Chapter Nine: City Song
So this one has a bit of explaining of stuff between Charolt and Connor... character moral pie sort of stuff. Feel free to skip it.
Chapter Nine: City Song
The next day dawned: tendrils of sunlight cascaded through the windows; Pidgeys, Phalks, and Tailows chirped as greater bird pokémon looked down from above, ready to dive in for the kill. I woke up to the sound of the alarm clock, the dull beep boring into my ears.
I quickly got up, slamming the clock off. I threw my covers off and onto the floor, and slid off the bed. Luckily, it wasn't a bunk bed, or I would have had the same fate as I had had yesterday.
I pulled on a lime-green polo shirt and with it khaki pants. Finally I found my shoes under Kody's bed, and with them batted him on the back until he turned over and looked at me with a groan. "Thanks a lot," he said sarcastically.
"You're welcome," I returned. "Listen, um… I have to tell you something about Heather…"
"What?"
"Well, I guess Ashley thought we were no shows… and so she left… Meaning…"
"Meaning no breaking away from her, meaning she'll stay with us?"
"Exactly!" I said, slowly backing towards the door.
"Why… why… I'm going to kill you!" Kody shouted, charging towards me.
I quickly threw open the door and bolted, glad I had clipped my pokéball onto my belt, just in case.
"Connor, I'm going to get you!" Kody shouted, darting out after me, pokéball clipped on his belt.
"Yeah, well we'll see about that," I said, looking back at him and sticking my tongue out, almost playfully.
I suddenly hit something. Hard. I was knocked to the ground, and closed my eyes from the pain of my neck whipping into the tiles. "Ow…" I mumbled. I opened my eyes to see who I knocked down, and it was none other than Alex Ketchum.
"Hello," Kody said humbly.
"I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed.
"It's fine."
"Actually," I said, whispering to him. "Kody back there was going to attack me."
"Ah… so…" Alex said.
We still couldn't get over it. Here he was, the fourth generation pokémon master en-training, en route to another national championship, no doubt. "Would you battle us?" Kody said quickly.
"Sure… but I'd probably beat you, unless you've been at it for a while…" Alex stated humbly.
"Actually, we just started."
"Oh, luckily I have a pokémon I've recently caught."
"Oh goodie!" Kody exclaimed.
I sighed and nearly laughed as Kody walked up to Alex and shook his hand.
"Glad to meet you, okay, let's battle!" Kody said quickly.
"I'll get Heather, you two can start!" I shouted, as Kody led Alex out of the pokémon center to the nearest battle park, which was Millennium Battle Park. We had planned to go there anyways and then challenge the gym this evening or tomorrow.
"Sweet!" Kody shouted back.
I sighed and walked back to our room, and then over one to Heather's. I quickly rapped on the door and waited patiently for it to open. Heather did so shortly and met me with a smile.
"Hey. So, are we going to Millennium Battle Park already?"
"Yeah. You wouldn't believe it, actually. We ran into Alex Ketchum. Literally, actually." I rubbed my chest, where a bruise was already forming. "Kody is battling him probably right now."
"Really, let's go!" Heather exclaimed. She burst past me and ran down the hall.
I chased after her quickly, almost laughing. But, that wasn't until after I had gone back into our room and grabbed a 12-pack of Silver Bullets along the way. Hey, what can I say? I like my energy drinks.
-----
"Arbon, Poison Sting!" Kody shouted in Millennium Battle Park for what I figured was the hundredth time.
"Rinit, Shadow Fang!" Alex countered. He commanded a young raccoon with black rings around his eyes and a dark grey and light grey bloody patterned very similarly to that of a Zigzagoon, mostly because they were related very closely, excepting the thousands of miles in between the two. I smiled that at least
something in Advanced Biology had paid off, and slowly closed off the thought, watching the battle progress.
Alex Ketchum's raccoon had beaten Kody's canine to its prey, and so was the first to sink his teeth into his opponent. Of course, momentum still carried him, and he ended up swing around, and then back, nearly ripping out a huge piece of Herbine's fleshy stomach. It was, as the raccoon pokémon swung back that Herbine managed to grip his opponent with his fangs, surrounded in a purplish aura.
