FicWad

“At least the weather’s nice today,” Scott observed as he continued to cut through the tall stands of grass with Alex and Chris.

“Really?” Chris asked sarcastically, as on his head Raindancer snoozed in the late summer sunshine. Ahead of him Darkfang hopped and skittered between grass stems.

“Don’t be such a sour puss,” Scott glared.

Chris stopped and began to laugh. “Did you really just say sour puss? My grams says sour puss.”

“So does mine,” Scott mumbled, feeling stupid.

“Be quiet, you two,” Alex said, stopping suddenly.

“More spearow?” Chris asked nervously, getting behind the older boy, and the hefty female charmander. Corazon was probably the strongest of the party. Alex had been training her relentlessly since they had left Viridian, at least three days ago. Sinslither and Darkfang were only behind because Chris was training them with more equality, switching battle partners as the current one gained a level. He also was training with Raindancer every night after supper. Either that, or they were leveling glares at one another until Chris got a nosebleed, as far as the other two could tell.

Nah, Darkfang’s casual voice sounded in their heads as the rat chattered confidently. Both Scott and Alex tried not to jump in surprise. Raindancer did this regularly. It was just creepy as all get out. Something’s out there. Human sized, I’m betting.

“What? How? I don’t see anything,” Scott said, looking around at the knee-high waving grass.

“Neither do I,” Alex added, “but I saw a pidgey fly away from that outcrop. And there was a weird popping sound about that time, so something’s going on.”

Prob’ly displaced air, Raindancer mumbled sleepily.

“Huh?” Chris asked, but was not enlightened by anything other than a short snore.

“Shall we check it out?” Scott asked, trying to look more confident than Chris.

“We might as well,” Alex decided. “It could be another trainer, after all.”

“Well, there’s only one way to do this,” Scott agreed, cupping his hands. “Hoi, over there! Come out and show yourself!”

Chris made the “he’s loopy as a loon” face behind Scott’s back.

“I’m sorry, were you sleeping through those dex-mails that we’ve been getting from Professor Oak after what happened to Adam and The Girl?” Alex questioned loftily. “It’s always better to know what you’re up against before challenging it.”

“That’s why I told him to come out,” Scott said to the older boy, mystified.

“See, you’ve already made an assumption as to the number, and gender of whatever is behind the rock,” Alex said, rolling his eyes.

“Look, can the two of you quit it, I’m getting a headache,” Chris complained.

“Well, of course you are,” a new voice said from behind them. “Hey, Aggie, we found him. I told you this would be easy.”

“Shove it, Charlie, you gave away our position yet again,” A red haired girl in a purple uniform that did not match her coloring at all crossed her arms as she glared at a smaller, black haired boy, in the same uniform. She then swung her glare to rest on Chris. “Feh,” she commented, looking him up and down. “Low level telepath. Nothing special. Good at detecting lies, and short range thought speech. No training, and only a blip on the radar because of a bonded abra.”

“But this is the signal we’ve been tracing, right? So we’ve completed our homework, and have the rest of the week off except for lessons!” the boy exclaimed enthusiastically.

“No, Charlie. It doesn’t work like that. First what is the law regarding untrained an untrained psi?”

Hey, he has me, you know, Raindancer complained.

“Instruction from a pokemon isn’t enough,” Aggie snapped, turning back to Charlie.
All there boys from Pallet looked at each other uncertainly. What was going on? Alex stepped forward, full of authority: “Now, just who are you people?”

Aggie ignored him, while Charlie grinned inanely. The red head continued to address Chris, as if Alex’s dark presence of outraged silence was completely unimportant.

“An untrained telepath has to get trained quick. Now you can choose to come with us to the Saffron Academy, or you can walk there yourself. And no, if we discover that you decided to walk to Fushia instead, we’ll put an alert out for you in every major town,” Aggie said bossily.

“Hey, you can’t do that!” Chris protested. “I don’t know what all this stuff is about training, but you can’t do that!”

