A Rare Sight

Rent-A-Friend Part 1

I froze up when I saw Jade on the other side of the door, the phone slipped from my hand and crashed onto the floor.

“Surprised to see me?”

“……….Wha-?”

“Roxanne called HQ after you left; I was in the neighborhood when they contacted me about your incident, so this girl was being attacked by Apocalypse when you showed up and played hero.  It seems you’re a magnet to our problems wherever you go.”

“………..How did you-“

“Garrett there’s no time to talk; we need to get over there as soon as we can, when can we talk to this girl?”

“………….Well we just-“

“I guess it isn’t that important to head to the hospital at 11, come to think of it, I think visiting hours are over anyways.  Get some sleep; we’ll meet at the hospital at 10:30 tomorrow morning.”

Jade then left the room, I slowly closed the door on her way out.

“…………What just happened?”

“Well Garrett, a lady shut you up without any violence, god I need to learn from her.”

“Just get some sleep,” I grumbled as I fell asleep.

The Next Day

“FASTER DAMN YOU!!”

“I’M GOING AS FAST AS I CAN GARRETT CALM DOWN!!!”

“YOU’RE NOT EATING FAST ENOUGH!!!!!”

“LARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!”

Everyone went quiet.

“Chole, we have to be at the hospital in 30 minutes and it takes at least twenty to get there.  You’re still eating!!”

“That’s because your fatass wouldn’t want to get up when the alarm went off!!!!”

As we were arguing, Ruby came between us, picked us both up without any struggle and threw us out the window, all with a blank face.

“Oh god…I can’t feel my back,” I said squirming on the ground.

“You’re on my back, get off!” Chole said, shoving me off of her.

Slowly, I stood back up; cracking my back on the way up.

“Come on, let’s get going.”

We all walked to the hospital, well the others walked, Chole and I limped.  It took us awhile but we finally got to the hospital, and sitting on the bench with a newspaper was Jade.

“Hmm, late.  I told you to be here at 10:30, where were you?”

I look at my watch.

“It’s 10:31!”

“Exactly, what took you so long?”

“Don’t even remind me.”

“Enough talking; come, we’re wasting more time.”

We walked through the door and entered the hospital.  We told the nurse who we were visiting and walked to Taylor’s room.

“This is the girl?” Jade said as we both looked at her through the window.

“Yeah, her name is Taylor.”

“Taylor?  Hmmm, interesting.”

“You know her?”

“Nope, just a fascinating name to have.”

We all then entered Taylor’s room; she awoke from the noise and slowly sat up from her bed.

“Hello again, Garrett,” Taylor said.

“Hey there Taylor.  Taylor, this is Jade, she’s works for a-uh the police, she would like to ask you a few questions if that’s all right with you?”

“It’s alright Garrett, I already know about Purification.”

“Oh, well that gets rid of a lot of explanations I would have to say,” Jade said.

“I’m guessing the biggest question you want to ask is what I have to do with Apocalypse.”

“If you would,” Jade said, leaning in closer to her.

“Well, I started out my Pokemon journey at around 15 years old.  I wanted to be the greatest at Pokemon Contests, *chuckle* just like any young girl’s dream am I right?  Anyways, I was making my way to another Pokemon Contest when I was challenged to a fight by a random stranger.  I won; it turned out it wasn’t just me and the trainer, a member from Apocalypse spotted our fight and talked to me after I had won.  He told me that I could be even stronger with my Pokemon if I would join their “special” school.  It wasn’t until I turned 18 when I found out about their plans and why they wanted trainers like me to join their ranks.  I didn’t want to get involved in what they were going to do and so I wanted to leave.  When they told me I wasn’t allowed to leave, I devised an escape plan, it worked as you can see, but, it seems some of their advanced soldiers were tougher than I was and now, here I am.”

I was speechless; it was such an amazing story.

“Wow, that’s some story; tell me, is there any type of secret information you can tell me about?” Jade said, seeming to not even care.

“Nah; the only information I know, you probably found out the day Purification was formed.”

“Very well, thank you for your time Taylor; Garrett can I talk to you outside for a second?”

“Yeah, sure.”

We both exit the room.

“I must take my leave now Garrett, if you find out any more information about her, call me, m’kay?”

“Got it.”

“Oh and one more thing, keep an eye on her, she could be a spy, you never know,” Jade then turned around and walked the opposite way.

I then entered Taylor’s room and sat back down.

“Taylor, before we left you said it was finally good to see Chole, what do you mean about that?”

