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SOUNDS IN S E P T E M B E R
rated: K+
Hello. This is a tale of big explosions, a slightly wacko girl and some guys and pokémon. And some interpretation of poké-logic. Fun times. Please review, or at least comment on my style of writing. I kind of want to know if I make people want to read on, or if I'm boring as hell.
Chapter 1 - The Pallet Predicament
The explosion happened in the middle of a lazy September Wednesday. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing at the moment, and looked up. There wasn't a single person from Pallet to Pewter who could ignore it. An incredibly loud 'boom', followed by a hardly noticeable gust of wind, some bird pokémon taking to the skies nearby and then silence. When it was over, as suddenly as it had come, everyone were asking themselves or each other - what happened? Did a plane crash? Did someone use a Hyper Beam of never before seen power? Lots of theories surfaced over the course of a few hours, but nobody knew the answer. And the same evening, everyone had forgotten that it ever happened.
Except for some.
---
The day after this unusual sound over Kanto, Pallet Town was bustling with people. This only happened once a year, as normally this smallest of towns in Kanto was as calm as it was remote. It was the Journey Anniversary, a celebration of the day, many years ago, when three trainers had left town to travel the region on a mission to assemble information on all kinds of pokémon. Information on which the very first pokédex was built. A mark in every history book, and a date any child growing up in Kanto learned in pre-school. A three day festival was held in Pallet on this anniversary every year, and people from all over the region traveled there to join the festivities.
This Thursday, the 19th of September, the relatively small plaza that could be considered the town center, and all the alleys and streets connected to it, were filled with families and tourists chatting eagerly, kids sending their pet pokémon out against each other in fake battles, as well as food and franchise stands who made huge profits on this day alone.
In an alley near the plaza, leaning against a brick wall, stood a girl. Her hair was long, brown and straight, and she wore a white beanie hat over it, pressed down deep over her forehead. Her black brace trousers over the long sleeved red t-shirt, baggy beneath the knees and just barely leaving the dirty white sneakers visible, told any onlooker that she wasn't the most girly person in town. Actually, since it was such a close knit community, everyone living here pretty much knew exactly who she was.
"Yulia!"
Someone shouted her name just before bumping into the girl from behind. She stumbled forward and dropped something. The item bounced on the ground and rolled back, towards the one that had startled her. It was a pokéball, and the one who bent down to pick it up from the stone laid street was a boy of her own age.
"Sorry," he said with an apologetic smile and reached out his hand to give her the pokéball back.
It hadn't been dented or anything - pokéballs are extremely durable. Yet, Yulia's eyes narrowed as she snagged the pokéball back from him and put it deep into one of the pockets on her large brace trousers.
Behind the boy, a couple of other guys showed up. His group of friends. He was always with them these days.
"Hey, you coming?" one of them said before spotting Yulia. "Heh, don't bother, man," he then added a bit lower and punched the first boy's shoulder. They all laughed a little before walking past the girl towards the plaza without another word, though the first boy shrugged and made the same smile towards her again before he went. Yulia didn't say anything.
After another minute of gazing after the boys until they disappeared completely in the crowd, Yulia sunk down with her back against the wall and took out the pokéball again.
"I don't care about them," she said, talking softly with the orb in her hands. "I have more important matters to focus on. And we are focused today. Right, Elekid?"
The pokéball, of course, didn't reply. Yulia took out two more and put them in her lap together with the first one. "We are all focused. And strong. Today is the day. He will be here soon."
After a few deep breaths, she stood up again, the pokéballs back in her pockets. Just in time. Applause was heard as the most important character of the day entered the plaza and walked through the crowd towards the wooden stage that was raised on one side of the open space, near the entrance to the only tavern in town. Yulia was rather tall for being a 14 year old girl, but she hardly even spotted them standing on toe, being at the very back of the crowd from there. Miss Oak stepped up on the scene, and after her the world famous, incredibly old and wrinkly man that was her grandfather. Professor Oak.
