Chapter 6: The First Flame
"Thank you so much for letting us stay the night," Risa said, bowing. Luckily, her cold had all but healed, leaving her with a general sick feeling but no stuffed-up nose. "It was a really big help."
"It was our pleasure," Mister Pokemon replied.
His daughter, Nana, dropped a pokeball outside their house, releasing a tauros. "This is Taro, my tauros. He'll be happy to take you as far as Dark Cave."
The bull pokemon snorted and looked down at Risa, obviously not impressed. His three tails swished back and forth, but he let Risa approach him.
"Um," Risa said, her stomach flip-flopping. She didn't like being so close to a pokemon that was three times bigger than her and had no reason to listen to her. "N-nice to m-meet you, Taro. Um," she turned to look at Nana, "he won't throw me o-off, or anything, will he?"
Nana laughed. "Oh, no! He looks mean - and acts that way, sometimes - but he's a big softie."
Taro snorted. Apparently, he didn't agree.
Nana helped Risa onto Taro's back, handing her her things and showing her where (and where not to) hold onto the tauros's back while riding. As she did, Mister Pokemon stood next to them and told her, "once Taro gets you to Dark Cave, you will need to walk west to get to Violet City. It shouldn't take that long for you to get there on foot - maybe an hour or two without interruptions."
"Thanks," Risa said, grateful for the instructions. "Uh, how long will it take for Taro to get me there?"
Nana shrugged. "Depends on how fast he wants to run. But you should arrive at Violet City within the day no problem - probably in the early afternoon if you don't stop."
"Really?" The thought of having the whole afternoon and evening to relax in the city greatly appealed to Risa. "That's awesome! Thanks so much."
"No problem," replied the researcher's daughter, giving Taro a slap to start him running. "Bye!"
"Good luck!" Mister Pokemon called as he waved, watching Taro carry Risa and her incapsulated cyndaquil. Then he turned to his daughter and added, "I think she might need it."
---
"Um, are we stopping here?" Risa asked when Taro pulled to a halt, almost throwing her off his back.
He snorted and nodded, turning his head to glare at her.
"O-oh. Y-you want me to get down now, don't you?"
He nodded. His glare didn't let up.
"Okay. Um, how do I - let me just - AIIIEEEE!"
She landed with a thud as she slipped off the tauros, her bag landing with a similar sound next to her.
The large pokemon snorted in laughter, then turned around and ran off without any sort of ceremony or goodbye.
Risa slowly got up, rubbing her sore backside. "That really hurt," she mumbled, grabbing her things and trying to regain her composure. It was a good thing nobody was around to see her oh-so-dignified return to land from Taro's back.
She sighed, then looked around. She could see a large mountain through the trees, and just above one of the treetops Risa could see the mouth of a cave when she squinted. Turning around to face the other side, she saw the footpath take a sharp left ahead and continue on to what she hoped was the entrance to Violet City.
"Okay," she whispered to herself, mentally getting ready for the impending hike to the city. "I can do this, even if it means fighting some wild pokemon." One of the benefits to riding around, she learned, was that in addition to cutting down her travel time due to Taro's speed, she didn't have to stop and battle any pokemon. Any wild pokemon that ordinarily would have attacked jumped to the side when they saw a tauros galloping towards them.
For somebody who loved battles, like Heat, this would have been torture. For Risa, it was heaven.
Not to mention the fact that Heat didn't say a word, as he stayed put in his pokeball for the duration of the ride.
Of course, just as Risa took her first step towards Violet City, he decided to pop out of his pokeball and open his mouth.
"That was boooring," he whined. "We didn't get to battle at ALL."
"Yes, Heat," Risa muttered. "That's the whole point. It made things really quick and easy."
Heat sat back on his hind legs and puffed an small ember in to the air. "But that won't make me stronger, and it won't make all the wild pokemon around here know that we're gonna be champions someday. There's a whole route of pokemon that don't know they got trounced by future champs because WE DIDN'T GET TO FIGHT THEM."
