A/N: Horray! FF stopped being a piece of crap and now I can update again! WOOT!
So, here's chapter numero 7, hope that you enjoy it. And if you have any questions about Joey, I'll answer them if you PM me, depending on what the questions are.
And thank you to Ketchum Kid (), Nanashi Chimera, ReLeeS, and Wings that bring the fate for your reviews! I know that more of you would have reviewed if it weren't for FF going screwy, so it's OK. And thanks again to TJay for beta-ing again! Also, I have to thank TJay for providing me with Joey's character. You're awesome, TJay!
And as for Ketchum Kid's review reply: This school is actually partially based off of my school, so maybe it's just the way most high schools are. and as for our group, read and find out. Also, as a suggestion, I think that you should create a FF Profile. That way, you can make it easier to keep an eye on stories you like, and I can reply to your reviews via FF. It isn't too hard, it only takes a few seconds to set it up, and a few minutes to set up your bio page.
Now, onward to the story!
Chapter Seven – Joey
While we were waiting to see who would walk into the clearing, I took a few guesses as the identity of the intruders. First, I thought that Stephanie might be right. But then I passed that off as a hopeful wish that probably wasn't correct.
The next thing I think was that it might be my Granddad, but then I remembered that there was more than one set of footsteps, and my Granddad would have come alone.
That left two other guesses. One was that it was some sort of gang of students that wanted to kill Koyuki. The other guess was that it was a group of angry teachers and policemen that wanted to punish me and get rid of Koyuki. Truthfully, the former sounded better, since I may be able to escape them better than a group of adults with police backup.
What appeared in the clearing was worse than I could have imagined. It was the principal, followed by the teachers that were in the cafeteria when I 'exploded', followed by some police members, and finally trailed by a lot of students that wanted to see what would happen. So, in conclusion, there were a whole lot of people here to see me arrested and Koyuki killed.
What a caring city I live in.
I had never seen the principal in person before, so I took this time to study him. Not really much out of the ordinary, just the usual gray suit, with neatly maintained brown hair, level and not caring in the least eyes, and a mouth that looked like it was overworked in the frowning section of its job.
I surveyed the teachers, and saw only two that I recognized: the one that had tried to punish me and none other than Mr. Unruh. Great.
Then I studied the students that had followed the school staff members out here. None that I personally recognized were there, but I did see some of the jocks that had surrounded me.
The last group I looked at the police. They were all donned in the traditional police garb, the blue button up shirt and black pants, with all sorts of things hanging from their belts. Including guns and the occasional tazer.
In short, when you added the numbers up, our little group was, to put it plainly, royally fucked up the ass.
The principal stepped forward, and the incessant chatter of the students died down promptly for the first time since they entered. And for that matter, this was probably the first time the students quieted down for the principal willingly.
He cleared his throat as if he were about to make a big speech, which amused me, quite frankly. Surely enough, his tone fit that of a grand speech.
"Well there, Kyle, I hear that you have gotten yourself into a huge mess," he began. Then he leaned in slightly. "Can you tell me what exactly you have done, again?"
I knew this kind of speech. It was the 'Make Them Say What They Did Wrong and Let Themselves Understand How Bad Their Actions Were' kind of speech. And since I knew that what I did was in no way wrong, this speech was going to fail utterly.
"Well, Mr. Principal, I stood up for myself against the faulty school system and Pokemon by speaking the truth and fighting for what I believe in," I said quite confidently. The principal looked slightly taken aback by my response, which pleased me, since it told me that I guess right about his motives.
I kept talking before he could say anything in response. "What, did you not expect me to stand behind what I say? Do you really think that I didn't mean anything I said back in the school?" I asked. "Well, if that's what you thought, you were utterly mistaken."
A hushed silence floated through the clearing. Students stared at the principal to see how he would react. Teachers looked amongst each other searching for answers. And the police just kept their focus on me.
Finally, the principal spoke. "Don't you have quite the fearless spirit," he said, leaning back. "No wonder, since you're the great grandson of our city's Gym Leader."
