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Dagzar January 25th, 2009 7:34 PM

Mentor (PG-14)
 
AN: Okay. This is my new story that I’ve been working on for a few weeks and have been dreaming about for much longer.

Summary: After being saddled with two ten-year-old brats and being sent out on her long overdue Pokemon journey, she can’t help but wonder… is it ever worth it?
Warnings: This is rated, in my mind, PG-14. There is violence and language, though both may get more graphic later on.

So, without further ado, I bring you my story:






Mentor
Chapter 1: The Beginning






It was cloudy. Too cloudy.

Glaring suspiciously at the sky between the leaves and branches of the tree, Leah grumbled under her breath as she fidgeted in place. A cool wind blew her dark hair into her face, but she roughly tucked it back behind her ear without taking her eyes from the skyline. She shoved her hands into her pocket and leaned back against the thick and smooth wood of the tree.

Her narrow gray eyes studied the dark clouds in the distance that were rolling towards her at a slow, but threatening place.

A burst of laughter caught her attention. Leah frowned and tried to put her focus sorely on the weather. Though, in the corner of her eye, she could easily make out several huddling, though cheerful, figures ahead of her, not having hardly a care in the world.

She made something of a bitter smirk as she lost her concentration and decided to watch them instead of doing the more important thing in her mind. Unlike the shivering population a few meters in front of her, she wasn’t the least bit cold, having worn a heavy raincoat; just in case the day wouldn’t have been as bright and sunny as the news predicted last night.

And behold, she thought sarcastically. Knowing how her luck went, it would probably be raining and miserable by the time she finally got out of there.

It was definitely not the weather one would suspect for someone’s very first day as a Pokemon trainer.

…Well, technically not her first day exactly. No; she was talking about their first day, the ones that were obviously much shorter and brattier than her. The ones that were stupid enough not to expect a cold day in the middle of July. The ones that were talking excitedly to the people around them about what type of Pokemon they were going to get.

The ones that had no ****ing clue what they were getting into.

She could pretty much guess what they were talking about, even if only hearing the faint buzz of their conversation since she was standing quite far away. They were hoping for a rare Pokemon for their starter. Maybe Charmander, Squirtle, or Bulbasaur, the endangered and highly sought out Pokemon that were usually the starters in the gameboy games; the ‘classic’ starters. Or maybe something more exotic, like Eevee, Dratini or Pikachu. Or maybe even something foreign like Larvitar. Or something like that.

If not talking about Pokemon, they were most likely boasting on how they were going to be a Pokemon Master. How they were going to be the next Champion of the Pokemon League, having sorely trounced the Elite Four. They didn’t care how they were going to do it. They were just going to and nothing would stop them.

Well, whatever they were talking about, all she knew was that every single one of them was going to be disappointed in the end. No exceptions. None. Zip. Nada.

She knew this, could predict this with ease, because she was an ‘official’ Pokemon trainer. Emphasis on the ‘was’, though.

What raced through their minds once went through hers…

But that was a long time ago.

Leah stared at the bunch of brats, mentally counting all the continuous moving figures as they were running and splashing in the mud and small puddles. One, two, three…. Maybe about fifteen, according to her calculations.

It was actually surprising. She had been expecting a bit more than that puny number. Why, when she first became a trainer, there were three times more kids! All of them, including her, admittedly, were eager to get their first Pokemon from Professor Oak. Her ‘generation’ of trainers came from all around Kanto, having looked forward to that day for pretty much their whole lives.

She shook her head and tried to redirect her thoughts. Because that was then and this was now. Besides, what did she care if there weren’t a lot of them? It would be less work for her. She had been watching the idiots for over thirty minutes and she already didn’t like them. They acted so immature and, well, stupid. It just bugged her to think she was once like that.

With a small sigh, she slowly closed her eyes and tried to block out the buzz of chatter.

Oh, if only she could have stayed in bed that morning. Her grandmother was at a conference in Viridian City, so no one could have forced her to get up and get going. She could have skipped the day entirely and have been completely worry free. But, sadly, unfortunately and of-the-most-rotten-luck, she had to go. She had to get up at eight in the morning, walk all the way to Oak’s lab while ignoring the chill, and had to watch the stupid little morons until Professor Oak bothered to come out of his cozy little lab.

If only she didn’t have to deal with them-

“Excuse me!” a loud voice cut into her thoughts and Leah turned her head to stare down at one of the smartly dressed figures that was standing before the crowd of kids and in front of the door to Oak’s lab. His arms were waving at them. “Can everyone look at me, please!”

All eyes turned towards the two men and the kids quieted their talking into a whispering frenzy.

“Uh, thank you,” the man said and cleared his throat. “I am Professor Jones and this is my colleague Professor Mare,” he indicated to the silent and solemn man beside him before continuing. “Professor Oak, unfortunately, will not be handing out the Pokemon today as he is CURRENTLY BUSY-” the man was forced the shout over the moans and groans of the excited, and now disappointed, children.

Professor Jones tried to get their attention again, but couldn’t. He gave his colleague a pitiful and helpless look.

“As Professor Jones was saying,” the stern, but booming voice of Professor Mare said, instantly cutting through the protests and silencing the many voices. “Professor Jones will be handing out the Pokemon, Pokedex and your trainer licenses to you. All other equipment isn’t our concern. If you’d follow Professor Jones, he will brief you on what you will be doing as a trainer-”

“Yes, thank you,” Professor Jones gibbered, obviously not use to handling kids. “Children, if you’d follow me into the lab-”

Professor Jones quickly disappeared behind the soft wooden door of the large building as the trainers-to-be quickly scrambled forwards, nearing running after the professor. They somehow squeezed through the small doorway and all their loud voices were cut off as the door closed quietly behind them.

Leah watched them leave, having not moved an inch from her tree. What now? she thought, hiding her anticipation behind thoughts of boredom.

She noticed that the only ones left outside were herself, Professor Mare and five other people. Like her, the five were all obviously older than ten-years-old and she could instantly tell they were trainers. Of course, some of them having Pokemon out, like the Ekans wrapped around that guy’s neck, did help her out.

She sighed and knew the end had come. Reluctantly leaving her tree behind, she carefully walked down the hill that was somewhat overlooking the lab, her boots making a squishing sound as she walked over the damp grass that was mixed with dirt and mud. Crossing the road and stepping onto the solid cement of the driveway, she lined up with the five trainers, her hands clenched in her pockets.

A slight feeling of nausea started to grow in her chest and she could feel her jacket clinging to her skin. She swallowed nervously and suddenly didn’t feel quite as brave as she felt just minutes ago.

There was no turning back. It was time to face her doom.

“Now,” Professor Mare started again.

“I understand you six signed up for the Trainer Mentorship Program that Professor Oak is hosting-”

Oh yes, Leah thought bitterly, anxious to distract her mind from her sudden swell of nervousness. Though ‘signed up’ wouldn’t even be close to the terms she would use. More like ‘bribed’ or ‘unwilling signed in an attempt to dodge the likelihood of a boarding school.’

The Trainer Mentor Program. There were so many words she could use to describe it, but she liked to sum it up with: ‘annoying’, ‘troublesome’ and ‘the source of all her problems’. The Program was relatively new and had only started up about two years ago. The purpose was, according to her, to travel with a bunch of brats and make sure they didn’t put themselves or get into any stupid situations.

The only good side that Leah could see, was that it only lasted around two to three months. It could have been worse. A lot worse, actually, if what her Grandmother told her about the ‘rough draft’ of the program was true.

The Trainer Mentor Program was also something that she had been positively dreading for the past month. No matter what her Grandmother said, Leah just knew that it would be an awful experience.

“-I, Professor Jones and Professor Oak are thankful to you for lending us your spare time in guiding young trainers on their Pokemon journeys,” he continued, addressing the group as a whole. “You are already Pokemon trainers and you know what to expect and know the dangers that can happen on such a journey. You six are here to prevent any accidents from befalling these young youths.

“This year, there are sixteen new trainers and, as such, four of you will be mentoring three of the children and two of your will have two, each. I have chosen your groups for you and I’d like you all to wait by the mailbox for your charges after I am finished,” he peered at them seriously. “Any questions?”

“Yeah,” the boy with the Ekans, who was standing beside her, piped up, “What if one of them wants to go home? What do we do with them then?”

Leah knew that it was no secret that around fifty percent of all newbie trainers gave up in the first month, and around forty-five percent in the next four months. For whatever reason they had, only around five percent of the newbie trainers would stay in the game, so to speak, and become ‘professionals’. The drop outs, on the other hand, would go back home, go back to school, and mostly forget their dream of being a professional Pokemon trainer.

Hell, she should know; she was one of them. And hopefully, so were the brats she was going to get. She had been watching them for a while and she could hardly see any of them becoming a real Pokemon trainer.

Professor Mare was still talking in an annoying drone, “-I’d advise that you fly them home or drop them off in your travels. Your job of mentoring them is only done when either or both your charges quit, or if your time of a period of two-and-a-half-months is done, or if they gain four or more gym badges. That way, their Pokemon should be strong enough at that time to take care of their trainers.”

Another one of the trainers asked a question, but Leah zoned out of the conversation. What they were talking about wasn’t important. Whichever type of brats she would get would probably, hopefully, drop out after a week. She doubted that she would have follow them around for a whole two-and-a-half months.

Keep thinking positively, she advised herself. The whole situation would go by faster if she did.

“Hey,” the boy with the Ekans whispered to her with a smile, also ignoring the Professor.

Leah barely glanced at him, still submerged in her thoughts. “What’d you want?”

“What Pokemon do you have?”

“None of your business,” she replied immediately, not caring if she was being rude. It wasn’t like she was ever going to see him again anyways.

“Aw, c’mon,” he said with a whine. “I’m curious.”

Leah dodged the question with a furious whisper. “Why you want to know?”

“Because I know all these guys,” he said, indicating with his head at the other trainer next to him, trying not to disturb his Ekans. “A lot of us started together and we’ve seen each other around a lot. I know all their Pokemon and stuff. I like to know my fellow Pallet trainers and what way is best then to start with Pokemon?” he did a small shrug with a grin. “It’s also just a bit odd I’ve never seen you around before.”

“You wouldn’t of seen me around,” she said with a grimace.

“If you two are done whispering,” Professor Mare interrupted with an icy stare as he and the other four trainers looked at them. “I am quite sure that it is almost time for your charges to come outside.”

“So, we wait at the mail box?” the boy asked nervously, looking properly chastised.

“Yes,” Professor Mare said and spoke again just as the trainers were turning away. “One more thing. I would like to remind you all that if you have any problems that you cannot solve for yourselves, get in contact with the Pokemon League or with Professor Oak. Do not keep your problems to yourselves.”

A few of the trainers muttered an affirmative as Leah walked back up the driveway and towards the metal mailbox standing on a wooden post. She stopped right before it and, after a moment of thought, turned to the Ekans boy who followed her.

“Hey,” she said blankly and continued before he could reply. “I’m gonna be up there,” she pointed to the large tree which she was leaning against earlier. “Tell that to the ones that come looking for me.”

Leah had already walked off the driveway and across the dirt road by the time the boy could reply.

“Wait!” he yelled. “I don’t even know your name!”

“I don’t care,” she shouted back without looking as she hopped over the shoddy looking knee-height fence that separated the road from the wild looking grass. She made her way up the hill, kicking up the excess pebbles behind her and stood proudly at the top.

She found that she rather liked the hill as she appreciated the sudden silence. Turning around, she once again leaned against the tree. Her shoulders slumped and she found herself finally relaxing.

Leah thought to herself. The conversation with the Professor didn’t go that bad, though that was probably because she zoned out for, like, half of it. It was short and, well, not that sweet, but it didn’t matter. Actually, maybe it was a good thing that Professor Oak was busy. He would most likely ramble on a lot more and look us straight in the eye to make sure they understood. Or, at least, that’s how Grandmother said Oak acted. Leah had never actually met the guy before.

And now most likely never will. Oh well.

Glancing down, Leah could only spot the bored looking teens, but couldn’t see any of the newbies. How long had she been up there for? Maybe a minute?

“This,” she said out loud and impatiently, “is going to take a while.”

Finding herself watching the Ekans boy as he rubbed the Pokemon’s head, she quickly averted her eyes and scolded herself. What was going on with her? She had much better things to do then to stare at some kid!

…But there was something about that kid that was bugging her.

“What Pokemon do you have?”

Leah blinked. Oh, right. That reminded her.

Digging through her pocket, she pulled out a miniaturized red and white Pokeball that was warm in her hand and was coated lightly with sweat. She stared at it and her lips pulled into a grimace.

“Ew. Have I been holding onto it for all this time?”

Her attention was then caught by a small and very crinkled sticker that planted right at the top of the sphere. The sticker looked a bit like a Bulbasaur that was once green, but the color had faded into an ugly yellow. The sticker would have come off if it hadn’t been held there by a clear piece of old scotch tape.

The sight made her a bit uncomfortable and she wondered why she hadn’t yet taken the sticker off. It wasn’t like the sticker was important or anything like that.

Another glance at Oak’s non-moving door made a decision.

Leah clicked the button in the middle of the ball and pointed it at the ground to her right and a few feet away.

“Sands,” she commanded and flinched as the ball snapped opened in her hand and let loose a white light that gathered beside her. A small rushing sound had her lean uncomfortably to the side as her Pokeball closed, its job being done.

The Pokemon that stood with her wasn’t as classic or exotic or foreign as she would have liked to deal with.

It stood on its hind legs and nearly reached her knee in height. It had a rodent face and body that was covered in yellow plating. Where the protective armor didn’t cover, like its muzzle and front, there was short white hair that was almost bristle in nature. Sticking out of its behind was a stubby tail and the Pokemon had two triangular ears on the top of its head.

The Sandshrew put its nose in the air and sniffed lightly. Its dark beady eyes looked around itself and it made a small squeak as it noticed Leah standing there, arms held firmly at her side.

“Hey,” she tried to give it a smile, but it just ended up looking awkward.

“Shrew?” Sands said with a small whine as it gazed at her with no tiny amount of suspicion.

Sands the Sandshrew. Where should she start? For one, it was her first Pokemon and it was about five years old now. She got it when she first became a trainer and had decided to keep it when she quit being a trainer a week after starting. Truthfully, she wasn’t going to keep the Pokemon, not wanting any reminder of being a trainer, but her Grandmother insisted on her keeping it.

“Guess what,” Leah said, deciding to get down to business. “You’re finally going to become useful.”

It looked at her confusingly.

She just sighed in exasperation. The Pokemon was just an animal with superpowers; she couldn’t expect it to understand what she was saying.

“I’m being forced to become a… trainer, again,” she muttered. “So…”

“Sands?” Sands said.

Leah hated to put it out loud. Saying it just made it more real and she saying it herself was her admitting that tenfold. “Yeah, Sands. Me and you have to try this again. Right from the very beginning.”

Sands sat on its hunches and its ears perked up as chatter suddenly filled the air.

Her attention being caught, she could see that the kids that came out of the door were filled with a new type of energy as they pranced around in excitement. They laughed as they dramatically threw their Pokeballs to the sky and watched as the bright light came down and manifested their first Pokemon.

Bitterly, Leah wondered which one of the brats would be hers. Maybe the blond one in blue or maybe the one with the Meowth? But no. She could see the Ekans kid pointing over at her to two or three of the kids that were crowding around the five teenagers.

“Sands,” she said without taking her eyes off the crowd. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

The dark clouds that had been looming towards Pallet Town were completely forgotten in her mind. Her only thought was centered around a hope that the future would go smoothly.

Though, knowing her, it was doubtful.





AN: So, please review and tell me what you think.

Incinermyn January 26th, 2009 9:00 AM

Could've done without the summary, but I think it's pretty good. It's pretty well thought through, and hints at some pretty dark themed stuff. So... Awesome! Can't wait for Chapter Two.

delongbi January 26th, 2009 4:35 PM

I like it so far! Sounds like an interesting plot!

I wonder what Leah has been doing these past years though...

I have a tad of grammery-type stuff:

Quote:

Though, in the corner of her eye, she could easily make out several huddling, though cheerful, figures ahead of her, not having hardly a care in the world.
Ahh! Too many commas. I would break that up...too many adjectices in a row. "Though" is unneeded. You could write:

In the corner of her eye she could easily make out several huddling, though cheerful, figures ahead of her, none of whom appeared to have a care in the world.

That's still a bit wordy, but it makes sense.

Anyway, it seems like a very original story. You opened up a lot of questions in this chapter about Leah's past so it's a good start.

Not much else to say; I like it.

Dagzar January 26th, 2009 10:08 PM

Quote:

Could've done without the summary, but I think it's pretty good. It's pretty well thought through, and hints at some pretty dark themed stuff. So... Awesome! Can't wait for Chapter Two.
Thanks! The summary is there because other sites that I've posted this story on required a summary; I forgot to take the summary out of this version, however. ;)

Quote:

Ahh! Too many commas. I would break that up...too many adjectices in a row. "Though" is unneeded. You could write:

In the corner of her eye she could easily make out several huddling, though cheerful, figures ahead of her, none of whom appeared to have a care in the world.

That's still a bit wordy, but it makes sense.

Anyway, it seems like a very original story. You opened up a lot of questions in this chapter about Leah's past so it's a good start.

Not much else to say; I like it.
Heh, commas and I never get along. Thanks for the correction, it does make much more sense than what I put.

Chapter two should be up in a week (technically, I've already written chapter two and most of three, but I don't like putting updates sooner then a week apart). Thanks for your reviews!

yaysunshine January 27th, 2009 4:31 PM

Hey, this looks interesting! I like the premise and the main character (wonderfully jaded and snarky), as well as the thought it looks like you put into how most people's pokémon training experience generally pans out. I'm interested as to where this story's going—what kind of challenges will come up for Leah and her charges, what caused her to quit training, why she agreed to this in the first place—has a lot of potential. I think I'll definitely be following along :)

One possible suggestion, though:

Quote:

She knew this, could predict this with ease, because she was an ‘official’ Pokemon trainer. Emphasis on the ‘was’, though.
Using "had been" instead of "was" might sound a little better—"was" comes off as a little ambiguous, since the narration is also in the past tense. Otherwise, I thought it was really good so far, so best of luck in continuing!

Incinermyn January 28th, 2009 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dagzar (Post 4313592)
Thanks! The summary is there because other sites that I've posted this story on required a summary; I forgot to take the summary out of this version, however. ;)

Yeah, I usually avoid sites like those; those types of rules make them seem unrefined, or like you have to preach your plot beforehand. Regardless, you do have a really good grasp of character. Most people seem to like just doing plot-driven stories, and I usually chastise them a little for that...

Dagzar January 28th, 2009 12:48 PM

Quote:

Yeah, I usually avoid sites like those; those types of rules make them seem unrefined, or like you have to preach your plot beforehand. Regardless, you do have a really good grasp of character. Most people seem to like just doing plot-driven stories, and I usually chastise them a little for that...
Heh, the trick with sites that requires summaries isto make the summary really, really vague and not mean much in overall context. Though it takes me around ten minutes to create a sumamry that I like.

And I agree with you about the plot-driven stories since I believe that the plot only happens because of the characters' actions and motivations. Besides, I don't even know how to write a plot-drvien story. ;)

Incinermyn January 28th, 2009 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dagzar (Post 4316918)
Heh, the trick with sites that requires summaries isto make the summary really, really vague and not mean much in overall context. Though it takes me around ten minutes to create a sumamry that I like.

And I agree with you about the plot-driven stories since I believe that the plot only happens because of the characters' actions and motivations. Besides, I don't even know how to write a plot-drvien story. ;)

Yep, those are literary stories alright. Though, sometimes , fics with a good mixture of genre and literary aspects appear that are pretty compelling. But, I still like character-driven ones more, especially ones with anti-heroes who evolve from decent or half-bad/half-good people. Makes for good inner struggles.

Dagzar January 31st, 2009 10:37 PM

AN: Since this chapter is released everywhere else this story is posted, I'm just going to go ahead and post it now and post chapter 3 on Wednesday.





Mentor
Chapter 2: Charges






Leah took in a deep breath and tried to put a smile on her face that didn’t look entirely fake. The easiest way possible to get through two and a half months of torture was to be as friendly as she could, to be very agreeable, and for people to like her. But, to do that, she had to look happy, and be a nice person and-

Oh, screw it, she thought, as a frown made its way onto her face. If they couldn’t put up with her and her bad mood, then too bad for them. She would just ignore them if she had to.

“Okay, Sands. Here they come,” she said to her Pokemon who was still sitting dumbly on the ground. “Try to look as mean and ferocious as a rat like you can.”

She could spot her ‘charges’ very clearly from where she was standing. The two small figures (thankfully not three) were standing before Leah’s hill. One of them was having problems getting over the weak-looking fence and the other was trying to help. Their small voices drifted towards Leah, and she could hear that the helper seemed to be doing most of the talking.

After they got over the fence, she watched them climb the hill, which wasn’t very steep, but was seemingly a challenge for the ten-year-olds. Leah didn’t say a word when they got to the top and faced her for the first time. She glared a bit in their direction and took some of her valuable time to study their features closely.

The first, the helper, was a boy and he looked positively energetic in his pastel green and white striped shirt and gray shorts. He had shocking orange hair that clung to his head and with hardly a hair out of place. Freckles stood out on his round face and he had an awkward looking nose. Bright hazel eyes widened as he stared at her curiously.

The one that was having trouble was a girl. She had straight black hair that fell to her shoulders and was mostly kept back from her face with a white headband. She was wearing blue overalls with a little red heart sewed in the center of her chest, and wore a dark pink shirt underneath. Her face was pale and she kept her eyes focused on the ground, afraid to meet Leah’s eyes.

Overall, one looked like he would press a button labeled clearly: ‘Do Not Touch’ just because he could, while the other hardly looked like someone who was ready to face the world.

“You our mentor person?” the boy asked loudly as he took in Leah’s messy hair, pale face and worn clothing. “’Cause you don’t look very smart or strong-”

Okay, if she wouldn’t keep them in line by being nice, she’d just have to use fear. Leah rolled her eyes and cut him off. “Yeah, insult the person with the experienced Sandshrew-that-can-rip-you-apart, why don’t you?”

Sadly though, her comment seemed to have the opposite effect. “Sandshrews can rip people apart? Really? That’s so awesome!”

He looked like someone who had realized that Christmas had come early.

Leah didn’t know how to reply to that and she mentally cursed her social skills. “Not to you,” she said casually and a bit cautiously. “My Pokemon will do it to you if you piss me off.”

The boy still had a grin on his face and looked like he was about to reply when Leah’s attentions shifted to the girl, who, with her head still bowed, looked nervous. Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her.

“Can you talk?” Leah asked her.

A struggle seemed to go on in her head as she was silent for a few seconds before responding with a very quiet: “yes.”

“What’s your name?” the boy directed at Leah, obviously never been taught that it was rude to interrupt people.

“Why should I tell you?” Leah said as she turned her head to look at him, losing interest in the quiet girl. “You tell me yours first and then maybe I’ll tell you mine.”

The boy scowled, but noticeably brightened up, “I’m Ed,” he then pointed at the girl. “That’s Ally. She doesn’t like talking.”

“Obviously,” Leah scorned.

Okay, so now she had names to go with faces. The boy was Ed, the girl was Ally. The boy was annoyingly cheerful and the girl was very shy. One was going to be a problem and the other could be easily ignored. Leah would rather have two easily ignorable brats, but she supposed that one troublesome kid was better then two.

But that did bring up another problem. Introductions were pretty much done, so now what should she do? She had know clue on how to deal with kids for an extended period of time.

All her Grandmother advised her, before she left for Viridian City two days ago, was to get to know the new trainers and to make sure that she knew them well enough to keep them out of trouble. Keep them out of trouble and everything would hopefully be smooth sailing, was what her Grandmother told her. Well, and to be polite, but Leah disregarded that command immediately like she always did.

Her Grandmother never gave good advice for situations like this, Leah mentally moaned. What was she supposed to do with the brats? There was no way she was going on a Pokemon journey that day no matter what happened and no matter how much the kids whined. And it wasn’t as if she could drop them off at the Pokemon Center.

What to do, what to do…

She then noticed that an awkward silence had fell on the three trainers while she was thinking. Remembering the Ekans boy’s words, Leah asked with a bit of curiously, “What Pokemon do you have?”

The boy pouted, “But we don’t know your name!”

“I never said that I would give you my name. Now answer my question.”

Ed stuck his chin out proudly and answered. “My Pokemon’s much awesome-er then some Sandshrew. And it’s really strong too!” He bent down and dug around in his bright green backpack that he had earlier dropped to his feet. Getting back up moments later, he held out a brand new Pokeball to Leah.

Patience wasn’t one of Leah’s finer qualities. “Don’t just point it at me. Hurry up and send it out already! I don’t got all day.”

Just as he was preparing to toss the Pokeball in the air with an underhanded throw, Leah reached out and caught his arm.

“Don’t throw it up,” Leah told him strictly. “You’ll probably get it stuck in the tree or something.”

Fine,” Ed grouched, and let the Pokeball drop to the ground. The ball burst and Leah took a step back from the light that came out.

The new Pokemon, that was quite literally laying at his feet, was just as orange as Ed’s hair. It had smooth shiny skin and a roundish head with big bulging blue eyes. There were three little fangs that were sticking out sideways from its open mouth. It had four crab-like legs and two large claws. But the most strange feature were the two red mushrooms with yellow poke-a-dots that stuck up from its back.

The Paras, going against Ed’s praise, was peacefully enjoying the cold grass, its eyes glazed over, oblivious to the world.

Ed was seemingly in touch with his Pokemon’s laziness. “Paras,” he whined. “Get up, come on!”

Leah snickered. “You call that stronger then a Sandshrew. Sands could beat up that thing easily.”

“It could not!” Ed defended his only Pokemon.

“Could too!” Leah scoffed.

“Could not!”

“Could too!”

“Could not!”

“Could-” Leah cut herself off when she realized that she was arguing with a kid. She decided a different approach.

“Well,” she sighed dramatically and gave a sly grin at Ed. “I suppose we could settle this with the only way we trainers,” she sneered the word, “know how.”

Ed’s eyes glinted and he understood instantly at what Leah was getting at. “Ha! I can beat you in a Pokemon battle any day of the week.”

“You could not.”

“Could too!”

Could-” She nearly bashed her head against the tree when she realized that she was doing it again, so she continued on quickly. “Okay, lets battle.”

“Yeah!” Ed said and looked around and pointed to the empty road. “lets go battle down there.”

Leah waved him off. “Nah, we can battle right here.”

Ed made a big showing of looking around at the small space that the hill generously provided. He was incredulous. “Here?”

“Here.” Leah confirmed and grinned. “If your Pokemon’s really so tough, it won’t need a big space to beat my Sandshrew.”

There wasn’t anything that Ed could find wrong in that sentence, so he agreed to the challenge, missing the malicious look in her expression.

Already seeing problems that could arise from such an energetic character, Leah decided that she need to – how to put it kindly? – stop the boy from being so hyper all the time. She had already known him for, what, five minutes, and she already was annoyed. She didn’t mind if someone was cheerful, but she knew that happiness plus ten-year-old plus Pokemon trainer, equaled headaches and stupidity all around.

And a Pokemon battle was the answer to her problems. No ten-year-old (except for the creepy mature ones) wanted to lose a Pokemon battle of such importance. Destroy the kid’s ego and watch him be all quiet and mope-y. Hopefully, it’ll last more then a few days, but maybe it’ll be enough time for her to come up with a more permanent solution at being surrounded by children twenty-four seven.

She mentally patted herself on the back. A fine plan.

“I’m going to win this, Ally,” Ed was telling his silent friend. “My first Pokemon battle!”

Leah had completely forgotten about the girl, but didn’t let it bother her as she waved Ally off to the side, where she stood there as nervous as ever. Leah and Ed took opposite sides of the hill with Sands and the still relaxing Paras in between them.

