Author's Note: Long time coming! A lot has happened in this story so far, and I don't plan to abandon it yet! But sometimes things get crazy and I'm caught falling behind. Still, I have readers to whom I have a responsibility (or so the site tells me), so I'm not going to abandon you yet! Also: there's a poll at the end of the chapter, and I want your opinion on it. Who should win the tug-of-war? Let me know! Finally, my sincerest apologies to Pokémon X, one of the best webcomics I've ever come across, for stealing their joke, but I just had to have it.
Chapter 11
The Best Friend That You Can Get
The doors to the Pokémon Center opened, and in stomped the oddest sight. In the lead was a young teenager with scorch marks all over his clothes and gear with traces of Ariados webbing strung across his torso and legs. Behind him was a girl who also seemed to have some scorch marks, but her hair looked fried, her clothes pierced in multiple places, and she was walking with a slight limp, favoring her right side. Bringing up the rear was a guy older than those two, probably late teens or early 20s, who, while lacking the scorch marks of the other two, seemed to be covered in scratches, particularly on his shoulders. The Pokémon Center nurse tilted her head as she stared... were those claw marks? Or talons?
The two younger members of their group stopped short of the desk, while the older one approached. His stare tunneled into the nurse, who reached for a pair of room keys. She placed them in the young man's hand, he dropped one on the desk, gave her a nod, and the group, almost in perfect sync, marched upstairs. Nurse Wrath almost smiled. They were kids after her own boiling, angry heart.
When Eric, Rachel, and Chris got into their room, they immediately tossed their heaviest gear on the exact same beds they slept in at the last Center. Without skipping a beat, Eric grabbed new clothes and some toiletries out of his bag and headed straight to the bathroom. Chris and Rachel opened their mouths to protest, but before they could make a sound, Eric whipped around and gave them a look that could peel paint. They stopped short of protesting, and Eric disappeared into the bathroom to take a shower.
"Man, I wish my mom cooked that well," Rachel said, leaning back in their booth. She and Eric had just finished eating lunch, while the ever-ravenous Chris continued his consumption of the regular meal composite byproduct he'd become known for in Viridian City.
Eric raised an eyebrow as he finished his sip of juice. "Considering we're having the best of cafeteria food here, I'm terrified at how bad your mother's cooking must be."
"My mom used to make this roast chicken with rice," she explained. "She roasted the chicken to the point of being so dry, it absorbed local weather patterns and caused droughts surrounding Blackthorn City."
Eric scoffed at her obvious exaggeration, but smiled at the joke nonetheless. "That reminds me. As a resident of Blackthorn, do you have any special affinity for Dragon types? I hear they're popular there."
Rachel shrugged. "My parents are more into them. I like all kinds of Pokémon, though I admit there are some cool dragons out there."
"Dragonite?" Eric asked, referring to Kanto's native dragon.
She shook her head in response. "No, I always thought Unova's dragons were cooler. Hydreigon and Haxorus."
"The Safari Zone might have them," Eric said.
Rachel shrugged again. "I'll be okay if I don't catch one while I'm here. I don't plan to stop travelling after we're done in Kanto."
"Me neither," Eric said, taking a sip of his drink.
"Johto seems like the next logical location, but I don't know if I'll be ready to go home so soon. Maybe north to Sinnoh instead?"
Eric cocked an eyebrow. "Isn't it a bit early to be thinking about this? We've only barely made it to Pewter City."
Rachel shrugged once more. "Hey, I like to think about the future. I'm obviously not making any hard plans yet, but I like to imagine what's to come."
Eric nodded. "Hm. He's gone again."
Rachel looked confused. "Huh? Who- Chris?!" She turned to look mid-sentence only to find that Chris had vanished once more. She instinctively checked her pocket, relieved to find her Poké Gear still there.
Eric finished off his juice. "Come on. Let's check out what the Poké Mart has for sale. Maybe we'll find our ninja there, too."