"And damn proud of it," I interrupted. A few students gasped at my choice of words to use in front of the principal.
"None-the-less, you have broken school rules," the principal said, cutting to the chase, which was a smart decision. He must have realized that he was getting nowhere fast with his other approach. "And for that," he continued, "you must be punished. And at the severity of your actions, you shall be punished quite heavily."
More awkward silence followed the end of his sentence. Then a few worried and fearful murmurs passed through the crowd of students. Many were looking and pointing to the space behind me, and guess who just happened to be in that spot?
"Well, I guess that there's no more use in trying to hide him," I said, reaching behind me. "Might as well introduce you all properly."
I picked up Koyuki and lifted him around into my lap. He was quaking with fear, particularly from the police officers. Speaking of which, they seemed to start focusing more on Koyuki than me, which slightly unnerved me.
"Everyone, meet Koyuki," I said, stroking him. All of the students reacted in one way or another, mainly gasping in fear and taking cover, thinking that Koyuki was going to shoot flames at them. The principal did his best to maintain a fearless attitude, while teachers acted somewhat like the students, but not nearly as extreme.
"So this is your Pokemon that you were talking about earlier, right?" the principal asked.
"Yes, obviously."
"I thought so," he said. "So, can you tell me why you care so much for this…" he paused, trying to find the right word. "…Creature?" he finished.
I just couldn't stand him call Koyuki that. "First things first, Koyuki is not just a creature!" I shouted, standing up and cradling Koyuki in my arms. "He's an Eevee who is probably one of the kindest Pokemon out there! He would never hurt anyone, ever! Just look at him; he's more afraid of you than you are of him!"
Some students started studying Koyuki, and it was quite obvious that I was telling the truth, seeing as Koyuki was shaking like he was in an earthquake.
"Still, why do you care for them?" the principal asked.
"Why don't you ask Mr. Unruh over there as to why I believe that Pokemon aren't evil, since I told him why on Friday!" I said, still slightly shouting.
"Is this true Mr. Unruh?" the principal asked, turning to face the teacher in question.
Mr. Unruh nodded, but said nothing else. The principal turned back to me and said, "So it is as you say. Well, then, I'll ask him as soon as we finish here." He looked over to the police officers and nodded to one in particular. He stepped forward and the other officers followed. The head officer took out his handcuffs, and so did two other officers. A fourth one took out what looked to be a tranquilizer dart.
"Shit," I mumbled under my breath. The second after I had, a bright blue ball of energy flew out of the bushes on my left. The sphere swiftly flew forward and landed right before the head officer, stopping the stream of police in their tracks.
I looked around, and Lizzy and Stephanie bolted up. "What the hell?!" I shouted, trying to find what had flung the strange orb. A second one flew out of the bushes to my right, right in front of the teachers. It didn't actually hit any of the teachers, but it gave them all a good scare.
"Where are you?" the police officer commanded. Just as he said that, a large amount of sand appeared out of nowhere and started whipping around the clearing.
I heard a whisper right beside me that said, "Go, quick." I turned to face the direction that the whisper came from, but all I saw was sand.
Heeding the whisper's instructions, I tapped Lizzy's shoulder and pointed behind us, signaling that we should get out of here. She nodded, and I did the same to Stephanie.
We did our best to leave the area, and almost the instant we left the clearing, we hit the boundary of the sandstorm, escaping the painful sting of the sand. We didn't stop there, and pretty soon, we were all out of breath from running for so long.
But we kept running. We eventually came upon a small, worn tree house. It looked big enough for all of us, and sturdy enough to hold us all at once. We decided to try hiding out here temporarily while we caught our breath.
The inside of the little tree house was quite a surprise. It had a small bed with quite a few blankets, as well as a small refrigerator. There was a rug on the ground, as well as a desk and a chair. The chair, for some reason, had a large hole cut out of the back. There was also a small electric heater attached to a large car battery. Currently, it was turned off, so I walked over and switched it on.
Lizzy and I sat on the bed, with Koyuki on my lap, and Stephanie took the rug as her seat.
"Are you sure that you don't want to sit on the bed?" I asked. "I'll sit on the floor instead."