“I’ll be nice,” Leah said with little friendliness, “and let you attack first.”

“That’s your mistake!” Ed crowed. He, before meeting Leah, had looked up his Pokemon in his Pokedex and found out the attacks it could use. He was absolutely confident he could win this.

The battle was already in the bag. “Paras! Scratch attack the Sandshrew!”

Paras, giving its trainer a lazy look, just sat there, its two claws motionless.

“Paras!” Ed yelled again. Maybe Paras hadn’t heard him? “Attack! Come on! I know you can scratch. That’s what those claws are for!”

Leah just watched as Ed kept yelling at his Pokemon to attack. Amusement coursed within her and she grinned at his ignorance. “You done?”

“No! But-” he looked very confused as Paras ignored every single order he gave it. “Why won’t Paras attack?”

“Because you’re stupid,” Leah mocked. “Your don’t know anything about what a trainer does, do you? They don’t just fight Pokemon battles.”

Ed was still very confused and hurt at his Pokemon’s refusal. “But that’s what a trainer does!”

“We’re called Pokemon trainers for a reason,” Leah said and decided to explain. “Trainers catch Pokemon and then they train them to obey their commands. Pokemon aren’t just going to obey you as soon as you catch it. This isn’t one of those gameboy games where the Pokemon do whatever you say.”

Seeing that Ed still didn’t understand, Leah tried something else. “Pokemon are animals with superpowers; animals aren’t as smart as us. You tell Paras to use ‘scratch’, but Paras doesn’t understand what you mean by ‘scratch’. Being a trainer means that you need to teach your Pokemon to both understand what you’re saying and for them to follow your commands.”

Or at least, that was how the textbook described it in school. She was actually kind of surprised she remembered all that technical stuff since she thought the whole thing was just confusing as hell.

“Um… mentor?”

Leah almost didn’t respond to that, but leaned sideways to stare directly at the girl, Ally, who was trying to grasp her attention.

“What?” Leah asked moodily. She didn’t like to be interrupted when she was trying to humiliate someone.

“Uh,” she looked very nervous, playing with one of the sleeves of her shirt. “Is… that why… my Pokemon doesn’t like me?”

Leah shrugged. “Probably.”

Ally looked quite relieved as her words, as if it had been bothering her for the whole time, but Leah paid no mind to that as she was too busy giving her attention to her Sandshrew.

“Hey, Sands,” Leah called out and knew that Sandshrew was listening by the way its ears perked up. “Use scratch on Paras.”

Unlike Ed’s Paras, Sands did know what Leah meant by ‘scratch’ as it slowly got onto its hind legs, holding out its clawed paw.

“Huh?” Ed put his focus back on the Pokemon. Alarm was present in his voice. “What? But Paras can’t attack!”

Leah gave him a look. “This is a Pokemon battle, moron. It isn’t finished yet!”

Sands stood in front of the Paras, looking vaguely nervous at the strange Pokemon. But it did as its master commanded as it braced itself and swing its claws in a downward arc. Paras didn’t defend itself as the sharp nails left three shallow marks on its head, but afterwards it looked a bit annoyed at the attack.

“Sands, keep going,” Leah told it.

Ally let out a frightened whimper and covered her mouth with her hands as a gasp escaped her at the bloodshed. Her blue eyes were wide and she stumbled backwards.

Ed started to panic at his unresponsive Pokemon. He was shouting and begging it as Sands kept slashing away at the hard flesh that adorned Paras’s body. After that didn’t work, he tried to communicate with Leah, but she just ignored him and stared at the one-sided battle.

He really isn’t thinking, Leah thought to herself as she heard Ed’s pleas. All he had to do to stop the battle was to return Paras to its Pokeball and then all her plans would be ruined.

Oh well.

Feeling a bit of guilt at what she was doing to a kid, Leah crushed the feeling and told herself that it would help the boy in the long run. It would be better if he learned that new Pokemon couldn’t be trusted to obey him before he went on his journey. Besides, despite her dislike of the kids, she would rather not have them go through the same thing she did.

Though, maybe she was going a bit too far. Best to wrap things up.

“Finish it, Sands!” Leah said.

But something went wrong.

Sands wobbled on its feet, paws outstretched with its bloody claws gleaming. Leah studied her Pokemon closely and searched her memory frantically as the Sandshrew dizzily tried to take a step back, but fell off its feet. It was looking sickly, its dark blue eyes narrowing. It was acting like its vision was blurring.

Leah eyes widened in panic as she remembered one little fact she overlooked. Paras had two abilities it could be born with: Dry Skin or Effect Spore. Effect Spore was a common ability among bug and grass types that could effect the attacking Pokemon with an invisible pollen that either paralyzed it, forced it asleep or poisoned it.

Damn it all the hell! Sands was poisoned! Fu-

“Sands,” she barked at it as it was sitting, dazed on the grass. “Get up! Ignore it!”

Sands moaned weakly, “shrew….”

Paras, at that time, was extremely annoyed and angry. Its two claws subtly pawed the dirt underneath them and, despite the pain in its head, it forced itself up. Its four legs shook with the effort, but the Pokemon took small steps forward until it was in front of the half-conscious Sandshrew.

“Sands!” Leah shouted. “Up! Or you’re going to lose! Or I’m going to lose. Up! UP!”

But it was too late. Paras had already brought its claw down on the soft flesh of Sand’s stomach, which left a thin, but bloody line. Sands whined in pain and forced itself into a ball, plated head covering its injured front. The bug type didn’t care, however, as it raised its other claw and did it again. Though the attack hardly left a mark on the Sandshrew’s hard outer layer.

Leah roared, “enough!” and returned her nearly unconscious Pokemon to its Pokeball in a thin beam of red light.

And then there was silence.

Slowly, Paras lowered itself to the ground where it rested its heavy claws. A thin trail of blood made its way down the side of its face, but Paras seemingly didn’t care as it went back to what it was doing before it was interrupted: relaxing.

Ed could hardly follow the turn of events. All he knew was that, somehow, Paras had defeated Sandshrew with a single scratch attack. And that he had won.

He had one his very first Pokemon battle.

“I… won?” Ed asked himself in amazement as glazed down on his Pokemon.

Ally slowly took her hands from her mouth and got up from the ground, but kept her distance. Though the battle was over, she didn’t dare approach Ed, still terrified from the real-life battle that had just took place in front of her.

Anger started to build in Leah’s chest at her humiliating defeat and she felt like yelling and throwing things around. She made a tight grimace, her hands clenched at her sides, one of them having a tightening hold over her Pokeball.

She lost to a Paras. Sands lost to a Paras, she corrected herself, but that didn’t take any of the anger away. Because she was the one who forgot about the Effect Spore ability. She lost all because of a stupid mistake that could have easily have been avoided. She, a fifteen year-old, lost to a ten-year-old. How embarrassing. How humiliating. She hardly ever felt like wanting to hide her face in shame or becoming invisible, but it seemed that those feelings were coming back with a vengeance.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to steady herself, but that hardly helped in the least.

She need to leave, Leah decided to herself as she gritted her teeth, or she was probably going to start saying wildly inappropriate things and just making a further mess of herself.

“I’ve had enough,” Leah muttered out loud as she turned her back on her two charges. “I’m getting out of here.”

Ed couldn’t shake the grin from his face, but it dimmed just a bit when he heard Leah’s quiet words. “What?” he said in confusion as he turned. “Why? Where you going?”

“Home,” was his only reply as Leah recklessly walked down the hill without a regard to her own safety, kicking away anything in her path.

Confused, Ed tried to exchange a glance with Ally, but she avoided his look and stood there silently, nervously glancing in Leah’s direction.

Coming to the conclusion that their mentor didn’t care if she left them behind, Ed returned Paras to its Pokeball and swung his backpack over his shoulder. He then took a running start and tore down the hill. Ally watched him skid to a halt at the bottom and turn around to look at her.

“Ally!” he shouted. “Come on! She’s going to leave us behind!”

Very hesitant, Ally cautiously and slowing climbed down the hill, where she met Ed at the bottom. He was making impatient looks down the road where Leah was walking. Their mentor was getting smaller and smaller as she got further away and she didn’t even look back at them once to check if they were following.

But were they supposed to follow? Ally wondered reluctantly. What if their mentor didn’t want them to? What were they supposed to do then? Should they follow?

Ed obviously thought so as he grabbed Ally’s hand. “We have to follow her,” he said, like he was reading her thoughts. “We gotta catch up ‘cause if she gets away, we’ll probably never see her again, then we can’t go on our Pokemon journeys!”

Ally was aware that she had no choice when he said it like that, but she still couldn’t help but look back at Oak’s lab to see all the other trainers like her having a fun time with their new Pokemon and experienced mentor.

“I don’t really like her,” Ed said suddenly as he led the way. Ally looked at him in confusion. He elaborated. “She’s mean and stuff. And she attacked Paras when she didn’t have to.”

“Paras is hurt now too,” Ally said.

“Yeah,” Ed replied, but he didn’t seem very concerned at that fact, like that was normal for a Pokemon.

Ally frowned and didn’t speak again. There was silence between them once they could no longer see Oak’s lab.

All they could do now was to follow their mentor’s retreating back. They had to become Pokemon trainers.

There was no alternative.

delongbi February 3rd, 2009 10:21 PM

Alright here we go. Grammar comes first.

The over-use of the comma:

Quote:

But, to do that, she had to look happy, and be a nice person and-

It should be : “ But to do that she had to look happy, and be a nice person and-

Quote:

Oh, screw it, she thought, as a frown made its way onto her face.


No need for the comma after thought.

Quote:

“Try to look as mean and ferocious as a rat like you can.”

That is a bit wordy. Perhaps drop the "like you can" part.

Quote:

Their small voices drifted towards Leah
Towards should be toward.

Quote:

He had shocking orange hair that clung to his head and with hardly a hair out of place.


No need for the “and”. Instead:

He had shocking orange hair that clung to his head, with hardly a hair out of place.

Quote:

He looked like someone who had realized that Christmas had come early.

You tend to do this a lot. Your wording is a bit awkward; perhaps, you could have written:

He looked like someone who had realized Christmas was coming early.

It just flows a lot better. There is nothing wrong with your original grammar, it is just doesn’t flow nicely.

Quote:

“Not to you,”


I think you meant, “Not you,”

Quote:

"What’s your name?” the boy directed at Leah, obviously never been taught that it was rude to interrupt people.


Should be:

“What’s your name?” the boy directed at Leah. He obviously had never been taught that it was rude to interrupt people.

Quote:

All her Grandmother advised her, before she left for Viridian City two days ago, was to get to know the new trainers and to make sure that she knew them well enough to keep them out of trouble. Keep them out of trouble and everything would hopefully be smooth sailing, was what her Grandmother told her. Well, and to be polite, but Leah disregarded that command immediately like she always did.


It should be “Keeping them out of trouble….”

Also, this section illustrates another tendency of yours. You often repeat yourself. The second sentence seems unneeded. There are a few other instances where this happens. I would try to avoid repetition, unless there is reason to believe the reader will not remember something.

In addition, I would avoid starting sentences with “and” or “but” because they tend to be fragments. For instance:

Quote:

And a Pokemon battle was the answer to her problems.


Why not just start with “A”.

Quote:

Pokemon trainer, equaled headaches


Unneeded comma again.

Quote:

Hopefully, it’ll last more then a few days


Then should be than.

Quote:

the girl, but didn’t let it bother


Again, no need for the comma.

Quote:

“Because you’re stupid,” Leah mocked. “Your don’t know anything about what a trainer does, do you?


Your should be you.

Quote:

She need to leave, Leah


Should be needed.


Quote:

All they could do now was to follow their mentor’s retreating back. They had to become Pokemon trainers.

There was no alternative.



Err… why? There are plenty of alternatives.
Another grammar-related comment: You tend to change tenses a lot. Try to stick to one. For the most part, the story is in the past tense so stick with that.

Comments:
Quote:

Sadly though, her comment seemed to have the opposite effect. “Sandshrews can rip people apart? Really? That’s so awesome!”

I already love this kid.
Quote:

Ed started to panic at his unresponsive Pokemon. He was shouting and begging it as Sands kept slashing away at the hard flesh that adorned Paras’s body. After that didn’t work, he tried to communicate with Leah, but she just ignored him and stared at the one-sided battle.

Wow. That’s pretty cruel.

I have to say, I liked the first chapter a lot better, mostly because there were not nearly as many grammar issues. I highly recommend revising your chapter multiple times before posting it as well as having someone else read over it.

Aside from grammar, I liked the actual content. Leah has a very interesting character, and though she is extremely judgmental, I find her intriguing. I like Ed, but I’m not sure about Alley yet…

I liked the battle and was extremely surprised when Ed won.

I’m definitely excited for the next chapter (hopefully more revised though)!

Dagzar February 4th, 2009 8:27 PM

Delongbi: Whoa. I never knew how many grammar issues I had! Seeing them is making me a bit embarrassed. I’ll have to triple check (and then triple check again!) later chapters to make sure I kill all the mistakes. Thanks a bunch for pointing them out or I’d probably never notice them!

I’m glad you liked the story and yeah, Ed’s an awesome kid and I love writing him and Leah. Though Ally is kind of awkward to write since she’s a shy character, but she should be getting more of a personality in the next few chapters.

Chapters three and four are already done, but I’m going to have to go over both of them with a magnifying glass. I hope I’ll get chapter three up by Friday or Saturday, though probably Saturday.

Thanks for taking your time to review!

Incinermyn February 7th, 2009 10:19 AM

Okay, I know this is a bit delayed, but my Internet’s been screwy and I haven’t been able to get online the better part of this week.

Before I get to into this review, Dagzar, I must say that I’m finding this more and more of an invigorating read as it goes on. But, there are a few issues I’ve spotted that you could probably work on.

First off, you should gender the Pokemon. I feel a little sorry for Sands because you call him (or her) an “it.” Why is that? I mean, all writers should know that you have to make known whether or not a Pokémon is male or female, unless it really is genderless like Magneton. Even if the gender isn’t clear right off the bat, most people assume an organism is male. Don’t mimic the games’ inability to accurately discern between the sexes; it’s just bad showmanship all around.

Secondly, this is a minor issue, but I think you’d do well to cut back just a little bit on the soap/anime-type drama and immature sounding stuff. Like that prelude to Leah and Ed’s first battle against each other… It just spoke badly to me because it was just too childish to be believable in a PG-14 fic.

Also, little comments like “Damn it all the hell! Sands was poisoned! Fu-” detract from the flow of the story. Be more outright with stuff if you can. I could have figured that this was what Leah was thinking had you just said that Sands got poisoned by Effect Spore and described her reaction, instead of out and ranting it.

Hmm… And that’s about all I wanted to make known…for now, at least. I really love how you handle the literary writing style. For some reason it reminds me vaguely of my all-time favorite game, Final Fantasy IV… Maybe it’s the way you write or how you let stuff unfold.

Dagzar February 7th, 2009 11:12 AM

Thanks for reviewing Skunter!

Okay, surprisingly, I actually have an explanation for Sands’ gender. I’m going to say right off the bat that Sands is male, but this is in Leah’s POV (well, most of it is) and she’s the one who’s referring to Sands as an ‘it’. Leah doesn’t care what gender her Pokemon is since it doesn’t matter to her, so therefore, poor Sands is constantly being treated as an ‘it’. Don’t worry though, that’s not going to last for long and I’ll be giving my trainer’s Pokemon genders as they get to know them.

About the anime-type stuff, now that I look back at the scene, I see how immature and cliché it really was. Sorry about that. I’ll make sure that that type of stuff doesn’t squeeze into later chapters.

Thanks a lot for the advice! This’ll definitely help later chapters!

Heh, and Finally Fantasy IV? I’ve never actually played any of the Final Fantasy games (shocking, isn’t it?), but maybe I should now. I’m getting curious. ;)


About the next chapter, I’ve finished chapter three, but I’ve no clue when it’s going to be up because I’ve now got a beta! Censored has kindly agreed to look over my story for those evil spelling and grammar mistakes.

So, I have no clue when I’ll be back, but stay tuned! :D

Incinermyn February 8th, 2009 9:29 AM

Okay, I see how you were going about Leah's character now, and it makes more sense too that she'd just call Sands an "it."

As for that anime-mimicry... Yeah, avoid it when you can. It just comes across as bad to most reviewers.

And, you're not the only person here who hasn't played FF; so don't feel like you're missing out too much. Even I've only played like seven of the games (I through VI and XII: Revenent Wings for the DS), and while they're all good, some are a little generic.

Dagzar February 28th, 2009 11:04 AM

Whoa, nearly a month has gone past since my last update. That can't be good. Anyway, I'm back and I'd like to thank Censored for betaing this chapter!







Mentor
Chapter 3: Plans





Leah subtly glanced behind her. They were still following her.

With a snarl on her face, she sped up her pace. Damn it! She thought she lost them when she took that sharp turn at Marlin Street. She certainly didn’t see them for about ten minutes afterwards, but they must have caught up somehow!

Argh! She did not want them trailing after her like lost puppies; Why couldn’t they just leave her alone? Did Leah ask them to follow her? No! They just started to do it by themselves for whatever stupid reason they had. They didn’t need her and she didn’t want them! The brats could just find a new mentor.

Were they really that set on going on a Pokemon journey?

Leah mentally chided herself for her ignorance that she displayed earlier that morning. Of course, she would get the stubborn ones. Who did she take herself for, some lucky person?

Feeling the burst of anger fading she downgraded her snarl into a scowl and finally loosened the grip on the Pokeball that was still in her pocket. Walking even faster, she wondered what the point was. If they would follow her even when she started to run, then they wouldn’t be put off by a little speed-walk.

“Stupid brats,” she muttered to herself, exhaustion clouding her voice. Her once quick pace became slow and lazy as she slouched and sighed in defeat. There was no getting away from them.

Her eyes turned upwards to the cloudy sky that had hardly a blue patch in sight. It would start raining soon, she just knew it. She had to go home soon if she didn’t want to be caught in the rain.

She pulled the woolen strings on her hood and felt the jacket collar tighten around her neck. Almost deciding to put her hood up, she decided not to unless it actually started to pour or otherwise she would look stupid. Not that there was anyone to see it.

Distinctively hearing the crackle of the gravel underneath her, she sighed again and stopped in the middle of the road. She wasn’t worried that a car might come by since Pallet Town, being the quiet, boring place that it was, hardly had cars for some reason.

Oh, wait. Maybe it was because the town was mostly populated by old people who didn’t like to drive. Or that the town was so small, it was just easier to walk.

With a half-hearted glance to the left of the road, she could see the Turner’s house. Vaguely, she remembered that their daughter used to go to school with her. Well, before the girl left on her Pokemon journey and was never heard from again. Next door to the Turners were Clerks and next door to them were the Damsons. Every single house that Leah could see, she could identify.

Pallet Town was a town where everyone knew each other, even if only vaguely. The only visitors this town got were people who either were there to see Oak or to take one of the small ferries to Cinnabar Island.

She didn’t like Pallet Town, obviously. Unfortunately, she happened to live in such a boring place for most of her life.

Starting to hear the tell-tale signs of voices, Leah broke out of her monologue and she half-turned. She watched as the two small figures in the distance seemed to get bigger and bigger.

Oh, why is she letting them catch up? That was the question she kept asking herself that she couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer to it. Well, maybe it was because she was tired, her feet was sore and she couldn’t remember the last time she had walked so much in her life (not including That Week). She also just wanted to get the brats over with so she could go home and rest.

The only reason she hadn’t gone back home yet was because the two brats would just follow her and nothing was worse than letting people you don’t like know where you live.

“Maybe I should just tell them to go away,” she said to herself. But shock went through her when she realized that that just might work! With rising hope in her heart, she dreamed that maybe they thought they had to follow her, that it was some type of test. If she popped their little assumptions, maybe they’d leave?

Maybe, hopefully, please god yes.

Leah blinked out of her thoughts and there they were in front of her. They looked tired and they were gasping for breath, their skin matted with sweat. They looked cheerful, though. There was a beaming grin on the boy’s face and the girl had a small smile on hers. Leah also noticed that their hands were bound tightly in-between them.

She couldn’t really stop what next came out of her mouth. “Are you two dating?”

Ally blushed a deep red and immediately jumped away from the boy while Ed just crossed his arms, but didn’t seem all that embarrassed.

“Why do you keep running away?” Ed huffed. He obviously didn’t understand the concept of ‘running away’ was to get away from something they didn’t like.

“I’m going home, moron,” Leah said with sarcasm and quite nastily. Technically, the boy didn’t really say anything wrong, but she was still bitter at the battle that took place a while ago. Who wouldn’t be upset at being defeated by a ten-year-old?

Ed wasn’t satisfied with her answer, “But why? You can’t leave us behind!”

She shrugged, “Why not? I don’t want to babysit you guys.”

Ally started, “but… You have too,” her voice was pleading, “Because then we- we can’t…”

“Do you need to go on journeys?” Leah asked. Despite herself, she was a bit curious. “Can’t you just stay at home and battle people there?”

Ed’s grin dimmed, “No,” he said frostily and he obviously wasn’t going to change his answer. Ally’s response was similar to Ed’s as she shook her head back in force several times in a definite refusal.

Leah thought on their replies for a few seconds.

“Well,” she said casually, “sucks to be you then.” Her decision was also not going to be changed. She was going home, damn it! “Go get a new mentor if you really want to go, because I’m not taking you.”

Ally’s expression floated between panic and despair, but Ed stepped forward, his face the example of determination.

“You’re going to take us,” he said.

“And why should I do that?”

“Because if you don’t,” his voice lowered, “We’ll never leave you alone.”

Leah laughed, “What’s that? Some type of threat?”

“Yeah,” Ed nodded and stood his ground; Ally at his side, “We’re not leaving anytime soon. Are you going to walk around all day, ‘cause if you are, we’ll follow you. You go back home, we’ll follow you. You go anywhere, we’ll follow you.”

“We can follow you for as long as we want. You’re not getting rid of us at all.”

Leah started to panic when she felt a bit of her resolve crumbling. She didn’t want to go on a journey at all, but she also just wanted to go home right then and there. When she got home, she imagined that she was going to rest in front of the television, or maybe lie on her bed and sigh dreamily at her shrine.

There was no way she could enjoy those things if she had two brats following and pleading with her and sitting on her doorstep all day long

Argh!

Resolve crumbling.

“Fine,” Leah snapped. She spun around and walked noisily back down the street. Disappointment ran through her at giving up against a single threat, but she also felt relief that she was finally going home. Hearing the other two following her, she could just see the relived grins on their faces.

“Shut up,” she said to them without looking back, “Don’t say a word; I don’t want to even know you’re following me.”

Hearing Ed sniffle a giggle, she growled at them.

Moronic brats.









“Is this your house?” Ed asked as he stared at the… unique structure before them.

Shut up,” Leah shot at him as she stomped up the wooden stairs, not bothering to hold the untouched, cobweb-ridden railing. Ed and Ally exchanged uneasy glances behind her as they looked at the old, beaten house.

It was a Victorian building that stood awkwardly in its lonely patch of land. The whole placed seemed deserted and uncared for. There were no plants in the garden and the grass was wild and uncut. Pale green paint was flaking off the house and they could distinctively see one of the old-fashioned window shutters flapping uncontrollably in the wind. Heavy curtains on the inside of the windows stopped anyone from look in, but also from anyone looking out.

It was like one of those cliché haunted houses you saw in movies. But in real life!

Leah struggled with the door; she got it unlocked, but the door refused to open like it always did. She solved the problem by slamming her body against the door and felt it open against her weight. Leaving it ajar for the two behind her, she lazily threw her jacket in the corner.

That was the first thing Ally saw as she cautiously entered behind Ed.

“Um,” she asked as she noticed the ball-shaped bulge in the pocket of the discarded jacket, “What about your- your… Pokemon?”

Leah scoffed, “It’ll live.”

Ed kicked off his shoes and looked around curiously at the bare walls and floor. He wrinkled his nose at the odd smell, “It doesn’t look lived in.”

Ignoring his comment, Leah entered through a door on her right where a plain, but clean kitchen greeted her. There wasn’t much in that room either. Just some counters, a fridge, a small oven and a white, circular wooden table. Actually, almost everything in the kitchen was wooden.

The first thing Leah did was to drink a cold glass of water from the tap. She gulped it down in relief and refilled the glass for a second time.

“Where’s your parents?” Ed asked as he poked around.

Gulping down the last drop of water, she hissed, “Told you not to talk! And don’t poke around!”

“Well so-orry.”

Ally put her backpack on the table and sat down on one of the two chairs, her hands folded on her lap, her back rigid and as stiff as a board.

Ed invited himself to a drink of water once he found the glasses in the cupboard. He offered one to Ally which was politely accepted after a glance at their mentor showed that Leah didn’t care.

In reality, Leah did care that they were helping themselves to her cups, but was too busy dialing one of the only numbers she knew and pressing the phone against her ear.

Ring!

Ring!

Ring!

“Oh pick up already,” Leah muttered.

Ring!

Ring-

“Finally!”

The clipped voice of her Grandmother answered with the familiar and never-changing message.

I’m busy and can’t answer the phone. Call back at a better time.”

Click.

Leah slammed the phone back into its hook on the counter. “Damn her! She never turns her phone on!”

“Who?” Ed asked, looking up.

“None of your business!”

Shrugging, Ed went back to the red Pokedex that he had been looking at for the past two minutes. Clicking the circular button on the side of the screen, he scrolled through the main screen options until he found a map of the region of Kanto.

“Hey, Ally,” he said after another few minutes of silence, his eyes were glued to the pictures that rolled across the screen when he clicked a certain location of the map, “Where do you want to go?”

“What- what do you mean?”

“Like, you know, on our journey. Places, cities, forests,” He continued with a grin of wonder, the map giving him ideas, “See, I wanna go to Saffron City and explore Sliph Company, the place that makes all the Pokemon stuff. And I wanna see the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town. It’d be so cool see ghost Pokemon!”

“Yeah, before they rip you apart,” Leah cut in. She had tried her Grandmother’s number another time before giving up, which had left her in a worse mood than usual. Trust her Grandmother to never be available when she needed her.

“Um… I’d like to go to Celadon City, maybe,” Ally said shyly. “All my friends say that they really liked it.”

Ed beamed. “Okay, then we’ll go to Celadon on our journey! We can make a list of all the places we want to visit!”

“What makes you guys so sure that you’re even going on a journey,” Leah asked sharply.

“’Cause you’re taking us,” Ed shot back, “Besides, haven’t you ever wanted to go to places like Celadon and Saffron City?”

Leah snorted. “No.”

“Yeah right. There’s gotta be a place you’ve always wanted to see.”

Despite knowing that he was only bribing her to take them on the journey, Leah seriously considered it. She lied, there were places that she’s always wanted to see, but telling them that would just add more fuel to the fire. The Safari Zone in Fuchsia City had always interested her and so had Cinnabar Island. She’d also always wanted to back to Pewter…

“No,” Leah insisted, shaking her head, “I just want to stay home.”

“Well,” Ed said, mocking her, “Sucks to be you then.”

Leah felt like strangling him.

“Um,” Ally started, “Are we going to- to Viridian City first then?”

Ed put in his opinion. “Yeah! It’ll just be like the games and the cartoon. Viridian first, Pewter second-”

“No.”

Turning his head to look at Leah, who was leaning against the fridge, he failed to notice the way her eyes glazed over or how pale her skin had turned. Her hands were clenching hard enough the make the skin around it turn white.

Ed grinned triumphantly, mistaking Leah’s word for something else. “Hah! You’re joining in on our planning, that means you’re admitting that we are planning our journey, which means you’re going! You just admitted it yourself, you can’t take it back now.”

But Leah wasn’t listening, instead she was staring at Ally with a black stare, her face expressionless.

“Were not going to Viridian City from Pallet Town. Not now, not ever.”

Leah started to breathe deeply and felt a shiver go down her body as old memories stirred up. She sternly ordered herself, don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it…

Not noticing Leah’s behavior, Ed said, “Okay, whatever your name is, where are we going to first then?”

