Story Notes:
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.
First Encounter
Another day had come and gone, we were now between Ecruteak and Violet cities. By "we" I should mention I was with my first and only pokemon, a Growlithe named Idan. The sun by now was slowly receding beneath the horizon, though right now the sun wasn't what I was focusing on...
"You know I could do this in a heartbeat if you'd just let me." Idan chastised as I struck and wasted another match.
"There's nothing wrong with doing things the old fashioned way." I replied pulling a fresh match from the box. The next few minutes were spent trying to arrange the small pile of twigs and tinder so that it'll burn and trying to strike a match right so that I could light it. After wasting about seven matches I guess Idan was either getting annoyed or thought it would be funny so when I tried and failed again to light a match the sun had almost completely gone down and I had my face right up close to the small pile and just before I tried to sit back up Idan blew a jet of flame which engulfed the pile and almost took my face with it.
The first thing I did was jump back and land flat on my ass, the next I did was shoot Idan an angry glare which went unnoticed as he had rolled onto his back and was struggling to breathe he was laughing so hard. When his laughing fit finally subsided he gave me an innocent look. "What?"
"What happened to the old fashioned way?"
"I'm a fire type pokemon remember, that is the old fashioned way." He finished while stifling another laugh. "Well hey, at least we have a fire."
"At least I still have my face." I said running my hand across chin as I spoke which made Idan start to laugh again.
"I don't know, I think you'll be okay without it." Idan mused.
"That's not funny." I replied shaking my head, Idan only chuckled at my reaction.
So after that little bit of "fun" I had dinner cooking which only took a few minutes to prepare, the beauty of freeze dried food is that its quick and lasted almost forever as long as its dry. Idan ate his usual pokemon food which I noted was getting pretty low. From there the next few hours were spent wordlessly watching the sky darken and the stars come out. I had had Idan for the better part of my life, getting him as a pup when I was five, starting the typical pokemon journey when I was ten and now that I'm almost nineteen as long as we've been together we're almost inseparable. I've never caught any other pokemon, mainly because I found randomly fighting and capturing pokemon disturbingly similar to kidnapping. One thing I never fully understood myself was my ability to understand what he was saying, while most other trainers heard what a pokemon said in the form of their name I cold understand him as if he was speaking perfect english. Both of my parents had the same ability and could understand a far wider range of pokemon than I could but they themselves didn't know how either, they just said it was something they had been able to do for as long as they could remember
One thing I always thought about were how the stars were almost like eyes, it made me wonder what all they've seen over the centuries they've shone at night.
I was about to pull out my sleeping bag when Idans head snapped up, when he started growling at something behind me I turn to follow his gaze. A chill ran down my spine as I saw a man standing just inside the ring of light cast by the fire. He stood at about the same height I did, he wore typical traveling attire as well; faded blue jeans, a grey shirt, and similarly grey light coat. His hair was also grey and starting to fade white at the tips but he didn't look a day over thirty. He also wore a broad smile only deepened that chill, it wasn't some warm, kind smile it had more of a cold feel. I paid more attention to his hand, one of which was hidden inside his coat.
"What do you want?" Was all I could manage to ask.
He chuckled lightly "Nothing all to special, I just wish to remove another piece from the board." He said with a voice cold enough to match his smirk.
"You sound like your playing a game." I told him.
"That's one perspective." He replied pulling his hand from his coat. In his hand he held a jet black sphere easily the size of a pokeball, my suspicion was confirmed as he shifted his grip and released a Gardevoir. My throat caught in my throat as I saw her, her dress was torn in several places to reveal bruised and scared flesh beneath. Her face was also bruised but her eyes... they were a deep red typical of any Gardevoir but hers were almost deep enough to get lost in and not in a romantic sense. Her eyes had this almost empty feeling...like the lights were on but nobody was home.
He made a swinging gesture at Idan and she immediately attacked, "Idan use-" I was cut off as the stranger closed the distance between us in literally the blink of an eye and imbedded his fist into my midsection. I staggered back from the impact unable to stand up straight.
He proceeded to walk up to me and uppercut me in the chest sending me to the ground. The stranger then pulled me up by the collar of my shirt and threw me across the clearing, before hitting the ground again I saw Idan had Gardevoir trapped in a fire spin. I hit my shoulder and slid a few inches before stopping on a hard rock, regaining me nerve I quickly tried to roll and grab it. The stranger again made to pick me up by my shirt...Who the hell was this guy? How was he so strong and fast? As I left the ground again I managed to grab a hold of the rock and to my satisfaction it was almost as big as my fist. The stranger then held me almost an entire twelve inches off the ground, still oblivious to the rock and pulled a long knife from behind him. My eyes widened in horror as I finally figured out his intention, the blade was straight and at least six inches long, it had an empty space in the center of the blade at least a centimeter wide and ran up half of the blades length. "You were a bit of a disappointment, usually your kind can at least flare up before I kill them but you... you haven't even gotten a single swing off. Too bad, I guess I'll just be the one to put your shame to rest."
