Notes: My apologies; I had a bad week, so this got pushed back on my priorities. I'm very sorry for the lateness. This one's longer than usual, though, so I hope that makes up for it. Enjoy~

Follow Me

A Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver Story

Chapter Twenty-Four

Assist

"So wait, you know Gold?" Soul asked, surprised.

"Yeah, you know him too?" Crystal asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Nn, yeah, we live in the same neighborhood back in New Bark Town."

"So he didn't move...huh..."

"Did you two keep your promise to meet up again?" Soul asked, tilting her head.

"Hey, aren't you the least bit curious about what happened to Silver?" Crystal said with a cough.

"Oh! Yes, please continue."

"I think he's dead," Gold said. He picked up a soggy, nearby stick and poked the boy in the chest. "Yep, definitely dead."

"Oh, knock it off, he's still breathing!" Crystal scolded as she crouched over the boy. "Hey, are you okay?"

The boy stirred and groaned, then his eyes slowly peeked open. "Wh...Where am I...?" he asked with a parched, gravelly voice.

"In New Bark Town," Crystal answered.

"So I made it..." he said with relief. "Stupid raft sank on the way here..."

"You must not have built it well enough, then," Gold said with a snicker.

"Gold!" Crystal hissed. "Here, can you stand?" She offered him a hand.

The boy slapped it away and sat up. "I don't need your charity."

"Hey! Crystal was only trying to help you, you know!" Gold snapped. "We could've just left you to die!"

"Never asked for your help," the boy said as he dusted sand off his damp clothes. "Now where's my..." He glanced around and spotted his bag not far from where he'd washed ashore. Retrieving it and shaking off excess water, he slung the bag over his shoulder and turned to them. "Well, see you."

"Hey, where are you going?" Crystal asked, jogging after him a bit.

The boy turned and shrugged. "Dunno. Somewhere."

"Well...can we at least know your name?"

The boy sighed and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. "God, you're relentless, aren't you...? It's Silver, although I don't see why it matters."

Deep in the murky depths, a Magikarp struggled beneath his prison. He'd been stuck there for hours, and he just didn't think he was going to last much longer. Resting his aching body for a moment, he shut his eyes tightly. Was he going to die beneath this wooden contraption? No...no, he couldn't. He had to break free! He wriggled and flailed with all his might, thrashing against the crudely-tied-together wooden logs. He had to escape...he had to live!

"So your name is Silver?" Crystal asked.

"That's what I just said, isn't it?" he asked, annoyed. He hitched his bag more properly. "Well, not that this hasn't been fun meeting you or anything, but I'm out of here."

Suddenly, a blinding white flash shot out from the depths of the lake, followed by a loud bellow. The surface of the water swelled and burst, and a Gyarados broke through with a roar. On top of his head was a clumsily-built raft, the crown horns of the Pokémon jammed between the logs. The wild Gyarados wailed and thrashed, but to no avail; the raft would not budge. Furious, it went into a frenzy, sending vast tidal waves crashing to the shore, knocking over the three observing children.

"We have to do something!" Crystal cried as she and Gold helped each other up. "It's going to hurt itself!"

Silver climbed to his feet and dusted himself off, adding, "Not my problem," before walking away.

Growling furiously, Gold snatched Silver's arm and roared, "It's your stupid raft that caused all this, you...you dumb ass!"

"Ohhhh, does using a swear word make you feel like a big boy?" Silver cooed, unimpressed.

"Shut up!" Gold spat, his cheeks pinkening. "If you're not going to do anything, then I will!" And with the final word, he jumped into the lake and floundered through the water toward the rampaging Gyarados.

"Gold!" Crystal yelped. "You idiot, you can barely swim!" She dove into the water after him and tore through the waves with the grace of a natural athlete.

Silver stood on the shore, watching the display. After a moment, he sighed. "Dammit..." Casting off his backpack, he leapt into the water as well.

Gold was the first to arrive, gasping and spluttering, and he latched onto one of the Gyarados' back scales. This was a mistake, however, as he was immediately flung around like he was on the back of a bucking Tauros, and it was all he could do to keep himself attached to the Gyarados.

