Raindrops landed on his face then rolled down to the ground. Some drops mixed with his blood, some with tears, some with both. But all the drops flowed horizontally across his face. He laid on his side in some alley, his body being hidden from any street view. Despite being in the City of Light, there was none shown on him. A power outage had affected the middle of the city, where he was trying to go. He tried to go down two different main roads, but was stopped each time by construction workers. Each time he was told he couldn't come in.
He thought it'd be fine if he just took a side street. There was one near his house his parents had taken him through before. However, the second street he tried to go through was almost on the other side of the city. So when he decided to take an alley, he didn't want to walk all the way back home. Instead he chose a different one. One he knew nothing about, but figured it'd be fine. He didn't expect to run into a group of strangers in red suits acting shady.
After promising to not tell anyone about what he saw, the men in suits proceeded to grab him. His words meant nothing to them. They didn't stop beating him until he could barely move.
He doesn't know how long he'd been laying there. Though it was enough for the weather to go from clear to cloudy to a light drizzle to rain. He was able to move his body now, but didn't want to. He couldn't find it a good reason to. The rain wasn't hurting him. Even when he heard footsteps just a few feet away he didn't move.
Someone in a white shirt, jeans, and holding a blue umbrella. As the person got closer, he could see it was a boy, his age or slightly older. The boy stopped walking less than a foot away and crouched down.
"You alright?"
Through a bruised eye, he looked up. He didn't know him.
"Wh...who are...you..."
"Can you stand?" asked the older boy. He extended his hand down. With soreness in his arm, the younger boy took it, using the help to sit up. Now almost eye level, he got a better look at the one who helped him. He had lengthy hair, reaching down to the level of his chin on the sides. Eyebrows as thin as his smile. And blue eyes that were so light they appeared grey. "What's your name?"
"...Trevor..."
"Trevor..." the boy repeated. "I'm Calem."
Trevor stared at the strange boy. He wondered about him. Wondered why he was there. Why he stopped to help him. Suddenly the boy's eyes scanned Trevor. They weren't slow moving either. Starting from Trevor's hair, Calem seemed to glance over every inch of Trevor.
"I take it you ran into more than just some local bullies?" asked Calem. Trevor didn't immediately respond. He was partly caught off guard by the question and had also just noticed the rain was no longer falling on him. He glanced up to see Calem had moved the umbrella forward, shielding him from the rain. "Do you know the guys who did this to you?"
"...No," Trevor said after some time. He wasn't sure why, but he felt the need to say more. "But...they were all wearing suits."
"Really? Any specific color?"
"Yeah. They were red."
"I see," said Calem. His smile grew from just barely noticeable to ear to ear. "Tell me. What do you plan on doing now?"
Trevor looked to Calem. His face was different from how it was a moment ago. It was no longer friendly. Instead it was eerie. Almost ominous
"I don't know..."
"I suppose that makes sense," Calem said with a chuckle. "I wouldn't either if I had no idea who did that to me."
Both boys were silent for a little while. Calem lowered his smile and turned his gaze downward and to the side. He focused on a growing puddle. Trevor never took his eyes off Calem. The only sound was the patter of the rain on the umbrella and ground.
"I know who did this to you," Calem suddenly spoke up, startling Trevor. Calem turned back to him. "They're a local group. Not a huge group by any means. But they're growing. Fast. Had some run-ins with them myself."
Trevor was speechless. He wasn't sure what to say. Despite having questions, such as who were the ones that attacked him, why they did it, how Calem knew them, among others, he held his tongue. The silence coming from the boy in front of him also made him uncomfortable. "Now, if I tell you who and where they are, then what are you gonna do?"
"You...you know where they are?"
With a chuckle, Calem stood up. He reached down with an open palm. "I'll tell you more about them on the way there."
Trevor didn't know if he should take Calem's hand. They didn't know each other. For all he knew, Calem was working with the ones who hurt him. Even if he was telling the truth, and he took him to the ones in suits, then what? There was nothing they could do to them anyway. Yet, despite the uncertainies, Trevor placed his hand onto Calem's.
"Are they really in there?" asked Trevor as he peered around an alley wall at a warehouse. Calem stood beside him, out of sight of the building. His eyes closed as he leaned on the wall. The rain had stopped, so his umbrella was closed in his hand.
"Yeah. It's one of Flare's hideouts."
Trevor got back behind the wall and looked to Calem. "Now what?"
Calem chuckled and opened his eyes.
