My keyboard is fixed, it kind of just...fixed itself. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter. Please review/favorite/follow if you enjoy this story.
I had sworn to never train again, and I was fully committed to my promise. I had searched online for a way to get back to Azalea that was cheap enough for me to afford. I didn't get any cash from the gym; I had already stormed out before he handed it to me. Plane tickets were very expensive, and they wouldn't take me all the way there, only just past the ocean. After hours of skimming through the internet, I finally found something I could afford. A guy had just started a company where he used various flying pokémon to take people to different cities across Johto.
The service had a number you were supposed to call, and it would have one of its employee's come pick you up and accept the money right there on the spot. I walked down the street; I needed a payphone so I could call the company. While I trudged down the avenue, my aura darkened every time I saw a trainer. Every poké ball was a constant reminder of my pokémon abandoning me. It had been a few days since the whole Jackal situation happened. I had shoved all of my emotions into a suitcase and locked them up tight. I couldn't keep dwelling on my failure as a trainer. I was told that this was unhealthy, but I felt it was better to keep my emotions under wraps then be a whiny bitch who screamed about their problems to anyone who didn't want to listen.
I eventually found a coin phone, the booth it sat in had graffiti and rust which made it look…seasoned. I opened up the door to the payphone; it was glass with a metal frame. The glass had so many cracks it was barely even transparent at that point. The box smelled like ass with a sprinkle of feet. The phone had sticky…stuff on it. I was sure that I didn't want to know what it was. I took out a piece of paper that was in my pocket that I had written the number on. I dialed it and after a few seconds someone picked up.
"Hello, this is Soren's Soarin' Transportation, take flight with us." An operator greeted me on the other end.
"Hi, my name is Aceves Ferry. I'm on Winter Avenue, Cianwood City, in a phone booth covered in graffiti. I would like to order one of your flying pokémon, what is the cheapest one you have available?" I asked; it took him a few moments before he replied.
"Our cheapest flight is the bronze pidgeot. It offers a simple ride from A to B, but the ride may be bumpy." He informed. I could care less about how uncomfortable it would be, as long as I could make it back home I didn't care how I got there.
"How much would this ride be?" I asked, while I was searching on the internet I was too busy sulking to check the prices. Good thing I didn't try and become a professor, I was a shitty researcher.
"The ride is anywhere from 1,000 cash to 18,000-"
"How much would it be to get from Cianwood City to South Azalea City?" I interrupted his speech.
"That would be 6,000 cash." Goddamn, that was expensive. I thought it was supposed to be cheap? If I wanted to pay 6,000 cash I would've just bought a pidgeot.
"How much would it be to get from Cianwood to Goldenrod?" If I just went to a city close enough to Azalea that I could just walk the rest of the way, then I wouldn't have to pay as much.
"4500 cash, plus tax." That was more in my range. Now I was one step closer to getting back home.
"I'll take that, how soon will your fliers be here?" I asked, finally something was going my way for a change.
"Under 15 minutes, you said you were on Winter Ave., correct?" He double checked. I responded with a yes.
I hung up the payphone and stepped out of the booth. I took a breath of the air. Sure it had smog and was polluted as hell, but it was better than the scent of fresh ass inside of the phone booth. There were benches in a park across the street from where I was at. It had a basketball court with a few kids playing a game of SPOINK. Every time one of them got a letter, they would curse and walk away, waiting for their next turn. The park had an empty swimming pool, piss puddles sat on the bottom and graffiti on the rim. It looked more like a toilet bowl than a pool. The grass was overgrown and the path had cracks in it. I went across the street to sit on a bench that sat lonesome on the side of the park.
I had my hand resting on the grip of my revolver. This neighborhood looked like it had trouble. At least judging by my skin I looked as if I was from the area. That made me safe from all the people who thought they would mug some ignorant out-of-city dude who was touring Cianwood.
A group of men dressed in black clothing were walking down the sidewalk, they spared me a glance. One of them stopped, he started conversing with another one of the guys. They continued walking shortly after. My fingers were laced around the grip; my weapon was halfway drawn as I stared at the men while they strolled away into the distance.
Either they were just a few men with very slimming outfits eyeing my extraordinary figure, or they were Rockets who had recognized me from the Goldenrod center. Without pokémon I was virtually defenseless against the goons. If they chose to attack me, I would undoubtedly be in big trouble. Not only did they outnumber me, but they had an arsenal that vastly dwarfed my own.
