Journey
Death of Duty
Part 1 – The Novice
Capture
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Every trainer dreams of catching their first pokemon. It's a memory every trainer treasures forever. — Professor Robert Elm
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It turned out that by ornery, Gemma meant that Lilith got real fighty at night. More times than I could count, the fearow would throw us into a steep dive as she chased off some perceived threat. Gemma hooted and hollered in joy while I held on to her for dear life, unconcerned with modesty in the face of terror.
When we finally touched down in front of Cerulean's pokemon centre I could have practically kissed the solid ground. I slipped off her fearow and sat myself against the wall of the pokemon centre.
"Don't got your flight stomach yet?" Gemma asked, slipping off Lilith's back with practiced ease. She had that same mischievous grin, like she had truly enjoyed torturing me about the paras the whole way here. "It'll come with time. Every trainer adjusts eventually if you last long enough."
I clambered to my feet, glaring at the trainer and her psychotic fearow. She returned the bird to its ball and turned back towards me as I gathered some semblance of my lost dignity. "I don't know how to thank you enough. I would have died there, starved to death and been chewed on by another paras."
She shrugged. "Any trainer would have helped. Just make sure you do the same. It's dangerous out there and the league isn't always around to help." She reached into her pocket and pulled out an angular device and flipped it open.
I stared down at the device. A pokegear, something far beyond my means.
She looked up at me. "What's your number, novice?"
I looked at her sheepishly. "I don't have one. I… I can't afford anything like that." A pokegear cost almost as much as my family farm usually made in a month. I had struggled to buy pokeballs and potions, a pokegear was definitely a pipe dream at this point.
She raised an eyebrow. "Figures, you did say you were just a berry farmer." She tapped into her poke gear for a few minutes and then looked up at me with a mischievous smirk. "I need a new one anyways, so give me a minute and you can have mine."
I put up my hand in protest. "I can't take-"
"I've got a league sponsor," she interrupted as her brows furrowed. "Don't worry. I won't have to pay for a thing."
"I can't take this," I repeated sternly. Pa had instilled a distrust of handouts in me over the years, something I was hesitant to shake even if Gemma was being nice. "It wasn't earned."
She stopped and looked at me with an honest smile for what felt like the first time. "That's sweet," she said. "Consider it a gift. I got a soft spot for novices like yourself and to be honest, you could use the help." She winked as the evil grin returned. "You did get your face chewed up by a paras after all."
I looked down at the device as she handed it to me. The screen blinked, booting up to a blank screen with a revolving Silph logo in the centre. "This is the most expensive thing I've ever owned," I said nervously. "I've never really used anything high-tech, so…"
Gemma just smiled. "I'll help you out with it in the morning. For now though, you should probably get some rest."
I nodded, exhaustion seeping back into my bones. The flight here had flooded me with adrenaline, but it was starting to wear off. I knew I had twenty minutes at most before I crashed hard. "Good idea," I half mumbled.
I turned and went to push the door open and walk through. My face collided solidly with the glass door, giving everyone inside a nice close up of my messed up face.
It turned out that the centre only had one room left. I was fully prepared to give Gemma the room, but she insisted I take it. I tried to insist that she take it, but she already had somewhere to crash.
And so it was that after dropping Curie and Luna off at the desk for a checkup and being cleaned up and having the remaining half of my face stitched back together by the overnight nurse, I crashed into the bed and let sleep take me.
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I woke to a furious pounding on the door. Gemma was here.
"It's half-past ten, Novice!" She shouted. "We've got work to do!"
I dragged myself up and shuffled over to the door, tripping over my broken bow in its sock. I put it up against the wall and sighed at the loss. It had been a gift from my Pa. The last gift he'd given me. I didn't know whether to be sad or feel relief that I didn't have to be reminded of him every time I used it.
I pulled it open, pushing away the morbid thoughts and looking at her through half-shut eyes. "You couldn't let me sleep?" I asked grumpily.
She barged in past me, not caring the slightest about my grumpy expression. She put the breakfast tray on the side table and sat back on the bed as she devoured a greasy looking sandwich. "So," she mumbled between bites. "I watched your gym battle last night and did some research."
