Heartstrings
Prologue - A Chance for Freedom
A/N: I do not own the Pokemon Franchise, Pokemon Sword and Shield, or Piers.
I just own Ivy Thornbury and any other OCs mentioned.
Warning: Story contains scenes of violence, homelessness, bad language, mentions of sexual themes between Piers and Ivy, and Pokemon Abuse.
Do not read if any of these make you uncomfortable.
Hey guys, I got the courage together to start writing my Pokemon SWSH fanfiction which is a story about a woman named Ivy leaving her toxic family behind to achieve her dreams of bringing music and battles together as a form of entertainment. This story is CanonxOC and involves the seventh Gym Leader Piers as the Canon love interest.
I hope you all enjoy!
The world of Pokemon was a mysterious place filled with wonderful creatures that inhabited the land. These creatures, known as Pocket Monsters, or Pokemon for short, were mythical beasts with different abilities and powers that help to serve their world, and the people inhabiting it. However, Pokemon are not just tools to aid humans in their development, no...Some People, known as Pokemon Trainers, aim to capture and raise Pokemon for a competitive sport known as battling. This is a true test of the bond between a Pokemon and it's trainer, only those who form strong ones succeed as Pokemon Trainers and become champions!
There were many regions throughout the planet, some vast with glittering oceans, while some were tiny and lived by nature. However, one region; known as Galar, took Pokemon battling and levelled it up beyond even the strongest Mega Evolution. That region; only a small island where the countryside and industrial inventions thrived in harmony, was where the story began. More importantly, in the capital city of Galar, Wyndon, where many a champion had been crowned.
In a large estate manor, east of the shopping district lived the Thornbury family. A well known, well-respected family that shunned those who didn't follow social standards. Within the house lived four people, the mother, Eleanor; the father, Trevor; the youngest sister, Lily; and the heroine of the story, Ivy Thornbury.
Ivy was a bright girl with many friends, she had perfect manners and a soft, gentle voice. She was the pride and joy of her parents and was first in line to take over her father's Pokeball company the moment she turned eighteen. On this day, she skipped happily down the stairs with her backpack and Rotom phone which buzzed around her excitedly, showing her the many different classical songs she had yet to practice.
"Come on, Rotom!" She scolded lightly, watching as the phone stopped in front of her, using its many features to fit the video to full screen so she would watch it. "I don't have time to play right now, I need to get ready for school!"
The phone made a sad electronic noise and its little face fell as it minimized the video for later. Her father laughed as he walked over and placed his hand on his nine-year-old daughter's head. "Are you ready, Princess?" He asked, his lilac eyes shining with a strong sense of pride she had come to expect.
"Mmhm! I can't wait to see all my friends after such a long summer!" Her voice was well-kept and her vocabulary was beyond a normal child of her age, everyone looked up to her within her family's social circles, and she did her best to maintain their high prestige, despite her youth and inexperience in life.
"Alright then, we shouldn't keep them waiting any longer, did you say goodbye to Snox?" Ivy's eyes widened and she quickly ran up the stairs with a whine. "No running in the house, young lady!" With those scolding words, she halted immediately, apologized with a delicate bow, and continued up the steps at a calmer and more acceptable pace.
Once she got to her room and closed her door, she let out a sigh, looking over at the large Snorlax that slept by her closet. With a grin that did not match up to the gentle smile she had moments ago, she let out a shrill, excited scream and ran at Snox, diving on the snoring Pokemon's belly, bouncing twice before she settled with a giggle. "Snor...?" The beast mumbled, lifting his head slightly to see her snuggling up to him. His sleepy frown turned into a small smile and he plopped his huge arm on top of her, covering the entirety of her body with his furry paw. "Snorlax~."
"Heehee~!" Ivy snickered, lifting her head as she kicked her legs in the air excitedly. "Good morning to you too, Snox!" She snuggled into the fur of his belly. "I'm going back to school today! Will you be waiting for cuddles when I get back!"