"Rinit, Revenge!" Alex shouted.
Revenge is an interesting attack, in that it seems physical and special at the same time. In fact, at least according to the grip of Techniometrics I have, it is in a category that only a few other rare attacks are placed in, in that it takes the energy of its opponent attack and uses it. Somewhat like Reflect and Light Screen, except it bites back instead of just taunting. Or… something like that. I nearly failed the course this year, so what can you expect?
By the way, if you can't tell, I had a few extra cans of energy drink on our way over here from the PC, and call it coping or whatever, if you will. I prefer enjoyment.
Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, so Rinit's Revenge attack glowed red and struck Arbon and knocked him down. And so the battle was over and Herbine was returned and Alex paraded his victory about. And so I found myself, in my caffeine-high state, challenging the Master of Training himself with my best friend and a friend I happened to like today more than, say, a week ago watching me.
"All right!" I shouted. It wasn't like how I usually spoke, as it was high pitched and squeaky. Like I said: really super hyper high on caffeine and everything. "Charolt, go get 'em! Yipee!"
By the way, it was about at this time that the caffeine faded from my system and a mother of killer headaches filled my mind. Meanwhile, Alex called out his pokémon – this time also a local pokémon, but this time water and flying-type called Altroan.
Altroan is a very dull pokémon, and of course my headache did nothing to help the situation. As I watched the plain brown and green mallard sit calmly on the soft grassy loam of the battle park, my mind worked slowly, hampered much by the headache (did I mention that yet? As you can tell, I am writing this down in
another caffeine high…) to create a strategy.
It didn't look good, as I already was a type down. And of course, it was one of the mother of all type advantages. One that could kill an unwary fire-type such as Charmander or Cubno, especially if it managed to extinguish their tail flame.
"You ready, Connor?" Alex asked, looking rather concerned.
I didn't blame him. I was jittery, almost like I was in a seizure, which of course I wasn't. "Yes," I managed to hear myself saying through my searing headache. It was about that time that the fact that this wasn't
exactly going to turn out good in my favor. I ignored that fact.
"All right then, Altroan, Water Gun!" Alex said simply.
The duck honked in reply and swooped upward, ready to release a deadly jet of water.
"Let's see," I thought aloud. "Charolt, Shadow Ball!" I said, knowing it was one of the only options I had. Fire attack would do little affect… unless… I would save that thought, I thought to myself, for later on in the battle when I could take advantage of it, if I ever could.
My colt nodded, if begrudged. I quickly and quietly reminded myself to talk to him after the battle and a visit to the pokémon center, and work out the hate we had developed on the first few days of our journey together. It played a ball of writhing purple-black energy towards its opponent, and it just so happened to be a well aimed one, or possibly a luckily aimed one – whichever one, you can decide, probably the latter – and collided with the jet of iridescent blue water, pushing it back into the mallard's maw. The duck was pushed back. It fell, or at least half so, as it also failed to get control by flapping his feathery wings rapidly, back towards Alex Ketchum.
That first clash ended, I quickly modified my strategy. "Charolt, Tackle!" I shouted hoarsely.
My colt charged forward, questioning me, but nonetheless obeying, and charged towards the duck. The duck, still on the ground, quickly tried to soar upwards. However, this attempt was failing.
Alex was forced to order a counterattack, which he probably would of anyway. "Water Gun, and finish it," he stated simply.
I smiled. Remember that little affect I mentioned before? Well, this was just about the situation I had wanted. Though, I would have preferred the Altroan to not be trying to fly upwards. But other than that…
"Ember!" I countered calmly. My colt emitted a flurry of fiery energy at the incoming beam of water.
"It isn't going to work," I heard Heather say from somewhere behind me.
The steam that quickly rose over the battlefield proved her wrong.
"Now, Shadow Ball until you can locate it, then Tackle it to the ground, and trample it if it hasn't fainted yet!" I shouted.
