Sorry for the absence of updates. I was checking the page every couple of days checking for updates real optimistically, but it'll happen when it happens and I'm even annoying myself with this review obsession I have. This story nearly has 1,000 overall views and thats not real bad!
Also, the title sounds like 'Dugtrio', so I like that yay!
ANOTHER TWO DAYS
Finally I could leave the Pokemon Center.
To say Nurse Joy had not been happy to see me back so soon was an understatement. Thankfully, I was almost entirely better. The bandages had been taken of thanks to the persistent healing of Nurse Joy and her Chansey. Unfortunately, to my horror and Gold's delight, there were three long patches across my back without fur. Nurse Joy promised it wouldn't even be noticeable in a few days, but I couldn't stop thinking about how Professor Oak would have flipped his lid if he'd been here to see it.
Sam and I walked through the streets of Pewter City. It was really interesting because it was built in the middle of a canyon and surrounded by rocks. I'd never seen so many in my life. It was a far cry from a nice grassy meadow, but Gold seemed to like it. Sam told me there was a Gym in the town for rock Pokemon. We decided we had some training to do before hand but that led us to another problem. We had not only used all of Sam's food money, but Rae's also. A tanned old man with spiky brown hair had directed us to a bulletin board.
*Wanted: Professional Calligrapher for wedding invites Pay: 2000 P
Not with my tiny paws. Maybe a smeargle.
*Wanted: Fashion Consultant at Tang Manor. Pay: 50,000 P/month
Yeah right.
*Wanted: Bodyguard. Req. able to defeat all household pokemon. Pay: Protiens, carbos and 'sufficient' food and shelter
Definite no.
*Wanted: Fire pokemon for a tiki torch party. Pay:870 P
Let me just get a fire stone...
*Wanted: At least three trainers to clean mansion in the northwest corner. Pay: 500 per person
1. Kurt Steel
2.
3.
4.
...it could work...
Sam sighed in relief when he discovered that there was a job we were qualified for.
"Jeez, how bad can a house be if it needs at least three trainers just to clean?" Rae asked while signing her name neatly under Sam's scrawl.
When we arrived, there was a note posted to the door
Trainers,
Thanks for coming and sorry I can't help. You can get started on sweeping and scaring off the 'visitors'. There are plenty of brooms in the closet. If possible, please repair the table in the foyer. I will be back at 6 PM to pay provided said tasks are performed.
Thanks, Flint
Easy enough. Sam opened the door.
Maybe not.
The floor was caked with dust and overrun by spinarak webs. I noticed movement across the floor. Ratatta. He wanted the 'visitors' gone right?
"Oi! Nova! Don't get lost!" Sam called after me as I chased the thing up two flights of stairs, nearly slipping on the dust and tripping anything in my path, sneezing like crazy. Finally, I was able to corner him in a bedroom and grab him. I shook him fiercely to knock him unconscious and it worked so he must have been weak. Really weak. I carried him down stairs to show Sam much like someone else would flaunt a trophy.
"Great work, Nova!" Sam praised, (wouldn't have said that if he knew the mess I made of the house) "Maybe I should catch him..." I growled frustratedly at the horrid plan Sam had thought of and promptly brought the purple mouse to the window, ready to toss him (we were on the ground level, any higher and Sam would've been angry).
"Uh, I guess not. Sorry Nova. Just put him in this cage and we'll relocate them to the forest after we're done."
I dropped the fazed mouse in the cage and swiveled my head towards the door. It was opening.
In walked a boy, maybe 13, with spiky brown hair and a camouflage bandana. He had bright green eyes and lean but defined muscles and wore a fitted black t-shirt and tan cargo pants.
"You guys the 'Sam' and 'Rae' on the sign up sheet?"
"Yeah. And you're Kurt?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. This gonna be a lot easier with more man power." He said, sighing in relief.
"Might as well get to work, we have five hours and three floors." Rae pointed out. Sam and Kurt nodded.
