Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Only my characters.
Author's note: I began this story years ago, but I'm planning on carrying on 'til the end this time. I'd really appreciate reviews, and I hope you enjoy!
Chapter Two- Tower Duke
The late afternoon of her first official day as a trainer painted Effy Brooke as a tableau of fatigue on a dusty Kanto pathway. The sticky remnants of her father's checked shirt were cushioned beneath her blue backpack where she laid her head.
Arthur the six pound weedle stared up at his friend, exhausted. Route 1 had been a terrifying experience for the little bug; if it hadn't been for his speedy human saviour he might have been eaten ten times over by now. As it was, the girl had finally placed him on the ground and challenged him to a game… of chase. The Bug-Type had only ever had to squirm away from birds and the occasional strong wind, so at first he had thought his trainer was angry at him so his eyes had welled up…and he had stung her reaching hands.
Since then they had been laying down not far off of the path watching the sky.
"How ya doing, Arthur?" Effy grinned, coaxing him to crawl over, using her bandaged hand. He hung his little head and she frowned a little.
"Dooo," he lamented, wriggling forward to bump his cheek against her fingers in apology.
Effy laughed.
"Don't worry about that," she said, scooping him up with both hands and holding him above her face. She looked at his little pink feet and ridged underbelly. "You're bound to be scared. S'just another thing we need to tell Oak. Though, I guess all weedle hate being chased, huh?"
He bobbed his big bulb of a head in agreement and she sighed.
A charmander would want to run around… at least a little. Effy felt like dirt the moment she thought it and it was exactly then that the boy looked over and spotted her.
"Heh," he smirked, calling over to her, "Let's battle!"
Letting Arthur scamper onto her chest, Effy looked over. She kind of recognised him from graduation; he was a kid from a different class to hers at Pallet Preparatory- which was weird, since she figured she had been the last to leave… but that meant that the charmander stood at his side on the path was hers… or would have been..
Effy felt that guilty wanting feeling again- it was a female charmander, she could tell, which would have meant they'd have bonded faster- and sat up, holding Arthur close.
"Actually, my weedle is still a baby so I can't really battle right now," Effy smiled as pleasantly as she could, brushing her reddish-brown hair out of her eyes. The boy was ruddy, with narrowed grey eyes and blonde hair. He was dirty, as if he'd fallen on the way, and dressed in old jeans and a blue t-shirt with a hole at the shoulder.
"Well," he looked at her like an idiot. "You can't actually say 'no' because you have an able Pokemon… so, get up."
"Excuse me?" Effy did stand up, and she could feel Arthur's little feet bristling against her forearm as he lowered his stinger towards the boy, ready to launch at him. "Didn't you hear me? He's too young, so get lost!"
The boy glared at her, his dark brows furrowed, and Effy glared back. Finally, she stuffed her shirt in her backpack and shouldered it, moving towards the path.
"Where are you going?" He demanded, furiously. "Charmander, use Ember!"
"Char char," the young Pokemon hesitated, looking from her fierce trainer to the frozen, shocked face of the other trainer, halted ahead of them on the path.
"Do it, now! Scratch!"
The Fire-Type launched towards them and Effy screamed indignantly, dodging the baby Pokemon in the nick of time.
"Now, Ember!"
The flames caught Effy on her landing, and licked against Arthur's weak skin and her arm. He cried out in pain, and Effy gasped out.
"Now, Charmander, use Scratch again! Get that weedle!"
The charmander stared in dismay at Effy and Arthur, shocked into stillness.
"Charmander char," she said, her eyes watery as she took a step towards them.
Forcing herself to her feet, Effy bolted, her shoulder burning white, and Arthur held close to her chest. Behind her, Effy heard the boy screaming at her- his- poor charmander.
Viridian City was probably beautiful but Effy's first impressions of it were pure hatred.