I closed the door and sighed. She certainly did not care about appearances or decorum at all. "So?" I asked as I sat in the small chair beside the bed. I reached over, taking the second sandwich and coffee Gemma had brought. "You watched me outlast Brock by tricking his onix. Big whoop."
"While I commend your creativity, it won't work again. Not against Misty. She's a cold hearted bitch at the best of times and won't allow something like that to work. She'll order her starmie to kill that baby just to prove a point." She downed the last bite of her sandwich and smirked at me with a twinkle in her eye.
She pointed at me. "You made waves with that little stunt in Pewter. Indigo is buzzing with the embarrassment that an unknown novice handed to Brock." She lifted her coffee and downed a large gulp. "Rumour has it, that novice arrived in Cerulean late last night and is already preparing for his next challenge."
I sipped gently on the coffee. It was strong, barely a hint of sugar to temper the dark unovan blend. Perfection, as far as I was concerned. Definitely a sight better than the instant coffee I'd been drinking.
"Your doing?" I asked. She seemed to know how to play the game that was the League.
She smirked at me and I knew the answer. "Word is, your next match has sponsor eyes all over it. Play your cards right and you'll have a League sponsor by the end of the week, novice."
I nodded appreciatively. A sponsor was a big deal in the League. They'd bankroll my challenge, something that was already proving to wring every drop of cash possible out of me.
Truth be told, I had no clue how anyone could challenge the League without one. The Indigo Conference had an entrance fee of almost three times what my family's farm had made per year. Training, I had learned that hard way, was not a poor man's sport. I'd been agonizing over the roadblocks in front of me, but a sponsor would solve many of them.
In return for bankrolling our challenges, the trainers were expected to act as a spokesperson for the company. We could be expected to appear in ads, battle in exhibition tournaments and lobby high ranking League members on the company's behalf.
But, first things first. I wasn't ready to face a gym leader in a proper battle yet, especially one with a mean streak like Misty. I didn't have a type advantage and my second pokemon wasn't able to battle yet. "So," I started as I looked back up at her. "Where do we start?"
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We headed north, ignoring the impromptu tournament forming at the end of the Nugget Bridge. As much as I wanted to stop and try my hand against other trainers, Gemma had other plans for the day. She insisted that we get off-route as soon as possible, so we ducked off the League maintained route as it bent towards the small communities on the easternmost point of Cerulean Cape and kept heading straight north.
The entire way out, she kept up her pokegear tutorial. It had a phone, with several numbers already saved in. Gemma had put in her number, plus the number of her League representative and several regional emergency numbers. She showed me how to add new numbers as well, something that I was ashamed to admit I had no clue how to do. I didn't even know how to make a call until she showed me how. Technology was limited to practical things on the farm. There had never been any use for frivolous expenses for training.
The map is what excited me the most. I was an information junkie with an entire world at my disposal. It was interactive and overflowing with information. I could zoom into specific locations and see what pokemon were commonly found in the area. I could overlay a map from the Ranger alert network, identifying specific reports and threats monitored by the Rangers. I zoomed in to Route 25 and the areas northwest of it and raised my eyebrow at the yellow alert highlighting the area.
Caution – Dangerous Wild Pokémon – Ranger Command Cerulean has received multiple credible reports of a nido pack east of Mount Moon. Possible presence of King/Queen, novice trainers take extreme caution– Ranger teams investigating
My eyes kept scanning the report as it continued on about nido packs. It wasn't anything that I didn't know already. So long as we had strength in numbers we would be safe. Nido packs rarely attacked groups, preferring to pick off lone targets in overwhelming surprise attacks. Despite their penchant for surprise attacks, nido packs were decidedly not stealthy. They were easily spotted from the air and made few efforts to conceal themselves when not actively hunting. Not much need to hide when you're usually the strongest around.
I showed Gemma the alert and told her about our own small run in with the pack on the western slopes of Mount Moon. She just shrugged it off, telling me she could handle a nido pack without much trouble. I wasn't sure how many badges she had, but I guessed six or seven based on what I'd seen. She kept five balls on her belt, and I doubted that any of them were significantly weaker than the two I'd seen so far.
We continued on, forging further north until I could hear the distant crash of waves on Cerulean Cape's rocky northern shore. All the while, Gemma kept up the pace, forcing Luna and I to strain ourselves to keep up with our guide. She didn't slow her pace at all, instead giving me the option to fall behind and fail her little test.