Alex glared at me cruelly. "Altroan, try to fly up! If you can't get ready to dodge that Shadow Balls or hit them with a Water Gun- "
But he was cut off from continuing, as my colt released its first onslaught. The duck quacked loudly and skip-hopped out of the way. A stream of watery energy shot through the steamy fray, and was followed by an out-of-control ball of black-purple energy.
I sighed in relief as my colt came galloping back towards me.
Obviously, I had won.
No,
we had won.
I ran out to my Charolt and stroked his side, careful not to touch the flame. For though I had traced my disliking of fire-types to homophobia, I still didn't want to get consumed in fire. I lowered my eyes to his level, recalling that from what I
think was from a Year 4 unit in Science about Communicative Science.
It's horribly lucky that nearly all pokémon species can understand English (which is one of the only languages in use on Earth, other than the tribal languages of Africa and Arabia, Alaska and South America, where during the Great Civil Wars they reverted back to primeval instincts, for some reason, mostly due to nuclear radiation and the already-poor conditions.), or I would have been toast. Only a few young adults were known to have mastered Basic Pokémonic, which was more based on telepathy. It wasn't a coincidence that most of them were telepaths, including, though I didn't know it – either the telepathy part or the Basic Pokémonic part – the man I had just defeated in battle.
"Hey guy, thanks a lot for fighting hard." I nuzzled against his muzzle, strangely disturbed by the gesture. "Listen," I forced myself to say, "we've not really understood each other, have we?"
The colt nodded in reply. "Char… ar… olt. Olt." Of course I didn't understand.
"He said 'Yeah, but that's both our faults,'" Alex said, walking up to me. "I know Basic, if you want me to translate."
"Um… sure?" I asked confusedly. Great, what was next, David's goth sister being psychic? Ironically, I wasn't far off the mark with that muse.
"All right."
"Thanks…" I lowered myself back to Charolt's level. "So, you know, we didn't really hit it off… but let me begin from the beginning."
"Alright," Alex translated.
"Good. If you can understand this, I didn't really like fire-types. Can you understand?"
Charolt nodded, which of course required no translation.
"Yes, he-"
"-I sort of understood that… Anyways, for a long time, actually until a little while after we met, I didn't know
why I didn't like them. If you know what a Charizard is, well, I was attacked by one a few years ago. And I was hurt really bad, and so my parents wouldn't let me go out or anything. But, as I actually figured out just a while ago… it wasn't that sort of thing that bothered me.
"Now, how to explain
this… um… Charolt, do you know what homosexuals are?" I asked, shivering all over from saying it.
Charolt shook his head 'no'. "Well," I looked at Andrew this time. "Do you know if pokémon understand it?"
He nodded yes, and added, "Usually."
"Well, it's something that I don't really think should happen, but believe people have the right… but that's just politics. What it is this: if, for example, but this will never happen, I had
romantic interest in Heather. That would be heterosexual, and is perfectly normal for human beings and for pokémon. Understand?"
"He says that he does, but that it doesn't really seem to explain you hating him."
"I'll get to that, okay?"
"Char," nodded my colt.
"But, now say that I took a
romantic interest in Kody. Which, I must add, shall never, ever, in five million years happen. That would be homosexual, and that is not normal…"
"Of course, since that group of people is sort of a group on its own, they aren't exactly the same as the normal society… you see they tend to do things with pokémon, or at least some of them do, that offend most people. These are dirty things that we shouldn't even know about, but of course
someone had to add it to a Wikipedia entry about ice-types. But what they due is sick and wrong. That offends me.
"But that doesn't exclaim my dislike of fire-types either, does it?"
Charolt nodded as if he understood.
"What bothers me is that, well, do you know what co-ordinators are?"
Charolt nodded again.
"Good. Co-ordinators you see are, if they are male, usually accused of being the aforementioned group of people that I don't like. Anyways, I was at a convention in my town and was watching a very good co-ordinator battling in the final round. I think his name was Harley or something. Unfortunately, when he won, he was met by his boyfriend… which made me throw up into my popcorn cup. Of course, he used fire-types… That was a few months after I was attack by Charizard, and so it seemed that there was little difference between me disliking fire-types because I had just been attack by one, and of course, my homophobia.
