A/N: Cue Ch. 5 rewrite!
Ch. 5 - A New Friend
Dawn had only just broken as Carrie awoke the next morning. She was still extremely tired, having gotten very little sleep the night before. Thoughts of the strange girl with the dark green hair buzzed around her brain, keeping her awake. What little sleep she did get was full of nightmares involving Machamp, her parents, and that odd, freezing white light, causing her to wake up at least twice in the middle of the night.
Knowing she wouldn't be able to sleep any further regardless of how long she laid there, Carrie forced herself out of bed. After hastily combing her hair with her fingers so that it didn't look a total mess, she grabbed her backpack and slumped down the hallway and downstairs, still in the pajamas that Sam had been thoughtful enough to buy her yesterday, heading for the main counter. Even this early, a young man with bright orange hair sat there to operate the healing machine. He was currently playing a game of solitaire on the computer with a glazed look in his eyes.
"Excuse me," Carrie said. The boy grunted in response, his eyes not leaving the monitor before him. "I want to get my Pokémon back. And, um, I need to extend the loan on my room for a few days."
The boy glared at her, clearly not enjoying being awake so early. Carrie guessed that he didn't expect to have to do any work during his shift, but she felt no remorse for him as he lazily rolled back his chair and stood up, stretching.
"Name?" he asked with a yawn.
"Carrie White."
The boy was still in his pajamas also, Carrie noticed, as he dragged his feet through a door behind the counter. It didn't take him long to return. He placed a tray with Carrie's pokéballs on the counter and sat down again, pausing his solitaire game to look her up on the computer.
"How long are you extending your stay?"
"Just two nights," Carrie said after a small hesitation, during which she planned out the next few days in her head; She would probably spend today searching for Machamp, and would need the room tonight. The tournament was tomorrow, and in all likeliness, she would have to wait until the following day for the gym to re-open, which meant a second night.
"Done," said the boy after changing the departure date.
"Don't you need identification?" Carrie asked, ready to pull out her pokédex. The boy waved her off, resuming his game.
"Eh. You needed it to get a room in the first place. Why check it again?"
"Because it's your job?" Carrie responded angrily. "And because this way, anyone could just walk in here and claim to be someone else and say they're leaving early or something."
"Look, girl, why you gotta complain? I made it easy for you." Carrie rolled her eyes.
"Never mind. Just make sure that if anyone comes in here using my name and it isn't me to call the cops on their ass."
"An' who d' you expect is going to be using your name?"
"That's not the po- ugh, never mind." She silently picked up her pokéballs and dropped them into her backpack. Unsure of what to do, being too tired to begin searching the city, she wandered into the small lounge area.
The room was quite large and open, the most probable reason being that Violet City was home to the first official gym in the Johto region, and this Pokémon center had one of the higher numbers of visitors and hopeful newbie trainers in the region as a result, at least during the first few months of the season. Carrie walked to the chair nearest to the mounted flat screen television and fell into it, exhausted. She had picked up the remote from the table in the center of the lounge, which held various magazines and newspapers, and turned on the T.V.
The volume was low, so Carrie had no idea what the newscaster who appeared on screen was saying, but there was a small image of Professor Elm beside her. The image of the professor reminded Carrie that she had yet to call him, and decided she should do it now before she forgot again. Uncaring about the time, she pulled her pokégear from a pocket on her blue backpack and dialed his number. It rang twice before sending her to an automated message. Carrie sighed; if it were early enough for a Pokémon center to be open, the professor ought to be awake also. Perhaps he was simply out feeding breakfast to the Pokémon at the lab.
The recording ended with a beep, and Carrie left her message short.
"Hi professor, this is Carrie White. Sorry for calling so early, and sorry I haven't called since I left, I only just bought this pokégear. I'm in Violet City right now. I don't actually know the number on this thing but it should show up on your caller ID thinger so… okay, well, I'm tired, so I hope things are okay and I guess I'll talk to you whenever."
She looked up as she hung up the phone to see the boy at the counter hastily look away from her. She rolled her eyes again, looking back to the TV, but the boy spoke:
"You know Elm, eh? Hope he's all right. I hear there was some accident just a little ways away from the town, on route twenty-nine."
Carrie's heart skipped a beat. "What kind of accident?"
"Some log cabin down there was found completely trashed. Not sure how, but the news report said it looked like a bomb hit the place. Didn't find no one inside, at least. You know who owned that little shack?"
"….What?" was all Carrie could force out. It was the counter boy's turn to roll his eyes.
"Pay attention next time, lady."
"I heard you," Carrie responded. "I just… that was my house."