"Where's the stupid Pokemon Centre?!" She was furiously spitting under her breath, dodging around shocked shoppers in the city centre. She had been lucky in that there was a road straight into the middle of the shopping district from where she had sprinted in from Route 1, but now she was seeing red as her shoulder started to go hot and cold, and her rage at Viridian City for making the Centre so hard to f-
"There it is!" Effy cried, changing course all of a sudden and running headlong for the tell-tale red roof in the distance. "Hang in there, Arthur!"
"Wee," his voice was barely there, and he was looking worse with every passing second, his little face scrunched up in pain.
Looking down at him as she was, Effy missed the moment a tall man with a fishing rod stepped into (what had been) her straight shot to the Centre.
"Oof!" He wheezed, winded, dropping his rod and stumbling back.
"Oh! I'm so sorry! Please, excuse me!" The auburn-haired fourteen-year-old with the red raw shoulder cradling a weedle exclaimed, dodging around him like a dancing bellsprout, and handing his rod back.
He watched in bemusement as she thundered toward the Pokemon Centre.
"That's an odd trainer if I ever saw one," he chuckled, the light glinting off of the gold hoop at his ear. Curious, he wandered towards the Centre, thoughts of fishing put away for the time being as he stroked a calloused finger over a scarred pokeball on his belt.
Effy was miserable.
Nurse Joy had been nothing but the best in taking Arthur for care as soon as she had put him on the counter- and she had even plied her with a salve that was good for burns- but Effy couldn't help but hate herself. Rubbing the gloopy medicine all over her sore arm, Effy silently thanked the gods that the charmander was still too young to really hurt her.
Poor Arthur. Poor Charmander.
But, really, poor Arthur. She was the worst for thinking about that charmander at all- she hated the idea of that awful boy mistreating her- Arthur was her starter and, for all she knew, he would have been regardless of when she left home, or when she went to get her starter. Her mum always used to say that fate worked in strange ways. Nevertheless, maybe if she had gotten the charmander instead things might have gone differently…
"No," Effy muttered. "If I had had the charmander I would have been doing exactly the same thing- picking on every Pokemon in sight. I'm no better than that monster back there."
"I disagree."
Effy jumped, looking up at the man sat across from her on the sofa opposite, finally taking in her surroundings. When she had arrived, Effy had been in such a frenzy that she hadn't taken in the look of the Centre, or anyone around, just blubbered about Arthur and parked herself on what was one of two long, parallel fuchsia sofas in the corner of the wide Centre foyer. The walls were a clean cream, while the floor and furnishings were decorated in pastel. The large Centre desk was quite busy, and manned by several chansey and an assistant nurse. Effy hoped that meant Nurse Joy had gone to look after Arthur.
"Huh?" She said intelligently. He laughed.
"I take it you were talking about the goon that did that to you?" He asked, nodding at the angry-looking redness on her arm, like really bad sunburn. She nodded dumbly. "I can't believe a girl that would look so panicked for her barely hurt weedle could do that to someone. That takes a particular kind of person. Or Pokemon, for that matter. I'm Duke. Tower Duke."
He reached a hand forward to shake. She recognised him as the one she had nearly knocked over on her way to the Centre and, looking closer, Effy could tell he was not a man but a boy a few years older; he was broad, tanned and tall, with messy brown hair and a gold hoop in his left ear. He wore a white, v-neck t-shirt, dark green board shorts, and a pair of espadrilles- probably from the coast, she guessed. He looked like the kind of boy you wouldn't want walking behind you on the street late at night. Next to him on the sofa were the rod she had handed back, and a big, dusty brown backpack.
"Effy Brooke," she smiled a somewhat reassured smile, reaching forward to shake hands. He smiled back. "I really am sorry for knocking you outside, I was worried-"
"About your weedle, I know," he frowned. "That's why I came to check on you- it's not usual practice to attack a trainer and her Pokemon. What happened?"
Effy told him about the boy, and the charmander that should have been hers, and about Arthur, and everything that had happened since leaving Pallet. Tower leaned forward and listened, his elbows on his knees and hands clasped, making no comment until she had finished. She noticed his eyes were an intense blue that made them hard to look at.
