Chapter 7: Prepare for trouble...

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Note to readers: For those who need refreshing on who Scott and Storm are, refer back to my story “Pokemon Rangers 1: The end of things”

­___________________

Eddies 7

"Trainers Card and pokeball" said Nurse Joy snidely, giving him a prim look as she reached over the counter towards him.  Really not in the mood for her attitude, Chris handed the items over with a nod, watching as his card was scanned and the ball bar-coded with a small sticker.  Dropped into a vacuum tube near the reception desk, it shot up the clear pipe before being whisked away through the ceiling to the rejuvenator room.

"The charmander has now been registered to your trainers account.  You can pick it up any time after 8am tomorrow morning" she said.  Chris nodded again, forced smile on his face as he thanked her for her kind assistance.  The confused look he received in reply as they turned from the desk was almost worth the effort in keeping his mouth shut.

  They returned to their room, where Chris dropped heavily to the bed with a groan.  Skyy perched himself on the end of the bed, staring down at the human with an enigmatic look.  When Chris glanced up at him, wry grin crossing his face, the lucario leaned back against the foot of the bed frame, quietly stating "And that makes three."

Chris snorted in sudden amusement and sat up against the bed head, eyeing his friend dryly.

"This whole "not being a trainer for any reason "thing isn't working out very well, huh?"

Gaining a chuckle in return, Skyy replied "Umm, no.  Not really.  But at least that douche bag doesn't own him anymore.  That has to be worth it?"

Chris considered Skyy's response, running through the implications in his head.  At the least, the advantage of being a trainer seemed to include free food and board for him and his friends.  Sort of like welfare with benefits, he thought to himself wryly.  Not that he planned on being here indefinitely, but it seemed to beat the alternative of starving for a living. 

  Turning back to the lucario, who had closed his eyes after dropping to lie across the end of the bed, Chris asked him "So, what do you want to do this afternoon?  We're stuck here until ranger Scott gets back to us, and I've had my fill of that arena.  Shall we sight-see?"

Skyy kept his eyes closed as he nodded.  "Sure, why not.  This place has to have something going for it, with the size of the gym here."

After vacating the centre, they headed downtown, looking through the windows and occasionally going into the different shops they passed.  Chris was surprised at the number of stores allowing pokemon inside, considering his own world's feeling towards taking animals anywhere.  But then again, pokemon weren't exactly animals.

Skyy found the human world fascinating.  It seemed that if it could be thought of, then it existed somewhere in this place.  Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined he'd be able to travel so openly around humans, despite their constant fascination with him; an obsession that was quickly becoming irritating.  One would think they'd never seen a lucario before, although admittedly to be fair, lucario were a rarity in this region.  Being stopped every few paces by hyperactive human children was bad enough, but the seemingly never ending requests to 'battle" had lost its amusement quite some time earlier.  In the end, a simple "Piss off, kid!" seemed to suffice, although the glares directed at him by some of the annoyances parents were a bit unpleasant.

  When one matronly heifer accosted Chris about his pokemon's bad attitude, he gave her a glare, saying "Well, if you're ill-mannered offspring had taken the hint, perhaps he wouldn't have gotten irritated.  But since you're now annoying me in the same vein, why don't you piss off yourself?"  As she stormed off in a huff, Chris turned to the grateful lucario, saying with a groan "Damn, there's no reasoning with these crazy people!"  All Skyy could do was chuckle in agreement.

Walking down the main road eating the ice-cream Chris had bought was the highlight of their day, and they stopped in a large, shaded park to enjoy the treat.  Lying back on a timber bench resting underneath a large statue of some obscure historic trainer, who stood in perpetuum with a look of grim determination on his bronzed features, they sighed simultaneously as they both relaxed, enjoying the play of wind ruffling the waters of the small lake before them, and cooling the muggy afternoon heat.

Chris let out a yawn, stretching mightily in the dappled sunlight while staring vacantly into the distance.  Sky polished off the last of his ice cream, long tongue licking all traces of the delicious goodness from his muzzle, before joining his friend in daydreaming.

  When the scurrying kids and watchful parents began to leave, the lengthening shadows revealed the day's progression into late afternoon.  Chris turned to Skyy and asked him the thing he'd been wondering all day.

"Are you happy, Skyy?" he said, almost plaintively, turning his head to watch the lucario's reaction.

Skyy nodded absently, staring at the drifting clouds while his thoughts wandered with them.

"Yeah, I am" he sighed, blinking to gather his thoughts.  "Given what was my fate a few days ago, it's a total turnaround.  So, yeah..."

Chris pondered this, and continued.  "What do you want to do from here, then?"

Skyy sat up with a start, looking at the human with surprise.  "I'm still going with you, aren't I?" he said almost worriedly, and as Chris nodded, he relaxed in relief. 

