Chapter 18: Emotional Complex
My memories were revisiting me for very simple, logical reasons.
For the past four years, I had been trapped in Drape Town. I had to work to gain the trust of Glop'emm members— I focused solely on making Team Glop'emm successful while I awaited the DNA tracking device.
Then the opportunity arose to travel. It was necessary, of course. My research could not be done in Drape Town and no other human could be trusted to do it.
Such a drastic change of scenery would obviously reawaken memories I had buried long ago.
Simple.
A boy, a girl, and the boy's father drove in a convertible away from an ice cream shop.
The girl and the boy were happily licking their fingers after eating ice cream, arguing over which flavor was better while the boy's father drove the routine route to the girl's house. "I called your mother, Lily," the father said, a hint of worry in his voice. "Nobody answered so I left a message."
The girl replied, "Don't worry. They don't usually answer at work."
"I know." The father frowned, but kept driving. The mountains grew. As the car arrived on the girl's street, the father came to an unexpected stop. "What's that?"
The two children peered through the front windshield.
A pink object was falling from the sky over the scattered houses.
Abruptly, there was an explosion.
Blue fire burst through the air where the pink object was before. Several houses and buildings collapsed, while others caught fire—red flames meeting blue.
Nothing happened to the car, though several nearby houses were up in flames.
The father picked up his phone. Sirens could be heard in the distance. He dropped the phone; help was already on the way.
Pulling the car around, the father sped back down the road.
The girl burst into tears while the boy tried to comfort her by patting her shoulder.
"Mom and dad… they were near that… they—I want my mom and dad," the girl cried.
"Hush. We can't go into the fire," the father replied. There was a sharp edge to his voice. A mile down the road, the father pulled into the police station. He swiftly opened the back door and yanked the girl from the car. "Come on."
"Bye—" The door slammed shut.
"Bye, Lily," the boy replied softly.
Five minutes later the father returned. "She'll be alright," the father assured his son. "The police will handle it."
"We could've… She could've stayed with us a little longer…" The boy stared out the window as they pulled out of the police station. He noticed they were driving back towards the fire.
The father ignored his son's comment. "It had to be a psychic pulse," he explained. "I had dark material twined into this convertible when it was being built. It was unaffected by the explosion."
"Are we going to find Lily's parents?" the boy asked, unable to think of any other explanation for his father's actions.
"No," the father replied harshly. "The police will handle that, too. If that pulse was what I think it was, I have to capture and destroy the Pokemon that created it."
The boy noticed his father was shaking.
"Damn them!" the father burst out suddenly. Ahead, the road was blocked by a wall of bright blue flames. "Hold on!" The car jerked forward, zooming into the flames.
"Stop!" the boy screamed. He shut his eyes tightly, expecting to feel pain any second.
Surprisingly, the car easily passed through the wall, the blue flames licking at the window. The inside of the car heated up slightly, but in the next moment, the car was on the other side of the wall. The father pounded on the breaks and the car skid to a stop.
The father and the boy panted in the car for a moment. The father turned around. "Are you okay?"
The boy nodded.
The father searched the boy's eyes. They were wide and round—but mostly green.
"First they destroyed our city… our people—your mother, your aunt. Now they destroy this town and hundreds of other innocent people—families are split apart."
Lily, the boy thought.
"Legendary Pokemon are too dangerous, too hurtful, too random… Nobody seems to understand this. I came here to escape—so you would be safe." The man shook his head sorrowfully.
The boy looked away, out the window and into the flames.
"But you're not. Nobody is. I have to destroy the cause of this destruction... for your safety, for everyone's safety."
Tears welled in the boy's eyes.
The father began to climb out of the car.
"Dad, I'm coming, too. You'll be hurt by the psychic without me." The father began to shake his head. "Dad… I don't want to lose anymore." More quietly, the boy added, "I don't want to lose you." The boy looked fiercely at his father.
Father and son stared at each other for a moment. The father sighed and opened the car's passenger door. The boy took his father's hand and stepped out of the car.
The air was hot and dry, but breathable. Blue fire did not create smoke.
The blue wall of fire surrounded the area. Everything else, besides the convertible, was ash. In the center of the ring of blue fire was a large mound of ash.
And purple eyes, peeking through the ash.
They blinked.