"Oh, was it? Good thing you wasn't home, then."
"You said they didn't find any people or Pokémon in the wreck, right?"
"Yep. The place looked a mess, but if anyone had been in there, I think some traces would have been found. Blood, body parts, you know."
Carrie felt sick. She knew immediately that Machamp was responsible for destroying her house. However, something was wrong with that, too. Why would Machamp turn on her father, his trainer and friend? His home was Machamp's home. That fact struck her as odd, considering how similar the two were, how well they seemed to get along. What could have caused Machamp to suddenly turn on him? Was that why he was now wandering the region? And what happened to her parents, anyway? What happened to Pachirisu and Blissey?
The sun was shining brightly and several people were already in the lounge when Carrie was awoken from her stupor, oblivious to their existences. Many of them were watching her curiously; to them, she simply looked to be sitting alone in a corner, staring out into space, completely unresponsive.
Hardly aware of what she was doing, Carrie suddenly stood up, backpack barely in her grasp, and walked slowly out of the Pokémon Center, ignoring the gazes and whispers that seemed to flow from every person in the room. Once outside, she took a few steps forward, fell to her knees, and as her tears finally caught up with her, let out an ear-splitting scream.
She lay in her room that afternoon, still in the same pajamas, exhausted both physically and emotionally. After several failed attempts by strangers to calm her, Sam had emerged from his own room and coaxed her back to hers. He had seen the story himself on a small television in his room. While trying to calm her, Professor Elm had called back, with news that he and his assistant were out at the home this morning, and that Carrie's mother and her Pokémon were staying with him. He had no news of Carrie's father or his Machamp, both of whom were now wanted for questioning.
After that, Carrie had a hard time escaping from Sam and his pressing assurance that he was there for her, and it was with great relief that she finally was allowed to return to her bed, desperate to be alone. Now, however, there was a knock on the door, and Sam entered without waiting for a reply. Carrie had stopped crying by now, but rolled over to hide her face anyway.
"Um… don't worry, I'm not here to nag you, just listen," Sam started, unsure how to bring up the subject. "I didn't know if you still wanted to compete in the Sprout Tower thing tomorrow, but according to the trainers I overheard downstairs, they aren't going to be taking any more applicants after seven. So you only have about twenty minutes to go and sign up if you wanted to…"
Carrie choked out, "'kay," but otherwise didn't react. Sam took a step into the room.
"Listen, your mom and her Pokémon are safe. I know your dad's still missing, but he'll turn up, you'll see. Are you sure you don't want to talk? Because I can listen. Or at least get some food. You haven't eaten a thing since last night."
"No," Carrie responded, her voice trembling. "No, I… I'll go and sign up for that… thing…" She rolled out of bed and walked passed Sam without looking at him.
She had made it just in time. One official was stacking the applicants' papers, while the other was just about to lock the door when Carrie knocked on it, and he allowed her inside, glaring at her suspiciously; she still hadn't dressed.
"Is it too late to register?" Carrie asked. The two men looked at each other briefly. Then the seated man spoke.
"No, you're, uh, just in time. Here you go," he added, sliding a blank application to Carrie. As she filled it out, he turned to his partner and said, "At least there's an even number now. Pairing them off won't take you more than an hour. We could have the pairings posted at the Pokémon Center by eight, nine tops."
"Thanks," Carrie whispered, sliding the application and her pokédex towards the seated official. He quickly confirmed her license, and added her paper to the top of his stack. Then he pulled out a tiny Bellsprout from his pocket and passed it to Carrie. It was a pin, with a tiny white space at the bottom. She clipped it to her shirt.
"The tournament will be tag-team style. When you find out your partner," he said, "write down their number in that little white spot. You and your partner will be checked before you battle. The rest of the rules will be explained before the event."
"Thank you," Carrie whispered again. She looked between the two men for a moment, then silently turned and left the tower.
The entire city had apparently been decorated in preparation for the festival tomorrow. All of the lampposts had a colored ribbon attached and several stands had been set up along the main streets, to be filled tomorrow with various food items and souvenir shops. The sky, however, was thick with dark gray clouds.
Though she had only scraps of energy, instead of heading back to the Pokémon Center, Carrie sat watching what remained of the sunset on a bench outside of a shop, rolling Spinarak's pokéball between her fingers. Since she caught the spider, she hadn't had a chance to speak to him at all – or rather, she could have, she was just afraid to let him out again. Still, it had to be done sooner or later. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and Carrie decided trying something would be better than sitting here until it started raining. Still unsure of what to say, she dropped the spider's pokéball to the floor, which opened with the usual flash of light that formed into the Spinarak.