Before he could act further I rammed the rock into the joint of his elbow with a loud resounding pop and the strangers own shout. As I once again found myself on the ground the strangers yelling turned into laughter, I managed to look up and saw his arm was bent in an unnatural angle but still he laughed. As he looked down on me while I tried to get back to my feet his laughing only grew louder, "Now we're getting somewhere, now we'll see if your anything at all like the rest of your kind." He said as he stepped towards me again.
I staggered to my feet as he walked towards me, "What do you mean 'my kind?'"
He suddenly stopped laughing and remained where he stood and gave me a quizzical look. "You know what I mean," He said in skeptical tone. "What you thought you were the only person in the world who could talk to pokemon! I'm guessing you haven't learned to control any of their powers."
"How do you know I can talk to pokemon?" I panted still trying to regain my breathe, he didn't look like he had even broken a sweat. How could he have known that, and what did he mean "control their powers?" My silence must have been enough of an answer because he started laughing again. There was a large flash behind me which I assume was one of our pokemon still fighting, the stranger however started to walk towards me again. I looked to the ground to gauge the distance between us and noticed the knife lying just in front of me, he also noticed and ran to stop me. I dove for the knife and got the hilt in my hand moments before a foot struck my chest sending me onto my back, next thing I knew he was on top of me and trying to choke the life out of me with his one good arm. His incredible strength came into play again as I began to gasp for air, after a few moments of struggling to release myself I remembered the knife and brought the tip of the blade up to the mans rib cage. The blade sunk into skin and bone like it would if it was going through butter with a wet crunch and then a dull thud as the blade hilted in his chest.
Where exactly I stabbed him I wasn't sure but his fierce expression softened to one of shock and pain, a few more seconds passed and it shifted again to a faint smile, "Maybe I underestimated you." And with after a faint whisper of breathe he fell limp allowing me to push him off of me. As I got back to my feet again and taking deep breathes relishing the fresh air the gravity of the situation hit me, I looked back at the stranger, his face now bore no expression and his eyes were still open but I knew as I looked at the hilt of the knife sticking out of him exactly what I had done.
I looked on and stepped back in horror as the thought ran through my head, I just killed a man. I continued to step back until I tripped over a tree root and hit my head on another sending my world spiraling into darkness.
I woke the next morning to a strong ray of sunlight and painful throbbing pulsing across my body.
"Oh, my head." I groaned as I got into a sitting position and rubbing my forehead. I noticed Idan laying a few inches off to my side as his head shot up.
"Your awake." He noted softly.
"Yeah," I replied, wincing as I ran my hand over the bump on the back of my head. "And I feel like I just took the beating of a lifetime."
"Well considering what happened last night I'd say that sounds about right." He replied casually.
"Save the poetry for later." I said roughly as I tried to get to my feet, I was a bit shaky at first but I managed to keep my footing and looked over at the mess I made for myself. The stranger was laying exactly where I left him, his eyes were now glazed over with ghostly white. and his shirt now had a large red stain that began at the knife which still protruded from a bulge in his coat and ended at the ground which was also damp and dull red beneath the grass. Suddenly remembering his Gardevoir I looked over to Idan for an answer. "Where's his Gardevoir?"
"Over with your stuff, I didn't even hit her that hard but she just collapsed after you two were out of sight." He explained.
Seeing as how he wouldn't need it any more I reluctantly walked to and knelt by the stranger to find his pokeball, as I pulled one side of his coat up I sighed as I realized I would have to pull the knife out to search his other side. I closed my fist around the hilt of the knife and gave it a firm tug making the weapon slide out with the sound of metal scraping metal. The blade was coated in blood which dripped off the tip as I looked the stranger over again, sing that I've gone this far I continued to search for the pokeball and found that the knife had in fact gone straight through the minimized ball at the hinge cleaving it in two. Again a shakily rose to my feet finding that the search was over and followed Idan back to the clearing we were originally going to camp in. My head hurt like hell along with the throbbing pain in my chest which only intensified as I breathed in and out.
After a breif walk we found the now burned out fire along with my pack and Gardevoir lying a few feet away. From what I was able to see she had a few new burns but nothing much other than that.
"She blocked most of my attacks with protect and the ones she didn't block weren't serious enough to knock her out."
Like he said the few newer injuries I saw were paltry compared to some others I'd seen him deal. Remembering her other wounds I dug through my pack and pulled out a full restore and gave Idan a quick look over. Having mainly minor cuts from magical leaf attacks I decided he could wait as I slowly moved over to roll Gardevoir onto her back. She moaned lightly but otherwise remained asleep as I did so making me flinch since I expected it to wake her up. Seeing as how she wasn't I proceeded to apply the full restore to the exposed parts of her skin.
Once I got at what I could I sighed and shook my head as I realized I had to pull up her dress to get to the rest of her injuries. "Its too early for this." I sighed as I slowly continued.