"I thought it was strange to see someone so concerned for a weedle," he admitted. "Regardless, I think we should tell Nurse Joy to warn people about that kid. Not only is it against League etiquette, he seems like a dick."
Effy laughed in surprise, nodded, then sobered with a sigh.
"I'm so worried about Arthur," she muttered. "He's not been in any battles yet- that was us running away. I just hope he's okay."
Tower looked at her and she felt he might say something, but he seemed to think better of it and patted her hand reassuringly instead.
A while passed as she watched Tower rummage through his dirty backpack a bit. He seemed to have made himself comfortable sitting with her, and even had the impact of making other trainers walk in the other direction, which Effy found kind of funny. The only person she'd ever pointedly walked the other way from was Ricky, and that was because he was a jerk all of the time… Tower seemed odd- definitely different than anyone she'd ever met- but sweet. Who else did she know that would chase after someone to see if they were okay? People in Kanto seemed to err towards the sentiment of 'guilty until proven innocent', Effy knew, and Tower seemed to fit that description- he even had a bright, white scar against the tanned skin of his hard chin. She relaxed in his calm, uninterested company, watching as he began polishing a series of four different pokeballs that had hung on his pokeball belt. She wondered what kind of Pokemon he would have, and if the fishing rod was a giveaway. The tell-tale crackle of the intercom finally piqued Effy's interest after a half hour of fretting with the glue-like substance still on her dad's shirt.
"Elizabeth Brooke to the Main Desk. Elizabeth Brooke."
"Arthur!" Effy jumped up and over to the desk, where the smiling Nurse Joy stood with the small bug sleeping in her hands, curled around his pokeball. Effy grabbed her in a swift hug. "Oh thank you so much!"
"You're welcome!" She beamed, lifting Arthur and his ball into Effy's waiting arms. "You just come back if you need anything else!"
"Oh, before I go…" Effy told a shocked Joy about the boy on Route 1.
She was too shaken to speak at first, merely nodding with a face a few shades paler than usual.
"I'll make sure Officer Jenny is alerted right away!"
When Effy turned away from the counter, Tower had snuck over to listen.
"Oh!" She huffed, knocked back a little this time. He rolled his eyes.
"I was thinking," he said, twirling his collapsible fishing rod with easy precision in one hand, and holding her backpack/shirt combo with the other. "Seeing as your weedle is better now, wanna come fishing? It gets kind of boring alone, and maybe you can catch something."
"Well, I don't know… I've never fished before…"
At her doubtful look, he smirked.
"I can teach you how to catch a Pokemon, if you're scared-"
"I KNOW HOW TO CATCH POKEMON!"
Leaving the Pokemon Centre was much calmer than her entrance and, as they walked, Tower talked about how this was his sixth visit to Viridian and that he was originally from a place called Castelia City. He was holidaying now, apparently.
Effy listened with one ear, while most of her attention lay with Arthur; holding him up to inspect him. As she turned him from left to right he also checked himself, wriggling as if tickled. She had expected Arthur to have some small reminder of the horrible incident, but not the vast scarring of pale yellow that he now had; Nurse Joy had done the best she could, but Effy had read one of Oak's journals about young Pokemon at the Preparatory and how they were more sensitive- among other things- to scarring. She shifted a glance down at her own arm, where she was sure she would have a scar, too.
"You shouldn't doubt him so much, you know," Tower grimaced, having been watching them from over his shoulder.
"What are you talking about?" Effy blushed, glaring at him.
Tower sighed.
"I only met you a little while ago, but even I can tell you look at him like you pity him,"
Effy bristled, halting as Tower turned to her and continued. In her arms, Arthur hung his head and she felt a tiny little drip of liquid on her arm as the little Pokemon began to cry. "You should stop pining after a different Pokemon and focus on him-"
Effy straightened, took the three steps between them, and punched Tower square in the jaw.
"Ah!" She gasped, recoiling and clutching her hand in pain, still staring balefully at Tower. "You don't know anything! I don't pity him!"
Tower watched her, barely moved by the weak right hook of the scrawny little girl with the wide-eyed weedle. Arthur was looking at her with a strange mask of terror, admiration and…something the eighteen-year-old couldn't figure out.
