TEEN: Unpredictable

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Time to keep on trucking. HUGE thanks to those of you who voted for me in the awards. This fic tied for first (through fourth) in the best journey fic category, which is more than I had hoped for. I get an honorary mention apparently, which is pretty cool. What I had really wanted was for the awards to bring this fic some more attention, but that didn't really work. Oh well, I love the two or three of you that read and respond to this all the more. Bro-hugs all around!

Business time. This chapter is pretty long and much better than the previous ones. At least, in my opinion. Hopefully it makes up for the kind of crappy 15th and 16th chapters.

My goal here is to make Nolan as likeable of a character as Criss. I doubt that's going to happen, but whatever. He's my favorite, probably because he's kind of a Sue and I did a playthrough of Ruby as him. Seriously, if you have something worth trading in Gen IV I'll give you a lv 60-some Flygon with earthquake, dragon claw, flamethrower, and fly with an OT of Nolan. I'm considering doing the same with Criss on Fire Red. Or perhaps instead on *cough*spoilers*cough* so that it fits her actual background. I'm getting off topic now. Slap me next time that happens.

Business time for real now. Keep in mind that this chapter begins at the same time as Chapter 16. Enjoy!

This time: Nolan's chillin' like a villain in Celadon City. Shit happens, and the rest of the Celadon arc of the story is set up.

Chapter 16.5

Nolan fiddled absentmindedly with the paper plate, tearing it into smaller and smaller pieces. He sat at a table outside a small fast- food restaurant, the only one in the city that let its customers have their Pokémon outside of their Poké Balls while on the premises. Flygon sat on the ground next to him, her long neck reaching over his shoulder as she ate the last of his french fries.

The trainer sighed deeply. It had been weeks since he had destroyed the Rocket supply convoy and he hadn’t picked up any sign of Rocket activity since then. He knew of the Rocket occupation of Saffron, but doubted he could take it out himself. As far as this bustling city went, however, he knew he was missing something. Criss had shown up about a week before, after all, and she was good at this stuff, at least according to the files.

Having torn the paper plate into infinitesimally small pieces, he scooped them into his hand and picked up the other remnants of his lunch to go throw them away. As he pushed the trash into the garbage bin, he heard Flygon make an inquisitive noise behind him.

“Goon?”

“Huh?” Nolan turned around.

Following his Pokémon’s curious gaze to the road, he saw a rather strange sight. A litter of Growlithe trotted along, leading an absolutely filthy, shirtless boy who was none other than the one who Nolan had seen with Criss at Mt. Moon. The brigade of weirdness turned a corner a second later and disappeared. Nolan looked back to Flygon and shrugged. “Now that’s a story I’d like to hear,” he said with a shrug. Flygon nodded in agreement.

The two of them left the restaurant and began walking back to the hotel they were staying at. Bored out of his mind , Nolan took the long, roundabout way, traversing almost the entire city. He was on a street leading towards the entertainment district when he finally took a turn into an alleyway towards the hotel.

Nolan didn’t notice the Machamp and Rhydon blocking the path until Flygon’s growls snapped him out of his wandering thoughts and back to reality. He stood, stunned.

“What the hell?”

The two giant Pokémon in front of him stepped apart slightly, leaving room for a man, apparently their trainer, to walk forward.

“So you thought you could follow me to our secret base, huh?” the broad shouldered man said with a smirk. His deep voice reverberated ominously off of the brick walls to their sides.

Nolan blinked and instinctively reached for the Poké Balls on his belt. “What’re you talking about?”

The man’s smirk turned to a frown. “Don’t play dumb with me, you’re that vigilante Flygon trainer that everyone’s talking about, aren’t you? Well you won’t be able to fool me into leading you to our underground base.”

Slowly, the pieces all began to come together in Nolan’s head. This man must have been walking along the same path as he had and had assumed that Nolan was following him. Furthermore, he was a Rocket, and had just revealed the existence of a secret base. Not only that, but the base was underground. Interesting, but that would have to wait until later.

Flygon stepped in front of Nolan and growled a challenge. Her trainer grabbed the only other Poké Ball on his belt. The rest of his Pokémon were at the hotel.

A Machamp and a Rhydon, these were awfully powerful Pokémon for an ordinary grunt. He must be an officer, thought Nolan. But he certainly didn’t get the position for his intelligence, the information that he had just revealed was incredibly important.

“You’re not getting out of this!” the man cried and stepped back behind his Pokémon.

“Sceptile,” said Nolan, “let’s kick some ass.”

The grass-type exploded out of its Poké Ball and landed in a battle stance next to Flygon. The blades on its arms glowed green and appeared to elongate. A second later, the battle was on.

It was obvious to Nolan from the beginning that he had the upper hand. Not only were his Pokémon stronger and better trained, but Nolan was much better at double battles. Having completed the Hoenn League Gym Challenge, he had participated in his fair share of them. The Rocket was obviously from Kanto and therefore had little to no experience in commanding more than one Pokémon at a time. He fought double battles like all the other inexperienced Kanto trainers did, by treating it like two different single battles going on at once. That was a deadly mistake. Nolan knew, as did any other self respecting Hoenn native, that the key to double battles was using combinations and having your Pokémon work together.

Unfortunately, Flygon’s ability to maneuver and use sand-based attacks was limited in the cramped, paved alleyway. Nolan had to stick with ordering a dragonbreath attack to keep their opponents at bay while Sceptile charged a solar beam. Given that it was a sunny day, the attack didn’t take long. The beam of solar energy made short work of the rock and ground-type Rhydon. The giant gray Pokémon fell to the ground seconds later.

Finally leaping through the pink and yellow flames of Flygon’s attack, the Machamp managed to land a karate chop on Sceptile. He winced under the blow, but countered with a leaf blade. With a quick beat of its wings, Flygon rushed to his aid, slashing with a dragon claw.

Nolan heard his opponent give a command. “Rock blast!” the Rocket cried.

Rock blast? Nolan thought. That Machamp couldn’t possibly know rock blast. Then he realized, Rhydon wasn’t down!

“Sceptile, focus on Rhydon!” Nolan commanded, but it was too late. Pushing itself up on a knee, the drill Pokémon tore a piece of asphalt out of the ground and hurled it straight at him. Nolan had made a fatal mistake. He had forgotten that trainers were targets too. Even after all these years of battling illegal organizations, he still made amateur mistakes. He managed to duck the first projectile before glancing over at his Pokémon. Both of them were still occupied with the Machamp’s four muscular arms. The last thing Nolan remembered was a splitting pain in his skull as another piece of asphalt smashed into his head and sent him reeling into unconsciousness.

*****

It was dark when Nolan finally awoke. His face was pressed hard against the rough ground. It smelled like cigarettes. A dull weight pressing on his back held him to the ground. He slowly opened his eyes, but almost immediately was blinded by a throb of pain from the injury on the side of his head. Slowly, he reached up and touched the wound gingerly with his hand. The slight contact sent another blast of pain through his skull.

The second his hand moved, the weight was lifted off of his back. Blinking away the pain, Nolan rolled over and sat up.

“Flahgoooon!”

The dragon, who had been lying next to him, probably with her head on his back, crooned and nuzzled him in the face.

He smiled at his Pokémon and stroked her head. “Hey girl, thanks for waiting for me. You beat the shit out of that Machamp and Rhydon? Probably let the Rocket get away though…”

Flygon growled and nodded in response.

“Whatever, no problem. Where’s Sceptile?”

The dragon crooned again, much more sadly this time, and gestured with its head towards the opposite wall. Nolan looked and saw his starter sitting against it. Bruises and lacerations covered the Pokémon’s face and torso. Nolan rushed over.

“Sceptile! You okay buddy?” Nolan looked over the rest of the grass-type’s body for further injuries.

Sceptile just coughed in reply

“Don’t get too sentimental on me,” Nolan said sarcastically. It didn’t look like Sceptile had any broken bones, but the leaf blade on his left arm was slightly crumpled and he was bleeding in multiple places.

“I should have been more careful. Let’s get you to a Pokémon center,” Nolan said, pulling Sceptile to his feet. “Both of you.”

*****

Nolan recalled Flygon back into her new black and gold Luxury Ball moments after they touched down in front of the Pokémon center. The ball had been a gift from a teacher at the local elementary school after he shown his Pokémon to the kids there about a week before. The memory cheered him up slightly as he rushed into the almost empty Pokémon center.

He ran up to the nurse, who just stared at him, surprised, as he put the Poké Ball and Luxury Ball containing his two Pokémon on the counter.

Nolan pulled his flight goggles from his face and let them hang around his neck. “This is my Flygon and Sceptile. They’re both pretty badly injured, especially Sceptile. Do what you can, please, I’ll be back later to check up on them.”

“Umm… okay,” the startled nurse replied, taking the balls from the counter.

Without saying anything else, Nolan turned around and dashed out the doors again. He had to get a message to Criss as soon as possible. If the Rocket that had attacked him was smart, the underground base, wherever it may be, would be on high alert and might even move out soon. He couldn’t let that happen. If Criss was looking for it too, things would go by a lot faster.

He had promised himself that he would never be caught in public without any useable Pokémon, but here he was, dashing through the streets of Celadon without any sort of protection. Luckily, his hotel was in sight within minutes. As always, the fake IPC badge had proved its worth. Even a minor Interpol officer gets a free room at whatever hotel he wanted. Nolan hated staying at Pokémon centers, they never let you have all of your Pokémon out at once.

Minutes later, Nolan opened the door to his hotel room. Armaldo and Crawdaunt were sleeping on the brown carpeted floor, the trainer gently stepped over and around them to get to the small desk at the other side of the room. Gardevoir, who had been staring out the lone window when he entered, smiled sweetly at him, and then frowned when it saw the bump on his head.

“Gaaarrdevoir?” The psychic-type floated over to him and raised a pale green hand to his wound.

“No, I’m fine. Don’t…” He almost pushed her hand away, but stopped when a soothing sound, no, feeling emanated from the tips of Gardevoir’s fingers. The pain in his skull went away almost instantly and he could feel the swelling subside slightly.

“Heal pulse, right. I keep forgetting you know how to do that.” Nolan sat down at the desk and pulled a sheet off of the notepad that sat on top of it. After a second of digging through the drawers for a pen, he began to scribble a note.

Then something struck him. He stopped and looked up at Gardevoir, who was peering over his shoulder, the red horn on her chest poking into his back. “That’s it! I just realized, the base must be under one of the casinos. The Rockets own a bunch of them, it’s their only “legit” enterprise. I ran into the Rocket on the road to the entertainment district. It all fits!”

A feeling of confusion drifted psychically from Gardevoir.

“Never mind, I’ll explain later.” Nolan tore up the note and began writing another one. Once he was done, he stood up.

“You’re coming with me. I’ll let Crawdaunt and Armaldo sleep. Where’s Banette? Room 113 again?”

Gardevoir nodded. Room 113 in this hotel was supposedly “haunted”. Actually, it was just where all the ghost-types liked to hang out. Every hotel has one.

“Never mind, then. Just you. Whoops!” Nolan almost tripped over the bundle of leather and rags that were his failed attempts at making a saddle for Flygon. They sold custom ones at the Department Store, but he was forced to work on a budget.

