DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon or any legitimate brand, business, song rights, etc. in this story, no matter how much I wish I did. I wonder if I have to do this at the start of every chapter. Probably not a bad idea to do it anyway.
Pokémon: Zeta Advance
Chapter 3: The Wailing Woods
"We're lost, aren't we?"
"We're not lost, Burns. We're... Taking the scenic route," I responded.
"So we are lost."
"Y'know, Burns, there's an old saying in my family that goes back almost 500 years."
"And what's that?"
"Shut the hell up!" At this point, Rain looked like she questioned why she joined the two of us. Furret, Dunsparce, and Eevee were playing a little bit ahead of us, making sure they wouldn't lose us.
"Will you two stop bickering already?! You sound like an old married couple!" Rain finally shouted at us, forcing us to come to a halt. The three Normal-type Pokémon stopped, too.
I simply folded my arms behind my back and retorted, "He wishes he could get an ass as nice as mine." I could see her eye twitching in annoyance. "Don't act like you haven't been checking it out." That earned me one punch to the jaw.
"Heh... You got beat up by a girl," Carburn said once we were moving again.
"There's no shame in being beat up by a girl. They're a hell of a lot tougher than we are," I responded, holding a hand to the slight red mark on the left side of my jaw shaped like Rain's fist. "She's got a hell of a right hook, I'll tell you that much."
"You're damn right I do," Rain said, clearly pleased with herself.
I looked up at the now orange sky. "We should set up camp soon," I said.
I saw Rain shudder. "Couldn't we just find our way out of here and camp outside of Rustboro?" She asked, clearly tentative about camping in the woods.
"What's the matter, scared of the dark?" Carburn asked. I swatted him on the back of the head.
"No... Grass-type Pokémon..." She muttered.
"Don't worry, the only Grass-types that are wild here are Shroomish, and they're relatively harmless, as long as we don't threaten them," I said encouragingly. That seemed to calm her down. Until she saw the Shroomish by my foot.
"Shroom!" It chimed happily.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" The Shroomish got spooked by Rain's scream, and shot off a Stun Spore in all directions it could.
"Sunni! I need you to block that StunSpore!" I shouted, throwing a Pokéball into the air. The Pokéball opened, and a small, yellow bird Pokémon with white, cottony wings, a white beak, and white feet emerged. The air sparkled around it for a second after it emerged from the ball.
"Swablu!" She chirped. Sunni flew around the Shroomish's Stun Spore cloud, taking the entirety of the attack. The cloud disappeared, and she began to fall from the air.
"Sunni, return!" A beam of red light came from my Pokéball, and sucked Sunni back into it. I turned to the Shroomish, and knelt down to it. It was still a little scared.
"It's okay, we won't hurt you," I said gently. "I promise."
"Sh-shroom?" Asked the Sroomish, motioning toward Rain, who was hiding behind a tree.
I smiled warmly, and told it, "She's just as scared as you are. But she won't hurt you. She's actually very nice!" The Shroomish calmed down after that. It bid us farewell, and returned to its home deeper in the woods.
"Whoa! How'd you do that?" I got back up, and turned around.
"It's a gift, I guess." Even from her position behind her tree, I could see Rain studying my face. Particularly, my eyes. No, not my eyes... She was focusing just above them. Fuck! I thought as pulled my hat bill lower.
'What's the big deal? So she was looking at your eyebrows. Big whoop.'
The split, jackass! If she sees that, the jig's up!
'Oh, shit, you're right!' The only unique factor of mine that solidifies my identity. My left eyebrow has a split in it about five-sixths inward. It's highly recognizable, so I try to keep it hidden when I don't want to be noticed in public. It was on Poké People magazine's list of top ten list of "recognizable physical characteristics of celebrities." (It was number three underneath "Unova Elite Four member Marshal's eyebrows" at number two, and "Professor Rowan's mustache and sideburns" at one)
Since we each had our own tents, we were each responsible for setting our own one up. Rain had managed to get hers up in a matter of minutes, and fed Furret and her other Pokémon, a small, floating creature with a snow-white body with occasional sections of purple, a red ribbonlike thing wrapped around its body, tied a red bowlike shape on its back, and frozen black flames for horns; a Froslass.
I tried to figure mine out, going back to the instructions again and again, struggling to put up my new tent, since my old one got destroyed by my sister's Persian. I struggled, got tangled up, and growled ferociously in exasperation. After about a half-hour, I gave up, and just had Sceptile come out and help me, which caused Rain to hide behind her tree again. "You will get over your fear before we reach Sootopolis City, even if it kills me!" I told her.