"Gold!" Crystal gasped and she approached and grabbed onto the Pokémon as well. The two grabbed onto each other with one arm and held onto the Pokémon with the other, minds racing as to what to do, as their bodies thrashed around and underwater.

"What are you idiots trying to do, drown?" Silver demanded as he joined them. Growling, he leapt at the Gyardos and wrapped his arms as best he could around the thick serpent's neck. The Pokémon took notice of this, however, and let out a loud howl before starting to thrash even more vigorously. "Hold still, you stupid beast!" Silver snarled. With great difficulty, he climbed to the top of its head, where he managed to snag one of the loose ropes on the raft to maintain a somewhat steady footing. He turned to the other two. "You two get up here and help me before we all get ourselves killed!"

Following Silver's lead (but with much difficulty), Gold and Crystal joined Silver near the top, where they started to struggle with the raft. The Gyarados' horns were lodged firmly between the logs, however, and each tug they attempted resulted in a shriek and swish of the Pokémon's head, causing them to almost tumble overboard each time.

"We'll have to all try it together!" Crystal shouted over the roars. The other two boys nodded, and they got into position. "On three! One...Two...Three!" Three sets of muscles strained and shoved against the bottom of the raft, and the Gyarados screeched and flailed. Silver felt his side of the raft inch upward just a notch, and he strengthened his efforts. The others must have felt it too, because their pushing intensified as well, and with a giant rush, the raft toppled upward, forward, and then crashed into the lake below. With nothing to hold onto and from the force of their inertia, the three children flew overboard as well. The Gyarados let out a relieved roar and dove into the water, disappearing with a final upsurge of water.

Exhausted, the three returned the shore, where they lied down side-by-side, chests heaving. After a moment of composure, Gold let out a laugh. "Well! That was fun, wasn't it?"

"That was stupid is what that was," Silver said between gasps. "We could have damn near gotten ourselves killed."

"Yeah, well," Gold said, lacking even the energy to argue, "that Gyarados could've died if we hadn't saved it."

"Not that it matters; stupid thing didn't even notice that we helped it," Silver muttered into the sand. "Talk about ungrateful."

"Well, you can't expect too much from it when it was in a mood like that," Crystal said, sitting up. "After all, I bet it was probably scared." She turned toward the water again. "I bet that Gyarados is really happy that he's free now, and he can go back to living his life in peace." Squinting a bit, she frowned, puzzled. "Hey...what's that?" She indicated a small object bobbing inward on the waves, and, climbing to her feet, she waded out to it. She returned with a large oval object, similar in shape to an egg, but the shell was tinted a light blue, unlike any egg any of them had seen.

"It's...an egg..." Gold said, examining it. "What d'you suppose is inside it?" He knocked on the shell, and the egg wobbled in Crystal's hands. "Ah! It moved!"

Crystal smiled and laughed. "It seems like whatever's inside must like you, Gold!"

Silver wasn't paying much attention; he'd gone off to find his backpack, which had been washed back into the water by the waves Gyarados had caused. He grumbled and sighed to himself about the wasted time; it had already been two months since his father came to Johto, so he was already that much behind...not to mention it had taken him so long to get to Johto without Pokémon of his own, and he still wasn't sure if he wanted to chase after his father or not. All he knew was that he couldn't stay in Kanto any more, not with the police sniffing around for his father. He dumped water out of his bag and sighed. Why was everything in his life always so screwed up?

"You know what, Gold," Crystal said, beaming as the boy playfully poked at the egg some more to get a reaction from the occupant inside, "I think I'll give this to you, as a going-away present!"

Gold looked up and blushed. "Wha? But Crystal, you found it, and there might even be a Pokémon inside! I can't take it! Besides," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck, "since you're the one going away, shouldn't I be giving you a going-away present?"

"It's all right," Crystal said, placing the Egg in Gold's hands. "This egg can be the bond of our friendship. So long as you have it, or whatever's inside, we'll always be best friends!" She smiled, and his cheeks flushed. She turned and called out to Silver. "Heyyy, Silver! Are you leaving?"

Silver had just about made it to the hill when he was spotted, and he sighed as the two caught up to him. "What do you want now?"