"Go Gold!" Sam called out, throwing the Pokeball. His hand wavered over Missile's Pokeball before remembering that a Kakuna can't much good in the situation, being immobile and all. So instead, he handed Gold a tiny broom and directed me to help sweep, which I did with my tail. Kurt walked behind me and bent to my level so he was sitting on his heels as he stared at me with his hand on his chin.
"What kind of Pokemon is this?" He asked skeptically, as if Sam had just taken another Pokemon and just dressed it up to look like a discolored Eevee.
"Her name's Nova, she's an eevee." Sam said from where he was attempted to sweep around Cleffa and Azurill who were assisting and performing water gun to scrub the floors. Igglybuff was slightly farther blowing transparent blue bubbles which popped and released a few water droplets on the wall to clean dust off.
"I've seen pictures of eevee before and this ain't one of 'em." Kurt argued stubbornly.
"She's kind of like a Shiny eevee, but different." Sam scowled as he explained albeit poorly.
"Hmm." Kurt said as he got back up and grabbed a broom. "Go Abra!" He said as he released a strange blue and yellow Pokeball.
Out came a gold and brown Pokemon who looked light on its feet but not entirely there. Surprised, I scrambled over to it. How strange looking. Terrified of seeing me, its eyes opened in wide circles without pupils and it disappeared. My breath caught as I looked around. So fast!
Then I heard laughter coming from Kurt who had his fists on his hips and head titled back. Behind him was his Abra.
"Haha. Don't worry, Shiny, Abra ain't fast, he's teleporting. He's too much of a coward to fight you." I huffed in embarrassment and returned to work. Gold and I entertained ourselves by sneakily approaching Abra while sweeping and making a sudden noise behind or near him (Gold would drop his broom and I would sneeze or sigh loudly). He would let out a terrified 'Abra!' and teleport to the opposite side of the room. Some may call it teasing but we preferred 'training' after all, he was definitely getting his exercise (and we were getting laughs).
"So what's your money for?" Sam asked.
Kurt furrowed his eyebrows. " Me and Abra were exploring Diglet Cave-we're big time Poke Adventurers—when some people in uniforms mugged us. All our money and all our food, so we had to return here to buy some more materials. That's why Abra's been a little more jumpy than usual."
Now I felt a little guilty for giving Abra such a hard time.
"Poke Adventurer? Thats cool! I'm trying to be a Pokemon Master and Rae wants to train Police Pokemon."
"Ambitious." Kurt remarked. "If I had battle Pokemon I wouldn't hafta pay for a trainer to help me get through Diglet Cave." Kurt spat the word 'trainer' and Abra mewed sadly. Kurt grabbed Abra in a head lock, which made Abra start to spaz out.
"Bra bra bra bra!"
Kurt grinned largely. "Noogie!" Kurt noogied Abra so hard smoke started coming from Kurt's hand. "Don't worry buddy, afterwards, I promise I'll train ya. We'll be even better Adventurers then."
Everyone sweat-dropped looking at the two until Sam picked out an important piece of the conversation.
"You want trainers to accompany you? Do you want to help us with our journey? My destination's the Pokemon League." Sam offered.
Kurt thought about it for a second. "I request a sidebar." He said as he ran to a corner followed by his teleporting Abra. They whispered frantically and I had to wonder if they could actually understand each other or they were just stupid.
"Alright. We accept your offer. What's the plan?" Kurt inquired. Judging by Abra's shock and following face palm, that was the opposite point he was trying to communicate.
Okay, they're just stupid.
Sam smiled. "We can leave as soon as I get a Boulder Badge."
"So I'll be a while, huh?" Kurt laughed.
5:35
After a lot of Ratatta chasing, sweeping and mopping up extra water, we were finally done. Well, almost done.
"Crap, he forgot to repair the cabinet." Sam groaned as we where finishing up.
"Easy peasy." Kurt said, through three nails he was holding in his mouth, throwing up a hammer wand catching it single handedly. "We'll have it done in less than 10."