Ed’s words were just a dull murmur in her head, she could hardly hear them over her loud thoughts. Nausea swelled up within her and she placed her hand over her mouth. Fear grabbed her, but she viciously shoved it down as she tried to get a firm grip over her emotions.

Not Viridian City. Not again, not again, never again.

She thought fast and gasped out, “Cinnabar Island!”

The two kids looked up, startled at her sudden words.

“We can take a ferry from the dock and be on the island in four hours,” she continued quickly. Please say yes, please say yes…

Grinning, Ed said. “Cool. I’ve heard that Cinnabar Island’s volcano is still active. Wouldn’t it be cool if it blew up-”

Ally was the only one who noticed that Leah wasn’t looking too good. She looked at her mentor with curiosity and quite a lot of nervousness. Was their mentor sick? Was she going to collapse?

“Be in my room,” Leah grunted as she immediately left the kitchen and entered the living room that had old, dusty furniture, but that was ignored in favor of the staircase that was against the wall. She rushed upstairs and walked all the way down the hall and entered the last door. Entering, she closed the door behind her and flicked on the light. Her eyes squinted against the brightness and nearly tripped over the pile of clothes on the ground.

Collapsing on the bed, she sighed peacefully at the touch of the warm sheets that soft against her tired body. She half-consciously lifted her head up to pull her dark brown hair from her ponytail, which settled beside her. Her erratically cut bangs brushed her face, but she didn’t get rid of them as her arms were suddenly too heavy to lift (which was a fancy way of saying that she was too lazy to move again).

Actually, her whole body was feeling heavy right then and Leah couldn’t tell whether it was from her tiredness or her sudden case of nausea. Not only that, the experience downstairs had left a bad taste in her mouth, one that was bitter and sour.

She always felt like that when memories from That Time came up. It was really annoying, those memories and feelings. Afterwards, they would make her feel depressed and forced her to avoid the outside world like a plague.

And she definitely didn’t want the brats seeing her like that, it’d just bring up awkward and annoying question that they would un-doubtfully bombard her with.

But they weren’t going to see her like that, however. If she could take her mind off the memories, then she’d forget about the aftereffects which then wouldn’t even bother her.

This brought her to the main reason why she was in her room in the first place: her shrine.

Her room was just a bit larger than your average bedroom. It had plain tan walls with little white designs on the bottoms and the floor was wooden just like the rest of the house, though her bed (which was pushed against the wall) was seated comfortably on a soft red mat. There was a dresser in the corner, that contained all her clothes and jackets, and such.

There was also her closet, which was wide open and was directly to the right of her bed, which gave Leah a full view. Not containing clothes, her closet had a different and much more useful purpose. There was a single picture in the space, a large poster that took up much of the closets wall. A single figure was posed dramatically, one of his hands outstretched towards the sky and the other holding a microphone. Dressed in stylish red and black leather with a long white scarf around his neck and a pair of black sunglasses, he looked absolutely dreamy.

Jason Dare.

Leah sighed happily. If there was one way to get someone’s mind off things, it was a hot guy. And Jason Dare was that and more. He was the lead singer of Phantasy, one of the best bands she had ever heard of. The band played exclusively in Kanto and it was one of Leah’s dreams to go to one of his concerts.

That dream would be realized no matter what happened. She would certainly see to that.

Now, Leah would have loved to gone to sleep at that moment (naps were a hobby of hers) and dream about Jason Dare, but she just couldn’t. Not when she realized that she had left two idiot strangers in her kitchen, without supervision. They’d probably do some thieving if they found anything that was actually worth something… Okay, maybe not the girl, but the boy was definitely the type.

So, why was she upstairs and laying on her bed like some loser? She was feeling much better, so there wasn’t any reason that she should still be up there.

Regretfully taking her thoughts away from Jason Dare, she thought about what she was supposed to do. They weren’t going to Viridian City anymore, they were going to Cinnabar Island, so there was no point in thinking about that anymore. Even if the island was packed because of the summer months and tourism, it was loads better then Viridian could ever be.

Feeling the nausea edge away as she laid there, surrounded by blankets and pillows, she said, “I really should go check on the brats.”

She didn’t move an inch.









Ten minutes later, Leah had finally wandered down to the kitchen again where she found the brats studying their Pokedex. The girl had a small blue notebook in front of her and a pen in hand. Light flowed into the window beside the table, the drapes having been pushed apart.

“Where were you?” Ed asked as she came in.

Leah answered shortly, “Busy.”

“We’re making a list,” Ed pronounced suddenly with a smile at Ally, “of all the places we’re going to go to and what order we’re going in,” He added, “It was all Ally’s idea.”

Leah held herself back from saying that it was obvious. Instead, she said nothing as she leaned over the girl’s shoulder. Ally flinched away from the sudden close proximity, but let Leah read the notebook without arguments.

Raising an eyebrow, Leah was a bit impressed in the work they put into it, but pointed out one of the only flaws in their plans. “How’re you going to get from Saffron to Pewter?”

Ed shrugged, not overly concerned, “We’ll think of something when we get there.”

“Uh-huh,” Leah said doubtfully.

“Oh!” Ed said loudly as he completely turned around to face their mentor, “You’re coming on our journey.”

Yeah, their two week long journey. “What of it?”

Ed’s face showed complete curiosity, “You gotta tell us your name now. I wanna know.”

Leah shrugged. She supposed they’d waited long enough for it, “My name’s Leah.”

“Finally!” he cheered. Ally also looked happy that she could finally put a name to a face.

Ed grinned widely as he patted his backpack, “So, when are we leaving for Cinnabar Island? Maybe an hour? Two hours?”

Okay, now thing were getting out of hand.

“Tomorrow.”

Both Ed and Ally protested immediately, though Ally was much more polite about it.

Leah held out a hand and was amused when they silenced themselves. Well, at least she could make them shut up when she wanted.

“’Cause I don’t feel like it,” Leah said firmly. “And,” she said the next part with a frown, “I’m the mentor and what I say goes. Got it?”

Ed nodded with a grumble, his arms crossed and a pout on his face while Ally looked relieved for some odd reason that Leah had no interest prying into.

With a long look out the window, seeing the dark storm clouds in the sky and hearing the pitter-patter of the rain against the ground outside, Leah shuddered. No way was she going outside in that weather and certainly not on a boat on a stormy sea.

That’d be suicide.

Incinermyn February 28th, 2009 12:58 PM

Yeah, I've never had much use for betas myself. They get TOO preachy about minor stuff, and it usually takes a lot more time to get stuff done than it would if you were writing without their so-called "help."

But, I'm glad you got this up finally, Dagzar.

Damn, where do I begin? No real mistakes from what I spotted, but it seemed like there were some pretty suspenseful spots in this chapter that got me wondering how stuff was going to turn out. That kind of took me aback to another fic I've been reading, Anima Ex Machina, for some reason. Maybe because it wasn't just the stale drama too many other fics work with, and was something a little fresher.

Dagzar February 28th, 2009 1:27 PM

Yeah, though the only real reason I use a beta is because I don't want stupid mistakes dragging down my story.

I'm glad you liked the chapter. I myself wasn't really happy with some of it because I thought I might have been over exaggerating character reactions, but I'm happy it seems to be okay. And I have to say, if you're already curious about how something is going to come out already, you’ve seen nothing yet.

*laughs evilly*

delongbi March 1st, 2009 8:42 AM

Yay, another chapter!!! I was starting to think you had gone to the dark side...

Okay, grammar errors first. Getting a Beta did help, but there were still a couple of errors.

Quote:

But shock went through her when she realized that that just might work!
For the most part, you should avoid starting sentances with "But", "Or", or "And". In a few situations, starting with such words is neccessary, but usually it makes the sentance awkward (like this instance). You could just begin with "Shock".

Quote:

If she popped their little assumptions, maybe they’d leave?
Technically, that's not a question, so no question mark.

Quote:

Ally started, “but… You have too,” her voice was pleading, “Because then we- we can’t…”
Alright, this is a very common error that is a bit had to explain, but I'll do my best. Of course, it's one of those nasty comma rules.

If you start a sentance with:

Ally started, "....."

That is right. "Started" could be replaced with any number of words that indicate someone is speaking.

However, when you write, "her voice was pleading," there is no actual verb to indicate Ally is speaking, and thus no comma is needed.

I think this is best illustrated through example. It should be this:

Ally started, “But… you have too.” Her voice was pleading. “Because then we- we can’t…”

Additionally, you did not capitalize "but" and did capitalize "you". It should be vice versa.

Quote:

“Because if you don’t,” his voice lowered, “We’ll never leave you alone.”
This is the same rule as before. It should be:

"Because if you don’t-” His voice lowered. “-we’ll never leave you alone.”

This was a bit of a weird case because you were interupting a sentance with "His voice lowered."

Quote:

“Shut up,” she said to them without looking back, “Don’t say a word; I don’t want to even know you’re following me.”
Comma rule again. This time the comma is correct after, "Shut up," but incorrect after "back".

Should be:

"Shut up,” she said to them without looking back. “Don’t say a word; I don’t want to even know you’re following me.”


Quote:

He wrinkled his nose at the odd smell, “It doesn’t look lived in.”
Period, not comma after smell.

You messed up this comma rule a couple of other times, but I stopped copying and pasting every instance.

Quote:

“Where’s your parents?” Ed asked as he poked around
It should be "Where are your parents?" because the word parents is plural.

Quote:

“’Cause you’re taking us,” Ed shot back, “Besides, haven’t you ever wanted to go to places like Celadon and Saffron City?”
Comma rule again. Period after "back", not comma.

Quote:

She lied, there were places that she’s always wanted to see, but telling them that would just add more fuel to the fire.
Change in tense again. It should be "she'd always wanted to see" not "she's".

Quote:

“No,” Leah insisted, shaking her head, “I just want to stay home.”

“Well,” Ed said, mocking her, “Sucks to be you then.”

Comma rule again.

I'm not sure I did a good job of explaining the comma rule. I would google it to make sure you understand when commas should be used with quotation marks.

Besides a few grammar issues, this chapter was very good. I like all the mysteries you throw in, and I like how these three are not following the classic journey path.

Quote:

That Time
I cannot wait to see what that time really is.

Thanks for writing! I'm excited for the next chapter!

Dagzar March 1st, 2009 9:45 AM

Thanks for explaining the comma rule, delongbi! I would have never noticed any of those mistakes if you hadn't pointed them out. And wow, there's a lot of them! I understood your explanation just fine, so don't worry. Though it looks like I'll be having to go back and edit chapter four, so I better get cracking! ;)

Hopefully there won't be such a long wait for the next chapter. Chapter four is done and should be posted by next Saturday or Sunday, though I can't make any promises.

Giratina ♀ March 1st, 2009 12:06 PM

I have just found this story and am here to say it is great.

I'm not really the kind of person to point out grammatical mistakes simply because I can never see them myself, and because you have some other users keeping tabs on that for you. So I'm going to evaluate the only aspect I can: the characters and plot. [triumphant fanfare]

I've never seen a plot quite like this before. A mentor for the 'brats' to turn back on and demand they chauffeur them home if and when that happens? It's definitely an interesting premise, and the main character Leah's annoyed attitude towards it only makes the experience better. xD I'm pretty sure I know what That Week is. Could it possibly be the time when Leah was a Trainer before she backed out on it? She was extremely unhappy about going through the forest, which is the normal route for fledgling Trainers...

Assuming it's not that her parents died in there, in which case I would be banging my head on my scanner.

And now, the characters. Leah seems like a rather cold protagonist, which I feel like I have seen a bit before. Once her character started to develop, though, I've grown on her a bit more. Ed seems like a rather normal, hyperactive child, but Ally irks me a bit. I have never seen a ten-year-old who's been that reserved. (Also, for some strange reason I imagine her with a thin frame, a black dress, and straight black hair...)

BOTTOM LINE: This is a lot of fun to read! Aside from the slightly unlikely case of Emma's personality, I see nothing wrong with this fic. Keep going.

Dagzar March 3rd, 2009 5:37 PM

I can’t really answer any question about ‘That Week’, but I have to say, you’re pretty close. ;) Though, I’ll tell you right now, Leah’s parents aren’t involved in what happened in any way, shape or form.

About Ally, you’re probably right about her being oddly reserved. I’ve never really interacted with a ten-year-old kid before so I have to no clue if I’m characterizing the kids right. Thanks for pointing it out, I’m going to see if I can fix it a bit and make her more kid-ish.

Thanks for the review, Giratinasaur! I really appreciate it. :)

Giratina ♀ March 4th, 2009 12:04 PM

No problem. Thanks for writing this fic. :3

And a personality like Ally's is usually just played for laughs when the writers are trying to poke fun... kids don't get that reserved until they're twelve. -pokes little sister- x3

Dagzar March 20th, 2009 11:35 AM

A/N: Hi guys! Remember me? Don’t worry, I still exist and this time, I’ll try to make sure such a long wait between chapters won’t happen again. This chapter has once again been beta-ed by Censored and should hopefully be mostly mistake-free.



Mentor
Chapter 4: Departure





Ah, sleep.

One of her favorite things to do.

Peacefully floating between dreams and reality, awareness of the world started to come back to her. She shifted and hugged her blanket closer to her chest. A cool breeze blew lightly on her back, keeping the temperature from getting too warm. It was a nice and cozy moment for her. The buzz of her faithful fan helped her drown out annoying sounds like the squeaking of the floorboards or the opening of her bedroom door.

Unfortunately, the fan was not loud enough to drown out a snicker.

Keeping her eyes shut, she tried to burrow further into her dreams, hoping that if she ignored the noise, the noise would ignore her. That wasn’t the case, unluckily for her, as she found herself listening at the sound of a panicked, feminine whisper. A boyish voice answered the whisper in a low tone as the voices got closer and closer…

Ugh.

“Get out of my room or I’ll kill you,” Leah said loudly, not moving. Her voice was crystal clear and didn’t betray her groggy state in the slightest. There was a surprised yelp as two sets of feet ran out of the room. Most likely as an afterthought, the door was closed quietly a moment later.

Once the sound had completely died down, she took a deep breath and relaxed into her bed, the issue of her intruders immediately forgotten.

Ah, sleep.

Some time later, she was startled awake by a voice, who interrupted her dreaming from behind the safety of the closed door. His voice was a bit muffled, but she could unfortunately hear him well enough.

“Hey, Leah!”

Go away! She mentally yelled as she pulled her sheets over her ears.

“Come on! Wake up!”

No! Go away!

“It’s eleven! We waited long enough! It’s time to go on our Pokemon Journey!”

Ugh…

“Wake up!”

“Scram!” Leah suddenly shouted at him as she whipped her only pillow at the door, or at least, where she guessed the door was. The thump of the projectile hitting its target had the boy running down the hall, laughing as his heavy steps blasted Leah with the cold, hard face of reality.

Bemoaning the thought of facing the day, she laid her head on the mattress, staring forlornly at the wall. She didn’t want to get up, she just wanted to keep sleeping. Was that too much to ask?

She was just about to go right back to sleep when the door opened. Leah turned her head to greet her visitor (read: victim), though she was momentarily distracted by the light from the hallway. She squinted and was able to make out the blurry figure of an orange headed moron.

“Go away,” she hissed at him, “and turn off the damn light!”

“That’s not very nice,” Ed pouted and with a grin, flicked on her bedroom light.

Leah snarled and pulled her blanket over her head, her arms covering her eyes for extra protection.

“Turn it off!”

“No,” he said happily as he bounced in the doorway. “We’re going on our journey today! So you gotta wakeup now! It’s time to go!” He then disappeared, running back down the hall.

Knowing that he would never shut up, she reluctantly let her eyes get used to the light and got up, throwing her blanket off of her. She rubbed her eyes and peered around the room as she stood there, dazed. What was she supposed to do again? It was only when she reminded herself that she had someone to kill that she started to get ready for the day. Throwing on some random clothes she found in her drawer, she sleepily descended the stairs and threw a glare at Ed when she entered the kitchen.

He was the only one there; Ally was nowhere to be seen. Ed bounced in his seat as he energetically played with the half-eaten cereal that was seemingly his breakfast. He spun it around with his spoon until he looked up at Leah with a beaming smile.

“You!” Leah growled at him.

“Me!” he answered proudly. Generously offering the box of cereal he found in the cupboard, he said, “You want some?” Though he quickly warned, “You gotta be fast though, we’re leaving in five minutes.”

Leah yawned. “What?” she said, shaking her head, “but I just got up!”

“We woke you up half-an-hour ago,” Ed explained. “But you went back to sleep as soon as we left.”

“I did? I don’t really remember that…”

Ed was clearly impatient and changed the topic. “C’mon! You gotta eat fast, Ally’s waiting outside for us.”

She just stood there.

Treating her as if she was a Pokemon, Ed pointed at the empty chair. “Sit,” he commanded. “Eat!”

Leah stared at him with a black look. “You,” she said slowly, pointing at him. “Shut up and play dead.”





It was fifteen minutes later when Leah found herself suddenly outside the house, jacket on, and stuffed backpack strapped to her back. Nearly tripping over Ally, who was silently sitting on the porch, Leah skid to a halt in front of her house.

“C’mon!” Ed whined as he jogged up the driveway. “We’re going to be late!”

“What time is it?” Leah asked him as she glanced up the cloudless blue sky.

Ed answered quickly. “11:21. Now let’s go!”

Leah refused to take another step. “No,” she snapped. “This is going way to fast. I’m tired, I woke up less then half-hour ago and there’s no rush!”

Ally was caught in the middle as she stopped half-way between the two, giving both of them confused looks.

“But-” Ed said, fidgeting as he stood still. He blurted out: “I want to get to the gym first! A lot of people left yesterday and they’re probably almost at the next city by now! I need to catch up!”

The brat was competitive too, Leah thought. Go figure.

“Oh, they’re definitely not even close to Viridian City yet,” Leah said darkly. “And besides, we’re going to Cinnabar Island, not to Viridian!”

Ed sulked. “Yeah, I know that, but I wanna get to the gym as fast as I can.”

Taking a seat on the poach where Ally had previously been sitting, Leah crossed her arms in defiance.

“I’m not moving until I feel like it, so too bad for you.”

Ed tried to reason with her, but Leah was firm. Unlike the last time, Leah was going to abide by her decision and nothing would change her mind. She wasn’t going to move and that was that.

Not being able to do anything about it, Ed just brooded on the spot and every once in a while he grumbled to himself with threats in mind.

Leah rested silently in the shade of the porch, eyes closed as she wished that she had the ability to sleep sitting upright. It would be useful for situations like the one she was in now. Technically, she could go back in the house and back to bed, but she was already dressed and wide awake, so there wasn’t a point to it. Besides, the brat would no doubt follow her upstairs to make sure she wouldn’t go back to sleep.

Hmm. Brat: a singular tense.

Raising her head, Leah took a long look at the other half of her of her problem. The girl was standing stalk still in the middle of the driveway, having not moved an inch since Leah had sat down. Leah hadn’t even heard the girl speak all morning. Generally, Leah should have took it as a good thing as it would be one less annoyance, but her grandmother had always said never to underestimate the quiet ones. The quiet ones were much more subtle and were most likely planning something devious and evil in their quiet little heads. Then, they would unleash their evil scheme when you least suspected it and take over the world.

Okay, it was an overstatement, but it would be best to make sure such thoughts never got off the ground.

“Hey!” Leah called out to the girl who turned towards her in puzzlement. “Come here!”

Ed looked up in this exchange, but Leah just gave him a bored stare until the boy turned back to his sulking.

Ally quickly went towards Leah, her face the picture of conflicted emotions.

“Y-yes?”

Uh oh, she was stuttering. Time to bring out the big guns.

“Got a question,” Leah said bluntly and gave her a hard look. “Why are you so damn quiet?”

“Um-” Ally looked surprised. “I’m not- I don’t know-”

Leah took pity on her (or was probably just impatient) and said, “the kid over there,” she pointed at Ed, who was oblivious, “keeps mouthing off and being cheerful while I hardly see you say or do anything. It’s creeping me out.”

The girl was so taken back, she just stared at Leah silently.

“Okay, you know what,” Leah said as she pointed at Ally. “I’m the mentor and I make the rules, so if you want to go on a journey, you have to obey them, right?” she waited for Ally to nod before continuing.

“Then, I’m ordering you to be more talkative.”

Ally tried to protest as she wrung her hands together. “But I-”

Leah held up a hand. “No buts! Trust me, you’ll be thanking me for this later.” Or not since Leah would never be seeing Ally again after one or two weeks, but the rule should stop anything unpredictable from happening. Hopefully.

“Can we leave yet?” Ed asked pleadingly as he walked up to them. “Please?”

Wow, the brat was actually trying to be polite.

“No,” Leah said.

“Aw, come on! We’ve been sitting here for ten minutes!”

Leah thought and then suddenly pointed at Ally. “You! Be talkative and give an opinion.”

The girl looked like a deer in headlights. “I-”

Seeing the narrowed glare that Leah gave her, Ally gulped and took a shuttering breath. “Uh- I think we should- should go now.”

Leah got up, stretched and swung her bag over her shoulder.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Ed’s jaw dropped. “You were waiting for Ally to say something?”

“No,” the mentor replied casually. “I just think now’s a good time to go.” And to piss you off, she added mentally.

Leah turned to face them once she was at the curb to see them still standing back at the porch. She raised an eyebrow. “Well? You coming?”

They ran to catch up as Leah walked undisturbed down the road.





“We missed it?” Ed shouted at the billboard. “By twenty minutes?”

“Hmm,” Leah said wisely. “Maybe we should have gotten here earlier.”

That about summed up their problem as they looked out to an empty harbor. The wooden docks were lifeless and not a single person was around. The ferry, which would have taken them from Pallet Town to Cinnabar Island, had already left.

While Ally went over to comfort Ed, Leah looked closer at the scraggily looking notice.

Boat Times
7:30
12:00
3:30

“Not many times to choose from,” Leah said out loud to herself. “Well, at least we got here three hours early for the next one.”

“That’s not a good thing!” Ed whined. “Three hours? What are we supposed to do for three hours?”

Leah shrugged and took off her thin raincoat. “Dunno about you guys, but I’m going to relax.” She sat down on the raincoat, which had been spread out on the wooden platform, and crossed her legs. Taking a deep breath of the ocean air and grimacing a bit at the salty smell, she propped her head on her hand as she stared forward, withdrawing into her thoughts.

She should have brought a book.

“Ed?” Ally asked hesitantly as she took off her backpack. “Do- do you… want to work on our list?”

“No,” Ed said sullenly, looking out to the sea. “I don’t feel like it.”

The girl looked hurt at his adamant refusal. Her face scrunched up and shoulders hunched as she swallowed. “O-okay then.”

Looking around for something to do, Ally caught Leah seemingly staring at her. Glancing at Ed again, and seeing that he wasn’t paying attention, she picked up her bag and wandered over to where Leah was sitting.

“Leah?” Ally asked shyly.

Leah mumbled as she snapped out of her daydreams and realized one of her problems wanted something.

“Yeah, what?”

Ally nervously looked back at Ed, “Um- can I sit with you?”

With a start, Leah mentally sighed and realized she should have seen it coming. You be nice to some stray dog and the dog would think you were a nice person and would follow you around asking for more attention.

“Sure,” Leah replied blandly, but didn’t move over to make room on her jacket.

Either not noticing or not caring, Ally happily sat beside Leah on the cold ground, only half-sitting on the mentor’s coat.

“T-thank you!”

Leah didn’t reply. After all, it wasn’t as if she could have said ‘no’. If she did, then all of her work that morning would be undone and the girl would go back to being the silent introvert that would probably snap when Leah was least suspecting it.

Not that the current version was much better.

The three trainers sat (and stood) in silence. The only sounds were the waves which crashed against the dock over and over again.

Leah thought to herself furiously for something to do. She was quite content at the peaceful silence from the brat for once, but since she was stupid enough not to bring anything that could entertain her, she was stuck with her own thoughts for company.

Looking over at Ally, Leah was surprised to see her eyes were closed and her head bowed. Her hands were clasped tightly together and she was swaying back and forth like she was in a trance.

Actually, it was almost as if she was praying.

Leah mentally shrugged and wondered a bit if the girl was religious. Though it didn’t matter either way, the mentor was curious despite herself. Now that she thought about it, what did she know about Ally? Well, she was ten years old, shy, silent, possibly a secret evil mastermind…

Everything else though was just blanks. Her hometown, why she was a trainer, what Pokemon she had-

Wait, what Pokemon she had? Shouldn’t have Leah found that out yesterday?

“Hey- uh, Ally?” Leah asked, the girl’s name feeling odd on her tongue.

Ally perked up. “Yes?”

“What’s your Pokemon?”

“M-my Pokemon?” Ally asked nervously. “Um- why do you ask?”

Leah didn’t want to have to explain herself, but did anyways. “Because I’ve seen the other kid’s Pokemon, but not yours.”

The girl shook her head. “My Pokemon’s not- not very interesting.”

“So?” Leah scowled. “It’s not like a Paras is very exciting. What’d you get? A Pidgey?”

Ally muttered a name under her breath so low that Leah couldn’t hear.

“What’s that? Say it again?”

Shaking her head again, Ally folded her hands together on her lap. “He doesn’t like me,” she said in a quiet voice.

“Who? The brat?”

“No-o, my Pokemon,” she whispered, like it was some big secret. “He hates me!”

Leah gave her a look. “So? Sands hated me when I got him and now- well, he still doesn’t like me,” she admitted, “but he’ll still obey.”

“I tried to touch him,” Ally explained in greater detail. “But he just glared at me and shocked me! And it hurt!”

“Shocked you?” Leah said, eyes narrowing. She could already feel the cliché. “Please tell me it’s not a Pikachu,” she almost begged.

Ally bowed her head. “I wish.”

The curiosity would seriously kill her if conversation dragged on more. “What’s your Pokemon?”

The girl hesitated. “I- I’ll show you him.”

She got out her Pokeball from her bag, its new shiny surface gleaming in the sun. Ally lightly touched it in wonder, as if it was some ancient relic that would bring peace to the world. Then with a tiny sigh, the girl pressed the button and the Pokemon revealed itself.

It was immediately apparent that it wasn’t any ordinary Pokemon. There were no legs, or arms, a tail, or even a body. There was just the lone head which was as smooth as a Pokeball. Colored red on the top and white on the bottom, it had an uncanny resemblance to a super-sized Pokeball. It was just small enough to fit comfortably on Ally’s lap, but it obviously wasn’t happy about it as its pinpoint pupils immediately swerved until they settled on a target. The Pokemon gave Leah its fiercest glare.

Oh. Oh ****.

Somehow, Leah was able to rocket backwards and get up on her feet in the blink of an eye. With wide eyes, she stared at the Voltorb that Ally had tightened her arms around in semblance to a hug.

That was the last straw. Leah now knew for a fact that she was somehow cursed. That was the only reason that she could think of that explained that one of her charges had a violent and literally explosive creature for a first Pokemon.

Leah wished that she never asked what Pokemon Ally had.

“I would of preferred the Pikachu,” Leah said, groaning and then quickly continued with just quite a bit of fear. “Let go of the Voltorb!”

Ally looked hesitant as she hugged her Pokemon tighter. “He- he’s not going to explode.”

Could baby Voltorb explode? That wasn’t something that Leah had ever come across in school or on the internet, and she wasn’t willing to be the first to find out.

Ed came over, curious of the commotion, but even he kept his distance when he saw the Voltorb.

“I thought you weren’t going to bring it out again!” Ed said, panicked. “Remember what happened last time?”

Ally seemingly wasn’t aware of the danger she was in. “Why doesn’t he like me?” she asked sadly as Voltorb visibly struggled.

Leah jumped back another couple of steps when Voltorb finally broke free of Ally’s grip. It rolled a few feet away until it stopped of its own accord, its head-shaped body upright and eyed the trainers who were standing around it. A few sparks came off its body as it became obvious at what it was planning to do.