"I'm ashamed!" Effy continued, looking down and away from them both. "I don't know how to help him! Or protect him! I never studied Bug-Types… I don't know how…"
"Wee-wee-doo!" Arthur squeaked, shaking away the tears in his eyes. Effy looked at him and was surprised by the raw defiance and determination.
"Arthur…"
Did that mean he knew? Did he know she was scared? For her- for both of them?
Tower smiled, grabbing a pokeball out of his pocket and tapping the release. The bright white light revealed a large, colourful, winged insect.
"Stoxxxx," It cried, flying circles through the early evening air.
"This is my dustox, Cerra," Tower smiled, watching Arthur and Effy follow her flight with their eyes. "She's a Bug/Poison-type, which is what Arthur will be when he grows up. She was my first Pokemon- I won her as a wurmple in a contest when I was seven."
"She's beautiful," Effy breathed, and Arthur nodded his horned head in agreement.
"What I'm saying is- things get better… Bug-Types are underrated. Did you know they can destroy Psychic-Types?" Cerra landed on Tower's outstretched arm, where he stroked the soft, velvety fur on her back. The older boy regarded the newbie with a heavy gaze. "How about we go hook you another Pokemon?"
Effy grinned.
"I'm sorry, buddy," she hugged Arthur close, looking down at him. "We'll get stronger, right?"
"Wee-dooo!" Arthur cried happily, and she felt the tip of his stinger graze her cheek gently.
The lake was a mirror of the now-starry sky; twinkling and rippling in the soft breeze over its waters.
As it turned out, Tower had several rods and set all of them up. Reclining back on the bank of the glossy water's edge, he watched Cerra dipping low above where Effy lay nearby. Her face was hung above the water as she watched a school of poliwag dart about beneath the surface. On her back, Arthur lay curled like an arthropodic cat.
Effy wasn't really paying attention- instead choosing to dwell on Tower's words.
Maybe it wasn't his business, but he'd helped… he'd seen a newbie trainer with a weedle and he'd helped, she thought. I think there are worse people to meet… like that maniac earlier today.
One of Tower's rods twitched and, like a snake, he darted forward to reel it in.
"Damn," he sighed as the line went slack suddenly.
Effy had turned to watch his excitement with a grin, but suddenly squawked in terror, clutching the ear that had, milliseconds before, been subjected to a magikarp's wet-lipped affections.
"Karp-karpkarp-magikarp!" The gruff, wheezy voice of the fish cajoled, splashing about with its tiny fins. Arthur, having tumbled off of Effy's back, now scampered up to the water's edge to inspect the new creature.
"Wee-duuu!" Arthur beamed at the magikarp and, in turn, the magikarp cried, "Karpkarp!"
Together, Arthur and the magikarp turned to the stunned Effy with adoring looks in their eyes.
"Wha-?" She began, and then it hit her. She turned pleading eyes on Tower, who was doubled over laughing at her misfortune. "Don't tell me they want-?!"
"Looks like you're becoming a champion for misunderstood Pokemon, my newbie friend," the older boy grinned, making sure not to look too much like a taunting superior.
Aghast, Effy stared at the magikarp a moment longer before taking a deep breath, and chuckling despite herself.
"Well, if this is destiny, it's nice to meet you, Duke," Effy smiled. In the background, Tower looked indignant at the little carp being named after him but she ignored it, reaching into her backpack and tossing the pokeball at the cheerful magikarp. The red light engulfed the fish, pulling it into the pokeball, which landed with a plop on the surface of the water. Picking it up, Effy watched it wriggle weakly before it made the tell-tale ding sound she had read about in textbooks. After all, Professor Oak had been the one to put Arthur in a pokeball, not her.
Arthur, meanwhile, scampered up to nuzzle the shiny new pokeball fondly. Effy smiled softly.
From tending his fishing lines, Tower gave a thoughtful hum as he watched the girl.
Maybe… he mused.