"Snorlax." Snox nodded lazily, then removed his arm from atop her tiny body. She got on her knees, then slid down his side until her little feet hit the floor. "Snor, Snorlax."
"Don't worry~!" She told him, despite having no clue what he was saying. "I promise to be careful, I won't fall over at playtime, I promise."
"Snor."
She grabbed her bag, which her Rotom phone was now tucked into, she had tossed it by the door so she could easily leap onto Snox's soft belly. Then with a slight wave to the large Pokemon, she loved so, so much, she rushed from the room and Snox easily fell back into his deep slumber. The moment she was back in the corridor, she took a deep breath and regained her perfect persona.
After years of etiquette lessons, music lessons, poetry lessons and many other kinds she could not name off the top of her head, she had learned to pretend that she was a calm, mild-mannered child so she would not be scolded or punished for her actual behaviour. To anyone outside her parents' social circles, such as her little sister, and her best buddy Snox, she was a wild, loud, and boisterous girl with a big heart but an even bigger mouth and a knack for getting into mischief.
That was why she could not wait to get back to school, so she could return to her bright, bubbly self during playtime, where all her closest friends would be.
After excitedly skipping to the stairs, she descended them to find her father waiting, her mother giving her daughter and her husband a gentle peck on the cheek before they set off, Ivy waving bye to her two-year-old sister in Eleanor's arms as they left the house.
For Ivy, today was the day she could be free again.
~H~
The first bell for playtime rang after what seemed like an eternity of math problems and Ivy gleefully bound from her chair and rushed from the room to find her good friends. Her hair was black and tied back as she ran in her black school shoes and grey school dress. Even though she was not dressed the part, she would play like she was a monkey among trees, and would not care how messy she got, as long as she could hide it behind her little, knee-length, black, coat.
Once she got outside, she saw a group of boys, each unique in their own way, standing and chatting as they loomed over a grey Rotom Phone, excitedly whispering to one another. Ivy ran over to them yelling and they all jumped in surprise before yelling back and opening their arms, giving each other a group hug as they were reunited without their parents' supervision for the first time in a month.
"Ivy! Your hair's so long now!" One of the boys, a blonde child with freckles known as Damien, stated.
"I can't believe you're still as mental as ever!" Another boy, a redhead with sharp, blue eyes, Stephan, exclaimed.
"How's the music going, I haven't heard you play in so long!" The last boy, with black hair and equally dark eyes, known as Quin, boomed.
Ivy laughed with them as she pulled away from the hug and jumped in place excitedly. "I missed you guys so much! You have no idea how hard it is to be Miss Perfect for a whole month!"
"Yeah, our parents are a little less..." Damien faltered and looked towards Quin, who shrugged, then turned to Stephan.
The redhead rolled his eyes. "Strict." He stated, being the smartest of the four.
"Heh, tell me about it!" Ivy huffed out, the four of them finding a nearby swingset to settle on while they caught up. "My dad told me off this morning for running up the stairs! I've only fallen, like, ten times in the past month, why can't they let me be myself!"
"Well, you are a bit..." Damien looked to Stephan again, who audibly groaned.
"Mental."
"That's it, mental! I can't blame your dad for worrying about you!"
Ivy pouted. "But it isn't worrying when it's more about what others think than me getting a bad bruise!" She looked down at her feet as she kicked her legs, sulking. "They know I like music and let me be myself when I play, so why can't they do that all the time? Adults are so weird..."
"Yeah." Quin chimed in, looking up at the clear skies, watching the rare cloud float by. "We should make a promise not to grow up and stay kids forever!"
"We can't do that!" Stephan pouted. "If we stay kids, we won't get to go on Pokemon journeys!"
They all let out a mutual "Oh yeah!" Laughing among themselves for a bit before they fell into silence.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Stephan spoke up again. "Hey guys, wanna see a cool video?"
