Ah, my update schedule on here has been completely thrown off now due to that server upgrade over last weekend, the fact that I forgot to update on Monday, and then that I was addicted to a new game yesterday and most of today until I realized I had schoolwork I needed to do (Psychonauts FTW!). Nevertheless, I’ll just get this up tonight so you people who read this (all two of you ;-)) won’t think I forgot about updating here.
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Chapter 7
“Shrike, don’t you think you’re acting a little overconfident...” Rayne sighed, hanging her head as we walked down a sidewalk in the heart of Petalburg City, toward the Pokémon Gym that sat at the very center of it all. She insisted that we stop and get her oh so needed supplies first though, so we were heading a little out of our way toward the city’s primary Pokémart. Since it was a nice day we each had all of our Pokémon out of their Pokéballs, not that that meant much; Rayne only had her Absol, Matariel, while I only had my Cyndaquil and Zigzagoon, Zethro and Jehiel respectively. Usually I would be carrying Zethro, but this time I had decided that he could use the exercise and so he was walking alongside me with Jehiel. Matariel followed a short distance behind Rayne.
“Not really! I mean, it’s not like I’m going to take on the Gym Leader or anything, I just want to take on some novice trainer that’s hanging around there! I used to hang out around Rustboro Gym all the time, watching the battles and dreaming of actually taking part in one myself; now I’ll be able to! I’m sure there will be someone hanging out there that’s around my skill level, watching and learning from the Gym Leader and his apprentices. I just need to find someone like that, and then we will totally own them! Haha!” I exclaimed, pumping my fist in the air. “Right you guys? We’re going to cream whoever we fight!”
“Cream? You mean we will kill them, liquefy their corpses, and turn whatever is left over into cream? That sounds fun.” Jehiel said. I almost tripped and fell down.
“No, not really...”
“Then, master, what does it mean to cream someone?”
“First of all, don’t call me master. I have a name, Shrike. S-H-R-I-K-E; Sh-rike. Got it?”
“I believe so, master Shrike.”
I growled and mumbled under my breath about why I had to get the weird Zigzagoon. “Anyways, creaming someone means we will beat them in battle so hard they will wish they hadn’t even thought of taking up our challenge in the first place.”
“So we will kill them painfully and slowly?” Jehiel innocently asked. He really doesn’t have a clue, does he... I thought to myself.
“No. How many times do I have to tell you; in Pokémon Battles we don’t kill the opponent, all you have to do is knock them unconscious. Once all of the enemy’s Pokémon are unconscious, we win. Once we win, we go and celebrate with a huge dinner at the most expensive restaurant in this city. Can you understand that, at least?”
“Maybe... What does it mean to knock someone ‘unconscious,’ and why don’t we just attack the enemy human directly instead?”
I sighed, this was looking hopeless. “Jehiel, I am your master, correct?”
“Yes; you weren’t before but you are now.”
“And I told you back at Zack’s cave not to kill anyone, correct?”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“So why are you suggesting we kill things now since that would go against my orders, which you seem to value so highly?”
“I am merely offering my opinion; I will follow your orders to my death, but I must voice my opinion on the wisdom of them.”
During this whole discussion we had somehow made our way to the Pokémart, miraculously without me bumping into anyone while I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking. I’m sure I noticed a few people giving me weird looks as to them it would appear that I was talking to myself. I was about to give Jehiel an order to never talk about killing someone again, when a familiar voice startled me.
“Why, look who’s shown up! Shrike, good friend, I trust you are doing well?”
Looking up and forgetting the matter with Jehiel I took a step back in surprise. “Z—Zack! W—Why are you here? Why aren’t you back in your, uh, cave?” I stuttered.
Zack flicked a strand of his blond hair back over his shoulder, smiling at me. However, I noticed something in his smile that seemed nervous, as if he was worried about something. “I needed to come into the city and get supplies, remember? Come closer, this is not the way for such good friends to greet each other, standing five feet apart like this!”
When I didn’t budge Zack closed in on me, holding out his arms just as he had when we parted last time we met. This time I was ready though. “Jehiel, Zack is attacking me now.” I whispered.
“For the master! We must protect him at all costs!” Jehiel shouted, leaping in between Zack and me. Jumping at Zack’s right leg he clung to it with his claws, scrambling up the leg like an Aipom up a tree.
