The sunlight crept up through the windowsill as the young teen winced a bit from the reflection on her walls now filling up the room. Pulling the sheets up over her head she refused to let her dreams come to an end. Under the blanket, she was met with darkness as she hummed happily to herself and relaxed back into a curled up position on her side. The summer months had been long and hard at her family's business and right now she was content with staying wrapped up under her sheets. The soft droning sound of the air conditioning unit hanging above her bed numbed her of the world around as she began to doze back off with a smile on her face. She didn't hear her door creak open or the footsteps approach the side of her bed in time to react.
"Sissy! Pokemon battle!"
Paige pulled back the sheets from her head and sat up, ready to yell out as always but was met with a jet of cold water hitting her face. Her little brother's poliwag, held in his arms, continued spray her with a stream from its pursed lips as she flailed her arms up to defend against the assault.
"Lucas! St-stop! I'm gonna kill you", Paige managed to yell out in her sputtering as she threw her wet sheets back from the bed. Lucas laughed and turned tail, running with the Poliwag out of her room and down the hallway as he and the Pokémon echoed out a chorus of laughter. Paige stumbled out of her bed and gave chase, her hand reaching out to one of her work boots.
Lucas sat pouting at the breakfast table with a swollen knot on the top of his head. His eyes glared over at Paige who shot a look right back while eating a piece of sunshine toast. In the background the weather report for the morning played off the radio. The summer had cooled down a bit but was still warm enough to enjoy the sun without getting blistered up.
The household was busy as always; their mother running back and forth from office to garage while speaking on their phones about delivery concerns. The kitchen and living room was, as usual, cluttered with several boxes and containers that had yet to be packed up from the night earlier. Still, their father's Machokes were making short work of moving them from the inside of the house out to the truck waiting outside. Their father, a heavy set and stoic man, was aiding in loading up and checking for final delivery cargo as Paige finished up her breakfast and dropped her plate into the sink with a rattle.
"Finished! Heading out to see Kali down at the Trainer Club! Won't be back until tonight!" Paige was just about to make her escape out the sliding glass door when her mother seemed to teleport behind her and take a hold of her earlobe to halt her in her tracks.
"Don't think you are getting away that easy young lady. You still have deliveries from yesterday to complete. Get dressed and I will pack you a lunch. Not later, now."
Paige felt her blood go cold and hung her head forward with a sigh of defeat as her brother snickered from the table. She turned around and muttered softly to herself as she climbed back up the steps into the hallways and turned to her room. In reality she didn't mind having to help the family business but a little bit of personal time to hang with her friends would have been nice. Kali had a few matches lined up today and Paige wanted to see her schoolmate in action. After that Kali had planned to go sunbathing near the river and enjoy the break in the summer heat. Paige wasn't a fan of that idea but it was better than getting stuck doing grunt work again.
Fumbling around with her phone, she texted the bad news to Kali. As she slipped on the brown courier vest over her shirt she soon realized that in all the rush from this morning, she had almost forgotten her belt with her partner attached. Glancing over at the desk she smiled and recovered the cincher belt, sliding it around her frame and taking a glance in the mirror while fastening it with a click.
The teen staring back was dressed casually, save for her work vest. Her pair of faded denim shorts fit well enough with the opaque tights. With the plaid black and red buttoned down top and a light dust of freckles on her face, she gave her best smile. With her charcoal pixie cut, her silver stud earrings could be easily seen pierced through her lobule. Confident in her look, Paige smirked at the reflection with her tongue stuck out and a wink from an azure iris before turning away from her closet and heading out the door.
"Gale!" Paige tossed the pokeball up into the air as she stood outside, the packages for the day secured to a small wagon attached to the back of her bicycle. The morning sun was still low enough for the temperature to be comfortable but it was still going to get heated today. She had made sure to plan her route out accordingly, getting all of the packages in Viridian City done first so when the last few package to Pallet Town was dropped off she could spend some leisure time near the river that ran through the area.
With a flash of light, her Pidgey appeared in the sky with wings stretched out proudly, giving a few light calls out before landing on top of her owner's hat like she always did. Paige giggled happily, glancing up as Gale peered over the brim of the hat and cooed to her. If it wasn't for his company, these types of days would be unbearable. While it was proposed a few years back that Paige should travel to Pallet Town and journey across Kanto as her rite of passage into adulthood, her family would not be able to survive the rush they get in the summer months if she had left.
Truth be told, Paige disliked the idea of Pokémon fighting one another. She never saw a purpose on risking Pokémon getting injured, just to prove something about being a trainer. Some would call her soft hearted or even a coward and point out that Pokémon evolve through battles but nothing seemed to sway her opinion. The Pidgey she had caught a few months back seemed to share in her opinion, having a sort of docile nature and preferring to doze off in her lap.