"No, I'm fine with the floor," Stephanie said, shaking her head no.
We sat in silence, thinking the same thing, but not daring to ask about it. Finally, I got up the courage to ask.
"So, what are we going to do now?"
"Well, we obviously can't go back home and pretend that this didn't happen," Lizzy said. "The police are going to be looking all over for us."
"I know what you can do," said a voice from the entrance to the tree house.
Instinctively, we all looked over to the entrance to the little hut, and what we saw was quite a strange sight.
Standing in the doorway was a teenager, about the same age as me, with dark blue hair that was medium length and his eyes were vivid lime green. He was wearing a large white hat, a red diamond insignia just above the brim, making the hat look somewhat like a barrette, but way less dorky. His clothes were composed of a sleeveless white shirt and a pair of blue/grey camo cargo pants. He wore a pair of worn blue running shoes with ankle high socks.
Now, one might normally question the hat, hair, or sleeveless shirt during winter. But this was definitely no normal situation. In a situation like this, the main questions were much different.
Why? Mainly the fact that the teen standing in the doorway was part Pokemon. Two parts Pokemon, to be exact.
His arms, for example, were covered in a blue fur that was of the same shade of his hair. They ended in paws covered in black fur that had a spike coming out of the back of the paw. On his head, one could barely see black dreadlock-like things attached to his head. Large, blue, dog-like ears protruded from holes cut in his hat, and a hole on the front of his shirt revealed another spike growing from his chest.
On his back, a pair of leathery, kite shaped wings extended from small holes cut in the shirt. They were primarily green in color, with red surrounding the edges. It looked very similar to the insignia on the hat. From his cargo's sprouted a large, scaly tail that ended in a trio of kite shaped scales that bore a striking resemblance to the wings. The color of the scales alternated in stripes of dark green and light green.
Many thousands of questions passed through my head as this teen walked through the room and took a seat in the chair, slipping his tail through the hole as if he had practiced the motion thousands of times. Which he probably had.
As to the questions, do you really have to ask?
He looked at us and studied our looks and features. Suddenly, he opened his mouth and spoke in that slightly too deep to be normal voice. "I'm pretty sure that you're all wondering about why I'm like this and what the heck I am." We all nodded.
"Well, I'm what people call a combiomorph," he said. "And what that is exactly what you see. A human that has had his or her DNA genetically altered so that the person carries traits of his/her human self as well as some features of two specific Pokemon, which are a Lucario and a Flygon in my case. As for why I'm a combiomorph, it's something that I don't like to talk about. Do you have any other questions?"
"Um, what's your name?" Lizzy asked.
"Oh, right, how could I forget something as important as that?" he said. "Joey."
"And why are you here?" Lizzy inquired.
"This is where I live," Joey answered. "That is, where I currently live. There are countless people chasing me, so I have to keep moving."
"What exactly can you do?" Stephanie asked, still cheery as ever. I wondered if she smiled even while she was in pain.
"Well, I can use some of the abilities of a Lucario and a Flygon while like this, and I can transform into a full Lucario or a full Flygon and back at any given moment. I can't transform into a full human, unfortunately. That's pretty much it."
Stephanie nodded, having had her only question answered. I had a question that I wanted to ask, however.
"Why is your hair blue? I mean, why dye your hair blue? Who does that?"
Yeah, aren't I subtle?
And as my crappy luck dictates, he has to get angry at this comment. His paws were clenched into fists and his tail twitched. I swear, if this were a cartoon, his face would have turned red and steam would have blown out of his Lucario ears.
"Don't EVER make fun of my hair," he said, standing up. He then pointed his paw at me and began to form a blue sphere of energy. "Got it?"
I feebly nodded, and the energy dissipated as his arm lowered.
"So, are there any other questions?" he said, as if he didn't just nearly explode and blow me to smithereens.
"Um," Lizzy started, getting Joey's attention, "were you the one that threw those energy balls-"
"Aura Spheres," Joey interrupted.
"What?"
"They're called Aura Spheres," Joey explained. "It's an attack that Lucario can learn to use."