I hadn't even thought about that before, what if Team Rocket had followed me back to the farm in Azalea? After what had happened in Goldenrod, I didn't think they would just forget about me. I needed someone who could protect me against those guys. Shoshanna could, but she was probably busy doing Pokemon League things. The redhead man was out of the picture, I didn't even know his name. The only person I could think of was Timothy, but he was a 3 badge trainer at his very best.
Dirt and gravel was blowing everywhere, I shielded my eyes from the debris. I coughed as some of the dirt entered my mouth. A large golden bird hovered about 10 feet from the ground; his wings made a beating sound as they flapped up and down. He descended from the air and landed on his feet nimbly. He stood taller than me; his red plumage blew in the wind. It cawed and pricked its feathers. It had a saddle that sat upon its back; a man in a pilot's uniform was strapped on the saddle with his hands wrapped around a bridle rope used to steer the massive bird.
"My name's Guion, but you can call me Guy, I'll be your pilot for today. You are Aceves, correct?" He greeted. The man had skin identical to my own, except he had his hair cut in a fade. His uniform was navy blue topped off by a fancy hat lined up with stars and such.
"Yes I'm him. Here is the money." I walked up to him and handed him the cash. He took it and counted it out, licking his finger and flipping through the bills.
"Alright, 4500 cash, exactly. Whelp, climb aboard." He got off the pidgeot and waiting for me to get seated on the pillion behind his cushion. "Alright, lemme just buckle you up here…" He grunted, wrapping a rope around my leg which would prevent me from falling to my death if I fainted or something.
"This'll be a long ride bro, you'd better get comfortable." He suggested, stretching his arms. I shifted in my seat, looking around for any men in black outfits. I wanted to leave as soon as possible. He climbed into his spot, taking the steering rope in his hands. "Atlas, break time is over, it's time to head on up." He commanded, the pidgeot squawked in response, fluffing its feathers. It begrudgingly followed his orders. Atlas took off running up the street, his feet thumping with every step. The large bird pokémon's wings flapped, we started slowly gaining altitude. A car was driving towards us; it was getting closer and closer. I tensed, thinking we were going to collide with the vehicle. But just before it closed the distance between us, the bird pulled up, and we took off into the skies.
We flew through the city, the bird dodged building acrobatically. I looked down at the cars and people below us; they looked like specs of sand beneath me. It really was a bumpy ride, with every beat of his wings, I bounced up and down. I looked at the skyscrapers' windows, the people inside gasped at us as we flew by.
XxXxXxX
Eventually we were outside of the city, nothing but ocean was beneath us. A flock of wingull glided by, making their annoying ass call as they did so. "So, where you from kid?" The pilot asked conversationally.
"I was born and raised down in Azalea. You?" I gave him another question of my own.
"Well, I grew up in Mistralton. I just moved here, and I've only been working for this company for a few weeks." He yelled back, the wind was overtaking our voices, so we had to speak louder than normal.
"So I'm on an irritable pidgeot with a guy who barely knows how to tame it?" I joked, although I might've had a little speck of actual worry.
"Even though I haven't been a pilot for long, doesn't mean I can't fly this damn bird." He grunted as he steered the pokémon away from the sea below us.
"Do you even have experience with it? Or did they just hand it to you and say 'sink or swim.'" I asked. A bit of water splashed my face as we flew a few feet above the waves. I looked down and saw little green gelatinous creatures under the surface. I wondered what they could've been; they had odd little glowing purple orbs on their heads. Maybe they were a subspecies of tentacool?
"Yup, I used to be a trainer as a matter of fact." We gained elevation once more, he had to damn near scream for me to hear him.
"Really? So you must've been pretty good for you to have gotten a pidgeot." I said amazedly.
"It takes about 36 months for a pidgey to reach full maturity, but this subspecies of pidgeot wasn't meant for battling. It was domesticated for transportation purposes, which is why it's so enormous. Atlas here is only about 5 years old though; at about 10 he will be big enough to carry more than 4 passengers at once.
"Wow, that's huge." I tried to wrap my head around how much a pokémon that big could eat.
"Good thing the company feeds him, otherwise I would go bankrupt." He laughed, saying exactly what I was thinking.
