Chapter 5
There was a little spring in Irving's step that morning, for it was the first time in days where he didn't feel depressed or tired or outright miserable. He'd acclimatized to living at the refugee camp. The food and housing and people became "good enough for now" and he'd come to terms with it. Sophia had also accepted their conditions for the most part, which drew some of the pressure off of Irving. But more importantly, Irving actually had something planed for the day which made waking up and functioning like a normal human being something desirable.
Irving made his first new friend in quite some time, and by Irving's measurements, finding someone worth being friends with was an accomplishment of some importance. Irving was also pleased that Sophia too made a new friend (Irving was pretty sure her name was Elizabeth. Liz? Beth? Betty?). Just because Irving could take care of his sister didn't mean he wanted to babysit her all the time.
The siblings walked to their planned meeting place with their Pokémon at their sides. Each of them had someone to see, so instead of sticking together all day, they'd have a planned meeting place and time: at the beach at 3 o' clock. Just enough time to do whatever and then head back. Even with the abridged path that Irving devised that avoided the rundown parts of the city, the beach was still a lengthy walk away from the camp, just like everything else. While the two humans weren't particularly pleased by this, Psyduck and Mudkip enjoyed the opportunity to get out of their Pokéballs. Mudkip in particular was dashing about the streets, with the slower Psyduck barely keeping up. Maybe it was their shared elemental affinity or just the fact that he could keep up, but Psyduck never seemed unhappy when he was around Mudkip.
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Irving wasn't initially sure if Psyduck and Mudkip could even live together at first. The family wasn't exactly sure how Psyduck would react to, well, anything, considering that this was his first time living indoors. But Irving was fairly certain of how Mudkip would react and it was not good. Mudkip was on terribly good terms with the woodland Pokémon, given his tendency to get into fights with everything that looked remotely threatening. Irving figured that the second that Psyduck got introduced to Mudkip, he'd tackle him, or worse, use an elemental attack. Neither of these options sounded particularly appealing, especially indoors, so Irving planned to have the two meet in a controlled environment.
Irving escorted Mudkip, restrained on his leash, to the backyard where Sophia and their parents waited. Sophia had prudently kept Psyduck in his Pokéball while Mudkip was being prepared for their introduction. The backyard was Mudkip's home turf, so he relaxed on the ground. Everyone tensed up, preparing for the worst, when Irving signaled Sophia. Slowly readying her Pokéball, Sophia released Psyduck, who emerged in this strange territory even more confused than usual. Grabbing his head and tilting it sideways, Psyduck let out a questioning "Psy...Duck?" while looking at all of the strange faces. The strangest of all was a blue face on the ground staring directly into his eyes. Mudkip barked at Psyduck, who was intruding on Mudkip's territory. Psyduck fled to the safe spot behind Sophia. Mudkip stopped barking. Seeing that Psyduck was a coward, Mudkip returned from his defensive posture to his normal relaxed one.
Irving was pleasantly surprised by how well their meeting went. Sure, Mudkip did bark at Psyduck. But on the other hand, their meeting lacked the usual sturm und draung that characterized Mudkip's interactions with most Pokémon (Irving figured Mudkip thought of himself as a great hero worthy of an epic tale and an even more epic battle). The two Pokémon's interaction ended as soon as it began and only resulted in a startled Psyduck, and that was a victory in Irving's books.
Given Mudkip's relatively good interaction with Psyduck, Irving and Sophia both let the two of them outside to play at the same time. Of course, neither of them were really used to each other's presence yet, so Mudkip would always bark defensively and Psyduck would always run away. It was difficult at first for Irving and Sophia to get them to meaningfully interact with each other. Sophia would try to get the two of them to play ball together or to play. But with each day outside, Mudkip would bark a little less, and Psyduck would run a little less far. A few months later, the two of them gained some form of mutual trust; neither one feared the other.