Idan gave a curious glance at me before laying his head back down and watching. As I started working up her legs I saw several long thin scars resembling claws wind up her thighs. Reaching her waist I closed my eyes before going any further, I then pulled her dress up stopping just below her breasts and then covering her lower body to at least protect her modesty. Opening my eyes again I sighed in relief seeing that I had left her entire stomach exposed while not revealing anything more...private. Again returning to tending her injuries I saw the patches of near flawless skin where I had been able to apply the potion already and compare to the rest of her stomach which was thoroughly bruised. When a human gets bruised it could be any color from purple to green, on Gardevoir however bruises were either purple or different shades of grey. After applying a thin mist of full restore to her stomach her skin went back to the typical white but unfortunately most of the scars remained along with the skin beneath her breasts retaining an uneven look. Fearing the worst I gently prodded the uneven flesh and had my fears confirmed as a breeze started to blow over...
Gardevoir gasped in pain as she snapped into a sitting position before she could do more a breeze brought a chill to her body making her realize she was exposed. Her thoughts raced and she immediately tried to link her mind with Dayne to try and persuade him to stop, the pain in her chest was to much to bear on top of his "needs."
She sent her mental plea for him to leave her be as soon as she found the mind of who was crouching beside her and then she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. Their grip was the exact opposite of Dayne's, instead of Dayne's typical rough hands these ones were gentle which made Gardevoir's eyes snap open in surprise. In spite of the pain her ribs gave her she saw that while her stomach was uncovered it was also almost completely healed, she also noted that her waist was covered. She brought herself to look up and gasped in shock as she the last person she expected to see.
Instead of Dayne she saw the man from the previous night only now he sported new bruises along his cheek, his hair was also dark brown, almost black, compared to his white as well. All she could do was stare into his green eyes, she quickly expanded her mental ray as far as her radius would permit but Dayne's mind either wasn't close enough for her to sense or he was dead, now she was left here speechless with a human who should be dead...
Gardevoir suddenly shot into a sitting position with a gasp as I poked what I now new were broken ribs, her breathe was unsteady as she did so and when she tried to breathe in it sounded almost like she was shivering. Please don't, not right now it hurts too much.
My eyes widened as her voice filled my head, I tried to get her to lie back down before she made herself any worse than she was and as I touched her she gasped again and looked up into my eyes. As opposed to last night her eyes now seemed a bit brighter though they retained that depth, "Hey, I'm just trying to help you okay?" I said calmly to try and get her back onto her back.
The one downside about full restore is that it could heal any injury it came into contact with in seconds but it couldn't set and repair bones. The only option I had to get her to a pokemon center without making her worse was to put her in a pokeball. Looking down again she was still looking up into my face and still had a shocked expression. "I'm going to need you to lie down for me okay?"
I then felt Gardevoir's mind withdraw from mine after feeling a pulse of compliance and she slowly lowered herself back down, as she shifted she cringed from the pain in her chest. Once she was all the way back on the ground I quickly went to my pack to grab one of the extra pokeballs I had and went back to her side, she still had her eyes clamped shut in pain. "Gardevoir?"
Her eyes opened when I spoke her name but she showed didn't try to communicate again, I held the ball up so she could see. "I'm going to keep you in here until I can get you to help okay? Your other ball is broken so I have to use one of mine."
She only looked at me for a moment taking in a few more shuddered breaths before nodding slightly. Seeing her agree I pointed the ball and before she was consumed in a flash of red she turned head away as if she resented having to go inside.
Now having Gardevoir squared away I got back to my feet and got the rest of my stuff back together, Idan had been lying down and watching me while I took care of Gardevoir and before leaving I gave him a quick dose of full restore as well. The only full restore I carried and I had used the entire thing in one morning, shouldering my pack I looked to my Growlithe as he to got to his feet. "Ready to go?"
"As I'll ever be."
After taking a moment to gain my bearings we continued on the route to Violet city though we went at a quicker pace, the sense of urgency brought on by both a subconscious need to distance myself from the strangers corpse and my concern for Gardevoir's well being.
This ball was different from Dayne's, while she was under the influence of Dayne's pokeball she was aware of her actions and surroundings but she had no control at all, part of her mind was always linked to his but it was more of an oppressive bond where he could dip into it at his own discretion with or without her consent. The bond even allowed him to control her abilities like her ability to teleport and such, but this one was different; Gardevoir felt a connection to this human but it wasn't as strong as Dayne's and that corner of her mind that was under Dayne's shadow was now cleared which after spending the next few hours pondering this humans intentions she found she had some control of herself though most of it was limited due to being contained in this pokeball. Save for the inability to sense her surroundings Gardevoir actually preferred it inside the ball since all the pain she felt was beyond her ability to feel.
Since the pokeball forged a slight bond between the human and herself she was able to sense him outside of the ball, she still couldn't understand why he was helping her, weren't all human males like Dayne? If so then he was probably just trying to get her more fit for him to have his way with her later...but why did he sense concern from him? Was he concerned that he wouldn't be able to do anything or was he genuinely concerned for her health? All of these thoughts dwelled on her mind as her new "master" toted her to whatever whereabouts...
