called out, chasing after the Charmander-girl. Maple would've caught her, except that Cherry started to use Dragon Dance. She raced ahead of Maple, accelerating all the time. She was moving at least three times as fast as Maple when she disappeared.

Mark stood alone back at the square. The only sound was the rain falling around him.

I HATE YOU!

He knew it was coming, but he couldn't stop it.

Something tugged at his sleeve.

He looked over to see one of the Pokémon-children standing next to him. It was the Tepig-boy. His round face was terrified with worry.

"Mister…is it true what you said?" the boy asked, "that we can't evolve?"

Mark could only shrug and shake the boy off. He first began to walk, and then run as he went after Maple and Cherry.

The clock glowed 8:55 when Silver woke up that morning. He groaned at the stupid thing. The first tournament match of the day would be starting in just a few minutes. So much for watching Aurum kick the crap out of another nobody.

He wasn't really surprised that Aroma wasn't next to him. Unlike Silver, she was a morning person. Maybe he would get lucky and she would bring back breakfast. The only problem with that would be eating in awkward silence around Lily and Shinobi. No, it would be a much better idea to take it outside, walk around and…it was faint, but Silver could hear the sound of rain against the window. Never mind that idea.

In any case, if he wanted to do anything with Aroma, he'd have to get up.

The room was still oddly dark. He assumed that Lily would be awake by now, but his teenage-trainer was still sleeping in the opposite bed. Shinobi would be inside his Pokéball. If Silver wanted to get away, now was his chance.

Silver slipped out of bed as quietly as possible. It was something that he was good at naturally and he'd been getting even more practice lately. He dressed quickly and quietly as well. He kept one eye firmly on the young girl across the room. She already ogled him plenty, any more and he'd have to start convincing Aroma to run away with him.

In a way, he was already planning it. The two of them couldn't stay with Lily forever and they already spent most of their time apart from their trainer. He was starting to wish he was a full human rather than this stupid mix. If he and Aroma were human, then they would be taking care of Lily, not the other way around.

Distracted by his idea, he nearly tripped over Shinobi on his way out the door.

The human Ninjask was crouched right in front of it. Only the gleam of light off of his golden mask tipped Silver off to his presence.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Silver whispered harshly.

Shinobi stayed silent, watching Silver with his ruby-red eyes.

"You can't stop me from leaving, you know," Silver said, hoping it wouldn't come down to a fight. If Shinobi really wanted to keep Silver from leaving, he could do it. He had to trust that the ninja would not act without orders. Silver was almost positive that he wouldn't. Almost.

"You need to speak to Mistress Lily," Shinobi spoke aloud. Silver jumped and glanced over his shoulder at Lily. No movement. Thank Arceus.

"Keep your voice down!" Silver hissed, "I'll talk to her later, when she's awake."

"She is awake," Shinobi said, "she's been awake for at least an hour."

"Shinobi…what is this about?" Silver needed to change the subject. Where was this going? Was Aroma in on this too? "Is this about tomorrow? Because I'll be there, if that's what you're worried about."

"The match is a concern, yes," Shinobi nodded, "however, there is a more…personal matter that needs to be discussed."

"Personal how?" Silver asked. He almost had him.

"It's not my place to say…"

"Then you won't mind stepping aside and letting me through," Silver snapped in an angry whisper.

Defeated, Shinobi had no choice but to do as Silver said. The human Absol slammed the door on his way out.

Fuming as he went, Silver decided he needed the walk and took the stairs down to the lobby. He cursed Shinobi as he went. How things were between he and Lily were none of Shinobi's concern. He had done nothing wrong. They were treating him like a child, just as before.

This was it, then. It was time for Silver and Aroma to leave. It might be hard on their own, but they could figure it out. He might not know how to read very well, but Aroma could do it just fine. She could teach him and he could find a way to live where nobody would have to look at his horn. Maybe there was even a way he could get it removed…

But his planning came to a stop when he saw Aroma waiting for him in the lobby. He pushed his worries aside as he hugged and kissed her.

"Good morning," he greeted, kissing her once more.

"Morning, sleepy-head," she giggled, "…something wrong?"

"Not anymore," Silver shook his head, "but I had an idea that I wanted to talk to you about."

"Really?" Aroma asked before turning to a nearby chair, "Well, you can tell me all about it over breakfast. Here." She picked up a small, slightly wet, cardboard tray holding four cups and handed it to him.

