Chapter 3: Unlit Matches
Risa looked down at her teammate as they entered the cherry-colored city in silence. Biting her lip, she wondered if their failure at battling would hinder any chance of having fun on her adventure.
It wasn't as if she wanted or expected to have fun – oh no, no, no. The little tan-haired preteen expected to have a lousy time at best. But she wanted it to still be tolerable-lousy, not lousy-lousy.
"Um, so…" she began, not really sure of what to say to her echidna Pokemon. "Um…a-are you feeling better? After that battle that you, um, well…"
And as if to add insult to injury, "that battle" didn't even necessarily refer to their loss against Ichiro and Freeze – oh, no. After she revived Heat, they decided it would make sense to battle some wild Pokemon along the route before going up against another trainer. So they found a wild Sentret, Heat went out with a victory in his mind…and a defeat followed.
Risa used another revive after the Sentret scampered off, and they found a Pidgey – and Heat lost to that, too.
Then she realized she had no more revives with her, freaked out, and almost cried. Luckily, Heat managed to wake up on his own, after which Risa almost drowned him with frantic applications of multiple potions.
The little fire-type glared up at her from behind squinty eyes. "I'm perfectly fine, idiot. Pokemon have natural healing abilities that kick in even if you completely fail at healing 'em. Like, if you were too stupid to remember potions-"
"B-but I r-remembered potions! I g-gave you, like, two of them!"
"But that was only after I regained consciousness. ON MY OWN. See? You obviously are too much of an idiot to remember to bring more revives or something. Duh! Get with the program, Risa! You're gonna have to be more on top of all of this if you ever want to make it to the championships!" He glared at her one more time before focusing on walking. Obviously, the fact that Heat lost to all three Pokemon didn't factor into his argument.
Risa bit her lip, tightening her hold on her grey backpack straps. Should she tell him her plan? Her plan to either quit at the end of the summer or quit after the second badge, depending on whichever came quicker…she felt a bit queasy about the whole thing. Not her plan, but the telling of Heat about said quitting plan.
Honestly, she really didn't want to tick off something that ignited its backside every time it got angry.
The two began to ignore each other, passing the gateway into the city in silence. All at once, the sights and sounds (and smells) of the pink-flavored city poured over the pair. Both noticed the standard pink roofs, the cherry trees (though not in bloom), the cheery air, and the general suburban-urban feel. This city was no Goldenrod, of course; yet Risa felt a sort of city-type energy flowing through it that New Bark Town sincerely lacked.
She almost immediately felt a bit more upbeat as they turned the corner into a less residential area. Grinning, she swiftly flicked her grey-eyed gaze from a soft-serve ice cream vendor, to the group of stylishly-clothed high-school aged girls walking their Houndooms, to the middle-aged woman talking excitedly into her cell phone as she window-shopped, to the shops themselves. Boutiques, bakeries, specialty stores…nothing she really needed, but everything she wanted to see.
The preteen stepped over to stare into a breeder's store. Grinning girlishly, she melted at the sight of two Meowth kittens playing in a little pen by the window.
"You know those things cost millions or whatever," Heat muttered, cutting into her cute-filled fantasy. Risa glared at him, though avoided making eye contact. "They won't do any good in an arena, either. They're pets, not champion material – not like me! I'm bred for battling, and they're bred for cutesy stuff. Who you gonna pick?"
Risa mumbled, "the cute one," but just shrugged it off when Heat asked what she said.
They continued to walk along the sidewalk for a few blocks, following the signs to the Pokemon Center. It, and the PokeMart next door, welcomed her with cheery (yet standard) pink roofs and the smell of good food (and medicine) inside.
"Welcome to the Cherrygrove City Pokemon Center!" Risa blinked dazedly at the cheery nurse. Before her stood an olive-haired, pudgy, squinty-eyed older woman, wearing the standard apron of the Pokemon Center attire. Even with her aura of happiness and kindness "May I heal your Pokemon for you, miss?"
Risa nodded, mumbling out a soft "sure" before returning Heat to his Pokeball. She handed over the filled ball with a tiny little squeak, then dashed over to the waiting area as her single Pokemon went through the healing machines. The computer screen along one side of the waiting room tracked Heat's progress through the healing cycle, and the estimated time of completion appeared to be just over ten minutes.
"I guess I have some time to relax," Risa muttered as she found an empty spot on one of the slightly threadbare, slightly stained creamy orange couches open for trainers. She plopped herself down on the couch, slightly startling the drowsy looking teenage trainer on the opposite end. The boy looked up for a moment, blinking slowly as his bleary orange eyes focused on Risa's small frame, and then let his head fall back against the couch once he deemed Risa unimportant.
Honestly, Risa didn't mind. Talking to strangers wasn't exactly her idea of a good time.