"And that's why I 'hate' fire-types. Can you understand that?"
"He says that you are somewhat shallow. But yes, he understands you."
"Good." I crouched down below his eyes, looking up at him humbly. "Now, can you forgive me?" I asked.
Charolt nodded, and I stood up, shouting for joy.
Well, that was one part of correcting my poorly formed hates…
Now it would soon be time for the other half.
"You mind going back into your pokéball now?" I asked Charolt quickly.
He nodded and was quickly sucked up into his spherical ball, which I clipped back unto my neck chain.
I slowly walked back over to Kody and Heather.
"So, now that we have that done with…" Kody said, "we should probably work on moving out…"
"Sure, Kody. We'll definitely leave tomorrow after I challenge the gym… If you mind, I happened to have promised to go out to lunch with Heather. Unfortunately, I promised to do so alone," I stated bluntly. I shook my head mentally for changing my promise in her favor. "As she owes me for saving her Sneasel."
"You what? Are you joking? This is a bunch of crap!" Kody exclaimed. "Why you little- "
"I'm sorry Kody. I didn't really want too… but you know…" I said quietly to him.
I then turned to Heather, who glared at me angrily. "Will you still take me up on your offer?" I asked quickly, forcing it out before she could yell at me. I had already made one friend angry. Could I make both angry at one time?
She frowned then suppressed it with a smile. "I guess… but I have to… reiterate a few things to you, including that 'it'll never happen' phrase."
"Whatever," I said, falling back into my old bored-of-you attitude. I quickly pushed it away and followed her out of Millenium Battle Park.
"Okay. Come on, we're going to hit Bistro Bliss on Freede Harbor…"
----
So, let us review the current situation:
I was about to go on what I certainly didn't want to but what would most likely end up being a date with Heather.
I had recently professed my homophobia to my first and (currently) only pokémon, Charolt.
Kody was as pissed off at me as possible, as I was about to go what I certainly didn't want to but would most likely end up being a date with Heather, which Kody happened to totally hate.
So Heather and I left Millenium Battle Park to go to Bistro Bliss, which I'm guessing would end with a kiss. No matter how much I disliked the thought of that, I managed to go along with it anyway. Maybe it was my subconscious steering me in the right direction. I'd put a higher bet in the fact I was at the worst part of the nearest thing to a caffeine hangover, which is a lot like a real hangover. Or so I'm told. Because, of course, I've never drunk. Not meaning that I haven't tried.
But since I was leaving with Heather to downtown Freede, I left Kody and Alex together in the middle of a battle park. This is his version of what happened, at least as far as Kody is concerned; though, from what Alex told me about it, I doubt some parts of it.
-----
I glared at Connor as he left, holding Heather's arm all too closely. That little S.O.B! I kicked angrily at the ground and cussed under my breath.
I sighed as the sun shot through the trees and a trainer on the court next to us shouted as loud as he could, "Hey, isn't that Alex Ketchum?"
Minutes later, about one-hundred trainers were crowded around the both of us, each asking for a battle.
"All right, two at a time, you'll be battling me and my friend. Any questions?" Alex finally managed to scream over the din.
"So, who wants to go first?" I added.
Two twins stepped forward, each dressed nearly alike. The first favored green ribbons over her blonde locks and a green dress, while the second favored red ribbons over her brunette locks and a red dress to cover her perfect skin.
"We'll battle," the green-dressed one said. "I'm Henrietta, and that's Yale."
"We've
both made it into the Hakkou National Cup. I'm sure your friend can't say the same thing,
Alex."
"Actually, he already has six pokémon, even if he looks like a noob."
"I do?" I asked quietly as the twins took a position on the opposite side of the battle court.
"Yeah, here," he said, handing me five pokéballs. Actually, they were ultra balls and shone in the midday sun, the light reflecting off their sleek black finish. Special ultra balls in fact – custom made.
