Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ pocket rapsody ❯ 3 ( Chapter 3 )

CHAPTER 03

"Not much of a city...more of a town." As the name suggests, Pewter City consists mostly of grey. It was a somewhat boring place at the foot of Mount Moon, it wasn't big, in fact, it was rather small. If anyone wanted to go out, they would go to Viridian City. When people wanted to spend their lives quietly, or study rocks, they would go to Pewter. It had musea, it had hospitals and schools, but no bars, no real malls, just shops. The only thing of interest in the entire City was the pokemon gym. The gym, too, was all about a certain grey, hard mineral, even it's head had a hobby with fossils. And that gym had several problems, which Satoshi would soon find out about.

Hnnn, I'm kinda dissapointed in my catch, even if I did train him a bit, I doubt he can do much.

"Okay, come on out, Spinarak!" * flash! * "Shaaa!" Silence. "....." In front of Satoshi stood his new pokemon, a rather proud looking, feisty spider that was obviously eager to go at something. "Somehow you don't look very intimidating." It was rather greenish in appearance, and it's head was crowned with a single sharp(ish) horn. The legs were marked in yellow and black. "A bit creepy at mo-hn? Where'd he go?" He turned his and finding Spinarak weaving a web between two trees. "Shaaa!" It lifted it's front legs while yelling. Satoshi could only stare whil watching this strange, yet somehow beautiful spectacle. Then, the arachnid waited for any prey to conviently fall into his web. And waited. And Satoshi smacked in a passing Butterfree. Spinarak eagerly scuttled downward to the promising catch, and proceeded with feeding himself. " Aw jezus!! Why me!?"

"Yes, that would be experience I guess...but still, most opponents won't be walking into his web like an idiot. Even that Butterfree was thanks to me." Maybe I should try training him here. Maybe I can try that dueling thing, let's look for a trainer.

Found one! The pokeballs at his belt gave his status away. "Excuse me, sir!" "Yes, what is it?" Aah, foreigner! And look at his hair! The man's hair was dyed a rich purple color, he otherwise seemed pretty normal. "You want a match?" "I would appreciate a training match!" "Hn? Unusual, people around here usually train in the forest....well I suppose it wouldn't hurt...but just one match." "Thank you!"What a polite young man. "Let's do it. Weezing, come out!" * Dew * Something that looked like 3 big purple spheres adorned with boiles came out expelling brownish fumes. The biggest bubbing orb had two unfocused eyes with pupils that looked too big, and a big drooling mouth with some stumpy teeth and two tusks. Like it's name, it was making a weezing sound like a very sick man. "Uh...is your pokemon...okay?" "Ooh, it's fine, it's fine! It actually looks in a rather good condition!" With this sentence he gave Satoshi a hearty wink like he was giving a small child a treat. I'm kinda happy with my Spinarak suddenly, should I let this thing fight it? "Shaaa!" "Wah!" Is this feeling I get....Spinarak...? Guess it really wants to go. "Go get `em Spinarak." * Dew * The tiny spider wasn't going to waste time, and scuttled towards the sick-looking pokemon, who didn't waste time either and started spewing a foul gas. Spiders don't have noses right? He should be okay... When the smoke cleared, Spinarak was lying down twitching on his back. "What?!" "I'm just helping you train, so I'll take the time to explain it to you. Spiders have a respitory tract that develops kind of simply, meaning it's vapor filtering ability is very limited. Thus, making them extremely weak to gas. Afterall, I am the son of a biologist!" Smile. "Shi-" Spinarak meekly stood up, balancing poorly on his legs. Suddenly, in a small burst of energy, he jabbed his horn into the face's lower lip, blood oozed out. Spinarak quickly jumped up on Weezing. A thick looking, white stream flowed out of the spider's mouth. The thick strings were starting to cover the large monster. Spinarak started biting the Weezing furiously, who started bleeding from several places. "Okay Weezing, you can come back now." * dew * "If you're Spinarak kept that up my Weezing migh have died you know." Smile. "Uhm, shouldn't you hurry to a pokecenter or something? He looked pretty bad." "Ah that doesn't matter. If he died, I would have just gotten another one, don't worry." Smile. This guy...he's cold...so cold...it's scary!! Satoshi could feel this man ment every word he said, and everything was said very casually. It wasn't really the idea that scared him, but the feelings he felt from this man were frightening, almost alien. "Guess I'll go and heal him. Chiao!" ...Guess I'll go look for the gym...and maybe I should get Spinarak checked up on.