Abra nodded, holding a large square of sandpaper.
Sure enough within 10 minutes, they had almost entirely refinished the entire cabinet, including replacing rusted nails, smoothing out warped wood and applying new surface enamel. It looked shiny and new again.
We were all sitting against the wall, exhausted, when Flint came inside. He was a middle-aged man with tan skin and spiky hair who also looked incredibly familiar. He looked around, impressed.
"Wow, congratulations, you guys did a great job!" Flint said, passing out the promised Poke.
"Thank you sir, but if you don't mind us asking, why did you buy such a large abandoned house?" Sam inquired.
Flint face almost aged at the question. "I...made a mistake a long time ago and made a rash decision. I fully regret it now but, I'm worried it's too late. But if it isn't then I think this is a great place for my family to live with me. Much better than the house they live in now..." Flint composed himself but for some reason, Sam's face was contorted in anger. "Thanks for your help and have a good rest of the day." Flint finished, unaware of Sam's anger.
At the door, Sam turned around, "If you really are sorry then be sorry and ask—beg for forgiveness. Don't wait. Time makes it worse." I was shocked. Sam could barely control the venom in his voice and as he walked out, he shoved his portion of the money on the table.
YET ANOTHER TWO DAYS
I was really getting to like Kurt and Abra (I even stopped intentionally scaring him) and got closer to Sam, Gold, Missile, Rae, Igglybuff, Azurill, and Cleffa. I had been out in the world for twelve days now and its been amazing. Like heck I'll ever go back. Kurt showed us a training place at the base of a mountain. It was basically what Sam described as a 'high ropes course'. A rope bridge five feet above the ground with increasingly large gaps followed by a climb up ten feet of rock wall with thick groves to assist the climb. Then as a finale, a walk across a wobbly suspended log with swinging rocks the size of my head. And across all of it, the towering canyon almost always had small stones falling across the extent of the training course.
"Well, who's first?" Kurt laughed.
"How about everybody does it?" Sam suggested. "It can be a race to which team gets the fastest collective time."
Minutes later, all the contestants were prepared. Me, Gold, the Police Pokemon and Abra. Rae handed out ribbon for each team member. Team Sam was blue, Team Kurt green and Team Rae pink. I had Sam tie mine around my forehead like a ninja. Rae pulled out a stopwatch and a pen and paper. "Alright first up is Gold from Team Sam *cough*lame*cough*" Rae announced.
Gold finished tying his ribbon around his waist so it looked like a karate belt. 'Shrew!' He positioned himself.
"Go!"
Running on all fours, he was able to make the leaps easily as none of the holes were longer than him.
"15 seconds!" Rae announced.
Gold started scaling the wall, strongly plunging his fists in the cracks and widening them. He wasn't as fast with this part, but even being pelted by falling stones didn't bother his rock hard head. When he reach the log, he simply rolled into a ball and went through the swinging rocks.
"Wow! 55 seconds. Amazing, even if Team Sam is still lame..." Rae announced, dodging Sam's elbow.
"Great job Gold! Way to set a standard!" Sam cheered.
I lifted up my paw like Gold taught me and Gold high-fived it even though when I stretched out my leg, it was considerably lower than Gold's paw.
"Let's see you follow that, Rusty." He said pompously.
"Easily," I returned, now accustomed to my habitual banter with Gold.
"Next up is one of the best, Igglybuff! Team Rae!" Rae was being a little biased...
Igglybuff had a bow tied around the tuft of fur on the top of her head and was rolling around adorably.
"Ready, set, win—I mean go!" Rae said clicking her stop watch.
Igglybuff puffed up and slowly gained elevation and floated all the way through the course, not touching the course even once.
"You think that's cheating too, right?" Gold leaned over to ask me.
"Definitely." I replied still watching the puffy Igglybuff.
"And Igglybuff finishes at an impressive 1 minute 23 seconds!"