For the time being though, daylight was burning and the sooner she completed her deliveries, the sooner she could spend the rest of the day goofing off. Mounting the bicycle and fastening her clipboard to the front of the handlebars, Paige planted her laced up boots onto the peddles and pushed forward with a light strain to get the day started. Paige was fully unaware that on this particular day, her life would take a twist and spiral out of control, forcing her on a grand adventure through the region of Kanto and beyond!
Huffing and puffing forward, Paige felt like she was on the tail end of a marathon. Bolting through Viridian City, Paige had made all of her deliveries ahead of schedule and without incident. Usually there would be some sort of traffic jam or error in the address but it seemed lady luck was on her side. Gale had even lifted some of the workload by flying a few of the smaller parcels up to opened windows. He had a habit of just tagging along for company and not really listening to requests but today she seemed to be eager to help.
Glancing down at her clipboard, the last 3 packages were addressed to Professor Oak in Pallet Town. The boxes most likely had some sort of lab equipment or important research in them. Paige had only met Professor Oak once, back when she was still a toddler and making runs with her father. Professor Oak claimed that she would make a good trainer one day. Paige smirked as she recalled his observation. Clearly the old man was wrong in that assumption. Looking down at her wristwatch, she would pick up the pace and begin to speed by onto the dirt roads through Route 1.
The dust cloud that kicked up made her feel like she was a Ponyta dashing over the meadows in the Safari Zone. Paige imagined her hair being her mane of fire as the sunlight gave her fiery body the energy to move forward. Her Pokémon partner was in the air above her and flew behind her in an attempt to keep up. The little bird would usually call out if it was being left behind but this time Paige could hear the audible chirps right above her in alert.
Looking back at what she was fussing about, Paige saw a black van riding up behind her and pulling alongside as they approached. It was a bit rude in her mind for vehicles to take these roads when bikers are much more frequent and easier on the environment around here. Still, the van pulled up beside her and maintained their speed for a few moments. Paige did her best to ignore the vehicle and its tinted windows but their presence was really getting on her nerves. The kicking up of dirt and rocks could be heard and felt while the van began to speed up and pass her. Just as they had overtaken her from the opposite side, the vehicle suddenly made a violent jerk sideways and cut the bicycle off. Paige's eyes widened as she was forced to swerve in avoidance with crashing into the back of the vehicle.
The bike dipped forward and down the hillside while Paige peddled quickly in an attempted to maintain control while Gale above called out loudly and followed her descent. The river nearby behind the tree line could be heard clearly running fast today and that gave Paige only a few options. Pivoting the front wheel forward and tilting her body she would attempt to slide and straighten herself back out and stick beside the trees. Whatever luck had been on her side had ran out as her bike hit a large rock in the field and forced her corrections to go awry and steer her right into the tree line. Paige yelled out as she was caught in a torrent of lower branches swatting at her arms that she put up to defend herself. Her feet pushed backwards to cue the brakes to slow her down but not to lock up unless she wanted to go head on into a tree. She was aware though if she didn't stop, she would be taking a dip very soon.
The tires squealed against the brake as the chain on the wheels popped out of place from the rough action and sent any hope of controlling this ride down the drain. Paige felt her body go airborne for a brief moment before hitting a hard piece of stone in the side of her head with a heavy thud and tumbling down along until her body stopped rolling. Redness started to cloud her sight as the world around her spun, the pain in her skull made it impossible to stand back up. Gale could be heard above in the trees still, circling and calling out for its owner as Paige faded in consciousness.
The world around Paige slowly grew back into focus. First a set of muffled voices argued over her as her eyesight began to come back. Glancing upwards from her positioning, she soon realized she had been propped up against a tree trunk downstream. The taste of copper and cloth was strong in her mouth; a gag had been secured to prevent her from calling out with her wrists tied up in her lap and legs stretched out in front of her. She looked down at the steel hoop that had been pounded down into the soil that kept her ankles together and her legs from moving. Dread soon replaced pain as she looked around for any information she could get on the situation. The voices from before spoke out again, this time in clarity.
"We can't just lug her around forever. The kid is gonna have someone looking for her sooner or later and if she identify us we are done for", a soft female's voice stated.
"Calm down and think about this. The hill here is steep and the waters run deep. Who's to say the girl wasn't goofing off and fell into the water? We throw the bike and the other packages in and take what we need and no one will be the wiser. They are bound the dredge it sooner or later and find the remains of her cart. When that happens, they will assume she got swept downstream. Let's take her along with us for the time being until we can drop her off in another city closer to Saffron. By then, we will be long gone." The second male voice was gruff and stern, seeming to carry a lot of authority and sureness in his tone.
