Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Rain Dance ❯ Gambit ( Chapter 6 )

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~Vee… ~

The faint cry floated through the darkness, repeating itself almost regularly. Batoy turned around, his eyes squinting to see something, anything. But the darkness was almost absolute, and he could see nothing. The cry continued, wavering a bit before growing faint. Batoy spun with greater urgency. “Hello?!” he called out, his voice fading into the distance without echo. It was almost as if he hadn’t called out at all. “Where are you? Are you hurt?” The cry picked up, and Batoy turned around again. It had come from the back, right? He stepped forward, his eyes peeled for anything. There was nothing but darkness. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

The cry turned into a whimper, suddenly loud and close, and Batoy glanced down. Lay there, her body quivering, was an Eevee. Her brown fur was battered and burned, as if a combination of fire and energy had completely washed over her body. Her eyes opened, and despite the horrid shape of her body, they were sharp and clear. Her whimpering came to a sudden halt, though her shivering continued. Kneeling, Batoy gently reached out. “It’s okay, girl. Everything’s gonna be okay.” But before he could reach the injured Eevee, she snapped at his hand, and had Batoy not pulled away, a quartet of sharp fangs would have sunk into his flesh. “H-Hey?!” he yelped, cuddling his hand as if it were the most dear thing to him. “I’m just trying to help!” He softened a bit. “Don’t worry, girl. Everything’s gonna be just fine.”

Rather than listen, though, the Eevee only grunted and pushed herself up to her paws, the excruciating pain obvious as it brought tears to her eyes. She staggered once, her tail dragging against the ground as she forced herself away from Batoy. “You can’t leave in that condition…” Batoy called after her, standing up and matching her tediously slow pace. But the Eevee did not look back towards him, and instead marched forward, one step at a time, a grunt of pain sounding out with each step. ~Vee… vee~ she groaned, a rhythm of pain matching every time her paw set down.

“Stop it!” Batoy called out after a moment. “You’re gonna kill yourself if you keep doing that!” He searched his pockets, and the Eevee’s ears perked at a peculiar sound, and she tilted her head in time to see a pokeball maximize in Batoy’s hand. “Vee…” she growled in disgust and contempt, glaring at the ball with seething hatred. “Here… lemme capture you, alright?” Batoy said, kneeling down again. “I can get you to a Pokemon Center, and they’ll fix you up. How’s that sound?” The Eevee shook her head. “But you gotta get healed up or you won’t ever recover!”

Batoy pressed the ball against the Eevee’s back, and before she could protest, a red light engulfed her body, binding her and pulling her within the sphere. Batoy stood back up, holding the ball, watching as it quivered and shook before finally coming to a rest, the capture net having sealed itself. “Don’t worry, girl,” he whispered to the ball. “We’ll get you all fixed up. You won’t have to be in pain anymore. I’ll be sure to take care of you.”

---

Very slowly, Batoy’s eyes parted to a pale grey light and the light pitter-patter of raindrops impacting against a blinded window. Groaning, he slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes as his vision returned to him. “My… head…” he muttered as he slid off the couch on which he had been sleeping, a light fleece throw falling on to the wooden floor. He must have been in one of the rooms of the breeding center; the room he’d awoken in was fairly small, with nothing but a couch placed adjacent to him and a small television on the opposite wall separating a small inset kitchen from the den. There were two windows, one over each couch, and a door just by the opening to the kitchen.

“Where am I?” Batoy muttered softly, rubbing his head. A terrible pounding scrambled his thoughts, and he felt nauseous. A vague recollection of memories seeped back into his mind. Gidan, the microchip, Eifi, Jet… where was Jet? “J-Jet? Where are you?” Snapping more awake, while resisting the violent urge to vomit, Batoy searched his being. His clothes had been removed, leaving him in a t-shirt and boxers. “Crap… where’s my stuff?”