However, she did have about ten minutes before she had to pick up Heat's Pokeball, and while staring into space for the full duration of those minutes would have been a perfectly acceptable way to spend them, Risa wanted to take full advantage of the lack of stressful Heat chatter. She glanced around the waiting room, focusing her attention on a small bookcase of battered books for trainer use inside the room. Making sure not to wake the sleeping teen to her right, she got up, crossed the room, and began to examine the spines of the books.
"'Strategies for the Violet City Gym'," Risa read as she glanced at a rather thick purple-covered book. "That should be useful." Her thin fingers grabbed at the spine, pulling it forcefully out of the bookcase. A couple other books fell together due to the sudden lack of structural integrity, but Risa didn't notice as she began to flip through the tome.
Once she sat back down on the couch, she had already gathered enough information to learn that she would probably have a really tough time at the gym.
There were two main problems with her current strategy, which was to train along the way to Violet City, then take a day or two to train Heat once they arrived before going to challenge Falkner. She assumed that beginner's luck or karma would bring them to victory.
Now she wasn't so sure. (Well, she never exactly was, but now she was really not so sure.)
The first main problem was that Falkner fought with two Pokemon, one after the other. Challengers were allowed to use up to two Pokemon to fight his team, which meant that using only one Pokemon was okay…but it didn't mean he would reduce his team to one Pokemon. Heat would have to fight and defeat two Pokemon, one right after the other. Falkner would also probably send out his stronger Pokemon second, which would cause Heat to fight the stronger bird after being tired and injured from fighting the first.
Not to mention the fact that, while Heat didn't have any type disadvantages, he didn't really have any advantages either. She couldn't even depend on his boosted fire offensives because, as of the current moment, Heat didn't know any fire attacks.
Risa groaned, leaning back against the couch. She really didn't want to catch another Pokemon – she could barely handle Heat. On the other hand, she really wanted to win against Falkner the first time around, because that would make her whole trip way more efficient. A more efficient trip would result in the winning of both the Zephyr Badge and the Hive Badge happen much sooner, which would in turn allow Risa to go home earlier.
"What am I gonna do?" she muttered, rubbing her forehead with her hand as if that would magically force an idea into the gray matter up there.
She remained like that for a full minute until she felt a finger jabbing itself against her shoulder. Her gray eyes flicked open to see the teenage boy poking her, a slightly bored expression on his face. A quick glance behind him showed that the other boy, the younger one with orange eyes, had left.
"Hey," he grunted, ceasing his poking.
Risa squeaked, pulling away. "Um, hello." What did he want?
"You're Risa, right?"
"Um, yeah." How did he know that? What was going on?
He gestured towards the Pokemon Center counter with a tip of his head. "I think your Pokemon's done."
"…Oh! Oh, um, thanks," Risa mumbled as she jumped up and scurried over to the counter, muttering her apologies to the attendant for making her wait.
At least it meant the teenage boy had nothing real to do with her – he'd just heard her name over the intercom, and put two-and-two together…since, you know, they were the only two in the waiting room, and his name sure wasn't Risa Miyamoto.
He nodded to her as she left, but she didn't return the favor. Risa wasn't the best person with strangers; she operated under a strict "you don't do anything to me, I stay far away from you" mentality.
Once outside, she noted that it was already the early evening – she could have sworn it was much earlier when they arrived at Cherrygrove City. Sighing, she turned around and walked back into the Pokemon Center to inquire about spending the night in their attached trainer's hostel. While she was perfectly fine with spending the night outside, as she did have basic camping equipment with her, Risa would have always chosen to sleep indoors if given the option.
And since she had the option, she made the executive decision that she and Heat would not be tackling Route 30 until at least the next day.
Due to some strange work of fate, Risa ended up in a single room. Sure, it was in the attic, was barely larger than the bed it contained, had a grimy window she would never be able to squeeze through in the event of some natural disaster, but at least she had some privacy.
Heat wasn't so thrilled with it.
"I can't breathe in here," he groaned as soon as Risa released him. "And isn't it stupid to have me out of my Pokeball? I could light the room on fire."
Risa shrugged and looked at the ceiling from her spot on the bed. "I just, I dunno, thought you might want some air."
Heat glared at her. "The air stinks in here. If I flare up," he began, wiggling his back legs to show he was referring to his currently unlit fire tail, "I'll just use up all the air with that. Then you'll die from suffocating."
The girl stared at him. "W-what?"
The Cyndaquil rolled his squinty eyes. "It's not like I care about you, or anything," he mumbled. "I just don't want to sleep here. I'll go back in my Pokeball. See you in the morning – and we'd better be leaving Cherrygrove!" Then, without another word, he disappeared in a red flash back into the sterile confinement of his holding capsule.
His trainer sighed, pulled off her clothes and replaced them with her pajamas, then curled up in bed.