While Rachel and Eric talked, Chris slipped out of his seat and made for the door. He bolted toward the Poké Mart. He was a man on a mission with enough money in his pocket to make it happen.
"Welcome to the Pewter City Poké Mart! What can I get for you?"
"What's the strongest Poké Ball you have?" Chris asked eagerly.
The woman was taken aback for a moment by Chris' enthusiasm, but shook it off. "Well, we have a brand new stock of Level II Poké Balls, better known as Great Balls." She pointed to the item on the shelf behind the counter with the price marked. With the current amount of money he had, Chris could afford up to 20, but that would mean no money for anything else.
"Let me get... um... make it seven," Chris said, the number just sounding "right" somehow. With a nod, the clerk took his money and gave him seven Great Balls.
"You also get this Premier Ball as a bonus," she said, handing him a reverse-colored Poké Ball. Chris recognized it as the ball Eric kept Ponyta in.
"Oh, cool! I mean, thanks. Gotta go." He stuffed all his gains into his smaller backpack (the larger one was still in his room), and ran for the door. It was about this time that Eric and Rachel walked in.
"...which is why the hot springs are gender-separated," Eric said as they entered.
"There you are," Rachel said. "What are you up to?"
"Nothing," Chris blurted out. "Do I look like I'm up to something?"
"You always look like you're up to something," Rachel said as Eric walked to the counter.
"Please. I have such an honest face," Chris countered.
"You'll need a lot of plastic surgery to make that happen," Rachel quipped.
"You need quite a bit yourself if you plan to overcome that unfortunate incident you call a face."
"My face? At least I'm supposed to look like a girl."
"I'm as manly as they come."
"Please. I could grow a beard faster than you."
"I see that. It's coming in quite nicely, actually. Do you dye out the gray?"
"You did not just say that."
"What are you gonna do, huh?" Chris started dancing around like some weird monkey. "What are you gonna do? You want some of this?"
"When did this become an interpretive dance battle?"
"You just can't handle mah mooooooves."
Rachel's face artificially brightened. "Oh, a Miltank! Just what I've always wanted."
"You wish I was a Miltank so you could... be a... Tauros with me, huh?"
Rachel smirked. "You can retry that one. It's fine, I'll give you a minute to pull that one together."
The Poké Mart doors opened and closed. The two looked around and saw that Eric left. "Oh, come on!" Chris yelled, bolting for the door. Unfortunately, he almost smacked into it when the door didn't automatically open. With a load groan of long-suffering discontent, he jumped back so the sensor could see him, the door opened, and he sprinted out once more.
Rachel stomped her foot. "Wait for me! I still have to buy stuff!" She made a mad dash for the counter to quickly get her supplies before racing out the door to where she could only guess everyone else was going.
"No no no no no no no!" Chris' gasping breaths interrupted every pause between words as he raced toward the Viridian Forest. He stopped abruptly next to Eric, leaning forward to rest his hands on his knees, panting loudly.
Eric gave him a snide look. "You're more out of shape than I thought. I figured a kid your age would be more energetic."
Chris continued wheezing before finally standing up straight, wiping the sweat from his brow, and tossing it onto the foliage below them. "Your long legs give you an unfair advantage. I'm catching it. Me. Mine."
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." His tone very clearly indicated otherwise, however.
"I called dibs!" Chris said rashly.
Eric rolled his eyes. "You keep screaming like that, there won't be any Pikachu for anyone to catch."
"Aha!" Chris said, pointing a finger at his blond elder. But he caught himself, lowered his voice, and restated. "Aha. So you are here to catch my Pikachu."
Eric rolled his eyes once more, the expression becoming second nature to him on this trip. "You want it, go find it. But if I find it first, I'm catching it, not saving it for you."
Chris groaned as Rachel finally caught up to the other two. "Same goes for me," she said, somewhat out of breath, but not quite putting on the same show Chris had earlier. "If I see one, it's mine."
Chris clearly didn't like the competition. "You know, Chris," Eric said. "There's no one here saying there's only one Pikachu in this forest. For all we know, we'll find three. Let's just split up and look."