There was no need to use Pokéballs and rotating schedules to keep the pair apart. In fact, it was beneficial to keep them together. Only one person at a time had to watch them, and given Sophia's love for playing with others, Irving usually got the good end of the bargain. More importantly, Psyduck and Mudkip's trust kept the lawn clear of wild Pokémon. With the two of them there, no stray critter would dare step onto the lawn. A Radicate once tried to mess with the pair while Irving wasn't looking. By the time the sounds of fighting grabbed his attention, Irving saw a fainted Radicate and two very triumphant-looking water Pokémon.
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Irving could see Vinnie waving at them from the beach. He'd probably been there for a while.
"Hey Vinnie!" Sophia called at the top of her lungs and waved back. Irving only waved a little. Vinnie waited until the pair reached the beach before addressing them.
"Hey guys. I'm glad you showed up. I hoped you would," He said, cupping his hands.
"Not a problem," Irving replied.
"Of course, Vinnie," Sophia replied as she began to leave with Psyduck. "Well, I'm going to get going. Okay, Irving? I'll see you at three."
"Stay safe," Irving replied before turning to Vinnie. "So what do you wanna do?"
"How 'bout we go over to my place. I got a pretty big backyard and other stuff. It shouldn't be too far."
Irving shrugged, returning Mudkip to his Pokéball. "I've got no complaints." The pair walked into south into the city until they hit a housing district. The houses were a little run down compared to what Irving was used to, but the neighborhood didn't seem too bad. After a few twists and turns, they finally reached a white one-storey house with a tree in front. It was a little unkempt, but not anymore than the rest of the houses. The lawn could use a mowing and the sidewalk what chipped in a bunch of places, but these were all aesthetic problems.
"Here we are," Vinnie pointed out as he went to the house and unlocked the door. "Come on in."
Irving followed Vinnie's lead into the house, taking his shoes off as Vinnie did.
"Mom, I'm home!"
"Okay!" Irving heard, followed up by footsteps approaching them. Out of the corridor came, a woman in her late 30s wearing an apron.
"Vincent, is this your friend?" She asked gesturing to Irving.
"Yeah. Mom, this is Irving."
"Hello, I'm Mrs. Weaver. It's very nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you, too," Irving replied as cordially as possible.
"I've got some work to do around the house, but you two have fun."
"Come on, Irving. Let's go outback." Vinnie suggested, already on the move. Irving followed. Vinnie's backyard wasn't as spacious as the beach, but Irving figured it was still large enough for the two of them to battle in.
"So this is my backyard. So, uh, whatcha wanna-"
"Do you have any Pokémon?" Irving was in the mood for a battle.
"Oh, yes, but just one," Vinnie responded. "Hold on, lemme go get him. Just wait here." Vinnie ran back inside of his house. After a period of silence that was drawn out a bit too long, Vinnie returned outside, Pokéball in hand.
"Sorry 'bout that. Forgot where I left him." Irving tried not to roll his eyes. "Anyway, here's my Pokémon. Come out, Ralts!"
From the machine's light emerged a small white humanoid Pokémon, with two red horn-like appendages sticking out of a green bowl haircut. "Ralts!" He softly cried out upon its release, stretching it's limbs after a long stasis.
"Hey there, buddy." Vinnie crouched down next to Ralts and began stroking his hair, much to his delight. Irving began to inspect Ralts.
"So this is a Ralts. I've never seen one in real life before," Irving said. "It's a Psychic type, right? Where'd you get it?"
"My dad brought it back from Hoenn after one of his voyages. He said it's supposed to be pretty rare, even in Hoenn."
"I wouldn't really know. I haven't really read too much about them," Irving said. "Speaking of rare Pokémon, mine are pretty rare, too."
"Oh really, that's pretty cool." Vinnie said, as Irving released Mudkip and Togepi. The two of them cried out as they left their containers, Mudkip attentively scanning the landscape while Togepi stood by Irving's side. Both sets of eyes eventually reached Ralts, who just looked down at the ground.