Aggie and Charlie both looked a little confused and uncertain for a moment, but the bossier of the pair rallied magnificently. “Oh yes we can. It’s in the Charter; has been for years,” she twirled her finger in a fiery strand, looking smug. “You’re a telepath, and therefore psychic. We can’t have psychics running around peeping into people’s minds and going through their private affairs. So you gotta be trained and certified. And that’s happening in Saffron.”

“No it ain’t!” Chris said petulantly. “I’m going to Fushia and gonna train under Koga. I’m a trainer, see. I gotta train my pokemon.”

“You can’t train your abra with poison types!” Aggie protested, looking stricken.

Listen to the girl! Raindancer thought eagerly. She knows what’s good for you.

“Um, look, I can teleport you instantly to Saffron,” Charlie said. “If you give your consent. But if you’d rather walk--,”

“I’m not going!” Chris yelled.

“I can’t believe we have to convince the first kid we come across,” Aggie rolled her eyes. “This should be a dream come true. Here you are, you’re special. Alright, so compared with a lot of others you’re only mediocre, but still, you’re part of a special group, and you can go to a school, and learn stuff none of these other kids can imagine.”

Chris stuck out his chin stubbornly. “I’ll walk.”

“Feh, suit yourself,” Aggie said, before bending down and swiping her thumb over his forehead quickly. “You’ve been tagged, Mister. If you don’t come to us, we’ll know where you’ve gone, and come for you.”

“I’m good at teleporting,” Charlie said proudly. “C’mon now, homework complete, Aggie!”

“We have to prove that we’re a team, you dolt!” Aggie rounded on the smaller boy. “So, either of the three of you wanna take us on? We need to have a double battle to complete our homework.”

“Explain,” Alex replied coldly. “I’m not going to take battles from people who pop out of nowhere spouting crazy stories. How can we know you’re telling the truth?”

“Duh, we’re psychics,” Charlie said, making a face before Aggie could shut him up.

“We are a Seeker team,” Aggie clarified. “That is, accredited psychics who search out young talents, and tell them to go to the academy in Saffron.”

“We’re in training!” Charlie piped up happily, to which Aggie gave him a dirty look.

“Yes, we are in training, I suppose,” Aggie grumbled. “Our assignment is to find and deliver the message to a psychic that was picked up by our mentor, that’s you, kid,” she addressed Chris haughtily. “That involves close teamwork, and then we further have to prove that we make a good team by battling some trainer or trainers together after the message is passed along. Then we get the week off until Monday.”

“If we win,” Charlie whispered to his partner, causing Alex and Scott to grin to each other.

Chris was still scowling at the dirt and yellowing grass. He didn’t want to go back to school, and he didn’t want to deal with a bunch of psychics. Raindancer was annoying enough, and she wouldn’t shut up right now. He wanted to be a poison type master ninja. Ninja were cool. These psychics were snotty, stuck up, and talking about him as if he wasn’t even there. It made his head hurt.

Alex and Scott, who had noticed that the pair of slightly older kids had preferred talking to Chris, and ignoring their existence, were now seeing ways to get them back. Alex was not usually in the same mind as Scott, with his two years majority, and rather more than his fair share of ego, but in this there was definite accord.

“We challenge you, then,” Alex replied coolly. “We all use one pokemon each, and may the best team win.”

Of course, what he really meant, as always, was that his team was the best, since it was going to win. This was a foregone conclusion. He was on the team, and therefore it would win. Corazon was the strongest pokemon there, and she could definitely pull the weight of any of Scott’s four pokemon. Seed was not a dead loss, but the pidgey was better matched up against physical attackers. Nocturne would be a good choice, but her bite was countered by the fact that she was a poison type. Jenna, the oddish that Scott had captured, had only been caught last night and was inexperienced. The goldeen that Scott had found in the pond was useless out of water. But even with these marginally useful partners Alex was certain that he could win.

Aggie and Charlie looked at one another, thoughts flashing behind their eyes. They had wanted to challenge Chris. However, if they could get the battle over with life would be a lot easier for the two of them. Finally, Aggie sighed. “Very well, then. Let’s do this. Rumble,” she tossed her pokeball, and a pink blob appeared with the burst of white energy.

