Waiting for unsuspecting trainers near the exit of the Jagged Path was ingeniously diabolical. The trainers that came through the place were already exhausted from battling through the path, so usually, their pokemon were either hurt or the trainer was out of potions. Basically, they were easy pickings for Riven and his team. He was called a douchebag more than ten times in one day alone, but he had already earned about a couple thousand, with more on the way.
"I don't think I should be doing this," Riven muttered to himself, counting bills in his hand. "What do you think, White Queen?"
"Sol," she replied shortly, grooming herself. She didn't seem to care. As usual. She was making herself look presentable again after taking out a flying type specialist on her own an hour prior.
"Some help you are."
"Absol–sol."
He pocketed the money into his wallet."I should feel bad about this, but I don't. Easy money is great, who can complain about that? Well, apart from the trainers I'm smashing into the ground, of course." He chuckled smugly as another trainer came out of the path. Riven locked eyes with him, bringing up the fiercest glare he could(didn't have to try all that hard, his regular face was intimidating enough), and challenged. "Hey, you there. Battle."
The boy, in his mid teens, groaned loudly in protest. "Dude, my pokemon are exhausted! Can't you just let this one go and let me heal them first? Then we can get on with our battle."
"No. Right here, right now."
"You're camping the exit!" The teen realized. "Dick move man, dick move." The teenager was obviously onto whatever he was doing- which wasn't technically illegal- but it was a very cheap tactic nonetheless. The trainer sighed and threw a pokeball outwards, releasing a Breloom. It smiled and hopped around, eager to battle.
If Riven could smirk inside his head, he would be, as widely as possible. A pokeball shot out, releasing a very enthusiastic Combusken. The Breloom frowned, as did its trainer. "You know what? You're not just a dick, you're an asshole too."
This time, Riven couldn't help but smirk evilly. "Flamethrower." Aine opened her mouth, spewing red hot flames.
Nurse Joy was surprised there were so many trainers coming in to heal their pokemon. Many of them were complaining about an older trainer camped outside the exit to the jagged path. Medium length black hair with a speck of white, white vest hoodie and a permanent scowl, kind of scruffy looking too. Joy knew exactly who they were talking about. Ironically, he stepped inside the center a minute later, with the usual blank expression.
"Hey Nurse-" Riven stopped as he noticed the sheer amount of death glares he was currently being bombarded with. "What's with them?" He asked as he pointed to the pissed off trainers in the lobby. The amount of salt evident in their stares could practically repel demons.
Nurse Joy tapped her foot and put her hands on her hips. "Maybe they're angry because a certain someone was taking advantage of their exhaustion and ambushed them into battle when their pokemon were already very tired." She shook her head in disapproval.
"Did they say what he errrrrr, looked like?" Riven weakly asked, angry Joys were scary Joys. Her sister in Dewford proved that.
Joy gave him a look that had kitchen duty for the next few days of rent all over it. Kitchen duty sucked, Riven absolutely despised it, especially when it came to washing dishes. He surrended quickly.
"Alright, I won't do it anymore. Just not dish washing, please no dish washing," he pleaded. He had gotten a nasty case of back pain the last time that mountain of dishes stood before him.
Her glare lifted and her expression softened. "Ok, I'll spare you this time. Why were you over there anyway?" Trainers did camp on routes but mostly out in the open, never near the exit of the Fiery or Jagged Paths.
"I needed money to buy a translator and some supplies before heading out. And my pokemon had been recovering from injuries recently so they fell behind on training. Had to get them up to speed, so to speak."
"Fine, but don't do it again. Grumpy trainers are handfuls, young man."
"Got it. Can you heal my team then?" He gave her a forced smile.
She sighed lightly and held out the tray. "You know the routine." She took the three pokeballs and inserted them into the grooves on the healing machine, and flipped a switch to turn it on.
Meanwhile Riven was waiting, he thought it was time for some directions. "Nurse Joy, can I ask you a question?"
"Yes?"
"How do I get to Forina from here?" He had no idea, and since he didn't have his pokeNav anymore, using that was out of the question.
The murmuring around him died down as he said Forina, like it was some sort of taboo of sorts. The silence was creepy for a pokemon center, it was never quiet. Nurse Joy eyed him with slight incredulousness. "Why do you want to go there?"
"I need to find a dawn stone for my kirlia."
"I suppose that's a valid reason but are you sure? There isn't an official route for it, and the pokemon aren't really friendly. They're also quite strong, not to mention the distance is tremendous for someone on foot." Forina and the path there was essentially wild, trainers seldom went, there really wasn't anything there. Except for… "Wait, did you say dawn stone? As in the dawn caves?"