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I crept through the underbrush, carefully watching where I stepped. Gemma was somewhere up ahead. She'd disappeared several minutes before, claiming that she'd be back after she investigated something. She told me to keep heading north until I hit the coast. I wasn't too happy about being left alone in the wilderness, but to argue would have meant failing her test.
Something was off though. We'd been bushwhacking for nearly half a day. The rough terrain off of Route 25 was difficult and slow going, especially off-route where the league had no real presence. You might run into the odd Indigo Ranger on a wilderness patrol, but they were few and far between. Far too often, the sight of a Ranger was a sign of trouble. It meant that there was something dangerous nearby.
Our entire journey out here had been full of noise. Nature had a way of just never shutting up. Rustling grass, wind in the trees, the distant crash of waves on Cerulean Cape's rocky shore, the far off cry of pokemon, all joined together in nature's cacophony. It was silent now, like something had just flicked off some giant switch.
Luna's ears perked up as we stumbled out of the waist high grass and into a small clearing with several small trees, ringed by a wall of waist high grass. Her ears swivelled and strained for any sign or sound. Her tails swelled and flared she growled menacingly. That was not a good sign. I put my hand on Luna's back, attempting to calm her while I figured out what to do.
Nature was content with not giving us that chance. All the warning I got was a rustling of dry leaves as the underbrush began to crawl with movement. I widened my eyes and clenched my fists. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that this was Gemma's test.
I looked down at Luna and let my nerves fade. She wasn't scared. She was pissed off from a frustrating morning trekking through rough wilderness, ready to fight. As long as I had her at my side, I didn't have to be scared either.
The first rattata burst from the bushes, fangs bared for my neck as a half dozen more burst from the bushes. Luna swatted it out of the air with a blast of flame that sent it squeaking away in fear. Then they came. Dozens of them, flinging themselves at us with reckless abandon as yet more surged past us and into the grass. Every one that Luna scorched and sent running was replaced by two more. We were hopelessly, impossibly outnumbered.
I ducked, one of the rattata sailing over my head as another clamped down on my arm. My jacket held though, and the little pokemon tore furiously at the thick leather sleeve. I smashed it against a tree and it let go with a yelp.
I pointed at the wall of grass before us. "Luna, stem the tide. Incinerate the grass!"
She responded admirably, shrugging off a pair of rattata that attempted to bite at her flanks. She sucked in a breath and spat a stream of flame that ignited the wall of dry grass.
I didn't have time to enjoy the victory. The grass shook as dozens more rattata burst from the flaming foliage. They rushed past us, running headlong into the grass behind me and ignoring my Vulpix's inferno. Luna ducked back, retreating towards me as the swarm surged past her in terror.
I felt my heart skip a beat. This was no test. The rattata were running from something. I felt my heart pound in my chest as I got the strange notion that I should be running too.
A raticate leapt from the grass, heaving madly. Her breaths were ragged and uneven, blood leaking from a trio of oozing purple puncture wounds along her side. Her eyes darted around the clearing, flitting between me and Luna frantically.
A purple blur slammed into the raticate from the side, goring her with a three-inch long horn. The raticate shrieked, scrabbling madly at the nidorino's tough hide ineffectually. A second nidorino burst from the flaming grass, taking the raticate from the other side.
I heard the low rumble of a feral growl and felt the ground shake slightly. It rose from the flames, all purple spikes and armoured plates. Wicked looking spines jutted out from its back. The nidoking flicked its powerful tail back and forth, locking his beady black eyes on me. I felt the earth rumble in response to his growl, like the ground seemed to respond to his displeasure.
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I glanced down at Luna as the fear crept back in. We were in danger, mortal danger. Wild pokemon did not conform to battle rules. They fought until their foe was dead or ran. She looked back up at me for guidance and I heard myself whisper one word. "Run."
We turned as one, fleeing for our lives. Luna split off from me as I heard the nidoking bellow angrily at his escaping prey. The ground bucked, nearly tossing me as I staggered away as quickly as I could. I fumbled with the pokegear as I ran, tabbing over to the phone feature and desperately mashing at Gemma's number.
I didn't know if it was ringing, I didn't know where she could have gone, but she couldn't have been that far ahead.