We stopped that night completely out of breathe as I had decided to try and sprint a portion of the remaining distance, as I leaned against one of the countless trees that lined the route I pulled out my pokegear and brought up the map function. To my satisfaction we were now less than a days walk form the city, maybe a fraction of that if I tried to sprint again, Idan took to it better than me since he was better shape than me what with him doing pokemon battles and the like. Ultimately he was fine and enjoyed the run, I on the other hand felt like crap, my whole body was sore from the previous night and pile that on with that cramp in your ribs and all those great feelings that come from running long distances without stopping.
"Maybe we should stop here for the night." Idan offered.
"I'd rather try to get some more distance before stopping."
"You mean you'd rather keep running until you passed out?" Idan corrected which sounded about right. I didn't like the prospect of leaving Gardevoir in her condition and wanted to get her to a pokemon center as quickly as possible.
"You know me too well I think." I chuckled as he spoke.
"If I didn't I don't think anyone would." He replied with a similar chuckle. Like I said earlier; Idan is my oldest friend and fourteen years passes faster than you'd think. Another thing I couldn't deny was that I was exhausted so I leaned my head back and sighed which again brought a chuckle from him. "So we're resting?"
"For now." Was all I could say to him as my thoughts drifted to the past twenty-four hours. "Why do you think that man attacked us?"
Idan lowered himself to the ground and rested his head on his paws while looking at me out of the corner of his eye. "Your guess is as good as mine, though I hate to sound like it but I'm glad you killed him. You saw as well as me how beat up his Gardevoir was."
"That doesn't make me feel any better about doing it." I commented sadly, now I was thinking about what he had said. "Idan, how do you use your fire attacks?"
Surprised by the change in subject Idan thought about the question for a moment. "I don't really even know, usually when you tell me what attack to use I just do it, not much thought involved honestly."
I thought about his answer and thought back to all the times he used a fire type attack, all the way back to the first time Venora taught him to use ember. "So you just think 'flamethrower' and you fire a stream of flames out of your mouth?"
"Beats the hell out of breathe mints." Idan mused which got me to laugh with him. Still curious my laughing quickly faded as I looked at my hand and for some reason pictured it on fire, nothing happened of course but it was still something that made me wonder. After it seemed our conversation was over I dug through my pack and pulled out something for the to of us to eat. Once our little meals were finished I for one found myself asleep faster than I though possible.
I walked down what looked like an old cobbled stone street, the structures that lined the road also had an old feel to them. The buildings were ornately built, the windows had some sort of brown stone forming an arch over the glass, some of the windows were open like you might think of for a neighborhood, most of the doorways had similar architecture along with intricate carvings and designs grafted into the walls that blended in with the plants that grew around the base of the buildings making it seem to meld into the path while at the same time appearing to be part of the floral decoration.
The next thing I noticed were the people, there was a casual traffic of people going this way and that like in a city along with children playing and one thing that strongly kept my interest was that each and every one of them had a pokemon with them. The adults I saw had either an Arcanine, Ninetales, Flareon, Mightyena, or Houndoom or one of their younger forms while the children each had one of the latter. Another thing that set these people away from people you might expect to see nowadays were that while some of them had T-shirts and jeans a number of them wore older things like tunics and the like. One last thing I noticed was that with the exception of the children they all had the same tattoo somewhere on their body; they each had a seven pointed star with each point being a different color, red, yellow, light blue, dark blue, purple, tan, and the seventh point being dark blue edged with red. The center of the star consisted of a large red spiral that connected to the red tip of the star.
Unfortunately I couldn't hear noise being made, all I could do was watch these people went about their day. Wanting to see more I continued down this path to wherever it led, ahead I saw where the road opened and oblivious to the people around me I started running to see what wonder awaited at the end of the road. I ran into a massive city square filled with more people and even more various pokemon, now instead of just fire types there were also pokemon like Manectric, Luxray, Buizel and Floatzel, Nidoking and Nidoqueen, Tyranitar, Lucario, Arbok and Seviper and more. As I continued to stare at the crowd I....
...I woke up with visions of the city still filling my mind. I suddenly felt a sense of longing that ran like a lance of ice through my chest, was it all just a dream? That place by all rights was amazing, the pokemon and people, the architecture...it was all fascinating but again was it all just a dream or does a place like that actually exist? With all of these thoughts going through my head I shook of a chill from the morning air and saw my Growlithe still sleeping though now lying against my leg. I sat up and scratched the back of my neck and looked around the catch my bearings, we were in a clearing a few yards off the main route and currently I was still sitting against the tree and carefully without waking my partner I got to my feet.
Idan was still lying sprawled out on his side when an idea came to mind to replace my dream, a grin made its way across my face as I knelt back to be at eye level with the sleeping Growlithe. I cupped my hands around my mouth and took a deep breathe. "Crap! Idan its another one!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.
Idan immediatly jumped to his feet as he gasped and brought fire to coat his teeth but as he looked around all he saw was me laughing like it was all a joke, which it was. "What the hell? Were you trying to give me a heart attack?" He panted, his legs trembling from fright.
"Maybe." I said innocently making a face to match my tone.
"Not funny." He grumbled in reply.