He stood up, staggering a bit from the terrible headache, and looked around. Besides the sofa, on a microfiber pillow and lush ring, lay Jet, curled up with his snout buried under his paws. Besides the bin, Batoy’s clothes lay folded and clean next to his backpack. “Jet…” the boy murmured as he knelt down, his hand rubbing against the short fine fur that covered the Quilava’s body. The little weasel twitched and mumbled, rolling over in his sleep as Batoy’s fingers played along his body. The boy smiled softly before rubbing his head. “I’m glad you’re alright, Jet. I don’t know… what I would have done had I lost you, too….” His two other pokeballs lay nearby. The tiny displays that scrolled across the silver bottoms of the ball showed both were in good health. Someone had healed their injuries as well.

Pulling away Batoy clothed himself before making his way around the room. His head still ached, but not so much. He moved over towards the TV, but not surprisingly, it did not turn on. The rest of the small apartment was bare; only the kitchen was decently stocked with appliances and food. On the counter were a loaf of bread, a variety of spreads, and surprisingly, a can of Pewter-mix Pokemon chow. Batoy perked an eye at the high quality chow, something reserved for the highest quality of bred Pokemon or those with a quite of bit of money. “Jet’ll enjoy that…” he muttered as he fashioned himself a sandwich.

~Quil~ The light mewl caught Batoy’s attention, and he glanced down to see Jet rubbing across his legs. Bending down, he scooped up the little weasel and set him on the counter. Their eyes locked for an instant before Jet looked away, and Batoy rubbed his head. “Hey, don’t worry about it, buddy,” he said, a weak smile having formed. His eyes watered slightly. “I’m just glad you’re okay. I… I thought you were gonna die….” He pulled the Quilava into a hug. “I should’ve just given it to him…” Jet shook his head, a bit of fire spouting from his neck before fading away after Batoy let go. “Heh… you’re too eager to fight sometimes… or maybe I’m not…either way, you were right. We shouldn’t have followed.”

He sighed as he poured out the contents of the chow-mix into a ceramic plate found almost straddling the sink. Jet began munching on it eagerly, and Batoy smiled. “Yeah… that’s the good stuff…” He frowned. “I wonder what… Brand’s gonna say…” He winced as the man’s stoic face, harsh brown eyes and rigid lines came into mind. “I don’t even wanna imagine what he’s gonna say to me…” He felt a prodding and turned to look at Jet, who matched his gaze with an almost mischievous and malevolent look. “You can’t be serious, Jet… you want to go back?” The Quilava nodded his head, flaring up again. Batoy grinned slightly. “I guess you won’t back down from anything, huh? Alright, we’ll go for it. We just gotta come up with some kind of a plan…otherwise, we’re just gonna lose again.”

Batoy made his way back to his backpack. He hadn’t had time to check through it earlier. There wasn’t much in there, a few changes of clothes that smelled of the same wash that his other clothes had been through. There were three letters that had torn and were completely unreadable. At the bottom were a few MREs. “Thank you, Lizbeth…” he said in a quivering voice. The woman always looked out for him. He folded and packed the fleece blanket.

A few hours passed with Batoy going back to the couch, dressed now in a pair of khaki pants and a short-sleeved blue hoodie. He laid there, staring at the ceiling, sighing. All three of his Pokemon had been severely injured in just one day, and all because of that one microchip. He shivered, turning cold at the thought of any of them turning out like Meta. He hadn’t even checked on Ollie or Manual since the day before. They were alright, he knew, but still… he needed to spend more time with them. He hadn’t been a very good trainer at all over the past year.

Jet climbed onto his chest and looked down at him, licking his nose, and Batoy rubbed the Quilava’s back. “Hey, Jet? You remember when we first met? We were really happy. We went everywhere and didn’t back down from anyone. You were kinda scared and timid, but you still went into scary places with me. And when those Numel started stampeding… you evolved and saved my life… then… all this started happening… what happened to me, Jet?”

The Quilava folded his ears and nuzzled the boy. ~Lava… Quilava~ Batoy smiled. “Yeah… we’ll always be together, buddy… thanks for always being there by me.”

There was a knock on the door, and Batoy bolted up, Jet nimbly leaping off before he was tossed. “W-who is it?” he asked tentatively.

“It’s… me, Peter,” said the voice. “Can… I come in?”

