"Never before has anyone or anything ever made me stumble the way they did, they showed me my flaws, encouraged my abilities and showed me their form of friendship. Yet no one seems to understand that no matter how humane they might be sometimes they still are trapped in their own world of obeying your orders, acting to your will and being what you see fit for they are the masters of surviving, adapting to every situation with one goal in mind; making it out alive"
Gerald Wintherbee, First succesful blind pokémon trainer (30th of December, 2534)

Chapter Eighteen

Being showed by the blind

Ed ended up calling a friend of his that is one of the League Officials, don't get me wrong for he isn't one of the Elite Four, to dispose of the Steelix and the Blastoise that were still left inside the cave, the Ledyba was another matter on its own for Josh likes pokémon that might just be usefull in a way he thinks is .. usefull. In other words Lola can use 'pretty water contest moves' and the Ledyba 'Can do a lightshow to compliment Lola' and Paul 'Won't ever be mentioned again' and that's how Herby was brought into our little group. Not that Herby wanted to be a part of it of course, it put up a great fight, but ended up being captured by Josh after being pinned down by Goliath, V, Arr, Que and even Ed himself joined the little mountain of pokémon. And with captured I mean that a rope was tied to it, which was tied to Josh's belt for one can't capture a pokémon someone else owns. Josh decided to ignore that fact.

The League Official ended up being a very big man with a very big pokémon and a very big gun, they are required to carry them for they are a form of the army, and even his Machamp –Momo- carried one over one of its shoulders as they made various calls concerning the Steelix and the Blastoise, he ended up being able to get them out of Amber's 'care' and into that of his own thereby enabling himself to be able to capture them in a pokéball specifically designed for League Officials (Meaning it's a navy blue one with a L and a O on it in gold) and thanked us for our coöporation and, I'm telling the truth, gave us a nice amount of money for Amber has stolen the pokémon which meant they had a nice reward for the one (or more than one) to return them. I could now buy food for maybe a month ! And Josh managed to make some super-sad story about how the Ledyba was left here on its own and how the owner didn't want it you get the picture, then League Official then looked at me and Ed for assurance and Ed nodded while I just said "Yeah .. " and the League Officer proceeded to call some people and handed Josh an empty pokéball in which he re-captured the Ledyba, and finally got to drop the rope.
But it wasn't for Josh's awesome lying-abilites, no, for the Official was shaking his head when he walked away. He probably just took pity on us.

Then we ended up collapsing on top of our sleeping bags and slept till noon, it was when I woke up that I remembered my probably comatose Bidoof I still hadn't given proper care, it then took us an hour of hiking and dodging hikers, and then half an hour of walking across flat ground to the famous city, Hearthome.

We first had to get through the Hearthome gateway-things, some major cities have them as a protection against had to show our ID's, name our reason for visiting and show our pokémon, have them checked for diseases, and then stand in a line for a check for any illegal weapons, even though most weapons are illegal.

Hearthome was situated in the heart of Sinnoh, which is why it's named Hearthome, and the second or third biggest city Sinnoh has. It has the biggest church, contest hall, a huge park where one is forbidden to walk without a pokémon, a Dojo, 'cute shops' (According to the pamphlets), a mansion near the city, and many, many other things. In other words; a tourist paradise where even trainers can have some fun.
The only con it has is the fact that it has lots tourists from all other regions, giving everything a waiting time of an hour or two, even going to the toilets.
But that all doesn't matter because it's a beautiful city, or so the pamphlets say.

When we entered the city it indeed was breathtaking, the huge church being the most obvious thing in the whole skyline, the pretty buildings and the sea of people walking around, flashing with their camera's and pointing at things while 'ooh' and 'aah' ing.

It was then that the sea of people suddenly parted in two halves and a pretty big space between them was apparent as a lone figure flanked by two big pokémon walked there, the boy was probably around 18 judging by height alone and wore sunglasses, a Mightyena with some weird white harness to which he held onto was on his left and a equally white stick was in his right, he was continually tapping with it on the ground, and walking next to the stick was an Arcanine and only then I saw the two pokémon walking a step or two behind the others, another Mightyena and a Gardevoir, the Mightyena even more intimidating than the other had its teeth bared for everyone to see as it snapped at anyone reaching out to it, but the Arcanine .. it was big .. and awesome .. and intimidating as well .. and looked strong .. and .. I want one. Ed whistled appreciating as he watched "Ye know who that un' is ?" Josh and I shook our heads "He's blind ya see, and has beaten erveryun' in Kanto 'cept their Champion, now he's doin' the Sinnoh League now ah heard, his name's Gerald, Gerald Wintherbee" then the blind guy's head whipped in our general direction as he slowly started making his way towards us, his Mightyena (the first one) apparently leading the way. He stopped a few steps in front of us and a smile appeared on his face "Ed !" he said in a loud voice as his left hand suddenly shot up and clapped Ed who had stepped forwards on his back. "Ger !" Ed said equally loud as he too clapped the other on his back, how the blind guy managed to hit Ed and not me, or Josh, or his Arcanine I didn't know. That's when the voice appeared: In. My. Head. "do not fret, mortal, for I have no ill intentions. I am merely a messenger of my master to calm any strangers for I am the one guiding his limbs when touching someone" and then it left. I looked at Josh who sported an equally freaked out expression on his face as he stared at the Gardevoir that shamelessly stared back, eyes as cold as ice. It was only then that I caught that Ed was looking at us expectantly, "freaks ya out doesn't it ?" he asked as I recalled the feeling that being talked in your gave you and shuddered before sarcastically remarking "yeah .. understatement of the year" and Josh just nodded, once again pale, as Ed continued "Anyway this here is mah' older cousin, Ger, from my da's side" he said proudly while the blind guy just shook his head "Ed always introduces me to everyone he knows, or doesn't know ... and he always pretends not to know me ... makes me question wheter he still looks up to me or is ashamed of me ... who knows ... ? " the first thing I noticed is how different Gerald aka blind guy spoke, no "ah, mah', ye'all" or anything similiar, weird.
Then Josh spoke for the first time "Can that Gardevoir understand pokémon and like .. translate what they say over to you ?" blind guy turned his head in the general direction of where Josh stood and nodded "She can ... why ?" Josh shrugged "I have this feral Pachirisu .and I want to know why he hates me" it stayed silent for a while before the Gardevoir turned her attention to Josh and suddenly he grabbed Paul's ball and let him out.

