Only one review so far, but I haven't updated this something like three months or a similar length of time, so yeah. Hopefully more people will start reading it if I post more chapters. Enjoy, rate, and review!
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, unfortunately. Don't we all wish?
Chapter Two
As soon as Wolf landed, Hans immediately leaped off and ran to the local police station to see if they had any information, or if they did not, to give them information about the truck and the poachers so that they could try to help out. Alice, meanwhile, Returned Wolf and rushed inside the Center holding the Poké Ball in which the Mightyena was being kept in one hand and her still-shivering Joltik in the other. Annie had no choice but to follow.
The ten-year-old stood behind and watched the older Trainer as she went up to the desk. "I have a Mightyena who needs attention for exhaustion and smoke inhalation and goodness knows what besides, and my Joltik needs treatment for trauma; I don't know if she has any medical injuries." She set the Poké Ball down and it was immediately taken away, the Mightyena released on a gurney and whisked away to the emergency room. As for Tiktok, a nurse attended to her right there in the lobby.
"It's all right, Tik," Alice soothed the tiny creature as she was delivered into the tender hands of the nurse. "She's a Bug-Electric type—"
"Don't worry, miss, I worked in Unova for ten years before I moved here," the nurse smiled reassuringly, handling the tiny Pokémon with extreme gentleness. "She's fine, miss, just frightened."
"Thank goodness," Alice sighed, putting a hand in front of her eyes to indicate stress. "Just bad memories, then. Her entire nest, including her mother, they were all carried off by poachers. Thankfully my team found her. That was maybe a year ago, while I was still in Unova." The nurse nodded sympathetically and handed Tiktok back to Alice. Poaching was more common in Unova than in any other region, so stories like that were pretty common. The Joltik, meanwhile, immediately settled into Alice's hair.
"Where's Unova?" Annie piped up curiously. Now that Alice had gotten Tiktok her medical treatment, she seemed a lot less high strung and took out a map. Annie could tell that she was still worried like crazy for the rest of her team, though—she kept wringing her hands and glancing around like they might just be around the corner.
"Here," she said, pointing at the map. "I've also been to these three regions, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh. Hoenn and Kanto are my two special favorite regions. Hans prefers Unova and Johto. We were talking about going to the Orange Islands because Hans thought there would be lots of Water types there that he wanted to see before we split up." Alice thought of those two and a half years she and Hans had spent together, side by side: arguing over where to spend the night, growing crankier when they didn't have a lot of food for several days on the road, Hans constantly flaunting his Water types over Alice's Fire types, training together every day, saving each other from poachers, attempting (and failing) to make Pokéblocks and somehow managing to make one good batch of Poffins. She missed those years more than almost anything.
"When did you start your journey, anyway? I mean, since you've managed to travel through all of those regions," Annie asked, snapping Alice out of her reverie.
"Four years ago," Alice said a little wistfully. "It seems like only yesterday I started with Roxanne—" her voice died at the mention of her kidnapped Ninetales. Clearing her throat and blinking tears back from her eyes, Alice looked Annie in the eye and said, "Annie, quite frankly, Hans and I think it would be better if you traveled with us for the time being."
"Why, because you're afraid I'll set fire to every forest I go to?" Annie snapped angrily.
"No, not at all," Alice reassured her. "You have a good heart, and you have a lot of potential, but you're rash and you need guidance. Hans and I feel like we could provide that to you." Before Alice could say more, Annie stood up and looked angrily at someone behind them who was running towards them.
"Mom, what are you doing here?" she said edgily.
"I just overheard that girl," she said breathlessly, reaching them and looking at Alice. "You just said you'd travel with my daughter?"
"Yes, ma'am," Alice said, ignoring Annie's look of fury thrown her way. "My friend and I feel like we could teach her. I've been on the road for four years, I know what goes on." The woman breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you," she said, looking back at her daughter. "Thank you; I needed that peace of mind."
"My pleasure, ma'am," Alice said softly. The woman, nearly in tears, thanked the older Trainer again and left, pressing a bag of homemade food into her daughter's hands before she left the Center. "Your mother seems like a very protective parent," Alice observed.