“Augh! Get it off of me! Friend, your beast of a Pokémon is out of control again!” Zack screamed, trying to push Jehiel off himself. The Zigzagoon managed to hang on and get onto Zack’s chest before I decided that had been enough.
“Jehiel, he is not attacking me, you can get off of him now.” I said.
“But, you said—” Jehiel began as he clung to Zack’s shirt, turning to face me with confusion in his eyes.
“I was mistaken.”
“If that is what the master says.” Jehiel let go of Zack’s shirt and did a back flip away from him, landing back on the ground next to me.
“Friend, you must really get more control over your Pokémon!” Zack panted, his approaches towards me now halted. Fortunately he didn’t seem to have heard me give Jehiel the command to attack him in the first place.
“Jehiel is still in training; he has much to learn still.” I replied. Jehiel was still confused over what had happened and so remained silent.
“Nevertheless, now that we have met, I would like to ask you a question.” Zack grabbed my hand and began to pull me towards an alley next to the Pokémart, where Rayne wouldn’t be able to see us. I managed to hold my ground and pull my hand out of Zack’s, though.
“We can talk right here; there’s no reason for Rayne to be left out.”
“Like I really want to see this...” She muttered, holding her head in her hands.
“It’s not like you think it is!” I exclaimed.
“Hmm? Does Rayne think something is going on between us? Oh, I assure you, we are just good friends and nothing more.” Zack nodded, realizing he wouldn’t be able to separate us this time.
“That’s not what it looks like...”
“Shrike, friend; what exactly do you see in this girl that makes you want to keep her around?”
“She’s the one sticking to me. Enough about that though, you said you wanted to ask me something?” I knew that this conversation was going to a bad place, so tried to change the subject back again.
“Ah, yes. I was wondering if you, and Rayne if she would like, would want to come to my house, I am currently renting one in this city, and stay over for the night. We could all watch TV together and tell tales of our journeys so far; of course I would have to do most of the talking. Then we could have a big campout together! I’m sure you don’t want to stay in that Pokémon Center room.” Zack said with a look of consternation on his face.
“Is something wrong? You don’t look that well.” I asked.
“No, nothing is seriously wrong, I assure you that. It’s just that I am a little worried over something I must be doing later, but that does not concern you, even if you are a friend.”
“How do you know we’re staying at the Pokémon Center? We could be staying in a normal hotel.” Rayne asked, frowning and narrowing her eyes. It was then that I realized we hadn’t told Zack where we were staying yet.
“Hey, yeah; how do you know?”
“Oh, er, intuition; you’re Pokémon Trainers, so it makes sense that’s where you’d go. Say, if you want to take me up on my offer, just send a message to my Pokédex and I’ll tell you where to meet me. The number is PD20-190-378-012, in case you don’t remember. I have to be going now, though. See ya!” With that Zack turned around and hurriedly ran off down the street.
“Something is fishy with that guy, he said he needed supplies but he didn’t have any before, and now he’s just run away. Matariel?” Rayne turned to face her Absol, who had remained quiet this whole time. She must have realized that Zack could also understand Pokémon speech.
“Gray. A rolling mass of gray cloud. It obscures everything from view and blocks out both the light and the darkness.” Matariel quietly said, before shaking her head. “There is not much to see in him; it is as if he doesn’t even know who he truly is, or how his life will play out.”
Rayne nodded. “I thought so. Shrike, it would probably be for the best if you never meet with him again, nor take up this offer of his tonight. For all we know he might be trying to lure you into some kind of trap, and has been since you first met him. Of course, I could be completely wrong and he has no evil intentions at all, but we must be careful in these matters.”
“I don’t think he’s evil... I mean, yes, he may act a little strange, but you can’t judge someone based solely on how they act. For all we know, he might have had some traumatic experience as a child that changed him for the rest of his life and left him acting like this.” I said. I wasn’t quite sure I believed my own words, however.
“He’s weird. Why did he have his arms out like that, and why did you tell Jehiel he was attacking you?” Zethro asked.
“It’s a human thing, you wouldn’t understand. Normally only a boy and a girl are supposed to act like that towards each other, though.” I turned to face the Pokémart door, only now realizing we had been standing in front of it this entire time, and that the flow of people in and out of the shop hadn’t stopped for us. I grimaced and blushed, embarrassed by the people who were streaming around us while giving me clear looks of disgust for now not only talking to myself, but also being friends with, well, Zack. “Let’s just get this over with and get on to the Pokémon Gym...”