When they returned to the Pokemon Centre later, Nurse Joy offered them blankets and a spot on the cosy fuchsia sofa's to sleep. There were other trainers there as well, but none that Effy really knew- she recognised a couple from the yearbook, but nobody from her class. Tower politely declined and said he was staying with friends, so he said goodnight and that he might see her in the morning. Effy settled down with Arthur cuddled close to her neck, listening to the Centre doors open and close as he left. Exhausted after her first day out on the road, Effy let her mind wander and so her last thoughts before she fell asleep were of the boy from Route 1, and Ricky's face.
You know you'll never be as good as me or anyone else!
She'd show him.
She woke up aching, sick to her stomach, and triumphant.
"We did it, Arthur!" Effy fist-pumped the air, launching up from her makeshift bed. "We made it through our first day!"
The weedle gave an excited hop in joy, wriggling his body. At a sharp, 'Hush!' from the night porter, the two flinched, sneaking a glimpse out the nearby curtained window.
"Woah it's still dark," Effy whispered, pulling her toothbrush, flannel and toiletries out of her backpack. "We might as well make an early start… Right, Arthur?"
"Duu!" Arthur's voice was soft and she patted his soft cheek.
"Guard the stuff, soldier," Effy winked, her feet pattering quietly on the linoleum floor on her way to the bathroom.
Half hour later Effy and Arthur were outside the Centre stretching in the approaching dawn light.
"We're gonna do some serious training today, Arthur!" Effy bit her cheek to stop from smiling, spotting him trying to do lunges to copy her from atop the wooden bench in front of the Centre. "We've gotta show Tower, and Ricky, and everyone! You, me, and Duke, right!?"
"Duu-duu!"
They set off along the High Street, picking up a few potions and antidotes with Effy's small savings at an all-night store. In the far off distance was Viridian Forest and, while Arthur wasn't going to need to worry about poison as much, she and Duke would.
Soon they were on the road out of town, waving goodbye to some friendly early-risers.
"Oi!" A familiar voice called, disturbing a pidgey from its roost. Effy turned and Arthur gave a happy 'Weeduu!" in greeting. A ways behind them was Tower, and it seemed he had been running for a while. In his arms was a bundle swathed in heavy blankets, and on his brow was a bright sheen of morning sweat.
He reached them and collapsed onto his backside easily, panting laughter.
"You guys wake up early!" He grinned, eyes squinting against the bright sunlight behind them, and breathing heavy. "I'm impressed!"
Arthur puffed out his tiny chest and Effy giggled, offering a hand. He thanked her with a nod and let her help him up.
"I didn't know you wanted a goodbye," the girl laughed, caught up in his jovial morning attitude. She noticed he had changed his shirt into a black one, but otherwise was dressed pretty much the same, as she was; she still wore the same black shorts, but this morning she wore a floaty, white, buttoned down shirt her aunt had sent her for exactly this kind of hot, sticky day.
"If only it were that simple," he shot her a crooked grin, offering her the swaddled bundle. She took it, giving him a confused look. He motioned for her to unwrap it and, as she did, her breath caught in her throat.
"A Pokemon egg!" Effy stared at Tower like he was crazy. "Why are you handing me a Pokemon egg?"
He shrugged nonchalantly, grinning like a hero all the while.
"My friend's Pokemon were at the day care lately, so he gave me a few," Tower explained, rubbing the porous shell of the yellowish egg. "It's really close to hatching, so I figured it could help beef your team up while you raise Arthur and my namesake."
Effy did it without thinking, jumping up and hooking her arms around him for as much of a bear hug as she could manage with a delicate Pokemon egg and a baby Pokemon in her arms.
"I don't know how to repay you!" She cried, face a picture of excitement.
"Let's travel together," Tower shrugged at her look. "Never traveled with a newbie before- could be fun."
Effy punched his thick shoulder, but her heart wasn't in it.
"Weeduuwee!" Arthur nodded enthusiastically.
"That settles it!" Effy beamed and, together, they started out towards Viridian Forest; a boy, a girl, and a weedle.