"I didn't know your Pokémon were rare. It explains why they look so cool, though," Vinnie commented. "Where'd you get them?"
"They were both Birthday presents...from my Dad." Irving said, pausing a little bit. Vinnie looked a bit guilty a bringing up the subject, but Irving waved it off. "Actually, it's funny that you think they look cool because I thought that Togepi was really lame when I first got it. It was my first Pokemon and Dad gave it to me as an egg, but I figured it'd be a ton of wasted work because Togepi's aren't supposed to be good at fighting. I had to carry around this egg with me; I thought it was such a pain having to go to school and have to look after this fruity looking egg with me the whole time-"
"Dude, are you okay?" Vinnie said staring at Irving. Mudkip and Togepi, too, were looking at, concerned.
"What? I'm perfectly fine-" Irving said, trailing off after realizing his face was very wet. Irving immediately started drying his face by wiping it off on one of his arms, although he had to resort to drying it with his T-shirt's sleeves. He looked back up a Vinnie, whose face conveyed a mixture of pity and discomfort.
"So, uhh, are-"
"I'm okay. I'm... fine." Irving said, returning Mudkip to his ball. "Hey since we've both got our Pokémon out, how about a we battle them?"
"Yeah, Okay!" Vinnie said, who seemed to being agreeing out of both genuine interest and a desire to switch conversation topics. "You ready, Ralts?"
Ralts gave a tentative smile at his owner, while Irving picked Togepi up.
"It's alright, Togepi. Let's just focus on the battle." This seemed to assuage Togepi's worries for a little bit. Irving returned his companion to the ground and got in his battling mindset.
"I'm ready whenever you are, Vinnie."
"Okay then... Begin!"
Irving was quick on the draw. "Togepi, Flash!"
Before Vinnie could issue an order, Togepi's body emitted a blinding light which caused both Ralts and Vinnie to avert their eyes.
"Ahh, Ralts, use confusion!" Vinnie ordered, still partially blinded.
"Togepi, swift!" Irving quickly ordered. Togepi, who'd done this same combination hundreds of times, had already began charging up an attack and shot off the glowing energy stars before Ralts could reorient itself. The stars knocked Ralts right on its butt, but was able to return fire with a successful confusion attack. The psychic energy smacked Togepi right in its shell, but Togepi took the blow with ease.
"Togepi, incinerate!" Irving ordered, hoping to finish the fight before Ralts could reorient itself.
"Ralts, uhh, umm, use confusion again!" Vinnie said while fumbling over his words. However, Togepi had already spat out an small fireball, incapacitating the inexperienced Ralts.
"Oh, uh. Okay then." Vinnie said, still processing what had happened as he returned Ralts to his Pokéball. Vinnie scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "I guess I'm a bit rusty."
"It's alright. It's better than sitting around doing nothing," Irving said, "But I'm sure you and Ralts will be much better with some practice."
"You really think so?" Vinnie asked, looking less dejected.
"Sure, everyone needs practice to get good," Irving pointed out.
"I never really had anyone to practice with," Vinnie replied, "But if you're up for it I'd love to go another round."
"Yeah, although we should probably let your Ralts rest for a while. He's not exactly in top condition, right now."
"Yeah, of course-" Vinnie began to say, but was cut off by his mother's entering the backyard.
"Hey, boys! Come on inside! I've made you some lunch," Mrs. Weaver called to them.
"Okay, Mom!" Vinnie called back before entering the house and gesturing Irving to do the same.
In the dining room, there were two plates placed on the table with a couple of sandwiches placed on them. Each plated was accompanied by a paper napkin and a can of some local soda brand that Irving wasn't familiar with.
"Now you boys enjoy your lunch. I'll be in the other room if you need anything," Mrs. Weaver said, leaving the room before Irving could thank her. Irving and Vinnie sat down and immediately inspected their sandwiches. Bologna and mustard and a slice of lettuce, to offset the soda. Irving was just happy to get some home cooking, for once.