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Our shopping went reasonably well, much to Rayne’s satisfaction. She insisted that we stock up on as many potions and easy to prepare foods as possible, so by the time we had finished gathering everything together, the bag Rayne had brought with her to hold it all in was literally ripping at the seams. When I asked her how we would cart it all around from place to place since our backpacks were already stuffed full of clothing and other personal items, she merely shrugged and replied: “We’ll just have to stuff it in, and if it doesn’t all fit one of us will just have to carry this bag around. Here, take it from me.” Grumbling about being forced to carry the heavy bag we set out again for the Pokémon Gym. My enthusiasm from earlier had mostly disappeared from the odd encounter with Zack; however I was still confident enough.
“So, what exactly is this gym focused on? Who’s the leader?” Rayne asked as we walked.
I pulled out my Pokédex with the hand that wasn’t holding our supply bag and opened it up, pulling up the information on Petalburg’s Pokémon Gym. “Says here that this gym is pretty much focused on all-around Pokémon, mostly normal types however some of the newer apprentices are starting to use other types as well ever since the League got rid of the ‘one element per gym’ law; that has also caused a wave of change among the novices that hang out there. The Gym Leader’s name is Norman, and this says that he’s actually the father of the Elite Four Champion, Brendan! Let’s see, he’s about 72 years old, but his fans still insist on saying he’s the most handsome guy ever. They must be crazy. Many people, even those who aren’t his fans, also say he’s one of the most skilled Gym Leaders in all of Hoenn, enough to be part of the Elite Four if he seriously tried to get in.” I read off the Pokédex’s screen.
“Assure me again, you are not planning on taking Norman on, right?” Rayne asked.
“No, no; of course not. I might have been considering it for a while; you know, show the world just how good I am; but perhaps not. Look, there it is now.” I pointed down the street to a large, dome shaped building ahead of us; it sat right at the intersection point of the two main streets that ran through Petalburg City from north to south and east to west. Getting closer to the Gym I noticed some specific buildings out of the corner of my eye and blinked. Hey, that looks like The Pokémon Academy back in Rustboro...
There were three different buildings I was looking at; two arc shaped and set facing each other with a third, cylindrical building right at the middle of them. From the sky it would like some weird, giant, flat Pokéball; however both Rayne and I knew what they were. “That must be Petalburg’s Pokémon Academy. Didn’t know they all looked the same.” Rayne said, following my gaze to the buildings.
I nodded slowly before shaking my head. “No time for nostalgia now. Besides, not like I want to remember that place.”
Turning my attention away from Petalburg’s Pokémon Academy I waltzed up to the Pokémon Gym’s doors and tapped my feet impatiently as I waited for them to slowly swing open. Finally I rushed through the doors and into the foyer of the Gym, looking around and taking in the layout of the place; which was mostly that of a flat semi-circle with three doors leading off the flat wall of the room, with circular windows set into the curved part. Navigating between statues of Norman and his Pokémon I made my way to the reception desk and leaned against it, drumming the fingers of my right hand on the surface of the desk, trying to give off my best calm and cool impression. “This is the Petalburg City Pokémon Gym, correct?”
“Yes, it is. If you would like to challenge Norman he’s already in a match right now, so you will have to wait. If you want to watch the match, head through the doors directly behind me.” The receptionist behind the desk drawled, not looking up from the computer she was working at.
“Ah; I come from Rustboro City where the Gym is a sort of ‘hangout’ for new trainers, you could say. We would watch Roxanne battle, then take each other on right then and there to try out what we learned from watching her. I almost always won.” I lied. Got to sound like I know what I’m doing... “So, I assume that there are some novice trainers around here who would be willing to take me on?”
“You can go to the Trainer’s lounge through the door to the far right; however we have also started up a new internship program in partnership with The Pokémon Academy you may be interested in.” The receptionist said.
“Interns? How so?”
“For the most part they are juniors, although there are some seniors, who are at the top of their class and have thus earned honorary rights to get their own starter Pokémon before the rest of their class does when they become seniors. If they want, they can become interns here, essentially novice apprentices. They take part in official battles, meaning that if they win they earn a cash prize, and if they lose their opponent does. They also get extra credit towards their schoolwork if they do exceptionally well here. For the most part they are more skilled than the random newbies who like to hang out here, but not anywhere near the level of Norman or his apprentices. If you are interested, head through the far left door to the Intern’s Lounge and you can meet whoever is here now and challenge them if you want.”