"Yeah, she's always hovering," Annie said in an irritated manner. Alice laughed suddenly at her expression. "What?" Annie scowled.
"You remind me of a Mightyena I once knew named Commander," she said, still laughing. "He was the Beta of his pack on the preserve in Hoenn, always looking out for everyone but hating when the others tried to protect him. Rosalie, she was the Alpha, she always kept him in line whenever his protective instincts went too far." Annie looked at Alice curiously, seeing her shining eyes as she thought of her past.
"If you like Mightyena so much, why don't you have one on your team?" Annie asked. Startled, Alice looked up and sighed.
"I'd rather not say, Annie. But," she said in a somewhat lighter tone, "I will answer that question you asked me earlier, now that Wolf won't be able to overhear. Remember, you asked me why, if Wolf was strong enough to try and stop the poachers, why it was okay that he didn't."
"Yeah," Annie said, looking at her curiously. "Seemed kind of stupid especially since you'd just lost half your team." Immediately Annie knew that she'd said the wrong thing as a look of something beyond fury crossed Alice's face. However, Alice appeared to steel herself, calming herself.
"You have to understand, most of my team—with the exception of my Ninetales and my Bulbasaur—were rescued from bad conditions. Claws was abandoned by some idiot Trainer, but Wolf and Tiktok were both victims of poachers. Wolf had been resurrected from a fossil and kept in a cage, studied for what he is, not allowing him to show who he is. The poachers…well, they weren't nice to him, to say the least. I found him and he's never left my side since then." Tears welled up in Alice's eyes as she thought about that day. Roxanne and Claws had been by her side…oh God. She had lost them today, perhaps for good.
A huge wave of guilt crashed over her as the full realization of what had occurred in the forest hit her—she had let down her team. She had let them down; she had been just as rash as Annie had been, except in her case it was worse. She had been known exactly what the risks were, and had sent her Pokémon into a situation she knew they might not get out of.
Annie frowned in confusion as she watched Alice clench her hands into fist, digging her nails into her palms. They sat in silence for about a half hour after that until a nurse ran up to them.
"Miss Alice?" she said, sounding worried. Alice looked up. "Your Mightyena, he woke up and just attacked a nurse; we've got him confined."
"I'm on it," Alice said immediately.
"Is he always this way?" the nurse said as they hurried down the hallway.
"I'm not sure, I just rescued him from the poachers a half hour ago," Alice said matter-of-factly, pulling out a Poké Ball and returning Tiktok. The nurse stopped and stared at her in confusion, and Alice waved her hand as though she could placate the nurse's doubts that way. "I've got over a year's experience working on a ranch in Hoenn designed specifically for Mightyena. A lot of it just consisted of packs living on a large amount of land, and tracking those packs, but I mostly worked in the rehabilitation clinic. I worked with a lot of Trainers and a lot of Mightyena."
"So what were you planning on doing with this Mightyena?" Annie asked, hurrying behind Alice.
"Releasing him," Alice said. "I only caught him because I wanted to keep him alive. If he's human aggressive I'll attempt rehabilitation of some kind." They arrived at the door and Annie moved to follow Alice, curious, but Alice stopped her. "No, Annie," Alice said. "I don't know what the degree of his aggression is. I know techniques for protecting myself in this situation. You don't." The nurse took Annie aside to watch at the window that looked into the room while Alice cautiously entered the room.
The first thing Alice noticed was his stance—he was tense but not low, his tail wasn't raised to full height. That was good, it just meant he was unsure about her. He was growling, but that didn't bother Alice very much—silence would have been much more dangerous. Alice breathed an internal sigh of relief—this she could manage. She could help this Pokémon. She doubted it would relief her of the burden of…past crimes…but
perhaps she could bring herself some peace of mind.
She moved towards him cautiously but calmly with a muzzle in her hand, not making eye contact, almost pretending he wasn't there. His growling intensified as she stood over him. She half-knelt, cornering him between the hospital bed and the wall, but still giving him access to an escape route. This was the most dangerous moment. Either he would attack her or he wouldn't.