"Your Mom's a pretty busy lady, isn't she?" Irving said before taking a big bite out of the sandwich, the white bread sticking to the roof of his mouth.
"Definitely, she's gotta do most of the housekeeping, in addition to the temp work she's got," Vinnie replied after swallowing his bit.
"Temp work?" Irving asked, while trying to clean the roof of his mouth off with his tongue.
"Yeah, she does some data entry and secretary stuff with a few of the companies 'round town. At least, when there's an opening," Vinnie explained, while opening his soda, "Plus she's always got to do a lot of the cleaning, since Dad's not around to help."
"Oh, okay," Irving said, trying to switch topics, "So anyway, you got anything in mind regarding training Ralts. I'm not exactly sure what you've trained him in up to this point."
"Not much to be honest," Vinnie replied sheepishly, "I haven't had anyone to really practice with, so I've had 5 or 6 battles with Ralts, tops."
"Oh," Irving finally comprehended what he was working with, "We'll just need to start general training right away. After a few battles, Ralts'll be experienced enough so that we can actually find out what he's good at. We can start right after we finish eating. Mudkip needs some time out anyway."
"Fine by me," Vinnie commented, as he finished his sandwich, "You almost done?"
"Almost," Irving replied, only halfway done, as he was savoring every bite. He'd popped the lid of his soda and washed down each bite with a sip. The label said "CanaCola" on it in big bold Red letters. Yep, definitely a local generic brand. Each time Irving brought the can down from his face, he saw Vinnie staring at him, bored. Good cooking wasn't exactly something Irving could get much of these days, so Vinnie would just have to wait while Irving enjoyed his food. Besides, it was Vinnie's fault for eating so quickly.
"Vincent! Your father's on the phone!" Mrs. Weaver yelled into the dining while Irving was relishing the last few bites of his sandwich. Vinnie immediately perked up upon hearing this.
"Okay! Coming!" Vinnie bolted from the dining room, leaving the Irving alone with the remnants of his meal.
Irving started looking around the room while leisurely sipping on what was left of the CanaCola. Vinnie's dining room seemed to act as both the dining room and the kitchen, since the table they were eating at was surrounded on most sides with a white counter that wrapped around much of the room. The usual appliances were present (a fridge, a sink, a gas oven/stove combo and such) and the counter itself wasn't that dirty, considering Mrs. Weaver had just prepared some food on it. The refrigerator itself wasn't that special, being a modestly sized appliance, but Irving found it hard to even identify as a fridge at first, seeing as it was completely coated with pictures. Some of them were photographs, mostly of a younger-looking Vinnie and his family. Irving was able to pick out Vinnie's dad from the bunch because he got an entire photo, where he was in his dress uniform staring just off camera, to himself. His family must really miss him.
Other than photographs, the fridge was covered with Vinnie's drawings that were held in placed by jumbled fridge poetry magnets. Far from the usual trash that parents would put up to make children feel special (Irving's parents were guilty of this; Irving wasn't blessed with a steady hand and Sophia was barely any better), Vinnie's artwork was actually good. Most of the drawings were nature scenes, mostly of the beach, the sea, or the forest, which were all very detailed and loving filled in with colored pencils. Irving could recognize a few of the pictures as places that he'd visited with Vinnie the previous day. The most well drawn of the bunch by far was the picture of the Canalave Library. Every line was straight and in perfect proportion with the real thing. It was obvious that Vinnie spent a lot of his time there. He could probably redraw the whole thing from memory.