Alex and Scott stared. Chris snickered. The slowpoke, as that was what Rumble was, snored, before snorting, and looking around slowly.

Ooohhh.

He yawned, and plopped down on the grass again, looking for all the world like a pink doormat.

Charlie smiled happily, and with a flash a large kadabra popped into the space between the trainers. Alex looked nervous. Corazon was large for a charmander, and her skin had been flaking off rapidly as she grew in strength, but she was not a charmeleon. He hadn’t counted on his opponents having an evolved pokemon. The slowpoke was not dangerous, as Corazon could dodge any watergun that the stupid creature could produce, but the kadabra could be.

“Arbadak, Kinesis!” Charlie said excitedly.

Scott fumbled for his pokeball, and Alex groaned. Corazon was the only opposing pokemon on the field, and now she was surrounded by the glow of telekinesis holding her limbs in place.

Aggie merely looked contemptuously at Charlie as Rumble rose from the ground. “Keep your commands inside your--,”

“Bite the kadabra, Nocturne!” Scott yelled desperately.

Something greenish blue flitted under the large mustachios of the kadabra, and he cried out in pain as dark energies sank into his shoulder. On his right a jet of blue streaked past, high powered from Rumble’s wide open mouth. The water gun slammed into Corazon, soaking her, and dousing her tail to the merest glimmer of a dying coal.

“Corazon return!” Alex yelled, even as Nocturne was knocked back by a confusion from Arbadak.

“I would say the contest was ended,” Aggie said confidently, as Scott returned Nocturne, looking sheepish. Alex looked thunder struck. Aggie grinned at Chris, her fourteen year old freckles standing out brilliantly against her pale skin. “See? That’s why you should get to the Academy as quickly as possible. So long.”

She and Charlie walked off, Charlie shooting nervous glances behind her back. “Are you sure that counted? I mean, they did only have a couple of pretty weak pokemon. Do you think it’ll count as a team battle? What if--,” his last words were cut off sharply, as the two disappeared with a flash.

Scott sighed. “C’mon, Chris, you’ve got the map on you. Let’s dig it out. We’ll need to get to the next town before night fall. There’s a small village to the north, isn’t there?”

“Yeah, yeah, pretty sure,” Chris shook himself out of his argument with Raindancer about how wonderful the psychics had been. “They probably don’t have a pokemon center, though. Remember Chartreuse Town?”

“Oh yeah. That lady was evil, I swear. ‘Young mucks shouldn’t be running around after dark,’” Scott imitated, his hands on his hips. “Duh, we’re trainers! We’re supposed to be doing adventurous things. Remember how she threatened to call our parents until the constable came?”

“Well, she did let us sleep the night,” Chris replied. “Still: ‘Warwahwah, you can’t bring that firey beast in here. Are you daft? That thing’s a rat! Why haven’t you washed behind your ears?’”

Both boys began to laugh and tried to outdo one another in their imitations, as Chris dug around in the back pocket of his bag. Darkfang circled back to the group, and joined in the imitation fest, puffing out his cheeks, and shaking his tail in time to Scott’s ranting, looking like a purple version of the snubull that had chased him from the house.

“Lessee,” Chris said, interrupting their fun as he poured over the map. “Grass Green has a pokemon center, and we could reach them by dark.”

“Great,” Scott grinned. “But why does Grass Green have a pokemon center? Is there an uncertified gym there?”

“No, but I think there’s a breeding festival or something like that there,” Chris replied. “I’ve heard Wash Pot talking about it. Her Mom goes there a lot. And trainers stopping by the festival looking for good pokemon often get competitive, I’m guessing. Therefore: pokemon center, am I right?”

“P’rolly,” Scott agreed. “Let’s get going.”

They began walking through the grass again, as Scott released Seed to work on scouting. “Hey, you think with all the breeders around they might be able to give me something for Nocturne’s skin. Alex’s oil is all very well, but I’d like to stop the sun burn before she actually burns, y’know.”

