Chapter Two: Let's Find Out Where It Goes
The assistant stared at Carla.
"Excuse me?" the man said slowly.
Carla stood up straighter and looked him in the eye. "If your daughter doesn't want that pokémon, I'll take it."
"Oh. Well, then. Thank you, young lady." The man dropped the capsule into Carla's waiting hand. "And as for you," he said, turning his gaze on the assistant, "I don't appreciate the way you spoke to me. I'll be having a word with your superiors about this."
The assistant flushed but stood her ground, returning his glare until he spun around and walked out of the lab, his shoes making loud clacking noises on the floor.
Carla looked down at the heavy capsule - and then saw Zoe standing by her feet, looking up at her with blue, unblinking eyes.
Then it hit her. What had she just done? Beginning a journey with one pokémon could be problematic enough, but two...
She could do this. She wouldn't go back on her word.
After quickly scanning the pokéball with her dex, she read the information that appeared on the screen.
Species: Vullaby
Gender: Female
Move Set: Gust, Leer, Fury Attack, Fake Tears
Carla stared at the letters in bewilderment. She'd never even heard of this species before. They couldn't be native to Hoenn.
"Are you sure you want to take this one?"
Carla looked at the assistant. "Yes. I'm sure. I'll take care of her."
There was only one way out of Littleroot Town.
Carla walked down the grassy path, keeping an eye out for wild pokémon. She deliberately avoided areas where the trees were clustered a little too close together for her liking. Oldale Town wasn't that far ahead, but she didn't want to run into anything she couldn't handle.
Maybe it would be a good idea to stay in the area and train for a bit. If her first battling encounter wasn't with a wild pokémon, it would be with a trainer and Carla couldn't afford to have an unprepared team.
Just ahead of her, the trees thinned to form a tiny alcove. It looked like the perfect place for a private conversation - or a training session. Carla walked into it and released both her team members, tossing the capsules high into the air.
As soon as she saw Zoe, the Vullaby screeched loudly and hopped over to her. She bobbed up and down, flapping her tiny wings excitedly and shrieking over and over again. The sound was harsh in the cool morning air.
"Hey!" Carla said, but the Vullaby ignored her. Either that, or she couldn't hear her new trainer's voice.
"Hey!" Carla called again. Eventually she lost patience and clapped her hands together as loudly as she could. The Vullaby went quiet and looked at Carla in surprise.
"Um...Hi, there. I'm Carla, and I'm guessing you remember Zoe." Of course she did. They had probably played together in the lab.
The Vullaby looked around expectantly, as if hoping to see somebody. Carla swallowed. How could she tell the Vullaby her previous owner had given her away?
The little bird blinked twice. She looked so confused that Carla felt her heart twist.
"I...Your previous trainer...the girl who was looking after you last, she thought you'd be better off with me. But she said to tell you she loves you and she hopes you'll be happy. I promised I'd take care of you, and I will."
The Vullaby tilted her head to one side, as if measuring Carla up in some way. Then she hopped once. Hoping that meant she'd been accepted, Carla knelt in front of her. "You're going to need a new name, like Zoe has. Do you like the sound of Tess?"
A screech was the only reply.
"Is that a yes?" When the Vullaby screeched again, Carla decided it was.
She remained kneeling on the grass, making sure that she was facing both her Pokémon. "We're going to have to work hard. Really hard. I need both of you to be as tough as you can get. My sister is in trouble, and…"
Tess tilted her head to one side again. Zoe blinked twice; she looked as if she was frowning.
"My sister. She's…" Oh. Zoe and Tess probably didn't even know what a sister was. "My…my hatchmate is in trouble."
Zoe exhaled loudly as if to say: Now I understand. The sigh sent ice crystals into the morning air.
"We can help her, but we need to get stronger. Much stronger. Reckon we can do that?" Carla asked, deliberately making it sound like a challenge.