Oh," Lizzy said. "So were you the one who threw those Aura Spheres into the clearing and started the sandstorm?"
"Yes, that was me," Joey answered.
"Why?" I managed to get the courage to ask.
"Because, ever since I found this place," Joey said, motioning to the room around us, "I have explored the forest. When I found that clearing, you were there, Kyle."
"How do you know my name?" I asked.
"I believe that principal said it," Joey answered. "Anyway, I was intrigued by you, since you often were mumbling about only having one friend and everyone else acting as if you weren't there. It reminded me of, well, Em."
"You see, I used to be just like you, but I had two little sisters. One of them, Em, was almost just like you, but the other was almost the exact opposite. But they were my little sisters, and I felt the need to keep them safe no matter what they believed in. Anyway, you reminded me of her, and for some reason, I felt almost the same urge with you that I felt with Em."
"So, what happened to them?" I asked. I immediately wished that I hadn't, because I could see that Joey was trying to bite back tears.
"Wait, if it's that tender of a subject, you don't have to tell me," I said.
"No, no, I knew that I'd have to tell someone someday," Joey said, wiping away tears with the side of his paws, being careful not to accidentally stab himself with the spike on the back of it.
"What happened was that one day, when she was only 10 and I was 14, my sister stood up for Pokemon and refused to be punished by the school. My other sister, Katie, and I went to see if she was alright, and almost the exact same events that happened in the clearing earlier happened to us. The only differences were that she didn't befriend a Pokemon like you did with Koyuki (Koyuki lifted his sleeping head up at his name and stared at Joey, then promptly went back to sleep), and no one was there to save us, so we were arrested."
"When they were going to punish her, I stood up and took her fate. Then they turned me into this," he paused briefly to motion at his body, "and set Em and Katie free. But they kept me locked up. Yeah, the legal system around there was really messed up. Anyways, when I heard that Katie had committed suicide saying that she'd rather be dead than related to a Pokemon mutant and a Pokemon lover, it broke my heart, as well as Em's. I have no idea what happened to Em after that. I spent another few months in the cell that they kept me in, but after that, I couldn't stand it."
"I broke out and ran away from that prison, which happened to be all the way in Wedfri City, on the other side of the region. I went by night and only through areas that were never traversed by any other humans. I found some interesting things on my way here, including a very ancient shrine on Fein Mountain. It had some sort of faded symbol in the center of it," he finished, glancing around to see our reactions.
Stephanie was taking this entire story in with a sad look on her face instead of her customary smile. Lizzy almost looked ready to burst into tears, but I was more intrigued by the shrine he mentioned. "What did the symbol look like?" I asked.
"I couldn't tell too much of what it looked like; it was extremely worn. The only thing I could make out was an extremely long tail," he recalled.
"Did it look anything like this?" I asked, taking off my medallion. Holding it by the string, I offered it to Joey, who grabbed the coin in his paw. His face bore a studious look for a second before showing surprise.
"This is the exact same symbol!" he said. "Where did you get this?"
"My dad gave it to me while he was still alive," I told him. "He got it from my Granddad, who got it from his dad, the old Gym Leader of this city. After that, I don't know where it came from."
"Do you think there's any connection to that shrine?" Stephanie asked as Joey continued to study the coin.
"Yes, I believe that there is," Joey said, handing my medallion back to me, which I gladly took and restored it to its spot around my neck. "In fact, I think that we should go to that shrine and see if there's any sort of hidden key slot for it or something."
"But that's all the way on top of Fein Mountain, isn't it?" I asked. "How are we possibly going to climb the entire mountain to get to it?"
Joey smiled slyly. "I've got a short cut."
"What about the wild Pokemon in the area?" Lizzy asked. "Surely Joey can't hold them all back alone!"
"Don't worry, I know what we can do, we'll just have to be extremely sneaky," I said. "Oh, and don't call me Shirley."
We all got a good laugh out of that, including Joey.
"Well, please do enlighten us on your brilliant plan!" Joey said, still in good spirits.
"Alright, this is what we'll have to do…"