Chapter Twenty
Beginner's Luck
Silence Bridge was a funny name for a bridge, Ivy thought to herself. It certainly wasn't silent like the name would suggest, not with the screeches and caws of Pidgey that flew overhead, circling around in the hope of nabbing any fish that swam too close to the surface or picking off the crumbs from the leftovers of picnics, the gentle murmuring whisper of waves lapping underneath the wooden planks and the exuberant cries of trainers and Pokémon alike as they traversed and went about their day to day business. But Ivy didn't mind the misleading name; completely fascinated with this unique little structure and the sight of so much water all around her.
She couldn't help but let out an awed exhale, eagerly drinking in all the unfamiliar sights, totally worlds away from the cold, stony city life she was accustomed to. The entire of the route, as far as the eye could see, seemed to her to be made up of just an impossibly long bridge that snaked and twisted its way into the distance. Everything was surrounded by fresh, crystal clear seawater, impossibly deep and that glimmered and shone in the reflection of the warm afternoon sun.
"I've never been on a bridge like this before!" Ivy announced, waving her arms up and down like an excitable little girl.
"It's nice, isn't it?" Aaron smiled.
"Yes!" Ivy beamed.
"She acts like she's never seen water before…" Robert inputted darkly. He was eyeing the water rather nervously himself, a fact that Jack couldn't fail to notice. He didn't dare mention it however in fear of potentially being pushed into said water.
"Not a lot of water around Pewter City," Sebastian observed cheerfully as the little party continued to move forwards.
"I guess not," Robert muttered, his eyes trailing away from the shifting water underneath their feet. The sight of it swelling through the gaps of the wooden bridge made him slightly nervous and he found himself questioning, and not for the first time since they had begun making their way across this bridge, the durability of the old planks underneath his feet.
Ivy on the other hand held no such resignations or worries, basking in the warm sea air and loving every second of it. She took a deep breath in, filling her lungs with the tang of the tantalisingly salty, yet sweet air. "I love the ocean!" she declared passionately, her hazel eyes bright and shining, before leaning perilously over the protective railings of the bridge.
"You watch you don't fall in," Aaron chuckled good-naturedly, yanking gently on the back of Ivy's shirt and pulling the ditzy woman away to what he deemed was a safe distance from the water.
"I won't!" Ivy protested, batting Aaron's hands away, but cheerfully following along in his wake all the same.
The party continued on for some time in relative easy silence along the various twists and turns of the bridge. Ivy was continually fascinated by the waves lapping underneath their feet, often stopping to hang over the sides in the hope of seeing some water-dwelling Pokemon. They, of course, never turned up when she so eagerly looked for them and she would always slink away in embarrassment and disappointment after her excitable displays ran their course, often mistaking a simple shadow for the figure of a Goldeen or Seaking. They progressed until they reached a small stretch of land, big enough only to accommodate a house, small pier and a few trees. Ivy looked on at this one lone house in sheer astonishment and her staring didn't go unnoticed by a young man sat fishing at the water's edge.
"Nice little place, eh?" he approached her suddenly, making her jump and squeal.
"Y-yes!" She replied after the initial shock wore off, but still a little flustered. "But what's this one little house doing all the way out here?"
"Best fishing spot in all of Kanto, this is," The young man made a grand sweeping motion with his hand around their surroundings, smiling broadly. "Myself and my brothers all love fishing, so of course, we want to live near all the choice spots. Tell me, young lady, do you like to fish?"
"No." Ivy replied bluntly.
The young man looked crushed. "No…?"
"No, I hate it." Ivy said, shuddering violently.
"Oh, Ivy…" Jack said with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "Fishing's not all that bad."
"It's cruel!" Ivy said at once.
"And Pokémon training isn't?"
"That's different!"
"How is it different?"
"I…" Ivy halted in her tracks, flummoxed. "I… It… It just is, okay!"
"You don't know what you're missing. Fishing is very relaxing," Sebastian inputted, smiling kindly at the young fishing advocate. "And you don't even have to keep your catch if you don't want to. You can throw them right back in the ocean afterward."
