Liberty Chap 6: Ash and Smoke

The road back to Oldale was reassuringly quiet. Other than the normal songbirds, no trainers could be seen other than me. No trainers could question where I got my Cutiefly from, which apparently was near Rustboro if the Pokedex was to be believed. The Pokémon Center in Oldale was surprisingly large. I guess the new young trainers needed a place to stay after Route 101. During the summer it filled up with fresh faced trainers rather quickly.

I turned away from the counter and pushed passed the dreary looking man who stood behind me. I paused and looked back at the man. It was Jayden. I had failed to recognize him due to the lack of his signature cautious smile and the addition of a large assortment of bruises and cuts along his arms. He dropped out of line and went over to slump down on one of the couches. A familiar buzzing filled the room before quickly dying down as his Ninjask settled onto the arm of the couch. I sat down next to him and an awkward silence grew in the area. “Err, Jayden? You okay?”

Jayden briefly looked surprised at my voice before glancing at me. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“You seem different, what went wrong?”

Jayden didn’t speak for a moment, as if considering his words. “Things didn’t go like planned. It’s been a while since I last showed up here, they didn’t take it well.”

“They? They who? Actually, never mind. I won’t press you for answers. Not my place to pry. How’d you get those?” I pointed at the angry red stripes down his arm. He quickly glanced at the marks, as if he has forgotten about them.

“Cacturne can be a bit affectionate at times.” He said flatly

“Ouch.” I remarked. I didn’t really know what to say.

“I doubt your actually going to drop the issue, so I’ll tell you this much: I chose my own path, others disagreed. Now if you excuse me, I have to get to Petalburg.” Jayden stood up and walked out the center’s door. I got up and ran after him. I found myself jogging to keep up.

Night had started to fall and a palpable silence had grown between us. Jayden abruptly stopped and I tumbled over myself as I tried to stop. Jayden pulled me up and I could just see him tap his finger to his lips. He wanted me to be silent. The sound of crickets and other creatures filled my ears and filled the night with the noises of nature. Jayden pulled a Pokeball off his belt and managed to hide some of the flash with some of his jacket. Soft, rapid beats of wings joined the symphony of nature and a strange humming came from the silhouette of a moth. Jayden whispered in a low voice, “Let out any bugs you have, let them take part in the song of life.” My hand went to rest on Polly’s ball but I couldn’t bring myself to open it. The abuser’s brainwashing was likely enough to make it hate me. It couldn’t understand that I had freed it. A knot twisted in my stomach at the thought of not releasing it. I would be depriving Polly of the beauty of nature if I didn’t release her. My fingers found the opening button and pressed it. A light filled the area and I could see that Jayden’s moth was a purple Venomoth. Polly was almost silent as she flew and fluttered near Jayden’s Venomoth and Jayden himself. She hadn’t attacked like I thought. Maybe the brainwashing wasn’t as strong on this Pokémon? Polly’s humming started out quietly, but rose in volume. The humming of the Venomoth and of the other unseen bugs steadily rose in intensity by the second. Then, as if a switch had been pulled, the sound all stopped. The eerie silence persisted for more than a few moments until the symphony rose again, although it was in a sadder, slower tune. Jayden grabbed me by my arm and pulled me forward. I never saw our additional traveler until he had begun to crawl up my leg. I let out a surprised cry as I felt the itching cool pinpricks rapidly climb up my leg and begin thrashing. Polly was still out, but did nothing to hurt the monster. With the way she buzzed around my head irritably and constantly bumped the back of my other leg, it seemed like she was trying to bring me down.

Jayden knelt down and uncomfortably pushed his hand up the leg of my oversized borrowed pants. He awkwardly grabbed the writhing climbing shape and pulled it out. I could see Jayden’s eyes go wide in realization as I made out the shape of a small ball with an odd tail on its head and multiple spindly, thin legs connected to the ball. Jayden scooped it into his arms and whispered so quietly I couldn’t hear what he said. The Venomoth hummed alongside him, apparently communicating with the spider. After a few minutes he set the spider down, and started to ruffle through his bag and pulled out a Pokeball. The spider willingly let Jayden press the Pokeball against its forehead and it shattered into a ray of light and was absorbed by the ball. It rocked a few times before audibly clicking and remaining still. Jayden picked it up and pressed it into my hand. “This Surskit has taken a liking to you it seems. I’d keep it if I were you.” I attached the ball to my belt, too confused to register what I was doing. The song and the Surskit had surprised me, and Jayden’s way with the bug type has left me utterly confused. I could feel sorrow and guilt rising in me but couldn’t find the reason why. I wordlessly followed Jayden through the night to Petalburg. Polly was still buzzing around and purposefully trying to trip me up all the while. I scarcely remember walking through the forested Route 102, as despite the symphony, everything started to blur together. The trees kept going onwards without any reason, forming an erratic pattern and the moon steadily rose but seemed to go nowhere. I don’t remember stumbling into Petalburg, but I remember falling asleep on the Pokémon Center’s bed as soon as my head hit the pillow. My dreams were filled with the eerie and soothing mixture of nature’s music.