"Uh huh" said the human, and turned back to watching a small toy sailboat cross the lake, excited kids hurrying around the bank to follow it.  "I'd hope you were.  You're the coolest thing to come into my life...well...forever, really."

  Skyy looked at him in surprise.  "Really?" he asked.

Nodding, Chris said "Yep. Really."

The pair returned to watching the slowly departing afternoon, as they shared each other's company in the fading light.

­___________________

Returning to the centre under the dim glow of the street lights overhead, they began to hurry as the previously star filled sky rapidly gave way to darker clouds, heavy with the risk of rain.  As the evening fully descended, the friendly atmosphere of the place became somewhat jaded, with the empty doorways and alleyways staring outwards from the building facades feeling somewhat ominous in the dim light.

Chris gave Sky a nudge, pointing up at the threatening sky, and the pair began running up the long slope leading to the pokemon centre.  By the time they'd made it half way up the hill, Chris was puffing heavily, halting his dash and putting out a hand to lean against a nearby wall to catch his breath.

Skyy rested with his friend, although the lucario was a long way from feeling tired, the stamina of his kind far outweighing that of the human.  As the first heavy drops of rain began to fall, shattering on the sidewalk and wetting their shoulders and heads, Chris waved off his friends helping hand, ready to resume their sprint.  He had no chance to start, however, before being stopped by two garishly dressed characters that sprang out at them from a nearby porch-covered walkway.  With the pair blocking their path, hands on hips in a ludicrously stylised pose, Chris turned to Skyy with an incredulous look, before again confronting the two who seemed hell-bent in blocking their way.

  Taking a step forward, he looked down at the almost-uniform the male was wearing; large red "G" sported proudly on the shirt front, and said to him "Do you mind getting out of the way.  It's about to pour, and I'm hungry."

The pair stared at each other, before tilting their heads back, sudden peals of laughter ringing from their throats!  "HAHAHA!!  They think they can escape Team Galaxy that easily?" said the female, pointing to Skyy with a well manicured finger, and shouted "We want your lucario!  He's now the property of Team Galaxy.  Get in our way at your peril!"

Chris's patience with stupid reached an all time low, so he took two more steps forward, confronting the male, who drew a pokeball at him, waggling it two and fro as he said "Uh huh.  We won't take no for an answer!"

Shaking his head at the moron, Chris could only ask "And who the fuck are you clowns supposed to be?"

He would have been better keeping his mouth shut, as the pair stepped back, resuming their pose and shouting in unison "We're Team Galaxy!  Prepare for trouble, and make it..."

  But what they were going to make with it was lost, as Chris punched the male firmly in the face, sending him crashing to the ground with a groan, blood pissing from the broken nose held unsteadily in his hands as he stared up at Chris in mute distress.  The girl twirled to Chris in shock, throwing out an arm to release a pokemon from its ball, only to press madly on vacant air as Skyy deftly tweaked it from her grasp, before landing a resounding slap on her cheek, sending her tumbling to join her partner.

Chris turned to Skyy, who was absently flipping the ball in his palm, and received a smirk in reply.  "How about we run now?" said the lucario, receiving a twitching grin from his friend, before the pair bolted past the two Galaxy clowns, leaving them groaning on the sidewalk in their trail. 

By the time the two reached the welcoming doors to the pokemon centre, dripping wet and cold from the drenching rain now pouring down in buckets, they were both laughing so hard that tears were pouring down their faces.

  "D... d... did you see the look on that moron's face when I thumped him?" chortled Chris, wheezing against the door as he tried catching his breath, only to gasp harder as the lucario slapped him across the back, rendered mute in mirth.

As the two dropped to a nearby padded bench while trying to recover, neither noticed the Gym leader approaching, with a wry grin on his face.  Squaring off before the two, who were still shaking uncontrollably in mirth, Jasper groaned and said "Do I even want to know?"

Skyy recovered first, tossing him the ball he'd swiped.  While still having troubles finding breath, he managed to gasp "We prepared for trouble!  Honest!" sending the pair rolling on their backs in hysterics, as the puzzled gym leader looked on in confusion.

­___________________

Jasper had seemingly forgiven their earlier altercation, as he joined the two at dinner.  Once they managed to catch their breaths, they recounted the story of their Team Galaxy experience to a smirking gym leader, who roared with laughter as they told him of their adventure.

  "Those two are a fucking pain in the arse" he said eventually, cutting into his dinner with a knife and shovelling the food into his mouth.  "They seem to spring up wherever they're not wanted.  With Team Galaxy effectively defunct, following the raids on their headquarters by the Rangers last year, all these freelance morons seem to be doing is annoying the shit out of everyone.  Perhaps next time they'll try irritating someone in a different area for a change?"