Tess cheeped loudly. Carla looked at Zoe and saw the Snorunt was grinning widely. The idea of becoming stronger clearly appealed to her.
Carla felt herself grinning back. They were going to get on very well indeed.
If she needed to have a strong team, she needed to start training immediately. The trouble was, she knew very little about Snorunt and nothing at all about Vullaby. She would have to do some research on them when she got to Oldale.
She took out her dex and had another look at her team's moves again, unsure what they should work on first.
"Zoe, how fast can you do a Double Team?"
The air around Zoe shimmered and the next moment Carla and Tess were surrounded by a circle of six identical Snorunt. Tess jumped and hurried to stand beside Carla, her feathers standing on end.
"Hey, it's OK," Carla told her. Then she had an idea. "Can you tell which is the real one?"
Tess studied the six Snorunt as closely as she could, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at each one. Carla nearly bit her lip. If this was an actual battle, Zoe would have landed a strong hit by now.
Suddenly, Tess launched herself at one of the Snorunt. As soon as she touched it, it disappeared into thin air; Tess looked around and ran right at the next one.
"No, wait, don't..."
The second clone disappeared, and Tess continued to run through the circle until she bumped into the real Zoe, who toppled over onto her side. The Vullaby puffed herself up and looked at Carla as if to say: I win!
"Good! We're going to try that again. Zoe, try and create the clones faster this - and Tess, you need to spot the real Zoe first time. In a battle, your opponent's not going to wait for you to find it."
Tess watched as the clones surrounded her, her eyes following each one. As soon as the circle was complete, she ran straight towards number five - which didn't vanish.
"That's great. Do that again."
It was only when Tess had correctly identified Zoe five times in a row that Carla realised they were both starting to pant slightly. "That's enough - let's rest for a bit."
Zoe and Tess sat down simultaneously on the grass. Carla knelt beside them and gave them both a small amount of water from her bottle. She had no intention of going to Oldale until all three of them had adjusted to each other and could work as a team - and that might take at least the rest of the day.
Then again, she couldn't afford to waste time.
She glanced up at the sky. The mist had mostly cleared, but the sky was covered with a blanket of clouds. Carla was curious to see how Weather Ball worked, especially when it was a day like this. Would it be a ball of fire or water?
"Zoe, could you use Weather Ball on that tree over there?" she asked, pointing towards one with a large, thick trunk. Zoe got up and shot a single ball of white energy at the tree. Carla frowned; was that what it normally looked like? Or was that just...
"Hey."
She turned around. A boy about her age was watching her, his arms folded across his chest. He had spiky blond hair and wore a pale green jacket. "Are you a trainer?" he asked.
"I...Yes." Carla stood up. Yes, she was.
"Good!" The boy grinned and reached into his pocket. He took out a shiny new pokéball. "Let's battle."
Her first instinct was to say no. They were supposed to be resting - but a battle was a battle, and winnings were winnings. She'd just have to hope she won.
Carla looked down at her pokémon, and saw they were both looking up at her expectantly. She hesitated for a moment. How did trainers choose which pokémon to send out? They always made it look so easy.
"Come on, I don't have all day!"
"Tess, you're up." As Tess toddled forward, Carla gave Zoe an apologetic look. "You'll get the next one, Zoe."
"All right!" The boy tossed his capsule into the air. "Come on out, Abraxas!"
A Treecko landed on the ground and stared at Tess through narrowed yellow eyes.
"Use Pound!"
Abraxas leapt into the air.
Carla yelled the first thing that came into her head. "Gust!"
Tess flapped her wings twice, sending a small blast of air right up at Abraxas. He yelped and was blown off course, landing heavily on his side. He scrambled back up and glared at Tess and Carla furiously, his tiny fists clenched.
"Use Leer, Abraxas!"
Abraxas' eyes narrowed even further. Carla felt herself recoil just as Tess let out a started cheep and started to shiver.
"Use Pound again!" the boy ordered.
"Dodge it, Tess!"