The rest of the drawings were, of course, maps that Vinnie had drawn. Irving could identify the Sinnoh national map and a World map, but otherwise all of them were foreign to Irving. Maybe they were local maps, or even completely made-up ones, although Irving doubted it. Again, Vinnie's craftsmanship showed, as the maps looked like they had been painstakingly reproduced from the originals, down to the coastal islands that most people completely forget about to the coloring of every little mountain range. Irving also noticed that on the bigger maps, there were little thumbtacks with dates on them stuck through a bunch of the port cities. Now that he pondered it, those were the same places that Vinnie mentioned his father had visited. Or so Irving figured. He couldn't actually remember what the cities were, but it was pretty obvious what the thumbtacks signified.
Irving's eyes drifted back to the photographs, one of which was of Mr. and Mrs. Weaver standing together in some sort of tropical destination. Probably Pacifidlog town, if Irving recalled correctly. The two of them looked a lot younger in the photo and a lot happier, so they were almost certainly on their honeymoon there. Judging from the rest of the photos up there, the Weavers didn't go on vacation much, seeing as the only other photos abroad were of Mr. Weaver by himself. Not much different from Irving, whose sole family vacation was due to his father having to take a business trip to a beautiful locale about five years prior.
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Irving was honestly pretty excited for his first family vacation. His father had some research at the University of Cinnabar's Pokémon Laboratory that he needed to do. At first, Irving's dad was just going to by himself for the week, leaving a 9-year-old Irving with his mom and sister, but Irving's mom was having none of that. A few arguments and a "you-never-take-me-anywhere" later, the business trip had turned into the Eisenherz family summer vacation. Irving had never been abroad before, despite Vermillion City being the main trade and transportation hub of Kanto. The farthest he'd ever been was up to Saffron City for a school fieldtrip, which was only for a day, and had the taint of school work ruining every potentially interesting experience. Going overseas, if only to a nearby island, was the kind of thing that Irving could only imagine doing as he watched ships dock and depart at the Vermillion harbor. It must have been wonderful to sail to other lands.
Not that Irving would get that experience, however. Irving's father had already booked airplane tickets, so they were just taking a short flight to the Island from the Vermillion International Airport (technically international because it does flights to Johto). Irving was still optimistic about travelling. Packing wasn't fun and neither was check-in and waiting the airport (an hour felt a lot longer to a 9-year-old Irving), but soaring through the sky and looking down on Earth could be interesting. However, Irving got an aisle seat for that flight, which seemed almost cruel to him, because he'd be spending the whole flight staring at the back of someone's seat. At least Irving had brought a book to read; his sister also got poor seating and could only throw a hissy fit in protest. After an eternity, or two hours, in the air, the Eisenherz family finally landed at the Cinnabar airfield, a small fenced-off strip of dusty land punctuated by a control tower and a small processing building. After acquiring a rental car, they drove a short trip through the arid and hilly terrain to Cinnabar City proper.
Cinnabar City was composed of an assortment of hotels, private beaches, upscale restaurants, and tourist shops on ones and slums on the other. As Irving's mom drove them all down coast street (guess what that was named after), Irving only saw other tourists and fancy buildings. White painted buildings with welcoming wooden signs lined the entire road. Irving was pretty sure every person on the road was just as much of a tourist as he was. It was impressive how the city planners were able to hide the other half of the city from the average tourists. As long as one stayed on the main couple of roads, one could completely ignore the native population, for the most part.
When the Eisenherz family checked into their relatively modest hotel, they were greeted by a local dressed sharply in a tuxedo. His hair was slicked back with copious amounts of hair gel and his every word was flavored with a Celadonish accent that was meant to sound charming, but only reminded Irving of pieces of Styrofoam rubbing together. The cleaning staff, who were finishing up on the preparations for the Eisenherz's room were also locals, but since they were the sort of people that tourists were supposed to interact with, the pair of them just looked like regular working class folk. The young man making the beds had dark tans on both of his arms and a set of teeth that reminded Irving of a pair of picket fences that had been pounded by a sledgehammer. The older lady who was dusting the desk was hunched over as if her back were punishing her for carrying heavy objects all her life and had hands whose spasms caused the duster to jerk to the side every few seconds. Irving's father told them the room was fine quickly shooed them out of there.