Attack.

Yelling, Ed forced himself out of the way as Voltorb sped past him. The boy stumbled towards Ally and broke out in a run as Voltorb stopped and, spinning in the other direction, came right back at him.

“Recall it!” Leah told Ally, who stared at her in surprise. “Recall the damn Pokemon before its blows up!”

As Ed came towards her, Ally hurryingly got up and tried out of the way as Ed barred past with Voltorb at his heels. As they went past, Ally’s Pokeball was knocked out of her hands and crouched down to pick it up again.

There wasn’t much space left to run as Ed ran along the dock and saw the fence which separated the wooden platform from the water. A simple plan started to form in his head as he made a sharp U-turn and ran at Voltorb, but just before they were about to hit, Ed easily jumped right over the Pokemon. Voltorb stopped just before the fence and turned its body towards the fleeing Ed, who had shoved his hand into his pocket. Pulling out his Pokeball, Ed flung it vaguely behind him while Voltorb was distracted.

“Paras! Go!”

The Pokeball bounced on the ground and opened in the air. Paras materialized in an instant and lazily survived the scene. Voltorb was rushing right towards it, but Paras was quite content in doing nothing at all, not seeing the threat.

“Paras!” Ed shouted as he circled to stand beside Ally. “Scratch!”

The bug Pokemon had no clue at what ‘scratch’ was, but it didn’t matter anyways as Voltorb smashed into it with a full speed tackle. Paras went flying backwards and hit the pavement with a lifeless thump while the electric type was knocked back by the force of the collision.

Paras never had a chance.

“Ouch,” Leah muttered to herself, though not disturbed by the short-lived battle. Voltorb had left her alone and she would abide by that decision and physically stay out it. Unless she wanted to get attacked, which she didn’t, of course.

“Recall it!” Leah told Ally again.

Ally nodded and held out her Pokeball, arm shaking. “R-return,” she called out hesitantly.

The beam of red light shot out, but missed Voltorb by a foot. The girl’s arm was shaking so badly, she couldn’t even aim the stupid Pokeball!

Leah watched Ally try again, but returning the Pokemon made it harder when Voltorb regained its composure and started to move.

One Pokemon down, Leah told herself as she watched Voltorb turn towards the brats. And one to go.

Locating her abandoned jacket which had been left alone by the battle, Leah ran towards it and picked it off the ground. Pulling out the Pokeball from the pocket, Leah expertly threw it right between Voltorb and the two kids.

Sands came out, looking a bit tired, but seemingly healed from the beating it took from Paras yesterday. The only thing that remained of the battle was a faint line across its chest.

“Sands,” Leah called out. “Run! And this time, don’t you dare lose!”

Making the first move, Sands got on four legs and ran directly towards Voltorb, who took the challenge and started to roll faster.

“Stop and grab it!”

Just before they collided, the Sandshrew did as its master commanded and skidded to a halt. It got on its hind legs and held its paws out. Voltorb ran into it, but Sands was firm and was only pushed back. Gripping onto it tightly, Sands winced when Voltorb erratically spun against its tender stomach. A thin line of electricity danced over its spherical surface, but it didn’t bother the ground type.

Sands wasn’t looking that good, Leah noted. It probably wouldn’t last that long. Not that it needed to.

“Ally!” Leah said, a bit amused as the two brats jumped, startled. They had been paying attention to the battle closely and were waiting for Leah to make Sandshrew do something.

Leah continued, “recall Voltorb now, while it’s standing still!”

“Y-yes,” Ally said in a small voice as she tried again and this time she steadied her hand and said in a seemingly confident voice, “Return, Voltorb!”

The red beam of light caught Voltorb underneath Sand’s paw and pulled it back into its Pokeball. The Sandshrew relaxed its arms and patted the bruise that was forming on its stomach. It didn’t even look up as Leah returned it to its Pokeball.

“Well,” Leah started in the silence that followed. “That was an entertaining ten minutes, but let’s not do it again.” Underneath her casual attitude, Leah was still trying to calm her pounding heart.

“Why doesn’t he like me?” Ally repeated to Leah with a depressed look.

Leah shrugged. “Dunno, but it’s a Voltorb, what else do you expect from it?” She then added, “And don’t call it a ‘he’, Voltorb are genderless.”

“Voltorb aren’t genderless,” Ed said, jumping into the conversation.

Leah glared. “Yeah they are.”

“No they aren’t.”

“Yes they are!”

“No they aren’t!”

Ally surprisingly cut in. “My Voltorb,” she said hesitantly, “is a boy. I want him to be a boy. He’s not an it!”

Holding her tongue from saying anything that would start another argument, Leah changed the topic.

“Why do you care what Voltorb acts like anyway?” she asked. “Pokemon don’t need to like you, they just need to obey.” She stressed the last word.

“I don’t want him to obey me like that,” Ally said doubtfully. “I-I just want to be his friend.”

“Don’t worry, Ally,” Ed comforted, patting her on the shoulder. “Voltorb will come around and then me, you, Paras and Voltorb will be great friends!”

As the boy blabbered on about friendship, and love and all that sort of crap, Leah thought to herself grimly.

That attitude of theirs would be a problem later on, she was sure of that. They didn’t understand what Pokemon training was all about. Pokemon were to be caught, trained and then paraded to the cheering crowds. Pokemon trainers were entertainers that trained their Pokemon to love the scent of battle, blood and death.

Pokemon were tools; not friends.

Mentally shrugging, Leah assumed that the brats would come around eventually. All trainers did, after a while.

Besides, she had other things to think about.

Like, for example, what was she supposed to do? No books, no music, no Jason Dare collection and no blogs to rant on. She really should have been prepared to wait for hours on end, especially since she knew that she would have lots of free time. After she checked the internet last night to see when the ferry times were, she even put down a book in plain sight on her desk! But since she stupidly forgotten it, all she had was just an empty port, the sea and less then stellar company.

With a glance at the puny trainers, who were talking cheerfully to each other, Leah couldn’t help but pity herself.

It was going to be a long three hours.

Incinermyn March 21st, 2009 9:03 AM

Don't worry about getting this up quickly, Dagzar. My own chapters usually take up to three or four weeks to get to the point where they're decent enough to post, which is why neither Dark Nostalgia or Biohazard have been updated yet.

As for this chapter, for some reason it struck me as just bit more relaxed than the last one. Maybe with the whole thing about sleep in the beginning I was lulled a little. Still compelling though. Leah and their others' personalities are really coming out nicely, I think. If anything was off, maybe this could have been just a bit more active in the first part. Just my thoughts though...

Dagzar March 21st, 2009 11:57 AM

Thanks for the review, Skunter!

I know I don’t need to update quickly, but chapter four has been done for a month (aside from being beta-ed) and it makes me fidgety when I don’t update regularly. Well, that and I like updating. :) I’m glad you liked the chapter. I myself thought the first part of the chapter was boring, which is why I kind of rushed through it to get it out of the way.

Chapter five should be out next Saturday and this time, it won’t be late (hopefully). And then things will get interesting.

Giratina ♀ March 21st, 2009 1:56 PM

Just read the latest chapter, and it's as awesome as ever. Leah's little sleep-in time was pretty funny, and the docks scene after the 'battle' was done well too. Speaking of the docks scene, the way Leah talked about Pokemon made it out like she has the type of mindset that would make a good Team Rocket member. Hmm...

Legendarian Mistress March 21st, 2009 2:21 PM

Hi Dagzar. I've read your fic and I think it's amazing. I really liked it. All the mistakes have been pointed out already. It's an interesting read and I think you'd go far with it. If you have a PM List, can I please be added to it? I'd like to keep an eye on this fic, for it is very good.

Dagzar March 21st, 2009 5:23 PM

Woot! Second page, finally!

Thanks for reviewing, Giratinasaur! Heh, now that I look at it, Leah really does think like a Team Rocket member, doesn’t she? Too bad Team Rocket won’t be appearing for quite awhile yet. I can already imagine the dialogue and the wit…

Hi Tigrerra, thanks for the review! I would love to add you to my PM list, but first, can you tell me what it is? :embarrass I’m guessing it’s some type of alert to tell you when I update, I’m not quite sure. I’d be happy to set one up though.

Legendarian Mistress March 21st, 2009 5:28 PM

Good work. You got it correct on your first guess.

Sladazo March 21st, 2009 9:07 PM

Add me to the list as well.

I really like your characters. The development of them is coming along great. I can't figure out the plot yet, as the summary doesn't tell much, but if it has Team Rocket in it, I figure it's not going to be plotless.

Can't wait to read the next chapter. :)

Dagzar March 22nd, 2009 8:39 AM

Thanks for reviewing, Sladazo. Yeah, I'll add both you and Tigrerra to my new PM list and I'll message you guys around Saturday (hopefully).

And don't worry about it being plotless, Sladazo. Team Rocket's not that important actually (you just can't have a Kanto journey fic without them), but I got a plan. :badsmile:

Neiko Star March 22nd, 2009 9:31 AM

Your story's really great! It's very interesting to read. Not to mention somebody actually notices the fact that ten-year-olds going on journeys by themselves is not safe. I mean, seriously.

Dagzar March 22nd, 2009 9:56 AM

Thanks Neiko Star! Yeah, I have to agree with you that ten-year-olds going across the region on foot and alone is really ridiculous. Who knows what could happen to them out there with no protection except for some badly trained animal that can breath fire (also a fire hazard). Though, people can be pretty oblivious with long standing traditions, so I can't really blame them (that much).

Neiko Star March 22nd, 2009 9:59 AM

And also, Pikachu didn't listen to Ash in the beginning...so your theory about Pokemon needing to be trained makes a lot of sense. But I can't believe I never thought of it...when I read that part, I was like, shocked. XD

Dagzar March 22nd, 2009 10:10 AM

Heh, that part was actually a last minute idea that I just had to include. Pokemon are wild animals, so they probably be pretty confused and scared at suddenly being ordered around by a human. Though, I have a feeling that the idea might actually back me into a corner soon.

*sighs*

I just can't win. :cheeky:

Neiko Star March 22nd, 2009 10:13 AM

Argh, darn you! I just started writing a Pokemon fic today, but now, after reading your story, I want to write something else of the same genre! Gah, what am I going to do? My previous idea seems really stupid to me now. XD

Dagzar March 22nd, 2009 10:35 AM

Aw, your story doesn’t look stupid. It looks interesting, different and original. Besides, journey fics are very long and take a lot of work. Three months in and I only have six and half chapters written out of my planned seventy-six.

I can already sense the suffering I will be going through during the year.

Neiko Star March 22nd, 2009 10:39 AM

You planned exactly seventy-six chapters? O_O

Dagzar March 22nd, 2009 10:53 AM

Seventy-eight chapters, actually (now that I check). Though I'm sure I can get rid of some of them; a lot can be combined with each other.

... Yeah, I know. I plan too much (and even named all my chapters!).

I have too much free time on my hands.

Neiko Star March 22nd, 2009 11:10 AM

Woah...now that's a lot of free time! XD I'm not too busy myself, since it's the week-ends and all...

Giratina ♀ March 22nd, 2009 12:55 PM

78?

O -O

Oh my. That's a lot of fic.

Hey, now that you're all on the topic of the PM list (and now that you actually have one), can I be on it? =D Long fics amuse me.

Dagzar March 22nd, 2009 1:00 PM

No problem, Giratinasaur! Your now on my list.

delongbi March 25th, 2009 9:50 PM

I loved the chapter!

Quote:

“We woke you up half-an-hour ago,” Ed explained. “But you went back to sleep as soon as we left.”

“I did? I don’t really remember that…”

Holy crud, that happens to me all the time. Today in fact, I apparently talked to my friend on the phone when she called in the morning, but I don't remember it at all. It was very weird when I called her again after I was actually awake and she said she had already talked to me, lol.

I'm glad you have all your chapters planned! It means this story will most likely actually be finished, yay.

I still love your characters! Ally secretly a mastermind... lol!

Keep up the good writing!

Dagzar March 26th, 2009 7:07 AM

Thanks delongbi!

Heh, you're not the only one that doesn't remember waking up. I sometimes do that, but instead of completely forgetting the incident, I instead vaguely remember waking up to be a dream instead. Can be very annoying and confusing, lol.

Dagzar March 27th, 2009 7:34 PM

A/N: Guess what? The chapter is - for once - on time! Yeah, it’s a miracle. Though, I do have to say, the beginning of the chapter is a bit boring, but try to bare through it.




Mentor
Chapter 5: Cinnabar Island





Beautiful Cinnabar Island. Known for its culture and wide display of rare Pokemon, especially fire types. Covered in lush jungles and surrounded by sparkling blue tides, it was the ideal place for a relaxing vacation. It was also home to three volcanoes that made lovely pictures to be shown to friends.

Busy Cinnabar Island. Known for being a tourist trap in all possible ways. It had several theme parks on the island and it wasn’t the best place for privacy. It was also so crowded in the summer, it wasn’t that rare for people to be almost trampled.

“Wow!” Ed gasped. “Look at all the people!”

Leah and Ally could only nod in agreement. When Leah thought it was going to be busy on Cinnabar Island, she didn’t know how busy.

People were everywhere! On every street and in every corner, there they were. Most of them looked like tourists, some carrying cameras and such, but there were trainers too. They were the ones who carried Pokemon with them or plainly showed their Pokeball belts across their chests. The loud hum of voices and laughter surrounded the trio, but it seemed more intimidating then welcoming. Especially since there was no end to it!

“Let’s find a Pokemon Center,” Leah told them before glaring at the back of a guy who bumped into her. “I already hate this place!”

“What!” Ed said loudly as he held Ally’s hand. “I can’t hear you!”

Leah opened her mouth, but then closed it without comment. Instead she sighed and grabbed both of the kids’ free hands, pulling them through the crowd. There were buildings running parallel to each other beside them, each somehow displaying a unique look. There were no gaps between the tall buildings, so the trio was forced the walk straight ahead. As they wandered deeper into the city, they were shoved and bashed by people rushing by. Ally yelped as one person harshly pushed her into Ed and they would have tumbled to the ground if Leah hadn’t quickly pulled them back up.

“Come on!” Leah hissed as she dragged them forward. “The Pokemon Center has gotta be around here somewhere! This is insane!”

It took them another fifteen minutes to find a Pokemon Center. They had almost passed it, despite its prominent red and white colors, because it was hidden between two large structures. A rush of cold air greeted them as they entered the lobby, but it was immediately apparent that there really was no getting away from the crowds.

It was packed tight with people and hardly any of them were Pokemon trainers. Most were tired tourists with screaming children and crying babies. The people who actually were trainers looked haggard and annoyed at the noise, but it was hard to tell since as soon as Leah spotted them, she almost immediately lost sight of them.

“Damn it!” Leah cursed. The front desk was surrounded by people, all demanding to get a room. There was no way they could get to the front.

Ed noticed it as well. “I knew we should have gone to Viridian,” he moaned.

“No we shouldn’t of,” Leah immediately snarled. “Look, it’s your journey, this is stuff you’ll need to deal with all the time!”

Against her better judgment, Leah allowed Ed to pull her and Ally closer to the front desk where they heard the woman behind it try to deal with the sudden flood of people.

“Excuse me!” the woman shouted over the noise. “This is a Pokemon Center! A hospital for Pokemon and a place where trainers may stay! Not for people that aren’t registered trainers!”

None of the tourists appeared to be listening as they kept shouting and yelling for rooms, wallets and wads of cash being held up in the air.

“W-what do we do?” Ally asked pleadingly as she stayed close to Leah as she could, using her as an anchor.

Leah shrugged, but kept a groan to herself. “Dunno. Wait, I guess.”

“But for how long?” Ed questioned with a yawn. “I’m tried! How long will this take?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? They spent three hours that morning, waiting for the ferry to arrive and then used another hour sailing to Cinnabar Island. Now it looked they were going to be forced to give up even more of their time and it was only to do something that should have been easy.

“I don’t know,” Leah repeated as she eyed the rest of the lobby. There were no empty chairs; the only thing they could sit on was the ground.

“Hopefully, not that long though.”





Leah cursed herself. She just had to say ‘hopefully’, didn’t she? She pretty much set herself up to be jinxed.

It was two hours later, but most of the tourists had already left, probably going for dinner somewhere. The crowd had gradually thinned out until there were only the most stubborn of individuals present.

Luckily, they only put up a little fuss when Leah was able to get a room with three beds just by showing her worn-out trainer license. She sneered at them before herding the brats out of the lobby and to the stairwell.

They got to the second floor of the Pokemon Center and found their room, number thirteen. An unlucky number to some, but to them, it was a sign of relief. It only took a few seconds to slide the card key through the lock and to finally enter the room that they had been waiting for.

It wasn’t a big room, just enough for the beds and a small desk. Two of the beds were propped against the wall and sitting parallel to each other, while the third was under the single window. There was a door right next to the front door which seemingly led to a bathroom. The warm shades of brown and gold on the walls and bedcovers gave a welcoming feel to the room.

Ed could only moan as he let himself fall onto the bed closet to the door. He seemingly didn’t have enough energy to take off his shoes or backpack. Ally likewise sat on a bed, but at least she was not tired enough to lay down on her bag.

“Before you ask,” Leah said as she dropped her backpack on the floor. “We’re not leaving this room for the rest of the day.”

“Don’t care,” Ed mumbled.

Leah nodded, satisfied. “Good.”

“Leah?” Ally spoke up, too tired to be nervous as she continued without Leah replying. “Is it always going to be- be like this?

“Like what?”

Ally yawned in emphasis. “Tiring and- and busy.”

“I don’t know,” Leah said, sitting down on the only unoccupied bed. “I wasn’t a trainer for that long.” A tone in her voice suggested that that was the end of the conversation, but Ally was feeling brave that day.

“What do you mean?” Ally asked curiously. “I thought you were al- always a trainer.”

Leah snorted. “No. Only for a week.”

“But- but that doesn’t make any sense. Aren’t you supposed our Mentor? I thought Mentors had to be good trainers.”

Something in Ally’s voice made Leah look up sharply. “Hey! It’s not like I wanted to be your Mentor anyways.”

Ally gulped, finally feeling the glare that Leah was sporting. “Well-”

Taking a calming breath, Leah tried to release the anger.

“Look,” Leah said. “My grandmother pulled some strings. I don’t want to be here and you don’t want me to be here. So, let’s just drop this subject before things go south, got it?”

Ally nodded, a bit fearful.

“Good.”





It was nice and silent as the three trainers kept to themselves. It was so quiet that Leah assumed that Ed had fallen asleep since he hadn’t moved since he had kicked off his shoes and bag off the bed. The steady rise and fall of his chest was the only thing that kept Leah from thinking that he had suddenly and mysteriously died.

The sun had started to set a little while ago, marking the end to a busy and somewhat torturous day. The only light came from the lamp at Ally’s bedside table and it illuminated the room in a dull glow. Ally was the only one using it though as she looked through her notebook. Every once in a while she turned a page, devouring the words with her eyes.

That was thankful because it meant that no one would be interrupting Leah’s peace and quiet time. After being surrounded by noise for the last two hours, the last thing she wanted hear was someone breaking the silence.

A sudden rustling sound had Leah looking up to see Ed turning over in his sleep, his back facing his roommates.

Leah sighed and glanced around the room quick enough to see Ally going back to her book, interest lost in the slumbering Ed.

Maybe she should get some sleep too? Leah thought. It would pass the time all right, but she really didn’t want to be waking in the middle of the night, wide awake. That always happened when she went to bed early and it was irritating enough the first few times it happened.

Though, it wasn’t like she had much else to do.

Leah glanced up at Ally. “Hey.”

Ally looked up, but said nothing.

“Turn it off,” Leah said as she motioned to the lamp. “I’m going to bed.”

The girl looked at the clock which showed the time plainly. “It’s only eight.”

“I’m tired. Now turn it off.”

It looked like Ally wanted to protest, but Leah gave her a weak stare.

As the light turned off, Leah shoved all the blankets off her bed except for a thin sheet, which she pulled over her shoulders once she laid down. Her head hit the pillow and in moments, she was out like a light.





The next day, anyone could tell that it was going to be nice out. The sun was shining, the Pidgey were singing and it was almost as if everything was all right with the world.

“It’s that way!”

“No, it’s not! Look, the map says to go left-”

“The map’s wrong-”

“Did you just cut me off?”

“-Because the lady at the desk said we take a right.”

“The lady at the desk,” Leah argued. “Is a stupid blond airhead. You don’t trust people over something factual like a map! We go left!”

Ed was never one to give up. “No! We go right!”

“Left!”

“Right!”

“Left!”

“Right!”

“Left!”

“Right!”

“Left!”

“Left!”

“Hah!” Leah said triumphantly, pointing at him. “You agree with me!”

“You messed it up!” Ed whined. “You’re supposed to go ‘Right!’ and then I say-”

Leah rolled her eyes and started following the trail to the left which led towards a groove between the trees. “Oh, come on. Like any of Bugs Bunny’s tricks can work on me.”

Ed ran to catch up.

“The gym’s not this way!” Ed said, but followed Leah anyway.

After they got through the groove, the trail suddenly narrowed, forcing Ed to walk behind Leah in an effort to avoid the vicious looking plants that surrounded the road. As well as the carnivorous bushes, foreign-looking trees towered over them, keeping most of the sky hidden.

They walked for several minutes without talking to each other, jumping over the off plant once and a while. Though, a lucky branch was able to snag on the hem of Ed’s pant leg and he stopped after finding that pulling on it wouldn’t do the trick.

After manually escaping from the branch’s hold, Ed looked up to see Leah still walking, having not noticed that he stopped.

“Wait up!”

Leah paused and turned to look at him. “What? Why are you back there for? Come on, I thought you wanted to go to the gym?”

Ed again ran to catch up once Leah spun back around and continued walking. He pouted as he resumed a slower pace and muttered: “If Ally was here, we could’ve convinced you to go right.”

“Well she’s not here, so too bad for you.”

“She should be here,” Ed continued, not letting the issue go. “Why did she have to stay at the Pokemon Center?”

“Because, moron, she wanted to see if something was wrong with her Voltorb.” She rolled her eyes. “Not that anything is.”

Ed tried to look at the bright side. “Well, at least she won’t get lost too…”

“We’re going to find the gym,” Leah said exasperatedly. “So stop complaining. Besides, you guys aren’t even going to challenge it today. We’re only staking it out.”

“Why can’t we?” Ed asked as they trudged down a shallow slope. “I mean, I’ve been training Paras and it knows attacks now! It’ll obey me!”

Leah rolled her eyes. “Yeah, how many attack does it know?”

Ed shrugged. “Two. Scratch and Stun Spore, and I’m really close with Poison Powder.”

“Good for you.” Sarcasm dripped through her voice. “By the way, what type of Pokemon is Paras?”

He thought. “Uh, bug and grass?”

“Yeah, that’s right. And what type of Pokemon does the Cinnabar gym leader use?”

“Oh.” Ed’s face fell. “Fire.”

Leah nodded. “Fire,” she repeated. “No bug or grass type would stand a chance, much less a bug and a grass type.”

Pushing a branch out of his way, Leah suddenly stopped as the trail came to an abrupt halt. The ground in front of them was covered with tall grass, plants and wildlife, having seemingly grown over the trail.

“Huh?”

Leah looked at the map with a sharp eye. “Well, the map says we’re on the right track.”

Ed glared at her. “I told you the map was wrong!”

“No, no,” Leah said, waving his complaints off. “It’s not wrong, we should get to the gym if we just keep going forward.”

“But there’s no path!”

“So? We don’t need one, we just need to walk in a straight line.”

Ed solemnly looked through the dense plants and trees. “What if we get lost?”

“We’re going straight,” Leah snapped as she pushed her way through the bush. “It’s not like we’re making any turns or anything.”

Despite what Leah said, the duo did have to make a few turns, but mostly just to get around the too thick shrubs that sometimes go in their way. As soon as they got passed it, they went right back on their imaginary trail.

Hearing a low chirping, Leah looked up to the tops of the trees to see a bunch of Pidgey (or were they Spearow?) cluttering up the same branch. It was the first wild Pokemon life they had seen all day. Vaguely, Leah could tell that Ed was saying something about them, something stupid probably, but she wasn’t paying attention as something had caught her eye. At the edge of her vision and in a gap between the branches of the trees, there was a hint of gray and she turned her head to see the sky behind them clouding over rather quickly.

It was still warm out, perfect Cinnabar weather, but the dark clouds contrasted the summer picture.

“It’s going to rain soon,” Leah told Ed, still staring at the clouds.

“Really?” Ed said as he looked at them with vague disappointment. “But it was so sunny out, I didn’t think it was going to start raining.”

“I didn’t either.” It was true, too. Just that morning, before she and Ed left the Pokemon Center, she checked the weather on the internet and found out that it was going to be very sunny all day. The weather reports on that particular site were rarely wrong and Leah had to conclude that the sudden series of clouds were the result of the tropical climate or something like that.

“We should go back to the Pokemon Center,” Leah said. “I don’t want to be out when it rains.”

Ed looked at her with keen eyes, taking in her expression of discomfort and fidgeting body. His eyes lit up in sudden realization.

“I know what you’re up to.”

“Yeah?” Leah asked, eyeing the path back to the trail. “What’s that?”

“This is a scheme!”

“Huh?”

“That’s right!” Ed said with a proud nod. “I’ve figured it out. You’ve discovered that you were wrong and we were supposed to make that right turn back there. You’re using the weather excuse to make us turn back and go back to the Pokemon Center so you won’t have to admit you’re wrong.”

Leah just stared. That wasn’t the main reason why she wanted to go back to the Pokemon Center, though it was a good secondary one.

“We should go back to the Pokemon Center,” she repeated.

Ed crossed his arms. “No, I don’t want to.”

“And why’s that?”

“’Cause we came all this way just to turn back so fast. Let’s keep going. Unless…” Ed trailed off. “Unless you want to admit you’re wrong.”

“What?” Leah said, frowning. “I’m not wrong.”

Really? Then prove it.”

Leah glanced warily at the clouds.

“If you’re right,” Ed said, tempting her. “Then the gym can’t be too far away. We’ll get there and back before the rain comes.”

“The clouds are coming pretty fast…”

“So? If you’re right, you won’t have to worry.”

The teen tore her eyes from the sky and gave him a competitive look.

“Fine,” Leah said. “I’m not wrong.”

Her glaze drifted back to the incoming weather by their own accord.

“I’m not.”





“Fine!” Leah shouted, her hands clenched tightly in her pockets and hood obstructing her face from view. “I’m wrong, I give up!”

Ed sighed, his hair and clothing dripping with water. “Yeah, that’s for sure.”

The rain had caught up to them just five minutes ago and it came suddenly and without warning. One minute, they were arguing, the next they were taking cover under the nearest tree. Leah, fortunately, never left her house without her rain jacket and was relatively dry.

Though she didn’t act like it.

“Let’s go! You win! I want to go back to the Pokemon Center now!”

“Calm down,” Ed said, squinting through the rain. “The weather’s not that bad.”

Leah panicked. “But it will be! We need to go!”

Ed looked suspiciously at Leah. She was acting weird. It was only a little water; it never hurt anyone. He used to play in it all the time when he was little… Well, he still did, but that wasn’t the point.

He turned around and, taking a few cautious steps forward, he gained more confidence as he didn’t trip and fall flat on his face. Twigs snapped against his stride and he wiped his eyes clean of water. He felt Leah’s body heat as she came up behind him and stayed close to his back.

Together, the duo made their way back up their makeshift trail.

“I think we’re going to right way,” Ed said, but a bit of doubt made itself known in his head. They went straight, doing what Leah’s map said, but what if they stopped going straight? Neither of them could’ve known if they had started to go off a bit and just a bit made a big difference when you had been walking for ten minutes.

“We were going straight,” Leah insisted. “We have to be going to right way.”

Suddenly, there was a flash of light, but it was so short that Ed thought he had imagined it. It was only when Leah gasp that he knew that she had seen the same thing.