Riven held a hand up before she asked the next question he had received numerous times before. "Yes, those caves and no I don't have a flying pokemon." He was seriously getting tired of answering that question.
About half of the center's jaws hung wide open. Some trainers looked at him like he was a crazy lunatic hell-bent on killing himself.
"You're going to climb the spires?!" Joy's eyes widened and the machine made a clicking sound, indicating that the pokemon were ready to go.
He shrugged. "Can't avoid it."
Joy blinked a few times and handed him back the pokeballs. "Ok... If you want to do that, I won't stop you. But if you die, no one is going to search for you." He nodded firmly. Nurse Joy closed her eyes in thought. "You'll want to take the northwestern exit out of Lavaridge and continue along the plains, then cross the valleys and cliffs. On foot, you'll get there in about two months… maybe."
Riven cringed at the mention of plains, then cringed further when he heard it would be a two month trek. Two months of walking? His feet would probably come off before then. "Is there any way to get there faster? Like car or something?" A bike was also out of the question, the bike shop was the shop that unfortunately had been completely blown to shit by a hyper beam during the scuffle.
The nurse held a finger in the air, coming to a realization. "Of course! There's a person that lives near the end of the plains, goes by the name of Gale. It's possible that he can give you a ride over the valleys, but you'll have to walk through the plains first. I'm not sure if he charges though, not many people go there, but it's worth a shot."
"Ah, thanks Joy."
He left the center to the partially destroyed electronic store. A smiling clerk stood at the front, long hair coming down past his chest, listening to some catchy music in the background. Riven walked over to the clerk and placed his order.
The translator was as expensive as he had presumed. It took most of his money, but he had some left over- good thing too, he needed to buy some rope and general stuff like potions and antidotes. The device itself was fairly simplistic, just a thin model with headphones attached to it, not very much different from the ones teenagers used to listen to music. Of course, Riven had trouble finding the on switch and kept playing with the sound settings-after twenty minutes of frustrated toggling-, mostly picking up static and other unintelligible garble. The clerk had laughed at him and adjusted it accordingly.
Why did the simplest forms of technology utterly baffle him? He had no idea. Even vending machines hated him. He actually wouldn't be surprised if the headset broke within a couple of days. In fact, he expected it to happen. Technology and him just didn't mix, like, ever. If he ever tried to drive a car, as useful as they were, it would probably refuse to turn on, or drive in reverse while trying to go forward. Then he'd crash and get permanent brain damage. Or lose a leg, whatever. He quickly dismissed that idea.
Two hours of gathering supplies later, he set off to the northwest.
Nurse Joy wasn't pulling his leg in the slightest. The plains seemed to go on forever, hills of green extending as far as the eye could see. Mt. Chimney could also be seen in the distance, with a few snow capped mountains farther away, barely visible. The huge expanse of land was daunting to say the least, Forina probably wasn't even remotely close at this point.
"More plains…" Riven complained, growing hungry after a long period of walking.
He sat down on the grass, feeling a gentle breeze on his face. He wiped some sweat from his brow and fixated his gaze upwards, towards the sky. It was a beautiful blue with white puffy clouds drifting slowly along, a calming sight to anyone who wasn't him. The tranquility made him uncomfortable. Three pokeballs were lazily thrown a few feet away, opening upon contact with the ground.
Three flashes of light appeared and his pokemon came out, taking in the scenery around them. It didn't take long before they began chatting amongst themselves, clearly ignoring their trainer. As Riven watched them chat, he decided to test the translator, mostly because he was curious how the device would make his pokemon sound. He fumbled with it and placed it on his ears.
"I like vanilla better," a surprisingly teenaged girl's voice came through, right as Aine had said something to Mischief.
A young male voice came from behind her. "I actually prefer chocolate, more rich in flavor. But I guess vanilla is good too. Rainbow isn't as bad as Nez made it out to be either, I'll get it next time." So that was the voice Mischief had. It sounded teenaged too, fitting for a secondary evolution.
He looked for his Absol, who was currently staring at the plains ahead in mild disinterest. He decided to test something. "Hey! White Queen! Your fur is filthy!" Hopefully the bait would work.
She whipped around, red eyes narrowing in irritation. She slowly walked over to the group. "My fur is not filthy, you stupid trainer. I make a point of flawlessly grooming it so that it isn't dirty, something everyone but you seems to acknowledge. Hmph!"
Her voice was a little more grown than Aine's and sounded less teenager and more young adult. But the sass in her voice was no less diminished, the voice the translator gave her was what he had more or less imagined her to sound like. Prissy, upper class twit.