It didn't surprise her that she didn't get much sleep that night.
Unfortunately for Heat, Risa had a few things she wanted to take care of in the city before they headed out to the route. Begrudgingly, he followed her around as she replaced her healing supplies at the PokeMart (careful to stock up on extra revives), bought some lunch at a café as an attempted nice gesture to her Pokemon (which Heat scorned because it meant they were wasting time in the city), and stopped back at the Pokemon Center to make a phone call.
"I swear, Heat, we're leaving after this. I just want to call my mom and tell her where I am," she said as they waited in line for the videophones. Heat snorted angrily, but said nothing.
Finally one of the phones freed up, and Risa walked over, punching in her mother's studio phone number. Her mother, Noriko Miyamoto, owned New Bark Town's only dance studio, and usually spent her time choreographing new routines or helping the office staff when not teaching classes, so Risa had some time to talk to her face-to-face between her mother's classes. Now was one of those times, and Risa wanted to make the most of it.
"Mom?" Risa squeaked as her mother's tan face appeared on the screen.
"Risa!" Noriko's face brightened as she saw the girl on the other end. "Honey! How are you? It's so good to see you!"
"Y-yeah, I'm happy to see you, too, Mom," she muttered, feeling a slight pull in her chest. Even though she only left home for the summer and had been gone for a little over a day, Risa only just then realized she was feeling homesick. What she wouldn't give for her mother's smile and her father's home cooking. "I was just calling to check in…I, um, I'm at Cherrygrove. I'm about to leave, though. And, um, you know…walk up north. To Violet City."
Noriko smiled, her green eyes crinkling the way they always did. "That's wonderful, Risa. How many Pokemon do you have? Did you win any battles?"
Risa looked down. "I-I s-still just have one Pokemon," she whispered sullenly. She didn't mention that they lost all three battles they fought since they paired up at Professor Elm's laboratory.
"That's fine, sweetie," Noriko replied, her voice making Risa's spirits lift a bit. "You've only just started. I'm sure you'll win your next battle. I believe in you."
This was enough to make Risa's mouth twitch into the faintest reluctant smile. "Thanks, Mom."
Behind her, one of the teenaged boys who was next in line cleared his throat, signaling to Risa that she needed to give up the videophone to the next person waiting. "Um, I gotta go, Mom. It was nice talking to you."
"You too, sweetie. I miss you."
"I miss you, too. B-bye."
And then her mother's face disappeared, and the teenager all but shoved her out of the way.
Risa then stumbled out into the afternoon sunlight, Heat trailing behind her. She looked over at him – he still had the grouchiest, meanest expression she could ever imagine for someone like him on his face.
"What's wrong?" she asked, half in a whining tone. She pulled her backpack straps down, starting to walk along the sidewalks towards the northern threshold of Cherrygrove City. "We're gonna leave now. Why're you so angry at me?"
He didn't look at her. "You didn't tell your mom who I was."
Risa frowned. "What?"
"You didn't say, 'hey, Mom, this is Heat. He's my Pokemon,'" Heat replied, using a mocking tone of voice when imitating his trainer. "I guess this just isn't important to you like it is to me. You should introduce your future best Pokemon for when you win the Johto championships."
Then he stopped talking, content to walk alongside the human girl for the rest of the day.
His trainer couldn't shake the feeling that she'd insulted him, but even when she tried to apologize, he just shrugged it off.
They left the city as the sun was setting to their left, and Risa reluctantly set up camp not too far from the city. She could see the glow of the city nightlife over the evergreens that obscured the horizon, and the light pollution from Cherrygrove even made to dim a few of the stars above.
"Heat?" Risa asked from inside her sleeping bag. She bought Heat a medium-sized fireproof blanket when she was in Cherrygrove, which she gave to him after she unrolled her sleeping bag. The blanket, a dull orange-red and somewhat stiff due to the fireproofing, sat unused and still folded up next to the Pokemon. "Are you not talking to me?"
He didn't reply, and soon, she could hear him snoring softly.
She sighed, unable to see how their relationship could have degraded in such a short amount of time.
Her last thought before she fell asleep was that there were thirty days left in her journey.
Disclaimer: Pokemon does not belong to me. It belongs to Satoshi Tajiri, Gamefreak, Nintendo, The Pokemon Company, and any other respective legal owners. However, all of the characters in this are the products of my imagination, so they are mine. Haha!
Author's Note:So, I basically had this chapter written up to the point where she is told her Cyndaquil is done healing for…what was it? A year? A year and a half? Anyway, I recently decided I wanted to get back into this, especially since last night I sat down at outlined the entire story. So yes, I will be updating this. Oh, and if you're wondering why everyone sounds so out of character and the writing style changes abruptly halfway through the chapter…that would be the fact that I took a year-long break in the middle. Sorry 'bout that.