“Lightning!” she said softly, fear apparent in her voice. “We’re caught in a ****ing storm!”

Thunder rumbled in the distance, the loud crackle forcing a shiver up his spine. He had never been scared of storms, but then again, he had never been outside when one happened.

His breath was knocked out of him when a sudden force pushed him forwards. He stumbled and spun around.

“What was that for…” He trailed off when he saw the frenzied look in his mentor’s eye.

Run!” Leah barked and shoved him again. This time, Ed nearly fell to the ground, but was able to catch himself by grabbing a tree. Hugging the plant around its truck, he looked up to see Leah looming over him.

“Run!” she repeated. “Don’t stop! Just run!”

Ed was about to ask why as he didn’t think that the lightning was very close to them when she glared with more intensity then he had ever seen.

“Run!”

Ed ran.

Run!”

Ed ran faster.

Run!

The final shout propelled him and he flew through the bushes and trees faster then he had ever run before. He didn’t look back and took no notice of the twigs and branches that slapped his skin and scratched his arms and legs.

As the storm got fiercer, the soft pitter-patter of the rain started to turn into a dull roar. Ed could feel his soaked clothes clinging to his skin and they made a sloping sound every time he moved. Another flash of lightning lit up the sky and only a few seconds later, the clap of thunder followed, louder then before.

“It’s coming closer!” Ed gasped out to Leah, who was behind him.

His eyes half-blinded by the rain, he felt his legs begin to burn from the inside out. His heart beat wildly and was begging him to stop, or at least rest, just for a moment. Just for a moment…

He didn’t know how long he had been running for, but he felt like he had been doing it for a while. The forest he had been secretly admiring as he first came through, weird looking in its design, was now just green streaks as he whizzed by it, and in some cases, through it.

With another burst of adrenaline as the sky lit up, he suddenly found himself stepping onto the trail, which he and Leah had abandoned a while ago. Despite the feeling of relief in having a route to freedom, he didn’t dare stop and kept on running.

It was only when the crossroad got into his vision did he start to slow down. He was jogging by the time he actually got there and finally came to a halt.

His legs felt like jelly and he happily let them rest by easing himself onto the ground, soaking his pants even more. He felt numb, though his body tingled weirdly as he rested it. Dazedly, he looked at the red welts and cuts that adorned his naked skin. They looked bad and when he touched one, he hissed in pain.

“Ouch,” he said dizzily.

It was still raining, as hard as ever, and the storm got steadily worse. Ed absentmindedly thought that maybe he should go back to the Pokemon Center. It would be dry there, and he could see how Ally was doing. Maybe he could even do some training; Paras was so close at knowing what Poison Powder was, it would only take a little nudging…

As thunder rolled, Ed remembered. Oh, right.

Leah.

Ed really didn’t feel like moving, he was pretty comfy despite his dampness, but he had to sacrifice it. Turning his head, he looked around himself, but couldn’t see her. Weird. He thought that she had been right behind him. Glancing over at the groove between the trees, he waited. He stared at it for a while, but no Leah came running out.

Huh. He wondered where Leah was.

Ed sat there for another ten minutes.

She never came out.

delongbi March 27th, 2009 8:30 PM

A solid chapter.

Honestly, I can't think of anything to comment on. No grammar errors I found. I curious why Leah is scared of thunderstorms (if that is the reason she was acting so weird). It was pretty nice having a new chapter on time! I can't wait for more!

Sladazo March 27th, 2009 9:51 PM

Just like delongbi above me, I'm interested to see why Leah is afraid of the storm if that's why she's acting strange. I saw a couple of errors, but I can't find them anymore. They were all minor though, nothing to worry about. Great chapter, you described Cinnabar really well in my opinion.

Dagzar March 28th, 2009 8:20 AM

Thanks for reviewing, delongbi and Sladazo!

To answer you question, yes, Leah’s afraid of storms. Well, that and all bad weather makes her very uneasy. And to why she’s fearful? Heh, you guys are going to find out soon enough, I’ll tell you that much. ;)

Incinermyn March 28th, 2009 8:58 AM

Yes, yes, yes! Awesome chapter! You're skills have really refined quick, Dagzar! Really active chapter too, I thought!

Dagzar March 29th, 2009 8:04 AM

Haha, thanks Skunter!

By the way peoples, all chapters from now on will be posted on Friday night. That is my due date and I will stick with it.

*nods to self*

Legendarian Mistress March 30th, 2009 4:00 AM

Well, I was going to say I wondered why Leah was afraid of storms. Then, I had a theory... that maybe it wasn't a storm, maybe it was caused by Zapdos; but, I quickly threw that theory out the window, because Zapdos lives in the Power Plant... which is no-where near Cinnabar. Hope to receive the answer to the problem soon and keep up the excellent work, Dagzar.

Dagzar March 30th, 2009 3:21 PM

Heh, your theory made me laugh, Tigrerra. In the previous draft of this story (which will never see the light of day again), the storm in the chapter was actually caused by a Raikou and the Pokemon even got to appear in the chapter. In this version though, I decided to keep the storm natural because I don’t want a legendary Pokemon running around so soon in the story. ;)

Dagzar April 3rd, 2009 7:19 PM

Mentor
Chapter 6: Lost (part one)





It had been twenty minutes since she had lost sight of Ed.

She had reasonably calmed down from her panic-induced hysteria at being caught in a storm. So, instead of being all scared and trying to hide under some wimpy looking tree, she was instead feeling depressed and moody. Not that she still wasn’t a bit fearful (understatement), but it had since taken a back seat in favor of brooding and sarcasm.

Or that was what Leah kept telling herself.

Though, it didn’t matter since she had to find a way to get out of the forest. Right now.

Like the people back in the city, the storm was all around her and no matter what she did, no matter where she tried to hide, she couldn’t get it to go away! It blinded her senses. She couldn’t see, she couldn’t hear (not that it would’ve helped anyways) and she couldn’t even run anymore, though that one was more her fault then the rain’s.

Leah cursed herself for not exercising more. Maybe if she did then maybe she could’ve kept up with Ed’s fast pace. It was really surprising, and a bit frightening too, how fast Ed was able to run. Leah tried to follow, really, she did, but she got tired and was forced to stop. It wasn’t the best excuse, especially since she was the one that wanted that wanted to leave so badly, but how could she know that she was going to get caught in up in a freaking storm?

She flinched and her heart raced as the thunder growled in the sky. A pit of terror had formed her chest and she desperately wanted to get rid of it. Oh, what she would do to get out of the weather? Pretty much anything at that point.

Hunched over, but with her whole body on alert, she was stupidly walking in a random direction. She had no clue where she was going, but didn’t care as long as it led her out of the jungle. If she was smart, she would’ve just stayed in the same place and would hope that Ed came back for her.

But no, she just couldn’t stay still, could she? Nope, she just had to be a moron.

The trees provided pretty much no protection whatsoever, from both the rain and the lightning; not that she logically needed protection from lightning, but still. It was lightning! What if it hit a tree or something?

Shivering, she stuck her hands in her pockets. If the rain, lightning and thunder weren’t bad enough, there was the wind. The stupid damn wind. Despite the storm, it actually wasn’t that cold unless you accounted for the strong winds. It was blowing and howling and attacking her whenever she wasn’t behind trees. It blew rain into her face and forced her to close her eyes and stop whenever a particular big gust came around.

With her eyes half-blind, she was surprised she hadn’t tripped or run into anything yet, but she didn’t think that would last long.

Where was the exit? There had to be one around somewhere! Although, she found that that hope was slowly dying. How long had she been walking? A long time probably and despite her tiredness, she had yet to get out of the dreadfully familiar scene of plants, plants and more plants. She needed a new plan. It looked like she wasn’t going to be getting out of the storm the way she wanted to, so she was going to have to go with Plan B (always capitalized in her head).

Most people would be surprised that she had a Plan B already, but the specific plan had been thought up a few years ago. Just in case That ever happened again. And look-it that: it had.

So, Plan B: she needed to find a shelter. No, not a tree or a plant. Those couldn’t be trusted. A cave of some sort would work, but she didn’t think there were any around. Actually, maybe there were some. She sure didn’t expect to find a cave Back There, after all.

Leah looked around her and tried to calm herself down. She had to find shelter or it would just get worse.

It always did.




“Well,” Leah spoke to herself, voice shaking as a disbelieving grin came onto her face. “I would’ve liked a cave, but I suppose a creepy house in the middle of nowhere will have to do.”

It was around ten minutes later and Leah had stumbled upon the jackpot.

A house, a mansion, stood before her, looking much older than her own house. It looked abandoned if the yard was any indication. The gardens in front were all dead and the decayed plants hadn’t even been cleaned up. Though, it was hard to see through the thick rain.

Briskly walking toward the double doors that stood on top of a mini wooden staircase, she crushed the dead plants under her boots. When she got to the top of the stairs and under the overhang, she sighed, but didn’t make a move to taking her hood off. Water dripped onto the damp wood and Leah looked at the door cautiously before shaking her head.

No, there was no point in knocking. She didn’t care if it wasn’t abandoned, she was getting out of the weather and that was that. Period.

She tried to open the door and was a bit surprised when it swung open easily. Hmm, suspicious. With one last look at the miserable weather, she casually entered the mansion. There were no lights inside and she couldn’t see any light switches on the walls, but the light from the open doorway vaguely illuminated the scene.

It was… grand. That was the best word to describe it. The front room that she had entered was bigger then her kitchen and living room put together. At the very front of the room, about six meters ahead of her, were two great staircases which curled their way to the floor above. There was also a slight chill in the room and it almost made Leah think that it might be colder inside the house than out.

Before closing the door, Leah knelt down and dug around in her bag for her flashlight. She found it and switched it on, the beam of light providing more comfort then the light from outdoors did. She was happy to note, that once she closed the door, the sound of the rain was abruptly cut off, though she could still hear it if she was really quiet. Which she wasn’t.

“Hello?” Leah hesitantly asked the mansion, feeling like a girl out of a horror movie. “Anyone there?”

Nothing.

“Okay then, I’ll just make myself at home.” Then she said quieter to herself as she looked around with narrowed eyes. “Yeah, I’ll do that…”

Leah wandered over to the staircase, a once majestic red carpet guiding her from the door to the stairs, as if welcoming her. As she walked, she couldn’t help but notice the five white columns on either side of her, extended to the ceiling and seemingly holding it up. They were probably once quite good looking, but now they were crumbling and worn from age.

The whole place was weird, she thought. An abandoned mansion in the middle of a forest would make a good tourist attraction, so why wasn’t anyone here? Not only that, but there was a feeling in the air, like a static charge. She couldn’t really describe it, but whatever it was, it just gave her the feeling that she was intruding on something… sacred.

Her footfalls paused as she stood before the stairs.

The terror which had been put on hiatus as she amused herself with the mysterious mansion suddenly started to rise. Suddenly, she started to wonder why a house like this was abandoned in the first place. Had something horrible happened? She felt her limbs freezing in place and her mind blanking out. All that was left was her and the instinct that something was inexplicitly wrong with the whole situation.

Then, as fast as it appeared, the fear left her and she let out a breath of air.

Nothing to fear, it was probably just that weird smell in the air that had been bugging her since she had come in. That- that burning smell. Her nose itched and she wished that it would go away already. The smell had proved that it was annoying, so could it just go bug someone else, now?

“Sorry, house,” Leah said and forced a smile to hide a bit of unease. “Unless you can make it rain in here, there’s no getting rid of me.”

With nothing else to do, she sat down on one of the lowest steps, her arm leaning against her knee and her hand supporting her head. Silence descended on the mansion as Leah just sat there and did nothing. She could hear the dulled out sound of the rain outside as it attacked the roof with a roar.

She assumed it wouldn’t rain for that much longer, but the longer she sat there in the quiet, the more that the hope withered and died. How long was she going to be stuck inside for anyways? Hours? If that was so, then Leah could pretty much sentence herself to hours of boredom. She didn’t really feel like exploring the house because she’d probably just get into trouble. Besides, with the house in the condition that it was in, she didn’t want to accidently fall through the floor or something like that.

Sighing, she took out Sand’s Pokeball from her pocket and held it up to her face. She refused to suffer alone (it had nothing to do with feeling a bit uneasy, not at all).

“Hey, Sands,” Leah said to the Pokeball. “There’s no battle, but if I let you out, you gotta behave and be a good little Pokemon. Okay?”

Taking to the Pokeball was meaningless since Sands couldn’t hear her; though it didn’t matter because it wouldn’t be able understand even if it actually did.

Leah released Sands onto the floor. Her eyes narrowed at the bright light and stayed like that until the spectacle was over. Sands looked up at her with a blank expression. It was obviously confused on why it had been called out when there was no battle.

“I’m bored,” Leah told it, answering its imaginary question. “You’re suffering with me.”

“Sands?” it said.

“Yeah, that’s your name,” she teased it. Uh oh, if she was bored enough to play games with a Pokemon, then she was in trouble.

Though, Sands didn’t seem like it wanted to continue their conversation either. It pawed the ground, claws scratching the carpet before it got up on its hind legs and stuck its nose into the air, sniffing.

“What are you smelling?”

The Pokemon didn’t bother replying, putting its nose to the ground and then looking up at Leah.

“What are you-?”

With fast steps, Sands leapt onto the stair that Leah was sitting on and started to climb. Leah twisted her body around to watch her Pokemon walk away from her and go up to the next level with its nose first.

Leah scowled. “Hey!” She quickly stood up and with flashlight in hand, she followed. The beam of light kept a firm spotlight on the Sandshrew, who completely ignored its trainer when she called out to it again and again. Though she wasn’t that happy at Sands’ disobedience, she didn’t try to stop it, instead hoping that the Pokemon will lead her out of boredom, but not into trouble. Huh, and she thought she wasn’t going to explore. So much for that plan.

Sands and Leah got to the next floor up and Leah shined her flashlight onto the hallway walls. They were torn up and old, but that wasn’t what caught her attention. No, the thing that caught her attention was the single handprint that had been smeared onto the wallpaper closest to the staircase. She went up closer and found that it was a dark, rusty brown and drips of it fell in a straight line to the floor. Or, once had. It was completely dried up and looked like it had been like that for a long time.

“Blood; ew,” she concluded with a grimace. “This has suddenly gotten a lot creepier.”

Leah turned from the wall and pointed her flashlight back at Sands-

-Or, where Sands was supposed to be.

The light hovered in that spot for a moment before starting to frantically move along ground, looking for the lost Pokemon.

“Sands?” Leah asked loudly. “Come here!”

When the Sandshrew didn’t come trotting to her, Leah cursed at Sands’ sudden abandonment. Not again! This was the reason that she hated relying on Sandshrew for anything other then a battle. It always seemed to abandon her when she needed it most! What if she needed protection or something? Argh!

Calm down, she told herself. There are only two directions Sands could have gone: up the hallway or down the hallway. Judging that Sands would have to slip past her to go down the hallway, she assumed that it had gone right. Leah peered up the hallway. No Pokemon could be seen, but there were three doors, two of them wide open, the other being closed.

She took a step forward and the floor creaked under her weight. Banishing the chills, she tried to walk casually down the hall, like nothing was remotely creepy about it.

“Oh, Sands…” she sung to herself. “Where are you…?”

Leah glanced into the first room, sweeping her flashlight around while doing so. Nope, nothing alive or spooky. Just a small room with a desk and an awesome looking high-back chair behind it. Putting her search for Sands on hiatus, she walked over (making sure that there definitely nothing alive (or un-alive) around her) and promptly sat down. The plush sagged under her and she bounced her head off the back of the plush chair.

“Liking the chair.” She nodded to herself and noticed a few papers on the desk. Old, crinkled ones, but most obviously paper. She helped herself and dragged one of them over to her eyes, but didn’t pick it up; it looked delicate.

It was legible and it seemed to be some sort of page out of a diary.


March 18th, 1954

Elizur is doing better now that the weather is warmer. He seems to enjoy sitting in the sun, but I must be careful not to leave him alone. This is the second time he has tried to wander into the bush. I dread to think what could have happened if Nidorina wasn’t watching him; he could’ve gotten lost. I’m going to have to keep him inside for a while, though I must make it clear to him that it isn’t a punishment. Kadabra has warned me that it is going to rain for the next few days and my dear psychic type has nary been wrong.

I do hope Elizur won’t take it too bad. He does hate staying inside and I feel rather guilty that he must. I know he misses Brazil and I have decided that I’ll be taking him there for the summer. He’ll enjoy that, I’m sure.

My colleague, Professor Dawson, will be joining me for the next few weeks and he is in great spirits. He’s wanted to meet Elizur ever since I mentioned him and I hope that they’ll get along well. Elizur is rather shy, but I’m sure that the professor will be able to win him over.


The page ended there and nothing else was written.

“Who’s Elizur?” Leah said to herself as she pushed the page away and dragged a different one towards her. She really shouldn’t be snooping in some dead guy’s belongings, but who was going to call her out for it? A ghost?

The page in front of her was shorter then the last.


April 5th, 1954

I am worried about Elizur. Ever since the professor left, he hasn’t been acting as cheery as he normally is. He took to Professor Dawson quite much and I don’t like seeing him so put out. I don’t know what to do, but it’s a sunny afternoon and I hope that Elizur will have some fun outside today. In fact, I may join him myself. I can’t remember the last time that I went outside just to enjoy the weather. I haven’t talked with Elizur often either and maybe we can talk things out.

“Wow,” Leah said. “Elizur this, Elizur that. Is he the guy’s son or something?”

She looked at the rest of the papers on the desk, but found the words were either too illegible, as if a bucket of water had been dropped on them. Leaning back in her chair, she pondered the mystery of the blurred notes. Now that she paid attention, she saw that the edges on one side of the pages were torn. They must have been torn out of a notebook, she thought. But why was that?

Leah looked over the notes again and picked one out that looked half-readable, though it was the shortest entry yet.


May 24th, 1954

….thing’s wrong…… Elizur. He’s gotten extremely volatile and I’m not sure what to do. He’s……………hit Kadabra. …..tried to reason………………won’t listen to me and now I’ve found…….always arguing. …………not the worst of it. ………. morning, I found blood…. his room…. confronted him………horrified…………..he cut …………….. A nasty slash. This has gone too far.


“Kid went insane then,” Leah concluded. She was about to try to read another page when she heard a small sound coming from the next room.

It was a thumping noise and it came vaguely from her right.

She grinned and promptly forgot about the mystery in front of her. She had found Sands! Reluctantly getting up from the awesome chair, she left the room, flashlight ahead of her.

“Here’s door number two,” she said as she poked her head in.

The room was in serve contrast from the room she just left. Where the study was boring and was your typical office, the room she was in was bursting with life. It was a bedroom, the bed being an obvious sign as it stood pressed against the wall. The sheets were a brilliant blue and covered with yellow patterns. Above the bed was a window, the curtains open and the light from outside cast a blue glow on the room.

Water was dripping down the window and she could hear the pitter patter of the rain on the roof. The room was surprisingly warm, she found, as she stepped forwards onto the expensive wood lining the floor.

Something caught her eye, so she walked up to the shelf on the wall and stared at the beautiful rocks that stood proudly on display. They all gleamed, some shined and some even glittered. It was quite a collection. She could even recognize some of the rocks by name, though it wasn’t that surprising. The gray stone, for instance, the one with green veins that spider-webbed across it was a Leaf Stone. Next to it was a blue stone, one that was a mix of blues and purples. That was a Water Stone. Most of the rocks were some type of elemental stone, but the rest were just your common variety garden rocks, or so she assumed.

Leah turned away from the rocks and looked down at the Pokemon who was lying beside her.

“What are you doing in here, Sands?” Leah asked. The Pokemon looked tired and its body was curled up around a stone that seemingly fell from the shelf. Sands’ paws were around the rock, but the trainer could still see the spiral of reds and oranges of the rock.

“Why do you have Fire Stone, Sands?”

Kneeling down, she put her hand on her Pokemon’s body and felt the heat it produced, but she also felt the faint shivering. Her hand ran along Sands’ body until she could feel the warmth that was admitting from the Fire Stone. Leah frowned. Now that she thought about it, it was quite a bit warmer in the room than the rest of the house. And as she very well knew, the one thing that Sandshrew hated equally to water, it was the cold.

“Are you cold? Is that it?”

Sands opened its eyes into slits, but closed them again, uninterested in its trainer.

She sighed. “Guess that’s a ‘yes’ then. Come on, Sands. You can’t lay here all day and I really don’t want to return you to your Pokeball.”

The word ‘Pokeball’ was something Sands recognized and it raised its head. Keeping its paws firmly on the stone, the Pokemon unleashed a pleading look that Leah had never seen Sands give her before. The look was vaguely human-ish and the fact that she could tell it was a pleading look made her uncomfortable.

She really hated it when Sands started to give her those types of expressions. It made her think back to those Pokemon Rights propaganda that had been spreading around recently. The idea that Pokemon were sentient beings and could think and feel like a human gave her the shivers. If it were true, it would bring a whole new side to slavery and what Pokemon battling was really about. Thank god it wasn’t, though. The only Pokemon that could be counted as sentient were psychic types, and even they had to be powerful to think like a human.

“Okay,” Leah said as she got to her feet. “Fine, fine. Lay there. It’s not like we need to explore.”

With another sigh, Leah sank onto the bed, feeling the stiff mattress deny her the ability to be comfortable. She once again let her head be held up by her hand as she just sat there and did nothing.

… It was funny. Something had been gnawing at her mind ever since she had entered the mansion and she felt it was a good enough time then ever to figure out what it was.

It wasn’t the torn and blurred pages, no matter how weird it seemed. People did odd things, nothing wrong about that. It also wasn’t the burning smell that had bugged her downstairs. She didn’t know how long smells like that were supposed to last, but she was sure nothing was on fire. Hmm. Whatever had been bugging her had been doing so ever since she had stepped in the haunted house.

The people, she supposed. She would have thought that an old mansion like the one she was in would be gotten rid of ages ago. Or at least bought by someone who liked weird, creepy houses. It just didn’t make sense. Where were all the people? Not only that, but where were all the Pokemon? Abandoned places were the perfect homes for wild Pokemon and in a storm like the one outside, the place should be crawling with Rattata.

Yes, that was the thing that had been bugging her. Where was everyone?

Shifting, she sat up straight and eyed the room. It was surprising that no had ever entered the mansion. The rocks on the shelves, the elemental ones, they could have been sold for money or used on Pokemon. There were probably lots of things that could have been sold, but they were just left behind to rot.

Leah got up and went over the shelves again. She stepped over the sleeping Sandshrew and got right up close. The stones were really pretty and they shone when her flashlight flashed over them. But it was then when she noticed something. A small thing, something that she had always overlooked, but with her flashlight, it made it obvious. She breathed out of her mouth again and watched the few specks of dust on the rocks to lift into the air. They danced, completely visible in the light.

The dust. Why was there so little dust?

“Sands,” Leah spoke softly as she shone her flashlight on the other stones. There was no dust on them and she could see the dust-free fingerprints on the shelf. It stood out horribly and she wondered how she could’ve missed it. There was no dust on the banister or the stairs when she came in either. Also, there was none on the desk or the paper in the study. She never found herself coughing over the fifty years worth of dust.

Then she remembered the thumping noise that had led her to Sands. Her Pokemon wasn’t clumsy and she knew that there was no way that it could have knocked the Fire Stone off the shelf by itself. The sound came vaguely from her right. Well, was it from straight from her right or down from her right?

“Sands,” she repeated as Sands cracked open an eye. There was an urgent tone in her voice and it couldn’t be ignored.

“You know what? I don’t think we’re alone in the house.”





Outside, the storm raged on.





A/N: Hey guys, I have a question, though it’s hard to explain. In a sentence, for something laying on the ground, would you use ‘laying’ or ‘lying’? It’s a question that’s been bugging me for a while and I suppose now’s a good time to get an answer.

Also, do you guys think there’s something wrong with the chapter? Like pacing issues or maybe illogical character actions…? I have to ask this because there’s something bugging me about the chapter, but I can’t tell what (except for the sucky conclusion).

Giratina ♀ April 4th, 2009 6:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dagzar (Post 45000)
Sighing, she took out Sands' Pokeball from her pocket and held it up to her face.

This was another good chapter. I really liked the creepiness factor you added to it, and the only error I could find was the one quoted. When a name ends with an S (Alexis, Sands, Helios, and so on) you use the last letter as if it were the second part of the 's and put an apostrophe at the end of the word. ;D

Buoysel April 4th, 2009 8:06 AM

Quote:

It wasn’t the best excuse, especially since she was the one that wanted that wanted to leave so badly, but how could she know that she was going to get caught in up in a freaking storm?
That Is the only mistake that jumped out at me.

Quote:

A/N: Hey guys, I have a question, though it’s hard to explain. In a sentence, for something laying on the ground, would you use ‘laying’ or ‘lying’? It’s a question that’s been bugging me for a while and I suppose now’s a good time to get an answer.

Also, do you guys think there’s something wrong with the chapter? Like pacing issues or maybe illogical character actions…? I have to ask this because there’s something bugging me about the chapter, but I can’t tell what (except for the sucky conclusion).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but "laying" would be correct, because "lying" is the act of telling a lie.

And I did not see anything wrong with the chapter.

Dagzar April 4th, 2009 8:51 AM

Quote:

This was another good chapter. I really liked the creepiness factor you added to it, and the only error I could find was the one quoted. When a name ends with an S (Alexis, Sands, Helios, and so on) you use the last letter as if it were the second part of the 's and put an apostrophe at the end of the word. ;D

Thanks, Giratinasaur! Heh, that was another grammar issue I was thinking about since I stupidly nicknamed the Sandshrew ‘Sands’. Stupid possession grammar always gets me. ;) I’m glad you thought it was creepy since I’ve never written that type of stuff before. And man, was it fun to write!

Quote:

That Is the only mistake that jumped out at me.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but "laying" would be correct, because "lying" is the act of telling a lie.

And I did not see anything wrong with the chapter.

Thanks for reviewing, Buoysel! Okay, since I’ve been using ‘laying’ throughout the story, I haven’t been making a mistake. Excellent!

Negrek April 4th, 2009 1:01 PM

It's "lying." When you're talking about something resting on something, or reclining in a horizontal position, that's "lie." It doesn't take a direct object. If you're placing an object somewhere, i.e. laying it down, then "lay" is the verb that you use. You can only use it in conjunction with an object.

So:

Quote:

You can’t lay here all day and I really don’t want to return you to your Pokeball.
Incorrect; there is no object, so it should be "lie." There should also be a comma after "day."

Quote:

Ally likewise sat on a bed, but at least she was not tired enough to lay down on her bag.
Correct; "her bag" is the object. Kinda funny because the comma in this sentence is correctly placed, and is required for the same reason that should be one in the first quoted sentence.

delongbi April 4th, 2009 7:00 PM

You know how it goes, grammar errors first.

Quote:

Or, that was what Leah kept telling herself.
This sentence flows better without the comma.

Quote:

She couldn’t see, she could hear (not that it would’ve helped anyways) and she couldn’t even run anymore, though that one was more her fault then the rain’s.
I think you meant couldn't hear, not could hear. Also, then should be than.

Quote:

Oh, what she would do to get out of the weather?
When you read this sentance, it does not sound like it is a question. I think the '?' should be a period...

Quote:

Uh oh, if she bored enough to play games with a Pokemon, then she was in trouble.
If she was bored enough

Anyway, this was a great (but creepy) chapter. Even though you freaked me out several times, I enjoyed the thrill. You'd probably be a great horror writer (but if this turns into a horror fic, I'm leaving... I can't deal with too much creepy)- You're a little too good at it, lol.

Quote:

It was completely dried up and looked like it had been like that for a long time.
Yeah, and that's where I would leave.

When Sands went missing, I was reminded of I am legend...

Quote:

Sands opened its eyes into slits, but closed them again, uninterested in its trainer.
I'm seeing some similarities between trainer and Pokemon...