Another mutual "Yeah!" And the smartest of their group pulled out his Rotom Phone with a black case, showing them the most recent video in his PokeTube history. It was a short video of a band performing on stage, a symbol of a rose leaking poison stitched into the curtain behind them as their boisterous metal music echoed throughout the crowd.
The boys made remarks of awe over the band's performance, while Ivy remained silently transfixed on their concert, her eyes wide with amazement as she absorbed the bold, energetic music they played, which far differed to the classical pieces her parents had her practice with her tutors during the summer. After a second, the boys began to get louder with their words, trying to get her to join them, but she shushed them harshly, which caused them all to clam up in surprise.
"Hey, Ivy..." Quin started as the video came to a close and she let a small smile spread across her chubby cheeks. "Are you okay? I know they're a good band, but they aren't famous or anything."
"What're they called?" Ivy asked, looking at them as Stephan pocketed his phone, which buzzed uncomfortably from her attention.
"Uh..." The redhead started, looking at the others, who shrugged. "Roserade Renegade, they're a punk-rock band, I think. I saw their video in my recommended list and thought it sounded pretty cool."
"They're so cool!" Ivy exclaimed, planting her feet on the seat of the swing before she stood up, holding onto the chains so she did not fall. "Punk-rock music...? I've never heard it before!"
"Really?" Damien started, surprised by that, considering that her love for music was common knowledge to all of them. "How come?"
"My parents won't let me play anything but classical music..." Ivy pouted as Quin stepped behind her and gently pushed the swing, letting her rock slightly, since that's what she usually wanted when she stood on the seat. "It's not fair, I know classical music is a challenge, and their friends like it, but...I'm bored of playing the same old music all the time!"
"So you've never played jazz?"
"Nope?"
"Or reggae?"
"Nuh-uh."
"Not even pop music?!"
"I've sung pop songs, but I've never used one of my instruments to play them." She sighed, looking up at the blue sky. "I tried to ask my mommy for a keyboard so I could learn, but she said that a keyboard was just a piano for people will no talent..." She looked back at her friends who's faces portrayed disbelief, of course, they did not agree, they all loved music too much to hate on any instrument. "The music they make me play is calm and...totally not me."
"I gotta admit, you're so different when you're with your parents," Damien admitted and Ivy's expression deflated. She carefully sat back down as Quin held the seat, ensuring she did not fall, they looked out for one another, as good friends should.
"Yeah...They punish me if I don't act 'proper' or 'socially acceptable' whatever those big words mean..." Her lip jutted out and she glared at the grass. "I only learned how to act around them after I learned to play their dumb songs! It's all stuffy, boring music that isn't allowed to go crazy or change something just for fun!"
"So that's why you liked that song so much..." Quin asked, sitting down in front of the swingset, facing her. "You're mental enough to match the song you've just heard, right?"
Ivy cracked a smile and they all grinned. "Yeah." She said meekly, rubbing at her neck. "I listened to the song and I just thought 'hey, that's me when I'm with you guys!'" She looked at her shoes. "I don't have to hide who I am around you, and you let me be myself without getting told off or grounded."
"Well yeah, we're not your parents," Stephan stated, shrugging his shoulders. "My parents don't think your parents are being too fair on you. Why do you have to do what they say all the time? Don't you get to have your own opinion?"
Ivy went silent for a moment and Damien elbowed Stephan, who had no clue what he said to offend anyone. However, the young girl with long black hair and lilac eyes suddenly went from sullen to stubborn as she huffed and stood up, glaring at the school doors a good twenty feet in front of her. "That's it, I've decided what I wanna do with my life!" She declared boldly, raising her hand in the air, pointing at the sky.
This drew the attention of most of the kids in the playground, and the three boys looked at each other awkwardly. "And what's that?" Quin asked after a second of contemplation.
She let a bold grin cross her lips and she spun to face them, planting her hands on her tiny hips triumphantly. "I'm gonna be a punk-rock star!"
Silence passed for a moment and Ivy's bright expression did not shift even slightly. Damien coughed out a chuckle, Stephan giggled and then suddenly the three burst into laughter, letting her words sink in completely. This soured Ivy's mood and she pouted again.