“Hmm, sounds interesting, and like it will offer more of a challenge than some random nobody who thinks he will become the Elite Four Champion one day.” I pushed myself away from the desk and nodded. “Thank you for your assistance.” Turning to the left I briskly walked through the far left door into a short hallway; Rayne following me, shaking her head.
“What was that act all about; you didn’t have to lie...”
“Ah, but it makes me sound more experienced than I am, just as I should be. Now, let’s see how tough this Academy’s students are...” I said, striding through the door at the end of the hallway and into the Intern’s Lounge. The place reminded me of the Recreational Room back at Rustboro’s Academy, some couches sat in an arc in front of a large TV on the wall, currently displaying the Gym’s main arena with the battle the receptionist had talked about on. Some pool tables and pinball machines also lined the walls. The room was mostly vacant; in fact there was only one other person in the room when we entered.
“Hmm? Oh, are you here to challenge one of us? I guess the receptionist forgot to mention that when Norman is fighting, most of us like to go and watch his matches.” A girl sitting on one of the couches said, looking up as we entered. “Me, I don’t like crowded arenas so I usually just watch from here. The name’s Aira Kaza; this match isn’t very exciting so if you want I can battle you now.”
“Shrike Flamestar, from Rustboro; in fact, I come from The Pokémon Academy there, but it’s kind of a long story as to why I’m already licensed.”
“Oh, you went to Rustboro’s Academy? Are those your Cyndaquil and Zigzagoon?” Aira asked, noticing the two Pokémon standing besides me.
“Yeah, they are. I like to keep them out of their Pokéballs so they can get more exercise by walking.”
Behind me Rayne pushed through the doorway which I had been blocking, coming to stand next to me. “Rayne Jarxis. I’m just here to watch over Shrike and make sure he doesn’t do anything exceedingly stupid. Such as challenge Norman.”
“Rayne...” Aira blinked, as if surprised to hear that name. “And that Absol, whose is that?”
“Mine.” Rayne simply replied.
Aira frowned. “Hey, Shrike; your Cyndaquil wouldn’t happen to be named Zethro, and your Zigzagoon Jehiel; would they?”
Gasping I took a step back. “H—how did you know?”
Aira suddenly grinned, jumping off the couch and rushing over to us. “I knew you’d be coming this way; Fire Bird!”
“C—Chaos?” I gasped. Yelping as Aira slapped me across the face.
“LordDark; highest ranking student at the Petalburg Pokémon Academy. Don’t ask me where that nickname came from just because we’ve met in real life now.” Aira said, twirling around. Blinking at this revelation I took a new look at her. She looked a year older than me, but that was to be expected since she was a senior while I had only left the school as a junior. Her long, light-blue hair was perfectly straight and hung down her back except for two strands that were slung over her shoulders. I couldn’t help but think that, overall, she was quite good looking. That wasn’t what concerned me now, however.
“Y—you’re a girl?! I thought you were a guy! I mean, your nickname is LordDark!” I exclaimed.
“As I said, don’t ask about the nickname; it’s just that I’ve always been sort of tomboyish my whole life, so many people have treated me like a boy.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were here? You knew I was coming this way.” I asked, trying to push the shock of LordDark being a girl out of my mind.
“I was thinking of doing so, but the last time we talked you got off before I could say anything.” Aira said. “Well, no sense in just standing around here, we planned to meet each other in real life eventually, remember? There’s not much to talk about anyways; but I’m sure you want to challenge me to a battle, right?”
“Well, that’s why I came here. Just because you’re a friend and a girl, I’m not going easy on you.” I smiled, Aira returning it.
“Well then, there’s a stadium just for intern battles that should be empty right now; I don’t think anyone else is using it. Shall we?” Aira turned around and walked over to a door set in the wall across the room, pulling out her trainer ID and waving it across the door lock’s scanner. The door slid up and she walked through it, holding down a button on the other side of the door to keep it from closing. “Well? Come on.”
