"If you're gonna get all reminisce-y and talk about how you used to have so much more hair and how Aunt Joy used to be a spry, young, flexible thing, you can save it." I say brushing away the disgusting thought
"Okay, one, I still have all my hair,"
"Suuure you do,"
"and B, your aunt Joy is STILL a spry, young, flexible thing if you know what I mean Heh… Heheh..." I could've gone my whole life without hearing my uncle say that.
"For Godsakes, how old do you think I am?" My uncle looks at me seeming almost offended as we travel down the abandoned road. I shrug and raise my shoulders. I have no clue.
"I'm only 46! How old do I look?"
"I'm only good at checking pokemon ages and levels at first glance," I gesture between my feet towards Charmander "I have no clue how old you look dude"
"Whatever, you ass. Anyway, that reminds me, I've been meaning to ask since I picked you up back in Viridian, you got your little partner in crime stateside, right?"
I nod "In the forest behind my house"
"Then why does he have a foreign scale pattern? And he's got additional crests that no Charmander has. Least not any that I've seen" He points out, using one hand to gesture towards Char sweepingly
"I dunno. But you aren't the first to notice that. A few bug catchers, some nerdy school kids picked up on it. Joey, the kid I robbed earlier caught it off the bat. I think Char's mother came from somewhere else. She might've had him and flown the coup immediately. Or worse… Bottom line is that she wasn't there when his life was on the line."
"Well it's good then that you were. Ain't that right, Char? Y'know, I remember when..."
I tune out as my uncle rambles on. Char perks up and climbs into my lap, rolling into a ball. I pet his stomach and he growls softly. We continue down the back road, rolling along casually with no cars in front or behind us. The moonlight breaks between the trees lining the road through Route 3 and shimmers down on the road around us. Nothing but pavement for a mile ahead of us… Why is it so empty at 8 o'clock at night? Whatever, it's a warm night and now I can go for a ride down the road through Viridian Forest in the Rapidash, blasting whatever the hell I want.
My uncle slams on the brakes and I realize I should've put on my seatbelt when I hit my head on dash while he yells at me for something like not paying attention to what he was saying for the past 5 minutes. Honestly I don't know, I'm not really listening or caring about the pain; there is something more interesting happening outside the car. I notice something strange. My window is down and past the sound of our engine, I notice the screech of another car's brakes coming from behind us. I squint my eyes and look into the mirror very closely to see if I can catch the moonlight refracting off of a windshield or something. It wouldn't be such a big deal if it were accompanied by headlights. Whoever it was had left their headlights off. They were sneaking. But why?
"Hello? Hello, McFly?" He knocks on the side of my head, snatching me away from the mirror
"Turn off the headlights" I say sternly. He looks at me slightly confused and cuts his eyes at me
"What's wrong?" He asks, turning off the headlights and all lights in the car. He lurches forward a bit and pulls to the side of the road. Uncle or not, he knows when to listen to my judgment.
"I think someone is following us. I heard the brakes when you stopped just now." I tell my uncle.
"You sure it wasn't just a Zubat? Maybe a Rattata?"
"I know Rattata cries. Rattata cries have some sort of intonation, a message for other pokemon. Unc, That was a car. I'm sure" He scratches his beard in thought then shrugs. "Well, only one way to find out and what the hell, this is the perfect learning experience." He reaches for his belt and grabs a pokeball. "I'll need you and Charmander too. Close the door soft when you get out. Don't wanna alarm 'em if it is a car," he says as we silently exit the car.
"So what you're gonna do is exactly what I say. In the service, this is what we call a racket."
Uncle Billy presses the center of the ball and it grows to full baseball size in his hand, then he tosses the battered ball into the air, releasing a flying type pokemon with a rather silent, melodic cry who fluttered down onto my uncle's shoulder.
"How ya doing chatot?" whispers my uncle to the bird type perched on his shoulder, while feeding it seed from his pouch. Chatot lets out a series of clicks and chirps that I'm assuming mean satisfaction, but I'm not totally sure. My bird comprehension is a bit off.
"It's a distraction of sorts. Disruption that distracts the enemy and halts him dead in his tracks or throws him off your tail." Sounds simple enough
"Like a string shot to hang a dead enemy in the path of your adversary, effectively scaring him off."
"Uhm.. yeah. Something like that." he whispers in a hush. "But this is more of a misdirection. Now what we're gonna do is get in the car and drive away." What?
"So they can keep following us? what sense does that make, unc?" I ask, thoroughly confused
"Exactly my point. let them follow 'us'"
"Why'd you put air quotes around u- waaaaaittt… I seeee!" I nod excitedly as I catch my uncle's drift
"I need you to make a car sound, bud. Can you do that for me?" my uncle nods his head exaggeratedly, bringing chatot to nod in response.
"On my mark big guy, capiche?"