"You're kidding, right?" Stephan asked, wiping his eyes. "There's no way your parents will let you do that!"
Ivy clenched her fists tightly against her sides, her shoulders raised as she adamantly stomped her foot. "You don't know that!"
"I've gotta agree with these guys, Ivy," Quin said as he finally calmed down, he stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Your mom and dad are really strict, even if this is what you want to do, they're not gonna give up without a fight."
Ivy went silent and Quin let go of her as the bell rang. The boys gathered their things and started walking back to the doors, patting Ivy's shoulder as they went, only to falter when she spun around and yelled suddenly, scaring them half to death. "Then I'm gonna fight back! I'm not a puppet, I wanna play my own music, I don't wanna copy some stuffy old piano solos anymore!"
They stared at her in surprise, and Ivy froze when she heard a teacher call her name, with her outburst, she had made a younger child cry, she knew she was in trouble. With a groan, she glanced at the boys, who looked at one another, then back at her with concern and hesitation, before she turned and walked over to the teacher, ready to be chewed out for raising her voice without good reason.
She never made promises that she did not keep, nor did she give up when she put her mind to something. So they knew she would keep her word, they were just worried about what that would do for her going forward.
All they could do was wish her luck.
~H~
"For the last time, NO!"
Ivy, Trevor and Eleanor stood in their large living room only a few hours after Ivy's tenth birthday party had come to an end. The young girl had her hair tied back and a magazine in her hands with Roserade Renegade splattered across the cover. Her father was on the other side of the room, glaring daggers at the book as if it would burst into flames on command. The two had been in a heated argument for the past thirty minutes over a bombshell Ivy dropped on them after contemplating her decisions over the past year.
"Why not? I've done everything you asked since I was little, I'm a solid student, I'm the best musician in my class, and when I'm around your friends I'm the best daughter I can be!" Ivy argued back, slamming the magazine down on the coffee table between her and her father. "It's my tenth birthday and I deserve to choose my own dreams now that I'm old enough to be a Pokemon Trainer! I'm not a little kid anymore!"
"You will never get a Pokemon with an attitude like that!" He snapped, grabbing the Pokeball he had placed on the coffee table before her announcement, a Pokemon inside that she had been given for her birthday mere hours ago.
"Wh-what are you doing?!" She shrieked, diving for the ball, only for him to lift it over his head, out of her reach. "That's mine!"
"Not anymore it isn't." The cold tone in her dad's voice made her freeze as she stepped back, eyes wide as he pocketed the Pokeball with a sharp, angry motion. "Until you let go of this foolish dream of yours, I will not accept that you're old enough to be a Pokemon Trainer! You're banned from getting a Pokemon and going on your Journey next year until you learn to respect our rules and do what we tell you to!"
Ivy's lilac eyes flooded with tears and she choked back the lump in her throat. "You're horrible!" She managed to croak out, before she kicked the coffee table over, shattering the cups that were ontop as she stormed from the room and up the stairs, ignoring her father's words as he yelled after her. The ten-year-old stormed into her room and slammed the door, locking it behind her before she ran over to Snox, who opened his sleepy arms and she fell into his hug, sobbing against his fat belly.
"Snor? Snorlax?"
Ivy hiccuped and lifted her tearstained face to see Snox looking at her with a worried frown, hugging her close in hopes of comforting her. "I'm fine, Snox, I promise..." She managed to say, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. "Remember when I came home last year and told you I wanted to be a punk-rock star?"
The Snorlax nodded slowly.
"Well, I finally told Daddy that I wanted to go on a Pokemon Journey and make a name for myself as a punk-rock musician, and he blew up at me!" She sniffled and her tears came back full force. "He even took away the Pokemon he gave me for my birthday! Now I'm the only girl my age who doesn't have their own partner Pokemon!"