One of the nidorino leapt at me from behind, sailing over me as I ducked and scrambled away to the side. The second one bore down on me as I came back up, but Luna was there. She slammed into the nidorino's flank, throwing off its charge. It tripped as it tried to compensate for the change in direction and plowed into the dirt. A third gave chase as I turned to run, the cries of the rest of the pack echoing around me.
"Break the chase!" I shouted as I sprinted headlong into the grass. I couldn't tell which direction I was going, but away from the vicious pokemon was good enough for me. "Set the grass on fire and stay on my ass!"
I didn't wait for her, knowing she was only half a step behind me. The dry field of grass went up like it had been doused with gas. I could feel the heat licking at my back. Luna ran at my heels, spitting tiny embers of flame into the grass. I could see the nidos out the corners of my eyes, dark purple and pale blue blurs racing to stay ahead of the growing inferno.
I heard a voice screaming out of my pokegear and I raised it up to my mouth. "Nido pack!" I shouted. "Follow the smoke!"
I vaguely heard her shriek an answer but lost it in the roar of the flames and angry grunts of the nidos on my tail. The earth cracked open and shook below my feet. I tripped, my foot catching on a lump of earth that hadn't been there a moment before.
I slammed into the dirt, landing hard on my face. I heard a loud crunch and felt a splitting pain in my nose. I reached up for my face, my hands covered in blood.
Luna shot past me, the pair of nidorino hot on her tail. I knew a third wasn't far behind, but couldn't tell where it could be. They barely spared me a glance, attention locked on the little vulpix giving them absolute hell.
I groaned in pain as I tried to rise, forcing myself to move through the pain. I got one foot under me and steadied myself for a moment. The air was thick with smoke, fire roaring through the thick grassland. Plumes of smoke were rising into the air above us. There was no way that Gemma could miss this from atop Lilith.
Then I saw him. The nidoking saw me. He stepped through the flames like they were nothing, stalking towards me like he knew he had already won. The flames cast terrible spiked shadows across me, giving the nidoking a demonic appearance. I struggled to my feet, my head spinning and protesting the action as I tried to move.
He loomed over me, growling menacingly as he drew to his full height. The flames behind him cast him in glowing red light. The nidoking towered over me, stretching at least two or three feet above me and standing an imposing armoured figure. He raised one armoured paw and I saw his three claws extend slightly.
His expression went slack and a simple look overtook his eyes. The nidoking cocked his head at me and looked at me in apparent confusion. Luna appeared from behind the beast, spitting a barrage of embers at the gaps in the nidoking's armour as she scampered up his back and over his shoulder. He narrowed his eyes as Luna leapt off him, planted her feet and growled furiously.
She was brave, but it was hopeless. She just wasn't strong enough to actually harm the nidoking. The pack leader shook the confusion out of his eyes and sneered contemptuously down at the little creature that dared oppose him.
I heard a piercing shriek and looked up as a winged shadow passed over me. A grey blur was plummeting towards me, moving too fast for my eyes to follow.
Domitian led with his fists as he fell. He slammed into the nidoking at a steep angle, knocking it off balance with a crushing blow from above. Gemma's machamp followed up with his second set of arms, hammering his fists into the nidoking's armoured chest.
The nidoking growled and swung his tail for Domitian's chest. Domitian caught the king's tail in three of his arms and seemed to smirk knowingly at his opponent.
With one last crushing blow to the jaw by his free arm, Domitian knocked the nidoking senseless. The hulking beast stumbled back, swaying on his hind legs. With one more dazed step, the nidoking crashed heavily into the ground.
I vaguely heard Luna yelp in pain and turned in shock and fear. One of the nidorino had decided to stay and fight rather than run like the rest. It pulled its horn out of the puncture wound it had made in Luna's leg, purple ooze dripping from the horn.
"Confuse wisp!" I shouted, knowing we had to level the playing field.
"Keep it off balance."
Fire types like Luna ran hot, giving them a slight resistance to things like poison. It would still hurt her, but her internal flame would delay the most severe damage. Still, I didn't want to push our luck with something as deadly as poison.
I heard Gemma land behind me, but paid her no mind. I could hear something roaring angrily and Domitian bellowing back but spared it no mind. My attention was for Luna, for the battle at hand.