“But think about all the dead skin you can slough off,” Chris pointed out enthusiastically. He was that kind of boy. “You should save it up. I keep telling you to save it up. We could have an exobat skeleton when we’re done.”

“I don’t think that’s what it is, and I know you’re using the wrong word,” Scott complained.

“Pssh. You’re not Alex, who only has to speak to declare what is right and what is wrong,” Chris giggled, and then ducked. However, Alex’s expected cuff didn’t come. Chris looked around. “Hey, what’s he doing standing there? Did we do something to annoy him? Hey, Alex! Al-Ex! Alexis!”

His frantic hand motions and jumping up and down was ignored by the dark haired Johtoan. Scott raised a brown eyebrow, and took a deep breath:

“HEY, DUMMY!”

No response. Chris rolled his eyes at Scott. “Great. The fearless vampire is sulking again. C’mon, let’s go back and see what he wants.”

The pair trudged back. Alex was staring at Corazon’s pokeball. He was running it over and over in his hands, his fingers feeling out the indent where the top and bottom connected.

“Alright,” Scott said, “what’s up? Tell us, or, or, I’ll hit you.”

Alex looked up at this, and leveled a glare at Scott. He was inches taller than the boy. Scott was blocky, but it was pretty obvious who would win. Then again, it had been obvious only a few short minutes ago, too, hadn’t it? Alex flopped down on the yellowing grass and looked up at the high blue sky. The clouds were scudding across it like big white dust bunnies running for the vacuum cleaner.

“We were utterly and totally crushed,” he said calmly. “They defeated me.”

“Well, so?” Scott asked. “Matt defeated you, too.”

“I know Matt,” Alex replied. “It was a friendly first battle. It didn’t /count/.”

“So?” Chris echoed. “C’mon we’ve all been beaten in battles since we started out. It’s only been four days, you know. Our pokemon don’t have the experience, and you two didn’t have the teamwork. So what? Learn from it, and continue, that’s what they always said at school.”

“It’s a little hard to continue when your pokemon is fainted,” Alex pointed out grimly. “And I haven’t lost, before. We haven’t lost. Corazon is the strongest member of the group.”

“Yeah, and?” Scott asked, completely unsympathetic. He’d had a day, their first day out from Viridian, where he had lost all his battles with the trainers they’d encountered. Alex had brushed his despair off with contempt.

“And we lost! Imagine how weak we are right now!” Alex exclaimed.

“Um, Alex, seriously, it’s not a big deal,” Chris replied, sitting down, since that seemed to be the accepted position of the discussion. “I mean, you’re not capable of battling for the rest of the day, but seriously, lighten up. It’s not like it’s the end of the world.”

“That makes it all the more embarrassing,” Alex muttered darkly. “Why does the weather insist on being so nice about everything? But don’t you get it? I like battling! I’m good at it. Corazon and I, we’re a perfectly matched team. Nothing should be able to take us down. We’ve been working hard together. You two need us! And we lost.”

Listen to the pity party, Raindancer jibed. Oh, we need our hansom hero, and his little pet dragon! Save us from our own weaknesses! We shall be lost without you!

Get a grip. You’re a novice trainer with a weak pokemon. You’re training her to become better. To be honest, you’re not a brilliant battler. You’re good, I’ll grant you, but you don’t think about the out of the box possibilities. You pull through on obstinacy and the loyalty of that dumb charmander. You don’t know anything about how to deal with pokemon as anything more than attack minions, when it comes to battle. That’s why you’re out here in the open plain. You’re here to learn all this crap.

So stop whining about losing. Everyone else has, and it was your turn, the abra concluded.

Alex was silent for a few moments, then he rolled over swiftly, and lunged for the psychic. Raindancer disappeared from Chris’ head in a flash, but Chris whooped his approval and rolled away from Alex’s flying tackle.

“I’m gonna get me an abra skin hat!” Alex yelled, grinning with evil intent, as he rose from the earth, his cheeks and hands smudged with dirt.