"That's not even the biggest pokémon that we have, there are pokémon like tropius that can carry 15 people at their full capacity. But the battle versions of these pokémon are much smaller, but they are stronger, faster and more trainable. If you want a pilot subspecies, you have to buy it from specific breeders." He informed, the sea seemed like it stretched endlessly. It would be hours before we arrived at our destination.
"Could you still use a transportation subspecies for battle? Wouldn't it be pretty much the same thing?" I asked curiously.
"Usually subspecies are very different from the original. For example, I've got a houndoom that's half mightyena. He looks like a houndoom with a puffy tail, and his teeth are way longer too. His fire type attacks are a bit weaker, but his dark attacks are much stronger than a purebred houndoom's would be. I've seen a lucario with extra-large arms that was half machoke." His mention of lucario made me cringe, but I couldn't help but think what subspecies Jackal was, if he wasn't purebred.
"Are you a trainer? I can't see any other reason why someone from Azalea would be all the way in Cianwood." Martin questioned, he let go of his steering rope to get a bottle of something from a pouch on his saddle. He took a sip of the liquid and closed the lid. "You want some? I got another bottle in here if you want. It's just Mango juice." He offered, he put his own bottle back and gave me one from over his shoulder.
I took a gulp and answered his question. "Well, some unfortunate events happened that hindered me from continuing training pokémon. Now I need to get back home and go back to working on my parent's ranch." I elaborated; he nodded his head in understanding.
"I'm really sorry for you bro, same happened with me when I was a trainer. One of my pokémon got killed on an expedition to the Whirl Islands. Look down in a while and you'll see damned things." He pointed at the ocean. Low and behold, the islands were directly under us. They had gigantic whirlpools wider than buildings, and deeper than sinkholes. There was a mass of floating dead pokémon bodies that were crushed by the strong tides. It was beautifully morbid, well more like morbidly morbid.
Guy spoke up once more. "I was in the Whirl Islands because I wanted to catch a delibird to add to my collection of flying types. A fucking delibird costed me 3 lives. Did I catch the damn thing? Nope, I didn't even see it. I knew I should've stayed at home." I could hear the anger in his voice; it was amazing that he would speak of such a personal subject to a random stranger.
"Did they all freeze to death? Or was it the wild pokémon in there?" I asked cautiously, if he didn't answer I would completely understand it. I'm sure it was a touchy subject; what with all of the distress in his voice.
"I had a honchkrow named Noir. He was the first to go; he got frostbite almost immediately after we entered the caverns. To make it even worse, he got attacked by a glalie, which basically sealed his fate. I buried him in the snow. I had a swoobat named Reader. She was second; she was rendered braindead by a froslass. I had to put her down because she could barely move, she basically lost her soul." He paused; the only thing I could hear was the wind.
"M-My starter." He stuttered. I knew it would get tense; I called it in my head. "Never mind, I'm done talking about this subject. I just don't like being all sad and shit when I literally have someone else's life in my hands, y'know'?" I nodded my head in agreement even though he didn't see me. I completely understood.
"You're a cool kid, real easy to speak to. You got a phone number? Because i'd like to keep in contact with you." He asked. I didn't even have a phone and not a damn dime to buy one with.
"I have absolutely shit. I was gonna buy a phone, but I spent all of my money on this ticket for this flight." I sighed; I didn't even know how I would get through Ilex by myself.
"How're you gonna get back to Azalea? Do you have a ride or something to take you back to your parent's ranch?" He questioned, he looked over his shoulder at me, waiting for my answer.
"No, I'll figure something out though." I said, not really believing in myself.
"I might be able to help you out, when we get to Goldenrod, wait a second before you go. I might have to make a few calls. Ilex is real dangerous; one of my friends got attacked by a shiftry in there." He warned. I wasn't as worried about the pokémon as I was about the Rocket's. If I saw a shiftry, a bullet between the eyes would solve that problem. If I saw 15 guys with assault rifles, I get abullet between the eyes.
"Thanks bro, I appreciate the offer." I thanked him. "So how long will it be 'till we get to Goldenrod?" I asked.
"Don't mention it. It'll be about 10 more minutes." He informed, Atlas slowed down as he flew above Ecruteak City.
The two of us sat in silence for the rest of the ride. We descended as we flew above Route 37, I could see pokémon battles taking place in the forest below. If that event in Goldenrod didn't happen then Route 37 would've been my next stop. Oh well, shit happens.