"I still don't like it…" Ivy said defiantly.
"Like it or not, you're gonna have to do it one time or another," Jack said, nudging Ivy in the ribs.
"Wuh?" Ivy asked stupidly.
"Oh yeah," Aaron said, his eyes flashing with realisation. "Shellder. You're going to have to fish for a Shellder."
"Awwww no…" Ivy whined.
"Surely you must have realised that?" Jack asked, his eyebrows twitching.
Ivy just shot him a sheepish look, making Jack groan. "University level education and you don't even realise you'll have to fish for a Shellder…" he remarked to himself darkly.
"Hey, ease off on her," Aaron said at once, his eyes narrowing.
"This doesn't concern you, Aaron, stay out of it…" Jack said through fiercely gritted teeth.
But of course, Aaron wouldn't stay out of it, and it very quickly degenerated into the two of them dropping sly insults and digs at one another. The bemused fisherman simply looked on at the two bickering young men, before looking at Ivy again in the hope of regaining some kind of 'normal' conversation. "So… you're looking for Shellder?"
Ivy nodded.
"You won't find them around these waters, unfortunately." The fisherman said after a moment's consideration. "Your best bet for Shellder is probably around the oceans outside Fuchsia City."
"Oh! We're going to Fuchsia City!" Ivy beamed happily.
"Great," the fisherman nodded in approval. "Do you have a fishing rod?"
"Uhh…" Ivy floundered, looking back at Robert and Sebastian for answers. Both of them returned her blank faces and Sebastian shrugged in an apologetic matter. "I'll, uh… take that as a no, then…" she said, sounding rather dejected.
Despite himself, the young fisherman couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the young woman standing in front of him. A soft smile tugged at his lips. "Chin up, lass." He told her brightly. "Here, tell you what. I'll give you this."
"Huh?" Ivy looked up in surprise as something was suddenly pressed into her hands. She looked dumbfounded as she realised she was suddenly holding onto a large, unwieldy fishing rod complete with bright, garish lure. "What the…?" she asked stupidly.
"Take it," the fisherman said with a smile.
"But I don't even like fishing," Ivy protested weakly.
"Have you ever done it?"
"W-well… no, not exactly."
"Well, how do you know if you don't like it if you've never tried it?"
"He's got you there, Ivy." Sebastian said with a good-natured chuckle.
Ivy shot him a helpless look before turning her attention back to the smiling fisherman, still rather at a loss for what to say. The fisherman was simply staring back at her pleasantly.
"I hope you'll make good use of that. It's one of the latest models, that is."
"I… I will." Ivy nodded, finding herself now clutching the gift to her chest tightly. "Th-thank you. Thank you very much…. This… this will certainly make getting a Shellder a lot easier. You've no idea how much that means to me…" Her words were entirely truthful, her initial bewilderment at the sudden gift melting away into feelings of pure gratitude.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that." The fisherman said, tipping his floppy hat to her in a gentlemanly manner, coupled with a broad smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must be off. The ocean is a cruel mistress and she calls for me once again." He said grandly, before sauntering off back towards the ocean,
"What? I didn't hear anything," Ivy said without thinking, causing Sebastian to let out a snort of laughter and Robert to sigh haughtily. Still confused as to the fisherman's rather cryptic words, she turned back to the Rhodes cousins and looked inquisitively at them.
"Don't worry about it," Sebastian smiled, resisting the urge to pat her on the head like one would do a little child or baby Growlithe. "Just a figure of speech,"
"Oh," Ivy said plainly, before looking down at the unfamiliar and surprisingly heavy piece of equipment she was only just able to keep a hold of. "Uhh…" she murmured nervously. "What am I supposed to do with this thing…? How do I use it?"
"I'll teach you, don't worry." Sebastian said, placing a reassuring hand on Ivy's shoulder. "Come on. Let's grab the bickering old women over there," he jerked his head in the direction of a still warring Jack and Aaron. "…and get started on some fishing,"
"Alright!" Ivy said cheerily.
