Chapter 2 - Mission Machop
"Officer Jenny. I want to report a theft," Celeste marched into the police station holding her eevee tightly. Her now swollen hand throbbing. She suddenly was not sure it wasn't broken. She had never broken a limb and guessed it would be obvious if it was the case.
The officer didn't seem to care much for the visitor. Jenny raised an eyebrow at Celeste and then looked back at the magazine she was reading.
"A machop stole my shopping bags," the girl proclaimed.
"Tough luck, kid," said Jenny, dully flipping a page.
Celeste's anxiety was building. This was day one of Celeste's grand journey and it was supposed to go without a hitch. She was going to last more than a day, at the very least. She had to.
"But officer…"
"We don't deal with rogue pokémon here. Or whining children," the officer barked. "Go look for a gym leader or something."
Has the police always been this unhelpful? The trainer wondered as tears formed in her eyes. Celeste held Aria more tightly as she tried to keep herself from crying.
Day one. How useless was she? Her mom was right, she couldn't last a day. She was a kid, a spoiled little kid who could only get into trouble because it was good for ratings. Her parents would always sort out the real danger, anyway. She couldn't do it by herself, Celeste thought bitterly as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
"Scram, kid," said Jenny, shoving Celeste off. "No crying children in the police station."
She was stupid and irresponsible, Celeste concluded as she stepped out of the station. Her hand still throbbing as she held her eevee way too tight.
Nurse Joy had mentioned a free room earlier. So what did Celeste do? She spent all her money on useless things that she couldn't fit in her bag. She didn't need the state-of-the-art camping gear. And all those healing items? She didn't even know what half of them were for.
She had thought she was a trainer now and would get money whenever she won battles. Of course, she had never won a battle, but that shouldn't matter. With all those amazing items she bought, she was sure her pokémon would never, ever faint. And if her pokémon never fainted, they would win. And once they won, they would rest in her cosy state-of-the-art tent and soak in all the new experiences they had. It had to be ok to spend all of her money if she was investing in their future, right? Well, probably wrong, but that logic seemed very good a few hours back. Back before that stupid machop had shown up.
Celeste looked at the big city. She would never find a measly machop in a place like this. Especially with no help.
Her hand felt really painful. Maybe it was broken.
The girl needed a plan. Burrowing her head into Aria's fur, she asked, "Should I call them?"
Would her parents give her more money if she asked? Maybe they would laugh at her because she messed up on day one. Or perhaps they would tell her to give up on being a trainer. Would they tell her to go back?
Why couldn't the officer sort it out for them? It wasn't like the girl was asking for something extraordinary. Police are supposed to deal with thieves. She just wanted that blue-haired asshole to do her job.
Damn. Did officer Jenny turn her down on grounds of Celeste being pathetic? The girl bit her lip and hugged Aria even more tightly.
"Veee," Aria finally complained, wiggling herself free and letting out a deep breath.
Celeste looked at her panting pokémon. Wow! What a great trainer she was! The officer had definitely ignored her because she was pathetic.
"Eeev," Aria once more complained and, seeing her trainer was still wallowing in self-pity, preceded by shooting star-shaped rays at the human.
"Hey! What was that for?" Celeste snapped.
"Eeev," Aria tried to call the trainer's attention yet again, but Celeste was too busy pouting at her pokémon to notice. So, the eevee responded by throwing her star-shaped rays in her trainer's face instead.
"Aria, stop that—" Celeste shouted, and that is when it hit her. "Wait. When did you learn to use swift?"
The eevee answered by puffing her chest in triumph. She had actually learned the move a few days ago when they were on that cold mountain, but decided to hold it back from her partner for a bit. She wanted to show it to Celeste in some dramatic moment. Of course, Aria's idea of drama was to save the day with it. Maybe turn some tough battle around. She had not expected to be dramatically throwing stars in her trainer's face.
"You learned a new move!" Celeste ran towards her eevee, all the problems in the world forgotten. "That is so amazing!" she completed, catching the pokémon in her arms and twirling around.
Celeste had an amazing partner, and Aria fully agreed. The pokémon often referred to herself as the most amazing eevee in the entire world. And, as the greatest pokémon ever, she couldn't have her human drowning herself in self-pity.
"Thanks, Aria," Celeste said, feeling calmer. "We are going to be all right, won't we? You and me, we can figure this out… and Powder too! We are a great team. No need for this city's useless police. Or parents."
The most amazing eevee in the world nodded with a grin. The trainer was right, they could do anythig.
—*—*—
"Powder, come out," Celeste called, holding out the premier ball with her good hand. She was on a mission now, and she needed all her soldiers.
The ball opened and out of the red light appeared a vulpix. Not the type of vulpix that could be commonly found in Kanto, though. Her Powder, ice type that she was, could not stand the fire.
The vulpix wiggled its white curly tail and looked at its surroundings. They were in a hideous alley.
"Pix?" the young, fluffy fox pokémon wondered why did her mama decide to let her come out in a place like this.