"I asked you earlier," he said as he turned to Trevor. "What do you plan on doing now?"
"But, what can I do? I accidentally walked in on them and they beat me up. If I walk up to them on purpose then they'll do it again. Or worse. I can't fight back. I don't even have a pokemon to defend myself. I...I-I..."
Trevor began breathing rapidly and clutching his chest. He stumbled back and fell. Now sitting, he stared at the ground as he breathed. He started to remember earlier in the day. When he first walked into the alley. The faces of the men who grabbed him. The face of the man who had told them to grab him. He could remember the first fists and boots to hit him. The pain of having his body beaten and his face cut.
"Calm down!"
Trevor looked up to Calem startled. It was the first time Calem had spoken in such a tone. And yelling scared Trevor even more.
"Listen. I'll give you one of my pokemon. One that'll listen to you, because I'll tell it to. Just do what I say and you'll have your revenge," said Calem as he reached a hand down. He was no longer smiling.
Trevor stared at his hand. Unsure he should take it. Something about Calem seemed different now. From just his quick yelling he was like a different person. Trevor didn't think he should take it. He couldn't trust Calem. But, when he turned to the side, he saw the warehouse. He saw where members of Flare were. Where his assaulters were. And as far as he knew. Calem was the only one who could get him what he wanted more than anything. Turning back to Calem, he took his hand.
Each step Trevor took was heavier than the last. As he got closer to the warehouse it got harder to breath. When he was a dozen feet away his palms began to feel clammy. The pokeball in his hand became harder to hold, almost slipping from his grasp. The large doors to the warehouse were closed, so he walked up to the normal door and grabbed its handle. It was unlocked. Trevor remembered the three words Calem told him to say as he turned the doorknob.
Stepping inside, a few men in the same red suits looked to him and jumped.
"Who's that kid?" said one.
"Get him out of here!" said another. A couple began to approach him. One man spoke up. His voice carried authority.
"Make sure to teach him a lesson," he said. Trevor glanced at him. He recognized his voice. Seeing his face only confirmed it. It was the same man from earlier. The one who gave out the order. Pointing the pokeball towards the man, a red light emerged from it. Before the pokemon was fully released, Trevor repeated what Calem told him.
"Tyrantrum, use Thrash."
Trevor slowly closed the door to the warehouse behind him. He trembled as he walked away from the building. His hand twitching as he gripped the pokeball. Despite the many battles he's seen, both in person and on television, Trevor had never seen something so chaotic. The pokemon attacked whoever and whatever was in its way. Whether person, pokemon, or even vehicle. Upon being released Tyrantrum immediately rammed its head into a parked box truck, flipping it with ease.
Whatever the members of Team Flare tried failed. None of their pokemon were strong enough to stand up to the rampaging Despot. The members who happened to get in the way weren't spared from its frenzy. Had Trevor not hung back by the door he believed he would've been one of the casualties.
A slow clapping pulled Trevor out of his memories of the events that happened just minutes before. Calem approached him with a smile, one similar to when they first met.
"Well done," he said. When he was close enough, Calem reached his hand out. Trevor looked to Calem's hand then down at his own where the pokeball was. Still shaking, he returned the pokemon to its owner. Calem took the ball, shrunk it, then slipped it into his pocket.
'All that power and carnage...in his pocket,' thought Trevor. With one hand in his pocket and the other holding his umbrella, Calem looked up to the sky.
"So, what will you do now?"
Trevor didn't answer. All he could do was stare at the ground. Calem turned his head back down.
"I should probably let you know. Team Flare, is full of bad people. And the ones who were in that warehouse deserved what they got. However, technically Team Flare is an official organization, not just some random group of criminals."
With his eyes widened, Trevor looked up to Calem.
"Police will likely be here soon. Or at the very least someone in there called for backup. So I'm getting out of here."
As if on cue, Trevor could start hearing police sirens in the distance. With each passing second they got closer and closer.
"Now, you can stay here, take your chances. Or, you can join me and help me take down Flare and anyone else we cross paths with. What do you say?"
Trevor looked at Calem's hand with uncertainty. Going into the warehouse he didn't expect he'd become wanted. Yet as the sirens got louder, he knew that's what he'll be. If there were any cameras then he was already. Hesitantly, though without much choice, he took Calem's hand.
Calem's smile was warm. His hands were cold.
Somewhat inspired by the song "Stranger" by Thousand Foot Krutch and is actually set in the same universe as my other story "Syndicate". Anyway let me know what you think of it.
~~~Sikoh