Of course, as always was with the case with Ivy, her initial enthusiasm very rarely translated well when it came down to actually executing the task at hand. Surely enough, not even ten minutes later, Ivy was screeching in fright as the razor sharp hook swung ominously past her face, narrowly missing her neck by mere centimetres. She looked up at Sebastian, her eyes bulging in horror, who was standing only a few feet away from her, patiently acting as a teacher. He shook his head fondly at the frightened young girl before approaching her and taking the rod from her.
"Don't be scared of it," he told her gently weighing the rod carefully in his hands. With a couple of deft movements, he straightened the lure and pulled back on the line, rendering the rod ready for fishing. "Watch me, okay?"
He leant back gently, swinging the rod behind him and then flicked his arms forward expertly, the line soaring straight out and making a satisfying plonk into the deep water. He reeled the line in almost immediately, failing to notice the stunned look on his pupil's face and then handed the offending rod back to Ivy, who squeaked in terror at having to hold it again. Her eyes were firmly fixated on the sharp hook, entertaining horrid thoughts of what would happen were she accidentally to get it snagged in her skin. After a little encouragement, she dared to try and cast for herself but the line barely even travelled a few solitary feet and ended up drifting uselessly in the shallows. She groaned theatrically and looked helplessly back at the four men she was travelling with for some kind of reassurance.
Aaron was the first to speak. "You're doing fine," he said comfortingly, expertly cutting over Robert who was, no doubt, about to come in with some sarcastic remark. "Just keep trying. You can't expect to get it straight away,"
"Aaron's right, Ivy." Sebastian said kindly. "This kind of thing takes a lot of practice."
Ivy groaned in exasperation. "Which I don't have time for…" she remarked to herself darkly, huffily reeling in her line and attempting to cast again.
Twenty minutes later and after a snapped line, a repaired line, a lost lure and seemingly hundreds of failed cast attempts, a frustrated Ivy let out a howl of impatience, threw the fishing rod down and stalked away. Robert shook his head at the girl's retreating back, both Sebastian and Jack winced, but it was Aaron who quickly got to his feet and pursued her. His attempts to reason with her and comfort her fell on deaf ears, as the knowledge she had been defeated by something as trivial as a fishing rod had severely dented what little remained of her pride. While Aaron still foolishly continued to talk some sense back into her, a curious Jack approached the offending fishing rod and picked it up.
"How does this thing work exactly?" he asked Sebastian, frowning slightly as he turned it over in his hands.
"Here, let me show you,"
After a quick demonstration, Jack took control of the fishing rod. To his surprise, the amazement of both Robert and Sebastian, and the sheer exasperation of Ivy, the line sailed forward an impressive distance, albeit curling a little too far to the left. However, it was an impressive attempt for someone who had never even picked up a fishing rod before now. Jack blinked in surprise at his good luck while Ivy let out a tortured groan upon seeing this.
"Of course he would get it! I can't catch a break, can I? I should just change my name to "Ivy Can't Catch a Break McKenzie"!"
Aaron stared rather blankly at Ivy as she ranted to nobody in particular, while Robert let out a sigh. "Yes, she really is that melodramatic," he said with a nod.
"Sorry, Ivy…" Jack said rather sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. He set the fishing rod down, the lure still bobbing merrily in the slab of rippling, glimmering blue. "I guess some people just have the knack for it, eh?"
"You are not helping!" Ivy moaned, sinking her head into her hands.
"Sorry," Jack said, but he wasn't really.
"Don't lose hope; just try again, alright?" Aaron said in an attempt to rekindle the girl's spirits, but she was having none of it, muttering angrily under her breath about how stupid she was and that she had no hope for anything if she couldn't even fish properly.
"Jeez, what a martyr…" Robert sighed.
"Oh, Ivy, don't be like that…" Jack said sadly as his friend furiously berated herself. "You're not stupid. You're not—" But his attempts at reassurance were suddenly violently cut off with a piercing scream and a frightened yell of "What the hell is that?!"
The fishing rod Jack had left idly sitting on its own had begun moving and twitching of its own accord. A frightened Jack darted away from it as it slowly began to inch closer and closer towards the edge of the pier, the line growing tauter as if something was pulling on it and exerting an enormous amount of pressure upon it. Sebastian's face broke out in astonishment and he cried out. "A bite! You've got a bite!"