“I need to just get rid of that thing and withdraw some of my savings. Here, take this note and teleport to room… 717 I think. Leave it on the bed or something, then come back here.” Nolan handed the paper to the psychic-type, who disappeared with a slight pop of air replacing the space she had just occupied.

Nolan felt almost… perverted, for knowing Criss’ room number. He felt like some kind of stalker. Well, he was. In a way. But he had to follow her; he had to know if she was ready. Willing, even.

A second later, Gardevoir teleported back in front of him with another dull pop and they left the hotel. About half way back to the center, Nolan realized that he didn’t even know what time it was. He looked at his watch. “Six in the morning!” he exclaimed.

Almost as if on cue, the first rays of sunlight began poking over the horizon.

*****

At the center, the nurse had said that both Pokémon were undergoing extensive treatment, but they would be ready sometime in the next day or so. Stubbornly, Nolan and Gardevoir sat down in the lobby to wait.

And wait.

Nolan recalled Gardevoir to her Poké Ball a couple hours later, after she fell asleep on his shoulder. He ended up taking a several hour long nap himself. He spent most of the rest of the time people-watching.

Criss’ companion walked by a few times, but Nolan tried not to catch his attention. There was no sign of what he had been doing with that litter of Growlithe. However, he walked in with one of his own about halfway through the day. He was excited, and showed the Pokémon to his dark haired friend. Nolan had trouble hearing what he was saying, but it sounded like the police had given him the Pokémon for some reason.

Perhaps it would be useful to find out what his name was, especially if he helped Criss at Mt. Moon. Nolan decided to look him up whenever he got time.

The day wore on, with Nolan asking the nurse for updates every couple hours. She was very patient with him, actually, always giving the same response, “I’ll let you know as soon as they’re ready.” She seemed to admire his devotion to his Pokémon. Like Birch had said, he was unrivaled when it came to bonding with his companions.

The sun traveled across the sky as clouds gathered. It got dark quickly, and rain began to fall. Nolan sighed at the water rushing down the windows in the front of the center. A giggling girl and boy rushed in out of the rain and found a place in the corner to devour each other’s faces. Nolan let out another long sigh and grabbed one of the free magazines on the coffee table in front of him in an attempt to ignore the couple.

Nolan smiled slightly, he would even bear situations as awkward as this for his Pokémon. Life always found new ways to test his devotion.

*****

Hope y'all liked it. I liked writing it. It's always more fun to write than edit. Hopefully this expanded on Nolan's character properly and just plain expanded my Pokéworld in general.

NEXT: Short chapter is short. Gym battle against Erika gets set up. The cliffhanger ending is guaranteed to piss you off, but it leads into what I consider to be my best battle yet.

 

[Mr Metagross]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

One good turn deserves another, so I decided to have a look over your fic. I think it was really good, details here.

Prologue:
Very good. I like how you skip between the past and present through italics, making their contrast an obvious point. Short prologues are often the most powerful, and the same goes for sentences:

“Mmk… bye.”

“Bye, Keith.” He patted me on the shoulder and left my room.

Forever.

That last sentence--or word, more specifically--is a strong, final method that I think really works. It's sometimes hard to input them successfully in sentences, and it worked like a charm here. Also:

My mother cried as my brother stared ahead, emotionless. We were crowded around the TV as a single stretcher worked its way across the screen. A single stretcher with my father on top of it. Bleeding. Burnt. My brother turned away as my mother let out a sob.

I just stared in disbelief.

I have two points here. You'll notice I've bold'd the pair of "stared"s, because even though they are quite a way apart, they sort of stood out to me as using the same adjective twice. So, altering the sentence structure slightly you could've had: "My mother cried as my brother gaped at the screen, emotionless." Ah well, that's just my opinion but I'm pretty sure that a writer as good as you are could have changed that easily.

Ch.1:
I definitely enjoyed this, in spite of it being based upon the anime. It had a small sprinkle of mystery that spiced it up a little, though I really hope it's not just Go Mt. Moon, beat Team Rocket, beat Kanto league, though I can sort of tell that it's not.
I think you could've added more description to Criss, since I didn't really have much to go on apart from "long dark hair and piercing blue eyes". You could have added more description, to her hair in particular. I doubt it's just "long dark hair" when you imagined it.
Other than that, I enjoyed the gym battle and the pace of the writing. You didn't linger too much on description but you didn't skip straight through it.
There were a few grammatical errors, but I'll leave that out now. Also, I found this odd:

“Hey!” I cried. “What are you doing?” I took a step towards the pair. With lightning fast reflexes, the girl pulled a five inch sheathe knife from her belt and threw it at me with her free hand. It missed me by a matter of inches, instead sticking into the sign post with a loud “thunk!” where it quivered ominously.

This is being told from Keith's perspective, right? How could he tell it was five inch if it was in his vision for a fraction of a moment? Plus, why was Criss trying to kill Keith, if he wasn't really consciously doing anything wrong.

I liked how you were constantly mixing between in-depth description and cocky swearing:

“HEY!” I yelled at it.

It stopped instantly and stared at me, frightened.

Chansey ran past me, out the door, wailing insanely.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?!?”

The bug type landed at my feet and bowed its head. I recalled it back into its Poké Ball. “Damn Butterfree,” I muttered under my breath.

I turned to leave, but the door was blocked by the nurse, who looked rather indignant. “Is that how you handle all of your Pokémon?” she said acrimoniously.

“No,” I sighed. “Just the ones that are a complete PAIN IN THE ASS!” I directed the last four words at the Poké Ball still in my hand. I pushed past her and walked back into the main room of the center, where I picked up my other two Pokémon from the nurse that was there.

Alright, maybe that was a bad example since all the swearing was in the speech, but I notice, when I'm writing, that when I switch directly between description and speech, the dialogue is a little off-centre and sounds like narrative. That's where indirect/reported speech comes in, and you pulled that off wonderfully here:

I realized that I didn’t even know this girl’s name, so I asked her.

Overall a really good prologue and chapter. I'd rate it:

7.5/10.

Excellent writing, I'm definitely coming back.

 

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Thanks for the review Mr. Metagross! Response in the spoiler:

Spoiler

I have two points here. You'll notice I've bold'd the pair of "stared"s, because even though they are quite a way apart, they sort of stood out to me as using the same adjective twice. So, altering the sentence structure slightly you could've had: "My mother cried as my brother gaped at the screen, emotionless." Ah well, that's just my opinion but I'm pretty sure that a writer as good as you are could have changed that easily.

Whoops! That's kind of a glaring error now that I look back. I'm surprised that I missed it. Thanks for pointing it out!

I definitely enjoyed this, in spite of it being based upon the anime. It had a small sprinkle of mystery that spiced it up a little, though I really hope it's not just Go Mt. Moon, beat Team Rocket, beat Kanto league, though I can sort of tell that it's not.

I didn't base it off the anime on purpose, surprisingly. I was/am going for more of a Gen 1 games feel. Both TR and the Gyms play a big part in this fic. I am trying to combine the good old nostalgic cliches with a fresh new outlook.

I think you could've added more description to Criss, since I didn't really have much to go on apart from "long dark hair and piercing blue eyes". You could have added more description, to her hair in particular. I doubt it's just "long dark hair" when you imagined it.
Other than that, I enjoyed the gym battle and the pace of the writing. You didn't linger too much on description but you didn't skip straight through it.

I think all of my characters need a little more physical description, I'm working on that. And I'm glad you liked the gym battle, you're the first person to comment on it after the major rewrite I gave it a couple weeks ago.

This is being told from Keith's perspective, right? How could he tell it was five inch if it was in his vision for a fraction of a moment? Plus, why was Criss trying to kill Keith, if he wasn't really consciously doing anything wrong.

I have been informed of this multiple times I have a scientific mind, and I kind of have a knife fetish. The super-detailed description doesn't really fit here... I get better as the chapters progress.

Overall a really good prologue and chapter. I'd rate it:

7.5/10.

Excellent writing, I'm definitely coming back.

Yay! :-D Thanks for the detailed review. I've never been complimented on my dialogue before. I'm glad you liked it, hopefully the next chapters will be as enjoyable.

Oh to the Kay, it's new chapter time again. I promise I'll talk less here. I hope this one is fairly well written, despite the fact that not much happens.

This time: Keith steels himself for the battle against Erika.


Chapter 17

By the time I returned to the Pokémon Center, the rain was pouring down. After a vigorous shake that sent a surprising amount of water flying in every direction, Growlithe followed me inside. It was now fairly late at night and very few people milled around the main lobby. It looked like Tim had already gone to bed, but I was much too excited for my battle the next day to fall sleep just yet. Instead, I sat down in one of the armchairs and began scanning the Pokédex entry for Growlithe.

“Ooh, this could be useful. Hey Growlithe, do you know flame wheel?”

It nodded, growled, and leaned back as if getting ready to pounce. Red and orange flames begin to engulf its body, spinning rapidly.

“WAIT! NOT NOW!” I yelled in panic, waving my arms wildly at it.

The fire subsided and my new Pokémon looked at me inquisitively. “Grrowl?”

“Whew, that was close.” I let out a breath of relief, looking around to see if any of the few people still up had noticed. A couple in the corner seemed a little… preoccupied, but a man who looked to be in his early 20s looked up at me over the top of the magazine he was reading and grinned. Slightly embarrassed, I quickly gathered up my things and went to bed.

I couldn’t sleep. For what seemed like hours I just stared at the ceiling thinking about the next day’s battle. If what Sabrina said was true, then Erika would be a tough fight. On the other hand though, Tim had managed to win…

I lost myself in thoughts of battle tactics. I would start with Growlithe, then Psyke, and finish, if it came to that, with Baron. Various strategies and scenarios played through my head until I finally gave up on trying to get any sleep. I slipped out of bed put on my shoes and clothes, and gathered my Poké Balls, waking Growlithe, who had been sleeping at the foot of the bunk.

As I wandered out into the lobby, I could hear rain pounding on the roof. All of the lights were now off, except for a single lamp that illuminated the man still sitting there reading a magazine. I guess the couple had left, probably to go do something I didn’t really want to think about. The man didn’t even look up when I entered, just casually flipped a page.

I sat down opposite him and picked up one of the magazines myself. As I had expected, it was about seven months old. How did this guy spend hours reading such boring stuff? What was he waiting for?

My question was soon answered when a tired-eyed nurse came out of the back room carrying a pair of Poké Balls. “Nolan?” she said, looking at the trainer across from me. “Your Pokémon are ready. I’m sorry it took so long, we don’t have much experience with these foreign species.”

Nolan walked over and took the tray. Smiling charmingly as he clipped the two balls on to his belt next to the one that was already there, he said, “Thanks for staying up to get the job done; I should probably be going now, lots to do.” He turned from the counter and strode out the door, giving me a salute as he left. “Say hi to Criss for me.”

I grunted noncommittally, the magazine still clutched loosely in my hands. Wait… How the hell did he know who Criss was? How the hell did he know that I knew her? Throwing the ancient reading material down, I leapt up and dashed out the door after him with Growlithe hot on my heels, but the man Nolan had already disappeared out into the darkness. I stood for a minute in the deluge, looking down the street for any sign of the stranger, but saw nothing.

