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Jet waited at the Pokemon center with his butt in one chair and his feet in another. He placed his hand on his face but even with his eyes shut tight he could still see the battle replaying over and over again in his mind. It had gone awful.
"You're the boy from the video," a girl next to him said.
The girl had a fro-hawk. She looked like she went to the Academy but instead of the standard Umooja Academy uniform jacket she wore a jean jacket with the sleeves cut off. The back of the jacket was hand-painted with several Pokémon, A Lanturn, a Gengar, a Bayleaf, A Tyranitar, and a Qwilfish, but they were all different colors.
"Video?" Jet said, frowning. He asked but he already knew what was coming.
The girl took out her phone. She showed Jet a video of his last battle with the title "Fastest Loss Ever." Whoever had edited the video did a slow motion replay of Eevee crashing into a wall and a loop of Jet calling out the wrong attack.
"Eevee use Quick Attack! Eevee! Use Quick Attack," The video looped showing Jet then Eevee's confused face. "Eevee! Use Quick Attack. Quick-Qui--Qui-Quick Attack!"
The video stuttered and skipped like a DJ would scratch a record. Then showed Eevee getting hit by Pikachu's Nuzzle before the screen flashed red and words dripping with blood filled the screen.
"Fatality!" a video game announcer voice sounded.
Jet groaned. "That was only like 30 minutes ago."
The girl laughed. "And it's already trending! It's totally gone viral. You literally broke a record on views. How long have you been battling?"
Jet groaned again. Embarrassed wasn't a strong enough word for what he felt. Jet wanted to die. He was going to find the nearest wild Snorlax, wake it up, and jump into its Hyper Beam.
“I just met Eevee yesterday.”
“What? You met yesterday and you decided to challenge the Prodigal Princess to a battle?
“Prodigal Princess?”
“Wait… you didn’t know?” The girl laughed again. “She’s the Ice type gym leader’s daughter. She’s a genius too. She was first in her class and just recently transferred to Umooja Academy. But she refuses to use Ice Type Pokemon like her dad. So they call her the Prodigal Princess.”
“Great, so I pissed off some rich girl with daddy issues?”
“Oh yeah! She’s soooo rich and has sooooo many daddy issues.” The girl put extra emphasis on the word issues.
Guess, I shouldn't be the one complaining about daddy issues, Jet thought to himself before shaking the thought from his head.
DING-DING-DUN-DUN-DING!
The singsong bell of the Pokemon center went off.
"Jet," called nurse joy. "Your Eevee is all healed up and ready to go."
Most nurse Joy's looked the same. This Joy however had the dark-brown skin of an Arjana native. Her hair was done in long dreadlocks that were black at the top and the ends were pink.
“Thanks Nurse Joy.”
“Tell your mother I said hello.”
Eevee came out from the back looking refreshed. Jet raised his pokeball and tried to recall him again. Eevee easily dodged the red laser. Jet tried again and Eevee dodged again.
“If you dodged like that when we battled Pikachu we might have won.”
“Eevee, Eevee!” Eevee replied angrily.
“Eevee says you’re an asshole.” The girl from earlier said.
“You can understand Pokemon?”
“No. I just use context clues.” She said sarcastically.
She is weird, Jet thought. Jet picked Eevee up and put him in a bag ignoring her last comment. He turned away from the girl and began to angrily walk away.
“If you ever need help with training. Look me up. My name is Jade. I live at the junkyard.”
On top of his loss he had to figure out how to raise the money for his entrance fee. He had about ₽700 saved up. That meant he had until September to earn another ₽2300. It just didn't seem possible.
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Jet stormed out to the street with Eevee occasionally poking its head out of his backpack. He made it down the street and away from the Pokemon Center.
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After being recognized as the boy from the video a few times on his way home Jet decided to stay home and avoid going into town. Instead he got instantly back to helping his mom with the injured Pokemon. The Ranch was 10 acres of land. It used to be bigger but Jet’s mom had sold some land off to help pay the bills.
A few years ago they had made good money. Not a lot. But it was enough for them not to worry. Since they were an hour away from a Pokemon center by car, Jet's Mom and Dad had started this Ranch to help weary trainers and Pokemon. The Arjana Region Pokemon League gave them a decent stipend to help. They made the rest up with donations and selling items such as Pokeballs and Potions. When times got slow during the Pokemon League off season Jet's dad had done odd jobs around town from tracking lost Pokemon to escorting lost trainers.
That was before everything had gone to shit and Mom had to start selling of slices of land.
Still, 10 acres was enough to help a wide variety of Pokemon. There were Caterpie, Nidorino, and even some Psyducks.