“Garrett, of all other people, I would think you’d know about Chole, both Apocalypse and Purification knows all about her, both sides are always keeping an eye on her.”

“Did you know this Chole?”

Chole’s body glowed and she turned back to her normal form.

“Yeah, a little bit.”

“And you didn’t tell me why?!”

“Eh, it slipped my mind.”

“You gotta be kidding me.”

“Alright sure.”

Taylor giggled.

“Garrett, can you do something for me?”

“Sure Taylor, what do you need?”

“You wouldn’t happen to be heading to Fallarbor Town would you?”

“Yeah, I’m making my way to Lavaridge to get my 4th gym badge.”

“Would you mind if I come with you to Fallarbor Town, my grandmother lives there and I have no where else to go.”

“Of course you can Taylor, it would be nice to talk to another human besides this horrible excuse of a Pokemon,” I pointed to Chole.

“HEY, I cheer sometimes.”

“See what I mean.”

Taylor chuckled.

“Taylor, you get your strength up; we’ll stay here, and when you think you feel better we’ll go.”

“Sounds good, but I felt good to go the first time I saw you yesterday.”

“Well that’s great, when can you leave then?”

“The nurse told me she had to do one final checkup then I would be good to go, so I’d say in a few hours.”

“Great, we’ll go back to the Pokemon Center to get our things and then we’ll come back and meet up with you.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Yup, well I’ll see you later then.”

“Bye, oh and Garrett…”

I opened the door and turned around after Taylor called my name.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

I then turn back around and leave the room.

“Well, she sounds nice,” I said as we left the hospital.

“Yeah…for an Apocalypse member,” Chole whispered back to me.

“You mean a FORMER Apocalypse member.”

“No I mean an Apocalypse member.”

“What are you saying?”

“Garrett, she worked for Apocalypse, for all we know, she could be on a mission right now.”

“What kind of mission?  Leave and get your life back?”

“No you dumbass, she could be spying on Purification, and she just so happened to stumble upon the boy with a Mew.”

“She’s not like that; she wouldn’t do that to us.”

“You just MET the girl, and you already trust her?  Garrett listen to me, don’t…trust…the…bitch.”

“Alright fine, we’ll keep a close eye on her, but if she isn’t what you say she is, then I’m blaming you.”

“Fine, I just don’t want to be caught because of your stupidity.”

It took us twenty minutes to get back to the Pokemon Center.  When we got to our room, Chole spotted a note near the broken window.

“What’s that?”

“Hmm let me see,” Chole said picking up the note.

“To Whom It May Concern, yadda, yadda, yadda…we would like to inform you that…Garrett.”

“Yeah?”

“What was that movie called that you talked about that had those men with giant shields?”

“300?”

“Eh, add another zero.”

“Add another zero?  What the fuck are you…” I took the note from Chole, read it, and then froze up.

“Garrett?  Garrett you’re drooling, yoohoo,” Chole snapped her fingers in front of my face.

I slowly turn my head to Ruby.

“You’re dead to me.”

One Hour Later

“Thanks mom, I promise I’ll pay you back.”

“Oh, it’s alright hun.  I’ll just *sniff* I’ll just have to get another mortgage on the house *cries* *hangs up*”

“Well that went well don’t you think?” Chole said.

“Don’t talk to me.”

It took us another hour to eat lunch and pack up our things.  Once I paid for housing and…miscellaneous things, we went on our way to the hospital to meet up with Taylor. 

When we got to the hospital, I noticed Taylor sitting on the bench waiting for us.

“Hey Taylor!” I called out to her, waving.

“Hey there,” she said, waving back.

As I got closer I finally began to realize that…hey, she’s fuckin’ gorgeous.  She wore tight, denim jeans and a shirt with a small leather jacket over it.  Her hair was brown with blonde highlights in it; she had sea blue eyes, light freckles, and a smile that could make a rain cloud grin.

“Garrett, Garrett you’re drooling again,” Chole snapped her fingers.

“I know,” I softly say.

“JESUS, he likes her” Chole slapped her forehead.

“You say something?” I asked.

“No I didn’t Romeo.”

“Oh okay.”

“Hey guys…and girl, oh you’re so cute as a Charmander aren’t you Chole?”  Taylor squeezed her cheek.

“Hey hey, lay off the face, I just made it perfect.”

“So *cough* a-are you ready to go Taylor?”

“Yeah, let’s get going,” she said.

“So…where did you get the clothes?  When I found you, you were wearing nothing but a bathrobe,” I asked while we were making our way to the northern entrance of Rustboro.