I sighed and let the door swing shut behind me. Whatever, I would just ask Criss about it the next time I saw her. Since I couldn’t sleep anyways, I decided to go ahead and go over to the Gym. I doubted Erika would be up for another few hours but I didn’t have anything else to do. The rain roared as I put up the hood of my coat and walked down the street with Growlithe close by my side.

In any other city, I would have been the only person out of bed. But Celadon was party central, it had tons of casinos and clubs open all night long. The Pokémon Center was a mile away from the entertainment district, but I could still see the lights blazing. The poor weather clearly didn’t have any effect on the revelers.

Here in the less populated part of town, though, I was alone. It was just me, Growlithe, and the icy rain. I stopped under a streetlight yet again to wait as my Pokémon stopped once more to shake the downpour from its thick fur.

The Gym was situated on the far side of the main plaza from the department store, about a half-mile walk. Raindrops pattered on my hood as I strolled along, thinking. I had changed a lot since I had left Pallet Town. It hadn’t even been six months, yet I had witnessed death, made a lifelong friend, made myself a threat to the biggest criminal organization in the country, discovered my own psychic abilities, and had something incredibly precious taken from me. I felt hardened; I was a different person than the clueless, overly curious trainer that had left home months before.

The gym stood out from the other buildings, as it was a giant domed greenhouse. I guess that made sense, due to Erika’s specialty as a grass-type trainer. I stopped at the edge of the building and watched water cascade down the glass walls. Inside I could see a huge variety of trees and other plants. I stared into the windows for a minute, with my hands in my pockets, listening to the rain bounce off the glass.

Growlithe shook itself energetically beside me, and then growled. I looked around. We weren’t alone. A few feet to my right stood a figure in a white raincoat, looking in at the gym as well. Its head turned to look at me and a female voice said “And what might you be doing up at this ungodly hour?”

“I could ask you the same question,” I replied.

“Any reason you would be staring into my gym?” she asked.

So this was Erika. “I was planning on challenging you some time tomorrow. Well…” I looked at my watch, it was three-forty-four in the morning. “Today, technically.”

“Really? Why don’t you come with me then, I’ll show you inside.”

I followed the girl around to the front of the gym, a building connected to the atrium about the size of a small house. I put Growlithe back into its Poké Ball for courtesy. She led me inside and into a small, clean kitchen. It was actually rather homely. Erika stepped over to the stove and removed her hood, revealing silky black hair cut short where it curled around her pale face. “You want something to drink?” she offered, “Tea? Coffee?”

“No thanks,” I said, sitting down at the table as she poured herself a cup of tea. The gym leader didn’t look to be much older than me, but acted very mature, almost like she had been through a difficult life. I reminded myself that that might be true, Sabrina didn’t train just anyone.

“I’m Erika, in case you haven’t caught on,” she said, “what’s your name?”

“I’m Keith.”

“You’re Keith? Well this might turn out to be an interesting battle,” she said as she sat down across from me, looking over her cup.

“Tim told you about me, then?”

“He said you were a much better trainer than him, an expert battler. He gave me a run for my money, so I’m looking forward to see if he was telling the truth.”

I laughed. “Well, I’d hardly say I’m an expert.”

“He said you were undefeated.”

I paused, looking back. “Yes…” I said slowly, “I guess I am. Technically.” He was right, although that thought had never occurred to me.

“This should be a fun battle, then.” The gym leader smiled sweetly.

“I quite agree. If Sabrina says you’re good then you must be. Because in all fairness, Tim took two tries,” I said.

Erika’s brown eyes widened slightly. “You were… You knew…”

I nodded. “I trained with Sabrina for a little over a month up until maybe a week or two ago. She holds a high opinion of you.”

“That explains how you got so good, then. By the way, what were you doing out in the rain at three in the morning?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I was anxious about battling you, among other things,” I explained. Among other things… For it wasn’t just battle strategies that had kept me up, I was worried about Criss, about the Rocket occupation of Saffron, and now this mysterious trainer, Nolan. And Rainer, of course. My first Pokémon’s absence was like a hole in my heart that couldn’t be filled. I doubted I would ever be able to forget and move on. Saddened, I looked down at my hands.

“I understand. I couldn’t sleep either. Tim was only the third person to beat me this entire year. I have a significantly higher win to loss ratio than other gym leaders, but that only makes each loss shake me even more.”

“That makes sense.” One of the other people to beat her must have been Criss, assuming that Criss had only been in Kanto for a year.

We sat in silence for a minute before Erika said, “You know, we could battle right now if you want. I don’t see any reason to wait.”

I sighed and looked at my watch; it was a little past four. “Sure, let’s do this.”

She set down her now empty cup of tea and led me through another door. This one led into the actual greenhouse.

It was indeed a huge room. Trees, bushes, and flowers blossomed all around a large grass battlefield. It was still dark outside but Erika flipped a switch that turned on three floodlights mounted to the rafters. She walked to the other end. “What about a referee?” I asked.

“He’s not up yet, we’ll just have to go without. Three on three battle. Are you ready?”

With a flick of my wrist, I unclipped a ball from my belt. “Bring it on. Go Growlithe!”

The puppy Pokémon appeared in a flash of red light and knelt down in a ready stance.

“Victreebel!”

A larger, fiercer, upside down version of Tim’s Weepinbell exploded out in front of her. What was previously a dopey pair of eyes and gaping mouth was now an angry glaring face with a large, fanged maw. Our two Pokémon stood for a moment, eyeing each other, grass-type to fire-type. Then, the battle was on.

*****

Sorry about that little cliffhanger there. I wanted to fit the whole battle into a single chapter without it getting too long so that will be the next one. I promise that it will be action-packed from start to finish!

NEXT: Keith vs. Erika! My best battle scene yet, in my humble opinion. Expect to see some more of those unconventional tactics that I like to include in my gym battles.

 

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Sorry this took so long to get out. I'm still not completely satisfied with it. It's a little rushed but hopefully you all like it.

This time: Keith vs Erika!

Chapter 18

The fighting was fierce. Victreebel opened by blasting an orange stun spore forward, and then lashing out with a vine whip. A single ember attack made the spore burst into a violent fireball, immediately followed by Growlithe dodging the vine with agility and dashing forward through the flames. Its powerful take down attack was the first hit of the battle.

Good, I thought, nervously cracking my knuckles. So far, this was no problem, I just had to keep it up.

As my new fire-type rebounded off of its opponent and jumped back into position in front of me, I looked up at the gym leader. It was very odd to watch Erika command her Pokémon. She, like I, had learned from Sabrina the error in calling out your Pokémon’s techniques. Both of us knew that the other would easily take advantage of a verbal cue by the opponent so we were almost completely silent. But Erika didn’t have any psychic abilities. She looked instead almost like she was dancing, or maybe more like she was part of the battle. She took hand signals to a whole new level; she would jump, dodge, and lash out just like her Pokémon. Of course, this required Victreebel to maneuver to the side of the field where it could see its trainer and interpret her flamboyant signals.

I, of course, prodded Growlithe psychically with my instructions and commands, on top of some minor hand signals. As the battle raged on, our Pokémon leapt around each other, striking here and there. In a surprise attack, a vine whip snapped out at Growlithe’s legs. I had him grab onto the appendage with his powerful teeth and toss the plant Pokémon across the field. Before it even landed, razor leaves flashed out at the puppy Pokémon, who blocked them with a flamethrower.

Once again, Erika’s first Pokémon sent out a blast of stun spore. Once again, a small ember caused it to erupt in flame. But something was different this time. Immediately before the flames blocked the line of sight to my opponent, I noticed Victreebel preparing another stun spore. Erika clearly expected me to use the same strategy as last time, and then use the flames as cover for a take down. I smirked. I would gladly oblige, at least partially. My strategy would not work if Growlithe forgot what I had told it during our training: What was in his mind, my psychic communications, was all he was to listen to, with the exception of hand signals. And so, I cried out “take down!” while clearly sending as strong as I could, “flame wheel”. Erika appeared to realize something was wrong at my apparently accidental verbal command.

Growlithe gave a loud bark and leapt into the flames, using them to fuel its own fire. Victreebel let out a puff of stun spore meant to stop the fire-type in its tracks, but the attack was consumed by the powerful flame wheel. The hit blasted Victreebel across the field, where it crumpled at the edge of the garden. A second later, when the smoke had cleared, I could see Growlithe crouched in front of me. It was still ready to battle, but was panting heavily. I let out a long breath of my own. That was intense, but I had won. Advantage, me, I thought.

“I am impressed,” Erika said plainly. “You fight a lot like Sabrina. Subtle commands. Apparently there was something I didn’t pick up in my time training with her. Vileplume, help me out!”

You have no idea, I thought to myself.

This time Erika was more patient. Her next Pokémon was short and dark blue in color. A massive blooming flower graced its small head. The flower Pokémon immediately maneuvered into position on the side of the field where it could see both its trainer and the battle. Growlithe strafed as well, continuing to stay in front of it. Then, Erika finally tested my defenses with a poison powder. A brief ember sent it the same way as the stun spores. Silently, I watched Vileplume continue to pace. It walked rather oddly, almost with a waddle. The flower on its head was clearly very heavy.

There, weakness identified. Now I just have to exploit it.

All of a sudden, Vileplume began thrashing around wildly. I groaned. Petal dance, it was like an even more violent razor leaf attack.

Dodge with agility. I commanded my Pokémon.

Growlithe leapt left and right with blinding speed. But the fire-type’s previous battle had taken its toll. It was clipped by a petal, then two, then three. The fourth one hit it in the leg. My Pokémon stumbled and Erika jumped at the opportunity for a mega drain (and I mean literally jumped, those were some aggressive “hand signs”).

I didn’t have much of an opportunity to react, but I did what I could. Fire fang.

It was another one of the new moves I had noticed the previous night and in all honesty, I wasn’t even sure that Growlithe could do it. But I shouldn’t have feared, as flames soon appeared at Growlithe’s mouth as it latched onto Vileplume’s leg. The mega drain had connected though, and fire fang’s ultimate damage was minimal.

Growlithe crumpled with a whimper, finally beaten. I withdrew it, rather pleased with the small fire-type. Its first battle had been a definite success.

I was slow in drawing the yellow and black Ultra Ball from my belt. Even I needed a rest. This was definitely the toughest battle I had ever fought in, and I felt out of breath. I took a second to inhale the moist, fresh smelling air of the greenhouse and let it clear my thoughts. Okay, let’s do this.

Now it was time to take advantage of Vileplume’s partial poison typing. “Go, Psyke!”

Almost the instant my Pokémon left its ball, a blast of poison powder hit it square in the face. That wasn’t good, by giving myself a break, I had also given Erika time to collect her own thoughts. If I wanted to keep my advantage, I would have to finish this battle before poisoning finished Psyke. A plan began formulating in my head. I was sure Erika had a defense against psychic attacks, she was too good not to, I just had to find out what it was. Cautiously, Psyke began a confusion attack. Almost instantaneously, a single vine leapt from the ground and wrapped itself around Psyke’s ankle, pulling his feet out from under him. The psychic-type lost concentration immediately and broke off the confusion attack. I had never seen that move before, but now was not the time to look it up. Without hesitation, Vileplume began another petal dance, thrashing about wildly as my plan finally came together in my mind. All I needed was careful timing.

