Chapter 8: Route 102
A big thanks to TheFreezerStreets for favoriting this fanfic and to Veraa2 for that rather enlightening review you PM'd me.
So, I'm sick (yay me) and I know I won't be back in school tomorrow, so I can pretty much guarantee that there will be another chapter tomorrow. Depending on what happens there'll be new stuff on Wednesday and Thursday as well. Please keep in mind that this is a very unusual circumstance, and that most of the time this fanfic will be updated on weekends only.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything official!
Sapphire did not stick around in Oldale Town for very long when she finally made it out of Route 103. She bought more potions from Rodriguez, nearly cleaning out his meager stores before running out of the dilapidated Pokemart as if a ghost was chasing her. With how close Brendan and May were, she dared not stop at the Pokemon Center, and instead healed her Pokemon with berries and potions before sprinting to the entrance of Route 102.
"Please tell me that you're done sketching that footprint." She gasped out as she literally ran into the collector. He had a dejected look on his face, and took a few precious moments before answering her desperate question.
"I thought I had discovered the footprint of a new species of Pokemon." He mumbled as Sapphire impatiently tapped her foot. "But it turns out I was sketching my own footprint."
"That's all fine and dandy, but I don't have time to sit here and listen to your melancholy problems." The girl snapped. Normally she was not this rude, but normally she wasn't this pressed for time. "Can I walk over them or not?"
"Go ahead."
Sapphire was gone before the man could even finish speaking, a black and blue blur that raced out of Oldale Town. The girl was not happy about her current options. There were three of them, and none of them were good. Option one was to return to Littleroot Town and her overbearing mother. She'd be punished for her little stunt in running away, most likely have her Pokemon taken away from her, and be forced to remain at home. No doubt her mother and father would be furious with her. Option two would be to hang around Oldale Town and let Brendan and May catch her and haul her off to this lab they kept on speaking about, which in turn would lead to her parents finding her. This also was not a good idea. The third option was to run down Route 102, into Petalburg City. That place was the stronghold of her father, and the last thing Sapphire wanted to do was to run straight into the lion's den. But out of her options, this one was the best one available to her. There was no guarantee that she'd see her father in the city, and as long as she avoided the gym those chances would decrease even further.
Was it an excellent plan? No, far from it. But in lieu of the circumstances it was the best that she could come up with.
Any other day she would have stopped to enjoy the sights. There were several tall trees, and Beautifly fluttered overhead. A small pond had a group of Lotad playing in it, though they scattered when the panicked girl ran by. Shade had popped out of his Pokeball and was perched on her shoulder, eyes trained on the road behind them to watch for any signs of pursuers.
"Hey you!"
The sounds of a voice caused Sapphire to skid to a halt. Up ahead of her in the middle of the road was a young boy, a backwards blue baseball cap sitting on his head. He introduced himself as Calvin, and demanded a battle from her. The youngster ignored Sapphire's panicked protests that she didn't have time for any battles, and instead sent out a Zigzagoon.
Sapphire rolled her eyes and sent out Beldum, choosing to let Shadow and Swampy rest a bit longer. Their injuries from the earlier double battle may have been healed, but they were still a bit worn out, and their trainer had no intent on running them ragged.
It was a rather pitiful battle. All it took were a pair of Iron Heads before Zigzagoon had fainted. Sapphire had hurriedly promised the kid a rematch at a later point in time when the kid demanded one, took the prize money she had won, and then ran off again, praying that the small five minute scuffle hadn't been enough to allow May and Brendan to catch her.
She decided to send Shade back to watch for the pair of siblings, and reluctantly the weasel left his friend for the trees, retracing their steps to take up a position by the pond. It was well that he did so, for he was just in time to see the Birch siblings enter Oldale Town's Pokemon Center. No doubt they were in there to have their partners looked after, and hopefully they would be in there for quite some time. Shade settled down to wait, deciding that he would run back to Sapphire once they left the red-roofed building.
Sapphire had to be extra cautious now. She was down a Pokemon, her most powerful one too. But the girl was confident in the strength of her other partners, and knew that it would be advantageous to know the movements of her pursuers. Now she just had to hope that nothing else slowed her down.
Of course, because Murphy's Law existed, anything that could have gone wrong did. Not one, not two, but three more trainers stood in her way as she continued running down the path. All of them wanted battles, and all of them would not be denied. They had little to no experience, which meant that Sapphire's team easily dealt with all of them. By the time she defeated the final one, it had only been four hours since she had left Oldale Town. In total, a Poochyena, one Wurmple, a single Taillow, and a pair of Zigzagoons had been defeated by the rather impressive combination of Swampy, Shadow, and Beldum.
Sapphire's sides ached, the muscles in her legs burned, and the continuous impacts with the ground had left her feet sore and tired. Each breath was painful, but the long run had left the girl quite winded, and so she continued to suck in greedy gulps of air. The girl had made excellent progress - as short as Route 102 was, most people took the better part of a day to traverse it. Then again, most people stopped, ate three meals, walked, searched for Pokemon, and otherwise took time to stop and smell the roses.
Sapphire hadn't. She had been running for her life. Her meals were hurried, and she did not dare to stop and rest. But the abuse she had put her body through was taking its toll, now that the adrenaline spike had faded. Begrudgingly the girl allowed herself a chance to rest, limping over to a pair of berry trees and harvesting the ripe Pecha and Oran berries that hung from the branches.
Glancing back down the road, she noticed a small ledge partially hidden by some tall grass, no more than ten feet away from where she had battled her last opponent, a young lass by the name of Tina. Sapphire carefully made her way over towards it, only to trip over a rock and go tumbling over the edge. The impact with the ground five feet below hurt, knocking the wind out of her lungs, but fortunately did not break her bone.
With a groan Sapphire sat up, noticing a potion on the ground. Unsure if it had fallen out of her bag in the tumble, the girl picked it up and stuck it in the pocket where she stored medicine.
This place was rather secluded, and well hidden. Sapphire tried to get up, but her legs threatened to give out. Recognizing that she wasn't going anywhere for a while, the girl crawled into the underbrush and curled up in a ball, concealed from view. It was late - the stars were starting to speckle the sky just over the rapidly fading sunset - and the trainer hadn't been planning on staying in the city anyway.
As she waited for sleep to claim her, a rustling in the trees caused her to tense. Moments later Shade dropped down next to his friend. The Pokemon had heard her fall with his acute hearing, and had managed to find her.
"Have they left yet?" Sapphire whispered.
"Sneasel." Shade shook his head. He had overheard Brendan and May discussing their next steps. From what it sounded like their Pokemon wouldn't have fully recovered from the battle earlier that day until quite late at night, and they had decided to just chase after Alpha in the morning.
Sapphire let out a sigh of relief. Though it troubled her that those two annoying kids were still bent on tracking her down and apprehending her for crimes she didn't commit, at least she had a good head start on them. She was safe, for now.
Finished! What do you think? I really don't want to spend a lot of time on most of the everyday trainer battles, and to be honest when I was playing through the game I had leveled up my Pokémon so much that I kind of just blew through this area.
Any comments, constructive criticisms, and compliments can be left in a review. Shadow will be putting out any flames with Sand Attack.