Miss Oak held a speech. Up until a couple of years ago, the professor always held this speech. He was just too old now. It was difficult for him just to walk out here on his own two legs. Yulia didn't listen to what was said now. She had heard the almost same thing every year and this time she couldn't afford to fall into some dreaming about a better world and things that had made her eyes twinkle when she was younger. She wasn't a little kid anymore. This was real.
So very real. She was doing this. Everyone already thought she was strange anyways.
The first step for her foot was easy. The second too. Then, she reached the tightly packed crowd of sunburned tourists and eager townsfolk. She had to push her way through, stick her hands in between people and press them apart to get by. Some got annoyed, but she didn't worry. They would get more than annoyed within the minute.
She reached the stage, with not a little effort. Now she was standing right below the still speaking Miss Oak. The woman's red hair, painted lips and maturely cut skirt made her look older than she was. Yulia had to act older than she was, too, now. Her heart beat faster than she ever remembered it doing before. An inexplicable sense of thrill, a rush of adrenaline. Would she really? She could still stop. Just walk away. Or just stand there and pretend to listen. And life would go on as usual.
All of a sudden, she realized that she was smiling. Widely. No, of course she wouldn't stop now.
"I am Yulia!" she shouted out, loudly and clearly with her crisp, strong voice.
The woman on the stage in front of her lost herself in the middle of a word at the interruption, and stared down at the crowd to try and spot who had made the sound.
Silence hadn't even fully fallen before the girl shouted again. "I am Yulia! And I am the strongest pokémon trainer!"
For a few seconds, everything was quiet on the plaza.
Then came a few laughs, and Miss Oak smiled nervously and tried to lock eyes with Yulia. But to no avail - the girl only stared intently at someone else. At professor Oak, sitting on a chair behind his granddaughter on the stage. And he looked back, through his large, square glasses and foggy eyes.
"Dear-" the lady begun, but was cut short once more.
"My name is Yulia!" She didn't give up. "I want a pokédex, because it will help me on my journey to become the very best. And I will be. I am strong."
More laughter, and the crowd had started buzzing with gossip. Some people around Yulia who recognized her began trying to push her away. She growled and tried to get away from them by getting closer to the stage, putting a worried look on Miss Oak's face. The woman glanced sideways towards the pokémon trainers who were hired to aid them today. Not that they ever expected turbulence in these calm times, but just in case. Or rather, mostly for show.
One big, burly male trainer in a suit nodded and moved forwards, making the crowd leaving Yulia alone but also grabbing her arm roughly to take her away from the center of attention.
"Let me go! You can't touch me like this, it's taboo! Fight me with pokémon, you coward!" she shouted and struggled with her feet to stay put.
The trainer froze. They had gone a few meters, away from the stage, and Miss Oak had resumed her speech, trying to ignore the interruption with some bad joke to get the crowd to listen again. The people closest to the struggling duo were still more interested in them though.
"That's pokémon trainer code," he said and peered down at her. He was much bigger and more muscular than her.
"I am a trainer!" she insisted. "Battle me and I'll show you!"
The trainer rolled his eyes. "Sure, if you come along with me here-"
"No, right here. Right now. I challenge you. And you know what that means."
The trainer in the suit finally let go of her arm. The people around them raised their eyebrows and stepped back a little. They were really anticipating a battle, as these didn't happen often in Pallet. At least not with proper trainers. Not that anyone thought Yulia could actually put up resistance towards this experienced person, but it was still a thrilling thing to see in little Pallet.
Yulia didn't see the people. Her mind was wild right now and she had to put all of her energy into not running away or falling down on her knees and apologize to the man. She didn't need to apologize. He should.
Luckily, the man merely sighed. "Alright."
He stepped back to put some meters between them, but not overly much. He didn't want Miss Oak to see that they were battling on the side of the stage, like irresponsible youngsters. Plus, he expected this all to be over quickly anyways.