Cleffa and Azurill ran over and cheered as loud as they could.
"Next up is Azurill!" Rae announced.
"Rill rill!" Azurill cheered, preparing to start.
"Ready, set, go!" Rae said, starting the stop watch. "Do Kanto Police Force proud!"
Azurill jumped back onto her tail and started bouncing higher and higher and started jumping from wooden plank to wooden plank. She jumped high into the air to pass the final gap, a two foot gorge. And—unfortunately, miscalculated the distance and fell on the ground, completely dazed.
"And...uh Azurill is given a two-second penalty-" Rae began but both Kurt and Sam grabbed the twig she was broadcasting with and yelled "Disqualified!"
"Fine, fine," Rae said, recovering her microphone-stick and crossing out the spot for Azurill score and going over to pick the downed water pokemon.
"Next is Cleffa!"
Cleffa started off with a good start, but when she got to the two foot hole, she stopped a together and just stared at it.
15 seconds passed.
"Oi! You do realize this is a race right?" Gold shouted up to her, annoyed.
Finally Cleffa came to conclusion and climbed onto the rope railing holding the bridge together and tip toed across with the grace of a tight roper.
"And Cleffa finishes in... 2 minutes 12 seconds." Rae said, trying to keep up her exuberance.
"Next up is Nova from Team Sam!"
My turn.
"Well at least we don't have to worry about Team Rae winning," I joked as I climbed up to the starting spot.
"-And, Go!"
I jumped over the first and second, almost hesitated on the third but made it. Here comes the hard one, The one twice my length. The only Pokemon that actually managed to jump over it was Gold, who was twice my size. With a sinking feeling, I realized that I wasn't gonna make it. My paws grappled for a hold on the board, pressing hard until they found a tiny groove to dip into it. I grabbed the rope rail with my teeth and slowly brought myself over the wooden edge. I heard cheering distantly as I poured all my concentration into his one task. I was able to lift up my back leg onto the plank, followed by my front leg. Exhausted, I rolled up onto the plank and took a half second to get my breath before jumping up and running.
"And Nova finishes part one in 25 seconds!"
Damn, I'm 10 seconds behind Gold already...
Since I was considerably lighter than Gold however, I had an easier time grabbing on the holes in the mountain and only was deterred when I looked down.
A whopping 15 feet above the ground. I couldn't move. Sam, noticing my nervousness, walked underneath the wall.
"I'll catch you if you fall, Nova."
I trusted Sam, so it was enough to scale the last two feet and jump over to the swinging rocks death trap. I crawled as low to the plank as I could go until I realized the third rock swung only a couple inches above the ground. I jumped up to avoid it and nearly got hammered by it. Now scared, I sprinted blindly past the fourth which swung behind me a second late.
"Finish! 1 minute 10 seconds!"
I jumped off the platform about five feet tall and landed in Sam's arms.
'Vee-e!' I purred.
"That was amazing, Nova, we'll win for sure."
"Don't count on it." Kurt said behind us.
"Huh?"
"Abra from Team Kurt, And, Go!" In a flash Abra teleported a couple feet past the finish line.
"...And Abra finishes in half a sec-" Rae began, astonished.
"Wait!" Sam said, letting me down to join Team Sam (really just Gold). Sam pointed to Abra and the finish line. "Abra never passed the finish line. He teleported past it."
Kurt realizing this, yelled to his Abra. "Cross the finish line, hurry!"
Abra stood up and took a step. A small stone came tumbling down on his head. Abra stopped moving and widened his eyes.
"You think he's dead?" I finally asked Gold. He shrugged.
We looked back to see Abra fall to ground, unconscious.
"Really?" Gold said.
"He's not very strong..."
"Abra!" Kurt ran up to Abra. "He's not much of a fighter yet..." He defended.
"Winner is Team Sam!" Rae announced, choking back a laugh.
Tell me what you think and wish me luck on finals tomorrow!
Merry Christmas!
Or any other holiday you celebrate!