"Four?" Silver asked, "Why are there four cups?"

"Because we're going upstairs," Aroma said it as though they had agreed on the idea hours ago, "c'mon, let's get going."

Dammit, Silver thought, the whole world's against me…

When Cherry stopped running, she didn't recognize where she was anymore. She could see the hotel off in the distance, but none of the other buildings looked the same. Instead of the usual shops and office buildings, there were two-story houses and a lot more trees. The streets were quiet and empty. No human Pokémon or Pokémon trainers lived around here.

Exhausted from running, she breathed hard as she looked around. The first thing she needed to do was get out of the rain. The cold, wet, annoying rain just made everything worse.

She shied away from the houses. Several of them had small porches that she could take shelter under, but she didn't want to disturb anyone. She had no idea how people would react to seeing a human Pokémon outside their house.

Twice she had to leave the main road as a car passed. She hadn't seen one of those in a very long time. Not since before Master Vince had left her with Team Deus. She didn't like them. They were loud and annoying and one honked at her because she hadn't seen it come up from behind her. This wasn't a very nice part of Himitsu Island.

She made her way down the street, cursing Mark with every step. It was his fault she was in this weird place. It was his fault for taking her out of the Team Deus base and making her go through all that stupid training just to tell her it didn't mean anything. And now what? Did he want her to fight Shinobi even though she was just a Charmander?

That scared her. She didn't want to fight Shinobi. Not anymore. Not if she couldn't be a Charizard, or at least a Charmeleon.

Shinobi scared her. She didn't want to admit that, even to herself, but it was true. Even if he was just a bug-type, anybody could see how strong he was. A lot of them were just as afraid of him as she was. She had trouble with Zap and he was just a kid!

And if the rain didn't stop, it was completely hopeless.

Sweet Arceus, she hated the rain!

"I HATE YOU, TOO!" Cherry screamed. She spat a Flame Burst straight up into the sky. She watched it climb higher and higher before it broke into tiny cinders and fizzled out. It didn't make her feel any better.

When she came to the next intersection, she looked up and down the street. To her left was another row of the same houses, but off to her right she could see a small school building.

Having never gone to school, Cherry had no idea what they were like. However, she had seen one in Viridian City and heard Master Vince talk about his own. Every human boy and girl had to go to one. Some liked it, some didn't, but to Cherry they were strange, mysterious, and even magical places.

As she came closer, she took notice of a small playground outside. There were no human kids outside and everything was wet, so she didn't pay much attention to it. Instead she walked straight through the fence and up to the double doors at the front of the building. There was writing over the door, but of course she couldn't read it. That was something they taught you inside.

She tried to open the door. It moved just a tiny bit before sticking in place. She tried again, but the same thing happened.

Locked… she thought, figures…

With nothing else to do, she stood underneath the overhang and looked around. Water started to run down her hair and drip onto the concrete. She didn't realize she was so wet or cold until that moment.

How long had she been outside? She didn't know. Mark and Maple were probably looking for her. They wouldn't know where she had gone. Should she go back?

No. She didn't want to go back. If she did, Mark would just train her some more. The only thing that would do was give her more headaches when she learned a new attack. She wouldn't evolve that way, so what did it matter?

Besides, she was still angry at Mark. Stupid, lying, jerk-face Mark who made her train against annoying Aipom and boring Bidoof. She had fought fifty of each of them in two days and what good did it do her? He was as bad as Master Vince.

Trying to think about something else, she looked over at the playground. She guessed that they were toys, or something like it. Some just looked like weird sets of bars or pointless boards attached to metal poles. Having never played on any of these weird things, she could only recognize a few. The swings and the slide she knew by name, but not really how they worked.

On impulse, she decided to take a closer look at the swings. There were four seats hanging across a metal bar painted blue. The seats were the only part that moved.

There were small puddles of water collected in the seats. She turned one upside-down and the water splashed onto the already wet ground. The seat was still wet so she tried brushing it off, which only helped a tiny bit. Deciding it wasn't going to get any better, Cherry sat in the seat.