"I call this area!" Chris whispered harshly as he bolted straight for where the Pikachu had been earlier. Rachel and Eric shrugged as they moved deeper into the forest.
11:00 AM gave way to 2:00 PM as the group continued their exhaustive and tedious search. Sweating from the humidity of the forest, Rachel was the first to decide to call it quits, as she sat down near the exit of the forest in the direction of Pewter. Eric had kept busy not just looking for Pikachu, but for other Pokémon he could use to keep his acts fresh and entertaining in the upcoming contests. Chris, however, was the most doggedly determined of the three, ignoring all distractions that weren't Pikachu-related. But as the time crawled on, his search slowed to a crawl, and by 3 PM, he was exhausted, and sitting on his but in a pile of uncomfortably placed twigs.
"I don't know how much longer I can do this," Chris said as he stumbled his way back to the forest's northern terminus. Rachel sat on the ground drinking from a bottle of water while Eric, who had all but given up, scanned the forest for any signs of movement. "Eric, what's the deal? How rare are Pikachu, anyway?"
Eric pulled out his PokéNav and poked at it a few times. "According to this cataloging website, the average traveler has a 5-in-100 chance of finding a Pikachu when entering this forest. But this number is from a few years ago. I'm sure given the Pokémon's popularity, those chances have probably gone down."
Chris sighed loudly and dramatically. "We've wasted all day on this!"
Though far less dramatically, Eric himself let out a sigh as he pulled a yellow PokéBlock from his dispenser. It was the last one he'd made for the day. Feeling like it was a lost cause, he casually flicked it with his thumb into the bushes. The sound turned Chris' head, but he waved it off as his imagination.
"Should we head back?" Rachel asked, standing and stretching.
The grass rustled again.
"Wait," Chris said. The group stared at the spot where the rustling had happened. A yellow and black ear popped out of the grass... then promptly bolted.
"Which way did it go?!" Chris demanded in panic.
"This way!" Rachel yelled, taking off. Chris and Eric were just behind her, racing to follow the trail left by the small yellow-and-black ear. They wound through the forest in all directions, tracing erratic turns and leaps across obstacles. After about two minutes of running, they'd traced the small creature to a corner, specifically an artificial wall built to enclose the forest and separate it from the path to Pewter City. The creature remained hidden in the grass, shaking slightly.
"Eric, you got any more of that food?" Rachel asked.
The breeder shook his head solemnly. "That was my last."
"Hey, little guy. It's okay." Chris stepped between them and slowly lowered his hand into the grass, palm down. Chris felt the tickle of a small nose sniffing him. "That's right. I'm not going to hurt you..."
Rachel and Eric couldn't help but look a little shocked at Chris' treatment of the little Pokémon. So this kid was capable of slow, deliberate action after all. If he'd been even half this careful when he met Charmander...
"C'mon, little buddy. Come on out." As the creature continued to sniff Chris' hand, he pulled it, ever so slowly, out of the grass. As he planned, the nose followed, and soon from the foliage emerged the little yellow and black creature - a Pichu.
If eyes could sparkle, they were now. Rachel, Eric, and Chris were all enraptured by this tiny creature's adorable charm. It was small, even by Pichu standards, and very curious as it sniffed each of them, its fear dissipating. Its little eyes darted around as it scanned each of them in this oddly quiet corner of the forest.
"No sudden movements..." Eric warned in a whisper.
"Who's going to catch it?" Rachel demanded quietly.
"I'm the one who tamed it," Chris argued.
"I tracked it all the way here," Rachel countered.
"It was my expertly made PokéBlock that lured it to us in the first place," Eric reminded them matter-of-factly.
As if Pichu understood what they were saying, it bolted out of nowhere between Rachel and Chris, darting back into the forest area behind them. "No!" the group yelled together as they each released a Great Ball from their hands.