“My supper to you if you can get rid of her,” Chris promised, grinning widely.

“I’ll take that!” Scott ran as he saw the teleporting pokemon appear by an outcrop.

“After her!”

The boys chased the abra around and around the field. Pidgey whirred out of their way on stubby wings, and venonat took to hiding behind rocks and deep grass clumps. More than one oddish had its head trampled upon as the boys ran through the more innocent patches of grass. Alex threw a shoe at Raindancer, which intentionally missed the mark, and then followed up with a sock, which did hit.

Finally, as the shadows lengthened and the sun washed everything a warm yellow, Chris leapt, and grabbed Raindancer, falling on the grass with her, and rolling over and over until he came to rest on his back. Raindancer just panted, and complained quietly that she had a headache. Both Scott and Alex dropped to the ground, breathing heavily. The dry scent of sun warmed earth overlaid with the rich smell of crushed grass rose around them. The three were quiet for a moment, looking up at the saturated blue bowl of the sky.

You know, Darkfang commented, scurrying over to Chris, that was fun, but don’t you guys have plans to get into town? And get cheeeeeeeese?

Chris groaned, and rose. “You’re a greedy fat guts. C’mon guys, we need to get moving.”

With a belabored sigh, Alex went and found his sock and shoe, and then hoisted his pack once more. The romp had quieted him, but the morose reality was circling around his head, still.

“So, anyway,” Scott was saying, as he checked his pokeballs to make certain he still had all of them after the chase, “Guess it’s time for me to send out Seed and Jenna. You’d better get Sinslither out as well.”

“Yeah. Hey, I’ve got the strongest pokemon,” Chris grinned suddenly.

“That’s not encouraging, considering how much of a fraidy-skitty you are,” Scott pointed out.

“Am not!”

“You are too,” Alex said firmly, as he began to walk. “If we ever run into swarms, you’re always cowering behind me.”

“Only because Corazon’s ember is more useful against multiple opponents,” Chris protested, releasing his ekans. “Anyway, you can’t talk, Mr. I only have one pokemon. One fainted pokemon.”

“I only need one pokemon,” Alex snapped.

“You sure didn’t today,” Scott rolled his eyes. “Why are you so picky, anyway?”

“I told you two already. I am going to become the dragon master. Better than that, I’m not going to use anything other than dragon-like pokemon. That’ll show them. I need to build my team carefully, however, so it can face all challenges.”

“So why didn’t you try for the magikarp when I caught Wavey?” Scott challenged.

Alex shuddered, rolling his eyes. “Magikarp evolve into gyarados. It’s as simple as that.”

“Huh?”

“He doesn’t like the fish faces,” Chris grinned.

“Too true,” Alex agreed. “They look creepy, they have bad tempers, and besides, the stats are so confused for them.”

“Sounds like you’d get along brilliantly, then,” Chris smirked.

“I can change my mind about hats you know,” Alex glowered.

“So basically you’ll train all dragon pokemon, except for pokemon that are actually dragons. And gyarados,” Scott said slowly.

“Yes.”

“You realize how convoluted that is, don’t you?” Scott asked, and then checked to see if either boy had noticed his use of such a good word as “convoluted.” They hadn’t. It was already part of Alex’s vocabulary, and Chris was unconsciously picking up words out of both his companions heads.

“Look, I like almost all pokemon, but not gyarados, okay?” Alex replied. “It’s like -- Chris doesn’t happen to be particularly fond of psychics. When he is a psychic himself. I admire dragon-like pokemon, except for gyarados.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t make sense,” Scott said stubbornly.

“Well, I don’t happen to be particularly fond of things that have fins and tentacles and things,” Alex said hotly. “I know you don’t like things that move with too many legs, but you don’t see me telling you that it’s stupid.”

“Even though it is,” Chris grinned, and stuck out his tongue at Scott.

“Oh stop being childish,” Alex reprimanded haughtily, before striding on ahead. Chris made a face behind his back, and he and Scott began to bicker good naturedly as the shadows lengthened. Alex continued moodily through the grass as the sky began to blush with pink and purple.