As soon as the spider saw Carrie, he made a strange hissing sound and lunged for her leg. Carrie screamed, pulling her legs up onto the bench and standing up on it. Spinarak began to crawl up the side, but as soon as he reached the metal arm, he was converted back into red energy and absorbed back into the pokéball in Carrie's hand.
"Need some help?"
Carrie looked up to see the speaker, who was standing in front of her with a slight smirk: it was a familiar blond haired girl of about Carrie's age, wearing a bright, fiery red tank top and a pair of blue shorts. Carrie jumped down from the bench, her face almost as red as the girl's shirt.
"No."
"You sure?" the girl insisted. "I could have my Pokémon speak to him."
Carrie sighed, staring at the girl, unable to remember where she'd seen her chocolate brown eyes. The girl was slightly taller, but Carrie didn't remember that particular detail.
"I'm Victoria, but call me Tori," the girl said after a few seconds of the awkward silence. She held out her hand, a thin pink ribbon around her wrist.
"Carrie," she said, shaking it.
"So, like, what was with you this morning?" Tori asked. She seemed to regret asking as she spotted the tears in Carrie's eyes, but Carrie responded anyway.
"Long story short, I found out that my house was ruined and my parents were missing."
"Oh my gawd, I'm sorry!" Tori gasped, hands covering her mouth. Carrie shrugged.
"Don't be. There's nothing I can do about it, so crying won't help. Besides, mom's fine."
Tori's expression was bizarre, almost confused. Carrie got the impression that the girl considered her a very strange person, but she really didn't care what anyone thought about her right now. Tori changed the subject.
"Are you, like, really sure you don't want help with your Spinarak?"
"Go ahead," Carrie replied, too tired to argue. She passed her the spider's pokéball. Tori took it, as well as one of her own, which she dropped to the ground first. The light took the shape of a slightly larger version of the ladybug from earlier, with longer antennae, bright blue eyes, and one set of its arms had been converted into legs. Seeing the Pokémon reminded Carrie why the girl looked so familiar: she had been in a green dress in the Cherrygrove Pokémon Center, feeding the Ledyba that now appeared to have evolved since then.
Tori muttered some rushed instructions to her Ledian before dropping Spinarak's pokéball on the ground next to her. Again the spider emerged, angry as ever. He made to attack Carrie's leg for a third time, but he was stopped once again, this time by Tori's Ledian, who flew down and tackled the spider.
Now ignoring his trainer, Spinarak turned his attention on Ledian. Spinning around, he sunk his fangs into Ledian's foot as another rumble of thunder echoed overhead.
"Get it off you with a Comet Punch!" Tori ordered. Her Ledian obeyed, rapidly punching Spinarak with her tiny arms. The spider, however, refused to remove his fangs. Whimpering now, Ledian began ramming her foot into the dirty pavement.
"Spinarak, get off!" Carrie shouted. Her Pokémon ignored her.
"Supersonic," Tori ordered. Ledian responded by rapidly vibrating her wings to generate a high pitched buzzing. This proved effective enough to finally cause Spinarak to let go, and he fell to the dirt.
"Now tackle it again," Tori ordered.
"Hey!" growled Carrie, her anger flaring; now that Spinarak let go, she felt that continuing the assault was a low blow. "Spinarak, String Shot!"
Ledian flew towards Spinarak, preparing to ram him. Spinarak responded by letting out a flying string from in between his fangs. The string struck Ledian's wing as she tried to avoid it, causing her wing to stick. Unable to move her wing, and therefore unable to stay airborne, Ledian fell to the ground, where the trail of string remaining stuck her to the dirt.
All traces of exhaustion gone (or, at least, temporarily pushed aside), Carrie took the chance to whip out her pokédex and scan Spinarak, and began to check his moves. She realized with slight horror that she had yet to actually record Spinarak's capture. Tori, meanwhile, seemed to have no thoughts about how to free Ledian, however she was still smirking.
"Can you do a move called Night Shade?" Carrie asked. Spinarak responded by firing an eerie purple beam from his eyes, striking Ledian in the face. Tori continued to smirk, refusing to give any command.
"Okay, um… try Constrict," Carrie suggested. Spinarak shot more string at Ledian, this time shooting with more force, aiming to put her out of commission her completely rather than simply hinder her. The string stuck to Ledian's arms and wings, seeming to only stick further the more she tried to scrape it off.
"That's enough, Ledian," Tori said, holding out her hand and sucking her Pokémon back into her pokéball. Spinarak hissed loudly.