Ivy started crying again and hid her face in her arms, while her best friend comforted her by rubbing his padded palm against her back. For the past year, she had listened to Roserade Renegade on the sly since she knew her parents were not likely to agree with her new favourite music. During that year, she had convinced them to soundproof her room, which was something they were already thinking of doing, and then managed to get a cheap electric guitar for kids as a Christmas present from all her friends, which she managed to keep hidden too thanks to her perfectly private room rule.
Despite her new dream being a spur of the moment decision, the more she practised with the genre and dabbled in others as well, the more she realized that she prefered more modern and innovative music styles to the ones her parents wanted her to learn. Finally, after working hard for a year, she felt she could tell them the truth and show off her practice to her parents before they had the chance to refuse her requests, but instead, her father immediately exploded after she confessed to her new desire to play punk-rock music for a living, rather than take over the Thornbury Pokeball company she would inherit in the far future.
Originally her parents just wanted her to learn to play an instrument so they could brag to their friends, they did not expect her to fall in love with the art and want to create with it, rather than just copy it to appease their social standing.
Now that she finally got to the stage when she thought they would finally see that she was serious about music, they took all her hard work and dragged it through the mud, leaving behind a broken little girl with a shattered heart and empty dreams.
"B-big sis...?"
Ivy gasped and sat up, looking over her shoulder at the locked door as the soft, scared voice of her little sister came from the other side. "Lily..." She managed to say, getting off Snox's belly and walking over. "Are you alone out there?"
"Y-yeah."
Ivy took a deep breath and wiped her eyes, then she opened the door and let her little sister in, shutting it and locking it behind her. Lily turned around and immediately dove on Ivy, hugging her around her waist as the three-year-old started sobbing. "H-hey, what's wrong Lil'?!" The older of the two Thornbury children exclaimed, crouching down and hugging her much smaller sibling.
"I-I heard you and Daddy fighting...I-I heard you yelling and I was so scared...Are you and Daddy angry at each other?"
"No, I-!" Ivy paused, then sighed, she could not lie to her baby sister. "Yeah, we're angry at each other, but don't worry okay? Big Sis Ivy will fix it, I promise. Mommy and Daddy are just having trouble understanding me right now, okay?"
Lily wiped her eyes with her chubby little hands. "B-but they answered you, they know what you're saying!"
Ivy let out a humourless laugh. "That's not what I mean. Mommy and Daddy don't understand what I want, so they're lashing out because they don't understand." She carefully moved her sister's hands and wiped at her eyes. "I'm gonna talk to them more tomorrow and sort it all out, okay? We won't be fighting anymore, I promise."
Lily looked at Ivy with fearful tears, her large blue eyes glittering with trust and adoration for her family. "Pinky promise?"
Ivy laughed and held out her pinky, which Lily took and squeezed with her whole hand, near enough. "Pinky promise~!"
~H~
Cheers filled the house as Ivy, her father, her mother and Lily all stood in the living room, a peal of melodic laughter filling their merry household as Lily sat there, now ten years of age, with a paper crown on her head and a card in her hand. Ivy was stood by the doorway, leaning against it as she stared at the beautiful family scene before her, no longer seen as part of it herself.
She was now seventeen herself, and unlike the innocent little girl with long, black hair she once was, she now stood there with messy, short, black hair wearing a black leather jacket over a purple tank top and ripped black jean-shorts. Her eyes were lavished with mascara and she went from a 'normal' girl to a gothic 'weirdo' in no time at all. Because of this, she also went from being the golden child of the family to the black sheep.
Her parents had softened their stance for a little while after the argument on her tenth birthday, but after they realized that this was not just some phase she was going through, they put their foot down a second time, and she still refused to shrug off her punk-rock lifestyle and return to the gentle, mild-mannered daughter they once knew.
She had completely abandoned her perfect persona and let herself be the loud, boisterous child she was around her friends and slowly she lost more and more of her usual privileges. Her room was no longer private, it was clean and well-kept, and no musical instrument was left out in the open. She had the grand piano in the hallway and a special electric guitar Quin bought her the night before he left for his Pokemon journey, and that was it. They had even thrown out her drumkit that her friends all chipped in for using the money they earned from their many battles.