"Ah, James. Where were you?" The woman greeting him was sitting in front of a resturant with a cup of Earl's Grey and had her hair coloured in a very bright red shade. "Oh nowhere. I was just amusing myself with the most charming little boy you ever did see. He hurt my Weezing a little bit and I don't feel like getting another one, so I had to patch it up." "...you didn't do anything weird to the kid now did you?" "Ooh Jessy~ you're such a worrywart. I wasn't in the mood. Besides he wasn't my type." "Well as long as you're here you might as well order something. My treat." "Why thank you, I'll have an orange juice if that's alright." "We're meeting with the boss around 16:00." "Fair enough." "Excuse me, waitress!"

About 15 minutes from there by foot (as Pewter City was rather small), Satoshi was getting close to his destination."The museum looks interesting, maybe I should check it out tomorrow. Now~, gym, gym, gym...ahhh! Found it!" -Pewter City Gym. Gym leader: Iwata Takeshi. "Yo~sh! Let's do this!" He opened the gym doors enthousiastically. "Aah excuse me! You wouldn't happen to be this gym's leader now would you?" "He~? A challenger? It's been a while sinds we've had one of those." The gym was quite big. The floor, the walls, and the ceiling, everything was seemingly carved from solid rock, with some large stones spread about. There were, however, some lights in the ceiling that illuminated the otherwise dark grey room. "But I'm afraid you came at a wrong time. We close at 14:00. "N-NOOOOO!!" "Ah don't take it so badly, I can tell what happened. You're beginning and this is the second gym that's closed right? Look, come back tommorow, it's saturday then and the schools are closed then. I'll be open all day." "...what does that have to do with anything...?" Satoshi was still upset about the gym closing for the day, but his interest was sparked. "It's when I pick up my brothers and sisters from school." Takeshi said this with a face that stated he wouldn't tell anymore then that. "...fair enough. Can you tell me where I can find a cheap hotel?" "Sure thing."

Takeshi had been gone for some 10 minutes, while Satoshi was still sitting down. "Piii." "I know, I know. Thanks." I kinda forgot he's been walking along the whole time. ! What's this I'm feeling? "Hey you! Who's there!?" Satoshi turned his head towards the source of emotion, and saw a unkept, unshaven looking old man with a familiar face. When he saw Satoshi noticed him, he quickly turned tail and ran. "HEY! Don't run away damnit!" The old man quickly went for the path that headed up a hile filled with trees and bushes. Satoshi had some trouble keeping close to him, but he could feel where he was even if he couldn't see him. After some time they came to an old watermill by a river. "Why * gasp * why, did you follow me? *weeze * "I, I could * huff * feel you had something to do with Takeshi. You, you're his dad aren't you?" Takeshi's father looked surprised at his words, and then looked away, his face showed a hidden sorrow. "I can't be called a father." Very, very faintly, memories and a storm of emotions swept inside of Satoshi. It wasn't much, but more then enough to tell him this man had been feeling very, very guilty since a long time ago. "Then, why did come to see-""NONE OF YOUR GODDAMN BUSINESS!! NOW LEAVE ME ALONE!!" "....fine. But I think you've suffered enough already for whatever it is you did. Later." "What do you know? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW!?" Satoshi started running down the hill half heartedly, feeling the Takeshi's father breaking down, and crying.

"Hey, it's you from yesterday. So you showed afterall huh?" Takeshi looked rather happy at the face of the returning challenger. "Yeah, uhm, Takeshi? Can I ask you a personal question?" "Huh? Sure, go ahead." He looked uneasy despite his words. "Uhm, this is kinda difficult. What did your father do to you?" Takeshi's eyes went wide at the mentioning of his father. His face turned grim. "Did you see him?" "Yeah, I think he's trying to make-up for what he did. He's been feeling like shit for a long time. If you could just talk to him?" "I refuse. That man left my family a long time ago. That's all you need to know. Do you still want this match or not?" ......sorry Takeshi, I just, can't do anything but think that this is the best for both of you. I'm sorry. And he opened his mind as wide as he could, and channeled all he felt from Takeshi's father into him. And in return, his mind went down to memories that were not his.