“You know, it’ll be September soon,” Scott commented, making Alex hesitate for a moment.

Back home, meaning Blackthorn City, and not Pallet Town in Alex’s mind, the girls would be getting their autumn kimonos ready for trips up the mountains to look at the trees. In school everyone would be changing over to winter uniforms, and the food would begin to rotate over to the autumn culinary skills. In another few months the russet red and golden chrysanthemums would begin to appear all over the house, and in decorations, and his mother would prepare the garden for winter, as his cousin helped him with his calligraphy. In the salt filled cave lake the horsea would be mating. And the rain would come, muting every bright color of the year in fog. Right now the rice stalks must be bending. If they hadn’t moved, his father would be taking him fishing tomorrow.

He shook his head, and began to walk faster. That was the slow kind of life in Johto. They lived in Kanto now. Interesting things happened in Kanto. Kanto was modern, and had moved with the times, and didn’t act as if it existed in another century.

His feet kicked viciously at stones and pebbles, as they descended a hill that sheltered the small village of Grass Green. The village was not so much spread out below them, as it was set out before them. Like many of the villages in the space between Viridian and Celadon, Grass Green was an agricultural community, and had no intention of using more valuable land for housing than it had to. The village was squarish, and had the look of a toy town that had been built to stack neatly in the box.

It had been built around a sprawling open space, which the boys supposed was normally green, rather than purple from impending twilight. The most important building for them, the pokemon center, was lit up with halogen lights on the roof, and a little away from the park which marked the center of town. There was a long dirt road which wound into the village from the north, and exited it in the south east. The group of three intrepid heroes was coming in from the south west, but would probably hit the road before they reached the outskirts of the fenced in enclosures that were the breeders’ residences in Grass Green.

“Hey, Alex, wait up a minute. I want to memorize the route to the center while we can still see it,” Scott called.

The darker boy stopped, and waited as Scott drew figures in the air with his finger, supposedly the street layout. “—annnnd a left,” he finished with a mutter. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Who put you in charge of the party, anyway?” Chris ribbed him as they continued on their way toward the main road.

“I’m the one who believes in maps. Why’s Alex so sour?”

“Homesick,” Chris shrugged.

“I am not homesick!”

“Hey, I miss my mom and dad, too,” Scott replied, trying to be sympathetic. He believed that if the day was ending that was a signal to bury all ill-will.

“I don’t,” Alex replied hotly, before realizing how that sounded. “I mean: I’m not homesick for them. Okay?”

“Geeze, only asking,” Scott held up his hands.

“And I’m not sour. I’m thinking. Something the two of you should try on occasion.”

Chris whistled innocently. “Suuuuure. Whatever.”

Alex frowned to himself, and jumped from the embankment to the road. “I’ll be glad when we get to the pokemon center.”

“Who won’t be?” Scott pointed out. “Warm beds, a good night’s rest--,”

“You’ll be able to take a bath,” Alex agreed. “That’s the part I can’t wait for. You both stink.”

“I can’t smell anything,” Chris shot back. “You’re just being annoying.”

You can’t smell anything because your human nose has shut down, Raindancer commented dourly.

“You’re the one still using my head for a hat,” Chris retorted.

Alex and Scott both sighed. Chris and Raindancer on any subject was now a depressingly familiar argument. Chris was easy enough to get along with for short periods of time, but only a fool would really want to travel with him over long periods. He had an inability to remain pleasant. Or, he had a need to be contrary, just for the sake of contrariness. The only people Alex seemed to get along with may have been pokemon, but at least he was dependently moody, as opposed to Chris’ flighty emotions. Scott knew that there was always the hope of gaining his friendship, which would then never be revoked. Chris gave his friendship away, and then retracted it with just as much generosity.

Not that either boy could express their own thoughts so clearly. They just knew that right now they were exasperated with Chris, and wanted him to shut up.

“Look, shut up, will you? I don’t want to hear the two of you arguing until tomorrow. Especially if we have to share a room again,” Scott ordered in bad temper.