"And what is with that stupid thing you're wearing? It makes you look even more ridiculous. Humans are strange."
"It looks like the ones the other humans use," Mischief replied, eyeing the headset as well.
Aine scratched her head. "But our trainer can't even work a television."
"That's certainly true. He might be a little slow," Mischief remarked, deliberately slowing his words down on that last part.
Riven frowned deeply. "I am not slow."
White Queen scoffed. "It took you thirty minutes to-" She paused and her eyes widened. "You understood what Bib said?" She looked stunned. Turning to the Kirlia, she said, "I think we should be expecting flying grumpigs anytime soon."
The psychic placed two hands on his head and spread them outwards in opposing directions, as if mind blown."If I die anytime soon, I'm going to check if hell is frozen."
Aine didn't join in on the teasing and instead jumped for joy. "Yay! You can understand us!" She glomped Riven and hugged him tightly, who felt like his ribs were going to shatter again. "I thought you would never understand us! Because if you didn't, I'd have to talk with them all the time, and they never want to talk about anything interesting! The only thing Bib talks about is cute mates! And the only thing she ever talks about is how pointless humans are! I want to talk about battling!" She unknowingly tightened her bone crushing hug. Her trainer was losing color in his face.
"Aine, I'd like… to keep… my ribs from snapping and piercing… a lung thank… you," Riven wheezed, struggling to get out of her grasp.
"Oh. Sorry." She let him go and awkwardly stepped back with a nervous giggle. Hearing a voice instead of the usual and very obnoxious COMBUSKEN would take some getting used to. Riven didn't know how much of a chatterbox Aine could be, praying it wasn't too bad, but judging from that exchange a few seconds ago, those prayers wouldn't do him any good.
"Now that you can understand us, there are some things I'd like to make clear. And no, you do not have a choice in the matter," White Queen announced, watching her trainer close his mouth after attempting a response. "My name is Haona. Not White Queen, even if it does have a fantastic ring to it. Got it? Call me Haona and I won't call you stupid trainer from now on, understood?" She formed a glowing blue orb in her mouth for extra emphasis. "UNDERSTOOD?"
Riven hesitantly nodded.
This time Mischief was the one to speak. "And my name is Baron, by the way. Not Mischief." Thankfully, he didn't threaten him like White Queen did.
"It's Bib," Haona said disapprovingly, letting go of the ice beam.
Riven shifted eyes between them both, not sure whether to listen to the pushy Absol or Kirlia. "Umm, who should I listen to?" He was afraid to cross White Queen, she was terrifying.
"Me," they both replied.
"Wonderful," Riven sardonically remarked. The Absol glared at him, a trace of icy cold forming around her lips. He backed away slightly.
"Call him Bib."
"No. Call me Baron."
"Why? Me and Aine already call you Bib."
"That's because you're used to it! He's my trainer, it's different! And why did you even give me that name in the first place?"
"I think it's cute. And fitting."
For a Ralts, perhaps. For a Gallade? No way. Baron buried his head in his hands. "Don't listen to them. Call me Baron... At least out of respect?" He smiled in attempt to make himself more appealing.
"Ok, Bib." Riven's sneer made the Kirlia shrug in defeat. He poked the small pokemon on the head, near the horn. "I'm messing with you. I don't like nicknames either. Besides, if I called a Gallade Bib, no one would take me or you seriously." He quickly changed the subject before the Absol gave him frostbite."Anyway, you three hungry?" He was already digging into his pack to take out the formula.
"I'm tired of the formula," Haona complained.
Both the Baron and Aine agreed. Riven wasn't expecting that, too much human food was definitely spoiling them, he had to stop that. "Then what do you suppose we eat?" He questioned, if they didn't want pokefood then what the hell did they want? Hopefully not trainer.
Haona licked her lips. "I want some meat, like the stantler you killed once! That was amazing." Some days, she could still taste it.
"Sure, because something with great tasting meat will just happen to walk right on by out here in the plains," Riven replied sarcastically.
Aine held out a clawed paw and pointed north. Sure enough, an entire tauros herd was currently making its way along the plains a few hundred feet ahead of them over a large hill.
Riven looked at the herd for a second, went back to his pokemon and instantly did a double take. He didn't so much as retort, and bolted upright, nearly salivating at the thought of some tauros steak. "Taurossssss," he said, much more joyous than normal. He instinctively pulled out his knife, twirling it with his fingers expertly, all the while wearing a smile typically seen on psychopaths about to commit murder.
"You're happy, that's creepy," Haona noted, backing away a little.
"I think terrifying is a more fitting description," Baron added.
"It's worse when he's waving that knife around." Aine also backed away, that knife was twirling dangerously in her direction.