Carburn struggled with his tent for almost two hours, and still couldn't get it up just right. Sceptile and I tried to offer help, but what we were answered with was, "No! I can get this! Maybe if I just-Ah! Right in the balls!" It was fucking hilarious.
Finally, he allowed Sceptile to help, and his tent was up within fifteen minutes. He screamed in despair when he saw how simply it could be done. It was fucking hilarious. Of course, by the time he was done, the fire was going, and I was cooking kabobs.
Suddenly we heard something. Distant screaming. All three of us jumped up and formed a small circle around the fire. Carburn had Octillery in front of him, Rain had Froslass, and I had Sceptile. "Where' sit coming from?" Carburn asked.
I listened for a second. "From our seven," I said.
"What does that mean?" Rain asked.
"Over there!" Carburn yelled, pointing at two shapes moving toward us. One of them was a guy, about a year younger than us, running in our direction. Flying beside him was a green and red insect Pokémon with large eyes, four long, thin wings, and a long tail. When he saw our fire, he got excited and ran faster. His Pokémon, a Yanma, arrived first, and flew around the fire in happy circles. The teenager, who I could now see was about six foot clean, was laughing maniacally.
"Light! Hahaha! We're safe for the night, Yanma! Hahahahaha!" He said, stopping just before our campfire.
"Excuse me, but that campfire is ours!" Carburn said to the trainer. In the light of the fire I could see him better. He had curly, dirty-blonde hair hidden under a straw hat, blue eyes that reflected firelight and madness. He was wearing a white tank top under an open camouflage jacket, cargo shorts that ended below his knee, and a pair of sandals. Since he didn't respond to Burns talking at all, I figured it was time to try it Steinkreuz style.
"Hey, Straw Hat! Beat it! This is our spot!" He slowly turned his head to face me, his expression still one of a mad man.
"But it doesn't come near the light. It leaves the light alone," he responded. And with that, both he and his Yanma passed out on the ground. We forced Carburn to let them use his tent for the night.
The three of us sat around the campfire, roasting marshmallows for s'mores. I'd left my hat in my tent so that Sunni could nap on my head, which she was. Eevee, Furret, and Dunsparce were huddled together and fast asleep. "What do you think he meant by 'it leaves the light alone?'" Burns asked.
"No clue," I replied. "Could be a ghost, could be an old legend, could be crazy."
"Could it be some kind of Pokémon?" Rain asked as if she could tell I knew the answer.
"That's the most likely scenario. Hey, Burns, fire's getting low. Your turn to get firewood."
"Alright. C'mon, Pumpkaboo. Let's get some wood." The enormous pumpkin spirit floated at its trainer's side. Once he was out of earshot, Rain grabbed my wrist, and dragged me into the forest, covering my mouth so Eevee couldn't hear me.
She flung me into a tree, and kept me pinned there with one hand. She's a lot stronger than she looks, I thought, trying to squirm free. With her free hand, she reached up and pushed my bangs out of the way. I shut my eyes, knowing what she would find.
"... So... It is you..." She said, almost in a whisper. I looked back at her, and simply nodded in confirmation. "But why?.." I took a deep breath.
Confession time... I thought. "I want... I want my freedom back," I answered. "The new Pokémon Master Supreme... He's trying to topple the Council... To turn it into a militant regime... And I couldn't stand Romulan anymore, so... I chose to hide myself."
"You could've told us. You could've at least told me."
"... I'm sorry... But the fewer people who know, the better. I'm sick of people trying to be my friends just because I'm a Pokémon master. And it's less likely that he'll know about where I am." Rain was shocked to see how serious I was. She knew the latest Pokémon Master Supreme as most people knew him. A charismatic, eloquent, intelligent man by the name of Romulan Caesar, who also had the privilege to hold the title of world champion.
But in truth, he was a manipulative, vengeful, calculating psychopath who resented his old teacher, his predecessor, Master Atticus Argentinem. He hated the peaceful ways of Atticus's teachings, and meant to destroy the Council, and create an army to conquer the world.
"He thinks that I'm the only one with the power to stop him from accomplishing this. He wants me out of the League, but there's a law that states a Pokémon Master Supreme can't overturn his predecessor's last decree. Making me a Pokémon master was Atticus's last act as Pokémon Master Supreme." She slowly lowered the hand pinning me to the tree, and took a few steps back, looking at me with pure shock.
"Why are you telling me all this?" She asked. "I thought you said the less people who knew about you the better."
"Because..." I said, not entirely sure of the answer myself. But, somehow, it flowed out. "I trust you."