The moment the Pachirisu's feet touched the ground he lunged at Josh only to suddenly hover a feet in the air and turned around to face the Gardevoir who was once again staring coolly at another unsespecting target and then Gerald started speaking again "Rhine says your Pachirisu detest staying locked up, hates your face, whishes you to die, does not like the Lotad, whishes to get more food, demands more time out of his ball and wants to remind you he can easily 'bite of your head and use it as a den' .. that's what he said" and then Josh immediately returned his pokémon and locked downright afraid, if not fearing for his life.
"So .. can your Gardevoir do this for my Nidorino as well .. ?" I hesitantly asked, afraid of the outcome, as he nodded and soon Nate was hovering in the air while facing thr Gardevoir.
"Your Nidorino is a stubborn creature, he ignored me .. Rhine that is ... and was fantasizing about a masked man that would die by his ..paws .. he did inform Rhine he desperately whishes to evolve once more" I sighed, starters were supposed to be loving, life-long friends .. not stoic and annoying Nidorino's.

After that another uncomfortable silence started that luckily was ended by the blind guy's voice saying "I could show you around Hearthome .. if that is what you whish ... ?"

Ed and Josh immediately accepted his offer while I contemplated the positive effects of him doing that and then remembered the fact he got lots of space to walk, that in mind I happily accepted with a "Yeah, sure" not minding that I once again used someone's good heart for my own use, not at all.

Gerald showed us around and occasionally stopped by sights to see, and evertime he did he made jokes about him not being able to see at all, we had to drag Josh away from the Contest Hall and me away from a 'Pokémon Trading Palace' where one can legally buy, sell, and trade pokémon and on the end of our now 4-hour tour we stopped in front of another huge and not to mention high building. "And this is the Hearthome gym, home of Fantina, Gym Leader, Contest Superstar and Ghost Master" and I gulped, for she –after all- was French.

I didn't know my feeling was right, that someone in that building was cursing loudly in French while looking at us, I didn't know the people standing in the shadows of some buildings were, I didn't know what was going to happen.
Not yet anyway, and if I did I would have ran, or hidden, or pretend I was just a shadow or a tourist, or a tree ...

Disclaimer: I own an Ipad (Ever since yesterday), I own a wallet, I own a pair of socks, I own a Glee DVD-Box, I own an CD from Adele and I don't own pokémon .. or the world .. or a whole lot of money :(

BADA-BING BADA-BANG BADA-BOOM AND WE HAVE ANOTHER UPDATE O.o ?
You all have to thank the CDW 'Common Dutch Weather' that consists of nothing but: RAIN.
So here I am, a poor .. poor author of a story about poor .. poor characters sitting in a caravan with a very poor wi-fi connection listening to the sound of the rain while writing chapter after chapter.
This means that as longs as it rains (If I believe the weather forecast it'll continue for a day or five) I'll be updating more regular.

1939 words, another chapter only for the purpose of being an intro for the next one *cue evil laughter*

Explaining:
1. Josh kept the Ledyba ? Yep, it can do 'shiny lightshows !' so that's self-explaining.
2. Blind guy ? Jacob isn't very .. used to people with any kind of handicap, so blind guy is how he calls him .. Jacob's weird.
3. What's going to happen next ? Not going to tell.
4. Why this as a chapter ? Because I want Jacob and Josh (and Ed for now) to do something normal, something like sight-seeing and I wanted to give more insight in both Paul and Nate .. not that Nate showed anything besides 2 things he wants to do .. and Paul has many demands .. and it was just funny to write on a rainy day and every story needs its not-so-important chapters right ? Next one will have my usual evil-ness and lotsa bad guys, evil french people etc so be prepared !

Reviews:

Omega The Omniscient:
Ann is a mysterie, but she is made from the female hero from my games, I name every single female hero in the game except the last one, her name is Susan ^^
I took your advice, I wanted Ed to have the Steelix but that would be overpowering poor him so now League Official #1 has him, $5000 ? *Goes off to buy a horse* thank you xd
The battle was a random thought on who would win, Rocky or Nate, same as we envisioned having Abby and Jacob marry, being locked in a broomshed, given anger-management, getting a divorce because of gangsta-granparents, being forced to "GET ME GRANDBABIES" in said broomshed, completely random .. but maybe we can make some random oneshot about it xd have to discuss with Neelyn8r though ;)

Next update ? As long as it rains I'll have seas of time, and rain, and we might even go home earlier (We live exactly 57 minutes away .. )