Oi, dad, come on man. It's been two years. It's rough on us, and we can't forget what happened to mom, but we need money. You're not doing anything nowadays, all you do is drink. All the students have left, bills - * CRACK * "Shut the hell you little bastard!" Takeshi got a heavy punch in the face from his father. His lip was torn, and a trickle of blood flowed down. Before Satoshi could view what happened then, the vision blurred, and then sharpened. It was suddenly raining. Takeshi's father was unshaven, and looked very drunk, and angry. He walked away. Satoshi couldn't follow him, as this was Takeshi's memory. After a few moments, a terrified scream came from up the stairs. He could feel those were the bedrooms of his sisters and brother. He could feel Takeshi running upstairs as fast as he could. And when he smashed the door open, he saw his own father, attempting to do the worst sin a father could do on his hysterical, resisting sister. His mind suddenly went blank. He could only just notice himself beaten the living daylights out of his father. The old man's entire face was smashed, blood flowed from his nose and mouth. He threw the old man down the stairs and kicked him out of the house. "If you ever dare come back, I will kill you." Takeshi's father, though half conscious, was fully sober, and fully aware of his monstrous sin. Everyone, including Takeshi, was wide awake and quickly came to the aid of their sibling. When morning came, all that would remain was a bloody mess on the ground.

GASP! * Satoshi found himself back to his own reality. And threw up. He felt very sick. "You.....you saw everything...didn't you?" "I-I'm sorry." "Go out. Go out right now." The current gym leader's face was unclear, it was like he didn't know what to feel. Without a word, Satoshi left.

"I guess I'll just see what's in the next town." It had been four days. After walking out of the hotel and trying to think were to go, someone came running towards him. It was Takeshi's father. "Hey, boy! Wait up!" "Ah! Aah! I'm so sorry!" "No,....thanks. Thanks to you....I've been able to talk- his voice was breaking to talk to my son. Thank you." Tears streamed down his face. "I can only give you this in return." The old man presented him with a pokeball. "While I was gone, I've been working as a breeder. The pokemon in this ball is a Charmander. It's the result of two violent pokemon, so nobody wanted it, except people I didn't want to have pokemon. I think I can leave him with you." Smile. "Thank you very much!" The old man looked down. Unless I'm mistaken, that Pikachu is your only pokemon right?" "Pi." "Or do you have some other?" "I got this one." * Dew * "Sha!" "...it's looks very feisty, but with an electric type and a bug you won't get very far against Takeshi. Granted, this is a fire type, but don't let that fool you. His claws can rend stone very nicely. Now go on, and take it out of it's cage." "Okay, come out....Charmander!" * dew * From the light, a bright orange lizard stood on it's hind legs. The tip of it's tail was on fire, and it somehow looked very cute, if slightly alarming. "....thank you." "Once again, I thank you. Now go challenge Takeshi!" Satoshi didn't need that line repeated as he started running, his three pokemon right behind him.