Teleport, I told my Pokémon. Erika obviously detected another psychic attack and so another knot began to wrap up Psyke’s foot. But teleport works much faster than confusion. My Pokémon reappeared directly behind Vileplume and gave it a hard shove with its clawed hands before teleporting right back to its previous position. Psyke didn’t have much physical strength, but anything would have felled that top heavy Vileplume. The grass-type tumbled over onto its flowered head with a cry. My maneuver distracted both Erika and her Pokémon enough for Psyke to let loose a single psybeam before another root reached up to grab his ankle. With Psyke’s immense psychic power, one was more than enough. The Vileplume was blasted backwards into the garden, where it slammed into a tree with a sickening crunch.

I grimaced. “Oops, I probably should have toned that down a bit.”

“No worries,” replied Erika, withdrawing her beaten Pokémon and pulling another ball from her belt. “I would have done the same in your situation.”

Before she even threw out her third and final Pokémon, Psyke let out a small groan. I had almost forgotten about his poisoning. Stay with me buddy. Even a single hit will be enough to keep up the advantage. Come on, let’s do this. No regrets.

“Take a look at some real power, let’s go Tangela!”

I could tell right away that a single hit was all I would be getting. And that was only if I was lucky. Tangela was literally a ball of vines with a pair of beady eyes peering out of the mess, and two bright red shoes. Tim was right, immediately upon leaving its Poké Ball, the vine Pokémon sent out a barrage of vine whips and the grass knot things I had seen earlier. Fortunately, I had just poured as much psychic energy into Psyke from myself as I had dared to, so the psybeam that Psyke released was probably the most powerful we had ever pulled off. The psychic energy hit Tangela even as it was charging a solar beam (vine whip, grass knot, and solar beam? Three attacks at once? Now that takes skill). Our psybeam launched Tangela backwards, but its vines still managed to put the hurt on Psyke. After several vicious blows to my Pokémon, I capitulated.

“I’ll give you this one, that’s all he has left,” I said, withdrawing my Pokémon. “Now this is it,” I whispered to myself. “Time to finish it, Baron!”

“Pidgeot!” my bird Pokémon cried as it spread its massive wings and soared into the air. One on one, old buddy, that’s pretty good odds for us.

Tangela scrambled to its feet and jumped back to its position on the side of the field. It almost looked like the psybeam had no effect whatsoever. Any advantage I had gotten from winning the previous two rounds was completely negated.

It was strategy time; I reflected on the prior match-ups. This time I didn’t have a fire-type move to burn away powder attacks, nor did Tangela have the imbalance that was Vileplume’s downfall. If Erika did decide to use a powder attack, I could always whirlwind it right back, but that wouldn’t be much use as an offensive move. I needed a weakness to exploit, but first I needed time to find it.

It was Baron against a many tentacle beast. I exploited my Pokémon’s various speed techniques, such as agility and quick attack, to dodge the vines and slash at them from time to time. But wherever Baron cut off one vine, another appeared in its place. My Pokémon’s beak and talons flashed left and right, cutting off vine after vine. I would have no time to pull off anything more than what I was doing at the moment, and I was doing little more than stalling. At the far end of the field, I noticed a smug smile play across Erika’s face for a brief instant.

Luckily, stalling was all I needed to do. Baron’s known techniques raced through my head alongside flashbacks to our two matches leading up to this one. Then, everything clicked.

Mirror move.

It could hardly be considered an uncommon technique, but it was definitely unexpected. No one prepares a defense against mirror move, just like no one prepares a defense against transform, mimic, or metronome.

Vines sprouted from Baron’s wingtips and flew towards Tangela. It looked a little gruesome to have tentacles growing from Baron’s wings, but I didn’t let it faze me. The vines wrapped themselves around Tangela, and hurled the grass-type Pokémon towards its trainer.

Agility. Baron dove towards the recovering Pokémon, which jumped up to face its adversary. Game, set, and match, I thought.

Erika realized a second too late what I had done. Tangela no longer had any view of her, and so, she had no way of commanding it non-verbally. She still didn’t hesitate to give her Pokémon commands, but I simply had to take advantage of my edge.

“Vine whip!” Blocked with a quick attack.

“Stun spore!” Deflected with a gust.

Baron’s wing attack connected right as Tangela began charging a quick solar beam, clearly Erika’s last ditch effort at overpowering the flying-type. Tangela rolled, head over heels, closer towards its trainer. The vine Pokémon struggled to regain its footing, but promptly received a face full of dirt, dust, and another wing attack. This time, I ended up landing a third blow before Tangela even stopped tumbling. Erika never got a chance to use another technique, Baron was too fast.

“Enough,” Erika said loudly. Baron swooped over and landed next to me, head held high. “Tangela could probably take another couple hits, but I can tell I’m not getting anywhere.”

Sure enough, Tangela pushed itself to its feet, panting, but still ready to battle.

“I surrender,” continued Erika. “You get the Rainbow Badge, and you definitely deserve it.”

It wasn’t until then that I realized that I had been holding my breath since ordering the mirror move. I let go a long, satisfying sigh of relief and patted Baron on the chest, grinning widely. It cooed at me, obviously pleased with itself. I maintained my stupid grin as I approached Erika, meeting her near the center of the field. “Thank you,” I said, shaking her hand and accepting the badge, adrenaline still rushing through my veins. It had been one of the most intense battles I had ever been in.

“That was the toughest battle I’ve ever had. Tim only caught me on an off day.” said the gym leader, “I also normally give out a TM for mega drain, but he took my last one.”

“That’s okay,” I replied, “I don’t have any grass-types.”

She raised an eyebrow and smiled, “Oh, you’re probably too good for them, huh?”

I laughed, “Yeah, what’s the point in catching one if it’s just going to be beat by a measly Pidgeot? I caught this beauty on Route 1, home of the weakest Pokémon in Kanto.” Baron looked slightly offended by the remark, but then again I had yet to meet a Pokémon that actually understood sarcasm.

Erika glared at me good naturedly as we began walking back towards the lobby, “You better watch it; I can take that badge back if I want.”

I looked at my newest trophy glittering the seven colors of the rainbow in my palm. “Actually, I don’t think you can…”

We laughed and recalled our two Pokémon.

“So where are you planning on heading next?” Erika asked as we walked back into the entryway.

“I don’t know yet, probably Fuchsia City, but I need to talk to Tim.”

At that moment, the door slammed open, filling the room with light from the newly risen sun. Tim barged in. “Great, I didn’t miss it,” he said breathlessly.

“Speak of the moron…” I remarked, raising an eyebrow at my friend. Erika laughed.

“Wait,” stuttered my friend, ignoring my jibe, “I didn’t miss the battle did I?”

I showed him my new Rainbow Badge.

“Damn it. I really wanted to see you two battle, I bet it was one for the ages.”

“Oh it was,” Erika replied, “if you had gotten up earlier you probably could have learned a thing or two.”

“Or three, or four…” I added.

“Hey, I beat her too.”

“Yeah, on an ‘off day’”

“What?”

*****

That was a ton of fun to write, but looking back it seems a little rushed. Still my best battle yet in my own opinion. Comments appreciated.

NEXT: I'm going to do a complete rewrite of the next one so I don't know exactly what's going to happen yet besides this: the Celadon arc will start to come together and build up to a climax, and Criss comes back. For real this time, I swear.

 

[some colour no doubt]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

I managed to catch up with all the chapters I missed, and in a way, I'm glad i did. The narrative from chapter to chapter, paragraph to paragrah flows beautifully, your battle scenes are well thought out with standard conventions of pokémon being challenged (like calling out commands) and even the way trainers interact with their pokémon seemed fresh and new in the form you presented it. I love this fic, and as it goes on the strengths get stronger and the weaknesses eb away.

Keep it up, keep writing and I'll be more than willing to keep reading!

 

[Trouble]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Ooooh, I like this! This is really well-written first-person narrative. First-person is hard to do, but you do it well. I'll be keeping up with this for sure! You give a really good feel for what it's like to be a Pokemon trainer in your fic here. Your first-person descriptions are pretty much flawless. I'll be reading as often as I can!

 

[sharktooth162]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

I'm finally back and I really liked your battle. It was full of energy and excitement and I really enjoyed it. Wasnt to sure about Erika bringing back Tangela before the end was a bit odd but other than that it was really good.

 

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

I managed to catch up with all the chapters I missed, and in a way, I'm glad i did. The narrative from chapter to chapter, paragraph to paragrah flows beautifully, your battle scenes are well thought out with standard conventions of pokémon being challenged (like calling out commands) and even the way trainers interact with their pokémon seemed fresh and new in the form you presented it. I love this fic, and as it goes on the strengths get stronger and the weaknesses eb away.

Keep it up, keep writing and I'll be more than willing to keep reading!

I'm glad you like it so much. This is about where I was in the writing when I first started getting feedback on here so my writing (hopefully) will improve even more from here on out.

Ooooh, I like this! This is really well-written first-person narrative. First-person is hard to do, but you do it well. I'll be keeping up with this for sure! You give a really good feel for what it's like to be a Pokemon trainer in your fic here. Your first-person descriptions are pretty much flawless. I'll be reading as often as I can!

Thanks! I always have felt more comfortable writing in first-person. It's easier for me. Let me know when you're all caught up, I'll add you to the VM list if you'd like.

I'm finally back and I really liked your battle. It was full of energy and excitement and I really enjoyed it. Wasnt to sure about Erika bringing back Tangela before the end was a bit odd but other than that it was really good.

Thanks for the feedback! I spent a lot of time on writing that battle. The reason Erika called the battle before Tangela fainted was because she had no way of escaping. Baron would have finished it in a few more seconds anyway, she was just stopping the battle before Tangela really got hurt. Erika's smart. After all, in my 'verse she's the best Gym leader in Kanto besides Sabrina /foreshadowing.

Thanks for all of your replies, I love hearing from you guys. Hopefully I'll be able to write Ch 19 this weekend and have it uploaded by Monday. Track ends in a couple weeks so that will free up a lot of time for me and we can go back to twice a week updates.

 

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Yeeeaaah, about that "write it this weekend, upload on Monday" thing. That didn't really work. But I'm not dead! In fact, I've been quite busy. Track's over now so I have much more time. What have I been doing, then? Remember this?

I actually came up with an awesome twist while I was writing this chapter but it would screw up my story plans too much so I probably won't use it. Probably.

Well, I'm implementing that plot twist. It took a long time to read through all of my work so far and assemble a reference of "What the reader knows so far" but it was worth it. I'm a consistency whore, so my new storyline had to make sense with what has been going on until now. It will be a little bit of a stretch, but not as much as "I am your father!" (which is a totally separate discussion on its own).

Anyway, once that was done and out of the way I finally sat down to write Chapter 19 here. Not much happens, and I found it a little boring, so I joined it with then next chapter as well. I am actually quite proud of the result, I think it is fairly well written. But here we go again, I'm talking too much. It's fairly long (3,000 words) so enjoy.

This time: Criss is back for good, the next chapter is set up, and Kieth sees something... shocking?