“There was a gift shop in the hospital, thank god.  Do you imagine me walking in a forest with a pink bath robe,” Taylor laughed.

“Oh god, her laugh is even perfect,” I thought.

Chole kicked my leg.

“OW!  The fuck was that for?”

“I can read your mind pervert, forget that?”

“Pervert?” Taylor asked.

“Hehehe it’s nothing, she’s delirious *chuckles*,” I kicked Chole in the face when Taylor wasn’t looking.

“Oh, alright,” Taylor looked back and saw a footprint on Chole’s face.

Taylor opened her mouth but decided to say nothing.

It took us about a half hour to get to the northern entrance; before we made our way into the wild we took one final check on supplies.

“Berries, BERRIES!!  Do you have them?!”

“Yes Chole, I bought some before we left.”

“*Sigh* thank god.”

“Do you have everything you need Taylor?”  I ask her.

“Yeah, it’s nothing but the clothes on my back unfortunately.”

“What happened to the Pokemon you said you had.”

“When I joined…well, you know; they told me I had to get rid of my Pokemon for the time, they said I would have to work with one of their “special” Pokemon, and so I sent my Pokemon back to my grandmother’s.”

“Oh, well that sucks.”

“Yeah, sorry I won’t be much of a help.”

“It’s alright; just having company is fine with me.”

“Pshh, useless Apoc,” Chole whispered to me.

I kicked her in the face again.  After Chole got back up again, two perfectly noticeable shoe prints were on her face.

“You got a little…”

“Shut up Garrett.”

I then placed everything back in the backpack and picked it up and placed it on my back.

“Alright everyone, next destination, Fallarbor Town.”

Hours Later

Night was approaching, the sun was saying goodbye and the moon was saying hello on opposite sides of the world.  We made it to the entrance of Meteor Falls and decided to make camp for the day and enter the cave tomorrow morning. 

Everyone was doing their regular duties except for Taylor, who had nothing to do.

“Um…do you need help with that Chole?” Taylor asked Chole, who had an armful of sticks.

“Hmph, no thank you Apoc,” Chole floated away.

“Apoc?”  Taylor slowly sat down on the ground.

“Don’t listen to her Taylor; just relax, we’ll take care of everything,” I patted her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I-I just don’t want to feel like I’m useless.”

“You’re not, dealing with Chole is full time job itself,” I pointed to Chole.

“I HEARD THAT!” Chole yelled in the distance.

“How bout this, keep an eye on the fire, if it gets low then put some more sticks in there.”

“I suppose I can do that,” Taylor looked at Chole, then down at the ground.

“Don’t let her keep you down, Chole is just a little cautious, that’s all.

“For good reasons, I worked for the enemy.”

“I don’t see you working for them now, I don’t see any of them around here do you?  The past is the past; if you look to the future then it’ll be just that.”

Taylor looked up at me.

“Thanks.”

“No problem…the fire’s getting a little low,” I chuckled and went back to my normal duties.

It took us forty-five minutes to set everything up, after eating dinner it was time to head to bed.  Everyone got into their sleeping bags except…well you know.

“No Garrett, I’m fine like this,” Taylor said, lying on top of a rag near the fire.

“Don’t even say that, take my sleeping bag; I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“Garrett, I’m…”

“Taylor, I can do this all day, just take the sleeping bag,” I held out the sleeping bag for her.

“*Sigh* fine, but where will you sleep?”

“I’ll sleep with Buddy.”

“But that’s only for Pokemon, you can’t fit in there.”

“I’ll just lay on it and he can lay on me like a blanket, his fur will warm me up for the night.”

“Garrett, you really don’t have to…” I held up my hand before Taylor could finish her sentence.

“Have a good night Taylor.”

“Good night,” Taylor mumbled.

I turned around and walked to the other sleeping bags, I turned my head to see Taylor, she was laying the sleeping bag on the ground and began to take off her pants and shirt to expose her panties and bra.

I turned back around and fainted right on top of Chole.

“OOF, Garrett, Garrett get off me I can’t breathe, I CAN’T BREATHE!”  Chole slipped free but was now bedless.

She floated over to Buddy’s sleeping bag.

“Hey the Bud, Buddy ol’ pal of mine, mind if you scoot over…eh, eh, yeah, there we go g’night.”

Two seconds later, Chole flew out of the sleeping bag.  She then went to Ruby’s…then Linoone’s…then Treeco’s.

“O come on Treeco!  I thought we were amigos!  Stupid lizard,” Chole grumbled, she then flew over to the rag that Taylor originally was laying on and fell asleep.