My vulpix spat a swirling ball of eerie flame. She willed it towards the nidorino. He charged her, choosing to press the attack rather than avoid the unnatural flame.
It was the wrong choice. The nido's expression went soft and I caught the simple look in his eyes as he barrelled wide of Luna. He buried his horn into one of the trees and grunted in surprised pain. I watched him thrash violently as he attempted to free himself and felt a sudden clarity come over me.
My hand went into my bag, feeling for the cold metal balls at the bottom. I had two left after losing my first with the sandshrew. My hand closed around one of the poke balls as the nidorino broke free. I planted my feet and stared down the spiteful little nidorino. I was a trainer. I was a pokemon trainer. It was time that I proved it and added to my team.
"Luna," I said calmly, all trace of fear gone from my voice. My voice was calm and collected and my mind was racing through strategies with every heartbeat. "Soften him up. It's time we made our first capture."
She padded over to me, standing between me and the beast that had gored her with his horn. Her limp was almost unnoticeable, but it was there. She was favouring her leg and didn't dare put weight on it. We had to finish this quickly. She growled as the nido stared her down, puffs of smoke curling out of her mouth.
They charged each other, the nido lowering his horn and intending to run her through. Luna leapt to the side, avoiding the nidorino's charge by inches. She torched his flanks as he skidded past. I heard the nido roar in pain as Luna's embers scorched the already badly burned pokemon's flanks.
"He's coming around," I called, watching the nidorino turn back and snort angrily. "Keep him at a distance and hit him with an ember barrage."
The nido pawed at the ground and glanced at me. He glanced back to Luna and I saw realization dawn in his eyes. He knew she was protecting me. He knew I was directing her. He lowered his horn again and charged. Straight at me.
Luna peppered him with embers, doing nothing to slow down the angry nidorino. He shrugged off the barrage and poured on the speed. I made to leap out of the way, but there was no way I would be able to get clear in time. He was just moving too fast.
Luna was a tan blur, slamming into the nido's side with a fierce growl. She drove him slightly off target once more, barely steering the nidorino away as I dove clear.
I used the momentum from my dive and rolled to my feet. I spun on my heels and readied the empty ball. Luna desperately separated herself from the panting and burnt nido, trying to get some distance.
Her injured leg gave out, a loud whimper of pain reaching my ears. She collapsed to the ground less than a stride away from the nidorino. I threw the ball with all my might even as he kicked Luna in the side with his powerfully built hind legs.
It hit him on the side, sucking the nidorino in before he could deliver a second blow and kill or cripple my precious vulpix. He disappeared in a flash of light as the ball went rolling away into the brush.
I waited for what felt like ages, watching the grass where my ball had disappeared intently. There was no way that I had captured him, he was too strong, too fierce for just one ball to capture. He was terribly burned, but had fought like a caged demon. I stared in half fear and anticipation, waiting for him to burst back out and finish us off.
Luna limped back to my side, whimpering. She stood strong, but I could see how bad she was doing. Her ears were flat against the side of her head and her tails hung low between her legs. She was hurting. The poison had to have taken its toll and she was covered in small gashes. Nidorino tended to be covered in small spikes that secreted a powerful poison.
I dug into my bag, pulling out a pair of antidotes. I emptied the first one entirely into the deep wound on her leg. It had a sickly, rancid smell to it and worried me the most. I opened the second and sprayed it liberally onto every scratch or cut that I could find. Her shoulders and neck were covered in them and I found several long, shallow gashes on her sides. The nidos had probably grazed her with their horns more than once. I emptied the rest of the antidote into them.
Gemma laid her hand on my shoulder and I just about jumped out of my skin, almost forgetting she had just saved my life. I turned, eyes frantically scanning back and forth along the grass. It had felt like an eternity and the nido still hadn't reappeared.
"Hey, you can relax now," Gemma said, her voice low. "You caught him."
I let out the breath that I hadn't realized I was holding. Then it hit me. The smell of charred flesh was thick in the air and the bitter taste of smoke lingered on my tongue. "What happened?" I asked numbly. I looked around finally, taking stock of our surroundings.
The field of grass was nearly gone, consumed by the fire. Domitian was kicking dirt onto the few remaining blazes and Lilith sat lazily atop the prone form of a powerfully built nidoqueen. Half a dozen smaller nidorina lay around their queen, all of them motionless.