He lifted the side of his jacket to reveal a pokémon trainer belt with six pokéballs fastened. Without as much as a proper callout word, he took one of them and released the pokémon from inside. A Mankey. The pokémon appeared on the stone laid ground between the trainers, not making much noise or movement initially, as if it felt its trainer's mood.
"Elekid, go!" Yulia said, taking up her first pokéball and giving it a quick peck for luck before pressing its button with a shaking finger. A white beam shot out as the ball opened, and the yellow creature appeared in front of them.
The trainer in the suit didn't even wait a second before giving the first order. "Use Seismic Toss," he said simply and pointed with his hand more out of habit than from actual need.
"Quick Attack!"
Yulia's command came even before Mankey had begun moving. Elekid shot forward and tackled the other pokémon in the belly with his full force, throwing it back onto its back on the ground.
The crowd let out an 'ooh!', after which the male trainer gained a strained face and called out a second command: "Low Kick instead."
Mankey got back up and closed in on Elekid with hostility in its eyes, preparing to make its opponent fall, when Yulia quickly countered again. "Swift!"
As the monkey swung its leg low from the side to trip Elekid, the electric pokémon fired up his horns to glow blue. Right when his legs were swooped away from underneath him, the Swift attack fired away. The strange, star shaped bundles of energy shot up into the sky rather than in the direction where Elekid had aimed... For a moment. But then they suddenly turned around and came down again, striking an unsuspecting Mankey hard in its face. Overwhelmed, the monkey fell down. It didn't get up.
"It has lost the will to fight..." Yulia said, thinking out loud on something she had read about pokémon somewhere.
As if someone had pulled the plug in a bathtub, tourists in the crowd suddenly started cheering and commenting on the funny twist - a little lass defeating the trainer who was supposed to protect the famous people at the festival! The people of Pallet Town who had watched the battle and knew who Yulia was and how she cared much more for pokémon than people, didn't quite know what to believe.
But right then, Miss Oak interrupted herself on the stage in her lengthy speech, to throw out a question for what was going on on the side of the stage. The defeated trainer, face turning red, returned his Mankey to the pokéball and stepped onto the wooden platform. Yulia stood still at the side of the stage as the people in the crowd kept talking eagerly with each other. News about the strange battle were apparently spreading across the audience. Elekid was back inside his pokéball already.
Her heart was slowing down, at least a little. She was still incredibly pumped up. Had it worked? Now they had seen. They were talking. Maybe she needed to do more? Yeah. More.
Before the big trainer had finished whispering to Miss Oak, he felt a pat on his back. Turning around, he only saw a glimpse of brown hair whisking by him. Spinning around a full turn and almost losing his balance, he realized that the girl had snuck by him and walked right up to the microphone. Just as Yulia had expected, Miss Oak didn't dare to stop her as she grabbed it. Rather, the woman staggered backwards, a mix of disgust and surprise in her eyes. The microphone stand was just a little too high for the girl, but she bent it down to her mouth and spoke quickly.
"I challenge any trainer in the audience. Up on the stage. Right here, right now. You can't beat me."
Her eyes gleamed and as she paused, her breath could be heard in the speakers. She realized that she had the full attention of what was probably the whole town, and many more from all the region. Possibly foreigners as well. She could even make it to the news on TV.
And the so called bodyguards couldn't stop her, because... She had already defeated one of them. Glancing to the side, she saw that the trainer was standing only a couple of meters away, looking quite confused and shaking his head at colleagues who were closing in from the other side of the stage. He couldn't exactly grab her physically again, since she had proven to be an actual pokémon trainer. And you didn't just grab another trainer. Yulia's gaze wandered on to the old professor, who was still sitting on the stage behind her. He was watching her closely.
Everything fell into place. The crowd was murmuring, and a few people were actually moving towards the stage, pokéballs in their hands. Yulia then realized that her crazy smile was probably back. All the better.
"And if I win all of the battles," she continued into the mic, "I want that pokédex."
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