I was awoken by having a yellow flying fuzz ball ram into the side of my head repeatedly. I groaned and went to swat it, only for it to dodge out of the way. With another groan I managed to pull it eyes open and I saw the cause of my annoyance: Polly. The little flying fuzz ball had been bouncing off of me while I slept. I started to pull the blanket over me again, but Polly started bouncing on me again. It seemed she wanted me awake for some obscene reason. A quick glance at the clock provided the answer, it was 1pm. I sat up and started to get my gear together. Jayden was asleep on the other cheap cot that passed as a bed in the Center. I grabbed my belt of Pokéballs and slipped it on. I released Grace and put her in my arms. I felt bad for leaving her in the ball earlier, even though it was only for less than a day. I then turned to find Polly. “Look, Polly, I’m sorry you had to go through such a hard time with that kid. He truly didn’t understand that you needed to be a unique being. I won’t cave you in a Pokeball for all eternity like he would. I’ll let you back into the wild after I get a gym badge.” Polly stared at me before humming contently and fluttering over Jayden. All of my three Pokémon were happy and accounted for. Wait...three?

I did indeed have a third Pokeball on my belt. I pulled it off and stared at it for a moment. It held the leg crawler from last night. I sighed, figuring Jayden could calm it if need be, and opened the ball. When the flash of light dimmed I could see what the leg crawler was, a Surskit. The little bug stared up at me before scurrying off to a corner. I sighed and gave it chase. It backed itself into a corner and started to climb up the wall. It skillfully dodged my attempts at catching it and started to climb higher up the wall. A groan from behind me alerted me to the fact that Jayden was just waking up. The little spider had climbed higher up the wall while I had my back turned. I grabbed the room’s small chair to boost myself up higher. The Surskit continued to climb higher up the wall and nimbly evaded my searching fingers. A voice from behind me almost made me fall off my chair.

“I didn’t know you had a Cutiefly. Where did you find her?” Oh, crap, he’s asking about Polly. I can’t very well say I found her near Petalburg Woods, he would know I hadn’t been there. What to say, what to say. He’s going to want an answer, stalling will only make him suspicious. What was that famous saying, something about half-truths being the best lies?

“Err, I found her on Route 101, believe it or not.”

“Really? That’s good to know, I’ll have to go back and find one sometime.” If he went back to Route 101, he would see that there were no Cutiefly. My cover would be blown. I scrambled my brain for a convincing story

“I, err, Polly was the only one I saw there. She, she might have been abused. She seemed frightened of people, more so then a timid Pokémon would even.”

“That’s odd, she looks perfectly fine. Although, a Cutiefly is one of the few bugs I’ve never trained, so I could be wrong. I heard they could read auras though. Maybe she just didn’t like yours? I know she is obsessed over mine, but that’s just because I specialize in bugs, I think. Polly will go crazy around my sister if that’s the case. You might meet her soon. She’s taking a break from the whole Safari Zone thing. She told me to meet her here. Oh, and I’m really sorry about being so grumpy yesterday.” Safari Zone. Those words left a bad feeling in my chest. I tuned out everything he said after those two words. They caged Pokemon and sent them off into the ‘wild’ for old rich men to try to capture in the Safari Zone. The Pokemon were prisoners without realizing it. And Jayden’s sister was training to become a prison guard. My respect for Jayden diminished that day. I still respected him, don’t get me wrong, but he should have influenced his sister to follow a better career. It would have been frowned upon, but it would likely save a good many Pokemon from becoming tools and trophies to rich men. Rich men who didn’t care about the wellbeing of Pokémon and would use them as status symbols.

“We never really has a Safari Zone in Unova, so that’s neat I guess. I don’t think that many people thought it was humane or maybe it just lost funding. I think the rangers took it over and made it a nature preserve. Anyway, could you help me get this Surskit down?”