Chapter 19

Celadon Department Store. More than just a PokéMart, this place was heaven for the consumer-minded trainer. Fueled by an excess of cash from our life savings, Tim and I were ready to buy just about anything that caught our eye. My friend was on the far side of the second floor, his heart set on finding a TM that would teach his Cubone to dig. Being a little more forward-thinking, I was wandering up and down the aisles assembling supplies for the five day long hike down to the ocean and Fuchsia City, home to Koga and the Soul Badge.

Although the sun had broken through that morning, briefly halting the storm, the clouds had since regrouped and patched the gap in the sky. Once again, rain was pounding against the concrete of the city. The downpour had drowned me and Tim’s plans to explore, so we had to make do with perusing the largest store in Kanto.

A voice interrupted my solitude as I plucked another dehydrated meal off of the shelf.

“Heading out of Celadon already?”

I started and looked at the speaker. Leaning against the metal column that stood in the middle of the aisle was my favorite Rocket-hunter, her overly protective Flareon rubbing up against her leg.

“Criss!” I smiled. “It’s great to see you. Yeah, Tim and I are headed off to Fuchsia. Probably tomorrow.”

“Where is Tim? I want to talk to the two of you, as soon as you’re done here.”

I had her follow me to checkout, where Tim and I had agreed to meet. After locating him among the throngs of people, Criss led us out into the rain, where she said she was taking us to her hotel room. As we walked along the wet streets, we discussed our gym battles. Criss was impressed that we had each managed to defeat Erika. Apparently I had been correct in assuming that she had beaten the grass-type specialist herself earlier that year.

We entered the hotel after gratefully stepping out of the frigid downpour. Criss continued to lead us up the elevator all the way to the top floor. Clearly, she had spared no expense in her choice of living quarters. When I brought this up, she just looked at me and gave me one of those cynical smiles of hers.

“And what did you do with the money from Mt. Moon? It’s not like I’m going to be spending it anywhere else.”

“I guess you have a point…” I said, haltingly.

The three of us soon reached a room labeled “Luxury Suite”. Sliding a card key through the slot on the handle, Criss pushed open the door and we followed inside. The three of us went through a small kitchen first, but past that a doorway led to a high-ceilinged ceilinged living room which held a couch and massive TV, and ended at the far wall with a huge window that overlooked the lit up city. To both the right and left were bedrooms with connecting bathrooms.

Tim and I looked at each other.

“Woah.”

“Make yourselves comfortable,” said Criss, settling down in an armchair, where Flareon jumped up onto her lap after shaking itself vigorously. Shedding our soaking raincoats, my friend and I collapsed onto the sofa.

“Now,” I said, leaning forward. “What is it that you so desperately need to tell us?”

Putting her feet up on the coffee table, Criss crossed her arms. “A couple things. First of all, you clearly didn’t get my message from the last time we talked.”

I remembered the ultimatum she had given me at our previous meeting. This couldn’t be about…

Tim spoke first, “No way, that wasn’t his fault. I heard that the cop would have died if Keith had left him out there.”

I looked from him to Criss, grateful of my friend’s support. There was no way that Criss could blame me for this, “I was out in the middle of nowhere, and Baron practically made me do it.”

She quieted us with a slow gesture. “Fair enough, but let’s be honest, Keith, ten to one odds are that this will happen again.”

“And what am I supposed to do about it?”

“Nothing,” she replied. “I’ll do it.”

Tim looked confused, “huh?”

“If the two of you are going to keep getting into Team Rocket’s business then I want to be there. You’ve got a knack for running into the exact kind of situations that I’m always looking for, so I’m going to travel with you.” She said it with an air of finality. Clearly, we were not given the option of arguing.

I looked at Tim with a raised eyebrow.

“Okay,” he said. “No objections here.”

“I agree,” I replied with a nod.

“Good,” said Criss, clapping her hands together. The sudden sound made Flareon’s spiky ears twitch slightly. “But before we leave, I have some unfinished business in the city, wait here a second.” She gently pushed her Pokémon off of her lap and walked into one of the bedrooms, emerging shortly thereafter with a slightly crumpled piece of paper. “Read it,” she said, handing the note to Tim before sitting back down again.

“Criss,” Tim read aloud. “In order to aid you in your mission to defeat Team Rocket, I would like to give you what I consider to be a valuable piece of information. I’m sure you know that Team Rocket owns many of the casinos in the city. But one of them is special. I have yet to find out which one it is, but in the basement is an entire Rocket base. My guess is that they are using the base as a storage facility rather than a headquarters, as security and secrecy seems minimal. If you could destroy or steal any of the goods, it would greatly set Team Rocket back in their plans. I know you are very good at what you do, so you will probably find the base before me. If you do, then good luck.” Tim paused for a second, “It’s unsigned.”

I looked at Criss. For the first time since we had met up at the department store, I realized how exasperated she looked. She was paler, and a little shaky. The reading of the note seemed to have put her on edge. In the short time I that had known her, I had never seen her look so helpless. She stared at me tiredly, as if begging me to say something.

“Who’d it come from?” asked Tim, before I could say anything.

Criss looked to him, “I found it on my bed this morning. I have no idea who it’s from.”

“Sounds like whoever this is, is trying to help you. What makes you so stressed about it?” I asked as Tim handed the note back to her.

Criss looked at me with slight incredulity, like she was upset that I had pointed out the breach in her normally impenetrable defenses. “Whoever it is knows my name and what I do. In my line of work, that’s bad. I don’t recognize the handwriting and I don’t even know if it’s safe to follow up on. If it’s true then I can’t let an opportunity like this pass me up but if it’s a trap then I’m screwed.”

“I get where you’re coming from…” I sighed. “My suggestion is we all go, all three of us. If it’s a trap then that won’t be what they’re expecting and we’ll be able to pull one up on them. If it’s not a trap, then we go kick some ass. Either way, Team Rocket gets the beat down. “

Criss put her feet back up on the table and looked at the two of us, contemplating silently, a wandering hand tracing lines in her Flareon’s thick mane. “Okay,” she said after a moment, letting out a long breath. “It’ll be good experience for the two of you anyway.”

I felt Tim shift position slightly in excitement. “Sweet, when do we rock and roll?”

“Tomorrow night.” Criss was beginning to calm down. She was back in her element, fighting the bad guy, or at least preparing to. “I can almost guarantee which casino it’ll be. I’ve been doing some reconnaissance since I got the note this morning. By the way,” she added, “there’s plenty of room. Why don’t you go get your packs from the center and spend the night here? It’ll make things easier.”

We enthusiastically agreed, leaping at the chance of not having to spend another night in an uncomfortable bunk bed. Before long, Tim and I had transferred our belongings to Criss’s suite. Tim had taken the second bedroom while I had chivalrously agreed to sleep on the foldout bed in the living room.

“Well,” said Criss, “make yourselves comfortable. I’m going to bed, big day tomorrow.”

I looked at my watch in surprise. Sure enough, it was almost ten o’clock. I had lost track of time in the excitement of the department store and meeting up with Criss again. Sure, the cloud-darkened sky made it hard to guess what time it was, but we had skipped dinner! Tim seemed to be having the same thoughts, as I heard his stomach growl loudly.

Criss must have heard it too, because before she closed the door to her room she said, “There’s a twenty-four hour café downstairs in the lobby.”

Tim was out the door in an instant.

*****

Having not slept in over a day, I awoke late the next morning, later even than Tim, which was surprising. When I finally got up, no one was around. Upon further investigation I discovered a note on the kitchen counter written in neat, spiky handwriting that I assumed was from Criss. It said, “Gone to heal Pokémon and train. Meet back here at 6:00 to get ready.” Below it was a post-it with Tim’s loopy scrawl on it, “Me too.”

I gave a long yawn and left to catch the end of the free breakfast offered in the lobby. As I munched on my corn flakes I contemplated what I was going to do with the next several hours. My Pokémon had all been healed the previous day, after the battle with Erika. I wasn’t about to take them out training after a fight as tough as that, even the ones who didn’t participate. I eventually decided to just hang out in the hotel room and screw around. I hadn’t had a lot of time to do stuff like that since I had left on my journey, so I was actually rather looking forward to it.

Back up in the room, I pushed open the giant window opposite the front door. The storm had mostly blown over the previous night, and now it was actually quite nice, if a bit wet. One by one, I let my Pokémon out into the room. Baron almost immediately flapped out of the window in a single hop and beat of its wings. Locustod fluttered after it, landing on the windowsill and watching it turn loop the loops through the clouds. I sighed longingly at my two flying-types. Now, they were my oldest Pokémon. Loyalty, obedience, experience, they had them all. A pang of guilt hit me when I again realized the neglect I had been giving Locustod.

Shaking my head to clear my mind, I sat down on the sofa. Growlithe leaped into my lap and began ecstatically licking my face. I burst out laughing as it quickly turned into a wrestling match. Psyke sat on the floor, meditating and occasionally casting disproving glances in our direction while Tesla somberly puttered about the room.

It didn’t take long for the play to wear me out. I sat down on the couch again with a tired laugh. “You’re feisty, aren’t you?” I said to Growlithe. It barked happily in reply and snuggled into my lap.

Closing my eyes, I thought back to my time with Sabrina in Saffron. Remembering some of the psychic exercises she had taught me, I relaxed my mind and reached out to each of my Pokémon in turn. Baron was relieved to have wind beneath his wings once again. Locustod wanted to fly as well, but didn’t know if leaving the room would make me angry. Psyke was doing the exact same thing I was, his conscience was much brighter than the others’. When I touched Tesla’s mind I received such a shock of sorrow that I nearly started crying myself.

I opened my eyes and looked at the small electric-type. “Tesla, what’s wrong?”

The ball slowly floated over to me. “Magna…” it said weakly.

“Psyke,” I said out loud, “give me a hand with this.” Then I reached out and touched the screw on top of Tesla. With my Kadabra acting as a mental translator, I instantly realized what was wrong.

I had forgotten what a close bond Tesla and Rainer had shared. I slowly began remembering their antics on Nugget Bridge and their teamwork against Misty. Rainer’s abduction at Pokémon Tower must have upset Tesla as much as me. Memories I had been repressing came flooding back and a tear finally did come to my eye.

I removed my hand from Tesla’s head and wiped the moistness out of my eyes. “Realistically,” I choked out, “I don’t know if we’ll ever see Rainer again.” Tesla sat on my shoulder, forlorn. “But I promise that even if we can’t find him, we will avenge him.” My hands clenched into fists. “Tonight.”

This seemed to cheer the little steel ball up a bit, or at least invigorate it. Now that I had a Pokémon that hated Team Rocket as much as I did, I would be unstoppable.

Once again shutting my eyes, I continued with my meditation in an attempt to shut out the dark emotions. Upon reaching Growlithe’s mind I realized something. When I had been training with Sabrina she had shown me how to look through my Pokémon’s memories. I had yet to do this with Growlithe, so I concentrated hard and probed farther into the fire-type’s mind.

Before being trained as a police Pokémon, it had lived a quaint life in an old abandoned building. This came as no surprise, if fire-types weren’t in a volcano they were in burned out buildings. But a single event stood out significantly, forever changing the puppy Pokémon’s view on life. Every detail was crisp and clear, so with Psyke as a translator, I dove into the memory.