She tried, but Gemma couldn't hide the shame and embarrassment on her face. "I went to set up your test. Released a few water types off the shore to give you an idea of what you'd be up against with Misty." She frowned and looked away. "The nido pack must have been tracking us since we went off-route. This is all my fault. I'm better than that, I should never have left you alone."
I gingerly poked at my nose and winced. I felt something running down my face and tasted blood, suddenly remembering the trip and fall. "Think my nose is broken, but otherwise I'm fine. Wasn't even the nidos that hit me. I just tripped over the ground." I poked gently again and couldn't help the wince. "Definitely broken," I repeated.
Gemma looked at me closer and I saw the hurt in her eyes. "Here," she started, her voice low and apologetic. "Let me set it for you at least. It'll help with the bleeding somewhat." She pulled a cloth from her bag and gently placed her hand on my now crooked nose. "This is going to hurt," she said calmly. "a lot."
I felt an almighty crunch and the worst pain I'd ever been conscious for.
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The rangers arrived not twenty minutes later, a pair of them atop pidgeot that kept their eyes firmly on Lilith. Gemma explained what had happened and kept them off my case too hard. I still got an earful about the dangers of travelling off-route, but not half of what I would have gotten had I been alone. Hell, alone I wouldn't have been alive when the Rangers arrived.
They complimented us on our work, despite their admonishments. The nido pack had been terrorizing the wilds around Cerulean. Three trainers had been hurt in the past few days and another two were missing and presumed dead.
The League had actually placed a bounty on the pack the day before, one that Gemma and I were only too happy to claim for our troubles. We split it both ways, despite my protests that I hadn't actually done anything.
We left the rangers at the site of the battle. I wasn't keen on flying again, but Luna and my new capture needed proper medical attention and my nose still ached something fierce. So despite my reluctance, Gemma and I flew back to Cerulean in near silence.
We dropped our pokemon off at the centre. I warned them that the nidorino was a new capture that I hadn't had a chance to tame yet and they assured me he would be kept sedated the entire time.
Luna was mostly fine, despite the multitude of gashes along her. The antidotes I had used seemed to have stopped the poison and her physical injuries would heal within the week, even faster as long as she stayed at the centre to heal. I kept Curie with me though. I wanted the company.
Gemma's pokemon were fine, but she checked them in anyways. I counted five balls when she handed them to the nurse, noting that she didn't bother giving the nurse any information about them.
She insisted that we go for a drink after our day, and I was in no mood to argue. So we found ourselves in the back of some seedy bar, the lights down low and the hellish day left behind us.
Gemma had ordered us both some cocktail from the bar as we passed and paid for them both without waiting for my insistence that I pay. I'd tried to pay for the next four drinks, but Gemma would have none of it. She was determined to make it up to me.
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I looked across the table at her. It had been quiet. Despite our half-eaten meals and array of empty drinks, we'd hardly said a word outside of some small chat around the nido battle itself.
I coughed, to break the silence. She looked at me quizzically with a half-buzzed grin and I couldn't help the swell of nervous nausea in my chest. I'd been building up to this in my mind, unable to broach the simple question of why Gemma thought I was worth all this effort.
"So," I started, "mind telling me what you're doing?" I asked. I stared blankly into my drink as I talked, barely looking up at her. "You take an interest in me, and what? Train me for nothing in return? Drop all this cash on some nobody novice?"
She shrugged, quietly sipping her drink as she considered the question. "Trainers help others. It's something that we all do," she replied stubbornly. "Maybe I learned that lesson a little late, but it's better than never."
"But why me?" I asked again. "Who the hell am I to deserve any of this? I didn't earn any of it, didn't earn any of the kindness you've shown me, or the lessons you've imparted."
"I've barely taught you any—"
"Don't," I interrupted. "You've taught me more about this life in a day and a half than anyone has in eighteen years." I shook my head again. "Why me? What makes you think I deserve the help?"
"What makes you think you don't?" she asked pointedly.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. I didn't know if I wanted to go there with anyone, much less a person I had just met. I tried to look up and make a sound but my willpower abandoned me.
"Look," she said, breaking the silence. She must have sensed that this was a sore spot for me. "You need the help, right?"
My eyes never rose from the drink, but I nodded slowly.