Tess moved aside just in time; Abraxas' tail slammed into the ground right next to her. Hissing furiously, the Treecko brought his fist around and punched Tess in the face. She shrieked and stumbled backwards.
"What the...Abraxas, that wasn't an attack!" the boy shouted.
"No," Carla growled, "but this is. Fury Attack!"
Tess launched herself at Abraxas and jabbed at him repeatedly with her beak. He squealed and brought up his arms to try and shield himself but it was no use. He doubled over, arms around his middle.
Time to end this. "Gust again."
Abraxas was sent flying into the air again, limbs and tail flailing. His trainer ran forward and caught him before he could hit the ground. He cradled the small green form in his arms for a moment and looked down at him. Abraxas' eyes were closed, and his tail dangled above the grass.
The boy returned him silently.
"Is he going to be OK?" Carla heard herself ask.
"Yeah. Should be." He didn't look at her. He unzipped his backpack and slapped some notes into Carla's hand before running out of the alcove.
"You did great, Tess," Carla said. Tess puffed her chest out proudly; Zoe came to stand beside her, grinning.
Carla took out her notebook and wrote down the amount she'd been given.
$20735 to go.
The Oldale Centre was set right in the middle of town; it was surrounded by small cottages, each one with flowers growing in the window boxes. A group of Taillow swooped happily above the buildings, their shadows flitting across the grass.
Carla walked right towards the Centre. It was surprisingly quiet inside, and there was nobody standing in front of the nurse. There were other people inside the Centre, but they were in the seating area, watching a programme on a screen with the volume almost completely on silent.
The nurse perked up as soon as she saw Carla approaching. "Hi! Welcome to the Oldale Centre; how may I help you?"
"Could I get my team looked at, please?" Carla placed Zoe and Tess' capsules on the counter. "And do you have any padded envelopes?"
"We do. What size would you like?" The nurse showed Carla a small selection of envelopes; Carla hesitated a moment before picking the smallest size. She didn't have that much money at the moment, but that would change - and soon.
"Do you want a room as well?"
"Yes, please. A single."
She couldn't stay in Oldale for long. There would be stronger trainers around Petalburg - but Carla would need to do more training with her team, and it didn't look like there were any serious trainers in Oldale. Best of all, she would be able to send off the first package as soon as she and her team had eaten.
Speaking of her team… "Can I use the computers here?"
"We've only got one computer," the nurse said, pointing towards a solitary machine tucked away in a corner, "and you can only use it for half an hour. Do you have an account?"
Carla shook her head.
"It's simple; you just click on 'Create New Account' and fill in your name and your trainer ID, then it'll ask you to create a password. Once that's done, you'll be able to log in to any of the computers on the network, as long as they're in a Centre. I'll let you know when your team's ready for you."
Once she was at the computer, Carla quickly filled in the section asking for her name. She couldn't remember her ID number, so she was forced to look at her trainer ID to fill in the second section.
She would have to memorise her ID number, and quickly.
Next was 'Password'. Carla's fingers paused, hovering over the keyboard. Then, slowly and carefully, she typed in her chosen words, carefully inserting numbers and symbols where necessary before pressing 'Enter'.
On the desktop was an icon for the National Trading System. Next to it was the database Carla was after. She clicked on it and was faced with the option of either typing the name of the pokémon she was looking for in the simple search or narrowing her options down through the advanced search.
She needed to keep it simple, so she typed 'Vullaby' into the single search engine and clicked on the picture that came up.
Vullaby was half-Dark, half-Flying and was native to the Unova region. It was quite rare in Unova as well; when the time came for them to evolve, they discarded the bones they wore and gathered new ones.
It would take a long time for Tess to evolve. But Carla found she didn't mind that. Tess' future evolution, Mandibuzz, looked formidable.
A line of text on Vullaby's entry said Female counterpart to Rufflet. Intrigued, Carla looked up Rufflet on the National database and saw it was actually rather sweet, with a single coloured feather sticking up in the middle of the ring of fluff around its head. Its evolved form - Braviary - was magnificent, with a wingspan of between six to eight feet.