The Mightyena lunged towards her throat with jaws wide open in a Bite attack. Reacting instantly, Alice sprung backwards out of the way and darted her hand out over his snapping jaws to the scruff of his neck, grabbing the fistful of skin and fur there. It effectively immobilized the Pokémon. Alice swung a leg over his back so that she was standing over him, then quickly secured the muzzle over his mouth with one hand. The Mightyena was trembling from the sensation of being dominated in a fight, and Alice continued to stand over him until he had completely, totally relaxed—no growling, no tenseness in his stance. The brain can only stay in a fearful or defensive state for a certain period of time before the body is forced to cope with the situation. Gently, Alice began massaging him, particularly near his hips, where the body naturally concentrates tenseness. Cautiously and slowly taking out a leash, Alice attached it to the collar which automatically came with this particular muzzle and began walking out of the room, not checking or stopping to see if the Mightyena was following. She knew he would be.
The nurse and Annie were gaping as Alice led him out. She jerked the leash a little when he tried to make eye contact with Annie. His posture was once again tense, but that didn't seem to both Alice too much. She grinned.
"I think I'll name him Kane," she said, periodically jerking the leash if Kane tried to make eye contact or focus on anyone other than Alice. "The trick is to make him take his cues from me," she explained to the baffled nurse and Annie. "Making eye contact is a challenge or a sign of aggression. If you made eye contact with him, he'd probably lunge at you."
"Isn't putting a muzzle on him kind of inhumane?" Annie asked, eyeing the device.
"It's the best way to rehabilitate him on the go without him hurting anybody," Alice assured her. "And it's not hurting him, either."
Suddenly, Hans appeared, running towards them from down the hallway.
"We've got to go now, the poachers were spotted heading towards Viridian Forest—" he stopped dead in shock when he saw Alice with Kane. "Alice…" he said in concern.
"I'll be fine," she said calmly, though Annie thought she heard her voice shake a little. "Come on Annie, we're leaving." She turned to the nurse, indicating Kane. "Is he fully healed?"
"Y-yes," the woman said hesitantly. "He's very strong and he didn't inhale much smoke. He mostly collapsed from exhaustion, but one good dose in the machine with his Poké Ball cured him of that too."
"Good, because I need to run," Alice said matter-of-factly. Her face broke out into a real smile, a big smile. Hans still looked very concerned as the older Trainer made a clicking sound with her tongue and started trotting down the hallway. Kane had no choice but to follow. Annie watched in utter fascination as Alice ran—her long dark hair swinging out in its ponytail with her long legs stretching, almost seeming to expand. The beast beside her seemed the most natural companion in the world. Annie had never seen anything like it, and looked to Hans for some kind of answer. He watched the scene with a mixture of helplessness, longing, and some kind of happiness as Alice disappeared around the corner, putting his hands in his pockets and sighing.
"Alice has a strong affinity with canine-like Pokémon," he said, still staring at the place where she had gone. "Some Trainers have affinities with particular types, like Fire or Electric types, but she likes the ones like wolves or dogs. She ran every morning and every night with Roxanne and Claws and—" here he stopped, remembering it wasn't his place to tell Alice's secrets. "Come on, Annie," he said in a suspiciously forced lighter tone. "There's no use hanging around here. We've got to get to the next town." They started quickly walking towards the exit.
"Do you know where she's gone?" Annie asked.
"Most likely to our old campground outside Viridian Forest. It's a nice long run for her to bond with that Mightyena."
"Bond? What does running have to do with bonding?" Annie asked curiously. Hans laughed.
"Running, walking, swimming, and flying with a Pokémon builds an emotional and mental bond," Hans explained. "With Mightyena in particular it's a requirement since they refuse to accept a Trainer who is not their equal, and that includes endurance and speed when running. Alice, thankfully, has a lot of experience with them."
"Did she have a Mightyena?" Annie asked. Hans stiffened up and didn't answer as they exited the Center, taking out one of his Poké Balls and releasing a blue-and-white bird-like Pokémon with wings like cotton balls. Seeing Annie's look, Hans grinned.