"Come on, the sooner we get going the sooner we'll get there." I said as I started walking, he quickly shook it off and made to follow me. The next few hours were spent walking the last leg of our trek to Violet city which came into view around noon. Having been here before we found the pokemon center in short time casually walked in...
"You know I could do this in a heartbeat if you'd just let me." Idan chastised as I struck and wasted another match.
"There's nothing wrong with doing things the old fashioned way." I replied pulling a fresh match from the box. The next few minutes were spent trying to arrange the small pile of twigs and tinder so that it'll burn and trying to strike a match right so that I could light it. After wasting about seven matches I guess Idan was either getting annoyed or thought it would be funny so when I tried and failed again to light a match the sun had almost completely gone down and I had my face right up close to the small pile and just before I tried to sit back up Idan blew a jet of flame which engulfed the pile and almost took my face with it.
The first thing I did was jump back and land flat on my ass, the next I did was shoot Idan an angry glare which went unnoticed as he had rolled onto his back and was struggling to breathe he was laughing so hard. When his laughing fit finally subsided he gave me an innocent look. "What?"
"What happened to the old fashioned way?"
"I'm a fire type pokemon remember, that is the old fashioned way." He finished while stifling another laugh. "Well hey, at least we have a fire."
"At least I still have my face." I said running my hand across chin as I spoke which made Idan start to laugh again.
"I don't know, I think you'll be okay without it." Idan mused.
"That's not funny." I replied shaking my head, Idan only chuckled at my reaction.
So after that little bit of "fun" I had dinner cooking which only took a few minutes to prepare, the beauty of freeze dried food is that its quick and lasted almost forever as long as its dry. Idan ate his usual pokemon food which I noted was getting pretty low. From there the next few hours were spent wordlessly watching the sky darken and the stars come out. I had had Idan for the better part of my life, getting him as a pup when I was five, starting the typical pokemon journey when I was ten and now that I'm almost nineteen as long as we've been together we're almost inseparable. I've never caught any other pokemon, mainly because I found randomly fighting and capturing pokemon disturbingly similar to kidnapping. One thing I never fully understood myself was my ability to understand what he was saying, while most other trainers heard what a pokemon said in the form of their name I cold understand him as if he was speaking perfect english. Both of my parents had the same ability and could understand a far wider range of pokemon than I could but they themselves didn't know how either, they just said it was something they had been able to do for as long as they could remember
One thing I always thought about were how the stars were almost like eyes, it made me wonder what all they've seen over the centuries they've shone at night.
I was about to pull out my sleeping bag when Idans head snapped up, when he started growling at something behind me I turn to follow his gaze. A chill ran down my spine as I saw a man standing just inside the ring of light cast by the fire. He stood at about the same height I did, he wore typical traveling attire as well; faded blue jeans, a grey shirt, and similarly grey light coat. His hair was also grey and starting to fade white at the tips but he didn't look a day over thirty. He also wore a broad smile only deepened that chill, it wasn't some warm, kind smile it had more of a cold feel. I paid more attention to his hand, one of which was hidden inside his coat.
"What do you want?" Was all I could manage to ask.
He chuckled lightly "Nothing all to special, I just wish to remove another piece from the board." He said with a voice cold enough to match his smirk.
"You sound like your playing a game." I told him.
"That's one perspective." He replied pulling his hand from his coat. In his hand he held a jet black sphere easily the size of a pokeball, my suspicion was confirmed as he shifted his grip and released a Gardevoir. My throat caught in my throat as I saw her, her dress was torn in several places to reveal bruised and scared flesh beneath. Her face was also bruised but her eyes... they were a deep red typical of any Gardevoir but hers were almost deep enough to get lost in and not in a romantic sense. Her eyes had this almost empty feeling...like the lights were on but nobody was home.
He made a swinging gesture at Idan and she immediately attacked, "Idan use-" I was cut off as the stranger closed the distance between us in literally the blink of an eye and imbedded his fist into my midsection. I staggered back from the impact unable to stand up straight.
He proceeded to walk up to me and uppercut me in the chest sending me to the ground. The stranger then pulled me up by the collar of my shirt and threw me across the clearing, before hitting the ground again I saw Idan had Gardevoir trapped in a fire spin. I hit my shoulder and slid a few inches before stopping on a hard rock, regaining me nerve I quickly tried to roll and grab it. The stranger again made to pick me up by my shirt...Who the hell was this guy? How was he so strong and fast? As I left the ground again I managed to grab a hold of the rock and to my satisfaction it was almost as big as my fist. The stranger then held me almost an entire twelve inches off the ground, still oblivious to the rock and pulled a long knife from behind him. My eyes widened in horror as I finally figured out his intention, the blade was straight and at least six inches long, it had an empty space in the center of the blade at least a centimeter wide and ran up half of the blades length. "You were a bit of a disappointment, usually your kind can at least flare up before I kill them but you... you haven't even gotten a single swing off. Too bad, I guess I'll just be the one to put your shame to rest."