"You... Trust me?" She asked. I nodded. "... And what if I don't trust you? How can you prove that you trust me?" Without speaking, I took my hoodie off, and threw it on a low branch. I lifted the back of my shirt, revealing a large, jagged scar on my back.
"Only a few my Pokémon, and even fewer people, have seen this scar. You're the only person I've ever shown it to entirely of my own free will," I said somberly. "A Charizard did that to me. Three years ago. It was being manipulated by a group of malevolent Beheeyem who wanted to wipe out humanity."
She mindlessly traced her finger along the scar. As she did, it felt as though electricity was running through me, in a good sense, starting at the scar. It felt as if the electricity gave me strength. "The Charizard that gave me this is my own, and was at the time, as well."
She suddenly pulled her hand away from my scar. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to mess with it!" She said. I couldn't help but smile.
"It's fine. I'm sure Charizard wouldn't mind, either," I said warmly. I pulled my shirt back down, and turned to face her. "Do you trust me know?"
She looked somewhat conflicted. Well..." She started.
Suddenly we heard a noise not far away. "Myaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"What the hell?!"
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." I grabbed my hoodie off of its branch and ran in the direction the noise came from.
"Myaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"We're close!" I turned my head and saw Rain right behind me.
"Myaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Through here!" We both crawled through a small tunnel of branches, and came to a large chamber with no ceiling. Sitting in the center was a tiny, grey furred Pokémon with a small tail, two short arms, two short legs, and its ears folded over the sides of its head. It turned to look at us. Its eyes were large and pink, with blue pupils. And it was crying. "An Espurr? What's it doing here?" I wondered aloud.
"Myah?" The Espurr watched us get closer. Suddenly, we were stopped by an invisible wall of psychic energy.
"Barrier! Then that means..." I growled in frustration. This Espurr was abandoned by a breeder! I calmed myself and focused. If I could just... My hand was enveloped in a green light. Yes! My aura would finally prove useful for helping a Pokémon.
I gently touched Espurr's Barrier, willing my aura to disperse it. As an opening appeared, Espurr used its powers to launch me backwards into the wooden wall. Rain looked back, and about started running. I can't let her worry... I started laughing kindly. Both she and Espurr looked confused. "Wow! You're a strong little fella, aren't you?"
"Myah?" Espurr asked.
"Yeah! You're probably one of the strongest Espurr I've ever met!" It worked Espurr dropped its Barrier. But instead of smiling, it started to cry again.
"Espurr, what's wrong?!" Rain said, running to Espurr. "Shh, shh, shh... It's okay, sweetie..." She picked it up, and cradled it in her arms. She started humming to the Pokémon, which I now realized it was small, even for Espurr standards.
It's... Still just a baby...
'That heartless bastard! If we ever find out who did this to that Espurr...' The Pokémon had fallen asleep in Rain's arms, sleeping soundly.
"Why do you think Espurr was crying?" She whispered.
"This Espurr was bred by someone. They were probably selling Espurr with increased stats in different areas, special move sets, or they were trying to breed a shiny Pokémon. They saw this one as a reject," I whispered back. Espurr purred, and started to wake up. Rain smiled sweetly at the Pokémon.
"I guess you're a light sleeper, huh?"
"Myah?"
"Then again, it must be hard to sleep on the ground like you have been!"
"Myah..."
"Espurr... If you want, you can travel with us... As my Pokémon."
"Myah... Myah?"
"Or you can stay wild and travel with us!"
"Myah... Myah."
"Huh?"
"... My... Myah... Myah-myah!" I was shocked by Espurr's way of saying yes, but I couldn't help but to laugh.
"What's so funny? What'd it say?"
"He called you 'Ma-Ma!'" Once I told her, Rain looked back at Espurr, smiled, and hugged the tiny Pokémon.
We found our way back to the spot where Rain interrogated me, Rain holding Espurr's Pokéball. "Remember," I said seriously. "Not a word to Carburn or the crazy kid. I can't risk one of them blabbing to the wrong people. Not yet, anyway."
"Okay," she replied. "But I want to know anything and everything you've kept from us." I smiled.
"In due time," I said.
"C'mon! Tell me something now! Anything!"
"My grandpa."
"Huh?"
"He taught me almost everything I know about Pokémon. You're the first person I've told since before I became a master." She smiled at the fact. Fortunately, she was happy with the information so far. Unfortunately, we got back to the camp site at the same time as Carburn.
"So..." He began. "You remember to-" Before he even finished that sentence, I knocked his dumbass out. I've never punched anything so hard in my life. It was fucking hilarious.