"Are you done?" Carrie yelled. "What the hell was that about?"
"That," Tori replied coolly, "was you showing Spinarak that you are worthy to train him. That is why he attacked you, isn't it?"
Both Carrie's and Spinarak's expressions changed to one of shock. They looked at each other, neither one believing what just happened; they had worked together in cooperation, and managed to win a battle; Carrie's first victory to boot. Up in the sky, the loudest rumble of thunder so far threatened them.
It still hadn't started raining, but the sky was now completely dark and the lamps were all lit as Tori and Carrie walked back to the Pokémon Center, Cyndaquil in Carrie's arms and Spinarak on her head. The spider still wasn't happy with his new trainer, but he reluctantly agreed to cooperate, provided she didn't force him to battle anyone he didn't want to.
Though she was angry at Tori for tricking her into a battle, Carrie's mood had slightly improved as an overall result. As they talked, Carrie realized just how much she was slacking with her Pokémon's training. She had registered Spinarak in her pokédex after the battle, and after comparing his and Cyndaquil's strengths with Tori's Ledian's, she discovered that both of her Pokémon were rather under leveled for this point in her journey.
"Yeah, usually," Tori was saying, "trainers train enough to, like, evolve their starter to their second stage before fighting their first gym battle, and even then they often have trouble."
"Quiiiiil," Cyndaquil piped up in his high, squeaky voice, shaking his head furiously.
"What?" Carrie said, astounded. "Are you saying you don't want to evolve? But… I… why not? You'll be so much stronger!"
"You do know that it's considered, like, abuse to force a Pokémon to evolve against its will, right?" Tori asked worriedly. Carrie looked about to protest, but Cyndaquil screeched again and turned his head towards the Sprout Tower.
"Oh, are you in the Sprout Tower Challenge too?" Tori asked, her voice suddenly high with excitement. Carrie shrugged.
"If that's what they're calling that huge tournament thing, yeah."
"Me too! I, like, totally can't wait to find out who my partner is!"
"Oh, they should be posted in the Pokémon Center at about eight."
"Oh my gawd! Why are we waiting? Let's go see!" Tori squealed, gripping Carrie's wrist and dragging her at a run.
"What about you, Carrie?"
A large crowd was gathered around the television in the Pokémon Center's lounge, where the pairings for the Sprout Tower Challenge were posted on the screen. Tori had found her partner quickly and had been chatting with her not far away, but now they both had returned as the crowd began to thin.
"I'm with someone named Kit," Carrie yawned, longing to go up to her bed despite her empty stomach.
"That would be me," came a voice from the edge of the crowd. Carrie turned to her left to see another familiar face: the girl with the dark green hair and black pokégear was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, looking directly at her. Seeing her face for the first time, Carrie thought she looked rather sinister, a thought supplemented by her dark red eyes. Before Carrie could even open her mouth, Kit spoke again.
"Well, now that I know what you look like, don't be late tomorrow, and don't get in my way, number seven." Then, in a horribly fake, sweeter tone, she added, "Sleep well!" She then waved once and walked off towards the stairs.
"This day just keeps getting better," Carrie whispered angrily. Tori didn't ask what she meant.
Carrie forced herself to have dinner before allowing herself to return to her room. Having no food all day and a poor sleep the night before, combined with the long, unusual events of the day left Carrie fatigued. She hated the feeling, and hated herself for not doing something about it sooner, considering it had been less than a week ago that she had nearly passed out while leaving home.
Up in the dining room, she sat with Tori and her partner, a girl named Nichole. The pair were busy chatting much too fast for Carrie to keep up with in her current state, and excused herself as soon as she finished eating to sleep.
Rain was pounding hard on her window when she entered her rented bedroom. She could occasionally make out the outline of the Sprout Tower far to the north during a lightning flash, which was almost always followed by a bellowing thunderclap that shook the building.
Carrie dropped both her pokéballs to the carpet, where Cyndaquil and Spinarak emerged. She then dragged herself to the bed, threw a pillow to the floor, and laid herself down, falling asleep within seconds. Cyndaquil and Spinarak climbed onto the pillow and curled up as well.
Less than an hour later, the loudest rumble of thunder yet shook the building, accompanied by multiple flashes of light that caused Carrie to bolt upwards just in time to notice the light on the ceiling go out. The room, however, was not completely dark, but had a slight orange tint. Looking to the floor, Cyndaquil's flame was put out. Carrie scrambled out of bed, careful not to step on her sleeping Pokémon, and looked out the window.
Even through the relentless waterfall of rain, it was impossible to deny that the mass to the north was on fire.