Chatot squawks once and sways his head in a way that I've only known birds to do when they're battle ready. Charmander steps to my side and looks out behind our car. I nod to him and he bares his fangs and growls in a low tone. Uncle B and I are already on the same wavelength, we know what we're doing. My uncle raises his hand to give the go signal for the operation and things get set into motion. Char hisses out a thick cloud of white smoke and chatot starts making his car noise on my uncle's signal. I motion to char to use two embers and move off. After that, our "car" is going. Honestly, they are one of the best fake speeding cars I've ever seen. My uncle and I hide in the smoke cloud by the actual car and wait for the creep that's been following us to pass. We squat down by the rear bumper to wait. I've never really had much of a reaction to smokescreens so I look into the passenger side window to see if I recognize the people in the car. Maybe it's some of my old classmates, taking a back road to Smoochum's Reach. I focus in and catch a slight glimpse of them, not much, but it's two older guys. One is a white guy with long brown hair and a scruff of facial hair. The other is a bald guy with a crazy thick beard. They look oddly familiar but not familiar enough to set off an alarm so I brush it off. After they're far enough away, my uncle pulls out the ball for his Staraptor and has her use defog to blow away the smoke before we hop in the car and pull away.
"You catch a glimpse of their faces?" my uncle asks as we make our way down the road
"A little peek. One was bald with a beard and one looked like Hozier"
He tightens his grip on the steering wheel and sighs for a moment before straightening in his seat and looking ahead with a stone face.
"You know those guys or something?"
"So what do you plan to do for the rest of the summer now that you have a car, Ethan?" asks uncle Billy a while after our little pitstop.
"Good Question. I dunno, honestly." I stare off at the empty road ahead of us and think fondly of the places I can go once I have his beautiful muscle car. "Maybe I'll take a road trip over to Johto. Run away with some chick I fall in love with outta nowhere. Alope and live out on the open road. You know, typical teen stuff." I reply in a flat, sarcastic tone.
"Okay you Asshole. Well I'm sure you and your friends will enjoy that road trip very much."
"Hah yeah.. My friends..." I trail off a bit
"You alright kiddo?" asks my uncle in concern
"Yeah I'm fine. Just kinda tired." I lie. Okay, so maybe I didn't have the most friends when I was younger…. Or older… Or.. well, now..
"Were almost to my place. You can stay the night if you're really that tired, just make sure to let your mother know so she doesn't worry"
"Might just take you up on that, unc." With Charmander in my lap, I lean back my seat and kick my feet up on the dashboard.
We pull into his garage and I hop out, followed immediately behind by Char.
"Go on and let yourself in. I've got to get your car ready." 'your car'... I like the ring of that. I smile and head into the living room, riding on the high of 'your car'.
Char nestled comfortably between my legs, I settle into the recliner when my uncle comes into the room, holding a set of keys and something small, shiny, and metal. He walks in front of me then stops, waiting for me to stand I assume. I roll my eyes at the formality but I still move Char and stand to receive the keys to SweetSilver.
"A deals a deal. Take good care of our girl, would ya? Don't forget that you aren't the only one that put work in on her. That engine was bathed with both of our blood, sweat, and tears." pointed out my uncle before dropping the key into my hand.
"I'll treasure her always," I joke "but what's the other thing in your hand?"
"Good eye." He opens his hand and it's an otherwise normal looking .44 bullet engraved bullet with a strangely cryptic tribal kinda design. "It's the bullet that passed through the recommendation letter. Figured that'd be a nice necklace to keep. All symbolic and what not." he hands me the bullet and a beaded chain.
"Wow… Thanks!" amazingly, the bullet isn't flattened after drilling a deep hole in the reinforced steel. I pocket the bullet so I can drill a hole through it for the chain later. I put on the chain, pocket the bullet, and smile fondly at my uncle. He's been like a father figure to me since dad left and I could never thank him enough for it.
"A'right, a'right, don't go getting all sappy on me. SO are ya staying the night or not?" he asks
"It might be better if I go home to moms. She's already worried about me I'm sure." I reason to my uncle, who nods and walks me to the garage
"Well, nephew, of all the times I've tazed someone and shoved them in the back of my squad car, it's never ended with them taking my car." he points out. He pats me on my shoulder and I feel a sharp prick.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry kiddo, must've been my ring"
I unlock the door and step into my new car that I have wanted for so long. I comfortably settle into the driver's seat. Oooh I could get used to this… Char crosses into the passenger seat while I put the key in the ignition and start the engine. She purrs like a Persian and I get ready to pull out of the open garage door. I look out of the window and into the sideview mirror just in time to see my uncle shutting the trunk. Guess he was making sure everything was out. I pull ahead from under the roof of the garage and stop as the moonlight reflects off of the glossy silver stripes going across the hood. Nothing but open road out ahead of me.
My uncle leans against the driver side door and smiles softly "I love ya, kid." my uncle says with a sad smile.
"Love you too uncle B. Something wrong? You look like you're about to cry"
"Nah I'm just… really gonna miss this car is all... Now get your ass home, 'fore I change my mind about this deal, A'right?" He says as he backs away from the car, patting the hood twice to indicate I'm good to go. I slowly pull onto the gravel road
"Alright Unc. I'll see you next time I wanna win a free car." I joke and pull off down the open road ahead of me. It's a long ride home…
Our hero got the car and is on his way home. But what was up with those guys following the car?
And why was Uncle Billy acting so weird?
Oh well... Lets get to this ride back home
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Until Next Time!