"I've a license to carry twelve anyways."
"Why?"
"Confidential. Can't tell, but it has something to do with Team Angel."
"Oh," I said, as I replaced the five empty pokéballs on my belt with the Alex's five.
"You ready then?"
"Well, it'd help to know which ones you have in here," I stated matter-of-factly, "but other than that, yes."
"Good. I've done this before. Believe me, it gets boring real fast. So, if you've got a Nintento Playcube or something similar, get ready to use it. Glad I have my Bulldog Mini on me."
"Okay," I said nervously, thinking about pulling out my Navi, but deciding not to. "Let's kick some Alex-loving ass."
"We're ready!" Alex announced. "We'll choose first. Go, Dragonite!"
"Go!" I added. Both our pokéballs flooded the grassy court in red light; Alex's took the form of an orange dragon. Mine… or rather also Alex's… took the form of a powerful grass-type with a mushroom cap atop her head and two powerful fists, balled together, ready for a fight.
"He does have powerful pokémon," I heard one – I think it was Henrietta – say in amazement. "No matter. Go, Thundyk!"
"And Fernyk!" Yale added.
The two pokémon I knew well – they were quite popular in the western islands. Both were psychics, and evolved from the same pokémon.
The two pokémon looked like twins, each having an orange-red or golden band running down the center of their humanoid bodies. On either side was light grey skin that ran down to the knees and out to the elbows, where orange-red or golden yellow again took their turn. Each psychic's head was the same light grey, except for mastering brown-green pupils and a small mark above the eyes at the forehead. Thundyk boasted a golden yellow thunderbolt, streaking down from the ridge atop the head to just above where the eyes began. Fernyk, meanwhile, flashed a volcanic symbol that spread out above the highs, the cap just below the ridge on top of the head.
"Dragonite and Breloom versus Thundyk and Fernyk!" shouted a guy who had stepped forward, fashioning himself as a referee.
"Don't worry about type advantages. Breloom is above Smith's Scale level 95. Fat chance either of the two over there are past 60. And as for my Dragonite… he's
at least over 120. Last time I brought him in to be tested, he scored level 110, and that was last month… so yeah… we've got these battles in the bag, in case you had any doubts."
"Thanks," I said bluntly.
"Begin!" shouted the referee.
"All right," Alex whispered to me. "You distract both of them, or try to, and I'll get Dragonite to go in for the kill."
"Okay," I said. "Breloom, Mega Drain them!"
"Good," he said quietly. "Dragonite, Mako 7!"
"What the heck is that?" I whispered loudly.
"Oh… you'll see. Did you watch the Japanese National Cup last year?"
"I remember now, but wasn't that Echo 7?"
"Same thing, just a different name."
I smiled, glad to be watching a master at work instead of on the receiving end like I had been.
"Now, distract them," Alex said silently in my mind.
Wait a minute, in my mind? What the heck?
"Don't be alarmed. How do you think I talked to Connor's Charolt?"
"I just thought you were really good," I thought back. Then, I shouted, "Breloom, Mach Punch!"
The grass-type humanoid charged forward. Her fist rose above her head prepared to do her master's bidding.
It was at about this time that Dragonite dove down towards the two psychics, playing a beam of golden energy at the both of them. The beam was so large and powerful that Breloom automatically jumped back as it engulfed the two psychic humanoids in golden light.
Quickly, Henrietta and Yale returned their pokémon and stepped away, sulking.
"All right," I shouted all too confidently, "who's next?"
-----
"It isn't really a bistro, is it?" I asked quietly as we opened the door. The man at the counter looked up at us, rubbing the stubs of a grisly beard with his hand thoughtfully.
"Yeah… more of a café – for trainers mostly. It is on the main tourist strip though, so expect to shell a thousand hakks…
"I'm planning on it," I said weakly as we walked up to the counter.
"What you want," the man said in a hard Bostonian accent. He stepped back so we could se the menu. It was printed in a plain, cheap script across the back wall, with the occasional new sheet tacked on to cover an old price with a new one.