Paige was listening quietly at the voices from behind the van and didn't notice her Pidgey hopping up to her until it had jumped into her lap. Paige gave a muffled startle and looked down at the Pokémon, tears welling up in her eyes as Gale began to peck at the binds on her wrists with little success. The two voices continued to discuss future plans while Gale picked at the thick rope, only fraying a small section. At first Paige thought the stress of the situation was forcing her body to heat up as perspiration dripped from her brow but it suddenly became apparent that something was watching this attempt at escape. A foul odor snaked into her nostrils as she coughed into the rag while a low deep growl came emanating from behind the tree trunk.
Hoooouuuuu!
The Pidgey rose up its head too late. A large canine darted out from seemingly nowhere and snapped its jaws at Paige's lap. Gale took off in flight a bit too late as the elongated snout of the black Pokémon took hold of its right wing and held it firmly into its jaws. Paige's partner cried out in pain, thrashing to free itself from the hound's grip but to no avail. The teen's eyes dropped a few tears as they were froze open, struggling against the binds that held her.
"Well it seems that bird was yours then huh?" Paige glanced up at the man now standing over her, his hand reaching down to pet the black horned Pokémon. The man was dressed in heavy steel plated boots and pair of camouflage pants with a tattered black muscle tee. His massive forearms had several scars lining up and down with ink work punctuating a few of the healed marks. "Doubt you would even awake this soon after the tumble you took. How you like my Houndoom? Doubt you have ever seen one in this region. You should feel lucky dear."
The man knelt down to make eye contact with Paige, his true gruff appearance hidden behind a partial gray mask that covered the top of his head down to his nose and cutting off at his mouth. Black paint was etched around the mask's eyeholes to further emphasize his cold glare and chilling smile. Paige gave a glare back at him, despite the predicament she was in.
"Now you are obviously no threat to us and we want your cooperation here. I propose if you stay quiet and come with us, you get your Pidgey back. If you try to escape or make too much noise though, my Houndoom will make sure you won't even have bones to bury. Got it?" Pidgey was shook violently by the Houndoom on cue, bringing the tiny bird more up into his jaws. Paige muffled out a scream from the hound's action but turned back to the man and quickly nodded in agreement, pleading him with her eyes to stop harming her Pokémon. The man grinned as he exposed several iron teeth caps and patted her roughly on top of her head. "Glad we have an understanding princess. Now here's the thing . . ."
Before the muscular framed man could finish, the sound of steel being slammed into came from the opposite side of the van. From Paige's side, the van was rocked towards her and the man. The shadow of the vehicle covered the two of them before balancing on tires. The man put his arm up as it reached this point out of instinct and pushed back with a shove, watching it fall back to its previous positioning with a hard thud. The shocks of the vehicle absorbed the drop while the man stood back up and muttered a few selected curse words. "Hey! What's going on over there!?" The female's voice came from the other side in a startled tone.
"You better get over here! We got some kind of company here!" The man gritted his teeth together and waved his Houndoom to follow. The hound Pokémon spit out the Pidgey on the ground, assured that with the crippled wing it wouldn't be able to go far.
A few droplets of sweat had formed on the woman's brow as she stood next to a large caved in section of her vehicle's side. Her hand was placed at her hip and gripped onto a pokeball. The man had rejoined his partner in time to view a young teenage boy standing up on the hillside in the pathway staring down at them.
The boy rested one of his hands on the back of his head, scratching softly through his chocolate locks while the other held onto a great ball. He looked utterly bored at the moment. A skull headed Pokémon had just recovered from an attack, resting a large bone club on its shoulder with a glare downwards. The teen however retained his cold and calm stare as he gripped the great ball tightly into his fingerless gloved hand. Dressed in a casual pair of tattered jeans and an artistic rendition of an exploding ultra ball painted across his t-shirt along with a baggy windbreaker, the boy seemed to be a trainer sticking his nose where it didn't belong. The masked man waved his female comrade back as he walked forward with the Houndoom pacing closely behind.
"You go load the girl up in the van and I will deal with this brat." The woman complied and walked around to the other side of the vehicle in a quickened pace as the man's Houndoom continued to encroach forward after his owner had stopped by the van. "Well congratulations kid! You just moved up to the top of my shit list! Aren't you lucky!? Since we are in a hurry though, I'm only gonna beat on you until you bleed and not until you break! Same goes for your pokemon too!"
