Lost Pokemon Tales – Chapter 3
The sun's rays climbed up slowly from behind the buildings, leaving spots of light on the pavement and concrete walls. Morning set in as the sun passed the barrier of water, coloring the few clouds that were left from the night before a soft orange with a pink hue. What was left of the rain had gathered unto the roofs of buildings and the tree leafs. The sun was rising to go his usual round across the sky, it wasn't long before the entire city was basking in its morning glows.
A lone raindrop had become too heavy to keep hanging on the underside of the leaf it had fallen on earlier, sparkling in the sunlight, it let loose and dropped all the way down, unto the nose of a girl. The girl stirred, groaning, she moved to lie on her other side, at the base of the tree she had been sleeping under. The light had found her eyes and was determined to wake her up, the girl opened her eyes slightly, to find out that there was something very bright shining in her eyes.
"arrggh.. whut..? What time is it..?" She muttered groggily.
Her memories were vague, she lifted her hand over her eyes to try and see what it was that awakened her. Her eyes focused, her surroundings started to gain physical form. She seemed to be surrounded by buildings..? Feeling down for her bed, she found pavement made of natural coast rocks. Finally realizing where she must be, she looked up. The medium sized tree she had hid under to get protection from the rain the other night, was still there.
*Can't remember falling asleep here.. or, did I?*
Memories from the other night came rushing back in pieces. She remembered sitting under the tree, since it just wouldn't stop raining. She had curled up as much as she could to stay warm, after some point she must've closed her eyes. She had been thinking about home, though her exact thinking process had been lost due to fatigue, the sound of falling rain had been accompanied at some point by a more heavy splashing. Maybe someone had passed the tree she had been hiding under, but not seen her? It was dark after all, but for all she knew it might've been her imagination too.
One look at her outfit told her she definitely needed a bath and a change of clothes. She was even muddier than before from sleeping under the tree, it felt like she had bruises all over the place.
"That's hopefully the last time I have to sleep under a tree.."
Standing up, she noticed just how sore she was.
"Yep, DEFINITELY the last time.."
Rubbing her back, she shifted her clothing back in place and roamed around in the largest pocket in her backpack. Pulling out a yellow device that could've been mistaken for a pimped mobile cell phone, exclusively for this region, a pokénav. She flipped the yellow device open, rubbing the screen dry when a raindrop landed on it. The time read '6:07 AM'. With another loud groan she shut the device again and threw it back in her backpack.
"Seriously? Whyyyy... this early.. grumble.. arghh..."
People weren't even out on the streets yet, they'd probably be up soon though. The girl trainer looked around, it was probably a good idea to go find a secluded river, no use trying to get into any sort of hotel or motel when you where dripping with mud. The sun had now finally reached the point where the whole city of Slateport was bathing in light, stumbling sounds from inside the houses told her that the people who had to work early would get out on the streets soon.
Trying to dust off as much of the still somewhat wet mud as she could, she disappeared into one of the many alleys. A human-made canal would probably do too, as long as no one was watching of course... It wouldn't be long now before the day officially begun, a small flock of Taillow sang their morning melodies as they each announced the start of a new day in the second most crowded place in Hoenn...
*...Squeek...*
*...Crack...*
*...SQUEEK! CRACK!*
...The trainer opened his eyes..
"..."
"!" The trainer yelled! "THAT IS NOT FUNNY REI!". The trainer put the palm of his hand against his forehead..sighing deeply. Around the same time the female trainer woke up, this one did too. He had found shelter last night after over two hours of searching and he found his shelter to be an abandoned house that was seemingly heading for deconstruction..or some kind of renovation. The trainer figured that no one would mind him spending the night there..or so he hoped.
Though it was quite large, it was obvious it was in need of repairs, with rotten planks everywhere and the feeling that the building could collapse at any given second. It sort of had the feeling of a haunted house to it and, being the jester the trainer's Gastly sometimes was, he took the privilege of waking up the trainer by making some squeaking and cracking noises, and then appearing right before the trainer's face while pulling his tongue out and making a funny face.