Rayne and I, with our Pokémon, walked over and through the door, Aira releasing the button and letting the door shut behind us. Another short hallway later and we emerged into a large, empty room. Along each wall a short stack of bleachers sat, on one of which Rayne took a seat along with the supply bag I had given her, and in the middle of the floor the standard split rectangle with two boxes on the ends was painted but that was pretty much all that was in the room. As Aira walked over to the left side of the field and took up a position in the box there and I did the same on the right side, a referee wearing a white and black striped shirt emerged through a door that blended in with the wall and walked over to us.
“You want to have a battle now, Aira? Don’t you want to watch Norman’s match?” The referee asked.
“Nah, not this time. Besides, this is a friend of mine and I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
“So much so that you forgot to scan his ID into the computer?”
“Ah, well... I always seem to forget that.” Aira sighed. “Hey, Shrike, you won’t mind scanning your ID on that panel over there, will you?” She pointed to a black panel with an orange light over it near the door we had came in through and I shrugged.
“Guess not.” I walked over to the panel and ran my ID over it. As soon as I did the light turned to green and I walked back over to my box.
“Alright...” The referee nodded, looking at a small handheld computer. “This will be a one on one match between Shrike Flamestar of Rustboro City, and Aira Kaza of Petalburg. Standard battle rules apply with no switching permitted. The first to knock out their opponent wins. Send out your Pokémon now!”
“Fury, go!” Aira called as she pulled her single Pokéball off her belt, throwing it out onto the field. The light from the Pokéball materialized into a small dog like Pokémon, mostly black in color except for its belly and snout which were brown. Two white strips, similar to bones, ran along its back while four similar loops were on each of its paws. What looked to be part of a skull sat between its ears; rather fitting with its dark and evil look.
“Dour!” Aira’s Houndour, Fury, howled; a meaningless sound which the Pokécom couldn’t translate.
“A Houndour? Well then, looks like we’ll be fairly even type wise. Zethro!” I shouted.
“I’m on it!” Zethro ran from my side onto the field, facing down Fury and growling at him.
“Master, why may I not fight?” Jehiel asked from my side.
“Because Zethro is stronger than you, and I’ll be needing that strength.”
“Huh? Did you just say something?” Aira called from across the battlefield.
“No, you must have been hearing things.” I replied, knowing that she still wouldn’t believe me if I told her I could understand my Pokémon.
“Aira has chosen her Houndour, Fury, while Shrike his Cyndaquil, Zethro! This fight will now commence!” The referee yelled, throwing his hands up in the air.
“Since you’re the challenger, you may make the first move.” Aira told me.
“Alright then, Zethro; let’s start this off with a Quick Attack to get in closer!” I commanded.
“Quil!” Zethro shouted, a meaningless battle cry just as Fury had done. Taking off he began a fast sprint straight at Fury, who merely stood there as Zethro got ever closer. What’s she doing, not even trying to dodge... Zethro was now just a couple feet from Fury and jumped at it, right as Aira finally spoke up.
“Fury, Faint Attack.” Aira smirked.
“Dour!” Fury shouted, suddenly springing into the air right at Zethro, a black aura glowing around him. The two collided in the air head on, but in the end it was Zethro who got knocked back farther, dark sparks of energy leaping around his body as he fell to the ground limply.
“Zethro! No; get up!” I yelled.
“Don’t worry, I won’t lose to this guy...” Zethro growled as he got to his feet. His fur was messed up and he looked a little worn out, but he seemed otherwise alright.
“That’s the spirit! That’s a pretty nice Houndour there, Aira.”
“Thank you, but if you don’t do something soon I may attack you off guard”
“Oh, er, yeah. Alright Zethro; fill the field with a Smoke Screen!” I ordered Zethro.
“Cynda—Quil!” Zethro yelled, opening his mouth and spraying black smoke from it over the field. The smoke continued pouring from his mouth for awhile, until most of the battlefield was covered in the smoke. While Zethro couldn’t exhale fire from his mouth, he was still able to with smoke.
I couldn’t see Aira through the smoke, but I knew that she was grimacing. After my story of what had happened to Zethro she hadn’t been expecting that. “Fury, brace yourself. Zethro can’t see anything in this smoke either, but be ready for a sudden attack nevertheless.”
“She’s right, I can’t see anything in here. What’s the point of this?” Zethro asked me, sounding worried.