With that, the man forcefully thrust his fist up and opened it to issue a silent command to his Houndoom to charge and attack. The black hound howled out loudly as it ran forwards up the hill to leap into the sky above and plunge downwards on top of the Marowak who stood quietly next to his owner. Both would look up at the descending Pokémon with calm demeanors right up until the Houndoom made contact.
The woman approached Paige and removed the steel hoop from the ground at her ankles. Paige had watched Gale stumble away, most likely looking for a place to roost and recover. The sound of battle could be heard on the other side of the van and it didn't sound like it was going well for either side. Paige was swung over onto the shoulder of the woman and was brought to the back of the vehicle. She had her eyes closed, not wanting to see the battle and the suffering of the Pokémon involved. The woman opened the doors and dropped the girl inside.
Right before she would close the door, a sudden shrill cry came barreling out of the tree line thicket and slammed into the female's hip and sending her spinning and body to the ground in a jerking motion. Gale landed at the tailgate of the vehicle after striking the woman with a quick attack and hopped over to Paige and continue the futile attempt at unbinding her wrists. The woman stood up from the attack with a wince and marched over to the opened door with full intent to wring the little bird's neck until she heard a pop. Waiting for her was a teen's size 7 boots that launched forward to meet with the woman's angry face. The impact sent the woman back to the ground as she would remain there for the time being. Paige sat up and quickly looked around the inside of the dimly lit back. To a mixture of her horror and relief, a stained blade was hung on a crudely constructed mount along with several other tools of unknown purpose. Pushing her wrists up to the serrated edge she sawed up and down until the rope came undone and giving her free hands to pull the gag from her mouth. Gale immediately leaped up into her arms as Paige welcomed it into her hold and nuzzled the bird's soft feathers lightly to her face.
"Thanks Gale. You never let me down do you", Paige praised as she took her pokeball off her belt and recovered Pidgey into the safety of it. Taking a second glance around the back of the vehicle she realized that the two had spoken about one of the packages being recovered. Without much difficulty, Paige found the rectangular box and picked it back up before turning around peeking out of the back. A sudden violent slam emanated from the exterior of the frame, making her react by bolting out of the back door and fleeing out into the tree line.
The Houndoom was pinned up against the side of the van by the Marowak's bone club at its neck. The hound snapped viciously at Marowak's head but was difficult to make contact at this angle. Marowak held firm, even with the claws and fangs of Houndoom scratching up against its skull. The masked man stood beside his Pokémon, watching as the upper hand had quickly been gained by the young trainer. Still, even with the situation at hand, he was able to see Paige leap from the vehicle and take off to the tree line with the package they had stolen in her arms and pressed to her chest. He had come so far and he would not let this girl ruin everything.
"Houndoom! Flamethrower right in its face!" The Houndoom reared its head back and spit out gouts of flames into Marowak's skull in a constant stream. Marowak winced at the fire, stumbling backwards a bit from the intense heat and giving the hound enough wiggle room to free itself. The man turned and pointed to the forest with a command ,"Go and capture that girl by any means! I want that package!" The man began to run after Paige with Houndoom easily overtaking him and cutting into the trees. The trainer up on the slope recalled Marowak quickly to the great ball and slid down the hillside to join in the chase soon afterwards.
Paige stumbled through the trees and branches, her forehead throbbing from the fall still as her eyesight would grow fuzzy once in a while with her pulse racing wildly. She had no way of knowing just where she was going until the trees began to part way and expose the riverbank. Coming to a halt at the edge she looked down into the water drop off and noticed how deep it was. What pokemon inhabited such depths? She had heard stories of Goldeen and Seaking males during spawning seasons becoming quite aggressive to swimmers and even tales of wild Gyarados who wait in these sort of drop offs. While Paige would clench the package tightly at her chest, she could hear something leaping free of the brambles and branches.
Pivoting back around, she gave an audible gasp as the Houndoom had appeared in front of her once more. Its lips had curled up, exposing it fanged maw and letting out a deep rolling growl accompanied by a huff of deep red fire from the snout. It wouldn't be long afterwards she could hear his trainer pushing branches aside and approaching. Paige backed up a bit more, looking back at the waters then over to the cornering hound's eyes growing with an unearthly fire. As soon as she heard someone breaking free of the branches, the hound lunged forward with jaws parted wide open. Paige knelt down with her body covering the package instinctively; head down with her eyes closed. Bracing herself to feel the sting of the dark Pokémon's bite she would wait . . . and yet it did not come. She could hear fangs crunching into bone but did not feel anything on her body. Her head carefully rose back up with eyelids parting to take a peek.