That all took place from her thirteenth to her fifteenth birthday, and there she stood, on her sister's tenth only two years after all her dreams were suppressed, watching Lily receive everything she was once promised. Since the argument, many more had followed and slowly, over many years, Lily went from adoring her older sister to resenting her for the constant stress she put her parents through.
Now no one in the family seemed happy anymore and only pretended to be that way when their friends came over, well, her parents' friends, she was banned from seeing her friends a long time ago, and many of them had gone on to challenge the league, then travelled to other regions to take part in theirs as well. Hell, Quin was a contest star in Hoenn at this point!
Damien was even the champion of another, far off region she could not remember the name of, while she stewed in her room, hoping that she could make her parents see the light someday.
"Happy birthday, dear!" Her mother started, hugging Lily as she glanced at Ivy, who stared at the fireplace solemnly.
"Thanks, Mother," Lily replied, looking over at her father as he smiled and held out a Pokeball for her.
"I think you deserve this after all the hard work you've put into your grades over the years!" He boomed as his daughter took the ball from his hands. "The rightful heir of the Thornbury name should have a Pokemon of their own, after all!"
Lily looked at the Pokeball in awe and swallowed hard, letting out whatever was hidden inside. A red glow filled the room as the energy swirled and took shape. After a moment, the light faded and a small, white, horse Pokemon opened its large black eyes as its mane glittered in a plethora of pastel colours. "Is that a Ponyta?!" She gasped as the Pokemon chimed in with its name and clopped its hooves on the wooden flooring.
"Yes, only the best for my little girl!"
Ivy's expression cracked and she swallowed the lump in her throat, pushing off from the wall as she turned and left the room without another word. She could not watch them play happy families while she stood there, rotting away like a stain on their perfect family name. Lily watched her leave with sharp, annoyed eyes and huffed, glaring after her. In her mind, Ivy was the villain in this situation, and no matter what she said, it would not change her views. Ivy had gone from having a close relationship with Lily, to barely speaking at any given moment in time.
Ivy walked into her bedroom, looking at the empty walls and boring decor with a frown. Where she once launched herself in Snox' arms now stood a large Snorlax plushie with Snox's name and date of birth inscribed on its belly, a memorial to her beloved best friend who died only the year prior. Tears pricked her eyes and she let out a sad laugh, wiping them away and smearing her perfect make-up in the process.
"I don't know why I care..." She whispered, closing the door as she leaned against it in the darkness of the room. "My friends were right all along, they fought back, and I lost..."
Honestly, after her tenth birthday, she did not give up on her dreams, and since that day, said ambition had taken shape and formed into something far more adventurous and much further from what her parents wanted her to be. Instead of just being a rock star, she wanted to create a type of performance that synced both music and battling together to create a form of a battle-based concert that could be aired live on the TV for all to see. That realization cemented her stubborn desire to convince her parents, and in turn, lead to her being refused any and all forms of freedom that most teenagers would have received the moment they left for their journey.
She slid down the wall and sat against the wooden surface, letting out a sob as she gritted her teeth and hugged her knees with one hand, while the other gripped her hair. She desperately wanted a hug from Snox, she wanted to be enveloped in his large arms as he comforted her, but she could not and because of her parents' hatred towards her chosen path, they refused to let her get another Pokemon, so for the past year, she had been completely alone.
All she wanted was to be free to do what she wanted. Was that too much to ask?
Suddenly, she took a sharp breath and stood up, opening her closet and pulling out her electric guitar, the one thing she owned that her parents could not touch without her threatening to call the police for theft. They had no rights to her guitar, they had not paid for it, and even her best friend's mother warned them that she would get the police involved if they got rid of it.
Of course, after that, she was no longer allowed to have friends, since she had 'poisoned' their family against them, but she did not care, because it meant she got to keep at least a sliver of her dream alive.