“Just do as we’ve practiced, use Double Team to create imaginary copies of yourself so that when the smoke fades Aira won’t know which to go after.” I said. Zethro’s Double Team wasn’t very strong yet, he could only make a handful of copies, but it should be enough as long as Zethro realized what I was planning.
Through the smoke I saw glimmers of light as the imaginary Cyndaquil clones spread out around the battle field as the smoke diminished. After a moment almost all the smoke had disappeared, except for a few puffs here and there, leaving the now five Pokémon on the battlefield exposed; one Houndour and four Cyndaquils.
“Fury, use a Flamethrower to destroy all those clones and reveal the real one.” Aira commanded, her voice flat and calm, unfazed by the battle; she must be used to situations like these by now.
“Houn—dour!” Fury shouted, releasing a stream of flame from his mouth. Moving from right to left he swept the trail of fire across the battlefield, each of the imaginary Cyndaquil clones being hit in turn by it and disappearing. I did nothing to stop it. I knew by now that Zethro had known what I planned to do.
“W—what?!” Aira gasped as every one of the four Cyndaquils on the field was hit by the fire and disappeared, none of them having been Zethro. “Where is it? None of those were the real one?!”
“Now! Zethro, Flame Wheel!” I shouted triumphantly. I had this in the bag. Zethro burst out of one of the few remaining puffs of smoke right next to Fury, his back already flaring up.
“Idiot.” I heard Rayne say from her seat on the bleachers. I realized at the last moment why, but it was too late to say anything.
Zethro leaped at Fury, spiraling in a circle of fire. But neither Fury nor Aira did anything to stop him, in fact Aira was smirking. Zethro collided with Fury right on its side, making him stagger a little, however when Zethro fell away and backed off, Fury looked none the worse off. In fact, a faint red glow now surrounded him.
“Flash Fire. A special trait which certain Houndours, Fury included, have which absorbs all energy from fire attacks and uses it to boost their own.” Aira smirked.
“No! Zethro, get out of there!” I shouted. Damn it! A perfectly executed plan gone to waste because of my stupidity! How should I have known it has Flash Fire? Then again, I shouldn’t have used a fire attack anyways as they’re weaker against another fire type! Argh, I’m such an idiot!
“To late to escape now. Fury, finish this with Flamethrower!” Aira ordered.
Zethro tried to run away but didn’t have enough time. Before he could get much more than ten feet away from Fury, the Houndour released another stream of fire directly at Zethro, and this time he was no fake clone.
“Quil!” Zethro yelped as he was enveloped in the fire stream. For a moment I prayed that the type mismatch would keep the attack from finishing Zethro off, however I knew that Fury was to powerful; plus Zethro’s Flame Wheel had boosted his fire power farther. When the stream of fire finally dissipated Zethro lay unconscious on the ground, his fur badly singed.
“Shrike Flamestar’s Cyndaquil, Zethro, is unconscious! The winner of this match is Aira Kaza!” The referee announced, raising a red flag in my direction.
“Zethro!” I shouted, running onto the battlefield and over to him. Bending down I scooped him up in my arms. His breathing was heavy and he was far hotter than normal. I knew that he shouldn’t die from that attack; while you would think an attack like that would charbroil anything it touched, Pokémon were much more resilient to elemental attacks than people; but I was worried about his safety nonetheless.
“Here, use this for now. He can get better treatment when we get back to the Pokémon Center.”
I looked up and found that Rayne had walked over from the bleachers, one of the potions we had just bought in her hand. I took it and hastily sprayed the soothing mist over Zethro. There was no specific area on him that was in worse condition than the rest, so I tried to make the spray as even as possible. Almost too quickly the small bottle was empty, however, and sighing I pulled Zethro’s Pokéball off my belt.
“That was a good match, and your plan was excellent. If you had only realized that Fury might have Flash Fire beforehand, you might have actually beaten me.” Aira said, walking over to me as I recalled Zethro and placed the Pokéball back on my belt.
“Yeah, it was a good match. I suppose I just need to work on thinking things through a little more from now on.” I nodded, shaking Aira’s hand. I couldn’t say I was happy with the outcome of the match, but at least I had done well. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Fury and Jehiel had approached each other and seemed to be talking.
“You are another of that human’s Pokémon?” Fury asked.
“Yeah. What’s it to you? Since master fought you, I can only assume you are an enemy.”