Risa sighed. "Yes, such a pity," she said, using some very uncharacteristic sarcasm. "Now, can we please start walking to Violet City? I want to get there as soon as possible."
"But then who will we fight? We need to fight people! LOTS of people!"
"There are gonna be trainers in the city," Risa said, shivering at the thought of a whole city wanting to challenge her. "It's a gym city, so there'll be -"
"A gym? Really?" Heat cut in, perking up at the thought.
"Yes, but it's -"
"AWESOME!" the little cyndaquil yelled, doing a small pre-victory dance at the thought. "I can't wait! But first," he looked around quickly, snapping his small head back and forth. "I gotta get psyched up for it. THERE!"
Much to Risa's dismay, she saw that his tiny forefinger pointed straight to the cave mouth. Dark Cave.
"Let's go there! I need to fight everybody in that cave!"
"But wouldn't it be much nicer to go to Violet City first?"
"No."
"But then you could fight real trainers."
"No."
"But I don't know if a cave is the best place to train you, since you're, um, a fire-type."
"No."
"Heat," Risa said, trying to inch towards Violet City. "That doesn't even make sense."
"No," Heat shot back, inching at the same rate towards the opening to Dark Cave.
"But -"
"NO EXCUSES LET'S GO NOW."
And with that, Heat lunged at her, grabbed her hand, and began tugging her towards the mouth of the cave.
For somebody who stood at least four feet shorter than Risa did (making the whole leading-by-the-hand thing really awkward and painful for her back), he pulled with a lot of force.
---
"Heat, I can't see a thing."
"I know! Isn't it awesome?"
"Heat, I think we should come back here once you know how to use flash."
"What's that?"
"An attack to light up dark places," Risa explained, trying not to sound like she was panicking on the inside. She hated caves - especially ones that were pitch black.
"Can't you see me?" Heat asked. Risa looked in the direction she thought she heard his voice - down and a long ways ahead of her. "My butt's on fire."
As he said it, Risa saw a small flame shoot out of what she assumed was Heat's back. "Yeah, I see it," she said, "but I don't see anything else. Which is a problem, because I don't really know how we're gonna leave."
"We don't need to leave. We just need to fight. And win. Against everybody."
"Heat, that's a bad idea -" Risa shut her mouth.
"Don't be a wimp -"
"Heat, shut up," Risa hissed, freezing. For once in their short time together, Heat actually shut his mouth. "And stop moving," she added when she heard the sound of gravel rolling ahead of her.
"I'm not moving," came his answer.
The pit of Risa's stomach dropped. If Heat wasn't moving, then who was?
She listened carefully, trying to figure out what caused the gravel-rolling, and then she heard something she knew from her own movement: human footsteps.
That, and a familiar glow. One just like the glow she just saw when Heat ignited his back, but one that came from much farther away than Heat stood.
Then she heard a muffled voice. A muffled human voice - one that belonged to a boy.
"- Flame wheel, again."
The cave lit up as a rolling flame slammed into a geodude, knocking it back and into a wall.
Risa's eyes widened - the flame attack came from a cyndaquil just like hers. And the boy that stood behind the other cyndaquil looked really familiar. He wore black clothing, had long red hair, and his eyes looked sarcastic and determined.
She couldn't place him, but she knew she'd seen his face somewhere.
Somewhere...
But where?
As the other cyndaquil sneered at the unconscious geodude, the boy looked over to Risa. Risa's stomach flip-flopped again at the realization that he'd noticed her, and not in a good way.
This boy, who looked about three or four years older than her, didn't look like the kind of person to get in the way off.
And, now that Risa looked behind her, she was in the way of him and the mouth of the cave.
"Hey," he said, snapping his fingers. His cyndaquil ignited its back with a flame that burned brightly and kept burning.