*****

The nice humans are back to explore more of my home. I bark happily at the sight of them and dash off into a room they haven’t seen yet. I hope they follow. They usually do. Sure enough, they come in right after me. This room has nothing but stairs. I bark again and lead them down. We come out in another room with a big table and papers, lots of papers. They like papers. They get excited. I want to make the nice humans happy. They feed me; they give me delicious things that I can’t find anywhere else.

They aren’t like the other people that sometimes come in here with Pokémon that shoot water out of their mouths. Those ones fight me. I like fighting, it’s like playing, but I don’t like being wet. And if I get hurt those people just leave me. But these humans found me when I was hurt and they helped me get better. I want to make them happy in return.

And they are happy. The papers in this room make them more excited than they I have ever seen them. This makes me happy. Wait… I smell something. Up. I dash back upstairs; I don’t think the humans notice.

There is another human. She is putting a device on the wall. A second human comes down the stairs at the far side of the room. A third one comes out from the hallway across from the door. They all have empty bags. They are all dressed in black.

“Are the charges all set?” says the first one. The other two nod. I don’t like these humans. They make me have a bad feeling. I growl and bark once. It is not a friendly bark like I had given the nice humans. These humans need to leave now.

The humans all jump and look at me, then laugh. “It’s just a stupid little Growlithe. Don’t worry you little bastard, we’ll be out of here in no time.”

I think the nice humans had heard my bark. They come upstairs.

“What are you doing?” one of them says, a note of panic in his voice.

The bad humans all look stern. The one in front says “I was afraid you would get here before us. I guess we get to lock the door on our way out.”

“You can’t mean you’re going to blow this place up?” says a nice human, “What about all of the Pokémon in here?”

“Who cares about the Pokémon? We’re just carrying out our orders. You’ll get over it. Toodle-oo.” The bad humans run out the door and slam it shut behind them. I hear a click.

Something bad is going to happen.

A nice human rushes after them and tries to open the door. “It’s locked,” he says.

Something very bad is going to happen.

“What do we do?” says another.

I need to run.

One of the nice humans looks at the device on the wall and screams “Fifteen seconds!”

I run away as fast as I can. I try to get as far away as possible. I hear the humans scrambling frantically behind me. Screaming. It’s too late. I hear a loud noise. There is fire. I like fire, usually. But not this fire. No, not this fire. This fire is bad. This fire is death. I am afraid. I hide under a table. My home is burning. What is going on? I am so very scared. My home is falling apart. I see a hole in the wall. I scramble through it. I am safe in the streets outside. There are people everywhere but they don’t notice me.

Suddenly, I pulled my mind out of my Pokémon’s. I was in total shock.

Growlithe had been there.

I had just witnessed the final moments of my own father’s life.

*****

Tell me what y'all think.

NEXT: *Mission Impossible theme* The trio busts some heads in the basement of the infamous Rocket Game Corner. Action sequence, initiate!

 

[sharktooth162]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Man, you're making my Erika chapter seem like a noddy episode. I really liked the way you put the growlithe's thoughts across and also how tesla is cut up by rainers loss showing magnemite have feelings to. Looking forward to seeing the game corner raid and my guess is they were trying to sell Rainer and that's how Keith gets him back if he does.

 

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Man, you're making my Erika chapter seem like a noddy episode. I really liked the way you put the growlithe's thoughts across and also how tesla is cut up by rainers loss showing magnemite have feelings to. Looking forward to seeing the game corner raid and my guess is they were trying to sell Rainer and that's how Keith gets him back if he does.

Glad you liked it! I like the guessing. Keep those predictions coming, it gives me a good idea of what you think of the characters and situations. As for whether you're right or wrong... we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Yay! The forums are back up! This chapter has been ready for a while now, and I've been aching to post it. This chapter is the climax of the Celadon arc, so a lot goes on. Pay attention, there's a lot of foreshadowing here (and, as always, some red herrings). Anyway, on to the chapter...

This time: The trio infiltrates the Rocket hideout

Chapter 20
Hundreds of people were out on the brightly lit streets with us that night, going from casino to casino, club to club. Tim, Criss, and I blended in perfectly.

“So where’s the one we’re looking for?” I asked Criss. My hand was firmly clamped around Tesla’s Poké Ball in my jacket pocket.

“Patience,” Criss assured me.

“But how do you know which one it is?” I repeated as we dodged around a group of singing drunks.

“You think I don’t recognize some faces? I’ve been fighting the Rockets longer than you know.”

“Hmm…. I was under the impression that you killed every Rocket you met rather than getting to know them.”

Criss smiled, flattered, in a strange way. “It’s called recon, genius.”

Suddenly, she turned to the right and began to cross the street, causing Tim to nearly run into her. Flareon weaved through his legs to keep up with its master.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Tim asked, confused.

I just followed Criss silently and beckoned for him to do the same.

“Which one?” I asked Criss quietly.

Wordlessly, she pointed to a balding man with long arms striding through the crowd about ten feet in front of us.

“How do you know?” asked Tim, he had caught up to us.

“He was one of the thugs that ambushed you guys on Route Eight. I noticed a bruise under his left eye, courtesy of Keith, I believe.”

We followed him at a safe distance for two or three blocks before he finally turned into what looked like just another casino.

“Is this it?” I looked around, there were noticeably less people in this part of town.

“Absolutely, look at the guards.”

The building had two security officers flanking the main entrance. This was to be expected at a casino but these guards were different.

“Those stupid hats, they stick out from a mile away.” Criss said.

She was right. The short billed cap that was such a distinct part of the Team Rocket uniform was a dead giveaway.

“So how do we get into the basement?” Tim asked.

“Back door, probably in the alley here.” Looking around to see if anybody would notice, Criss grabbed the two of us and pushed us ahead of her into the alleyway.

I walked up to the first door I saw and put my ear against it. Indistinguishable voices could be heard from the other side.

I shook my head. “This is probably just an emergency exit. Let’s keep looking.”

Seconds later we found another door. I put my ear up to it as well but heard nothing.

“Is it locked?” Criss asked.

I tried the handle, but the door wouldn’t budge. “Yes, should we break it down?”

Criss shook her head. “For once, I want to be subtle.” She knelt down in front of the door and pulled a lock pick from her belt. “Damn, it’s been years since I’ve done this. Give me a minute.”

I shifted my backpack on my shoulders. I hadn’t seen a reason to bring it, but Criss had insisted that we might want to make a quick getaway from the city. She hadn’t brought her own backpack though, and when I asked her about it she just said she had “planned ahead.”

With a satisfying click, the door unlocked and Criss eased it open. Flareon slowly walked forward, illuminating the dark hallway, but ready to pounce if any security appeared. Luckily, there was no one there.

“Good,” Criss commented, “this means we aren’t dealing with any executives. They would have put a guard in here. There will probably be some further in, though. Let’s go. Pokémon at the ready”

I released Tesla and Tim sent out his Haunter. Not even ten feet down the hallway was a flight of stairs that led underground. “Basement,” I remarked, “we’re on the right track.”

The six of us, people and Pokémon, slowly stepped down the cement stairway. It was incredibly dark, but fluorescent lights made small patches of luminescence every fifteen feet or so. Above us, I could hear the sounds of the casino.

“Haunter, check it out ahead,” Tim told his Pokémon. The ghost-type blended itself into the shadows, becoming nearly invisible, and sped off down the hallway to the first intersection.

It reappeared under a light and turned to look at us, shaking its head.

We caught up to it a few seconds later. I looked down the hallway to the right while Tim looked down it to the left.

“Which way?” we both whispered.

“You think I know?” Criss replied with a shrug. “Let’s go left.”

We walked for a little bit before coming upon another right turn.

“Let’s keep going straight, then take a right up there.” Criss pointed to another intersection down the hallway.

Almost immediately after her the words left her mouth, a pair of Rocket grunts jumped out from around the corner accompanied by a Golbat and a Machop. They had been expecting us.

We reacted instantaneously.

“Night shade, Haunter!” commanded Tim.

“Tesla, thunderb-“ I was cut off by a hand clamping down over my mouth. Before I could do anything, my assailant dragged me around into the corridor behind us where he shoved me up against the wall, a hand still over my mouth. In the yellow light of the hallway I saw a pale, dark-haired grunt. I recognized him immediately. He was the one who took Rainer.

I bit down hard on his hand and struggled to get free but he held me fast by spinning me around, pinning my arms behind my back and pressing my face up against the wall.

Apparently he recognized me too. “You and your little friends like to cause trouble don’t you?” he said. “It’s time to finish this once and for all.” I heard a knife being pulled from a sheath and gulped in fear. I could still hear the sounds of the battle in the main corridor; my friends clearly hadn’t noticed my absence.

Suddenly, I heard a sickening crunch followed immediately by the pressure being released on my arms. I spun around to face my attacker.

In front of me I saw Tesla hovering, staring at the man that was now on the floor several feet away, struggling to get up.

It was time to take a leaf from Criss’ book.

“Thunderbolt,” I told my Pokémon.

But rather than attacking, Tesla began to glow with a light that was becoming all too familiar. One orb became three, and all of Tesla’s other features tripled as well. The new metallic beast seemed angry.

“MAG-A-NA-TON.”

There was a loud “SNAP-CRACK!” and a brilliant flash as a bolt of lightning like I had never seen before lanced out towards the now cowering Rocket. I was blinded and only heard a scream as the energy struck my attacker, a scream that was instantly silenced.

When my eyes readjusted I saw nothing but a pile of ash and blackened bones where the Rocket had been hunkering.

I had been right. Having a Pokémon that hated Team Rocket as much if not more than I did was a force to be reckoned with.

The sounds of battle in the main corridor were now silenced, so I looked around the corner.

Criss was pulling her knife out of the chest of one of the fallen Rockets while Tim checked the pulse of the other. He looked up as I approached.

“Where have you been?” he asked.

“They grabbed me from behind,” I responded, “I’m surprised you didn’t notice.”

Criss looked at me. “I was busy commanding Flareon.”

She had said it slowly. I knew what she meant by that, she had been psychically connected and oblivious to anything but the battle.

“I just thought you had gone around to get them from behind or something,” said Tim.

“Not everything I do is a strategy, man.”

“What happened to the person who grabbed you?” asked Criss.

“Tesla turned him into a pile of ashes.” My new Magneton came forward out of the shadows.

“Woah,” was all Tim had to say.

Criss gave the electric-type a pat on one of its lower orbs. “You’re my kind of Pokémon, buddy.”

“Thank goodness for that,” I said, “let’s pay a little more attention in the future. That could have been bad.”

“Agreed.” My friends nodded.

“I wonder how they knew we were here,” said Tim.

“They must have security systems of some sort that we set off,” I pointed out.

“Well this is no time to stand around talking about it,” Criss said, “Let’s keep moving, hopefully we’ll be able to find something before more guards show up. I don’t think these ones sent out an alert, typical.”

Tim and I nodded and followed her down the hallway to the right.

“What are we even looking for? And what will we do when we find it?” I asked Criss.

“I’ll know when we get there,” she responded.

It wasn’t long before we came across a large door marked, “STORAGE. KEEP OUT.”

“Sounds important,” Criss said, “Keith, would you do the honors?”

I pointed at the door, “Tesla, sonic boom.”

With a deafening blast the door exploded off of its hinges. As the echoes died away, I realized my mistake.


“Okay, never mind about subtlety then. Remind me to be more specific in the future.” Criss sighed, exasperated.