The father pulled out a Pokeball and without uttering a word, his Houndoom appeared.
The eyes moved up in the ash.
"Crunch."
The Houndoom lunged toward the pile. In a split second, the eyes burst from the heap of ash. The Houndoom missed its target and circled the creature from below. The eyes belonged to a grayish-pink body, now floating in the air. It was the size of maybe a loaf of bread, though its tail was twice that length. The creature had short, stubby arms and thick, rabbit-like legs.
The father smiled grimly. "Mew. What I suspected."
The Pokemon looked confused, like it was lost. It continued to float in the air.
"Flamethrower," the father commanded.
Flames spouted from the Houndoom's mouth. The Mew floated above the attack and then curiously stuck its tail into the Houndoom's fire.
A screech of pain flew from the Mew's mouth. It circled the blue fire wall once, causing the blue fire to fade.
The red continued to burn.
In the blink of an eye, the Mew was gone.
"Do you know the scent?" the father asked his Houndoom. The dog Pokemon nodded.
"Mew won't be far from here, at least not yet—the apple won't fall far from the tree. We'll track down this apple. We'll find it. We'll destroy it—for the good of Acceber."
Simple.
So why didn't it ever feel that way?
o o o o o o o o o o o o
I kicked my leg out.
Liam caught and twisted it so I fell awkwardly on my stomach onto the hard, dry ground.
I tried to get up, but couldn't. Liam must have been sitting on my legs. I threw my right arm backwards in an attempt to hit that irksome kid. Of course, he caught that too, folded my elbow, and pulled painfully upwards. I winced—just when my leg was feeling better he had to go injure some other body part…
"I give up," I muttered between breaths.
"Find a way out of this," Liam demanded.
If he was any normal person, I could have created a barrier and my current problem would disappear. But nooo; he had to be super special with his dumb dark gift.
"Ow!" I cried out as Liam pulled my arm back farther. "Are you trying to break my arm?"
The pressure on my arms and legs ceased.
"Get up," Liam ordered.
I remained face down on the ground for a second longer before forcing myself up. I shook my arm a bit in an attempt to make its soreness dissipate. My attempt failed miserably.
"I've taught you all the basics," Liam said. He paused, not sure how to continue. Yeah, he sure taught me the basics—he had basically killed me with his practices! Yesterday, I had spent nearly the whole day practicing a simple punch while we were traveling. Yes, people stared at me like I was a lunatic. Luckily, there were very few people in the area. The day before… well, the day before we were chased to a screwy school by rampant Geodudes—but before that we had worked on kicks.
"The basics are all you need," Liam finally continued. "Now you have to work on implementing these basic skills in a useful, original manner."
"And how will that help me beat you?" I asked, irritated.
"If you act in an unexpected manner, your opponent will be unable to foresee your attacks and you will have the advantage," Liam lectured. "Also, you very well know that I am not your opponent—"
"Really then? Who else am I going to be fighting without my powers?"
Liam smirked. "I never said you could not use your gift."
I started to complain that my gift didn't freakin affect him, but he chose that moment to lunge at me.
I dodged to the left, but he was already correcting his movements so his next attack would hit. I expected him to throw a left-handed punch my way, but instead found myself falling from a quick twirl of his right foot.
The air was knocked from me. I looked up in time to see Liam's leg coming down hard. I scrambled out of the way.
This was so stupid. He had obviously been doing this his whole life. How could I be expected to do something to catch him off guard? I had been training for what, a week?
Liam aimed another punch at me. I wearily jumped to the side, only to be hit in my abdomen anyway. I wish I could stop his punches like he could mine; I simply wasn't strong enough.
Before I had time to consider my next move, both of my arms were twisted behind my back. For a moment, I struggled. When my efforts once again proved futile, I slumped over.
Liam let go. "Get up."
Just as I was picking myself up, Liam lunged toward me again. I dropped back to the ground as Liam passed over me, his foot barely not crushing my fingers.
I got up, wishing my gift would affect him. This was all too painful…
Wait. My powers did not affect him, but they did affect me.
Maybe…
Liam was coming at me with a spinning kick. I ducked down and rapidly created a slanted barrier behind me. As Liam's foot passed over me, I used the barrier as a springboard to launch myself forward faster than Liam believed possible. I ended up losing control of the punch I was planning and tackled him to the ground. Still, it was the first time I had actually landed a hit on him.