Chris grinned through a mouthful of salad and mumbled, spraying bits of lettuce across the table. "When they recover, anyway" he spluttered, choking for a moment on the food in his mouth.  After a quick whack on the back by the lucario, who sat smirking over his own meal, Chris continued.  "What were they thinking?  Did they really believe I was just going to hand over Skyy's ball, on their say so?"

Jasper rolled his eyes heavenwards, polishing the last of his tofu steak with gusto.  "Well, they probably look pretty scary if you're a twelve year old kid newly into training.  Most people just ignore them."

  Nodding, Chris turned to his desert, dragging the plate piled high with pastries and ice cream towards him.  As he began on destroying the towering mound of sweetness, he glanced towards Jasper, and began "Umm, about earlier today?  I'm sorry about that.  I let my temper get the better of me."

Jasper shook his head, holding up a palm to forestall any further apology.  "Dude, don't worry about it.  If that's the worst I get thrown at me as gym leader, I'd be lucky.  As I said, I understand, but hope you make some allowances in the future.  But forget it...water under the bridge and all that shit."

Skyy burped loudly, throwing a hand over his muzzle as he stared, shocked, at the two humans.  "Sorry!" he burped again as more gas escaped him, as he sat back looking mortified at his rudeness.

Chris chuckled, and said "Well, Shrek always said its better out than in", but ended up rolling his eyes when he was given confused looks from the pair in reply.

Once dinner was over, the two humans sat back with brewed coffee, while Skyy slurped away at another fruit juice.  Some subtle jibing at the lucario's lack of caffeine addiction were primly ignored by the pokemon, to the amusement of his friends.

  As they retreated to the trainers lounge, Chris asked Jasper "So, how many pokemon do you have?  I saw a few of them this morning, but couldn't pick one from the other"

Ticking off his fingers, Jasper replied.  Well, I have my Raichu, Sparky, whom you saw fight earlier today.  Also a blastoise, jolteon, arcanine, mismagius and a luxray.

Skyy smirked at the human.  "You called your raichu "Sparky"?"

Jasper held up his hands in defeat, as the two friends began laughing.  "Hey!  He was happy with it, and I was only fourteen when I got him!  He didn't seem to mind it!"

The lucario gave him a smirk.  "I'm surprised you didn't call your blastoise "Squirty" too", and received a one finger salute in reply.

Chris spoke up "Is six the limit, or something?" and received a nod of confirmation. 

"It is if you plan on competing in the league.  The idea is to keep a variety of different types with you; electricity, water, ghost, plant, and the like; so you're prepared for most eventualities.  Since this gym is biased towards electrical types, my crew tends to follow that trend"

  Clicking his fingers suddenly, Jasper continued "Crap!  Now I remember!  What are we going to do with this one?"  Fishing a pokeball from his pocket, he dropped it on the table.  "I can't keep it, and I'd rather not put it into storage, since that's not fair for the pokemon.  If I release it, then it might get in trouble, if it's not used to being free."

Chris stared down at the odd coloured ball, which Skyy had given a tentative sniff.  When he caught Jasper eyeing him suggestively, he threw up his hands.  "Oh no!  Not another one!"

At the gym leader's chuckle, he scowled at Jasper.  "Look!  I don't like this as is, and I already have two foisted on me!"  Wincing at a punch in the side by Skyy, who threw him a glare, he said "Yeah, that didn't come out right, I admit.  But you know my feelings on this!"

Jasper shrugged, and said "Well, it's you or the storage system.  At least you can probably give it a good home"

Chris spluttered "But what the fuck do I do with them when I do go home; my REAL home, I mean!  Skyy's free to do as he chooses, but if I end up adopting every stray pokemon here, I'm gonna be in a pile of shit when I do get back to my world!"

  Eyeing the pokeball again, he grimaced.  "Shit.  I don't have much choice in this, do I?" and received a wry shake of the head from the gym leader.

"Of course you do.  No one is forcing this on you."

With a sigh, Chris leaned back in his place, and groaned again.  "So, what is in there?"

Jasper shrugged.  "No idea, dude.  Haven't wanted to open it, since it's not linked to a local trainer.  Plus, it came up as unknown on the main system"

"Is that normal?  I mean, could it be dangerous?" asked Chris, and received a shrug in reply. 

"It's unlikely those morons would have anything that useful on them.  They don't seem capable enough to have captured something all that dangerous"

Chris considered the options, turning to Skyy and asking "Well?"

Looking at the ball, the lucario replied "Well what?  I don't like ball's either, but I like the idea of leaving someone locked in storage even less.  I think you should take it!"

Chris sighed, reaching towards the ball uncertainly.  "So what do we do now?"