The trainer slowly pulled himself on his feet, groaning and cracking his back while rubbing his eyes as well. Though he couldn't see anything last night, he clearly saw that the house had a ground and a first floor, with about five rooms on each floor. The trainer had slept last night in what seemed to be a kitchen..though any furniture that hadn't rotten or broken down was in the process at least, so the only indication of it being a kitchen were the cold tiles that were placed on it's floor, and of course, the furnace along with a sink and an old fridge. And the effect of sleeping on stone tiles was clearly there as well..his back felt like a plank!
*..Ugh..I've got a headache..* he thought to himself *..It feels like I've only had two hours of sleep or something..probably true as well. Don't know at which time I went to be-..uhm..tile last night though, wasn't there a time function on my pokédex?* he walked over to his pants which he had folded out over a chair. He was completely soaked last night and in order for his clothes to dry, he took them off and hung them over everything he could find; old doors, a window, a chair and so on. He reached into his backpack, which lay on a chair next to his pants, and grabbed a relatively old model of a pokédex out of it. It was a typical one really; red color, made out of some sort of plastic along with metal and glass on its display, a small antenna on its top and the ability to flip it open like a book.
"..Hm..around six." He said while having his pokédex opened. He didn't have that many entries, around thirty now. With of course, only one catch. Or so it seemed...the only pokemon the trainer had ever used was his Gastly, and he had his personal reasons for only journeying with one pokemon...He believed that if pokemon could become stronger by training with humans, focusing all your attention on one would make him far stronger and show his potential more than dividing that attention onto six pokemon, and though he wasn't the best trainer of all time or something, his single ghost-type pokemon had given him the edge over a lot of battles.
*I wonder when he's going to evolve..* the trainer thought to himself with a smile on his face, watching his Gastly float around the house while remembering all the things that they had already gone through so far. *..Maybe losing that badge wasn't so bad after all..besides, we beat Sabrina once..now we just gotta get strong enough to beat her without any tricks right?* he once more thought. Though it was obvious his Gastly wasn't really paying attention, as he seemed to be enjoying rushing through the walls of this building a little bit too much.
The trainer turned his sight over to his pants again, trying to determine if any wet spots still remained due to the rain. Though it still was wet..it wasn't soaked any more, and this would hold true for most of his clothing as well. *Better than nothing at least* He thought...and better than going through the streets naked as well, he'd say.
Having put his underpants and pants on, he noticed the dirt stains that covered his pants, shoes and his socks as well. He figured that he should at least try to clean his clothes somewhere in the city, to prevent nasty looks from other people in the town. *..Gotta be a dry cleaner around here somewhere, right?* He thought. He still was hungry as well..he hadn't eaten anything last night and the food on the ship wasn't exactly tasty either. "Come on Rei!" he shouted throughout the building so the Gastly would hear him. "We're going into town, you'd best get into your pokeball if you don't want to give everyone a heart attack!".
With that said, he pulled his shoes on and got ready to move out.
The girl trainer bent down behind a fountain, there had been no rivers or canals to be found, or any sort of fresh water source at all, luckily she had discovered a big fountain located on what normally would be a crowded square. Looking around frantically, she discovered that she was still alone. She dipped her hands into the cold water stream and braced herself for what would come. After a small moment of hesitation, she threw the cold water in her face and started to splash herself until she was thoroughly soaked, her body as well as her clothes. Shivering, she tried not to think about the cold as she started to scrub the mud off of her and the twigs and leafs out of her foul-blond hair. Throwing the occasional look over her shoulder, to see if no one saw her washing herself in the freaking public fountain..
When she was done, her skin was slightly red from the hasty scrubbing, but her hair was now lighter and lit up in soft gold when the sun fell on it. Now that she wasn't covered in mud and grass stains anymore, she felt a lot better, almost like she just lost 2 pounds, which was probably true.. 2 pounds of dirt. The girl stood up, wringing out her clothes in the process. She pulled a light blue towel from her backpack and started to dry herself off. Happy with the result, she bent over slightly to watch her reflection in the clear water of the fountain. Her hair was kind of ruffled now, but nothing a good brush couldn't fix. Her reflection smiled at her, yep, everything would be alright now!
A small Taillow had landed on the top stone of the fountain, watching her from a small distance. The girl looked up, for a moment there was utter silence and nothing happened. The Taillow chirped at her and proceeded to fly off into the sky until it was too small to see. The girl trainer watched the small bird go. Standing up, she walked off at a slow pace, there was no use rushing for nothing.