"Where?!" Ivy cried out in horrified surprise, her eyes immediately scanning Jack all over. "Who bit you?!"
"No, on the fishing rod! You've got a bite on the fishing rod!" Sebastian pointed manically at the juddering fishing rod. "Get it! Quickly! Reel it in!"
The normally unflappable Jack let out a string of expletives, lunging for the fishing rod and frantically attempting to reel in whatever was clinging onto the other end of his lure. The struggle seemed to go on for ages, the others crowding around in apprehension, breath held and a sense of jittery excitement encompassing them. Even Robert couldn't deny a sense of intrigue as to what exactly Jack had managed to snag on the other end of the line. The pressure on the hook tugged violently, fighting Jack's best attempts to reel it in. It put up a valiant struggle, almost pulling the fishing rod clean out of Jack's hands at one point. Within a few moments, Jack was exhausted and worn out from the effort.
"I think I've got a Gyarados on the other end of this thing!" He grunted, sweat standing out his brow, still grappling with reeling in the 'monster' that lay in the shadows of the deep blue ocean.
But with one almighty tug and a cry that wouldn't have sounded out of place in an arena full of Roman Gladiators, the line eventually soared out of the water taking Jack's catch with it. But while Jack expected the giant, serpentine Pokémon with shining blue scales and vicious, barbed teeth, instead came a tiny, pale blue figure that landed with a soft thud onto the wooden pier.
The five adults crowded the tiny Pokémon inquisitively. Robert was the first to speak.
"Pfft. Some Gyarados…"
His remark then yielded him an angry protest and a face full of sticky, sloppy black ink. As the projectile hit, Robert yelled out in surprise, his arms flailing uselessly, while the little Pokémon in the centre of the little travelling party let out an indignant cry of "Horsea! Horsea!"
"Oh, how cute!" Ivy squealed.
"Yeah, real cute…" Robert replied angrily, impatiently sluicing off the worst of the black ink in a disgruntled manner.
"Horsea! Horsea!" the little Pokemon cried out, spitting thick globs of ink at Robert's feet, making him curse and swear and back off immediately. It was quite a funny thing to see, a grown man like Robert practically cowering away from a seemingly harmless little Horsea.
"It really doesn't like Robert, does it?" Ivy observed with a short chuckle, kneeling down to get a better look at the spirited little thing. Her eyes trailed over its predominantly pale blue body, save a cream belly and fin, admiring the tiny, glimmering scales speckled all over. Its eyes, normally huge in a relatively small head, were narrowed almost to slits, giving the Pokémon an unusually threatening look, Sebastian felt.
"Yeah, sure, everyone pick on the guy who got inked…" Robert said, slicking off the final little bit of ink from his face. But no sooner had he removed the last spot, the Horsea let out another indignant cry and this time fully sprayed the young man from head to toe in sticky black ink.
"Okay, you kinda were asking for that one," Aaron grinned.
Robert's only response was to swear profusely and stalk away, dripping in ink and leaving a tell-tale trail behind him. Ivy stifled a fit of giggles and even Sebastian had to visibly fight to keep a wicked smile from stretching over his face. Jack, however, looked down at the irate little Horsea, wondering what on earth was causing it to be so aggressive. It was then that he noticed the little hook snagged in the Horsea's mouth. Immediately, he got down onto one knee, reaching his hands out to the little Pokémon.
"Jack, be careful!" Ivy screeched.
Ivy's sudden cry seemed to frighten the standoffish Water type and it responded by violently spitting out another glob of ink at the incoming young adult. Thankfully for Jack, this one missed, sailing right over his shoulder. But seconds later, an irate, yet, familiar cry of "You have got to be kidding me!" sounded out from behind them, causing Aaron to descend into a loud burst of laughter.