“Don’t you tell me to shut up!”

“I won’t if you will, then.”

“Hah! Make me!”

“Fine!” Scott shoved into Chris as they walked along through the gathering gloom of the street. Chris shoved back, and they began to zigzag back and forth over the street, trying to win one end or the other, by pushing their opponent off the hard gravel. Alex stepped back, and swung his pack around to grab a sandwich.

It was the last of the sandwiches he had made in the Viridian pokemon center and was rather squashed. He wondered for a moment why he hadn’t eaten it before now, but the first bite told him why. Cold syntha-turkey was enough to turn anyone’s stomach, he was certain. He tried not to make a face, as disgust warred with hunger. They would be at the pokemon center soon, and he could purchase another package of synth meats from the vending machines. On the other hand, food should never be wasted.

Alex dithered, looking around at the buildings that surrounded them now in a cosy haven. A few cars were parked on the main street, but mostly the sidewalks were populated with bicycles. Pretty typical for this kind of place. There was a crashing yowl behind them as a pair of feuding meowth knocked over some trash cans, and then the growlithe and snubull began to bark on either side of the street where the crashing had come from. A few of the people on the streets looked around, but most continued on towards their houses, hurrying home after long days in the fields, or even from the commute between Grass Green and Celedon.

Alex turned his head briefly as well, and then realized that he had lost sight of Scott and Chris. Fuming, he backed up a few steps to look for a parting in the people that would indicate the pair’s erratic progress. Someone banged into him from behind, and growled that he should watch where he was going. Alex was spun around, his sandwich flying from his hands, as he looked in vain for the orchestrator of his mishap. However, the adult had moved on, leaving the boy to pick up his dirty pieces of scattered bread, and the white slab of the synthetic meat that had fallen.

He glowered at the bread, as if the innocent pieces of processed wheat had any say in the affair, and then cried out in pain as lines of fire blossomed across his hand. He looked up into the wide eyes of a scrawny meowth, which, after having ripped open his skin with sharp hind claws, was making for the dropped synth-meat as fast as its stick-like legs could carry it.

Alex sat back, licking his injured hand, and watched as the adults made detours in their paths homeward around him. The scratches stung, but weren’t deep. There wasn’t even a thin line of blood, although the skin had raised itself in long lines. However, this didn’t prevent him from feeling a little sorry for the feline, which was so small and scruffy that people weren’t even bothering to notice it, nearly kicking the small pokemon on its journey to grab food. Well, Alex felt almost sorry. With a cool evening breeze blowing on the scratches it wasn’t easy to be entirely sympathetic to the plight of the little monster.

The meowth grabbed the synth-meat and trotted for the nearest shadow in the lee of a building. When Alex rose with the two dirty pieces of bread, the pale kitten hissed. Alex sighed and shrugged. “I’m not interested. And you can have the bread.”

He tossed the pieces of bread at the cat, and then turned to walk away. Of course this led him right back to the problem that he had lost his companions. An intimidating thought, but Alex liked to believe that he was capable of getting to the pokemon center just fine, thank you. He knew the general direction, and began to follow the other people heading along the main street.

Two blocks along, something behind him yowled after a soft sound of impact. He turned quickly, but there was nothing visible in the lamp light. Probably more ferals fighting. Alex continued along, turning at the third turn off, and striking across the dark green which seemed to have dropped out of the sky in front of him.

He could make out, in the dimming light, a black shape hurtling towards him, which eventually became identifiable as Chris, with Raindancer on his head. The reason it was so easy for Alex to make the identification, was that Chris was yelling his name.

“I’m right here, you fool, no need to shout.”

“Ah! Great,” Chris skidded to a halt, and panted for breath, as Raindancer re-secured her place on his head.

/I told you I knew where he was/, she commented acerbically, before apparently going to sleep again.

“Yeah. So, cool. Pokemon center’s this way. I went to get you. Scott’s getting rooms. Well. A room. And food.”

“Lead me there, then,” Alex sighed, and Chris turned smoothly to walk back.

“So, what were you doing? Dreaming?”