As she went, more and more people got on the streets, some in business suits, others in casual clothing, or all dressed up.. maybe it was Sunday? A small group of kids came running out a door, with small backpacks on and lunchbags in hand, off to school. The girl looked up, the sky was cloudless, a fierce blue as far as the eye could see. With her hands in her pockets, she started wondering about home..
*Had they seen it...?*
*Maybe they hadn't noticed at all..*
Stopping in her tracks, the girl let out a heavy sigh. Right in front of her was the cities pokemon center, which she hadn't noticed yet. Almost robotic, she stumbled in, for the moment not caring where she ended up at...
The trainer still was kinda tired..He hadn't slept much at all and his muscles ached as well..probably due to the constant running he went through the entire night. Walking out of the main district, the Trainer had encountered a large, wooden, brown colored building with quite a traditional look to it. Kinda like the ones he was used to in Kanto and Lavender Town. A large, wooden sign plate stood in front of the house, clearly stating "Pokemon Fan Club and Part-Time Inn, 5 coins a night!".
*...A pokemon fan-club? I'm sure they had one in Kanto too.* he thought while glancing over towards his pocket where his pokeball was being kept. As usual, the trainer's Gastly had been put in its ball to ensure that people would not get scared without reason. Ghost-type pokemon usually had a bad reputation..for eating away dreams and giving nightmares, as well as stealing life-energy and using it as a food-source.
"..Excuse me." the Trainer said. He had already opened the door to the house and was getting ready to step inside. In the room he put his eyes on stood one, large table with about five people sitting around it. They seemed to be playing a card game of some kind..in any case. The room seemed fairly simple..like the exterior, it was completely made out of wood. Only strange thing was; Pokemon decorations were EVERYWHERE. You could not look in a direction and not see a Pikachu or Charmander doll somewhere. Three of the people sitting at the table looked up in the direction of the door, the other two obviously too obsessed with their card-game. "Hello there! Welcome to the Pokemon Club..is there anything we can help you with?" one of the individuals said, a man roughly in his thirties.
"Uuh..yea..sorry for barging in like this..but I wondered if you had some kind of washing machine or something-..I uh..kinda got lost in the storm last night.". the Trainer said with some hesitation in his voice.
One of the other individuals, a girl this time and also in her thirties, replied "..Oh! You went out in that storm? I heard on the news it was pretty severe..trees getting struck by lightning. I even heard someone had to go to the hospital because he was in the vicinity of a lightning strike.". the man who spoke earlier nodded in acknowledgement. "Well..anyway, we have a washing machine upstairs but it'll cost you-.." "Cost him? He went through a horrible storm last night, cut him some slack will you." the women said, interrupting him.
"..I uh..I don't mind to pay something if it's not too m-.." the trainer tried to say, but he too got interrupted by the woman. "Nonsense. Maybe you should get a shower too..wait, just a question. Do you collect pokemon?".
"Uuhm..yeah.." The trainer tried to avoid this subject as much as possible..He knew how intense those pokefans could be and he wouldn't want to be stuck here for the rest of the week. "I'm uh..a pokemon trainer. Sort of.".
"A pokemon trainer?" the five all said at the same time. Looks like this got the attention of the other two as well. The trainer scratched the back of his head and tried to estimate how bad this situation actually was... "..What kind of pokemon do you have?" "It's a fire type right? They are reaaaaally kawaaaaai!" "No I bet it's a grass type pokemon." "Tell me it's a fire type!". *I knew this wasn't a smart idea...* the trainer thought to himself. All of the five pokemon maniacs were now bombarding him with questions. One even went so far as to rush over to him and pull him over to a chair next to the table.
"I uh...have a ghost-type pokemon.". The trainer said with a hesitant tone...carefully glancing over the group..He knew what kind of reaction this would get him..and indeed it did.
...
...
...Complete silence.
"...It's an...uuh...Gastly..His name is Rei."
Even more silence.
After two complete minutes of complete and utter silence, one of the pokefans finally spoke up. "...Oh. Okay. Well..uh..there's a washing machine upstairs in the washing room, and there's a bathroom two doors further on the right. ...Uh..Yell if you need something..I..we guess?" The slightly older man said.