“You do not understand Pokémon battles, do you?”
“I understand that the goal should be to kill each other, but master is refusing to let me kill. In fact, seeing as you almost killed my partner, I am having to restrain myself from killing you, or even attacking, as I have a feeling master would not be pleased with that.”
“You are a very strange Zigzagoon, you know that?”
“Not really. I do know that my master is very strange, though. But I am starting to get an idea of what he likes and dislikes; pretty much everything the opposite of what should be right.”
“Good! You’re finally getting there!” I clapped, overjoyed that something must have gotten through to Jehiel finally.
“Um, who are you talking to?” Aira asked. “Don’t tell me you still think you can understand Pokémon...”
“Well, yeah. Come on Rayne, support me here!”
“What he says is true; however I’m staying out of this.” Rayne said
“What?! Why?! But still, you heard her; she said that I’m telling the truth! I have this translator stuck in my ear that my friend Zack gave me that allows me to understand Pokémon speech!” I exclaimed.
“Prove it then, let me see it.” Aira said. “Which ear is it in?”
“The left.”
Aira grabbed my head and turned it so she could see into my left ear. “Nope, don’t see anything. Just a lot of ear wax.”
“It’s in there pretty deep; I think most of it is in my ear canal. Actually, I have no idea how I’m supposed to get it out if I ever wanted to...”
“Until I see any solid proof of the existence of this Pokémon Translator, I refuse to believe you.” Aira crossed her arms sternly and I knew I wouldn’t be able to convince her otherwise.
“Whatever, believe what you want. Hey, you wanta come down to our room and hang out for a bit, you know, talk and such?”
“Sorry, I have to stay here; this is pretty much my job. Come and see me before you leave the city, though!”
“We will! Come on, Jehiel; we’ve got to be going.” I said, turning around and walking back towards the door as Jehiel ran to catch up with me, Rayne and Matariel following. At the doorway into the hallway that lead to the Intern’s lounge I paused, turning around and giving one final wave to Aira.
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For most of the rest day I stayed in our room at the Pokémon Center worrying about Zethro, who I had given to Karen to take care of. She had said that he would probably be in good condition again in a couple hours, and most of those I whittled away by alternating between writing my stories, and browsing around online without any real clear goal. Rayne spent her time drawing, as usual. It was now that I realized that perhaps a trainer’s life wasn’t all action after all.
Eventually my cell phone rang and I picked it up to Karen’s voice, telling me that Zethro was fine now and that she would send him up to our room in his Pokéball. As she said this a panel on the wall flipped down, revealing a pad that looked just like the kind used to transmit Pokéballs through computers. The pad began to glow and a Pokéball materialized in it, me greedily snatching it up and opening it as the panel flipped closed again. As Zethro appeared on my bed, curled up in a ball and sleeping, I thanked Karen and shut my cell phone.
Zethro looked perfectly normal and for that I was relieved. Petting him to smooth out his fur as he slept I went back to writing and continued like that for the rest of the day, taking only one small break to drag myself down to the cafeteria and eat something alone with Rayne, our Pokémon left alone in our room; we had decided that from now on we would just bring something back for them.
Eventually darkness fell and I lay down for bed, running thoughts through my mind of what to do the next day. We could either stay in Petalburg another day, maybe just walk around to see the sights some, or we could go out and get on a boat headed for Dewford Island; which we planned to go to next since we might actually stand a chance against the Gym Leader there with a little more training.
When the single window in our room shattered during the night, neither of us was awake enough to realize what was going on. Drowsily we both began to wake up at the sound; however before we could do anything five dark figures had climbed through the broken window and into the room with us.
“Don’t say a word and come with us. If you refuse we will be forced to take extreme measures.” A gruff voice said over me. I felt a cold, metal tube being pressed against my forehead, but I was too sleepy to realize what it was. I was alert enough to know that something very bad was going on, though.
“Master, what is—Goon!” Jehiel suddenly yelped. In the dim light cast from the moon outside I saw one of the other persons bending over Jehiel, a syringe having been pushed into his neck. The man lifted Jehiel’s limp body up and placed it in a barred cage, locking the hatch on it. Looking away frantically I noticed that the same had already been done with Zethro, and even Matariel’s limp form had been forced into a cage.