Nothing really happened after that. She realized that she was supposed to do something, but she had no idea what that was. If she twisted her body, the seat did the same and then sprung back to where it was before. However, if Cherry planted her feet on the ground, she could get it to twist around and around without springing back. Doing so made the chains twist together over her head. After a while, the chains wouldn't twist anymore so she picked up her legs and the world blended until it looked like a streak of multi-colored paint as she spun in a circle. Once she stopped, her head started to hurt a little bit. The swings were not very much fun.

"That's not how you're supposed to do it…" a voice called out.

Cherry looked up and saw a small, human Pokémon-girl clutching the fence, as if she were trying to hide behind it. That was, of course, a very silly thing to do because Cherry could see straight through it.

The girl was a human Skitty, somewhere around Cherry's age. She wore a simple cream-colored dress with frilly trim and a white bow. Her short hair was a bubblegum-pink, just like her ears and the puff of fur at the end of her tail. Her big eyes were a pretty shade of purple.

"Oh, hello…" Cherry greeted, she was surprised another human Pokémon was around here, "uhh…do you live here?"

The Skitty-girl shook her head, "nuh-uh…Daddy needed to talk to somebody who lives here. But he doesn't like…people like us…"

"Oh, okay," Cherry nodded, "what's your name?"

"Claire…" the Skitty-girl answered.

It was a human name. Cherry began to wonder why. In fact, she was starting to wonder all sorts of things about this girl. Why was she out here? Cherry had never seen her before and she certainly had nothing to do with Zap and his gang. She didn't talk about her trainer; she talked about her "Daddy." Who was that?

"Hi, Claire," Cherry nodded, "my name's Cherry. Uhh…could you…show me how this works?"

"Umm…okay…" the Skitty-girl eyed her warily as she approached the swings. Cherry took the liberty of turning the seat over and brushing off the water.

"Uhh…it's like this…" Claire said. She leaned back in the seat and held her legs forward. The seat tilted forward a bit before coming back. On the return, Claire tucked her legs back in place and leaned forward in the seat again.

Cherry watched her do this a few times as she gradually climbed higher and higher, the arc of the swing growing larger each time. Soon, the Skitty-girl was giggling with delight as the swings grew downright enormous. Cherry tried to do the same, but it was difficult since she didn't really understand what it was Claire was doing. It took a few minutes to work out how to lean into the swing and pull back at the right moments. Only gradually did she start to get a feel for it. By that time, Claire was swinging so high Cherry wondered if she might be able to do a full circle around the swing-set.

Once she was doing it right, Cherry loved the swings. The higher she went, the faster she went and the more the wind rushed in her ears. Each swing brought her higher and higher and she could see farther and farther into the distance. She began to go so fast she couldn't even feel the rain. She wondered if flying might be like this…

"See? It's easy!" Claire giggled once Cherry was up to her own height.

"Yeah!" Cherry yelled, she didn't think she needed to, but she felt like it, "thanks for showing me!"

The two Pokémon-girls swung next to each other for a time, oblivious to the rain falling around them. The streets were quiet and empty, yet they did not take notice, nor care.

Cherry spoke next.

"So where are you from?" she asked.

"Saffron City!" Claire shouted, "Daddy brought me with him for the tournament! He's been really busy, but he always brings me along anyway!"

"Is this the first time you've been here?"

"Nope! I've been to all of them!" Claire said proudly, "but I don't really remember the first one…I think I was too little to remember that one."

"How old were you?"

"Five!" Claire shouted, "But Daddy says I was really two!"

"So you're…nine?" if Cherry was adding it up right, which she wasn't sure about, then Claire was three times her age while actually being younger than her, at the same time. In fact, Claire was older than her and Maple put together!

"Yep!" Claire giggled, "But there's usually not that many kids here…so I'm glad you're here! Daddy's always saying I should have friends like me!"

"What's your dad's name?" Cherry asked. It was the first question she had wanted to ask.

"Oh…umm…" Claire hesitated, "I'm not really supposed to say…"

All of a sudden, the Skitty-girl became very quiet and her swings seemed to slow down, as well. But a moment later, they picked up speed again.

"But I think I can tell you," Claire chirped, "I don't think I'll get in trouble. My daddy's Alfred Silph! He runs the tournament!"

AN: yay, new chapter!

Umm…can't think of anything else to say…

No battles this chapter, just cutesy stuff with the little kids. Cherry completely missed having a normal childhood. She needs a friend…and Alfred Silph needs more characterization…

Guess that's it. I'll see you next time.

Thanks for reading!