“Oh.” Batoy’s pitch dropped sharply. He really didn’t feel like talking to anyone, especially someone who idolized Gidan. But he didn’t want to turn away perhaps his only human friend. “Well, I guess so…”

The boy came in tentatively, slowly easing the door shut behind him. Jet crouched at him, and he choked back a whimper. “Hey, look kid… I, um…” he looked around, desperate to bring up a topic other than the obvious. “I saw your Eevee and Jolteon were really banged up… I hope you didn’t mind, but I fed them and nursed their injuries… Um….” He trailed off.

“I don’t really feel like talking about it… but… Peter?” Batoy looked at the boy. “Why do you like that guy so much? I didn’t even do anything to him… and… why was that huge monster in the water?”

Peter looked down. “I… I don’t know what happened, but I know the boss wouldn’t do something like that unless he really thought it was the right thing to do… It wasn’t like he was gloating about beating you or anything… in fact, right after you went to sleep… he made us close for the day. He hasn’t said anything to anyone all day. He’s just been in the Atrium, looking at that little metal thing. He won’t let anyone in there, and he won’t let us open today.”

“Oh…”

“And I swear, I didn’t know anything about the Feraligatr in there. That’s probably why we’re not allowed in there now….”

“How long am I gonna have to stay here?”

“Huh, you don’t,” said Peter, looking with a shocked expression. “You’re not a prisoner or anything… we were just wanting ya to get rested up without anyone disturbing ya. You can leave whenever ya want…”

“Oh… hey, Peter?” Batoy looked at the boy earnestly. “I can’t go anywhere without that thing he took… I know you like your boss, but… could you take me to the Atrium? Please?”

“I… but… that’d get me in trouble, though….”

“I won’t tell him it was you! I’ll say… um… I sneaked around and found it. You don’t even have to take me there. Just tell me where it is.”

“No… no… I’ll take ya. If Beth saw ya, she’d probably kick you out. Just tell me when you’re ready and stuff…”

Batoy grinned at his friend and quickly gathered his things. “Thanks a lot, man! I promise, you’re not gonna get in trouble!”

“Yeah….” Peter backed up and peeked out of the door. He saw no one and motioned Batoy out. The boy quickly gathered his belongings, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, and slipped out, Jet following closely behind. The three of them treaded quickly, but silently, through the halls, until they arrived at the double doors of the Atrium. Peter stood a distance away from it, refusing to come any closer. “Well… here ya go… I don’t know what you’re gonna do, and I don’t wanna. You’re the first friend I’ve had in a long time here, so please don’t try to do anything stupid, okay?”

Batoy nodded before sliding though the doors. He glanced around as Jet hoisted himself onto the boy’s back. “Well… here we are, Jet… I don’t really know what to do now…” ~Lava…~ They looked towards the pond. The waters were still again, but a low metal fence had been erected around it. Gidan was nowhere to be found around it. Batoy frowned. He was certain that Gidan would be there at the pond, perhaps musing or maybe fighting against the giant monster. His shoulders sagged. Now what?

~Quil!~ Jet said hushed and quickly, crouched down low. Batoy glanced around and immediately ducked. There they were, Gidan and the Espeon, and the girl Bethany as well. They were talking close to one of the outside doors, well out of earshot. Beth bent down to rub Eifi’s head before standing and bowing to Gidan, who nodded back. Then the girl left, and Gidan and the Espeon began to move.

~Lava, lava!~ The barks were quiet, but urgent, and Batoy looked to see Jet giving him an anxious eye. Did he want to hide or run and fight? Batoy didn’t know, and neither did Jet. He just wanted to do something besides stand and get caught. Batoy nodded and slowly began crawling, keeping the hill between them and their targets. When he’d crawled long enough, so that the pond was no longer visible, he laid flat against the hill, daring not to breathe. He could hear Jet’s small heart beating quickly and feel the heat rising off the Quilava’s body. “Shh… just keep calm, buddy…” he said to his rash friend.

“Please come out from your hiding spot. Eifi has already alerted me to your presence.” The voice was tired, strained, but Batoy’s heart still seized. He slowly rose to his feet to see Gidan looking at him with a blank expression. Jet leapt to his shoulder, glaring at Eifi who stared back at him without even acknowledging his existence. The Espeon’s once pristine coat was marked with soot-colored streaks from Jet’s flame.