Without warning, she started playing her guitar at an astonishing volume, loud enough that even her sound-proofed room could not contain it and her ears rang with the pain. She barely heard her parents shouting as she dished out an epic solo from one of her favourite Roserade Renegade songs.
After a solid minute of musical venting, the solo came to an end and Ivy stilled her fingers against the strings, which stung with the force of her melodic backlash. She was tired of fighting, tired of being the outcast and tired of being trapped in their strange obsession for popularity.
She swore that one day she would escape this hellhole and make a name for herself, whether that meant cutting ties with her family or not. She did not care anymore, after all, why would she when they did not care about her.
She was done being reasonable.
~H~
"Don't you dare use that language when talking to me!"
Another day, another full-blown argument between Ivy, her father and her mother. The three stood outside of Lily's bedroom, void of any important belongings or traces of her sister. Earlier that day, Lily had been given an internship in Postwick with Professor Magnolia. Therefore she left immediately and set off on her Pokemon journey at the age of eleven. While Ivy, who was now eighteen, wasted away her potential at home as her parents wanted.
"I don't give a crap who I'm talking to!" Ivy sneered back, slamming her fist against the wall as she snarled at her angry parents. "You've done nothing but treat me like dirt since I told you what I wanted to do with my life, and now you just expect me to sit back and let you treat Lily like gold dust while I sit at home like some kind of bum!"
"Ivy, you're making it worse!" Her mother snapped, arms crossed while her father paced back and forth, hissing back some terrible words he refused to speak around his children. "How can you expect us to let you ruin your life following the dream of some drug-addled teenager who won't achieve anything with her life!"
"I've never even done drugs! Just 'cause someone wants to make music you don't like, doesn't mean they're bad people!" Ivy growled and pulled at her dyed green hair, having gotten it done behind her parents back only two weeks prior. "God, and you wonder why I don't do anything you tell me any more? You're both just a bunch of snobs who want your kids to follow your every word like a flock of Wooloo!"
"Ivy!" Her father snarled, she faltered for a moment, then let out a scoff, shoving past them and towards her bedroom. "Don't you walk away from me, young lady!"
"Get lost!" She turned flipped him the bird. "I'm done with this crap, by the time you wake up, I'll be gone, you got that?!"
Trevor let out a vicious laugh as she walked into her room and slammed the door shut. He did not believe her for even a second and planned to make that known. "Go ahead!" He yelled back, calling her bluff. "See if I care, no one wants a daughter as reckless and obnoxious as you in the house anyway!"
"Dear...!" Eleanor gasped.
"I don't want to hear it, Eleanor." He interrupted, raising his hand, palm facing her, to indicate he needed her to keep quiet. "She's lying, there's no way a girl like her would go through with something so stupid. Give her until the morning, I bet she'll still be here, making a fuss like usual!"
However, little did he know, Ivy was stood behind her closed door, glaring at the window with sharp, heavy breaths wracking her form. She had every intention of doing exactly what she promised, that argument was the last straw and she was not going to sit around and let them rule over her anymore.
Before dawn, she would be long gone.
~H~
Ivy awoke that night to the soft drone of her Rotom phone. With a groan, she rolled over and looked at the floating Pokemon device to see what time it was.
3:15 am.
With a sharp intake of breath, she forced herself into a sitting position and looked over at her backpack and black hoodie which was draped over the plush backrest of her computer chair. Her hesitant eyes steeled with resolve and she tossed the covers off, dressed already as she did not want to waste even a second of her allotted timeframe. She grabbed her hoodie and slipped it on, then her dark green backpack and finally her purple trainers.
Once that was done, she grabbed her blanket and sheets and tied them together with the help of a muted PokeTube video she had her Rotom phone save before she went to sleep. "Are you ready, Rotom?" She asked in a hushed whisper as she opened her bedroom's emergency window and tossed the blankets down, watching as they stopped a good six feet from the ground.