Riven got an idea and faced his Absol, still playing with the razor sharp piece of metal.
"Oh, I don't like that look," she said, swallowing nervously.
"We're going after one," he mentioned, cackling sadistically. He wanted some steak, and wasn't going to stop until he got one.
Ok, so going after a single Tauros in an entire herd wasn't one of his brightest ideas. Possibly one of his worst, actually. Clearly evident after White Queen slashed one down and the entire herd turned 180 degrees around, absolutely furious.
Riven nearly needed a change of pants, seeing a huge charging mass of bull pokemon thunder across the plains, directly towards him. Following an adrenaline fueled sprint and a threat of castration from White Queen for being so brainless, he and his pokemon evaded the herd and set up camp near the dead animal. Taking out his knife, Riven began to go to work.
The meat was as good as he expected it to be. Riven hadn't had tauros steak in a long time and missed its rich flavor, savoring every bite. White Queen ate the most out of all of them, which was fine, considering she was the one who did the most work. She tore through her food and looked thoroughly sated after eating more than enough for a creature of her size. Aine and Baron ate much less, but enjoyed it anyway, pokefood became dull and tiring, having to eat it every single day.
Once everyone was full and content, his pokemon decided it was best to rest now, while they were still digesting, and head out tomorrow. Riven had no reason to say otherwise, so he agreed.
The sun had gone down and night time had befallen the windswept plains, a crescent moon floating high above, surrounded by glittering stars and a beautiful view of the galaxy. There were no real predators around, so none of them were particularly worried about something tricky coming in the dead of night and slicing their throats open. Although sentries weren't needed, Riven sat alone atop a high hill some distance away from the camp, both eyes transfixed on the dark outlines of hills ahead.
He had been unable to sleep, the sight of the plains had made him dream about Nimva again, just like in Mauville. Insomnia made him decide that it was best to do some reflection and spare his mind the horrors of that battle, the young man falling into deep contemplation about what his next goal was.
I'm close to Forina. Close to fulfilling my original goal. But after I evolve Baron, what then? Do I continue on the circuit? Get eight badges? And after that? I just don't know what to do… I haven't found so much as a clue as to what sent me here, or how. Not even how far in the future I am, or what happened to the clans, the war. Nothing. He clenched a fist. Months of time spent here in this world and he hadn't learned anything new about his predicament. It seemed like a hopeless case, to dwell on the past. But he couldn't help it, it was all he knew.
I know I should move on. But onto what? What is there for me to do? What is my place here? My purpose?
Confusion ate away at him, feeling torn between two worlds, not quite fitting in both. On one hand, the old world was a horrible place, filled with death and destruction, but it was familiar, and most of all, he didn't feel like something so out of place. But on the other, this world was the one he and his companions always talked about, where people and pokemon lived in peace and harmony, not murdering one another for pointless power struggles or conflicts bred of generations of old hate.
This world was beautiful and peaceful, but Riven felt empty and useless. Like a crumbling building, a rusted sword, an abandoned mine. The ex-soldier had no purpose; he was just a living, breathing corpse that wandered the earth in search for something to do, something to look forward to. He cared little for champions or small metal badges, he only did it because Birch had given him a task, one that gave him an excuse to move and travel. It was better than working small menial jobs like others were.
Part of the reason that civilian life was ill suited for him was because of its normalcy. It felt alien, like something that shouldn't exist. The people here carried about their lives carefree and without worries, something unseen in his own time. The constant fear of death permeated every second of every day in his time, keeping him on his toes just to stay alive. But here… Everything was so normal, and to him, it felt wrong.
He couldn't talk to people and was incapable of doing anything that didn't involve violence or battle. All he knew how to do was fight, that was what he had been trained for from the age of four, not wash dishes or deliver food. Training gave him something to fight. It kept his mind off of the unnatural normalcy, being more in tune with him; with the dangers, the struggles, and the battles. Particularly the battles.
Riven sighed and rubbed his eyes, lack of sleep beginning to take a toll on his body. Concluding his thoughts before they made him feel far worse, the weary young man stood up and made his way back to camp.
Baron opened an eye, the conflicted feelings from his trainer pouring in as he passed him. Melancholy, joy, pride, sadness, pain, and anger came to him in a convoluted mess. His trainer was confused, that was certain. He showed none of it on that blank face of his, but he couldn't hide it forever. One day, it was going to come out. Forcefully, and violently, like an eruption. Baron hoped he would never have to see that.
As he thought of the inhuman hate he had felt in the forest near Littleroot, the psychic prayed that the claydols' warning was just that, a warning, nothing more.