Like what was said before, Ghost-types really weren't all that popular. Regardless, the Trainer was used to it and without hesitation he made his way towards the staircase, than up the stair and towards the washing machine. He opened a door which kinda looked like a laundry room and got inside..taking off his clothes and stuffing it into the washing machine and turning it on. He didn't like the idea of being in a random house naked..but it was better than catching a fever or the likes. Grabbing a towel from a washing rack, he made his way towards the bathroom, looking forward to a long, warm, shower.
Several blocks from the pokemon fanclub, at the local pokécenter, the girl trainer was sitting in a square-like chair with the color of ripe Pecha berries. In front of her, was a small fireplace, but it wasn't lit, since they never did that during the daytime. The pokécenter was thriving with happy laughter and loud noises, trainers from far and wide gathered at pokemon centers in great numbers, especially since its so much needed service was free. It wasn't an hour ago since the girl trainer had stumbled inside and recognized where she was. After countless headbeatings she gave to herself for sleeping under a tree in a storm after only now discovering that she had been only a few streets away from a comfortable and FREE place to sleep and eat at, she had checked in with the local nurse Joy for a room and most importantly, breakfast.
About 20 minutes ago, after breakfast, she had given her old trusted pokemon in its pokeball to the nurse to heal up. The nurse had given her a questioning look when she handed her a pokeball so old and covered in scrapes and scratches, but she had just looked her straight back in her eyes, making it quite clear she wasn't intending to answer randomly thrown questions about personal matters. The nurses desk bell rang to alert trainers to come and pick up their now healed pokemon. The girl got out of her seat and turned around to face the counter, there was already forming a line of trainers in front of the counter, all eager to head out to whatever places they wanted to go to. More trainers rushed to the line, laughing and loudly talking with friends. The girl trainer seemed to be one of the last in line, only 4 more trainers were behind her.
After another agonizingly long wait, it was finally her turn. The nurse was sitting in front of the counter, bend over a long list of what would most likely be a list of trainer ID's and the pokeballs that were attached to those ID's.
"Next please." The nurse said calmly, still skimming the list in her hands.
The girl trainer stepped forward and placed her hands on the counter.
"Trainer ID?" Asked the nurse, finally looking up.
"34939" The girl said softly.
The nurse looked down on her list again, flipping over a page. Her finger went over the numbers till she encountered the one she was looking for.
"Found it, let me look it up for you." The nurse said with a cheerful smile.
The nurse turned to her right, facing a computer with teleport function at the side. The nurse was typing away something on screen and touched a series of digital buttons on a new touchscreen before hitting the enter button. The small teleport machine attached to the computer made a low buzzing sound, and a thin thread of blue light erupted from the top into a glass cylinder case, it cracked a few times, almost making it look like there was a tiny piece of lightning trapped in the complex machine. Then it turned purple.. red.. then finally pink. The nurse pushed a green button on her keyboard and the buzzing became high-pitched. The beam of pink light cracked and formed a ball shape. The nurse gave her approval of several settings displayed on her screen, the pink light disappeared, but the ball shape remained, becoming solid after a few seconds of waiting. The old pokeball she had delivered earlier looked much the same as when she had it earlier this morning, but the girl knew her pokemon had been cared for properly.
"There you go, healthy and hearty, just like it should be." Said the nurse gleefully.
The glass cylinder opened with the push of another button and the nurse picked the old pokeball up to hand it to its trainer. The girl gladly accepted the pokeball and immediately stuffed it in her backpack.
"Thanks for the room and breakfast, of course for healing my pokemon as well."
"It's not something you have to thank me for really, I'm just the local nurse who happens to be working here." The nurse said with a friendly smile.
"Now, off you go! Kids shouldn't be wasting time inside on such a beautiful day, right?" The nurse winked.
"Right." The girl said, giving a single nod before she turned around and ran off into the light past the glass automatic doors of the pokécenter...