Carla had spent enough time researching Tess' species. Now it was time to move on to Zoe's.
Judging from their range of attacks, Snorunts' main strengths were their icy attacks and the strength of their jaws. They could deliver a nasty series of bite attacks, which would be even stronger once they evolved into Glalie.
Zoe would need to become much more powerful in order to become a Glalie. It wouldn't take her as long to evolve as it would Tess, but it would still be a while.
No wonder she had looked so excited at the prospect of getting stronger.
Then Carla noticed the second picture. Snorunt had a secondary means of evolution. Carla frowned; she'd forgotten about that. She clicked on the picture.
Blue eyes set in a white face stared back at her from the screen. They weren't sharp and fierce like a Glalie's; instead, they were hooded and had a sinister slant to them, as if the creature knew a secret and was refusing to tell.
It was called a Froslass. It was a female-only species and, interestingly, was half-Ghost. In Sinnoh, it was known as the Lady of the Snow and the Winter Ghost. Disappointingly, Froslass were most often found in Sinnoh because their means of evolution - dawn stones - grew close to the height of Mt Coronet.
Now that Carla thought of it, Glacia from Hoenn's Elite Four had at least one Froslass on her team. Carla wondered how much she'd had to pay for the dawn stones - and how quickly it had taken May's Blaziken to defeat them.
Well, she wasn't going to be able to afford a dawn stone. In fact, she wasn't all that keen on evolutionary stones at the moment, so she decided to distract herself by focusing on something else.
Like the trainer blacklist.
There were many reasons a trainer could end up on the blacklist. Abuse and neglect of their pokémon was the primary reason, using a pokémon to attack a person for any reason other than self-defence or to protect someone else or your team was the second. Trainers could be put on the blacklist for a certain period of time, and were taken off it if they behaved themselves. If they didn't, they could end up on the list permanently.
The Pokémon League and the PTPL kept a record of people who kept on training even after they'd been blacklisted. As Carla scrolled down the list and names and photographs on the official 'rogues gallery', one of the photos suddenly went dark and then brightened back into colour again, with the word CAPTURED stamped across it diagonally in thick black letters.
"Girl with the long hair, your team's ready!"
Carla logged off and went to collect Zoe and Tess. After putting the capsules away, she put the money from the battle into the envelope given to her by the nurse.
"Is there a postbox around?" she asked.
"There's one just outside."
Good. Sandra should get the envelope the day after tomorrow, if not earlier.
"Tess, use Fury Attack!"
Tess launched herself at the Wurmple and unleashed a shower of pecks on it. Carla gritted her teeth in frustration. This was the fourth day in the route, and she had had just about enough of wild pokémon attacking her and her team.
When people talked about the wonderful experiences they had as trainers, they didn't mention how an attack could literally come from nowhere, or setting up a tent before it got too dark, or trying to build a fire while wondering if the light meant you could expect a visit from an unfriendly Poochyena.
Tess stepped back from the Wurmple, her head cocked on one side. It looked like it was unconscious.
"Good job, Tess," Carla sighed. She looked up at the sky, which was beginning to fade into orange and crimson. "We'd better set up camp soon. I don't know how far Petalburg is...Look out!"
Tess whirled around; white darts thudded into her chest. She sat down heavily, shivering and watching as the Wurmple scuttled away as quickly as it could.
Carla hurried over to her. "Tess, are you OK?"
The Vullaby's feathers were ruffled, and she couldn't seem to stop shivering. Carla's heart sank. Tess had been poisoned, and there were no more antidotes. Carla had used the last one on Zoe yesterday and after sending the package she'd only had enough money to buy food in Oldale, not medicine.
Carla looked around frantically, trying to spot anyone walking around. The surrounding trees were blending into a murky darkness; she couldn't even see any other wild pokémon.