A second later, I found myself painfully rolled on my shoulder, my arms pinned tight to my back and my legs once again useless.
"Are you through?" I asked. Liam shoved my back. I growled under my breath and peered over my shoulder at Liam. He was scowling.
"Hey, I managed to hit you!" I exclaimed defensively.
Liam smirked. "I congratulate you," he replied mockingly. Then he proceeded to twist my arms painfully. Seriously, I think he was taking this practice too far.
I gasped. "Do you take pleasure in my pain?"
Liam's eyes glinted for a moment before he released me.
I rubbed my shoulder as I got up. Liam watched me thoughtfully.
"Well?"
Liam's eyebrows furrowed. Ah, he had thought my question was rhetorical. Well, it most certainly was not!
"No," Liam answered slowly. "I don't believe I do." His dark hair fell into his face as he looked away.
Not knowing what to make of his response, I replied jokingly, "Oh, good. I was beginning to suspect you weren't human." I started walking back towards camp as the sun began to rise. Liam fell in pace beside me.
He smiled slightly. "What do you think being human is all about?"
"What are you, a philosopher?"
He didn't respond.
I considered the question. "I guess it's about living life to its full potential—about experiencing and feeling and thinking everything you can in the time you're given." I hesitated before asking, "What about you?"
"Obtaining a goal. You'd know about that; you're a trainer after all."
I frowned while Liam smirked at me. I thought his philosophy was missing pieces, but I couldn't come up with a good argument. Silence filled the rest of the walk.
Upon reaching camp, Apple stretched and trotted happily over to me, having just woken up. As I scanned the camp, I noticed the lump of Erin's sleeping bag was still full—of Erin.
I lightly shook her bag. "Erin, get up! Time to move out."
"No thanks, Anita. I don't want the muffin," Erin replied, her voice muffled by the sleeping bag. I nudged her again, only to get a loud snore.
Irked, I slid into Erin's mind.
The air smelled of sugar cookies and blueberry muffins. Erin, Liam, Anita, and Jake sat in a small corner of a small bakery.
Anita was offering Erin a blueberry muffin.
I smiled. This would be fun.
Suddenly, the muffin Anita was offering Erin grew until it was human-size. It also grew a tail—a tail that strangely resembled Griffy's.
The muffin's tail's voice boomed: "YOU DO NOT ACCEPT ME? THEN I DO NOT ACCEPT YOU AS MY EATER! I WILL BECOME THE EATER! MUWAHAHAHAHA!"
The tail opened its mouth and leaned toward Erin.
"Ahhh!" Erin leapt up from her sleeping bag with a start. Upon seeing no killer muffin, she sighed in relief.
Liam, who had begun packing, looked up at us, startled.
I couldn't stop cracking up.
Apple looked at me in wonder. {That was brilliant. I've been teaching you well.}
Because I was laughing, Erin immediately suspected I had something to do with her interesting dream. "ANITA!" she yelled. "That was not funny!"
I shrugged. "It got you up."
Erin grumbled inaudibly and started stuffing her sleeping bag into her pack (where it was, of course, shrunk to a more portable size).
"What did you do?" Liam asked, careful to not sound too curious. As I shrunk down a few pots, he took out our map.
"I stuck a giant killer muffin with Griffy's tail in her dream," I answered casually.
"Right…"
When everything was packed up, we gathered around the map.
Liam pointed to a spot slightly northwest of Mint Mountain. "We're right here." He moved his hand. "This is Nelcorn City. We went astray back with the Geodudes, but now we are nearly back to the more traveled route from Azul to Nelcorn. The path from this point forward will be flat, though we will likely encounter people. We can ride our bikes."
I sighed and pulled out my shbinker. Liam and Erin followed suit. I mounted my rusted-over purple bike while Apple jumped into its large basket. Erin and Liam mounted their shiny magenta and dark olive-green bikes, respectively.
And we were off.
Although the wrappings on my leg hadn't hindered me much during practice this morning, riding my bike felt awkward. I could not bend my ankle as usual.
To take my mind away from the discomfort, I watched our surroundings. Behind us, the terrain was rocky and dry. As we pedaled forward, however, the surroundings became more fruitful. There was short grass, and even an occasional tree.