“I… erm….” Batoy swallowed his tongue. He was here, but now he didn’t know what to say. How was he supposed to get that microchip back?

“What’re you doing here?” Gidan asked bluntly, but his voice lacked the anger Batoy braced himself for. He seemed to sigh, instead, as if the boy’s presence was something he’d been futilely hoping to avoid. “Did Peter lead you in here?”

“N-no,” Batoy stammered, and Jet growled. “I snuck here on my own… please, mister, I gotta have that chip. I don’t know what I’m gonna do with it!”

Gidan looked away. “But I can’t give it to you, child. Do you remember what I asked? Can you really trust who you’ll give it to?”

“But can you?” Batoy was on the verge of desperation now. “Y-You said that someone threatened your Pokemon so you had to give them the chip. Why would you give it to someone who would hurt innocent Pokemon?!”

“It is true… those who’re threatening me aren’t to be trusted, either, but I just can’t risk harm to Peter, Bethany or any of the Pokemon that are being raised here. Even though they are doomed to miserable lives, I still hope that some can find those with whom they can really experience the gift of life. I can’t take from them that chance.”

Batoy wiped his eyes and looked at the man. Gidan seemed ashamed, looking everywhere else except towards Batoy. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all. “But… why don’t you do anything about them? You’re really, really good….”

“It’s more complicated than you understand, child, but I regress.” Gidan looked at Batoy. “I can’t give this back to you, but… perhaps you can earn it….”

“H-huh?”

“Our battle yesterday had consequences… both for you and myself. Eifi’s fur is too damaged to properly compete in the show coming up. She was my helper, but has never competed before, but we’ll have to pass for this showing. But you can take my place in it.”

“Uh… o-okay…”

“If you can make a high enough score… the contest is a showing of both the trainer and the Pokemon’s inner character… I’ll trust in your judgment and give you back what I unfairly took. I can only pray that you do the right thing with it….”

Jet’s growling quieted and he looked down at his trainer. He’d wanted revenge for his loss, but this method caught his interest. Whatever it was, he was up to it. Jet licked Batoy’s ear then nuzzled it. ~Quilava, quil!~ he chirped, nodding his head, urging the boy to accept.

Batoy sighed, then shook his head. “Alright… we’ll try our best, then… I… I don’t think you’d trick us….”

Gidan finally smiled, though it seemed despite himself. “Thank you for accepting. I’m sure you’ll find out a lot about yourself by participating. You are… welcome to stay here, if you wish, but if not… I do wish you luck, and… I’m sorry.”

---

“So what happened, huh? You guys didn’t fight, did ya?”

The barrage of questions came immediately as Batoy stepped through the double doors leading out of the atrium. Peter’s eyes were wide and his lips thin, and it was easy to see that he had not left that spot since Batoy went in. “Please tell me you guys didn’t start fighting with Boss….”

Batoy shook his head, though he didn’t smile. “Nah… we didn’t fight….”

“So… everything’s okay now?” Batoy nodded, and Peter immediately relaxed. “Whee… that’s good… there’ve been weird people asking for Boss all day, but Beth and I have been shooing them away. They looked like they were bad news, so I guess that’s why the Boss has been acting weird lately. They’ve been around here before, too, and Boss talks to them sometimes.”

“I… I wonder… did these guys like… wear blue a lot?”

Peter looked at Batoy curiously. “Well… um… sometimes… there were a lot of guys, though, that wore red. Half and half, really, but they never came together… then, there were this other guys that were totally different, but we don’t see them too often. I never see Gidan talk to them, though.”

“Guys that wear red? I… hey, Peter…” Batoy bit his lip at looked at the other boy. “Can you give me directions to the nearest Pokemon Center?”

“Huh, why? Can’t you stay here?”

“Well… I can, but I gotta check something out there… you know where one is?”

Peter nodded, but his shoulders sagged. “Yeah… um, when you leave, just head east. You’ll find it right along that route… You sure you don’t want to stay?”

Batoy smiled lightly at his friend. “I’ll see you again. I just gotta do something, that’s all. I promise I won’t leave.”

Peter nodded. “Alright… I’ll hold you to that, bro!”