“Who are you guys, what are—” I was cut off by a clicking sound from whatever was pressing into my forehead, and I realized suddenly that it was a now co*cked gun.
“Shrike. Do what they say, be quiet.” Rayne whispered to me from across the room. I realized that one of the men also had a gun pressed against her forehead.
“You’d do wise to listen to your girlfriend.” One of the men; the one holding Jehiel’s cage, I believe; sneered. I was about to yell at him for saying that when Rayne shook her head. Gritting my teeth I realized that they were trying to push me to my limits to give them a reason to shoot.
When I remained silent the man over me said to both Rayne and I, “You are now prisoners of CORE. Cooperate and harm will not be brought to you. We will lower you down the outside wall of the Pokémon Center one by one, where our men below will load the lot of you into a van to be brought directly to our local outpost here in Petalburg. If at anytime during this you resist or struggle we will not hesitate to kill you.”
“Hey, what is going on? Why am I in this cage? Ahh! Let me go! Quil!” Zethro suddenly screamed, waking up. With fear in my stomach I waited for the inevitable gun blast because of the outburst, yet none came.
“Lower the Cyndaquil first, then the other two Pokémon.” The man above me, apparently their leader, ordered. I watched as one by one the three Pokémon’s cages were clipped to a rope pulley system set up below our window. I gritted my teeth even harder, resisting every nerve in my body that told me I ought to be rescuing my Pokémon. If I did anything I would surely be killed.
The time came for Rayne to be lowered down and she obediently walked over to the window, a gun constantly held to the back of her head. After pulling on a rock-climbing harness and clipping herself to the rope she climbed over the windowsill and disappeared from view. After a moment I was told to do the same and reluctantly did so. Normally, rappelling down the side of a building would be something I greatly enjoyed, however this situation was kind of different, I had never expected we’d be kidnapped; especially by CORE, who everyone had used to think was a normal company. Sure, they had developed a monopoly throughout all of Hoenn and were spreading to Kanto and Johto as well, but that they were now kidnapping people and Pokémon was unprecedented.
Landing on the ground I found myself assaulted by several CORE soldiers who unclipped me from the rope, hastily bound my hands behind my back, and literally threw me into the back of a black van. I ended up landing on top of Rayne who merely grumbled at how, if we had to be kidnapped, they could at least treat us a little better. The van sped off immediately, but because there were no windows in the back I had no idea where we were going. My eyes adjusting to the dark I saw that our Pokémon were back here as well, but that they all appeared to be sleeping. Sighing I propped myself up against the side of the van as we were taken to who knows where.
Finally the doors opened up and a large CORE soldier in an all black uniform grabbed me, pulling me out of the van and setting me on my feet outside in what appeared to be some kind of garage. Another soldier ran up to me, a pistol ready in his right hand. He held it against the back of my head and I heard a click as the gun was co*cked. “Follow that guy ahead of you, you understand? Try anything funny and you’re dead, no second thoughts from me. You’re nothing to me.”
I did as I was told and followed the soldier that had been indicated. I knew without looking that behind me Rayne was also following along with the cages our Pokémon were in. We ended up being forced through a maze like path of steel walled corridors, and at several times I feared I would lose the guy I was following. I knew that if that happened I would die. At last I found myself standing before a steel door, the soldier I had been following taking up a position to one side of it.
“Commander, we have them. You said to bring them directly to you?” The guy with the gun to my head said. I assumed that he was probably talking into a handheld radio or something. I didn’t hear the reply, but the door in front of me beeped and slid upwards. I was shoved in the back and politely told “Get going” and so I did.
Inside the room I found myself in several computer banks lined the walls, screens both large and small displaying various things at the computer stations operated by CORE technicians. At the rear end of the room a catwalk ran through the air above the ground, and it was to this catwalk my eyes were drawn.
“So, friend, I trust you have had a pleasant journey here?” A man with blond hair on the catwalk said.
“W—Wait, what’s going on?!” I gasped.
“Isn’t it obvious? You have been kidnapped. Welcome to CORE’s brand new Petalburg outpost! I am the commander of CORE section 9, division 3; we are CORE’s very best field research and testing unit, and I am their commanding officer—”
Behind me Rayne emerged into the room and gasped as well. “Is that...”
“Zachary J. Reilyn!” Zack exclaimed, a wide grin splitting across his face as he gripped the rails of the catwalk, looking down on us.
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