Her phone buzzed nervously as it floated around her head, watching as the young woman picked up her electric guitar and climbed over the window sill before she started shimmying down the wall using her bedsheets tied to her heavy bedframe as a makeshift rope. Once she reached the bottom of the 'escape rope', she looked down at the remaining distance and swallowed an inkling of fear that bubbled up. "No going back now...!" She mumbled, hugging her guitar to her chest with her free hand as she let go and fell, landing hard on her back with an 'oof.'
Rotom quickly panicked and rushed down to her side, having the phone number for the nearby Pokemon Centre ready in case she was injured. Ivy took heavy breaths and looked up at her precious phone, giving it a pained smile. "Nah, I'm good." She ground out, managing to force herself into a sitting position, her backpack having broken her fall, though she feared her packed lunch might have paid the price.
Of course, she knew already that she was going to get one hell of a bruise from that fall since her lunchbox was not made of feathers, but she did not care, anything was better than waiting around for something that would not happen. Her parents would not change their mind, their social status mattered more than their daughter's dreams, after all. "C'mon, we've got to get to the train station before it opens and hunker down for the rest of the night."
Without looking back, Ivy turned and jogged in the direction Wyndon's massive plaza, hoping that at least one flying taxi was still running at that late hour. If not, she had to risk going through Route 10 without a Pokemon or a Pokeball to catch them in, the dangers of that alone were enough to have her fearing her future.
Apart from heading to Hammerlocke then trekking the remaining distance to Spikemuth; the only place in Galar she knew she would be able to make a fresh start without fear of her parents finding her, she had no overall plans, barely any money, and nothing to sustain her should her meal not last the journey. Overall, she knew she was not ready for the outside world, but even then, she refused to turn back, struggle built character and it was about time she understood what struggle was.
~H~
"This is the last call for Hammerlocke, all those heading to Hammerlocke should head to the main gates."
Ivy hummed as she looked up at the large speaker attached to the wall of the station, she was exhausted with bags under her eyes and an empty stomach, she had spent the past three hours huddled up in the corner of the large, cold foyer after managing to flag down a Taxi. She had attempted to get some shut-eye using her hoodie as a blanket, but she could not get her heart to settle. She was not too proud to admit that she was genuinely terrified, especially with how close she was to finally getting away from her own personal hell.
Was she really going to risk everything?
With a deep breath, she gathered her backpack and a drink she had bought with the last of her money then walked over to the main gates where several other passengers huddled together, preparing to board the train to Hammerlocke, the second-largest city in Galar. Ivy had only been to Hammerlocke once when she was eight when her father invited her to his office for 'take your daughter to work' day. It was then that she saw what his stuffy, boring company was like, and though she hated it then, she had pretended to be excited that she would one-day boss everyone around as her father did.
It was the knowledge that she no longer had to pretend to be happy that gave her the motivation to step over the threshold and onto the train. She found an empty set seat with a table and plopped down unceremoniously as her Rotom phone buzzed and flew out of her backpack's largest pocket. "I'm okay, Rotom." She reassured the worried device as it darted around her, checking her for any sort of illness or injury, the poor thing was programmed to keep her safe. "This is what I want, so I'm going to be fine."
The phone frowned, before it dropped onto the table, turning its little arms into a pair of useable earphones for Ivy. She smiled and took them, slipping them into her ears. "Thanks, bud, music always cheers me up. Maybe some Roserade Renegade ought to motivate me a little."
With that, she sat back and looked out at the view of the world as the train jerked, then started to move, slowly picking up the pace until the world zoomed past in a blur. She knew what she was getting into, and could not wait to see just what the future would bring.
It was at that moment that she felt a flutter of freedom blossom in her chest, and she smiled slightly. Whether she felt that sense of freedom on a stage or the streets would be her doing and her's alone. She would no longer let someone make her decisions for her.
It was her time to shine.
A/N: Thank you for reading, please review as it helps me improve as a writer!
This part of the story will soon display Ivy's team and their current levels and moves.
But for now, it's empty.
Thanks again!