"There! All refreshed!" The trainer said with a smile on his face. After just taking his long anticipated, warm shower the Trainer put his hand on a relatively small valve..turning the flow of water off. He had a slight idea that he had been showering for at least an hour, but that was how long it took to get all that mud off his body. It was literally everywhere and the dirt under his nails and in his hair was especially difficult to scrub away. He stepped out of the shower cabin and grabbed a towel, ruffling it through his curly brown hair. "A pokemon club in Hoenn, who would've guessed." He said to himself. He walked up to a mirror with a sink underneath and started drying the other parts of his body as well. He was clearly inspecting the sink too..hoping to find a certain item. Even though he was a boy, he had relatively long and ruffled curly hair. And he didn't really like the feeling of tangled hair at all. "..They must have a comb here ri-..oh, wait!" . Just as he was about to finish his sentence, he saw a brown comb lying near the edge of the sink. He grabbed it and glided it through his ruffled hair, and though it remained ruffled to some extent, it looked ruffled in a good and neat way.
After drying himself off completely he wrapped the towel around his waist and unlocked the door to the bathroom. Downstairs he could hear the five pokefans laughing and what not.. he guessed they were probably playing their card game again. The incident earlier didn't seem to hurt him much. He was used to this kind of attention and saw some reason in it as well..I mean, it's not that normal to see a boy walking around with a ghost-type pokemon after all...Well..except for those really crazy mediums and wanna-be wizards, he thought.
He set a foot into the hallway and closed the door behind him. Just as he closed the door he noticed the wrinkles he had gotten on his hands due to the long shower he had taken..it sort of reminded him of the old spirit mediums that were all too common in Lavender Town and smiled to himself for a moment..but that smile quickly transformed in a frown.
"I miss home.." he whispered to himself. He had a purpose and reason for coming to Hoenn, but he could not stop the feeling of wanting to go home. He walked up to the washing room and opened the door. It looked like his clothes were just about finished. He walked over to the machine and opened it up. *..Now just gotta put them in a dry cleaner.*.
He inspected the room, trying to determine whether or not there was a dry cleaner at all. Luckily for him, there was..but on a very inconvenient spot; Behind the washing machine.
"..Oh..that's great." He said to himself in a soft tone while placing the palm of his hand against his forehead out of frustration. "..Wait..Is that a gap?" he climbed on top of the washing machine and indeed! he saw a tiny bit of space between the two machines, roughly fifty centimeter..and in his mind, maybe just big enough to fit his clothes through so he could stuff them into the dry cleaner! He made his attempt. "One sock! Okay..now the other one..". He got on his knees, reaching his arm out into the gap with the other sock in his hand. It was going good so far! Just a few more things and he'd have all of his clothes put into the dry cleaner...then suddenly, he heard someone coming upstairs. The house was quite squeaky due to the wood, so whenever someone was walking up or down a stair, it was like the entire house could hear it. All he was wearing at the moment was a towel and a relatively short one at that. And he did -not- want to be seen wearing something comparable to a mini-skirt by a complete stranger; even worse ..a pokefan.
Before putting the rest of his clothes inside, He retrieved whatever items he needed or shouldn't get wet. He lifted his leg into the air, closing the door behind him with his foot. Hopefully the impact the door made would scare anyone that tried to enter away. The footsteps got closer and closer...until finally, they passed and seemed to head for another room. The trainer wiped the sweat off his forehead and let out a sigh..now just to wait for his clothes to dry, he thought.
It took about ten minutes before the machine started beeping, signaling that the clothes inside were dry. Just as he managed to stuff his clothes inside, he managed to get them outside and without further hesitation put them on so that he could get on with his journey...he was REALLY starving now, even more so than earlier!
He said a friendly goodbye to the pokefans and thanked them for their hospitality. Their reaction was just like before..but the trainer was happy enough; he managed to get a shower and clean clothes. "..Now! Let's go and find that restaurant, Rei." he said with a confident tone. It was like he forgot the while badge affair entirely but this was not at all true...it kept stinging his mind and he still had some hope in his heart that maybe someone else than the sailor picked it up..He just hoped someone didn't steal it.
Regardless of that; His pokemon was just as exhausted as he was..Though he was a tough Gastly, or so his trainer would've liked to believe, fighting five pokemon at the same time really wasn't a good idea. *Maybe they have a pokemon center somewhere in this city..they usually have good food and it's free as well..wanna go there, Rei?* he said while glancing over in the direction of his pocket, where the Gastly's pokeball was being kept. The trainer also noticed that the city was really getting crowded now. The sounds of ships arriving and leaving could constantly be noticed due to the horns they signaled; similar to the ship he arrived with. He looked at his surroundings and he seemed to be close to the main road with..-..something that resembled a pokemart to his right? He ran over to the entrance and a big smile appeared on his face. It reminded him of a school trip he once undertook as a kid..he went to Celadon City with his class and even now the huge skyscrapers and stores of Celadon City still amaze him. He went up to the glass doors and they shifted open; If someone knew where a pokemon center was, it'd be these guys.