The three capsules crashed into each other over Pichu, falling into the thick, tall grass below. The small running mouse suddenly morphed into a bolt of energy, and was sucked down into the grass. All three of them, completely devoid of coordination or grace, scrambled on feet, hands, knees, and elbows over to the pile of Great Balls to find one shaking... then coming to rest with a light click.
They'd caught the Pichu... except now there was no clue who actually captured it.
Chris reached instinctively for the Great Ball containing the Pichu, but Rachel slapped his hand. "No! We don't know who caught it! No touching!"
"What are you going to do?" Chris demanded. "Check for fingerprints?"
"Can you do that?" Rachel asked, looking at Eric.
Eric gave her a confused look. "What do I look like, a CSI?" He picked up the Great Ball, and both Chris and Rachel gasped lightly, holding their breath to see what Eric would do. "Whoever opens this Great Ball will be imprinted as Pichu's trainer," he mused aloud. This only made the other two's lungs tighten. He looked at them, temporarily amused by their panicked expressions, before placing the ball inside a side pouch on his backpack. "It'll be safe in my bag for now. Let's head back to town to figure out how to resolve this."
Chris and Rachel started breathing again as they stood up, and each grabbed an empty Great Ball. It was going to be a long walk back to Pewter at this point.
Nurse Wrath scoffed as the three entered again, storming into the back room without any explanation. Rachel, Chris, and Eric missed it entirely, sitting down in a booth to recover and think over how they would decide Pichu's trainer.
"Coin flip? Paper-Rock-Scizor?" Chris suggested.
"I'd rather not leave it to chance," Rachel said. "We should have some kind of say in who gets it beyond simple luck."
"Pokémon battle?" asked Eric.
"NO," Chris and Rachel answered simultaneously, knowing his suggestion would give him a very obvious advantage. Eric chuckled.
"No battle, no contest exhibition, no Pokéathlon events..." Rachel murmured.
"Couldn't we just let Pichu choose?" Chris asked.
Eric shook his head. "Whoever opens the ball imprints on Pichu. We can't open it until we've made a decision."
Chris threw his head back in frustration. "How are we supposed to decide this?"
"We could each write a 1,000-word essay on why we want Pichu. Let Professor Redwood decide," Eric piped up.
"Good Arceus Eric, you have the worst ideas!" Chris groaned.
"Really, anything academic you'd stomp us in," Rachel agreed.
"So where are the better ideas?" Eric asked.
Chris groaned again while Rachel pulled her cap brim down over her eyes with a sigh.
"Well, not you, Eric, since you have so many Pokémon already," Chris said.
"By that logic, then it should be mine. I only have one Pokémon," Rachel reminded him.
Chris cocked an eyebrow. "Really? Never mind, then. I take it back."
The back-and-forth of unrealistic ideas went on for a while. Finally, Eric spoke up. "Look, we're never going to figure it out this way. We're going to have to resort to some kind of luck-based determination."
Rachel reluctantly nodded, and Chris suddenly began poking at his Pokétch madly. "Check this out, guys. It's a custom roulette app. I can divide it up into three segments like this... now I just put an initial in each one. C... R... E. Now, all we gotta do is spin the wheel. Wherever the arrow lands determines who gets it."
Eric and Rachel looked at each other. "You know, I'm so sick of thinking about this, I'm willing to give this a try," Eric said to Rachel.
Rachel's expression was one of reluctance, but she relented. "Alright," she said with a sigh. "Chris, it's your app, so give it a spin."
After a brief pause, Chris nervously pushed the button. The digital wheel began to spin, making a soft beep each time it passed one of the dividers. The beeps were almost indistinguishable at first, but it soon began to slow down. Slower, slower... everyone's hearts began beating a little faster. "And... the winner is..." Chris began.
Author's Note: Who do you want to win? Who should get Pichu? Should it be the passionate Chris, who could use some more spark in his battling style? The tough Rachel, whose speed competition could use such a nimble Pokémon? Or calculating Eric, whose upcoming Contest could use some more pizzazz? Leave a review with your thoughts!