Before he could act further I rammed the rock into the joint of his elbow with a loud resounding pop and the strangers own shout. As I once again found myself on the ground the strangers yelling turned into laughter, I managed to look up and saw his arm was bent in an unnatural angle but still he laughed. As he looked down on me while I tried to get back to my feet his laughing only grew louder, "Now we're getting somewhere, now we'll see if your anything at all like the rest of your kind." He said as he stepped towards me again.
I staggered to my feet as he walked towards me, "What do you mean 'my kind?'"
He suddenly stopped laughing and remained where he stood and gave me a quizzical look. "You know what I mean," He said in skeptical tone. "What you thought you were the only person in the world who could talk to pokemon! I'm guessing you haven't learned to control any of their powers."
"How do you know I can talk to pokemon?" I panted still trying to regain my breathe, he didn't look like he had even broken a sweat. How could he have known that, and what did he mean "control their powers?" My silence must have been enough of an answer because he started laughing again. There was a large flash behind me which I assume was one of our pokemon still fighting, the stranger however started to walk towards me again. I looked to the ground to gauge the distance between us and noticed the knife lying just in front of me, he also noticed and ran to stop me. I dove for the knife and got the hilt in my hand moments before a foot struck my chest sending me onto my back, next thing I knew he was on top of me and trying to choke the life out of me with his one good arm. His incredible strength came into play again as I began to gasp for air, after a few moments of struggling to release myself I remembered the knife and brought the tip of the blade up to the mans rib cage. The blade sunk into skin and bone like it would if it was going through butter with a wet crunch and then a dull thud as the blade hilted in his chest.
Where exactly I stabbed him I wasn't sure but his fierce expression softened to one of shock and pain, a few more seconds passed and it shifted again to a faint smile, "Maybe I underestimated you." And with after a faint whisper of breathe he fell limp allowing me to push him off of me. As I got back to my feet again and taking deep breathes relishing the fresh air the gravity of the situation hit me, I looked back at the stranger, his face now bore no expression and his eyes were still open but I knew as I looked at the hilt of the knife sticking out of him exactly what I had done.
I looked on and stepped back in horror as the thought ran through my head, I just killed a man. I continued to step back until I tripped over a tree root and hit my head on another sending my world spiraling into darkness.
I woke the next morning to a strong ray of sunlight and painful throbbing pulsing across my body.
"Oh, my head." I groaned as I got into a sitting position and rubbing my forehead. I noticed Idan laying a few inches off to my side as his head shot up.
"Your awake." He noted softly.
"Yeah," I replied, wincing as I ran my hand over the bump on the back of my head. "And I feel like I just took the beating of a lifetime."
"Well considering what happened last night I'd say that sounds about right." He replied casually.
"Save the poetry for later." I said roughly as I tried to get to my feet, I was a bit shaky at first but I managed to keep my footing and looked over at the mess I made for myself. The stranger was laying exactly where I left him, his eyes were now glazed over with ghostly white. and his shirt now had a large red stain that began at the knife which still protruded from a bulge in his coat and ended at the ground which was also damp and dull red beneath the grass. Suddenly remembering his Gardevoir I looked over to Idan for an answer. "Where's his Gardevoir?"
"Over with your stuff, I didn't even hit her that hard but she just collapsed after you two were out of sight." He explained.
Seeing as how he wouldn't need it any more I reluctantly walked to and knelt by the stranger to find his pokeball, as I pulled one side of his coat up I sighed as I realized I would have to pull the knife out to search his other side. I closed my fist around the hilt of the knife and gave it a firm tug making the weapon slide out with the sound of metal scraping metal. The blade was coated in blood which dripped off the tip as I looked the stranger over again, sing that I've gone this far I continued to search for the pokeball and found that the knife had in fact gone straight through the minimized ball at the hinge cleaving it in two. Again a shakily rose to my feet finding that the search was over and followed Idan back to the clearing we were originally going to camp in. My head hurt like hell along with the throbbing pain in my chest which only intensified as I breathed in and out.
After a breif walk we found the now burned out fire along with my pack and Gardevoir lying a few feet away. From what I was able to see she had a few new burns but nothing much other than that.
"She blocked most of my attacks with protect and the ones she didn't block weren't serious enough to knock her out."
Like he said the few newer injuries I saw were paltry compared to some others I'd seen him deal. Remembering her other wounds I dug through my pack and pulled out a full restore and gave Idan a quick look over. Having mainly minor cuts from magical leaf attacks I decided he could wait as I slowly moved over to roll Gardevoir onto her back. She moaned lightly but otherwise remained asleep as I did so making me flinch since I expected it to wake her up. Seeing as how she wasn't I proceeded to apply the full restore to the exposed parts of her skin.
Once I got at what I could I sighed and shook my head as I realized I had to pull up her dress to get to the rest of her injuries. "Its too early for this." I sighed as I slowly continued.