"Come here, little one," Jack murmured in a low, soothing voice, gently resting his hands around the tiny Horsea. With a quick and simple movement, he slipped the hook from the Horsea's mouth and discarded it. The little seahorse Pokémon let out a tiny contented sound, almost like a purring noise and jumped forward straight into Jack's lap. Jack let out a cry of surprise at the sudden contact with the little Pokémon and looked up, rather dumbfounded, at Aaron, Ivy and Sebastian.
"It likes me," Jack said, rather stupidly.
"I wonder why!" Ivy grinned in a teasing manner.
"Oh, shush, you." Jack scolded her, but he was smiling all the same as the little seahorse nuzzled into him. "It's very cute…"
"You should take it with you," Sebastian advised.
"I should?"
"Sure," Sebastian said with a casual shrug. "You caught it after all and it appears to have taken a shine to you. I think it would be pretty upset if you just left it,"
"Yeah, that is a point…" Jack said, reaching around to his bag and fishing out a Pokeball. He looked at the Pokeball a little nervously, before nudging the Horsea to get its attention. "Hey, little one…" he said softly. "You… would you like to come along with me?"
"Horsea! Sea! Sea!"
Jack had no idea what the little Pokemon had just said, but he sincerely hoped that was Horsea-speak for 'yes'. He tapped the Horsea on the head with the little ball; sucking the Pokemon safely inside the capsule. The ball only twitched for a moment before falling still and silent. Jack blinked at the ease of which it had all happened, privately feeling it rather anticlimactic. Just like that, he, Jack Hartman, was now in possession of a Horsea.
Ivy let out a little sigh as the Pokeball let out the ding sound that indicated a successful capture. "I don't believe him. First time fishing and he not only casts perfectly but also gets a bite! Then he has the nerve to actually catch what he fished up! It's not fair…" she said to herself rather sadly. "He has all the luck…" she moaned while dejectedly collecting up the fishing rod and looking at it with contempt.
"Don't worry," she heard Aaron's voice come from behind her. She also felt a hand on her shoulder. "It's just beginner's luck."
"Beginner's luck, huh?" Ivy echoed softly.
"Yeah. That's all it is. Just beginner's luck. It can't hold out forever." Aaron said, leaning in a little closer, his breath tickling the whorls of her ear. "Hey, just between you and me… It's a lot better to fail at first and succeed later by working hard than start off succeeding by relying on a little good fortune. Cos good fortune unfortunately can't last forever."
"I hope bad fortune doesn't last forever too…" Ivy said with a long exhale.
"Don't you worry, Ivy." Aaron's fingers tightened comfortingly around Ivy's shoulder in a gentle squeeze. "I think your luck's gonna get much better from now on."
"Really? How?" Ivy asked.
But all Aaron did was flash her a cheesy, cheeky smile and begin walking ahead, cheerfully announcing they would have to get a move on if they wanted to reach Fuchsia City on schedule. Ivy watched him walk ahead for a few seconds, before giving chase, trailing her fishing rod loosely behind her. Jack followed along, engaged in excited conversation with Sebastian, while Robert, long forgotten, was still impatiently trying to clean off the black ink that had now dried and crusted onto his clothes.
"Is this what my life has come to…?" Robert thought to himself, impatiently picking at the drying ink as his travelling partners pulled further and further away from him. "I've been trailed halfway across the region on protest, I'm basically surrounded by idiots, I'm getting caught up in all manner of problems I don't want to be involved in and now, I'm getting spat at and inked by baby Horsea. Robert Rhodes, you have got to sort your life out…"
Giving up his clothes for essentially ruined, Robert sighed, gave up and mooched off after his travelling companions.
Author's Note
And here's a Master's Degree update! I'm so, so sorry I've taken forever, but I'm back at university so updates will be considerably slower.
Just some filler-y stuff here at the moment to introduce the newest member of Jack's team. The plot will pick up in the next chapter, promise!
Oh yeah! Any fans of my work should check out my latest fic "Don't Forget To Write" which I am co-authoring with my lovely boyfriend MasterFreezeman! We're both really excited about it!
Thanks to my faithful reviewers, Puniful-TeaKat, Shadow Serenity 57, MasterFreezeman and MidsummerMoonlight99!
Until next time!