"What is there?" Heather asked curiously.
"We got mean Torchic wings, and our Tauros burgers aren't that bad. But our sandwiches are the best on the island… they all come with fries and onion rings and a drink, in case you didn't figure it out…"
"My treat, right?" I said to Heather as I began my order. "The club sandwich sounds good. Which meats – Torchic, Tauros, what else?"
"Miltank and the GM beef they've been working on… it's 1599, if you care."
"Okay, that sounds good. The whole meal, then."
"And I'll take a pair of Torchic wings, crisp, with lots of sauce," Heather added.
"It'll be right up - the meal, right?" Heather nodded in reply. "Total's 3708 – with tax 4171 and a five tenths," though it sounded more like 'tence'.
"Thanks," I said as I brought out a five thousand note and a half hakk to go with it.
"Eight hundred and twenty nine back at you," he said as his fingers worked like clockwork on the register. It clicked open and the man set the notes on the counter, the ancient machine moaning as he slammed its belly back shut.
"Thanks," I repeated as Heather and I walked away from the counter to grab our drinks and then find a table.
We sat down, setting our King's Cola – one Cherry and one Lemon-Lime – onto the table. The 30 oz. bottles were rather plain, but nonetheless their innards thirst quenching. We both took long, enjoyable sips. Finally, Heather set her green-yellow cola down.
"So… about what you said about never being interested in me…" she said, looking up at me with her deep green eyes, grinning in an evil way. "You were lying, weren't you?" she cracked open her Dew and took a sip while I searched for an answer.
"Well, I guess you never know…" I began.
"Wrong," she stated simply. "I can tell you like me right now," she added accusingly.
"That's just… incorrect. I don't
like you, okay. Not romantically. As a friend…" I shrugged, "sure. Actually, you know I used to hate you as much as Kody now does. Don't make me go back like that."
"Oh…" Heather looked away as the man brought us our food. She curled her hair angrily with one finger, dipping a fry into the barbeque sauce that flowed over and around the tantalizing Torchic meat. "Well… when you want to tell the truth, we'll talk about it…"
"Yeah," I replied half heartedly, glad as could be for that bit of conversation to pass. "Hey, what do think Kody and Alex are doing?"
"If I can think of anything, it might be that they're challenged by a mob of kids. Remember when that happened on Ash Ketchum's TV show about his journey?"
I chuckled, sinking my teeth into the thick sandwich, the freshness of it astounding. In between chews, I said, "Yeah… that happened… like twenty times, didn't it?"
"Around that much… and I bet Kody is playing the role of his fiancé, Dawn."
"Something like that," I replied, looking away.
A cold silence fell over the table, and it veiled most of the rest of our meal.
-----
"So what's that, the thirtieth battle?" I asked Alex Ketchum bleakly.
"Yeah, Kody, something like that," he mumbled, not even looking up from his Bulldog Mini, a small handheld gaming system much like Nintendo's Playcube.
I don't know how that guy managed to deal with it.
"Aggron," I commanded, "Hyper Beam!"
"Pidgeot, Swift!" Alex added.
Alex's two pokémon – the first a steel-armored grey behemoth, the second a cream-white and brown winged eagle with a long red and gold ribbon stemming from his head.
Pidgeot collided with its first opponent, a Manectric, by shooting small stars of gold energy at it.
Meanwhile, Aggron knocked the other opponent, a Flygon, down to the ground with a wide beam of energy that made a crater in the ground.
"Return," the opposing trainers said, the first a tall guy with blonde hair, and the second a girl that looked at him constantly for support. They left together arm in arm.
"When will this be over!" I exclaimed, hating Connor for this. After it all, it was
his fault – his and Heather's. I kicked the dirt angrily, as two new opponents came forward.
They called out Sandshrew and Chimecho, and Alex's two pokémon went to work, flowing coercively together to make short work of them.
I finally fell to temptation and pulled out my pokénav, opening a mindless game of solitaire.