Nice chapter! Can't wait for more!

Dagzar April 4th, 2009 7:38 PM

Thanks for the grammar advice, Buoysel! Since I’ve substituted ‘laying’ for ‘lying’ several times throughout the story, I better go back and do some much need editing!

And thanks, delongbi! I’ll have to correct those errors when I go back to fix my ‘laying’ problem. Heh, and don’t worry, this story isn’t a horror one (though it may seem like it at times). Though, I suppose I’ll say that the next chapter will have some creepiness, but then the story should go back to its generalness. Somewhat. :cheeky:

Neiko Star April 5th, 2009 5:03 AM

I've been too lazy to reply lately, but your recent chapters are great! Was it creepy? I didn't really find it creepy...but maybe that's just me. (Lol, my friends at school say that I have no reaction to anything whatsoever XD)

Yeah, as the others have pointed out, it's 'laying' for objects. I've had trouble with that verb too. There also some minor grammar mistakes and typos, but the overall story is great. I would just advise re-reading your chapter before posting it.

Then again, I never do that...so yeah. xD

Dagzar April 5th, 2009 7:45 AM

Thanks Neiko Star!

Quote:

I've been too lazy to reply lately, but your recent chapters are great! Was it creepy? I didn't really find it creepy...but maybe that's just me. (Lol, my friends at school say that I have no reaction to anything whatsoever XD)

Heh, you’re the same as me with non-reacting at horror and such. Horror movies, when I actually watch them, don’t scare me at all like most things don’t (though, put a spider in front of me and it’s a whole different matter :paranoid:).

Quote:

Yeah, as the others have pointed out, it's 'laying' for objects. I've had trouble with that verb too. There also some minor grammar mistakes and typos, but the overall story is great. I would just advise re-reading your chapter before posting it.

Then again, I never do that...so yeah. xD

Yeah, not re-reading my chapter before posting is a bad habit of mine. I do try to do it sometimes, but I usually start skimming and missing things. Sometimes, I think I’m way too impatient when posting my chapter. ;)

Neiko Star April 5th, 2009 8:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dagzar (Post 4504821)
Yeah, not re-reading my chapter before posting is a bad habit of mine. I do try to do it sometimes, but I usually start skimming and missing things. Sometimes, I think I’m way too impatient when posting my chapter. ;)

Ahaha, you're exactly like me. The second I finish typing, I post it. And about the spider thing, I like have this reflex to jump everytime I see a worm. XD

gooner April 6th, 2009 8:34 AM

i read ur story last nite and it was ace, its inspired me 2 rite my own (wen i get some free time).

Incinermyn April 6th, 2009 11:55 AM

Loved this chapter, but does it have to be a two-parter? Just, experience has taught me that when you break stuff up, it destroys your story more often than not (at least that's what through me off in my last version of Dark Nostalgia).

Dagzar April 6th, 2009 2:39 PM

Quote:

Ahaha, you're exactly like me. The second I finish typing, I post it. And about the spider thing, I like have this reflex to jump everytime I see a worm. XD
*shivers* I used to play with worms and spiders when I was little, but now, I can’t really look at them without freezing. At least with worms, I don’t have to fear finding them climbing up my bedroom walls.
Quote:

i read ur story last nite and it was ace, its inspired me 2 rite my own (wen i get some free time).
Thanks for reviewing, gooner! I’m glad I inspired you. I hope you story comes out well. ;)

Quote:

Loved this chapter, but does it have to be a two-parter? Just, experience has taught me that when you break stuff up, it destroys your story more often than not (at least that's what through me off in my last version of Dark Nostalgia).
Thanks, Skunter! I would love it if I didn’t have to break up chapters (as it breaks the mood), but chapter six was over 4000 words and chapter seven is already over 3400 words (and it’s not even close to being finished)! I find that very long chapters can be a hassle to read at times and some people (like me) start skimming if it gets too long.

Neiko Star April 6th, 2009 2:42 PM

True...but it's really freaky when you see them wriggling around half-squished in the streets on rainy days.

gooner April 8th, 2009 2:01 PM

i forgot to mention that i would put it in the top 5 i've read (including other anime fanficts)

Dagzar April 10th, 2009 1:29 PM

Mentor
Chapter 7: Lost (part two)




“What should we do, Sands?” Leah asked her Pokemon quietly as she leaned against the wall of the bedroom, where she hopefully couldn’t be seen by anyone. Her eyes glanced back to the door, which she left ajar, and her ears prickled to the sound of Sands yawning in response. Her body tensed and she found herself frustrated by the lack of attention.

“Be serious,” she hissed at it. “This is important!”

Sands didn’t seem to think so as it put its head back on the fire stone, eyes closed.

Sighing in exasperation, Leah took one last look at the door before abandoning her hiding spot and stiffly walking over to her Sandshrew. She bent down and wrapped her hands around Sands’s middle. Sands tried to curl into itself and get rid of the intruding hands, but it was in vain as the trainer lifted the Pokemon into her arms. The ground type made a mournful yowl as the Fire Stone slipped from its clawed grasp and landed on the floor with a thump.

“Stop kicking me!” Leah said as she held her Pokemon tighter, despite its struggles for escape. Sands growled softly in warning when its trainer wound one of her arms around the area of its neck and as the limb started to tighten, the Sandshrew suddenly bit down on the flesh with its tiny fangs.

The trainer swore as she immediately half-dropped and half-threw the Pokemon away from her. Sands landed on its side and let out a yelp before getting up and scampering back to the Fire Stone, its teeth bloody. Leah cradled her arm and accessed the damage before glaring at the Pokemon.

“Your lucky my jacket took most of that,” she threatened. “Seriously. It’s just a Fire Stone. It’s not that cold out! You don’t need it.”

Her hand found the semi-familiar feel of her Pokeball and she let the beam of red light immaterialize Sands, who didn’t notice what was happening until it happened.

“Stupid Pokemon,” Leah muttered as she put the sphere back into her pocket.

She sighed; her anger vanishing until she just felt tired.

Okay, she had to face the facts. Someone was in the house with her (probably). She didn’t know who it was and her only weapon was a flashlight and a misbehaving Pokemon who couldn’t even beat a baby Paras. Leaving the house wasn’t an option since she refused to face the storm, and there wasn’t anything she could do about that.

Her only options? Stay where she was and hope that no one would come upstairs and find her. Pros: she didn’t have to move and she didn’t think there was any reason for anyone to suddenly come upstairs (except for the expensive stones). Cons: she had no clue when the storm would end, there was no lock on the door (she checked) and she really didn’t like being in the room.

Leah swallowed and looked at the window hopefully. The window, as if sensing her misplaced hope, cheerfully showed the rain coming down harder than ever and it silently promised that the rain wouldn’t stop any time soon.

Damn it. What was she supposed to do?

Leave, her mind supplied. Not the house, but the room. There was another door, just outside in the hall, and it looked strong. Maybe it even had a lock on it, but was conveniently unlocked, just for her. And even then, there was another hallway with more doors. There was bound to be a room she could hide in that wasn’t as creepy as the one she was currently in.

Leah took one last look around the room. The calm blue glow that the outside light produced didn’t ease the situation. It was like the room was in the eye of the storm and it made her wary. The whole house was like a well-kept museum with a past that somehow refused to be forgotten.

Slowly and quietly, she went to the door and peered down the hallway, her cheek pressed against the doorframe. Her eyes spotted the door she was looking for and it was still closed, its solid frame seemingly beckoning her to open it to find out what was inside. It was funny, she thought. Just for a moment, she had expected the door to be open. Isn’t that what always happened in the movies?

The coast was clear, so she made her way over to the door and lightly grasped the handle. It turned, slowly but surely. It was unlocked and she held her breath and she kept her free hand wound around her Pokeball. She pushed the door open and coughed as dust came drifting out of it. Her eyes closed against her will and she struggled to open them again, but when she did, it didn’t help.

The room was so dark she couldn’t see inside. The only things she could see were vague outlines of what could have been furniture. Her hand fumbled with the flashlight before turning it on. Though, once the light was on, she found herself standing nervously in the doorway, trying to use the light to gain a perspective on the room.

The room didn’t look very big and, surprisingly, it wasn’t another bedroom like she expected. Nope, it was just a room with dust-covered chairs and a coffee table. It didn’t seem all that special and since the whole room was simply covered in dust, she didn’t think that anyone had bothered to go in for a long time. She even doubted that the door had been opened.

As she stood there, she reminded herself that she could always send Sands out and go in first if she didn’t feel like it. That way, if there was something dangerous, nothing bad would happen to her. But, she also thought, she wasn’t a coward and didn’t need to get a weak, little Pokemon to go in first. She could do it. All she had to do was walk in and check it out. It wasn’t that hard.

The door, she found, didn’t have a lock on it and she felt a bit foolish to think that it would have. Maybe if the house was a bit more modern it would have one, but with it being as old as it was, she didn’t think any of the doors except for the ones that went outside would have a lock.

She took a few steps forward and entered the room. Dust floated in the air and gave her the urge to hold her breath, just so she wouldn’t inhale any. Her flashlight illuminated every speck of the room: the corners, behind the chairs, under the table… but luckily, she didn’t find a single thing. It was completely normal.

Clear, she thought to herself in relief.

Suddenly, she heard a tiny noise, a creaking sound. It wasn’t much, but she felt her body tensing and her heart starting to speed up. She brought her Pokeball out into the open and held it out as a silent threat. She took a step back, but froze when she heard the tell-tale creak again. This time, it was louder with a couple small cracks accompanying it. Her flashlight spun around the room, light flashing to every corner as she twisted her body around without moving her feet.

Crack!

Again! Damn it. Where was it coming from? She tried to calm herself down as she listened deeply, straining her ears to pinpoint the location of the sound. It echoed around her and she vaguely wondered whether it was some type of ghost Pokemon causing it. Though, it didn’t matter as when another crack sounded to her immediate right, she found herself unwilling stepping back again.

Another creak sounded, but this one was different as it dragged out until it evolved into a loud, terrifying crackle.

Leah got a sinking feeling in her chest and just happened to look down. Under the light and under her feet, the weak and worn floorboards cracked, showing the thin, devastating lines that spider webbed across it. With every crackle, the lines grew and spread out, like braches of a tree.

In the seconds that followed, Leah’s mind wondered if the cracks were the reason the person in the mansion had never come into the room. It had been fifty years. It was a wonder that the other floors weren’t in such a sorry state of decay as the one under her.

In one movement, she tried to throw herself backwards and off the splintering lines, but found herself unable to when the floor collapsed around her. Suddenly, the only thing holding her up was air and she felt a weightless feeling. Unfortunately, it only lasted a split-second as gravity took a hold of her and she fell.




“Ouch…” Leah groaned as she came back into the waking world. Her head spun and she mourned the loss of being unconscious. She would have stayed where she was because she didn’t feel like moving, but a thing was poking sharply at her back. It was uncomfortable and annoying, so she got up.

As she sat up, she felt the odd and slightly nauseous sensation of her world spinning on its axis and when she opened her eyes, the feeling just got worse. Her hand blindly groped around to where she was laying and she pulled out a small piece of floorboard. It was cracked and its edges were sharp, which explained why it was so uncomfortable to lay on.

Her dull gray eyes looked around. The room she was in was unfamiliar to her. The walls were stone gray and had hairline cracks along the bottom. The floor was made of cold, hard cement and it was covered dust and pieces of wood. A few chairs were lying splinted around the floor, their legs and backs broken. There was even the old coffee table, cracked along its middle, lying almost right next to her. If she landed even a few feet then where she had really fallen, she could’ve been smacked by a table. Ouch.

Oddly, for such an abandoned place, there was a dim light coming from a single door that was ajar, on the other side of the room. Leah would’ve guessed that someone might be in there (maybe the mysterious person in the house?), but anyone, except for a deaf person, would hear a floor caving in and would check it out. If no one did, then no one was there.

Maybe the person in the house left a light on before leaving or something? How long was she out for?

Leah felt like she had better get up. As she did so, she winced at her ripped and bloodstained pants. When she got upright, a sharp pain made its way up her body from her leg when she put some pressure on it. Her vision blurred slightly and she grimaced at the feeling of wanting to throw up.

After she got her bearings, she groaned quietly. Just what she needed. Not only was she trapped in a haunted house, but she was injured too? Unfair.

There weren’t any other entrances and exits in the room that she could see, only the lit door. She checked and made sure her Pokeball was still safely in her pocket before she shuffled to the door, wincing at every step her pain-filled leg took. She leaned on the door for a moment before pushing it open and glancing into the next room.

A single light bulb with no protective covering shone down from the ceiling. It was a bit brighter than she thought it would be, but as she looked around, she really, really wished that she could turn the light off. There were a few tables on the side of the room, pushed against the wall and on them, old machines that looked like they hadn’t worked for a long time. On one of the tables, there was a deep and smooth slash that seemed to have been made by a giant claw; something like a Kabutops or a Scyther.

There were more slashes on the walls. They sunk deep into the concrete, like it was made of butter and the claw-marks sometimes overlapped with each other. But that wasn’t all; not at all. On the floor, in the middle of the room, was a cage; though, that was as far as the resemblance went. The twisted metal lied on a ragged, red-checkered cloth and was colored burnt silver. The bars were wildly out of shape and they were wrapped around each other in a loving embrace. The base of the cage seemed only big enough to fit something like a Rhyhorn and the cage ceiling couldn’t even be described since it was no where to be seen.

Overall, it didn’t look like a pretty place.

“What the hell…?” Leah gaped as she stood frozen in the doorway. It became apparent to her that she probably looked silly just standing there, but it was hard to keep from staring. The scene looked like something straight out of a horror movie. It was like the mad scientist’s evil lab where he conducted his evil experiments and generally did evil stuff.

Though this…? This was beyond even that.

“Did someone resurrect a Kabutops or something?” she asked herself as she held her Pokeball like a lifeline. She took a couple steps forward, but immediately wished she hadn’t. When standing in the doorway, she was only able to see around three fourths of the room, but now she could see what she hadn’t beforehand.

It wasn’t anything spectacular, it was just a statue. Though it was the most lifelike statue she had ever seen in her entire life and that was saying something. It had a general cat-shaped body, but was standing in a position like a human. It had a head shaped like an upside-down triangle with two pointed ears and two long, bushy, mustache-like whiskers. It was standing on two short legs with clawed feet and had two armor-like shoulder pads. At its back was a long and fat tail that was stretched out behind it. Its two clawed hands were held out in front of it, both holding onto the same spoon that was pointing at the cage.

It looked in remarkable condition, but that wasn’t the reason Leah was staring at it. The Pokemon looked like it was defending itself from… something. It looked scared, like it couldn’t win.

It did bring up a question though. Why was a statue of a Kadabra doing in the lab of an abandoned mansion?

Unless…

‘-Kadabra has warned me that it is going to rain for the next few days and my dear psychic type has nary been wrong-’

‘-hit Kadabra-’

Leah’s hand uncertainly reached out, trembling, as if to touch the lifeless statue.

It was impossible, but yet…

“Excuse me, miss?”

Instantly, Leah pulled back her hand in a snap and whirled around, Pokeball ready to be thrown and a command at her lips.

The old man took a step back and held his hands up in surrender, an apologetic expression on his face. “Sorry to startle you. I didn’t expect to see anyone else down here.”

“What?” Leah said, confused, her Pokeball still ready for action. “Who’re you?”

“My name’s Benjamin Chambers,” the old man explained. “I’m the professor that works here.” The so-called Professor Chambers did look pretty book-ish from Leah’s point-of-view. He had thick glasses and thinning gray hair. His buttoned up white coat dripped water onto the floor and was partly see-through due to being wet.

“Wait… what? You’re a professor?” Leah couldn’t help but be confused. Was the man in front of her the mysterious intruder that had been making that noise and pretty much causing all her anxiously? “What’re you doing here for?

“I should be asking you the same question, but I suppose anyone would want to take shelter from a storm like this one.”

The comment was spot on and Leah’s eyes narrowed as alarm bells rang in her head. “How’d you know I came in because of the storm?”

The old man chucked warmly. “Well, it wasn’t very hard. Your clothes are damp and you have mud on your boots. Besides, people rarely enter the mansion and that’s only to either get out of the weather or to find Pokemon that might live here.”

“Oh.” Her mental alarm bells had turned off and she felt a bit embarrassed. Though the feeling disappeared quickly as she remembered where she was exactly.

She pointed at the statue beside her. “What’s with this?” Then she motioned to the cage and slash marks. “And with those?”

The professor sighed to himself and rubbed the back of his head. “I’m not exactly sure, but they’re the reason I’m here. I’m trying to figure out what Pokemon caused it. Unfortunately, I’m not having the best of luck.”

“So… this,” Leah said, looking at the statue. “Wasn’t always like… that?”

“I don’t think so. Actually, I’m pretty certain that it was once a living Kadabra, though I can’t prove it.” He changed the subject. “Judging by the question, I say you read those papers on the second floor?”

“Yeah. What happened?”

“I’m not sure,” the professor repeated and looked a bit apologetic.

“Huh.” Leah frowned and tried to turn her attention away from the statue. She really didn’t want to look at it since she couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to be alive one moment, eating and breathing, then to be immobile and stone the next.

“Why don’t you come upstairs,” the old man said, finding nothing else to talk about. “You don’t look too well, though I don’t think anyone would after falling through a floor.”

“You heard?” Leah asked as she followed the professor back into the other room.

The professor carefully walked around a chair, careful not to step onto any of the bigger pieces of floorboard. “Not really. I was outside, enjoying the storm. Actually, my Magneton was enjoying it and I mostly just stood there. It was really surprising when I walked back inside to find that the ceiling collapsed.”

“There’s another door? I didn’t see any.”

“It’s hard to see in the dark.” The professor motioned to the gray colored door that blended perfectly in the wall, but was visible now that there was more than a little of light. He held it open for her and Leah dully went first to see a small and thin hallway seemingly squeezed between the walls. As they walked along the corridor, the pain in her leg burned, as if to remind her that it still existed. At the end of the hallway, she pushed open another door to find herself in a hallway adjoined to the entrance of the mansion.

They stood in silence before the stairs, the rain humming from above. Leah found herself disappointed the rain still hadn’t stopped and she now more then ever wanted to just go back outside.

“What do you think of the mansion?” the professor asked her, breaking the quiet.

Leah was pulled out of her thoughts. “Huh? Oh, I dunno. Seems creepy and old.”

“Most people think that. Did you see the bloody handprint upstairs?”

“Yeah. Do you know what caused it?” The phrase was getting a bit redundant.

“Not yet, but I hope I’ll find out soon.”

Silence.

“So,” Leah started, “you’re studying this mansion?” She was curious, despite herself.

“Yes,” the professor said. “Though I’m mostly studying the thing that caused the scene downstairs. Whatever it was has to be powerful.”

“Is it a new Pokemon?” She tried to imagine the Pokemon, one with blades and the power to turn flesh to stone, but couldn’t.

“I’m certain of it since I can’t think of any Pokemon that can bend bars, have huge claws and can turn a Pokemon to stone. Well, maybe a Groudon, but those have long since been extinct-”

Leah tuned out the professor at that point as something had caught her attention. Was it a trick of the ears or was the rain lessening just a bit? It certainly wasn’t the roar she had been hearing beforehand. It was more like a pitter-patter sound, a welcome change from the previously angry weather.

“-or something like that.” The professor stopped talking and seemed to catch onto the same line of thought she was having. “I think the rain is letting up.”

“Finally!” Leah said, a small smile coming onto her features. She really, really wanted to leave. She had had enough of the spooky mansion to last a lifetime, at least.

Then something occurred to her.

“Hey, uh, professor?” Leah asked and continued, “what’s that smell?”

“The smell?”

“Yeah, the burning one.”

“Oh, Oh!” the old man said, looking a bit embarrassed. “That’s the repel I put down this morning. It keeps the wild Pokemon from making their home here. It’s only in this area that I put it down, so it wouldn’t bother me while I work. Though, the smell is horrid, isn’t it?”

Leah snorted. “That’s for sure. I suppose that means that Sands had another reason after all.”

“Who’s Sands?”

She mentally jumped as she didn’t intend the say the last bit out loud. “My Sandshrew. It completely ignored me and went upstairs to sleep in the kid’s bedroom.”

“Does it do that often?”

“Yeah, but I thought it was just cold or something.”

The professor stared at her for a moment from behind his glasses. “You don’t really like your Sandshrew, do you?”

“Why do you care?” Leah asked rudely, not willing to talk about her Pokemon. The rain would stop soon, she’d leave and soon after, she could go back home and forget about this little adventure.

“It puzzles me,” he admitted as he took off his glasses and put them in his pocket. “I don’t often talk to Pokemon trainers, but whenever I do, most of them seem to carry a great deal of affection for their Pokemon.”

Leah shrugged. “Well I don’t. There’s probably lots of people who don’t. What does it matter?”

“Because, despite you calling your Pokemon an ‘it’, your Sandshrew sports a nickname. Sands, was it? If you didn’t care about your Pokemon, why did you name it?”

Leah didn’t reply, a memory swelling over her ears.

“Your name is going to be Sands, okay? Sands is a special name, a unique one. You’re not a Sandshrew anymore, you’re a Sands. One of a kind! Grandma says that if I name you, we can become close friends and be like that forever. And that’s what we’re going to do, no if, ands or buts! Got it, Sands?”

Then the only thing she could hear was the rain.

“My grandmother told me to,” Leah said shortly. “Besides, I was ten. All ten-year-olds want their Pokemon to be special.”

“Isn’t your Pokemon special?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Sands is stupid, lazy, selfish and can hardly beat a Rattata. Hardly even likes me. It’s just a weak, average Pokemon.”

“Then can I give you some advice?” the professor asked calmly before continuing. “Don’t ignore me if this sounds cliché, but if you want your Pokemon to be strong and like you, why don’t you try doing the same thing?”

“Be strong and be nice to Sands?” Leah asked skeptically. “Why?”

“Basically, If you show your Pokemon encouragement and spend time with it, it will do its best to be loyal and follow your commands since it won’t want to disappoint you.”

“Yeah?” she said and she was surprised at herself for actually starting to consider what the old man was saying. “But I’m only going to be training for like, another week. What does it matter?”

“Pokemon isn’t just for a journey,” he said. “But for life. If you nurture the bond between you and your Pokemon, it will always stay loyal and who knows? Maybe it will come in handy one day.”

Suddenly, a ringing sound went off, the shrill and persistent noise making Leah jump. The professor stayed calm, however, and took out an old black cell phone from his pocket. He looked at the main screen for a moment before turning to Leah.

“Sorry,” he said to her in an apologetic tone, pressing one hand against the speaker, muffling the sound. “I have to take this call.”

Without another word, he hurried off, back down the corridor to the lab.

And Leah was left alone with the sound of the rain.

“… Handy, huh?” she said quietly to herself, going over the man’s words. “Never needed it before.”

Until now, that is.





Her boots splashed in the wet mud as she made her way out of the mansion’s yard. Her hood was down and she felt the unpleasant sensation of the chilled wind blowing into her face. The rain had stopped, but the clouds were still hovering in the air, just waiting for her to get in the middle of the forest before dropping their cargo.

She really didn’t want to be walking under a cloudy sky, but she didn’t have much choice. It was either take the chance of quickly walking back to the Pokemon Center or wait another half-hour in the mansion for the off chance that the clouds would go away.

Her choice was obvious.

The professor had never come back from his phone call and she refused to stick around to say goodbye. Reluctantly, she had taken a slight detour before leaving and she hoped she didn’t regret it.

The professor’s advice, despite being uncalled for, made her do a little thinking. If she and Sands were going to be stuck together, then she would rather have it- him obeying her. And hey, she had to look on the bright side. If she was nice to Sands and actually trained him, she would get a loyal and powerful servant at her beck and call.

“Why didn’t I ever consider this before?” Leah asked to the sky, which only replied with a slight rumble.

She redirected her question to her Pokemon. “Do you know why, Sands?”

Sands only shivered slightly and his claws dug into her jacket as Leah’s hands held him to her chest.

“Hey,” Leah scolded. “Don’t go all silent on me, Sands. This is our bonding time. You should be happy of what I’ve done for you so far. I’ve let you out of your Pokeball and I’m actually holding you.” She paused and warned, “By the way, you better not drop that Fire Stone. I technically stole that for you and it wouldn’t be nice if my gift to you was damaged.”

The swirls of the red and orange stone glowed slightly as Sand’s free paw leaned against it as the rock was wedged between his and Leah’s bodies. The warmth the stone and Sands’ body gave off was comforting in a way she couldn’t describe. Though she didn’t admit that, of course.

“We’d better hurry, Sands,” Leah said as she glanced at the sky. “The clouds aren’t looking too good and I hate to get caught in the rain again.”

She heard Sands whimper in reply and nodded.

“Yeah, that would suck.”




A/N: Gods, I hated this chapter. I did like writing some parts, but wow, I never knew I could hate dialogue that much. And don’t get me started on the beginning. Stupid beginning. I was going to finally reveal Leah’s past in this chapter, but when I noticed that the word count was already over 4600, I decided to move it a few chapters ahead.

Neiko Star April 10th, 2009 3:10 PM

A few typos, but good chapter. It's great to see Leah finally trying to bond with Sands. :) Can't wait for next week!

(Also, a little piece of advice: I've noticed that sometimes, you forget words. So, I would suggest re-reading each sentence after you've typed it. It's a lot easier than reviewing your whole chapter, and it works too.)

Dagzar April 10th, 2009 3:59 PM

Thanks for the advice, Neiko!

Quote:

A few typos, but good chapter. It's great to see Leah finally trying to bond with Sands. Can't wait for next week!
Yup! It was a bit of a relief, actually, to finally be able to refer Sands as a boy. It got really annoying to always refer to him as an ‘it’ and it always got me confused.

Quote:

(Also, a little piece of advice: I've noticed that sometimes, you forget words. So, I would suggest re-reading each sentence after you've typed it. It's a lot easier than reviewing your whole chapter, and it works too.)
I have tried using that method before, but I always run into the problem of rereading what I intended to say, rather than what’s actually there. Heh, but I have found my own solution in the form of the grammar check on Microsoft Word. I usually have the grammar check off since the green lines get really annoying, but I was astonished to see that it almost caught all those mistakes.

Anyways, I’ll reread the chapter again and correct all those errors right now. ;)

Neiko Star April 10th, 2009 6:00 PM

Yay. ^^ Also, sometimes, when I try to write a phrase, this is what I do: I write what I want to, then I continue writing about a few more lines. Then, I add more description and stuff, and I take words off or add some stuff to make the sentence sound smoother and less wordy. That could work for you, since I've noticed that sometimes your phrases become awkward to read somewhere in the middle of the sentence. It's really just about evening everything and trying to make a nice flow with your words. If it soundes nice to you, chances are it'll sound nice to your readers too.

delongbi April 10th, 2009 8:28 PM

This was a pretty good chapter- it was interesting, as least. There were a lot of grammar errors though. I highly recommend checking over your work another time before you submit it. I also agree with Neiko; sometimes your sentences are a bit wordy. Writing a paragraph and then rereading it could help. Anyway- grammar...

Quote:

She sighed, her anger vanishing until she just felt tired.
The comma should technically be a ;

Quote:

The window, as if sensing her misplaced hope, cheerfully showed the rain coming down harder then ever and it silently promised that the rain wouldn’t stop any time soon.
When making a comparison, than is used; not then.

Quote:

Slowly and hopefully quiet, she went to
Should be quietly.

Quote:

The room was so dark, she couldn’t see inside.
The comma is unneeded. "So" almost never needs a comma.

Quote:

If no one did, then no heard it and then there was no one there.
No one. Also, this sentence is awkward.

Quote:

When she got upright, A sharp pain made its way up her body from her leg when she put some pressure on it.
a, not A

Quote:

. It was a bit brighter then she thought
THAN!!!

I didn't love this chapter, but it was not particularly bad. I think it was necessary.