Idan gave a curious glance at me before laying his head back down and watching. As I started working up her legs I saw several long thin scars resembling claws wind up her thighs. Reaching her waist I closed my eyes before going any further, I then pulled her dress up stopping just below her breasts and then covering her lower body to at least protect her modesty. Opening my eyes again I sighed in relief seeing that I had left her entire stomach exposed while not revealing anything more...private. Again returning to tending her injuries I saw the patches of near flawless skin where I had been able to apply the potion already and compare to the rest of her stomach which was thoroughly bruised. When a human gets bruised it could be any color from purple to green, on Gardevoir however bruises were either purple or different shades of grey. After applying a thin mist of full restore to her stomach her skin went back to the typical white but unfortunately most of the scars remained along with the skin beneath her breasts retaining an uneven look. Fearing the worst I gently prodded the uneven flesh and had my fears confirmed as a breeze started to blow over...
Gardevoir gasped in pain as she snapped into a sitting position before she could do more a breeze brought a chill to her body making her realize she was exposed. Her thoughts raced and she immediately tried to link her mind with Dayne to try and persuade him to stop, the pain in her chest was to much to bear on top of his "needs."
She sent her mental plea for him to leave her be as soon as she found the mind of who was crouching beside her and then she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. Their grip was the exact opposite of Dayne's, instead of Dayne's typical rough hands these ones were gentle which made Gardevoir's eyes snap open in surprise. In spite of the pain her ribs gave her she saw that while her stomach was uncovered it was also almost completely healed, she also noted that her waist was covered. She brought herself to look up and gasped in shock as she the last person she expected to see.
Instead of Dayne she saw the man from the previous night only now he sported new bruises along his cheek, his hair was also dark brown, almost black, compared to his white as well. All she could do was stare into his green eyes, she quickly expanded her mental ray as far as her radius would permit but Dayne's mind either wasn't close enough for her to sense or he was dead, now she was left here speechless with a human who should be dead...
Gardevoir suddenly shot into a sitting position with a gasp as I poked what I now new were broken ribs, her breathe was unsteady as she did so and when she tried to breathe in it sounded almost like she was shivering. Please don't, not right now it hurts too much.
My eyes widened as her voice filled my head, I tried to get her to lie back down before she made herself any worse than she was and as I touched her she gasped again and looked up into my eyes. As opposed to last night her eyes now seemed a bit brighter though they retained that depth, "Hey, I'm just trying to help you okay?" I said calmly to try and get her back onto her back.
The one downside about full restore is that it could heal any injury it came into contact with in seconds but it couldn't set and repair bones. The only option I had to get her to a pokemon center without making her worse was to put her in a pokeball. Looking down again she was still looking up into my face and still had a shocked expression. "I'm going to need you to lie down for me okay?"
I then felt Gardevoir's mind withdraw from mine after feeling a pulse of compliance and she slowly lowered herself back down, as she shifted she cringed from the pain in her chest. Once she was all the way back on the ground I quickly went to my pack to grab one of the extra pokeballs I had and went back to her side, she still had her eyes clamped shut in pain. "Gardevoir?"
Her eyes opened when I spoke her name but she showed didn't try to communicate again, I held the ball up so she could see. "I'm going to keep you in here until I can get you to help okay? Your other ball is broken so I have to use one of mine."
She only looked at me for a moment taking in a few more shuddered breaths before nodding slightly. Seeing her agree I pointed the ball and before she was consumed in a flash of red she turned head away as if she resented having to go inside.
Now having Gardevoir squared away I got back to my feet and got the rest of my stuff back together, Idan had been lying down and watching me while I took care of Gardevoir and before leaving I gave him a quick dose of full restore as well. The only full restore I carried and I had used the entire thing in one morning, shouldering my pack I looked to my Growlithe as he to got to his feet. "Ready to go?"
"As I'll ever be."
After taking a moment to gain my bearings we continued on the route to Violet city though we went at a quicker pace, the sense of urgency brought on by both a subconscious need to distance myself from the strangers corpse and my concern for Gardevoir's well being.
This ball was different from Dayne's, while she was under the influence of Dayne's pokeball she was aware of her actions and surroundings but she had no control at all, part of her mind was always linked to his but it was more of an oppressive bond where he could dip into it at his own discretion with or without her consent. The bond even allowed him to control her abilities like her ability to teleport and such, but this one was different; Gardevoir felt a connection to this human but it wasn't as strong as Dayne's and that corner of her mind that was under Dayne's shadow was now cleared which after spending the next few hours pondering this humans intentions she found she had some control of herself though most of it was limited due to being contained in this pokeball. Save for the inability to sense her surroundings Gardevoir actually preferred it inside the ball since all the pain she felt was beyond her ability to feel.
Since the pokeball forged a slight bond between the human and herself she was able to sense him outside of the ball, she still couldn't understand why he was helping her, weren't all human males like Dayne? If so then he was probably just trying to get her more fit for him to have his way with her later...but why did he sense concern from him? Was he concerned that he wouldn't be able to do anything or was he genuinely concerned for her health? All of these thoughts dwelled on her mind as her new "master" toted her to whatever whereabouts...
We stopped that night completely out of breathe as I had decided to try and sprint a portion of the remaining distance, as I leaned against one of the countless trees that lined the route I pulled out my pokegear and brought up the map function. To my satisfaction we were now less than a days walk form the city, maybe a fraction of that if I tried to sprint again, Idan took to it better than me since he was better shape than me what with him doing pokemon battles and the like. Ultimately he was fine and enjoyed the run, I on the other hand felt like crap, my whole body was sore from the previous night and pile that on with that cramp in your ribs and all those great feelings that come from running long distances without stopping.