The first Cinnbarians Irving saw outside of the tourist context were a few locals at a small dock. The hotel Irving's father had booked didn't have a beach attached to it since beachfront hotels were expensive and Irving's father didn't have enough pull at the university to get much travel funding. Therefore, the Eisenherz family spent most of that afternoon looking for a beach that hadn't been claimed by hotel owners or the fabulously wealthy. After driving along coast street and its connecting roads for an half an hour or so, the Eisenherz family spotted their first public beach. It was also just past the beginning of the "native" part of the city. There weren't any signs stating it directly, but Irving figured you'd have to be a complete moron not to notice. Regardless, the family parked on the roadside and walked towards the sea. Irving figured out pretty quickly why the locals still owned this section of land; it was way to rocky to be palatable to tourists. Not a single grain of sand on the whole thing. Just a bunch of rocks with a few small wooden boats resting on them, bookended by a concrete dock. Sophia tried to make the best of it by exploring the beach further, but Irving just gave up, moving his attention to the dock instead. A few locals were leisurely unloading fish off of one of the boats with the help of a machop. They were all certainly fishermen; no one got that tanned without staying out in the sun for hours on end. Each one of them had a half-finished cigarette in his mouth and they seemed to spend more time puffing on that than unloading the fish. In between drags, they glanced over towards Irving and his family, probably wondering what compelled mainlanders like them to come over to a docking beach like this. Their expressions were half pity and half amusement.
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"Sorry for the wait, Irving."
Irving looked up to see Vinnie had returned to the dining room. Irving groggily rubbed his eyes and got up from his seat.
"How long was I talking anyway?" Vinnie asked. Irving glanced over at the wall-mounted clock.
"Like an hour or so," Irving stated matter-of-factly.
"Oh Arceus, I'm sorry!" Vinnie said, flustered, "I didn't mean to take this long. It's just that I don't get to talk to my father that much and-"
"It's alright."
"Really?"
"It's fine," Irving firmly responded, "I understand."
"Ah, thanks," Vinnie said, "Soooo... You wanna battle again?"
"That's what I've been waiting for," Irving replied, a little impatient.
"Ha ha...Right," Vinnie said as the pair of them walked out the door. As they returned to the backyard, Irving released Mudkip, who started racing about until Irving ordered him to stop. Vinnie, too, released his Pokemon, but Ralts had difficulty standing upright, despite Vinnie's pleas to stay awake. Vinnie turned to Irving, not sure how to continue.
"Ralts is just worn out from the match today. Given how out of shape he is, it'll be a while before he's ready," Irving explained, trying to hide his disappointment.
"Oh. Sorry, Irving," Vinnie said, glancing down at Ralts, "I just sad that Ralts isn't very strong."
"You're the one that's not training him!" Irving retorted, causing Vinnie to look hurt. "Sorry, I just don't like it when people blame Pokemon for their own failings."
"No, no. You're right." Vinnie said, still a little downcast, "Sorry."
"No, I shouldn't have been rude," Irving said, trying to cheer Vinnie up, "How about this: we'll stop battling for today and do this again tomorrow. I don't really have anything else to do. Sound good?"
Vinnie smiled a little. "That sounds fine."
"Alright," said Irving, "You wanna go to the beach? It's going to be three in a bit. Might as well go."
"Okay then," Vinnie said. "You think Ralts will be okay before you have to go?"
"Maybe," Irving didn't really believe it.
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A/N: Wow, it's been a year and a half since I last updated. I just got the urge to write again during my study abroad. I want to continue to update at least somewhat regularly over the summer. I dunno about the fall, since I've got my senior thesis then.
Thanks to the small numbers of you who've at least given my story a little bit of their time. It means a lot to me.
Read and Review, please. It means a lot to me. Every bit of criticism will be lovingly received.
~Spah