[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/6f17418f-c2f8-4acb-a748-15c3c94aca3f/dfedbjj-1bf3f163-a759-4feb-b779-d8674fcb5462.png/v1/fill/w_1192,h_670,q_70,strp/pokemon__arjana_ranch_by_airmangrace_dfedbjj-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NzIwIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNmYxNzQxOGYtYzJmOC00YWNiLWE3NDgtMTVjM2M5NGFjYTNmXC9kZmVkYmpqLTFiZjNmMTYzLWE3NTktNGZlYi1iNzc5LWQ4Njc0ZmNiNTQ2Mi5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.45Nd5nUYeGgr6dK2HPity0WfNpuSEbZJKBheLCUEQec]
“Jet, I’m going to need you to watch the Ranch for me. I have to step out and get some supplies.” Jet’s mom said. “And try not to end up on the internet this time.”
“You saw the video?”
“Jet, everyone has seen that video. There are porn-stars with fewer views.” Without another word she left.
“Worst Mom ever,” Jet yelled after her jokingly.
Most of them were wild Pokemon that had become injured by getting too close to people. One Zubat broke its wing when it crashed into a car. A Zigzagoon had become sick when it ate some trash from a neighbor's house.
The thought had occurred to Jet he could catch any of these Pokemon and make it his partner. Then the thought passed away like water down a stream. Catching a Pokemon that was already sick and injured was like asking an incel out on a date. It’s no fun if it’s too easy.
Also, Jet already had an injured Pokemon he had no idea how to deal with. Eevee played with the other Pokemon. He had separated one of the Exeggcute eggs from the bunch and had begun rolling it around keeping it from reuniting with the others. As soon as the other Exeggcute got close he would bat the egg away from the batch.
The Exeggcute didn’t seem to enjoy the game as much as Eevee did.
“Hey Eevee. Do you want to go outside and play ball?”
“Eevee,” Eevee turned his head snobbishly and walked away with his tail in the air.
“Don’t say I didn’t try you little asshole.”
At one point one of the Pokemon got out of control and began leaping around the waiting room throwing chairs.
It was bipedal and had a round body covered in shaggy, dirty white, fur. Its nose was similar to a pig's snout, and it had narrow, red eyes. It slammed its feet down and lept across the room. It’s breathing became ragged. And it began to shake with RAGE.
Mankey were tough Pokemon to deal with. They were always pissed for no reason.
One of the trainers who had stopped by the Ranch had become frightened and hurried himself out the door.
Jet cringed. What kinda’ trainer can’t handle a single Mankey?
Jet lowered his gaze. Making sure to keep his eyes on the Mankey’s feet. A lot of creatures took direct eye contact as a challenge. Jet made Pspspspspsps sounds to get the Mankey’s attention.
Once Mankey’s eyes were locked on himJet took a single step forward. Not directly toward Mankey but at a slight crescent angle. Jet could feel eyes on him. Not just Mankey’s but Eevee’s eyes too.
Jet slowly raised his left hand. He made sure to make no sudden movements. His left hand stayed in the air while his right hand produced a handful of nanab berries. Nanab berries calmed Pokemon down. Making them less erratic.
He moved the berries from his right hand to his left hand, still approaching Mankey. He handed the berries to the Mankey who took it gratefully. It instantly sat down and began to munch on the food. It was still pissed. But an acceptable level of pissed. Not raging drunk step-dad after night of drinking pissed.
Jet exhaled. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath.
“That was great,” Said the trainer coming back into the room. “Calming a Mankey down isn’t easy.”
Coward, Jet thought. The grown-ass man had left a 12 year old boy to deal with an angry wild Pokemon.
The man had a pin on his jacket that said “I support Team Obsidian!” Another reason to dislike him.
“Who taught you how t do that?"
"My dad did." Jet said dryly.
"With skills like that have you ever thought about going after Scarface the Buffolant?”
Jet had heard the name before. Scarface was a powerful Pokemon that had been leading its herd on a rampage across Arjana. So far no trainer had been able to stop it.
Jet sighed. “Why would I go after Scarface?”
“Uhh… for the ₽7000 bounty.”
“Ex-squeeze-me?” Jet said, astonished.
“Yep. They announced it last week. ₽7000. That’s like finding a nugget and then some! I’m joining Team Obsidian. Yanno' rumor is a former gym leader from Kanto is running Team Obsidian. They have the best chance of stopping–”
“Please go.” Jet interrupted, annoyed.
“Wait… but...” Jet hurried the man out of the door. “Wait before I go…”
“What?”
“Aren’t you the kid from that video?”
Jet slammed the door in the man’s face.
₽7000
Jet was alone. He tried to get back to work but the number kept replaying over and over again in his head. There was more than what he needed.
₽7000
More thoughts. More numbers. More ideas. His mind began to calculate a plan. Numbers and statistics flew by in his brain. There was no way he could face Scarface the Buffolant.
No. chance in hell.
₽7000
Or was there?