"I just wanted to say good-bye," Crystal said. "After all, we're friends now, aren't we?"

Friends? The word struck him hard; he'd never had friends before. His eyebrows furrowed. "And what makes you suppose we're friends?"

"Well, it's obvious that we met for a reason," Crystal said brightly, "and we all helped that Gyarados together, like a team. I'd say that's a pretty good reason for us to be friends!"

Silver sighed. "If you say so..."

"And friends never forget each other!" Crystal scolded hotly, wagging a finger at him. "So you have to remember me and Gold, okay?"

"All right, fine, I'll remember you," Silver lied, appeasing her. "Is that all?"

"One more thing," Crystal said with a grin. "You need a super-secret-best-friend-nickname!"

"A what?" Silver asked, eyebrows furrowing, but he quickly got his answer.

"From now on, whenever I see you again, I'm going to call you Sil-Sil!"

Gold and Silver made the same expression of disgust, but for two completely different reasons.

"Crystal! That's not fair!" Gold protested. "I never got a nickname, and I've known you a lot longer!"

"Your name is too short; making a nickname would only make it longer," Crystal said, putting her hands on her hips.

Gold crossed his arms, hugging the Egg, and huffily added, "I don't care! From now on, you have to call me Gol-Gol!"

"Gold..."

"Gol-Gol," he corrected.

"Anyway," Silver said, ignoring their shenanigans and making a mental note to bleach this whole day out of his brain as quickly as he could, "if you're done saying your good-byes, I'm out of here." He hitched his bag and walked away, headed toward the inside of town, ignoring the two as they called after him.

Crystal and Gold watched as Silver disappeared on the horizon and then turned to each other. Their smiles slowly faded, and they shared a sad, knowing stare. Hand-in-hand, they walked back to Crystal's house, toward their new lives without each other, Gold still tightly clutching his farewell present from his best friend.

"So basically, that's the whole story," Crystal said with a shrug. "I moved away, and this is the first time I've seen Silver since that day. But when you go through something intense like that, it's hard to forget, you know?"

"Yeah..." Soul said in awe. "I can imagine." After pausing for a moment, she straightened. "So you and Gold were best friends growing up, huh?"

Crystal smiled fondly. "Yeah, we were inseparable. I sometimes wonder how he's doing, you know."

"But surely you've seen him since then, haven't you?" Soul asked, aghast. "I mean, you two had your promise to keep, right?"

Crystal's smile sank into a melancholy one, and she hugged her knees. "Funny thing about promises...they're much easier to break than they are to keep." She stared at the window for a moment, lost in thought. "Anyway," she said, brightening, "I've only been to Johto a handful of times since I moved to Kanto; mostly I come here to compete in the Pokéathalon. That's what I'm here for now, actually. Once this storm gets by, I plan to head to the Goldenrod area and compete in the next event." She fixed Soul with a loaded stare. "So, what are you going to do about Silver?"

Soul's face flushed, and she sighed. "I...don't know yet. I have to face him, obviously, but..."

"Well, there's no time like the present, is there?"

Soul looked up, surprised. "Wha?"

"I think we've let the poor boy sit out in the rain long enough, don't you?" Crystal said with a grin. Stretching and leaning back on the bed, she added, "Besides, what kind of Trainer would I be if I let my Pokémon sit outside in this kind of weather? Do me a favor and go let him in, would you?" She smiled knowingly at Soul, who hesitantly nodded, rose, and left the room. "Good luck," Crystal whispered. "I hope it works out better for you than my first love did..." Yawning, she rolled over. "I think it's time for a nap. All this stormy weather makes me sleepy..."

Soul leaned against the door to the room, her heart pounding in her ears. This was it. No turning back. Taking a deep breath, she took the first step. As to where it would take her, she wasn't sure, but she was certain that she wouldn't hesitate any more. Leaf's words flitted through her brain; "it takes confidence to break the silence." Clenching her fist, Soul inhaled deeply, stepped onto the mat, and the automatic glass doors slid open.

But first you have to get out of the way of your heart.

Selected quote from the next chapter:
"The truth is...I really like you, Silver."