Anyway, I'm still reading! Keep up the good writing!

Dagzar April 10th, 2009 9:09 PM

Quote:

Yay. ^^ Also, sometimes, when I try to write a phrase, this is what I do: I write what I want to, then I continue writing about a few more lines. Then, I add more description and stuff, and I take words off or add some stuff to make the sentence sound smoother and less wordy. That could work for you, since I've noticed that sometimes your phrases become awkward to read somewhere in the middle of the sentence. It's really just about evening everything and trying to make a nice flow with your words. If it sounds nice to you, chances are it'll sound nice to your readers too.

Sometimes I use that method when I’m going over the chapter, adding and getting rid of stuff. I’ll see if I can use that method more in the future, though. Thanks!

Quote:

This was a pretty good chapter- it was interesting, as least. There were a lot of grammar errors though. I highly recommend checking over your work another time before you submit it. I also agree with Neiko; sometimes your sentences are a bit wordy. Writing a paragraph and then rereading it could help.

Thanks for the review, delongbi!

*sighs* I think I’m going to have to keep a very close eye on later chapters because these errors are very annoying. Yeah, I’m definitely going to put much more work in rereading things. I’ll also try to cut down on the unnecessary words.

Quote:

I didn't love this chapter, but it was not particularly bad. I think it was necessary.

Anyway, I'm still reading! Keep up the good writing!

Yeah, I didn’t expect much from this chapter either. I don’t think I set the mood right and I have a feeling that the characterization was out of whack, but it will set some events into motion and I suppose that’s good enough. Though I have to say, I’m pretty optimistic on the next chapter as it’s turning out really well so far. :D

Neiko Star April 11th, 2009 5:01 AM

You know, Leah's so much like my RP character, whenever I try to imagine her I imagine my character. 0_0 But aggressive personalities are fun to write...

Dagzar April 11th, 2009 8:20 AM

Quote:

You know, Leah's so much like my RP character, whenever I try to imagine her I imagine my character. 0_0 But aggressive personalities are fun to write...

That’s for sure :D. Characters like Leah are just so snarky, and I just love writing her dialogue. She one of the easiest characters I’ve ever written, much easier then some other characters I know. *glares at other non-Pokemon story*

Neiko Star April 11th, 2009 8:25 AM

Mm-hmm. My characters are always extremely something. Extremely aggressive, extremely passive(lol that rimed XD), extremely shy, extremely creepy, etc. It's just easier. Oh, and I make my characters look like their personality too. (Aggressive+Stubborn+Rude+Annoyed=Spiky Redhead)

Dagzar April 17th, 2009 8:13 PM

Mentor
Chapter 8: Vegetation





“Come on!” Ed whined. “You said we could go today. You promised!”

Ally took a different approach. “Um, c- can we please go today? You did promise last night.”

“I promised that under pressure,” Leah argued, crossing her arms. She was sitting upright on her bed, a position she had become familiar with over the past few days. Sands, her ever unfaithful Pokemon, was sprawled out next to her, sleeping peacefully.

It had only been a few days since she had stumbled into the Pokemon Center, dripping wet. Just as she had predicted, the storm had started up again just as she was getting out of the forest and had trailed after her the whole time. Ed and Ally, both worried (despite Ed’s denials), had met her in the lobby. They had badgered her for information, especially about her injured leg and she finally gave a condensed version of what happened. One that didn’t involve blurred notes, creepy labs and feeling even an inch of fear.

“T-then when can we go to the gym?” Ally asked.

“Yeah,” Ed said, backing his friend up. “We’ve been waiting for days to go!”

Leah sighed. “Look, I’m injured. It pains me to walk, so I have to be careful or I might make it worse.” In reality, the leg had stopped throbbing a while ago and it now only flared up when she roughly poked it with her finger, but it wasn’t something she was going to tell them.

Unluckily, Ally caught on to her ploy. “Didn’t you say that yesterday? A-and the day before?”

“A-hah!” Ed cried as he pounced on the opportunity. “You’re lying to us! You can walk, can’t you?”

Sighing again, this time in defeat, Leah crossed her arms. “Yes, fine! I can walk, but can’t you give me one more day?”

“No,” Ed said.

“Hey,” Leah said sharply. “Don’t take that tone. You should be thanking me for giving you more time to train your Pokemon.”

Ally looked downcast at that as she played with the frills on her shirt. “Y-yes, but… Sparks doesn’t like training.”

Leah rolled her eyes and caught her tongue before she unleashed her sarcasm. A few days ago, she couldn’t stop her mouth when she heard that Ally had nicknamed her Voltorb ‘Sparks’. It took a lot of effort and apologizing on her part to stop Ally from bursting into tears. She felt a little guilty after that, but squashed it whenever it came up.

“I’m not worried about a psycho Voltorb,” Leah said. ‘I’m more worried over the bug slash grass type that’s weak to fire.”

“Paras is getting stronger by the day,” Ed said proudly. “He’s totally ready to beat whatever fire type the gym leader uses.”

Leah shrugged. “Fine. If you really think you’re ready, I suppose we can go now-”

“I’m going to win!” Ed boasted and was encouraged by Ally’s support.

Leah just sat there with a small smirk. Going up against a gym leader was no easy task. Of course, she had never tried it herself, but she had heard from her grandmother that a gym leader was much better than an ordinary trainer. A sharp punch to Ed’s ego when he lost would certainly blast down his hope of being a trainer. Though, there was the off chance that either he would win or would just bounce back from his defeat. If that happened, she would have no clue what to do.

And she didn’t even want to get started on Ally. She and her Voltorb were wild cards. Leah could see the girl winning just because Voltorb was unpredictable, though if Voltorb lost, then there was absolutely no chance of the girl bouncing back.

Everything’s betted on the gym battle, Leah thought.

“Let’s go!”

Leah snapped to attention at Ed’s proclamation. She smiled grimly and picked up her Pokemon and held him to her chest. “Yeah, let’s go.”





“We’re going right this time!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Leah grumbled.

Ally, who had never seen the area before, was looking in every single direction, her face bright with wonder. Leah, who had seen the area, just kept her eyes in front of her and tried not to let her gaze stray over to the other pathway. She didn’t really want to think about the mansion at that point. She was already plagued by it in her sleep and she didn’t want to add more ‘what ifs’ to the fire.

Ed, who had taken over Leah’s previously held position as The Guide, wouldn’t shut up.

“Okay!” Ed said cheerfully. “The map that the kind lady at the Pokemon Center drew me says that we follow the path straight ahead and then we turn left-”

“You don’t need to say it out loud,” Leah pointed out as they walked along the right pathway. Unlike the left one, the winding road didn’t go into the jungle, but beside it. Leah was fine with that as she wasn’t looking forward to going into the jungle in the first place. Besides, the pathway gave a nice view of the ocean, which continuously crashed loudly against the rocks, the spray blasting into the air. With a curious gaze, Leah leaned her head over the fence that separated the pathway from the cliff side and looked down.

It was a long way down.

“Hey, Mentor person?” Ed asked, holding the map up to his face and pretended to be looking it over. “How do you become a gym leader?”

“A gym leader?” Leah repeated to herself. She questioned herself whether she should actually answer, but concluded that there wasn’t any harm. “The Elite Four choose people if they show enough skill, or something like that.”

“What type of skill?”

“I dunno, it depends. If they’re good with a certain type of Pokemon, they could be chosen or they could go through some type of test.”

“Cool!” Ed exclaimed. “I think I want to be a gym leader!”

Leah snorted. “With what type? Bug? Grass?”

“I think you’d be a good gym leader,” Ally chimed in. “You’re really good with your Paras.” She blushed lightly.

“Really?” Ed said, pondering deeply. He then grinned. “Maybe that’s what I’ll do! Being a gym leader would be awesome! I can be a bug type gym leader and be the strongest trainer around!”

“Bug?” Leah said, stifling a smirk. “You’re not going to go very far with that type. Can you really see yourself passing over all the other types of Pokemon, just to train a few measly bugs?”

“Oh!” Ally cried, interrupting the conversation. She pointed to a thinned out place through the trees where the pathway branched off. “Are we going that way?”

Leah looked at the girl strangely. She was being awfully relaxed and really, when was the last time Leah had heard her stutter or pause?

Ed nodded as he consulted the all-powerful-map. “Yup!”

Grimacing, Leah put her hands in her pockets and gripped Sands’s Pokeball. It would be an understatement to think that she didn’t want a storm to appear. She didn’t think she could go through it all again.

They walked between the groove in the trees, the branches and leaves providing shade from the warm sun. Despite being in a different part of the jungle, Leah noticed that all the plants were exactly the same as the ones she saw a few days ago. Wasn’t this supposed to be a tropical forest? She thought there would be a bit more variety.

“Wow,” Ally said as she looked at the colorful flowers and bright green leaves of all different shapes. “They’re so pretty!”

“Trust me,” Leah told Ally cynically. “It’ll stop being pretty when it’s the only thing you can look at for a while.”

That proved to be false as they had been walking for ten minutes and Ally still hadn’t got tired of staring at the plants. In fact, she seemed to get more cheerful and seemed to look at the flowers as if she had never seen them before.

After another five minutes, Leah got tired of the girl craning her neck and widening her eyes. It was distracting.

“Why do you keep staring at them?” Leah asked. “They’re the exact same as the ones from ten minutes ago!”

“No they’re not,” Ally disagreed. “They’re different. See; look at that one, right there.” They stopped as she pointed at a flower, the one she had been seemingly staring at. It had pointed oval petals that overlapped each other and were colored a pale pink with a burst of bright orange that flared from the center. It had a green stem and was attached to a bush that had several other identical flowers on it.

“Yeah?” Leah said. “What’s the difference? I can’t see a thing.”

Ed agreed. “Sorry, Ally. But I can’t see it either.”

Ally frowned and seemed to be a bit embarrassed. She tried harder. “I can see it. That orange color on the flower is much more golden than the others and the center is yellow.”

Squinting her eyes, Leah thought that the shades of the color might be a bit different, but it was probably just her eyes playing tricks on her.

“Wow, Ally,” Ed said and Leah couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. “You must really like plants to stare at them all the time.”

“I like flowers and plants,” Ally agreed shyly. “I love being surrounded by them and love looking at them. It’s not that hard to tell colors apart if you look at them a lot.”

“We should get moving,” Leah said, interrupting the sappy scene that was just getting started. “Don’t you want to get to the gym?”

Ed snapped out of the conversation. “Right! Let’s go!”

With Ed leading, Leah and Ally followed side-by-side. Ally looked a bit disappointed that Ed no longer seemed willing to talk about flowers, or at least, that’s what Leah assumed from a side-glance.

After a few minutes of silence, Ally spoke up.

“Leah?” she asked politely.

“What?”

Now Ally was looking more like her usual nervous self. “What if we run into Pokemon?”

“Uh, you fight them?” Leah had trouble following Ally’s question.

“No.” She swallowed. “I mean the powerful ones, like- like a Magmar or a Fearow.”

Ed’s voice sounded from in front of them. “We can fight them off; my Paras can just stun them or something.”

Leah ignored him and tried to ease Ally’s worries since she didn’t need the girl’s fear to get infectious. “I don’t think Fearow live here,” she said. “And Magmar live in caves, I think.”

That seemed to solve the issue as Ally quieted down and went back to glazing at the flowers.

Unfortunately, Ally’s worries did indeed prove to be infectious as Leah started wondering what they would do if they were attacked. What Pokemon lived in the area anyway? Exotic types like fire, and poison, probably. Grass types and flying types too. But what actual Pokemon? Maybe Grimer and Koffing? Venonat? Venomoth? Scyther?

Ack.

“Hey,” Leah called up to Ed. “When are we getting to the gym?”

Ed shrugged. “Dunno. The map says we just follow the road until we come to the gym.”

“How helpful,” Leah replied sarcastically and lapsed back into silence.

Around ten minutes later (or was it twelve? She really needed to buy a watch), Ally suddenly became alert. Leah watched her curiously as she looked all around her and sniffed the air.

She looked worried and it showed in her voice. “U-uh, what’s that smell?”

Now that she mentioned it, Leah blinked as she got a whiff of the air that she hadn’t noticed until it was pointed out. The smell was unusually pleasant and Leah felt herself trying to tug down a smile. “Huh, smells nice.”

Ed agreed. “Yeah, where’s it coming from?”

That question was immediately answered as the being that was releasing the pretty smell got in their way quite literally.

The Pokemon that had stumbled (hopped) onto the road looked much more plant than animal. If it just closed its narrow eyes and made the sharp and giant teeth disappear from what Leah would hesitate to call a mouth, it would look exactly like a plant. One with a yellow body with green spots peppered onto its smooth surface, two giant green leaves, a pink rim around its mouth and one other giant green leaf that lazed on said mouth and had some sort of vine slash tail attached to it.

“Victreebel,” Leah supplied with a sigh. “We’re doomed.”

She wasn’t feeling particularly scared however as the Victreebel had yet to spot them. Actually, scratch that. At her words, the Pokemon looked up, its pinpoint pupils centering on them like a wolf would stare at its prey. Its vine-like tail waved slowly in the air, the small yellow leaf on the end of it gleaming in the sunlight, shining like a blade.

Damn herself.

Her body tensed, legs itching to turn around and run. Though that wasn’t really an option, she thought, as she glanced at the brats. Ally was frozen, her eyes not blinking as she stared at the Victreebel. Ed’s back was turned, so Leah couldn’t see his expression, but judging by the way he was talking earlier and the way his backpack strap started to slide off his shoulder, he wasn’t going to back down any time soon.

Besides, the three had been walking in a straight line for a while. One Razor Leaf and it was all over. They couldn’t (or wouldn’t in Leah’s case) even go off the path as Victreebel lived in groups, colonies, and where one Victreebel was, others were soon to follow.

Leah brought out her Pokeball from her pocket; jacket flapping as she abruptly took a big step back. Her Pokeball sailed through the air and hit the ground, unleashing Sands into the daylight.

The Sandshrew just stared at the carnivorous plant, which towered over it.

“Shrew?” he squeaked.

Ed fumbled with his backpack until he took his own Pokeball out. “Go! Paras!” Unlike Sands, Paras didn’t seem fearful in the face of Victreebel, only giving it a cool stare. Its tiny feet made small pinpricks on the trail as it braised itself for battle.

“Attack,” Leah commanded to her Pokemon and, on seeing Sands staring at her, added in a small voice, “I believe in you…”

Ed took a more direct approach. “Poison Powder!”

Paras shook itself as small purple dots became apparent on the two mushrooms on its back. Its back legs straightened as much as it could go, aiming the mushrooms at the grass type. It was an easy target as the Victreebel still hadn’t moved. The mushrooms quivered by themselves and unleashed a cloud of purple dust, the spores clumping together and floating in the face of the Victreebel.

The plant only blinked before waving its leaves in the air like fans. The spores immediately floated to the side where they settled harmlessly on the ground. But the Pokemon wasn’t done. Its tail made one final threatening wave before lashing out, almost too quick to see. The tail impacted the ground between the two trainers’ Pokemon with a crack.

“Grab it!”

Leah’s order wasn’t ignored and Sands, despite his fear, leapt on the tail and grabbed it between his claws. With some of the tail still free, the ground type planted his foot right before the sharp leaf and the leaf couldn’t do anything more then wither and struggle. Though the same couldn’t be said for the Victreebel itself. With one smooth yank, the tail was ripped out of Sands’s grasp and from under his feet. The Pokemon landed on his back, his soft stomach pointing upwards and unprotected.

“Up!” Leah screeched. “Up!”

Paras, who had been ignored by the two Pokemon and his own trainer during the scuffle, was concentrating. On the tip of one of its claws, the orange color was draining away until it was a stark white. It was an attack it had never used before, but it didn’t show as it lied still, waiting. When the tail-like vine came whipping down again, Paras struck.

Just after Sands rolled out of the way and the tail once again hit the ground, Paras drove its claw into the appendage. A bit of blood oozed out of the tail and the tip of Paras’s claw turn a pale yellow. The orange sheen of the bug type’s skin seemed to glow as the Victreebel screeched. The tail quivered before it was weakly pulled back by the Victreebel, forcing Paras to let go.

“I think Paras just used Leech Life!” Ed said excitedly. “Wow, a new attack!”

Leah’s sarcasm couldn’t be denied. “Good for you, though I don’t think it worked too well.”

That was true. Victreebel didn’t look weak, though its tail was hovering shakily in the air, a small amount of blood still dripping from the stab wound. The Pokemon also didn’t look happy. Its mouth was opening and closing as if testing its jaw before eating a particularly chewy meal.

“I think we should run now,” Leah suggested.

Ally had frozen when the battle begun, neither going for her Pokeball nor trying to help out. Leah took her eyes off Sands for a moment and glanced at her. Their eyes met half-way in-between and Ally’s wide, terrified eyes only held the stare for a second before glancing past Leah and into the bush behind her. Leah turned as she followed Ally’s line of sight, almost a bit afraid to see what else could possibly pop up.

As it turned out, a lot.

The new creature on the scene was a single entity, but was much more then it seemed as its brown furry head was raised, sniffing the air. Its bright brown eyes looked towards the Victreebel curiously, fox-like ears twitching. It had odd orange-ish fur that stuck up from its head and two fluffy tails that curled around themselves behind it. Its delicate paws felt the gravel of the path and sniffed it before hesitantly treading on it.

It ignorantly looked at the Victreebel with fascination as all the humans and Pokemon stopped what they were doing to access the threat level of the new Pokemon.

“Oh,” Ally whispered, afraid she would scare away the new arrival. “It’s a Vulpix!”

“Yeah,” Leah said, watching the way the Vulpix swayed and smelling the pleasant scent in the air. “One that’s about to be eaten.”

Leah turned to the duo as she motioned for Sands to come back. Once the Sandshrew was uncomfortably in her arms, she said, “okay, here’s our chance. Let’s go.”

Ed hesitated, a hand on his Paras’s head. “What about the Vulpix?”

“It’s playing decoy for us,” Leah said, making a decision as she went past Ally and put one foot off the pathway. “Now come on, we’ll go around the Victreebel and run.”

“B-but we can’t-” Ally protested, the words caught in her throat. “It-it’ll die!”

Leah shushed her, looking back at the wild Pokemon who were eying each other. “Victreebel eat a lot of Vulpix. Do you want to get eaten instead?”

“N-no-”

“Good, then that’s sorted out,” Leah said as if it settled the matter. “Now let’s move.”

It was a nice suggestion on her part, but she, like the other two, found themselves frozen as they watched the events play out in front of them.

The Victreebel slowly caressed the Vulpix’s neck with its tail before it gently wrapped around it in a type of embrace. The Vulpix didn’t fight back, only curiously sniffing the air, not troubled by what was happening. Suddenly, the tail constricted and Vulpix let out a wheezing yelp as it was lifted into the air by its throat, legs kicking out to try to hit the aggressor. The tail brought the Pokemon over the Victreebel’s open mouth, holding it there.

Ally whispered hoarsely, “I-I don’t want t-to see this!”

Leah didn’t have any words and she couldn’t turn her eyes away from the scene. It was like a train wreck. People didn’t want to watch two trains colliding, but you just couldn’t help but stare in fascination as they crushed each other-

“No!” Ed yelled as he darted forward, dodging Leah’s grab for him.

“Moron!” Leah hollered as she grasped Ally’s shoulder, just in case she would follow, though that wasn’t needed as Ally just gasped and shut her eyes.

Ed raced towards the two Pokemon and in seconds he had tackled the Victreebel, driving it backwards as the tail holding the Vulpix was released. The Vulpix landed on its feet, gasping and coughing as only an animal could. The Victreebel held up its leaves in defense, but Ed wouldn’t stand for it.

Paras, who Ed had ungracefully brought along, suddenly found itself pushed into the Victreebel’s face, its trainer’s hand supporting it.

“Leech Life!” Ed shouted.

Paras didn’t understand what its trainer was asking, but instinct took over and it did the rest. Its claw rapidly lost color and Paras slammed the tip into one of the only weak points it could see: Victreebel’s eye.

The scream from the Pokemon had Leah and Ally putting their hands over their ears and Ed loosing his grip, but by that time, the damage had been done. Paras took its claw out of the hole where the Victreebel’s eye had been, paying no notice to the slurping sound that came with it. A white liquid leaked from the torn hole that was mixed with the bright red of flesh blood. When Ed and Paras had safely gotten back to Leah and Ally, the carnivorous grass type had light pink liquid running down its front.

“Holy-!” Leah swore. “That’s just-”

The Vulpix, who had recovered, let out a fierce growl and decided that having an eye torn apart wasn’t enough. It inhaled, sharp fans visible, and let out a small fireball that hit the Victreebel in its side. The grass type let out a high-pitched shriek as the red flames scorched its flesh, turning its yellow skin gray and setting one of its leaves on fire.

The Victreebel had had enough. With its leaf ablaze and one of its eyes damaged, it obviously had no choice but to flee. And that’s what it did as in a single bound, it hopped off the path, flaming leaf shaking wildly and tail waving behind it.

The trainers watched it for another minute as the fire became less visible as the Pokemon went farther away until they couldn’t see it at all.

Leah turned to Ed. “That was stupid.”

“I saved the Vulpix…” Ed said, not understanding as he looking at Paras’s claw with fascination, especially at the white goopy part that was tipped with red.

“Yeah, but you almost got killed!” Leah had a feeling that she was shouting, but didn’t feel like doing anything about it. “That Pokemon could have easily killed you. Its leaves were as sharp as knives, one slash and you could have been split in half-”

“But it didn’t!” Ed said, raising his voice. “Me and Paras won! We didn’t- didn’t…”

Leah glanced at Ally, but took another when she realized that the girl was no longer beside her.

Ally was crouching on the ground in front of the trainers, her hand held out. The Vulpix sniffed it curiously and let Ally pet its head and touch its ears.

“Ally,” Ed asked, standing up. “Is the Vulpix all right?”

“Yes,” Ally replied, her voice sounding tired.

Since Sands was no longer needed, Leah returned him to her Pokeball and just stood there, watching what was going on around her. She swallowed at the sight of the small puddle of pink liquid, just sitting innocently on the ground. It made her flinch whenever she thought about something happening to someone’s eyes. It was just… weird. Having it happening in front of her made her a bit queasy, but she was a bit relieved that Victreebel didn’t look human at all. If it did, she could imagine herself throwing up.

The brats were different, though. Ed and Ally didn’t seem all that concerned that Paras had pretty much gorged out the Victreebel’s eye. They didn’t seem to find it disgusting or a bit of a harsh punishment that the Victreebel would never see out of that eye again and only because it was trying to eat. Though, Leah had a theory that maybe it was because Vulpix was the cuter one of the two. Victreebel was just a plant with eyes to the brats, while Vulpix was a fluffy and cute fox thing.

Or maybe she was just over thinking it too much. Really, why did she care about some old Victreebel?

Leah’s attentions were caught when Ally abruptly stood up, Vulpix no longer in sight.

“Vulpix leave?” Leah asked.

Ally turned around and shook her head. In her hand was a sparkling red and white Pokeball and Leah suddenly knew what happened.

Leah sighed. “You captured it?”

“Yes,” Ally said, frowning. “I-it’s only a baby, right?”

“Yeah,” Leah replied, thinking of the two tails.

“Then why was it all alone? Where were its parents? Why weren’t they protecting it?”

Leah found herself under a pleading look to answer the question. “Well,” Leah said awkwardly. “Vulpix are territorial, don’t ask me why. Vulpix only stick around for their babies only until they get their second tail. Then they go away. Vulpix usually hate other Vulpix.” Or at least that’s what she learned in school.

“That’s sad,” Ally concluded, looking at the Pokeball. “Poor Vulpix.”

“Can we go to the gym now?” Ed asked, popping up from behind Leah.

Leah snorted. “You’re sure back on topic, but yeah, I don’t want to stick around.”

The three moved on, Leah giving a disgusted glance to the drips of liquid Victreebel made. She walked a bit behind the duo and sighed as their dull conversation started to drift back to her.

“I’m naming her Amber,” Ally said, smiling over her Pokeball with just an etch of concern.

“How’d you know Vulpix is a girl?” Ed asked.

Ally looked confused. “She’s a Vulpix. Aren’t Vulpix always girls?”

Oh yes, Leah thought to herself as they continued towards the Cinnabar Island Gym. This was going to be dull.





A/N: You know, I really didn’t intend for this chapter to be so violent. This’ll be the last time I’m writing a battle without a plan, that’s for sure. And now, after looking back over the chapter, I’m questioning my decision for letting Paras use Leech Life through its claws instead of its sharp and awesome looking teeth. I’m pretty sure Leech Life doesn’t work that way, but I think it’s a bit too late to change it now.

Anyways, I checked this chapter over several times and I hope I caught all the mistakes, though I’ve probably missed one or two. Though, I have a question that I need answering: are you supposed to capitalize titles like Pokemon trainer and gym leader?

Giratina ♀ April 18th, 2009 5:52 AM

Another great chapter! There was only one continuous error I found in it: 'Leah, who had seen the area, just kept her eyes in front of her and tried not to let her glaze stray over to the other pathway.', 'With a curious glaze, Leah leaned her head over the fence that separated the pathway from the cliff side and looked down.' Glaze should be gaze, I believe. I don't think Leah is a doughnut.

Otherwise, Ally's been handled a lot better in this chapter. C: I think that with all of that talk about being a Gym Leader and then her admitted love of plants, Ally is probably going to turn into a Grass Gym Leader later down the road. As for your question about capitalization, I usually capitalize everything that the game treats with STICKY CAPS. It's a personal decision, but I always capitalize Trainer, Gym Leader, Hiker, etc.

Dagzar April 18th, 2009 8:20 AM

Quote:

Another great chapter! There was only one continuous error I found in it: 'Leah, who had seen the area, just kept her eyes in front of her and tried not to let her glaze stray over to the other pathway.', 'With a curious glaze, Leah leaned her head over the fence that separated the pathway from the cliff side and looked down.' Glaze should be gaze, I believe. I don't think Leah is a doughnut.
I knew there was something wrong with that word! I even highlighted it to look at it later, but then I skipped it! Though, this has to be one of the funniest mistakes I’ve ever made. I’ll fix it right now. :embarrass

Quote:

Otherwise, Ally's been handled a lot better in this chapter. C: I think that with all of that talk about being a Gym Leader and then her admitted love of plants, Ally is probably going to turn into a Grass Gym Leader later down the road. As for your question about capitalization, I usually capitalize everything that the game treats with STICKY CAPS. It's a personal decision, but I always capitalize Trainer, Gym Leader, Hiker, etc.
Yeah, I thought that too. She was actually a bit harder to write when not stuttering in every other sentence, but she’s pretty fun once I got the hang of it. Her being a Gym Leader is a pretty interesting idea and I can actually imagine it. Hmm. Anyways, thanks for answering my question!

Neiko Star April 18th, 2009 9:51 AM

Yay, another chapter! ^^ I found it interesting but I caught a few mistakes. Twice you put 'need' instead of 'needed' somewhere. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to go check where. >o<) Lol, the ending was funny...but true. I mean, seriously, I feel bad for all male Blissey. XD

Dagzar April 18th, 2009 10:35 AM

Quote:

Yay, another chapter! ^^ I found it interesting but I caught a few mistakes. Twice you put 'need' instead of 'needed' somewhere. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to go check where. >o<) Lol, the ending was funny...but true. I mean, seriously, I feel bad for all male Blissey. XD
I found the mistakes and fixed them, though I have no clue how I missed them. And yeah, male Blissey have it hard, but I can’t help but feel sorry for all the female Mr. Mime. Even their name is against them! ;)

Neiko Star April 18th, 2009 10:40 AM

Yeah. XD I remember Sabrina had a female Mr.Mime. I was like, What the heck? 0_0 I actually find Ed kind of annoying...which means that you're good at writing characters and personalities, because I don't care much about boring charries. All of your characters have good, distinct personalities and natures, and that makes them easy to identify. Which is good. :) They're realistic too. Can't wait for the Gym battle. ^-^

Dagzar April 18th, 2009 11:10 AM

Quote:

Yeah. XD I remember Sabrina had a female Mr. Mime. I was like, What the heck? 0_0 I actually find Ed kind of annoying...which means that you're good at writing characters and personalities, because I don't care much about boring charries. All of your characters have good, distinct personalities and natures, and that makes them easy to identify. Which is good. They're realistic too. Can't wait for the Gym battle. ^-^
Heh, if you found Ed annoying, then my work is done. He’s the irritating kid brother you never knew you had. I’m glad my characters are distinct enough to not be boring because I too hate boring main characters and I wouldn’t like it if they came out like that. And yup, I also can’t wait to continue writing the gym battle, though I think I made it a bit hard on myself.

delongbi April 18th, 2009 8:35 PM

Quote:

Leah could see the girl winning just because Voltorb was unpredictable, though if Voltorb lost, then there was absolutely no chance of the girl bouncing back.