Sunni had still been sleeping where she fell off my head. I checked to make sure she was okay. She was fine, save for annoyed that she'd been woken up just to have a light shined in her eyes.
I looked over the individual data on Rain's Espurr I had collected on my Pokédex. "Looks like he knows Scratch, Leer, and Barrier, but that's about it," I told her after she'd put him to bed.
"So he hasn't reached level 5 yet, meaning he's still got his entire level-up set ahead of him," she figured.
"Yeah. And it looks like his Special Attack and Special Defense stats are really high for his level," I added. Since she knew I was a Pokémon master now, I didn't need to hide my skills or my knowledge from her, which would make it easier to map out tag team strategies. Rain yawned, and started towards the door-flap of my tent.
"I'm going to bed," she said before she left.
"Okay. 'Night!"
"'Night!" After she left, I looked at some more individual files.
Froslass-Lvl:60... Furret-Lvl:55... Swablu("Sunni")-Lvl:25...
'She sees the same potential in Espurr that you see in Sunni,' Zyx commented.
No... She just loves him unconditionally, like a mother would, I corrected. Before I fell asleep, we had one more exchange.
'So how do we get her to fall for you?' I smiled. I knew the answer would piss him off, so I wasted no time.
The same way she gets her information. In due time. There's nothing as mentally satisfying as falling asleep to the frustrated screams of your subconscious.
I woke up at about six in the morning. No one else was up, so I decided to cook breakfast. I looked over towards the nest of blankets Eevee liked to make before sleeping in. Instead of seeing a fluffy ball of adorableness curled up in the nest, I instead saw Eevee sprawled out on his back, drooling. I could tell he'd been like that all night, because there was a small puddle of drool underneath his right ear, which had a practical stream of drool running down it.
'Still not as much as the fangirls, though.' For once, I agreed.
I chose to make shipwreck. Shipwreck's a good breakfast. I pulled out a small refrigerator-like device from my bag, and pulled out eggs, potatoes, bacon, and some cheese for flavor. The second the bacon hit the pan, I shit you not, this is what I heard.
"Bacon?"
"Bacon?"
"BACON!"
"EEVEE!"
"Furret?"
"Dunsparce?"
"Yan?"
"Espurr?" ... Okay, maybe Espurr was more confused than excited, but, nonetheless, when Rain burst through her tent barefoot, wearing sweatpants and a black t-shirt, he was clinging to her sleeve. Of course, Burns and the new kid burst out of their tent, too, along with all of their Pokémon.
"It hasn't even started cooking yet!" All of them except Rain and Espurr went back into their tents, disappointed. But she walked up and whispered in my ear.
"Where did you even get this stuff?" She asked.
"Grocery store in Petalburg," I whispered back.
"I mean how did you keep it fresh enough to cook?" I pulled the tiny fridge out of my backpack.
"Future brother-in-law's an engineer. He made this for me to test out. They'll be in stores in about two years." I put the fridge back into my bag. Rain decided to help with breakfast, so she started slicing potatoes into cubes and scrambling the eggs. I finished cooking the bacon, shredded it up, cooked the potatoes, and mixed all three together. Espurr put the cheese on top, we cooked it together till the cheese had melted, and then it was done. "Tssssssssssss..."
"BACON!"
"Bacon!" (Yeah, you all know how that song and dance goes).
When breakfast was done, it was time for introductions. "Okay, Straw Hat," I said bluntly. "You were too fucked up to really talk last night, so... What's your story?"
"My name's Chase," the kid said. "I'm a Bug Catcher!"
"What exactly were you high on last night?" I smacked Carburn in the back of the head. He looked at me angrily.
"I'm gonna do that every time you say something stupid."
Chase said, "Um... I was sleep deprived. I've been in this forest for three days. And every night, a terrifying shriek echoed through the woods all night long."
"That shouldn't be a problem anymore. Espurr has no reason to cry anymore. That's the shrieking you were hearing," Rain explained.
"That's all well and good, but, uh..."
"Now what?" I asked.
"My friends all left without me, so can I travel with you guys?" The three of us looked at each other. We all smiled.
I looked at him and asked, "You got anywhere in particular you gotta be?"
"I already caught a Nincada, so no."
"Then you're in."
Okay! So we got some character intoductions, a little character development, and a catch this chapter! It's just jam-packed, ain't it? Now, before I get into trouble about Sunni's name, it's pronounced "sunny." Because she's yellow. Like the damn sun. And I can name my Pokémon whatever I damn well feel like. Pyro, put the pad down. No fan art. At least not yet. I've barely even scratched the surface here! Later!