“Trying to avoid getting pushed off the road by you two,” Alex replied stiffly.

“Hey, speaking of which, I won, by the way!” Chris said, as if this was somehow an amazing and wonderful achievement.

“Interesting,” Alex yawned boredly.

That managed to get Chris to shut up until the pokemon center hoved into view, at which point, the psychic boy ran on ahead telling the whole world that “he had found him!” Alex thought that if the whole world had been consulted, it would have preferred not to know such irrelevant data. Inside the center lobby, Sinslither, draped around Scott’s uncomfortable neck, expressed the same opinion. Scott had taken the liberty of bringing the trays out of the cafeteria, and had already started to make in-roads on the salad, when Chris joined him, jubilant.

Alex headed for the front desk, ignoring his companions, and placed Corazon’s pokeball down on the table with the polite request that she would be healed. The blond woman behind the counter smiled at him, and said some reassuring words which were lost on the boy, as he headed for the synthafood vending machines.

It was fifty PM for one small package of meat which wouldn’t last him long enough to make more than a single sandwich with bread at breakfast. But the bigger package had him paying for syntha-turkey, again, as well as several other better flavors. With a sigh, Alex decided that there was no way around it. He bought the larger package, and then went over to pick at what was left of dinner.

“I don’t suppose that the two of you like syntha-turkey?” he asked hopefully.

“Wunnt toush th’ stuff,” Chris said, spraying lettuce leaf all over the table.

“Gross,” Scott made a face.

“Him or syntha-turkey?” Alex wanted to know.

“Both! Although Chris’s face might be worse.”

“I would have to agree,” Alex commented before rising to see about Corazon, as the vet-RN was signaling him over. As he passed the dark large window looking out onto the street, he could only see pale blurs, mostly of the reflected light in the room. Still, it gave him an idea.

“Your charmander has healed very well. But it was exceedingly irresponsible of you to let her fight such a strong water type. Why didn’t you use one of your other party members?” the Nurse scolded.

“I’m sorry,” Alex sounded repentant as he took the ball from her.

He immediately let Corazon out and began to talk to her. “Are you all right? I wasn’t thinking.”

Corazon gave her trainer a shrug, and then swished her tail in annoyance. She couldn’t believe she’d been blindsided by a slow, pink water balloon. Seriously, it was more embarrassing than getting fainted by that root head. At least then she’d nearly given the thing what for, as well. But the water balloon hadn’t so much as a scratch to show for their encounter. It was just plain embarrassing.

“C’mon,” Alex bent down, and scratched some drying skin off her tiny shoulders. “We can go upstairs and I’ll oil you and give you some syntha-turkey,” the glared Corazon leveled at him made Alex smirk. “Man, why do people bother stocking syntha-turkey if everyone hates it?” he questioned.

The charmander shrugged, and then trilled to show that she wasn’t adverse to the idea of getting oiled, at least. She could catch some bugs to eat tomorrow morning. Life would be good.
Alex nodded, and waved negligently at Chris and Scott, before heading upstairs, Corazon trotting along on all fours to pull her long body over the tall steps. The room with: “Ferrara, Hango, and Nois” written on the dry erase board next to the door looked out over the back of the center. Alex set his pack down on the lower bunk bed near the window, as both top beds were claimed by Chris and Scott’s packs already.

Corazon hopped onto the desk, ready for a through oiling of her flaky skin. She watched as Alex began to get out his supplies in search of the skin oil. Soon everything was laid out on the table, including the package of synth-meats. Alex was regarding it with consideration, before looking outside again. There were trash cans just below the window, a pale blot marking were they were. He sighed, and then opened the plastic container, and pried the supposed turkey from its slot.

Opening the window he called out: “Here,” and tossed the pale slabs below. The window came down quickly enough; he could hear the whine of mosquitoes in the air. The human turned back to Corazon, and began to rub oil along her back, telling her what a wonderful charmander she was.

By the trash bins an undersized meowth curled up around the piece of meat and munched happily. All in all, it had been a fairly good day.