"The flash technique," Risa whispered to herself, unable to keep it in. All of a sudden, she felt jealousy in addition to fear. She wanted Heat to be able to light up scary caves like that.
But then she thought of something else - if the boy could light up the cave, then why didn't he? That made him seem dark and mysterious, like a thief lurking about under cover of darkness.
Then Risa's stomach flip-flopped again, because she knew where she recognized the boy's face. It was the same face as described by the police investigating the recent break-in of Professor Elm's lab - she'd heard about it on the news when she was spending the night at Mister Pokemon's house.
"Who are you?" the boy demanded, "and where did you get that cyndaquil?"
"Um, I-I g-got him," Risa stuttered, unsure of whether to lie or tell the truth. "A-at, um..."
"I'm from Professor Elm's laboratory!" Heat yelled, rising up on his hind legs and igniting his back. "I'm Heat, and this is Risa Miyamoto of New Bark Town. We're gonna be champions in the future, so you should challenge us now!"
"That doesn't make sense, but," the boy said, snapping his fingers and sneering. "I'll take you up on the challenge. Assassin, go for his neck!"
"USETACKLEWHENHEGETSCLOSE!" Risa shrieked, completely losing her cool.
Heat didn't seem to understand her (which was understandable, since she didn't really understand herself), because he lunged straight at the other cyndaquil.
He took the full force of the oncoming attack - a quick attack - but managed to take it in the stomach instead of the neck. This gave him easy access to the back of the other cyndaquil's neck, which he blasted with an ember.
His opponent squealed, rolled to the side, and tried to blow flames back.
"No! Assassin - no fire attacks!" the other trainer yelled, but it was too late. Heat took the fire on his back, and fell backwards...
And his ignited back, in addition to the fire blasted at him, fell right onto his opponent's face, smothering it.
"Assassin!" the boy yelled, running forward and kicking Heat off.
"Hey!" Risa yelled, catching Heat before he could roll into something sharp. The light from Assassin's back flickered, and their light source all but disappeared. "No kicking - that's against the rules!"
"Like I care." The boy picked up his pokemon. "I don't know how you won, but I'm pulling out of this battle. It's a waste of my time."
Heat growled. "What? We won! You got to get trounced by future league champs!"
Risa quickly covered his mouth when she saw the angry look on the other trainer's face. "I - he - we didn't mean that, w-we just -"
"Shut it, kid," the boy snapped. "But I got my eye on you. You and your punk cyndaquil." He shoved past her, then stopped. "You said your name was Risa, right?"
"No I didn't I said it was something else I think I said it was -"
"Yeah, her name's Risa," Heat said, interrupting his trainer's futile attempt to lie. "And I'm -"
"Heat. You told me." He turned. "I'm Gin," he said, grinning maliciously. "Next time I meet you, you're not going to need to know my name anymore."
"Why?" Heat asked, not really understanding the threat.
Gin didn't answer. He just turned and walked out of the cave. "Don't follow me," he yelled back as he (and his light source) left the cave. "Or I'm going to have to break some more rules."
Risa gulped and nodded, though even if Gin had turned to see, he would have been met with Dark Cave's characteristic darkness.
"Let's follow him!" Heat exclaimed after a few silent moments passed.
His trainer just zapped him back into his pokeball. "I hope I never see him again," she muttered before putting her hands on the rock wall and feeling her way back to the mouth of the cave.
As she walked towards the light of day, she thought to herself: once they reached Violet City, they wouldn't train anymore. Even though they won that match by luck (and Heat's ability to trip in the right directions), she didn't feel like battling anymore to increase his chance of winning through skill. She just wanted a hot bath and a nice place to sleep.
And after she went to sleep, they'd have twenty-six more days.
---
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. I do own these original characters and this storyline.
Author's Note: Sorry for the wait. I promise to update more this summer...I'm going to try to update this a lot more before I switch to frequent updates on Poltergeist's. Hopefully, you'll see why soon...