"Maybe we should stop here for the night." Idan offered.
"I'd rather try to get some more distance before stopping."
"You mean you'd rather keep running until you passed out?" Idan corrected which sounded about right. I didn't like the prospect of leaving Gardevoir in her condition and wanted to get her to a pokemon center as quickly as possible.
"You know me too well I think." I chuckled as he spoke.
"If I didn't I don't think anyone would." He replied with a similar chuckle. Like I said earlier; Idan is my oldest friend and fourteen years passes faster than you'd think. Another thing I couldn't deny was that I was exhausted so I leaned my head back and sighed which again brought a chuckle from him. "So we're resting?"
"For now." Was all I could say to him as my thoughts drifted to the past twenty-four hours. "Why do you think that man attacked us?"
Idan lowered himself to the ground and rested his head on his paws while looking at me out of the corner of his eye. "Your guess is as good as mine, though I hate to sound like it but I'm glad you killed him. You saw as well as me how beat up his Gardevoir was."
"That doesn't make me feel any better about doing it." I commented sadly, now I was thinking about what he had said. "Idan, how do you use your fire attacks?"
Surprised by the change in subject Idan thought about the question for a moment. "I don't really even know, usually when you tell me what attack to use I just do it, not much thought involved honestly."
I thought about his answer and thought back to all the times he used a fire type attack, all the way back to the first time Venora taught him to use ember. "So you just think 'flamethrower' and you fire a stream of flames out of your mouth?"
"Beats the hell out of breathe mints." Idan mused which got me to laugh with him. Still curious my laughing quickly faded as I looked at my hand and for some reason pictured it on fire, nothing happened of course but it was still something that made me wonder. After it seemed our conversation was over I dug through my pack and pulled out something for the to of us to eat. Once our little meals were finished I for one found myself asleep faster than I though possible.
I walked down what looked like an old cobbled stone street, the structures that lined the road also had an old feel to them. The buildings were ornately built, the windows had some sort of brown stone forming an arch over the glass, some of the windows were open like you might think of for a neighborhood, most of the doorways had similar architecture along with intricate carvings and designs grafted into the walls that blended in with the plants that grew around the base of the buildings making it seem to meld into the path while at the same time appearing to be part of the floral decoration.
The next thing I noticed were the people, there was a casual traffic of people going this way and that like in a city along with children playing and one thing that strongly kept my interest was that each and every one of them had a pokemon with them. The adults I saw had either an Arcanine, Ninetales, Flareon, Mightyena, or Houndoom or one of their younger forms while the children each had one of the latter. Another thing that set these people away from people you might expect to see nowadays were that while some of them had T-shirts and jeans a number of them wore older things like tunics and the like. One last thing I noticed was that with the exception of the children they all had the same tattoo somewhere on their body; they each had a seven pointed star with each point being a different color, red, yellow, light blue, dark blue, purple, tan, and the seventh point being dark blue edged with red. The center of the star consisted of a large red spiral that connected to the red tip of the star.
Unfortunately I couldn't hear noise being made, all I could do was watch these people went about their day. Wanting to see more I continued down this path to wherever it led, ahead I saw where the road opened and oblivious to the people around me I started running to see what wonder awaited at the end of the road. I ran into a massive city square filled with more people and even more various pokemon, now instead of just fire types there were also pokemon like Manectric, Luxray, Buizel and Floatzel, Nidoking and Nidoqueen, Tyranitar, Lucario, Arbok and Seviper and more. As I continued to stare at the crowd I....
...I woke up with visions of the city still filling my mind. I suddenly felt a sense of longing that ran like a lance of ice through my chest, was it all just a dream? That place by all rights was amazing, the pokemon and people, the architecture...it was all fascinating but again was it all just a dream or does a place like that actually exist? With all of these thoughts going through my head I shook of a chill from the morning air and saw my Growlithe still sleeping though now lying against my leg. I sat up and scratched the back of my neck and looked around the catch my bearings, we were in a clearing a few yards off the main route and currently I was still sitting against the tree and carefully without waking my partner I got to my feet.
Idan was still lying sprawled out on his side when an idea came to mind to replace my dream, a grin made its way across my face as I knelt back to be at eye level with the sleeping Growlithe. I cupped my hands around my mouth and took a deep breathe. "Crap! Idan its another one!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.
Idan immediatly jumped to his feet as he gasped and brought fire to coat his teeth but as he looked around all he saw was me laughing like it was all a joke, which it was. "What the hell? Were you trying to give me a heart attack?" He panted, his legs trembling from fright.
"Maybe." I said innocently making a face to match my tone.
"Not funny." He grumbled in reply.
"Come on, the sooner we get going the sooner we'll get there." I said as I started walking, he quickly shook it off and made to follow me. The next few hours were spent walking the last leg of our trek to Violet city which came into view around noon. Having been here before we found the pokemon center in short time casually walked in...