"She's a Swablu, from Hoenn," he said. "Fluffy Girl, go track down Alice. If you can catch up to her, give her this—" he gave the Swablu a hastily written note, which she tucked into her beak—"she'll know what to do with it. Then come straight back to us. We'll be on the road to the old campground near the Viridian Forest." Giving an understanding, albeit muffled coo of assent, Fluffy Girl took over gracefully into the sky. "You have a Charmander, don't you?" Hans said abruptly, turning to Annie.
"Yeah," Annie said, unsure of why he was asking.
"Release him. Let him walk with us." As if to prove a point, Hans himself released an energetic Vaporeon, who darted in circles around his Trainer happily upon release.
"How come?"
"Remember what I told you a few minutes ago, how walking with Pokémon ensures bonding? Your Charmander is the only Pokémon you have right now. There's no reason for you to have him inside a Ball. Get to know him. Have you named him?"
"No," Annie said, looking confused. "No one I know gives their Pokémon a name."
"That is a sad misfortune," Hans said gravely as they walked down the road towards the edge of town. "Pokémon have personalities and souls and intelligence just as humans do. I named my Vaporeon 'Shot', for example, because he is the only creature I know who can swim faster than me or Aurora, my Dewgong, in the water. He's like a bullet. Pokémon are our partners. How would you like it if someone called you 'girl' or 'human' all the time?"
"I guess…" Annie said, taking out a Poké Ball. She threw it, releasing a Charmander, and a young one by the look of it. Shot trotted up to the young one curiously, sniffing him and greeting him. The Charmander responded by throwing a bit of an Ember attack at him, which Shot nimbly dodged and smiled at, seemingly amused.
"He's rash, this one!" Hans laughed. "Then again, most Charmanders tend to be when they're young. Most times, if they are trained with care, rashness can turn into bravery." With an idea, the boy snapped his fingers. "That's his name, don't you think? Brave."
Annie glanced down at her Charmander, which was keeping some distance away from her. She had never really thought about how her Pokémon would feel on the journey; it had always been about finally gaining independence and proving her own worth. The newly christened Brave looked back at her with unsure, distrusting eyes. A pang hit her in the chest when she realized that this was his first time out in the world, not just hers. Struck by a moment of inspiration, Annie held out her hand to him (being short for her age evidently had advantages). Cautiously, Brave put his hand in hers, and they began walking wordlessly. Hans watched this all with a smile and chose to say nothing.
They walked for two hours straight, chatting about various things. At one point Brave became tired, so Annie carefully picked him up and gave him a piggyback ride on top of her backpack, making sure his flaming tail was out of reach of her clothing. At one point Hans looked up and pointed to a section of the sky.
"Look closely," he said to Annie. She squinted. At first she wasn't certain, but she thought she spotted a moving shape among the clouds and blueness, one that perfectly blended in with its surroundings.
"Is that…your Swablu?" she said hesitantly. Hans beamed.
"Good!" he said. "Being able to distinguish camouflaged Pokémon from their surroundings is a great skill to have, and I want to make sure you develop it." He then proceeded to whistle loudly. "Come on, Fluffy Girl!" Turning to Annie, he said, "She only comes when I call her. Otherwise I let her do what she likes as long as I can see her." Annie nodded, but wasn't sure why he was telling her that. Meanwhile, Fluffy Girl alighted on Hans' arm, holding a different note in her beak, which Hans read aloud. "I'm at the old campground, Slowpoke. Worry about yourself for a change."
"Slowpoke?" Annie asked, contracting her eyebrows.
"It's a Water type that's known for moving slowly, hence the name. It's her nickname for me," Hans smiled with a slight blush. Within a minute, the old campground came into their line of sight. "How was your run?" he called to the figure sitting there. Alice looked up, and Annie noticed a bright smile decorating her features when she saw Hans.
"Amazing," Alice said as they drew closer. "This guy is like a combination of a tank and a jet plane," she said, indicating the Mightyena beside her. He was eating some food out of a bowl.
"Already going over basics?" Hans asked knowingly.