-----
The silence finally was broken as Heather got up to dump her leftovers into a trash bin.
When she came back, she was grinning mischievously.
"What?" I asked.
"Oh… you'll see…"
"What is it?" I asked again. I did so for two reasons – the first because I was curious, and the second because I had a feeling she was going to get revenge.
"Oh, I just got us tickets to go out on a catching safari in the forest. It's mostly protected, after all."
"Only two?"
She nodded.
"You know what, I can't do this!" I exclaimed, as I got up and threw away my trash.
"Come on, Connor, we'll just go as friends, then, it doesn't matter," she said innocently, twirling her finger as she often had done. How could she weed me out like that so quickly? And how could I turn that down?
Certainly not.
"Oh… fine…" I finally said, "but no lovey dovey fluff or anything like that…"
"Good. Come on then, we've got to get to Fifth and Brunswick in five minutes," she said, standing up and pushing in her chair. She left the café, and I quickly ran after her so as not to get lost.
What the hell was I thinking?
-----
The safari bus we rode in was crowded to say the least. My legs were crushed against the seat in front of me, and Heather was pushed against me all too close for comfort.
"And to your left is Millennium Battle Park – and oh! It looks like we have a popular trainer there. Remember that when you get back – he'll probably still be there."
I chuckled at that.
"Anyways, folks, we are moving out of the town now to the small area where catching is allowed. Called Silur Woods, it was donated by the president of Silur Corporation, Mr. Wood, who has a mansion nearby. He intended this piece of property to be for trainers, as there were few other places in the forest where catching is allowed – and none, mind you, by the city of Freede. There are some by the small villages of Hanover and Bristol, but they are very hard to get to as both those towns have virtually no ports and few good roads leading to them. So, this is called Silur Woods because of Mr. Wood, and is a great place for catching pokémon.
"We are going to be getting off here, the first of our three catching stops. Let's say that you get back here at three o'clock. It's two thirty now, so that should give you ample time to find a pokémon and try to catch it."
"Let's go!" Heather said excitedly. She stood up, nearly hitting her head on the ceiling (which of course I did. Lucky me) and filing in to the long line of eager trainers preparing to catch a pokémon.
"Wait up!" I shouted as a few trainers pushed past my attempts to get in. By the time I got off the bus, Heather was already out of sight.
"Oh well," I said to myself, "at the least, now I'll be able to be on my own."
I quickly ran out into the forest, falling a sketchy path towards what sounded like a small creek.
A half hour later I returned with no pokémon to speak of and boarded the bus again.
"Any luck yourself?" I asked Heather as she crammed in next to me.
She nodded. "Caught a Tailow."
"Ah… nice," I stated as the safari bus roared to life and rolled out of Silur Woods along the two track.
"You?" she ask back. I only replied by shaking my head.
"Our next destination is another area donated by Mr. Wood, this one named after his youngest daughter, Cherry. Cherry Woods is, in fact, an area where there are numerous streams, intersecting at a small lake, where many small water pokémon are abundant. Other than that, however, there are also many pokémon that depend more heavily on water consumption such as water and grass-type pokémon. Fire pokémon, unfortunately, are quite rare. However, we are also visiting a small area where mountain pokémon are abundant, and some fire-types are there as well. That said, we are nearly at our Cherry Woods stop. Let's try to be back here in forty minutes: may the catching begin!"
"Here we go again," I thought aloud. I followed Heather through the slow moving line out of the bus and then walked briskly out into the forest with her.
We walked for a while, the ambience of the forest thrilling us, until a heavy scream echoed through the area.
"What was that?"
"I don't know," I replied. "But let's not find out."
We stopped and sat. My fingers slid down to my belt, ready to release my Charolt.
Another scream echoed through the area, this one much closer.
"This might be trouble." As I spoke, I looked up the main path. To my horror, a handful of trainers were running towards us for their lives. Behind them, I could make out a feint shadow. The beast was large and stood erect, body tank-like. As it drew closer I could tell what it was, and that those trainers had good reason to run.
It was an Ursaring.