She scooped Tess up, cradling her carefully. "Hold on, Tess. We're going to find help."
Latias, please let there be someone who can help.
Carla started to jog; she needed to make sure she stayed in the centre of the path. She couldn't trip over any exposed tree roots. Tess made a tiny sound in her throat and started to heave in Carla's arms. Recognising the signs, Carla stopped and tried to put her down, but it was too late.
Tess vomited on Carla's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Tess. I'm sorry." This is all my fault.
If there were other trainers on the route, there was a chance they would have an antidote. Or maybe they'd reach Petalburg if she just kept going. Carla's feet ached and her lungs were burning, but that didn't matter. She had to keep going, for Tess' sake.
Wait. She could see a building.
The orange glow in the sky had darkened to mauve; dark shadows were lying across Carla's path, but she could definitely make out a house ahead of her. It was partially sheltered by three large trees. To Carla's dismay, there were no lights on inside.
That didn't mean there was nobody home.
Carla's eyes darted towards the trees. She knew what pecha berry trees looked like, but they were surrounded by a fence and she wouldn't be able to climb over it. She hurried over to the door, adjusted Tess so that she was held only in one arm and knocked twice.
"Hello? Is anyone home?"
There was no answer.
Carla tried again. "Please, my Vullaby's been poisoned! Please can I have a berry?"
Nothing.
Tess shivered again. Fighting back a wave of desperation, Carla placed a hand on the doorknob and rattled it furiously.
It turned in her grip. Carla froze, staring down at it. Then, slowly, very carefully, she turned it all the way, heart in her mouth and praying she wasn't making a horrible mistake.
The interior of the house was as dark as the route outside. Carla waited until her eyes had adjusted before carefully taking a few steps inside, hoping her backpack wouldn't scrape against the walls - or anything valuable.
"Hello?" she called, her voice trembling slightly. "Anyone home?"
Tentatively, she closed the door behind them. The click echoed around the hallway like a gun being cocked. Carla shuddered and moved forward. There really didn't seem to be anyone home - not even a pokémon. The stairs were ahead of her, but just to the right was a room that looked like a kitchen.
Carla walked into the kitchen and nearly sobbed with relief when she saw a door that led to the garden - and the key was still in the latch. She tried the door, unlocked it and slipped out into the air.
There was still a little daylight left. Carla looked around until she spotted a single fruit lying at the base of a tree. She hurried over, careful not to jostle Tess too much and picked up the pecha berry.
"Here you go, Tess. Eat this."
The Vullaby turned her head away miserably.
"It's OK. It'll get rid of the poison." Carla steered the fruit towards the small beak again. "Please, Tess, just trust me."
As Tess took the first peck, Carla nearly smiled out of sheer bitterness. If she couldn't even provide the things her pokémon needed, why should they trust her at all?
The first few gulps were slow and tentative; then, as the berry's healing properties took effect, Tess ate faster and faster until all that was left was the stone in Carla's juice-stained palm.
"How do you feel?" Carla asked.
Tess cawed happily, flapping her wings. Carla laughed and nearly hugged her tighter - then realised her hoodie was still stained with vomit.
There had to be a bathroom somewhere in the house.
It didn't take her long to find it: up the stairs and two doors on the right. She put Tess down with strict instructions to stay in the room and not run around, then took off her backpack and set it on the floor with a sigh of relief. The straps had been digging into her shoulders. Carla removed her fleece and changed her T-shirt, shuddering slightly as the sticky material came away.
She washed her hoodie and T-shirt as well as she could in the sink and squeezed them out as much as she could. After she booked into the Petalburg Centre, the best thing to do was find a launderette and wash her hair, not necessarily in that...
There was a noise from downstairs. Carla froze, eyes wide, heart beating wildly.
Someone had just closed the front door.
Uh-oh...
Hope you like it so far. Please leave a review!
This chapter's title comes from 'No Hopers, Jokers and Rogues' by The Fisherman's Friends.