"Yeah, he's really smart." Alice spotted Annie with her Charmander. "Did he already give you his 'bonding' spiel?"
"Yeah," Annie said, gently putting Brave on the ground. "His name is Brave," she said with a hint of pride in her voice (though she wasn't quite sure what she was proud of yet).
"It's a good strong name. Hey, Hans?" Alice called to where he was setting up feeding and sleeping areas. "Do me a favor and release all your Pokémon, will you?"
"Why?"
"I need to start socializing Kane right away."
"You know I can't release Aurora, there's no water."
"Sure you can, just have Tiber douse her with Water Gun every ten or fifteen minutes and she'll be fine." Hans sighed, knowing he wouldn't win the argument.
"Fine, you win, but if she gets uncomfortable I'm sending her straight back into her Poké Ball."
"Deal."
Annie watched in amazement as Hans released his friends—a large, pale white Dewgong, a towering Blastoise, and a haughty Marowak. Annie counted but he only had five Pokémon total.
"Don't you have six?" she asked. Suddenly the atmosphere dropped several degrees and Annie opened and closed her mouth, unsure of whether to apologize.
"We're both missing members of our teams right now, Annie," Alice said quietly, releasing her own Pokémon and holding up a hand to stop Wolf from going anywhere. "No, Wolf. Stay here; don't fly off."
"So why aren't we going after them right now?" Annie asked in confusion.
"As much as we'd like to, we can't," Alice said. "We can't risk getting lost in Viridian Forest when it's close to nightfall like this. Unfortunately, today they've got a head start. We're going to set out as soon as it's light again, but for now there's not much we can do."
"You're just going to let them go like that?" Annie raged, balling her hands into fists.
"Annie," Hans said warningly. "Alice already told you, it's not by choice. The fact of the matter is that there is no way we can go into the middle of the forest at night. We'd get lost, even if we flew. It's just too dark." Annie settled by her sleeping Charmander, smoldering.
"We should all get some rest," Alice said quietly. She started drawing out her sleeping bag. Wolf settled on the ground and Tiktok settled on top of his head. Kane seemed very unsure, but decided to stick by, of everyone, Aurora. The quiet Dewgong seemed to radiate inner strength and peace, which Kane was naturally drawn to in order to have a sense of stability.
Annie took out her sleeping bag too, as did Hans, and they all settled into an uneasy silence. One by one, everyone, human and Pokémon alike, drifted off to sleep.
Annie woke up in the middle of the night. She could hear Alice's and Hans's voices talking lowly a few feet away, and listened with sleepy curiosity.
"…I just don't know if I can do this."
"You seemed pretty sure of yourself this afternoon."
"I was acting in the heat of the moment. Besides, what was I supposed to do, abandon him or leave him in the hands of someone who might have gotten hurt? I didn't really have a choice." Hans sighed.
"I know," he said. "I just wish you were confident with your decisions again. Where's the Alice I knew who wouldn't have hesitated to plunge into Viridian Forest in the dead of night and to heck with the consequences? Sure you would have gotten lost but you would've done it."
"The Alice who would've done that is gone with Achilles and the litter, you know that," Alice said viciously, though not towards Hans.
"For God's sake, Alice, that wasn't your fault!" There was silence for a few moments. "You've been blaming yourself all this time?"
"What's not to blame?" she said bitterly. "I was careless. Achilles and two of the pups died. The other three are God knows where. And Rosalie died of a broken heart."
"Alice…"
"Stop it. Stop talking about it."
"You've been keeping this bottled up inside you for so long that one day it's going to explode out of you if you're not careful!"
"Enough!" Alice said, finally raising her voice. "Enough," she repeated quietly. Annie heard a rustling noise as Alice settled into her sleeping bag. "Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and this will all have turned out to be a long dream."
Hans didn't answer, and Alice's breathing soon indicated that she had fallen asleep. Annie risked opening her eyes a bit to sneak a look at Hans. He was staring at Alice with the deepest sadness she had ever seen apparent in his eyes. She quickly shut her eyes, the impression of his pain burned on her brain.
So, what do you all think? Please review so I can find out!