Her mouth parted in a second gasp as standing between her and the hound was a brown skinned Pokémon standing on hind legs and holding a large bone club between the jaws of the Houndoom to absorb the oncoming crunch. The skull that the Pokémon wore had been scorched by the fire earlier, leaving a black tint and several hairline cracks along it. Still, it showed no sign of fatigue. Instead, this Pokémon only let out a garbled growl that sounded like he was enjoying every bit of this conflict.
Marooo . . .
Behind the two Pokémon locked in a stalemate was the trainer that had been standing up on the hillside. His garnet eyes were locked onto the girl for a brief moment before he would utter a command and turning his attention to his partner.
"Marowak. Double-Edge."
Marowak dropped down to one knee as it retained a grip onto the bone club. The Houndoom seemed to believe it had the upper hand here and wrenched its neck backwards, pushing up onto its hind legs to pry the club from the opponent's grip and send it flying. As the hound opened its jaws to emit another direst hit with a flamethrower, the Marowak leaped forward with its head lowered and emitting a trail of yellow energy behind it. The skull of Marowak smashed into the lower jaw of Houndoom and forced its jaws to clamp hard back together as a few fangs splintered and broke free. The hound let out a high pitched yelp as it fell onto its back and was knocked out cold.
The silence after the battle was eerie as Paige could feel her heart racing fast and her mind trying to gather up what just happened. The trainer had caught the bone club in midair with a leap and returned the weapon back to his Pokémon before returning attention to Paige. Paige's lower lip quivered as she looked up at him with a bit of confusion on her face before the boy spoke in a soft but cold demeanor.
"Right . . I suppose it is safe to assume that you have a lot of questions going on in that head of yours. By the look of that goose egg though, I am surprised you are up and even coherent at this point. Sorry . . I'm Isaac. You can stand, right", the boy questioned. His hand reached out down to her, waiting for her to take his invitation. Paige swallowed hard and reached up to take his hand, welcoming the help this time.
Suddenly, the package in her lap game a soft shift from side to side. Paige froze, her hand hanging in the air as she looked down to the parcel top. Isaac dropped his hand and took a few steps backwards, his Marowak following his lead as they left Paige sitting at the riverside with the box. The box game another light shift from side to side but this time the brown cardboard gave off a golden glow and flooded the area with the energy. Paige's eyes focused on the package, everything she knew was telling her to push it away from her, throw it in the river or toss it into the trees. Yet her other hand slipped back around the box once more and held it closer to her small chest. The package caught a ghostly white fire and burned away at the cardboard construction.
Paige didn't feel any pain from the fire; instead it seemed to ease her tired bones and injuries. The fire pulsed softly in her hold, like a little heartbeat as the package completely dissolved to reveal an orange and red pattered egg with streaks of yellow and white swirled around it. The shell suddenly made a thick crack down the center, splintering from this major line and flaking off smaller pieces. Without warning, the egg exploded in an eruption of flames and shell bits, scorching the ground around it.
Isaac put his arms up to shield his face as the flakes of shell singed his clothing while Marowak stood firm and took the fragments into its hide. Paige had to close her eyes from the initial blast but reopened them as she stared down at the newly hatched Pokémon in her lap. The orange, bipedal reptile yawned out and took its first breath of Kanto air while rubbing its sleepy eyes and letting the emerald orbs look around this new world. The first thing the little Pokémon focused on was the human that was gazing down at it. The smudges across her cheeks of ash and blood mixed in a dark red patchy pattern as her blue eyes gazed back into its own. Her bangs smoked lightly from the fragments of shell bits embedded in and her cherry touched lips still shook a bit from the situation at hand.
A cheerful smile grew on the newborn's face as it reached up and embraced the human's chest with his outstretched arms. His small little claws gripped into the fabric to hold onto the human with a happy nuzzling into her body as it chirped out.
Charrrrr!
The flame at the tip of its tail glowed with a golden light, burning brightly and doubling in size while it hugged the human girl. Paige sat there shocked and in awe, never seeing a Pokémon hatch before. Isaac appeared to be at a loss for words as well and had a startled look to his face. Paige gazed back up to Isaac a bit too quickly and all of the day's events came rushing to her head and brought her eyes to roll backwards as she began to fall.
A quick witted Isaac closed the gap and caught her by the collar of her vest with a tight grip as her head fell backwards and almost into the river. The Charmander in Paige's lap still held onto her as Isaac did his best to avoid getting burned by the wagging tail. Isaac knelt down and put his other hand on Paige's back to support her as he would pull her back forward to slump her face onto his shoulder. A deep exhale escaped his lips as he slowly shook his head, hoping the situation here had not just gotten more complicated.