“Oops,” was all I had to say.

Criss stepped into the room and felt around for a light switch on the wall. Finding one and turning it on, the room was illuminated. The storage room wasn’t too big, only about fifteen feet in either direction. It was full of filing cabinets and cardboard boxes. Criss began searching through the former while Tim and I took a look at the latter.

Almost immediately a small box caught my attention. It was about the size of a toaster, covered in duct tape, and had the Silph Co. symbol emblazoned on the side. I picked it up and shook it. Whatever was inside was tightly packed. Rather than taking the time to open it, I put it in my backpack and began searching through other open boxes.

“This is all just schematics and maps. It seems important but I don’t see a use for it,” Criss said from over by the filing cabinets. Flareon was keeping watch by the door.

Tim and I announced what we had found in the boxes. Some Poké Balls, medical kits for both humans and Pokémon, Rocket uniforms, knives, pretty much the basic equipment of your average grunt.

“What’s this?” I asked, pulling a plastic, baseball bat-like rod with metal sidings out of the box.

Tim looked at it, “Oh, that’s… that’s a people-whacker. For whacking people.”

I whacked him on the arm.

“Ow!”

“It works, I guess.” I said.

Criss looked up from the cabinet that she was rooting through. “That’s a stun rod, like a stun gun, but longer. If that had been turned on, we’d be carrying Tim out of here.”

“Asshole,” Tim muttered.

I looked at the baton and weighed it in my hand. How ironic would that be? Using a more badass version of the weapon used to take Rainer away from me. I swung it around once and pressed a trigger on the handle. The rod emitted loud snapping noises as menacing blue electricity arced up and down the metal strips. It was even non-lethal, as I still hesitated to kill. I smiled and let go of the trigger, causing the snapping to cease. Tesla floated towards it, humming gently.

“Anything worth taking?” Criss asked, slamming shut the drawer she had been looking through.

“Nope,” Tim replied. I shook my head.

“Good, let’s burn this and go then.”

I looked at her. “Burn it?”

“Absolutely, just because we don’t need this stuff doesn’t mean they don’t. Maybe we’ll be able to take the whole building down…” She smiled wistfully at the last sentence. “Flareon, use ember there, there, and there.” She pointed at three different parts of the room that seemed to hold the most flammable materials.

Suddenly Tim’s head snapped up towards the door. “Haunter, shadow ball!”


Both Criss and I turned to see a ball of dark energy hit a Beedrill that had been trying to sneak up on us. The bug-type slammed into its trainer, a Rocket grunt, in the doorway.

Reacting to my mental nudge, Tesla followed up with a weak bolt of blue electricity that paralyzed our would-be ambushers.

“Good reflexes Tim,” Criss commented. Flareon came back to the doorway, having started three small fires in different parts of the room. They were growing rapidly as they fed off of the flammable supplies and I could feel the heat growing more intense. “Let’s get out of here before more of them show up.”

Ignoring stealth completely, we dashed out of the room and back down the hallway. I still held the stun rod in my hand. Apparently something we had done had set off an alarm somewhere, as we encountered several grunts on our way out. My guess was either the fire or the door.

Flareon and Tesla made short work, however, of anyone that appeared in our way. Haunter was our rear guard, firing off shadow balls at anyone on our tail.

We had reached the bottom of the stairs that led up to the alleyway when the fire finally caught the gas line. There was an explosion that shook the building and caused me to stumble. We scrambled up the stairs and out the door into the cool night air.

I could see in the streets that the crowds inside the casino had been evacuated. Tim and I recalled our Pokémon.

“Look at all of those people, it should be pretty easy to blen-“ I was cut off by the appearance of five or six Rocket grunts and their Pokémon at the entrance to the alleyway.

The three of us turned to run in the opposite direction but were blocked off by a single Rocket standing next to a Machamp, he must have followed us up the stairs.

I gulped, we were surrounded. I was about to take my chances against the Machamp when a giant, green, bug-like Pokémon appeared almost from nowhere. It swooped down from the top of a building and grabbed the Machamp from behind.

“Flaaaahgooon!” cried the green Pokémon as it carried the fighting-type over our heads and threw it into its compatriots at the entrance to the alleyway. The flying Pokémon immediately engaged the Rockets.

Taking advantage of the distraction, I rushed at the grunt with my new weapon, sparks crackling between its electrodes. The Rocket made the terrible mistake of grabbing the rod with his bare hand. He gave a muffled shout as 300,000 volts flashed through his body, then fell to the ground in violent convulsions, still holding on to the rod, which he tore from my hand.

Tim and Criss rushed past me, “Come on!”

I was about to follow when I heard a metallic “clink” on the asphalt behind me. Turning around, I saw a Poké Ball explode open, revealing a large armored Pokémon, about six feet tall.

“Arrrrrmaldo!” It cried, and entered the fray next to the green Pokémon, which I now recognized as a Flygon, a rare dragon-type from the Hoenn region.

Confused, I looked around for the trainer that had thrown the ball. On a hunch born from watching too many horror movies, I looked up. Sure enough, standing on the roof of the building next to the casino was a shadowed figure.

As I was about to give a shout, someone grabbed me by the arm and yanked me down he alleyway. It was Criss.

“What the hell are you doing? Let’s go!” she shouted at me, and sprinted away from the battle.

I followed, up ahead I could see Tim scrambling over a chain link fence. I caught up to them as Criss flopped over the other side and Flareon used several trash cans stacked up nearby to hop over.

They waited for me to climb over, but the second my feet hit the ground, they took off. I barreled after them. We had left the city and entered the thick forest surrounding it. About ten minutes later, we burst out of the woods and onto a dirt road. The lights of the city were still visible but I figured we had put at least a mile between us and them.

We stopped on the road to catch our breath. After a second, Tim burst out laughing hysterically.

“Whew, that was exciting!” he said.

I just looked at Criss, panting slightly. “Great, now we’re probably wanted for arson.”

She turned away and slowly walked over to a formation of boulders on the far side of the road, muttering. “Add it to the list.” I don’t think she had meant for me to hear.

She stepped over the ditch beside the road and gave one of the boulders a hard kick. Suddenly, the entire formation began moving. I jumped at first, but then realized it was just her Onix.

The rock snake uncurled, revealing Criss’ pack, which it had obviously been hiding.

Criss picked it up, returned Onix to its ball, and hopped back onto the road.

“That was… conveniently placed.” I said.

“This is where I was planning on coming out anyway,” she responded. “Come on; let’s go find a place to make camp.”

*****

NEXT: Journey to Fuchsia City

It'll be a little while before I get the next chapter done. I've only got half of it written, and it's not very good. It'll mostly be filler, but I'm trying to make it relevant and interesting. I won't have much time to write, though, due to a slough of school projects and the impending final exams. But I'll see what I can do.

 

[sharktooth162]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Very nice. I'm glad magneton evolved and I'm still curious as to whether hes going to get rainer back but its really cool.

 

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Very nice. I'm glad magneton evolved and I'm still curious as to whether hes going to get rainer back but its really cool.

Heh, I'd like to talk about what's going to happen, but I shouldn't. It'd ruin any surprises.

Mostly filler in this chapter but its all necessary. Hopefully it's interesting.

This time: the crew hikes to Fuchsia City

Chapter 21

Half an hour later, Criss and I sat on a fallen log in front of a fire while Tim lay out on the grass on the other side of the flames.

“So who was it that helped us?” Tim asked, looking from me to Criss and back again.

“I don’t know,” I said, “probably the same person that wrote the letter.”

“That’s what I was thinking too,” Criss replied softly.

The conversation died momentarily before Tim announced his decision to go to bed. I was quick to follow. It had been a long night.

We slept out in the open. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, now that the storm had cleared, although that made it very cold. I ended up sleeping in all of my clothes, even inside my sleeping bag, which was rather uncomfortable. I finally managed to fall asleep after about twenty minutes of tossing and turning.

Later that night, I awoke after rolling over onto a sharp rock. Looking at my watch, I saw that I had only been asleep for a couple hours. I turned back over into a more comfortable position, but before I closed my eyes, I saw that Criss was still seated on the log, staring into the dying fire. She hadn’t moved in two hours.

I was worried. “Criss?” I said.

She jumped before noticing that I was awake.

“You okay?” I asked her.

“Yeah… Just thinking,” she replied shakily.

I propped myself up on my elbows. It was time to take advantage of an opportunity. “What about?”

She took a second before responding. “Keith… I know… I haven’t….” She sighed. “I feel like… I don’t know.”

“That’s awfully imprecise,” I said, “you should try putting some more words in there.”

She laughed lightly. “I’m sorry. It’s just that… I don’t-”

She was interrupted by a loud snore from Tim.

“Never mind,” she finally said, “I’m going to bed. Good night.”

She got up, stomped out the fire, and crawled into her own sleeping bag.

Damn it Tim, I thought to myself. I was sure that I had been about to get some decent information on Criss and her mysterious past.

Criss was very strange. It was hard to tell what kind of person she was. When I had first met her, she had been bitingly sarcastic, merciless, and untrusting, yet she had still been friendly to me. I wondered why.

But now, she seemed different. She was still fairly stern, but less so. She seemed to have developed an actual personality beyond that of the vengeful Rocket slayer.

These kind of thoughts carried me away from the biting cold and into a deep and very welcome sleep.

*****

The next four days of traveling were some of the best of my life.

I was with two of my greatest friends, and I had never felt so at ease with the world. Tim supplied much needed comedy relief the entire time, and even Criss made a habit of smiling several times per day. I think she even made a joke once that didn’t have any sarcasm at all.

It was nearing the end of fall, but beautifully colored trees of orange, red, and yellow still decorated the road as we trekked along. The air smelled so crisp and clean, it was invigorating. The sun was out most of the time, making for a stark contrast in temperatures between the shadows from the trees and the patches of sunlight. For the most part, the air was cold enough that you could see your breath, but the sun still felt warm on the bare skin.

Due to the sheer happiness of the atmosphere, we each let out all of our Pokémon to join us. Criss’ Onix and Arbok slithered ahead, reluctant to socialize with the other Pokémon, but Flareon and Growlithe seemed to strike up a friendship. They darted back and forth up and down the trail in mock battle, but I noticed that Flareon always kept a watchful eye on Criss, ever vigilant.

“By the way, have you come up with a name for your Growlithe yet?” Tim asked me as we watched the fire-types play.

“No, I haven’t been able to think of one,” I responded, scratching my chin.

“How about Flareth?” suggested Criss. “That was the name of my dad’s Magmar. It was the Pokémon I grew up with, and probably the biggest reason why I chose to evolve Eevee into a fire-type.”

Growlithe chase Flareon back towards us. In its haste, it failed to see my leg and ran into me headlong, almost tripping me up. We laughed at the playful puppy as it fell over, jumped back to its feet, and gave a cheerful bark.

“What do you think of Flareth, buddy?”

My Pokémon barked again and wagged its tail happily.

As we continued walking, I glanced sidelong at Criss. For any other person, that little snippet about her childhood wouldn’t have been anything really special. But for Criss, it was different. She never shared anything about herself. What was changing?