{Hey, Anita?} Apple interrupted the calm, quiet atmosphere of an early morning bike ride.
{What?} I asked stiffly.
{You, your powers, and your emotions are all growing. All at once.}
{That's nice.}
{They're all connected. You've got to start learning control not only over your powers, but your emotions. Otherwise, things will start exploding. Besides you, I mean. Really—} I tuned Apple out; there was no point in listening to what I already knew.
I focused my mind—I needed to practice. At first, I just "listened" with my mind to the Pokemon in the surrounding grass. Then, I moved on to what I wanted to work on: barriers.
Today, I had been able to create a barrier for myself to use against Liam. I had created a slanted barrier, something I had not thought to do before. It opened up all sorts of possibilities, the biggest being: could I create a barrier in different shapes?
I imagined a bent barrier, almost like two flat barriers stuck together at a one-hundred twenty degree angle. I pushed my mind rapidly in front of me, attempting to create the barrier on the ground, in front of my bike.
My bike slowed as it rode up an invisible barrier, bumped slightly as it got to the top, and quickly rolled down the other side of the ramp-barrier.
I smiled.
This would be a fun ride.
/ / / / / / / / / / / /
By mid-afternoon we were back to the main route. In the morning, I had practiced creating barriers until my head hurt. Then after lunch, I had battled several of the plentiful trainers in the area and had now taken to avoiding eye contact with said trainers because Apple was exhausted. She was currently fast asleep in her basket. I had battled a bit with Fiery but had not wanted to push him too hard because he was still recovering from the Graveler that had flattened him. We had still not gotten to a Pokemon Center, and in the meantime I only had given him one potion.
According to Liam's calculations (which, for the record, always seemed to be accurate), we had an hour more of traveling before we reached Nelcorn City. This news had not seemed so bad to me, but it had caused Erin to sigh unhappily.
You did not need to be a psychic to know she was bored out of her mind.
"I know, let's play a game!" she exclaimed in this final cycling hour.
Liam grunted and I rolled my eyes.
"Alright, I'll take that as a yes!" She really needed to work on her interpretations of our actions. "How about truth or dare?"
"NO!" Liam and I both shouted at once. We gave each other questioning looks.
Erin ignored us. "Okay, fine. I spy?"
"No, thanks," Liam replied, while I said, "Bor-ring!"
"Twenty questions?" Erin asked hopefully.
Liam shrugged, and I answered, "Whatever."
"Okay, I have one. Ask away!"
I peeked into Erin's mind.
"Is it a toaster oven?" I asked.
Erin's eyes widened. "How'd you—Anita, you cheater!"
I smirked.
"That's no fair! Ugh—"
"I have one," Liam interrupted.
I scrunched my nose. I wouldn't be able to peek into Liam's mind… bleh.
"Alright… Is it living?" I asked.
"Sometimes."
"Is it bigger than a condom?" Erin asked.
I turned to Erin. "What kind of question is that?"
"Sometimes," Liam replied. "And you have seventeen more."
"How does that count?"
"Sixteen. This is twenty questions. You get to ask only twenty questions."
"Grr…" I growled.
"Can it fly like an ea-gle?" Erin sang.
"Sometimes."
"Is it human?" I asked.
"Sometimes."
"Can you say anything other than 'sometimes?'" I demanded.
"Yes. Thirteen left."
"Does it have eyeballs?" Erin asked.
"Usually."
"Are there any present?" I asked.
"That depends."
"Depends on what?"
"Perspective," Liam answered.
While I sat silently, thinking this clue over, Erin asked, "Does it jiggle like jello?"
"Not usually…"
"Will you stop asking stupid questions!" I yelled at Erin.
"You're the one wasting questions by shouting useless questions at me and Liam!" Erin shot back.
"Point taken," I grumbled.
"You have eight more," Liam stated.
"Is it a thought?" Erin asked.
"No."
"Can you think of it?" I queried.
"Yes."
"Can it come in many shapes, colors, and sizes?" I asked, finally getting an idea.
"Yes."
"Is it a Ditto?" Erin immediately assumed.
"No."
I smiled. I thought I knew the answer, but there were two possibilities I could think of. "Do you have it?" I questioned.
Liam hesitated. "I'm not sure."
I frowned. Not the answer I was expecting. Last question…
"Is it… a friend?"
"Obviously."