"I don't need to know why you think you don't deserve it." She shrugged and I felt myself relax somewhat. "Do you want my reasons?"
I shrugged in return, unsure of how to answer.
She sighed and leaned forward. "You remind me a lot of someone I used to know." I saw a warm smile come to her face. "He never got a fair shake. He asked me for help, practically begged me for it." She looked down at her drink. "I was stubborn and didn't give the help that my friend needed."
She looked up at me nervously and tipped back the rest of the drink. I copied her. I had a feeling that I knew where this was going. I wasn't the only one dealing with the trauma of loss.
"He didn't make it and it was my fault. I didn't do enough." She shrugged, her words slow and slurred. "Like I said, you look like him. Same stupid grin when you think nobody is looking, same farm boy kinda style."
"So that's it," I said quietly. "Righting a past wrong." I looked down at my drink again and felt like an ass for pushing Gemma. I had my own trauma, but I wasn't alone in that. Maybe I could trust Gemma not to judge me too harshly if I told her what had happened.
"I'm not him," I said. "I'm not whoever you lost. You can't let that loss rule your life." I smiled and reached out, putting my hand on hers. "For what it's worth, I am grateful for everything you've done for me. You've given more of a crap about my dream than my old man ever did. That alone is more than I could ever repay." I felt my heartbeat quicken and tightened my grip on her hand.
I knew that the moment was now, that Gemma did deserve to know. "I didn't have the help at home. I didn't have help and I had to hide what I was doing, and it got my little sister killed."
She returned the favour, squeezing my hand. I felt my voice waver for a moment but I knew that I had to finish now.
"I snuck out our house at night to train with Luna about three months ago." My gaze fell to my drinks. "I'd been forbidden from taking up training by my Pa, but I didn't listen. She… she followed me out of the house but she must have gotten lost in the dark."
I shook my head. "I don't feel like I deserve the help because I got my own sister killed and wouldn't take the blame for it. I tried to make it my Pa's fault…"
"Marcus," she said calmly. It was the first time she had said my name instead of calling me a Novice. "Nobody can control what wild pokemon do. The world is a dangerous place and—"
"And I didn't protect a person who needed me to." I hung my head. "Dangerous or not, my sister needed me."
"You didn't do it," she said. "You didn't kill her."
"But I might as well have," I replied. "Maybe if I'd told her I was going to train, taught her about pokemon rather than hiding all this from my family, she'd still be here."
Gemma shook her head. "You can't dwell on maybes." She shook her head again. "And refusing help from those who are willing to lend it?"
I shook my head. "It's not that. I knew what I signed up for when I left home and became a trainer. I knew that it would be dangerous when I lost my little sister." I sighed sadly and tipped back my drink. "But it's exactly what I wanted. The adventure, the excitement… it's everything I'd dreamed about on the farm. Yeah, it started in tragedy and that sucked, but it's thanks to you that I know I can handle myself out there."
She looked at me with a mix of half-drunk sadness and acceptance in her eyes. "Ask the paras if he thinks you can handle yourself."
My jaw dropped as the tension dissipated. "That hurts."
The sadness faded in moments and Gemma's constant façade reappeared with her usual savage grin. "Just like your ear?" She quipped. "Or your nose?"
I closed my mouth, smiling at her. "You're alright, Gemma."
She sat back, wiping the barest traces of a tear away. "You think you got Misty without my help then?" She asked.
I smiled and shook my head. "Not a chance." I leaned back and smirked as I signalled the waiter. "But training can wait. Tonight, we drink."
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Pokédex entry #34: Nidoking
These apex predators are native to western Kanto, making their homes on the vast coastal plains north and south of Viridian forest. Operating as the patriarch of their packs, nidoking tend to respond aggressively to any perceived threat.
Nidoking are large, quadrupedal pokemon that are capable of standing and moving on their hind legs for short durations. Their body is covered in small spines that secrete a powerful poison. Many a trainer have fought off the initial assault of a nido pack and succumbed to poison before they could seek medical attention.
Nidoking tend to be particularly aggressive towards other males. Only one "alpha" may exist per pack and any successful challenge to the alpha will result in a change of leadership and the loser dead or exiled from the pack.
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Novice Trainer, KT#07996101, current roster
Luna, Vulpix
Curie, Happiny
Nidorino