Jasper chuckled, picking it up and tossing it towards him, as he caught it with a fumble.  "Nothing.  I transferred it to you before dinner, after you gave it to me".  At Chris's incredulous look, Jasper chuckled.  "Oh, come on!  Give me a break! Was there any doubt you'd take it?"

  At the lucario's laugh, Chris mumbled "Bastard!", and the gym leader grinned at his reply.

Looking down at his latest acquisition, he rolled it between his fingers, admiring the gold and black colouration of the thing.

"So why has it been painted this weird colour scheme?" he asked the gym leader, who shrugged his shoulders, and replied "Dunno.  My best guess is someone customised it, which is a pretty common thing to do in the bigger cities.  Helps you identify which ball is which, although most experienced trainers soon work out other systems for determining that."

Staring at the ball intently, he continued "I'd imagine those Galaxy tossers stole it from some rich kid somewhere, and kept it for themselves. But that's just a guess."

Chris nodded absently, the ball twirling idly between his fingers, before he shrugged, dropping it into his shirt pocket as the conversation turned to different subjects.

­___________________

Later that evening, as the lounge matron gave Jasper a dirty look, he glanced at his watch and jumped up with a start. 

  "Shit!  Look at the time!  I have a 6am start tomorrow and it's after midnight.  I'm off, gents!"

However, before he departed, he handed Chris a belt and a small cardboard box, with a pokeball embossed on the otherwise blank white cover. 

"Before I forget again, these are for you.  Didn't get a chance to hand them over this morning, with training and all, but they come with the trainers application.  Enjoy!"

With that, he wished the pair a good night, and headed out the door towards the accommodation wing at a run.

Evicted themselves as the cleaner waved a broom at them threateningly, Chris held up his hands in defeat, chuckling as the pair left the lounge with a wave of bristles.  When Skyy made for the trainers dorms, Chris touched his shoulder, pointing to the exit and said quietly "I need some air first, mate.  Let's head outside a couple of minutes?"

As the lucario nodded, they pushed through the glass double doors to take a seat in a small sheltered alcove off the entry, watching the rain pour down past the building eves before them.

  The cardboard box yielded a large silver bracelet, with a touch screen monitor on the front.  Pressing it dubiously, the pair watched as a logon screen flashed up briefly, followed by a page identifying the unit as his property, and giving the Star City gym as his current address.  When the main menu came on, showing various icons on the screen, he touched one shaped like a pokeball with a large question mark in front of it, and nearly dropped it in surprise as a blue horizontal laser beam projected out the front of it, scanning the startled lucario, before a computerised voice stated clearly:

"Lucario.  The aura pokemon.  Health 100%. Stamina 100%. This pokemon has been captured"

Grinning at Skyy where he stood regarding the unit dryly, Chris considered it for a moment before plucking the black and gold ball from the belt clip and running it before the machine.  However, this time, pressing the button resulted in a pause, as the scan repeated several passes.  Eventually, the screen flashed with a large question mark, and the voice said:

  "Unknown pokemon; not registered in database.  Warning: it is unknown whether this pokemon may be dangerous to the user.  Proceed with caution!"

Giving Skyy a raised eyebrow, the lucario shrugged in return, as Chris wrapped the pokedex around his left wrist where it clipped on snugly.  He regarded the unit, which had popped up a clock screensaver reading 12:23 am.  Damn, it was late, he thought, and really time for bed!

With a sigh, Chris ran his fingers over the belt in his lap, feeling the icy coldness of the balls where they sat secured in their clips.  With a flick of his finger, he let the new ball again drop into his palm, handing it to the lucario and asked "Any idea what's in there?"

Skyy sniffed the device doubtfully, muzzle wrinkling as he tried identifying the scent of the creature within.  "No idea, actually.  It smells kinda weird."  Giving Chris a grin, he continued "Not as weird as you do, but pretty damn weird nonetheless".

As Chris leaned over to give him a playful punch on the arm, Skyy ducked to the side with a chuckle, reaching out to hand Chris back the anonymous ball, which he regarded intently.

  After a moment, he asked "Well, do we open it?", but the lucario only shrugged again, a doubtful look on his face.

"If it's dangerous, perhaps we should wait for Jasper to be around?" he said, regarding the ball dubiously.  Chris considered the wise nature of the suggestion, but decided to continue, holding out the ball with his finger poised on the button.

"Hell, what's the chance those two morons had something truly dangerous in there?" he smirked, deftly triggering the release mechanism, and watching as the red light sprung from the ball.  Then he took a nervous step back, then another, as the light continued to expand, larger and larger, before a deafening roar erupted from the enormous mass of irate fur, fang and claws now towering over them.

It turned out, the chance was a lot more likely than the pair could have realised!