This was the only mistake I caught. You should delete the ", then"- It should be:

Leah could see the girl winning just because Voltorb was unpredictable, though if Voltorb lost there was absolutely no chance of the girl bouncing back.

Actually, that's more of a wording issue... your wording just sounds a bit awkward. Anyway, great chapter. I like how realistic your wild Pokemon are, and I agree with Leah- a lot of Pokemon are ignored and criticized because they are not as cute. So far you've done a very good job of using fairly underappreciated Pokemon!

Great story, keep up the good work!

Cirrus April 18th, 2009 8:48 PM

Nice fiction you've got there. Fairly balanced.

I'll have to read all of it when I've got the time.

Anyway... keep up the great work!

Dagzar April 18th, 2009 9:01 PM

Quote:

This was the only mistake I caught. You should delete the ", then"- It should be:

Leah could see the girl winning just because Voltorb was unpredictable, though if Voltorb lost there was absolutely no chance of the girl bouncing back.Actually, that's more of a wording issue... your wording just sounds a bit awkward.

I’ll see if I can make up a better sentence for that later. Thanks for pointing it out.

Quote:

Anyway, great chapter. I like how realistic your wild Pokemon are, and I agree with Leah- a lot of Pokemon are ignored and criticized because they are not as cute. So far you've done a very good job of using fairly underappreciated Pokemon!

Great story, keep up the good work!

Yeah, I personally think the ugly Pokemon are the more interesting ones and they’re actually pretty useful in-game. The cute ones are just so boring and common these days while Pokemon like Paras and Victreebel can be awesome when used properly.

Quote:

Nice fiction you've got there. Fairly balanced.

I'll have to read all of it when I've got the time.

Anyway... keep up the great work!

Thanks for reviewing! I’m glad you like it and don’t worry, I’ll try. ;)

Giratina ♀ April 19th, 2009 7:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dagzar (Post 4559267)
Yeah, I personally think the ugly Pokemon are the more interesting ones and they’re actually pretty useful in-game. The cute ones are just so boring and common these days while Pokemon like Paras and Victreebel can be awesome when used properly.

Agreed!

[has a strange obsession with Murkrows and Magmars]

Neiko Star April 19th, 2009 4:07 PM

Yup, that's totally true. I mean, seriously...Vulpix and Eevee are way too common in stories. What's wrong with poor Murkrow?

Giratina ♀ April 20th, 2009 11:53 AM

Foolish mortals fanfiction writers don't know the true value of awesome Pogermans. :C

Dagzar April 20th, 2009 6:03 PM

Murkrow are awesome! (I’d say the same for Magmar, but they’re being highly uncooperative at letting me catch them in Pokemon Leafgreen). I don’t mind Vulpix or Eevee being used as long as they’re not starters. Seriously, I can hardly count how many OT fics I’ve come across that have either of them as starters.

Neiko Star April 21st, 2009 1:59 PM

Riolu's starting to get annoying too. Charmander as well. (Ugh, people try to follow the 'classic' starters, but they always choose Charmander because it evolves into Charizard.) And holy crap, you can catch Magmar in LeafGree? 0_0

Dagzar April 21st, 2009 2:41 PM

Ugh, don't remind me about Riolu. I have an odd hate for that Pokemon (weirdly, I don't mind Lucario).

Quote:

And holy crap, you can catch Magmar in LeafGree? 0_0
Yup, on Mt. Ember, on One Island. Personality, I'd rather have Electabuzz, but it's only in FireRed. :disappoin

Dagzar April 24th, 2009 7:28 PM

Mentor
Chapter 9: Blaine





Ed frowned. “It doesn’t look very gym-like.”

“What were you expecting?” Leah asked sarcastically. “It being shaped like a volcano?”

“No…” Ed said slowly. “But maybe less… boring?”

That was true as Leah observed the building in front of the trio. It wasn’t unique looking, just a plain white structure that was out in the middle of nowhere. The building was standing on the edge of a cliff, closed in by the forest. The area looked a bit dangerous, especially since it looked like the cliff could crumble at any sign of trouble and taking the gym with it. There were no windows, only a single double door entrance with a sign to the left of it stating:


Cinnabar Island Gym!
Enter and challenge
Gym Leader Blaine
for the Volcano Badge!


“Come on,” Leah said, pushing open one of the doors. “I’m not standing around all day.”

Ed and Ally exchanged looks before following hesitantly, both of them wondering whether they somehow wound up in the wrong place.

Unlike the outside however, the inside wasn’t as dull. The room they ended up in had white walls, tiled gray squares for the floor and a desk behind a single line of plastic chairs that were all connected by steel supports. Candles formed in groups of eight flickered around the room, giving it light, though they didn’t seem to be giving off much judging by the bright lamp the man behind the desk was using.

The dark-haired man glanced up from his book as they entered. Leah was only able to get a glance of a green cover before the book was put down as the man stood and welcomed them.

“You here to challenge Blaine?” he asked, voice rough.

Leah motioned behind her to the duo, who were still looking around curiously. “They are, not me.”

He nodded. “There hasn’t been any challengers all day, so you won’t have to wait. I just need anyone challenging to fill out a form first.”

Ally hesitantly picked up the clipboard that was put out in front of her and Ed. She silently scanned the words under the light of the lamp before asking, “w-why do we need it?”

Ed glanced over her shoulder, eyes narrowing. “Yeah, why do we need a signature from a guardian? What if they’re not here?”

The man coughed. “I assumed that the young lady with you was your regulated guardian. I’m sorry if it inconveniences you, but these are new rules.”

Leah snatched the clipboard from Ally and read it over quickly. The form was basically outlining that the Cinnabar Island Gym was at no fault for any accidents and couldn’t be sued if anything happened to the trainer or their Pokemon.

“This is ********,” she said, frowning. She didn’t really understand what the form was about or if it was even legal. Wasn’t she underage? “When did gyms ever need these?”

“It’s a new process,” the secretary replied. “It’s a bit hard to explain.”

“So I just have to sign this and they can get in?”

The answer was absolute. “Yes.”

Leah looked back at the duo, but before she could say anything, Ed verbally jumped her.

“You’re going to sign it,” he said, expression filled with determination. “We’re ready.”

She snorted. “I don’t care, I just don’t like signing stuff.” Though she signed it anyways, using the pen the secretary gave her. The blue ink made her full name look very permanent on the paper and she handed the clipboard and pen back to the man.

The secretary nodded and sat down again. “Thank you. I’ll page Blaine and let him know he has challengers.” He turned to Ed and Ally. “To make sure Blaine can properly challenge you, I must know what level the Pokemon you plan on using are.”

Ed looked panicked. “Level?”

“You don’t know?” Leah asked Ed incredulously. “Even I know what he’s talking about.”

“Is it how strong our Pokemon are?” Ally asked nervously.

Leah sighed in her head. She hated explaining things. “Yeah, kinda. It’s a new system where your Pokemon is assigned a level and that’s how strong it currently is. The levels go from zero to ten.”

The man took over. “I could give you an example. Could one of you volunteer your Pokemon’s techniques?”

“Attacks? I could, yeah,” Ed said and thought for a moment. “My Paras knows Scratch, Stun Spore, Poison Powder and just learned Leech Life.”

The secretary thought deeply. “I don’t know much about Paras, but I’d say it’s at early level one. So I assume the rest of your Pokemon are like that.” He picked up the phone and pressed a button. After a moment he said, “Blaine, I have two challengers for you, their Pokemon are in level one as I assume.” Pause. “Yes, I’ll send them in a few minutes.”

Ed grinned at the one-sided conversation while Ally bowed her head, lost in thought. Just when Leah thought she would get away with doing nothing for the rest of the time, Ally spoke to her.

“Uh, Leah,” she asked nervously. “D- do you think I’m ready for this? This battle?”

Leah shrugged, disinterested. “How should I know? Depends if your Voltorb goes psycho or not.”

Ally bit her lip. “S- Sparks still doesn’t like me and he won’t obey.”

Sighing, Leah scratched her head and thought whether she should give out some type of wisdom. “Well, Voltorb will attack anything that moves, so as long as it doesn’t see anything else, doesn’t go out of boundaries or doesn’t attack us again, it can probably fight on its own.”

Despite her advice, Ally just looked more worried.

The secretary spoke up after a few more minutes. “I think Blaine’s ready, so you can probably go in now.”

Ed jogged towards another set of double-doors, grinning, and fidgeted when he had to wait for the other two to catch up.

“This is it!” Ed exclaimed. “My very first gym battle!”

Leah rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, let’s go already.”

“A- are we all supposed to go in at the same time?” Ally asked.

Leah opened one of the doors and stared into the dim room. “Dunno. Oh well.”

They entered the arena. The large, rectangular room was just as well lit as the waiting room, minus the lamp. The candles were lined up in two lines all around the gym walls, the ones at the back taller then those at the front. The ground was made of stone and small pebbles crunched under their feet as they went further in. There was a rectangular white chalk outline on the stone with two boxes drawn on either side of the rectangle. In the middle of the chalk outline was a single line that went through a Pokeball-like diagram that was positioned exactly in center.

It became apparent that the chalk box on the other side of the room was occupied. It contained a tall man with no hair except for a fuzzy white mustache. He wore a long white lab coat over a black shirt with a red tie and had blue pants. Completing his outfit were a small pair of circular black sunglasses that were perched comfortably over his eyes.

“Ah-ha!” he boomed as he spotted his guests.

The room seemed to amplify his voice and Leah winced at the volume. Ed and Ally exchanged looks before Ed bravely stepped forward.

“Hi!” he said brightly. “I’m here to get the Volcano Badge!”

Ed’s voice was just as loud as Blaine’s and Leah wished that they would both just quiet down a tad. Or maybe shut up all together and get the battle started.

“Then you’ve come to the right place!” Blaine said, just as cheerful.

Very shyly, Ally also stepped forward. “Uh, I- I’d like to challenge you too…”

Blaine’s voice was still annoyingly loud. “Excellent! Why don’t you two introduce yourselves.”

Ed nodded determinately. “I’m Ed Williams from Fuchsia City!”

Ally also replied. “I- I’m Ally Anderson from Cerulean City.”

Blaine then spotted Leah who was standing behind the duo. “How about you? Are you also challenging me?”

Leah leaned against the wall and gave him a bored look. “Of course not.”

Blaine pouted, put off by her attitude. Suddenly, he got a cunning look on his face and took out two Pokeballs from his pocket. The balls were odd looking, their orange tops obviously different from their usual red.

“Since you both are challenging me,” Blaine explained to the two. “I will make this battle an interesting one. You two will both fight me at the same time; a double-battle. There will be no time limit and it’ll be two on two, you each using one Pokemon. Is that fair?”

“But what if we’ve never-” Ed exchanged frantic glances with Ally and Leah started wondering whether the two somehow developed the power to talk telepathically.

“Don’t worry!” Blaine’s abnormally loud voice soothed them. “It’s not that hard, you don’t need to actually fight together if you don’t want to.”

Ed exchanged one more look with Ally before he made the decision. “Bring it on!”

“That’s the spirit!”

Leah, meanwhile, slid down the wall as it looked like the battle would take a while. She crossed her legs and sighed deeply before leaning her head against her hand. Her loose, stringy hair shifted across her vision, but she made no move to remove it, having no interest in the battle. At least, not yet.

Blaine made one last call on his pager, saying some words, and almost immediately, the secretary shuffled in, holding a green and red flag. He obviously didn’t have much work to do as he dully stood outside the boundary line, parallel to the chalk Pokeball.

The secretary sighed and raised his flags. “This is a battle between Gym Leader Blaine of Cinnabar Island and Ed Williams and Ally Anderson, from Fuchsia and Cerulean City respectively. This is a double-battle with no time limit…”

Blaine gave the secretary a pitying look. “Come now, can’t you put some emotion into it?”

The secretary ignored him. “Let the battle begin,” he droned and waved the flags down.

Blaine went first and threw both of his Pokeballs out in front of him.

The first Pokemon was dog-like in appearance as it sat on its hunches, tongue hanging out of its mouth. It was covered in short orange fur with small black stripes on its legs and back. Long and poufy pale fur stuck up in every direction from between its triangular ears and on its stomach. Behind it, its large pale fluffy tail wagged happily and its black eyes stared curiously at the two trainers in front of it.

Blaine’s second Pokemon was a Vulpix. It looked just like any other Vulpix, brown fur, fox-like body, but it was sporting three tails that fanned out behind it. It pawed the ground and tilted its head, ready to receive orders.

Ed wasn’t worried about the Growlithe and the Vulpix, both fire types. He had been training with his Paras and he was confident that he could win. “Go, Paras!”

Unlike its trainer, Paras didn’t care if Ed was prepared or not. The Pokemon held up its claws, once covered by blood and the liquid from an eye, and silently threatened the two foes that stood before it.

Ally hesitated. She bit her lip, her Pokeball shaking with her arm.

Looking up at the sudden movement, Leah followed Ally’s arm curiously as the girl put the Pokeball back into her bag and brought out a different one. Oh no, Leah thought. Please don’t tell me she’s going to…

“Go, Amber!” Ally said clearly, letting loose her recent addition. For the first time under a trainer’s rule, the two-tailed Vulpix looked around, not recognizing the environment she was in. Her eyes caught another pair of eyes, similar to her own, and she stared into the face that could be seen within a mirror. She hissed at it and the other Vulpix growled back.

And so the battle began.

Ed wasn’t concerned about Ally’s choice of Pokemon. He had to concentrate on his own battle and didn’t have any time to be worried. “Paras! Poison Powder!”

“Growlithe, Ember!” Blaine cried. “Stop it!”

The Paras was busy, silently letting its mushrooms generate purple spores, but it seemed it wouldn’t be able to finish. On the other side of the field, the Growlithe barked and spat a mouthful of flames. The fire streaked towards Paras and the bug type forced its little delicate legs to propel itself out of the way. Paras made a little clicking sound as one its legs didn’t get out of the blast in time and tingled in pain. It had just enough time to look up to see the Growlithe trotting towards it, fangs barred.





Meanwhile, the two Vulpix stared at each other in menace, glaring and trying the scare the other Pokemon off. Amber was the underdog, having one less tail than the other, but didn’t back down, its instincts howling at it to get rid of the other Pokemon. The other Vulpix fanned out its tails, whipping them in the air in warning. When Amber stood its ground, Blaine’s Vulpix knelt down, its back legs hunched before it darted forward and crossed the arena in seconds.

“Watch out, Amber!” Ally gasped as her Vulpix leapt aside, the other Vulpix shooting past a few more feet before stopping and turning around. It tried to tackle her Vulpix again and again. Each time, Amber got out of the way with a hair to spare, but she was obviously getting tired. Amber panted and her fur coat was already starting to gleam with sweat.

“Vulpix,” Blaine commanded, switching his attention for a brief moment. “Keep using Quick Attack!”

The Vulpix agreed, keeping up its assault on Amber.

Ally also gave a command. “Ember!”

Amber didn’t understand what Ally was saying, but its instincts screamed for it to defend herself, so that’s what she did. She skidded to a halt, after dodging another attack. With an intake of breath, Amber held it in, and just when the enemy Vulpix came shooting in again, she released it. The fireball hit its target dead on, blowing the other Vulpix back, but the Vulpix just got up again, not looking at all damaged. Actually, it looked even better than before, standing up straighter and its ears were perked.

It let out an arrogant huff and inhaled just as Amber previously did, but instead of fire, out came sound. The sound was fierce and it didn’t sound like something such a small body could produce. Amber whined at the noise, unwillingly backing up, ears flattened and tails curled in between its legs.

“It’s okay, Amber!” Ally cried out, trying to give her Pokemon courage. “Don’t back down!”





On Ed’s side of the field, the Growlithe looked up at the noise, its lips pulling back to show a hint of teeth. Paras, on the other hand, was as cool as a cucumber, casually going on with making its Poison Powder. Getting a whiff of a bad scent, the Growlithe snapped its head towards the bug Pokemon and lunged. The fire type had the perfect timing, getting a face full of Poison Powder for its efforts. Paras looked up at the hunched over dog Pokemon coolly and its tapping feet moved it backwards quite a bit as it gave off the impression of smugness.

“Good job, Paras!” Ed cheered, but on the inside, his mind was racing on what to do next. The Growlithe was poisoned, so Paras couldn’t use Stun Spore and the bug type didn’t know any special attacks. To defeat the Growlithe, Paras would have to use either Scratch or Leech Life and that meant going closer.

“Paras! Go up closer and use Scratch!”

Paras gave its trainer a un-amused look, but did as he commanded. Its feet clicked and clattered as it made its way toward the Growlithe, who growled angrily. The fire type got back up to its feet, but kept its swollen eyes shut and instead sniffed the air with its black nose. Paras walked up to it cautiously, claws held up, their points looking as sharp as ever. Suddenly, the Growlithe extended its neck to as far as it could go and bit down to where it thought the bug was.

Paras had backed up at the last minute, but took the opportunity. It swung its claw horizontally and swiped at the Growlithe’s head. Growlithe yelped as the claw nicked it on the side of the mouth and in defense, it breathed out flames.

This time, there was no way Paras could dodge.

“Paras!” Ed yelled as his Pokemon was covered in fire and thrown back a few feet at such a close-ranged attack. The bug type skidded along the ground, its feet scrapping lifelessly across the stone. Its healthy orange skin had turned a burnt dark orange and a bit of steam rose off of the body, which didn’t move as it came to a halt.

Ed stood frozen, watching his Pokemon and wondered whether he should go see if it was okay. His hand was on his Pokeball and he thought about recalling his Paras, but didn’t try as he stared at the body, hoping it would get up.

The referee slash secretary carefully walked on the field, making sure to stay away from the other battle. He leaned in towards the Paras and looked at it carefully. When he didn’t see any sign of movement, he called it.

“Paras is unable to battle!” he declared, raising the red flag. “This victory goes to Growlithe and Gym Leader Blaine!”





Amber tried not to back down. It slowly uncurled its tails, one at a time and tried to stand up straight on its trembling legs. The other Vulpix growled at her when she tried to raise her head.

“Don’t let it bully you!” Ally told her as the girl thought furiously.

What should she do? What attacks did Amber know? Ember, Tail Whip, and maybe Roar… What could those do against another fire type? What should she do? No. A better question was what could she do? Amber couldn’t defeat the other Vulpix. It was stronger, faster and more powerful. So, if Amber couldn’t defeat the other Vulpix, should she just give up? Spare Amber more pain?

No, Ally thought instantly. She couldn’t do that. Not only would Ed and Leah be disappointed in her, but how could she go back home knowing that she gave up? She was a Pokemon trainer now! Pokemon trainers didn’t give up. Never.

The real question she should be thinking about was that if Amber couldn’t win the battle directly, how else could it be won?

“Vulpix,” Blaine said. “Quick Attack, finish it off!”

The other Vulpix seemingly nodded to itself as its body curled up like a spring. It blurred as it shot off like a cannon ball. Instead of trying to hit Amber head on, it halted a few feet beside her and prepared to tackle Amber’s side.

“Dodge!” Ally screamed.

Amber did so, once again getting out of the way in time. The other Vulpix shot past her, where it skid to a halt before turning around and got ready to try again.

Now was her chance! “Ember! Amber, use Ember!”

The Pokemon didn’t understand, though it felt like it should being doing something. It didn’t realize how stupid it was to use an attack that didn’t do anything the first time, but it inhaled, gathering up air. The flame unleashed raced across the gap between the Pokemon where it hit the other Vulpix directly, who did know that fire didn’t hurt it and always made it feel more powerful. So it took the hit, no matter how close it was and felt better. It was forced back by the blast, but as soon as it stopped, it prepared another assault.

“Wait!” The referee called as he raised both flags. Both Vulpix paused as the man looked towards Blaine’s Vulpix critically and saw the obvious. Behind the other Vulpix was the boundary line, its straight path marred by the messy white blur that was smudged outwards, out of the battle zone. The secretary went over to Blaine’s Vulpix and lifted one of its paws, revealing white chalk sticking to its heel.

It was called. “Vulpix has gone out-of-bounds! This victory goes to Vulpix and Pokemon Trainer Ally!”





The battle had ended and it had left Leah scowling fiercely as she redid her ponytail before whipping it back behind her.

What a copout! Seriously, it was just getting interesting. Blaine’s Vulpix was about to wipe Ally’s Vulpix into infinity and then wham! Out of nowhere, the foe Vulpix got disqualified for putting a foot out-of-bounds. What a rip-off!

She got to her feet, put her arms in the air and stretched. The gym should really have built in audience chairs because wow, she didn’t think that the stone floor would be that uncomfortable. Her legs hurt, her butt hurt and she wanted to leave already after such an anticlimactic battle.

Across the gym, at the challenger’s box, Ed and Ally were talking to Blaine. Ed’s Paras was gone, presumably back in its Pokeball, but Ally had her arms filled up with her Vulpix, who was held to her shoulder like a cat. As Leah walked closer, she could see and hear what was going on.

Ally was beaming as Blaine held up a triangular orange badge.

“This is the volcano badge,” Blaine explained. “It’s proof that you’ve beaten me. If you get seven more of these, you can enter the Indigo League Tournament that will be taking place in the spring.”

Ally smiled happily as she took the badge and kept it in her hand as she held Amber. “Thank you!”

“Good job, Ally,” Ed said weakly, forcing a smile. “You did great.”

“Uh huh,” Leah said dryly, coming up to them. “You done?”

Blaine coughed. “Ah, one more thing.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out another badge. “I challenged you two to a double battle, so since I lost, both of you won.”

Leah knew what was about to happen and mentally started to swear. “Uh, wait a minute. Your Growlithe beat his Paras, so technically, isn’t this a stalemate?”

“I could say that,” Blaine considered. “But Growlithe was poisoned and wouldn’t last long anyways, so that’s one for me and one and a half for the challengers.”

Damn it!

Ed took the badge, holding it like it was the most precious thing in the world. His voice was shaky. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it!” Blaine’s booming voice returned as he laughed. “Good battle you two! I hardly ever see newbies around here; they always go to Viridian or Pewter City first.”

“We were going to go that route,” Ed explained as a grin started to set in. “But Leah said that’d we should go here first.”

“Ah!” Blaine boomed and Leah was suddenly under the unseen gaze of the gym leader. “That’s smart, then. Viridian City is packed with trainers this time of year, the waiting list for the gym is probably days long! What’s your name?”

The sudden change of topic jarred Leah. “Leah Gordon. Why?”

“Hmm,” Blaine was silent for a moment before laughing. “No reason!”

Ally spoke up. “Um, the man that refereed the match, he gave Ed’s Paras a level… do you think you can tell my Vulpix’s?”

“Just caught, eh?” Blaine said as he hoisted Amber from Ally’s arms, holding her above his head as he looked at the Pokemon from all sides.

“Yes, just this morning.”

After a few more minutes of observation, Blaine handed Amber back. “Well, judging by the gym battle, I’d say that he’s not quite on the chart yet and if so, very low level one.”

Ally nodded along, but froze as she went through the explanation. “He?”

Blaine chuckled, a bit embarrassed for Amber’s sake. “Yes. It comes to a surprise for some people, but Vulpix can be male, though it’s a bit rare.”

“Amber the male Vulpix,” Leah snorted, amused. “Poor Pokemon.”

The girl looked torn as she held Amber tight. Then, something flashed across her face before disappearing. “No,” Ally said firmly. “Nothing’s wrong with Amber. Amber’s a nice name; it can be used for a boy.”

Leah nodded as if agreeing. “Suuuuuure,” she drew out, smirking. “Whatever you say.”

After a few more minutes a chatter, Blaine departed to seemingly heal his Pokemon, leaving the trio to their own devises.

“Our first badge!” Ed cheered. “Awesome!”

Ally smiled and agreed. “We won!”

“Don’t get cheerful yet,” Leah warned them as they walked out of the gym and into the sunlight. “We still have to go back through the forest and if a Pokemon attacks us, we’re screwed unless another sacrifice pops up.”

Ed ignored her. “I still can’t believe we won!”

Leah let her failed act of changing the topic slide. “Yeah, me either. He obviously went very easy on you.”

“Maybe a little,” Ed admitted. “But we still won!”

“Not really,” Leah said, putting her hands in her pockets. “Blaine could have defeated you guys easily if he didn’t let his Pokemon do his own thing. And even then, you half-lost.”

Ally hummed a bit and agreed with Ed. “It doesn’t matter, we still won.”

Leah sighed and looked at the clear blue sky ahead of them, overlooking the trees.

“Suit yourself.”





A/N: Since I thought that the real leveling system from the games was too detailed, I’ve decided to introduce a vague one. Level one Pokemon in this system are levels 10 – 19, level two Pokemon are levels 20 – 29 and so on. (Just in case I confused people).

When I was going over the gym leader battle, I noticed most of the actions followed a pattern of either dodging or direct hits, so I apologize for its boringness.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and next week we’ll finally be getting the show on the road!

Buoysel April 25th, 2009 12:14 PM

Love the way the battle was won. Very clever indead. Can't wait to read more.

Dagzar April 26th, 2009 8:08 AM

Quote:

Love the way the battle was won. Very clever indead. Can't wait to read more.
Thanks, Buoysel! Heh, I wasn't sure that winning the battle due to boundaries was a good idea, but I'm happy it seems okay.

Neiko Star April 26th, 2009 8:58 AM

Great battle! Wow, I really wasn't expecting that...but in the first sentence, you wrote that Ed didn't seem very gym-like. XD

Dagzar April 26th, 2009 9:09 AM

Quote:

Great battle! Wow, I really wasn't expecting that...but in the first sentence, you wrote that Ed didn't seem very gym-like. XD
<.< Very first line; how did I miss that?

Anyways, I originally wasn’t going to have Amber kick Vulpix out-of-bounds, but I honestly couldn’t think of any other way on how to win. *sighs* That’s the problem with these battles, a small move pool equals not much to do.

Giratina ♀ April 26th, 2009 9:14 AM

That's true, small movepools equal spamming of a lot of moves in most battles, but I think you got out of that pretty well! I certainly wouldn't have expected it.

Dagzar April 26th, 2009 1:29 PM

Quote:

That's true, small movepools equal spamming of a lot of moves in most battles, but I think you got out of that pretty well! I certainly wouldn't have expected it.
Thanks, Giratinasaur! Heh, the trio’s Pokemon should hopefully get a few more moves soon so that they won’t have to rely on other ways to win battles. I find that there’s actually a lot of ways to win battles, like time limit and such, but it’d get boring if I kept using loopholes.

Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

Dagzar May 1st, 2009 3:29 PM

Uh, yeah. Obviously, this isn’t an update. :(

You see, the next few chapters are pretty important and, in fear of screwing up, I won’t be updating this week, even if I’ve finished Chapter Ten. I need to make sure these next chapters go according to plan and, while the next chapter technically isn’t as important as the others, I need to do some much needed tinkering on it.

Anyways, sorry for the inconvenience, but you guys will just have to wait until next week where you’d probably get a better chapter than if I posted it today.


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