What's keeping that boy? Come to think of it, I don't even know his name... The doors swung open revealing four shapes. Takeshi, the yellow Pikachu he had always seen in his company, and two new ones. A Spinarak, not uncommon in the forest, like Ledyba, Weedle and Caterpie. And then, something very rare. A Charmander. Somehow it looked more intimidating then others he had seen. Very well, the old bastard gave you as a gift did he? I haven't forgivven him yet. But I'll accept. Fire nor thunder can harm stone. "First you name yourself! Challenger! What is your name?" "My name is Taijiri Satoshi! I challenge this gym for the Boulder Badge! Gym leader, I request we have a duel!" "Well said. Then before we begin, we determin the rules. Two pokemon each, everything goes, except killing. The fight stops when the fighting pokemon is retreated, and the winner is the one who defeats both of his opponents pokemon. Now then, choose your two fighters." Okay, sorry Spinarak, but you just don't stand enough of a chance. "I choose Pikachu and Charmander!" "Fine, then we begin! Graveler! GO!" * dew * * CRASH * Where the Graveler had lander, the stone floor had cracked. It looked like a big round boulder with four arms and legs. Two eyes and a big mouth was set on the center, and it looked very tough and strong. "Charmander go!" "SHUU!" He didn't walk or scuttle, but ran very heatedly hard to his opponent. Graveler stomped his open palm in the charmanders stoumach in the blink of an eye, knocking the air out of the firey lizard. This didn't seem to daunt him long, as he recovered quickly and started clawing ferociously at the stone golem. "That's it, keep going!" slash hack Chips of stone flew as the Charmander was roaring loudly with a voice that should be too deep for his species. Blood started flowing out of Graveler's wounds. "Graveler! Throw him!" The stone monster obeyed and threw a heavy punch again, and grabbed him by the waist in a big stone-plated hand, and threw him forward, smashing him into a big rock. "Roll-out! Flatten him!" Graveler made himself into a ball and started rolling in direction of the fire pokemon. "Charmander out of the way! MOVE IT!!" Charmander recovered barely in time, and jumped. BANG!! An ear-deafening explosion rocked the chamber as Graveler impacted on the hard stone. Dust settled and Charmander jumped forward, getting ready to attack again. Graveler was slow in getting out of his cramped position, something Charmander gratefully used. Instead of just mindlessly clawing, this time he punched his claws into the stone armour, and tore of a big plate of rock. A very thin second layer became visible, and this time, where Charmander used his claws, blood was drawn instantly. "Graveler grab his arms! Smash him into the ground!" The arms were held firmly. "Charmander, put your tail to his wounds!" Before Charmander could be brought down to earth, he pushed his burning tail-end on the bloody scratches. "GRAAAAOO!!" Graveler screamed with a bellowing voice. It was clear to both trainers Charmander had Graveler in a position he woudn't recover from. "Graveler come back!" * dew * "I'm counting on you, Onix!" * dew * "GWOOOR!" What appeared resembled a long string of huge boulders, with a tail and a snake-head with a single stone horn. "Ah Takeshi, before we go, what happens if I lose this match?" "You can still get the badge anyway, even if you lose both matches. It all depends on wether or not I consider you good enough. Now let's go! Onix, tackle him!" Onix lunged forward towards the still energetic Charmander. BANG! Onix's head smashed into the rocky floor. Clouds of dust and stone chips flew, but Onix went on, leaving a trail on the stone floor where his head was speeding forward. Charmander jumped in time, but he wasn't attacking. He was laying on Onix's snout, not moving, but still breathing. "Your Charmander's done for. Call him back!" "....I can't do that!" I understand his feelings. He hasn't given up yet. "If you can do what I think you can do, you're feeling Charmander's fighting spirit, but how's about doing what's GOOD for him? He doesn't want to give up, but if this keeps up, he'll die. Make no mistake, I WILL kill him if that's what I have to do to make you give up! Onix, sqeeze!" In an instant, with the agilty only snakes posess, the Onix was wrapped around Charmander, and started sqeeuzing. "Remember! I alone can judge if you have the qualities of possesing my gym's badge. If I find you fail as a responsible trainer, or anywise lacking, you lose, even if you beat me!" "Grr, Charmander, come back!" * dew * "Go out Pikachu!" "Pi!" "You're sending in an electric type? Go ahead, Onix, tackle!" "Dodge, Pikachu!" But the electric mouse was already ahead of him, and by the time Onix' snout beat the ground, Pikachu was already out of the way. Onix raised it's head - "Go for the eyes with electricity!" "Gah! Onix! Close your-" * Zap! * Pop "SHYAAAA!!!" A hideous shrieking filled the entire gym, from one empty eye-socket both red and white were mixed, and Onix was hysterically thrashing about, smashing it's head into the walls, and floor, and ceiling. Lights broke and the screaming was still going on. "Onix come back!!" * dew * "Come let's get you Onix to the center! In the mean time, I'll try and see if I can't qiuet it down!" Both hurried to Takeshi's bike.

"....is this unusual?" "Presenting the gym badge in a pokemon hospital? Not really....well here's your badge. Wear it proudly now, and don't you dare lose too soon, if you don't we'll get more challengers." He's not joking... "Well I'll be going then. Any idea where the closest gym is?" "Hnnn wellll there's one in Cerulean City. Go check it out!" "Kay I will, later Takeshi." "See ya."But what an odd guy, to win with a fire and an electric type....maybe now that the old bastard's going to help out in the gym I can concentrate on collecting fossils again.....^_^ well I'll be seeing you Satoshi. Goodbye...And thanks.

"Hmm, damn I feel good! That's been a while hasn't it?" "Pi." "I already got one gym batch- Satoshi examend the eight-sided grey badge-and I've already gotten two extra pokemon!" Satoshi looked at Spinarak and Charmander's pokeballs hanging on his belt. "Let's see how many more to go." * bleep * Pokemon League Information. Entry Information. Badge Information. A minimum of eight badges are required. "Well then, let's open the map and see how to get to Cerulean!

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The long road ahead of Satoshi has just begun, but he would make new friends and enemies, and get involved with matters he would rather not. Here one chapter in his life is closed, and a new one has already started! Please look forward to it!