“I think they replaced the Safari Zone with some shooting sport challenge where you shoot a Pokeball at the Pokémon, so I can’t say you Unovans have a good idea of what is humane. Shooting a Pokeball isn’t that bad I guess, now that I think about it. We do throw them at Pokemon ourselves. Oh, and this little fellow, just gimme a minute.” Jayden went over to the wall and released his Venomoth, which he revealed to be called Jasper. Jayden walked over the wall the Surskit was climbing up and spoke in a soft calming voice that was quiet to the point that it would be near impossible to hear from inches away from him. The Venomoth hummed alongside Jayden and the Surskit started to chitter on the wall. Slowly the Surskit started to climb down the wall and onto Jayden’s outstretched palm. “This little guy is accepting of you now, don’t worry. He’s just a little skittish. It’s typical of new bug types though. Show them someone they can respect, a hive leader, and they will become easy to train.”

I could have easily face palmed then and there. Bugs were naturally fearful creatures, just... Unova had bugs that lived and reigned at the top of the food chain. They were frightening apex predators. You certainly didn’t want to fight an annoyed Volcarona or Scolipede. “I think Unova is still better than Hoenn in regards to how much we care about Pokémon. We mostly try to leave nature untouched. Oh, and thanks for the Surskit. I seriously don’t know how do you your thing with bugs.” The Surskit skittered on my hand. I absent minded put it into a Pokeball.

“Sure... Unova is definitely better than Hoenn. You all have Castelia City. I’m sure that didn’t displace hundreds of Pokémon’s homes. The only reason you didn’t expand to the desert just north of it was because of all the sandstorms. Says a lot about your knowledge when you accuse the nation who lives in trees of being nature haters. My talent with bugs? That’s a secret pal. I don’t even know how I got it, but I did. I speak, they sometimes listen. I guess I gotta go now, I’m supposed to meet someone after destroying Norman at the gym.” Jayden’s Venomoth settled on his shoulder as he walked out of the room. It took me a second to realize what he said. Petalburg had a gym, which was the whole reason I was here. I needed to beat the circuit. I put Grace in my arms and walked after him. I didn’t notice that Polly was gone.

As I ran through the park in hopes of finding a shortcut to the gym, I stumbled over a nearby hedge and landed in a small pond located right in the center of the park I was weaving through. Kicking and paddling, I spluttered to the surface. Grace floated lazily next to me. I could only be thankful that most of the electronics in my bag were waterproof. I didn’t need a repeat of my time in the river. I could hear loud aggressive growls coming from a building across the other side of the park and a ways away. Suddenly, my arms started tingling and I felt an irresistible urge to dive under the water. I quickly grabbed Grace and dove under as a loud painful ringing suddenly filled my ears. The water above me became colored with an orange tint and I could feel a sudden wave of heat despite being underwater. As I came up, I could see that the building from before was engulfed in a ball of orange flame and light. An ear-splitting roar erupted from the building and the fire started to get pushed downwards before rising even higher as a rounded, winged shape with what appeared to be a massive tail rose from the flames. Sirens filled the air as I floated there for a countless amount of time. Minutes and hours seemed to mesh as I stared at the fiery chaos. I was awoken from the trance as Grace let out a little cry; the heat was bothering her. As she squirmed around I rapidly lowered her to the water to let her cool off. She let out a relived sigh. I paddled towards the shore and started to find my way back to the road to get away from the heat for Grace’s sake. I stared at one of the signs along the parks path and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. Scarcely comprehending what I saw, I ran towards the ball of fire, not caring that the heat was rising with every step. I had to get to the gym. The heat grew and grew and Grace let out a shrill cry of pain from the heat. I hastily returned her. Sweat was pouring down my back as I continued to approach the blast furnace that was once a gym. As I hastily rubbed the sweat out of my eye, I noticed a girl with mottled black brown hair no older then twenty-three muttering about something next to the large Venusaur standing beside her. I slowed my jog when I saw what she was now grabbing at and pulling onto the Grass Type beside her. A body. Ash from the fire a block or two away covered him in large numbers and his face was turned away from me when he was put on the Venusaur. But I knew who it was. The woman’s mutterings became audible and had a desperate, angry tone to it, “You are not dying today. You are not fucking dying on my watch. You don’t just get to pop back in my life and die, damn it!”