"Powder, do you want to help Aria and me track down a thief?" Celeste asked, crouching beside the vulpix. It was not even a month that she and that shirtless boy rescued Powder from mount Lanakila. Back then, she also got into trouble all by herself. Back then, she sorted things out all by herself… sort of…
"Vul-pix!" the pokémon answered enthusiastically. Powder liked her human mother. She thought Celeste was pretty, fun and was nice to cuddle with. Her human was the greatest person ever, and she wanted to help her out. Like that, the vulpix would grow up to be brave just like her mama.
"Awesome!" Celeste said. She knew Powder was a very young pokémon. In fact, she knew Powder was practically a baby, but it didn't matter. The three of them were a super team and they could do anything. In the end, this would be a beneficial experience for them all. Together, they would turn the city upside down if they had to.
Together they would succeed on mission machop.
—*—*—
With the two pokémon sitting in front of her, Celeste marched from side to side.
"Okay, you two. Mission Machop is simple," the girl said, pointing to a bad chalk drawing of a machop. "We need to find this pokémon and recover all the things it stole. I bet this machop is a super evil thief going around town and stealing things from the helpless Vermilians… eh… Vermites? Anyway, I doubt we were its only targets," continued Celeste, already letting things blow out of proportion in her head. She had a plan, and she was awesome with plans.
"We recover all stolen items and give them back to the people," she said as she stopped pacing and looked at her pokémon, starry-eyed. "With how lousy the police seem to be in this city, I bet we will end up being local heroes. I bet they will even give us a pretty medal for our public service, or even the keys to the city! Maybe we will get honorary citizenship."
Aria snorted. Celeste was being delusional again. Luckily, she and the baby had the greatest eevee in the world to take care of things. Conversely, at Aria's side, Powder was excitedly wigglig her tail, thinking she would like a pretty medal.
"So this is the plan," Celeste started, "I'll use the rest of our money to buy some more food. That will be our bait. Powder will walk around the port with it. When it spots the bait, that machop will definitely try to steal it!"
"Eevee?" Aria asked.
"I just know it will be around, ok?" Celeste answered. "Criminals always go back to the scene of the crime! Besides, I'll get those delicious rice cakes again. It won't be able to resist it. Anyway, we will stalk Powder like fearow locked onto their prey. But, here is the twist: when the machop shows up, we won't stop the theft."
"Vul?" this time Powder was the worried one.
"It will be ok, we will be there to protect you. You just have to drop the bag and run away," Celeste answered. "We need you to do this so things don't look suspicious. Machop has seen me and Aria before, so that kind of only leaves you, Powder," the trainer continued, doubt creeping in again. "I know it will be a super good experience."
"Machop will think it has got away with another crime," the girl said, focusing again on the mission at hand and not on that annoying feeling of doubt. "But, in truth, it will have fallen into our trap. It will lead us to its hideout, and that is when we attack!" Celeste finished while punching the air. Moving made her confident again.
"No way that thing can beat all three of us together," the trainer said, letting on a wide smile. "We will beat it and be the heroes of Vermilion city!"
—*—*—
It was around 8pm when Celeste and her pokémon arrived back at the port with the rice cakes. The vulpix picked up the bag with its mouth and started walking around. The plan was in motion.
Half an hour passed and nothing.
Another hour and nothing.
Did this machop only steal during the day? What a weird criminal.
Another hour, and a scare with a murkrow, later and still no sign of the thief.
Celeste was hungry and tired, and her hand still hurt. Her pokémon were probably hungry and tired too.
"Hey, Aria. Maybe we should call it—"
CHOOOOOP
It was a little past 11pm when the machop finally showed up again. Powder got startled and spit some ice at the fighter. Was that a move? The machop was a little shaken, but it didn't attack back. Instead, it took the opportunity to swipe the dropped bag.
"Vuuuul!" Powder yelled as the machop ran away.
In a split second, Celeste and Aria were running by the vulpix side. Although her hand seemed to be worse, the trainer was not even tired anymore.
—*—*—
The three would-be-heroes found their way to a construction site north of town.
It was past midnight already, and very dark. The cloudy sky was occluding all the light from the moon or the stars. Still, there was some dim light coming from the shed in the far corner of the site, near a fence. It didn't matter if the trio could not see the plot of land very well, Celeste thought. All they needed to do was keep track of the machop. Luckily, the pokemon was entering the illuminated shed.
"Okay," Celeste whispered, "we get in there and attack it with all we got."
With a signal, the trainer and pokémon barged in. At once, the group saw the machop and together jumped on top of it, knocking it out instantly.
Victory!
Celeste's plan had actually worked. She was a genius.
Or so she thought.
Unfortunately, her plan had a tiny little problem she didn't foresee: it did not consider the angry golem in front of them.
Notes: Yay! Chapter 2 is done! Thanks for the comment and people who followed this. It's really appreciated.
Now stay tuned to see how Celeste and her Pokémon will deal with the rock monster. And also on how will I focus on getting back to work while I'm having so much fun writing this. :)