The pidgeot soared above the golden brick road; he hit the ground with a thump. Cars honked and the pidgeot cawed in response to the opposing sound. I hadn't gotten that far into the city the last time I was there, so these sites were new and beautiful.
"Alright, we need to get off now before someone runs us over." He climbed off and unhooked me. He pulled out a little green poké ball with a star right above the release button. It had little golden wings on the left and right side of the star and a name was engraved on the shape that read 'Atlas'. It must've been a company thing. He withdrew the pokémon and we hurriedly raced to the sidewalk.
"Aceves, wait here a second. I need to go make a couple calls to my job." Guy walked a distance away from me; he leaned against a red concrete building and pulled out his cell phone. Not wanting to be an eavesdropper, I went inside of the store behind me. I waved to him, telling him I was going in the shop. He nodded and continued talking on his phone.
It was an electronics store. It sold poké balls, laptops, and various other devices. The store was mostly plain; it had a blue floor with a diverse number of shapes. Not many people were inside of the store, just a woman in all black…
Shit, I thought as I ran through the sliding doors.I dashed down the sidewalk until I found Guy; he was done talking and he was just about to come and get me.
"Yo what happened? You look like you saw a gengar." He laughed, not knowing the seriousness of my situation.
"I can't stay here; I really need to get back to Azalea before I have a heart attack." I explained. He looked at me confusedly, like I was speaking another language.
"Calm down bro, it's not that serious. If you don't want my help just say so. You don't have to be so dramatic." I wished that I could tell him what I was really thinking.
"It's not that I don't like you, there is just a pressing matter I need to attend to back home. Now I appreciate the help you're trying to give me, but I've been through Ilex before; and I'm confident I could do it again. Even if I don't have a pokémon, the majority of the things I encounter there would be pretty harmless." As long as I kept telling myself that, I would eventually believe it.
"So can you fight a hive of beedrill?" There was a long pause, just like the one we had whilst we were flying. Except this time all I could hear was the sound of cars zipping by us. "That's what I thought, but I have something that could. I was calling my boss to ask him if I could have the rest of the day off; but he said the company can't afford it. So I thought I could just give you something to protect you in my place." He grabbed my arm and started walking forward.
"Where are we going?" I asked, but I knew where he was heading with this.
"I'm taking you to the outer route of Goldenrod, south of here." So he was talking about Route 34. "I want to show you something, but I don't wanna do it in the city." He further explained.
We walked in silence, the farther we trekked the number of buildings decreased, and the landscape turned more rural. We past the daycare, and a few trainers wanted to battle us thinking that we were like them.
It took about 20 minutes before we actually got to the sign which read 'Ilex Forest.' "Now I can show you what I was talking about." Guion smirked, he pulled out a poke ball, except this one was black on the top and navy blue on the bottom.
"We use these to guard the company at night, they are extremely aggressive, which is why I didn't let him out around the loud noises of the city." He threw the ball on the ground, it exploded open and the figure of a reptilian bipedal creature appeared as the light faded. The reptile appeared to have an upright body and had brown stripes over its sandy hide. It had gigantic jaws with teeth the size of my hand. Its face was mostly covered by a black mask, and its claws were nothing to laugh at. It violently slapped its tail against the ground, making a thumping noise. Its pupils were dilated and catlike, red as blood.
The frightening creature leaped at me, his claws dug into my arm as he lifted me above his head. The monster growled a sound that sounded more like it was loudly breathing. It opened its mouth and slammed it back shut, attempting to intimidate me. My first reaction was to pull my revolver out of its holster and shoot it in the face, but I was frozen in fear.
"Brute, quit playing around, get off of him." Guion commanded the malicious beast. He let go of me and tossed my numbed body on the grass. I looked up at it; it looked down at me. He let out a grunt as he walked towards Guy.
Martin came up to me; he knelt down and assisted me up. I wiped myself off and spoke up to him. "HE is supposed to protect me? But he is so gentle; he seems unfit for the job." I said sarcastically. Martin chuckled.
"He's not always like this, he doesn't see people very often but when he does it's usually just somebody trying to break into our inventory. I borrowed him from my work for self-defense, but I figured you'd need'em more than I would." The pilot elaborated, my new leviathan friend snarled and stomped the dirt.
"Just make sure you don't sleep around him." He joked. I thought I was done with pokémon, but fate has its ways of making you do what you don't wanna do. Now I had two things wanting to kill me.
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