With a sigh I turned my head and looked behind us. Tesla and Tim’s Haunter floated alongside each other, muttering. They had something in common, both having evolved while fighting Team Rocket. Cubone also tried to join in their conversations, but the young Pokémon’s short legs made it hard to keep up with us. Tim was forced to carry it most of the way.

Also near-immobile was Tim’s Weepinbell, which spent most of the trek inside its ball. Charmeleon, Nidorina, and Nidorino walked beside their trainers, keeping a wary eye on the forest’s edges on either side of the road. Every fifteen minutes or so we would pass Psyke meditating under a tree. A single white eye would open to observe us as we passed, then the psychic-type would teleport another mile down the road.

High above us, Baron and Tim’s Beedrill soared. Baron was much bigger and faster than the bug-type, but it did a decent enough job of keeping up. Tim’s tiny little Zubat, however, was practically left in the dust. For that reason, it instead spent much of the time flapping along next to Tim’s ear. Locustod was impartial to Baron’s and Beedrill’s racing, instead fluttering along quietly at its own pace.

“You know,” I said, pompously putting my hands behind my head, “if I really wanted to, I could just climb aboard Baron and fly to Fuchsia City in a day.”

“You know,” Criss responded in a sarcastic tone, “if I really wanted to, I could punch you in the nuts as often as I felt like it.”

My hands dropped to my sides and I laughed. “Point taken.”

The road itself was long, flat, and straight. We never met a single soul the entire time we hiked, beyond the occasional Pokémon. Most of the flying-types had migrated south for the winter but at one point we came across something quite interesting.

It was on the third day of our journey, just before the sun began to set. Locustod suddenly landed on the road in front of us, staring up into the darkening sky. Its mandibles twitched slightly as it scanned the heavens.

I held up a hand to stop Tim beside me. “Wait,” I said. “What is it?”

Locustod didn’t respond. Our crew stood silent for a moment, listening, but hearing nothing besides the wind in the trees. Then suddenly, a cloud of shimmering, shining Butterfree flew gracefully over the trees, their white and black wings beating silently.

The massive flock shaded us for almost a whole minute. Time seemed to slow as with our mouths agape, we stared at the migrating Pokémon. And then, as suddenly as it had begun, it ended with the last Butterfree floating out of sight. With that, the trance was broken and the moment was over. Life continued normally, heedless of the beautiful sight that had just flown through the sky.

*****

It was bliss. I had never felt more like a part of the natural world. I was almost disappointed when, five days in, the dirt road became paved and we reached the northern part of the bridge that led the rest of the way across the bay to Fuschia City.

We all stopped for a second, looking out at the beautiful horizon. The sun was only an hour or so away from setting.

“What do you say we wait until tomorrow to cross,” I suggested.

Criss looked me in the eye and smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

Tim came up in between us and put an arm around each of our shoulders “We should swim across.”

“You can swim across.” I said, nodding.

“Yeah,” Criss agreed, “I’ve always wanted to see someone get eaten alive by a Gyarados.”

Tim stared at her, open mouthed. “They have Gyarados here?”

“They have Magikarp at least,” said Criss, a little taken aback. “So yeah, there are probably Gyarados as well.”

Tim looked out over the ocean, suddenly serious. He had always wanted a Gyarados. Now that he was so close to reaching his dream, he seemed speechless.

Then it hit me. Fuchsia City was home to the Safari Zone, the one and only place in all of Kanto that it was possible to find a Dratini.

*****

The next morning was cold, damp, and foggy. I awoke at our normal time and began packing my things for the final stretch to Fuchsia. Criss was still asleep, but Tim was nowhere to be found.

After some searching, I discovered him sitting on a boulder on top of the bluffs overlooking the ocean. The vast metallic bridge reached out across the gray water to our right, and the light wind slowly moved a layer of mist over the rippling waves. I pulled my hands inside the sleeves of my jacket at the biting cold of the sea breeze. The city was no longer visible through the fog.

I walked up behind Tim and saw that he was reading the Pokédex entry for Magikarp.

“Magikarp,” I said, imitating the device’s mechanical voice, “the useless Pokémon. As its only abilities are tackle and splash, it will piss you off to no end before it finally evolves.”

Tim laughed and shut the device. “Maybe you’re right. I’m going to try to catch a Gyarados straight up, without having to evolve for it.”

Realizing something, I counted on my fingers. “But you already have six Pokémon. Who are you going to get rid of and how?” Long ago, the Pokémon League had set a rule regulating the total number of Pokémon allowed on a team. Technically, you could only have six, but I had heard that a loophole in the rule allowed you to have more as long as you didn’t keep it in a Poké Ball and didn’t use it in battle. Who enforced these rules, I didn’t know. Over the years, however, the Pokémon League had been leaning towards becoming an official branch of the government. They held that much influence.

Tim let out a long sigh. “I don’t know, I’ll have to figure something out.

I heard a twig snap behind us. Turning around, I saw Criss walking towards me and Tim. She must have been listening. “It’ll be hard to catch a Gyarados.” she said.

“Is it possible?” asked Tim.

“Of course it’s possible,” she replied, “a Pokémon is a Pokémon. But it will be difficult. I’d be glad to help you if you’d like.”

“Thanks.” Tim smiled. “I’ll probably need that help.”

About an hour later, we were on the road again. About an hour after that, Fuchsia City was emerging through the fog at the end of the bridge. I looked around at the ocean, the mist, the grey waves below. It seemed symbolic, but I wasn’t sure how. I’m sure my English teacher could have found the connection. I smiled to myself as we withdrew our Pokémon and strode into the city.

*****

We were forced to stay in the Pokémon center, as the small city had no hotel. As I set my pack down at the foot of the bunk, I remembered something.

“Hey guys, I nearly forgot, I grabbed this from the storage room at the Rocket hideout.” After rustling through my bag for a moment, I pulled out the duct-taped box and tossed it to Criss.

She caught it and looked it over before tossing it back. “Open it, let’s see what’s inside.”

Tim, sitting on his own bunk, leaned forward eagerly as I pulled my pocket knife from my pack and began tearing at the wrapping. Eventually, I managed to get it open and dumped the contents of the box into my lap. There, amid a colorful array of foam packing peanuts was a purple Poké Ball. Confused as to why they would go through so much trouble to package a single Poké Ball, I picked it up. Two pink orbs emerged from either side of the top purple shell. In between them was a glittering silver “M”.

*****

NEXT: We meet Koga, and Keith begins part two of his training

 

[sharktooth162]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Nothing much happened but it was still anice change of pace and I liked it. I'm curious as to whether tim will end up losing one of his pokemon for the gyarados as considering the way he lost his raticate I would be surprised if he would be prepared to lose someone again. I think he might end up catching a Gyarados and then release it after realising he cant bear to lose any of is pokemon. I kind of don't know if I want keith to get a dratini or not seen as I still want him to get rainer back and stuff but we'll see what happens.

 

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Nothing much happened but it was still anice change of pace and I liked it. I'm curious as to whether tim will end up losing one of his pokemon for the gyarados as considering the way he lost his raticate I would be surprised if he would be prepared to lose someone again. I think he might end up catching a Gyarados and then release it after realising he cant bear to lose any of is pokemon. I kind of don't know if I want keith to get a dratini or not seen as I still want him to get rainer back and stuff but we'll see what happens.

There's going to be some serious juggling of Pokemon between now and the end as the characters' teams fill up. I don't want to give too much away, but the way Tim deals with it will be kind of boring, the way Criss deals with it will be insightful, and the way Kieth deals with it will be... unpredictable (see what I did there?). I know I've kind of been shunting Tim to the side, but I have some things planned in the next several chapters to give him some more depth.

 

[sharktooth162]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

See now i'm beginning to think that Keith will decide to flout the leagues laws and have seven pokemon anyway if he gets rainer back. For the other two I really dont have a clue but I cant wait to see what happens. Well I just tried to predict the unpredictable so ha.

 

[Flaze]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Sorry that it took me so long to even begin reading this fic, originally I thoguht it as really long but I eventually got hooked by it. I kind of felt bad when Criss left though since I thought Keith would get to travel with her. I liked the plot, the whole psychic ability seems isn't exactly knew but it was done right and that's what counts. However there are some drawbacks, firstly the description of the first ten chapters which is where I am now since I just finished chapter ten and I wanted you to know I was reading. Anyway, the battles need a lot more description, the character's themselves and the scenery is good but the battles lack a lot, not just that but they're missing a lot more action so I hope they got better in later chapters. Also Keith is developing too fast, in the first chapter he barely knew how to battle by the third one he could take out Pokemon in one clean shot by by the time Tim was introduced he was experienced enough to be a bit of a mentor to him.

I also liked Nolan though I still haven't seen him with such importance since I still don't know much about him, but the action in 9.5 was really good and well...actiony.

I'll keep reading this so don't worry.

 

[AetherX]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

See now i'm beginning to think that Keith will decide to flout the leagues laws and have seven pokemon anyway if he gets rainer back. For the other two I really dont have a clue but I cant wait to see what happens. Well I just tried to predict the unpredictable so ha.

You're close, but it won't happen the way you think.

Sorry that it took me so long to even begin reading this fic, originally I thoguht it as really long but I eventually got hooked by it. I kind of felt bad when Criss left though since I thought Keith would get to travel with her. I liked the plot, the whole psychic ability seems isn't exactly knew but it was done right and that's what counts. However there are some drawbacks, firstly the description of the first ten chapters which is where I am now since I just finished chapter ten and I wanted you to know I was reading. Anyway, the battles need a lot more description, the character's themselves and the scenery is good but the battles lack a lot, not just that but they're missing a lot more action so I hope they got better in later chapters. Also Keith is developing too fast, in the first chapter he barely knew how to battle by the third one he could take out Pokemon in one clean shot by by the time Tim was introduced he was experienced enough to be a bit of a mentor to him.

I also liked Nolan though I still haven't seen him with such importance since I still don't know much about him, but the action in 9.5 was really good and well...actiony.

I'll keep reading this so don't worry.

Glad you like it! Don't worry, Criss comes back. I wouldn't let a character as awesome as that come and go. Chapter 11 is where I really started putting a lot of effort into my writing, so it gets much better. The Surge and Erika gym battles are much better than the Brock and Misty ones.

I know, Keith is overpowered. His training with Sabrina gives him a reason to be that way, but before that, I retroactively blame it on Rainer being a badass. Plus, he had a lot of time to sit and think about battling, strategize, train, etc, while he was in Cerulean. I left a pretty big open space there time-wise.

Nolan's my personal favorite. Chapter 16.5 will give a bit more background. He'll stay mysterious for a long while, as I introduced him much earlier than I should have.

A note to all of my readers: I'm terribly sorry that I haven't updated in a while. I haven't even started writing Chapter 22. What little writing time and energy I have goes to my SuBuWriMo fic (which is still going slowly). School gets out in two weeks for me, and I'm planning on spending the first weekend entirely on writing.

 

[Monster Dungeon]

Re: "Unpredictable" (PG-13)

Just thought I'd let you know that I'm really enjoying this. Caught up now and will offer thoughts on new chapters from now on.

Some great ideas in here and you mostly stay away from cliche, and where it is done you cover it well. Like someone else in the thread I'm not such a fan of how quickly Keith became "UberBattler", but each chapter stood on it's own and now he's been that way for awhile it seems more natural.

Good stuff, look forward to more.