In comparison to the rest of the city, the mart was relatively empty. Usually this was the time for trainers to get their pokemon healed and revived, so he guessed that was where everyone was. "Excuse me." He said while walking up to the counter "..I'm not really from this region, can you tell me where the pokemon center is?" a guy behind the counter turned around and glanced over at the trainer. Apparently he was doing something related to papers..the trainer couldn't figure out what though. Anyway, he gave a quick response, obviously hoping to get back to whatever the guy was doing. "..Uh..yea, it's behind this building actually..walk to the right in the direction of the main road and then follow the path north, take a sharp turn to your left the second you can and it should be pretty clear from there on..it's..uh..well, a pokemon center. Can't miss it.".
The trainer looked around at all of the items the pokemart sold..most of them were pretty standard..the same ones they sold in Kanto, but there were a few exceptions. "..Oh, thanks a lot! By the way..what does a potion cost here?" the trainer asked "..That'd be 250 pokebucks.".
"Want me to get one for you?" the guy behind the counter asked. "Yes please..". The trainer grabbed his backpack and opened it up, grabbing his wallet which was safely stored in a "secret space" on the back of his..backpack. What he found wasn't good though. *..Oh..you gotta be kidding me..* he thought to himself. All of his pokédollars had gotten wet during the rainstorm and were pretty much useless. He wasn't that rich but he made sure he had enough for whatever he needed during the journey! *Wait! Maybe I still have some Pokecoins..uh..one hundred..two hundred.. two hundred and fifty..there.* He put the coins on the counter and let out a sigh. He didn't have that many coins with him in the first place..in total he'd have about one hundred and twenty pokebucks now. The guy behind the counter placed the potion in a plastic bag and gave it to the trainer. "Here you go, be careful out there and have a nice day." The guy said before turning around and continuing his work.
"Uh..yeah..you as well..Bye!" the Trainer grabbed the plastic bag and put it inside the front slot of his backpack before closing it off again. He turned around and headed for the glass doors. *Could this day get any worse?* The trainer thought to himself. At least now however, he knew where to go, and to the pokemon center he went!
It had been dark inside the pokécenter, so the bright light of the sun stunned the girl trainer when she ran out. She squeezed her eyes shut, momentarily blinded. She had been running in a straight path out of the building, but hadn't considered the light outside blinding her like this. It was almost inevitable, in the few seconds she had her eyes closed, she ran into something soft with full speed.
"AAAAAAHHH!"
The force of the blow blew whatever she ran into against the road and knocked her back on the ground as well. She heard a male voice loudly cursing under his breath. Lifting a hand above her eyes, she could partly see what she had hit. It was a guy, probably a teen or a little past that age from what she could see, the sun was still too bright for her eyes who hadn't adjusted to the change of light yet.
"I-I'm terribly sorry!" The girl said almost stuttering in nervousness.
This was embarrassing, she should've known better than to run out of a door without looking who might behind it. She punished herself silently in her head, her clumsiness still had the upper hand. Finally her eyes started to adjust, she could make out the boy who was lying on the ground, curled brown hair and slightly dusty clothing. In a single moment she spotted the trainers backpack, which contents had spilled over the ground, she could clearly see a pokeball between the items that rolled out, the guy was a trainer. She was as quickly on her feet as she had been knocked over, rushing over to the boy still on the ground.
"Oh dear Latias.. l-let me help you pick that up for you." She said, smiling apologetic.
Now that she had a better look at the guy... didn't he look... kind of, familiar..?
The trainer was just about to arrive at the pokemon center. He could clearly see the giant, colorful building sticking out from the rest now. He couldn't wait to get inside and get something to eat..His stomach was grumbling like a bear that just woke from his winter sleep. "Almost there Rei." He said in a soft tone. "Just a few more steps and it's breakfast time!" a smile quickly started to appear on his face...as well as a tendril of drool that started to run down his lip.
With a confident look he approached the pokemon's glass doors, waiting for them to open...then suddenly!
*KAPLOW!*