1.3 Falling
A strong wind was blowing across Viridian City, whipping my grey scarf into my face as I walked. And contrary to what Gary has likely told you, I am not obsessed with dull colors due to some lack of personality. I just think they look nice. They don’t draw undue attention, or lead to any meaningless debates on fashion. Breath is limited. Anything limited should be conserved. That and I do not lack a personality thank you very much. I just have no reason to show it to that prick. Or anyone who wouldn’t take it seriously for that matter. And I’ve found out that very few people are willing to take things seriously.
And this is not one of Gary’s tangents. That was needed information to resolve any possible misconceptions you may have that would cloud your ability to understand the story. If I’m going to spend my breath telling it, I might as well make sure that it is heard properly. If I have made things clear, the actual story can resume.
While the last day had been calm, today a fierce wind blew through the city. It wasn’t uncommon for Viridian. In fact, intense winds were a frequent occurrence. I’d just forgotten how annoying they were. Even if it was a summer day, it felt like it could’ve been winter due to wind chill. Or at least late autumn. Possibly October. You should get the point by now.
The streets were slightly less crowded than I remembered. That or the people just looked smaller from my larger height. Both were possible. I was able to make my way through the streets of the West Side of town without much difficulty and at a very nice pace. I’m not as obsessed with speed as Eli, but my time in the city was limited. Ergo, it needed to be conserved. Especially the time I had alone.
Gary and Eli were off at the Pokémart picking up the package. After that they were going to the gym. Personally, I viewed the gym as my brother’s domain. I had no business there. My business was all on the west side of the city. As it had always been.
While I walked, I mentally debated with myself as to whether or not to visit a certain location. It was a fair distance out of the way, but not horribly so. That and it almost seemed necessary if I was in Viridian. After all, it was, at some level, the reason I had even come on the stupid errand. It was probably fairly high on the Professor’s list of reasons as well. Why else would he send a group of kids over to retrieve his mail when he had several perfectly competent aides with cars? It could’ve been what he said about getting us out of town, but there were better ways to go about doing that. It was almost certainly something else.
I stopped walking at an intersection. My official destination was straight ahead, but the other one was to the North. I glanced briefly between the two of them, and walked towards the North. The road was much quieter going in that direction. Only residential areas could be reached by heading north, so most of the traffic heading to the bases and Cathedral disappeared. There were still noises, cars roaring in the background, children crying, shouting from street venders, it was just increasingly quieter as it faded into the background. Even then, it still probably would’ve put Eli off edge. He hadn’t left Pallet yet. Viridian wasn’t big, but it still dwarfed the town. I wondered if he even knew normal traffic procedures. I shrugged and moved on to other thoughts. He had Gary with him. One of his few redeeming qualities was that he knew about the world, and was surprisingly not obsessively arrogant about it.
Putting it out of my mind, I looked around the street. Viridian City was a blend of memories and new frontier. In some areas the same shops and buildings still presided over the street. Most of them were slightly deteriorated but remained open after several years. Equally many familiar stores were closed, either replaced or a pair of dark windows with a sign hung over the door. I tried to recognize someone for a little while but gave up pretty quickly. It was a big city, and it had been years since I had last been here. Instead I kept on walking, periodically pausing at a location from the past, and mentally kicking myself back into motion. Like it or not, this wasn’t just another walk back to my house. Things had changed.
After roughly forty minutes of walking, I found myself outside of the first residential district. The south side of Viridian was mostly made up of businesses, monuments, and military fortifications. A few political areas existed there as well, Viridian being the auxiliary capitol of the continent and all. There just weren’t that many and they weren’t that important. All of the important decisions were made to the Northwest or in the army buildings. This left the northern area of the town for residential use. When the Kanto government built the city for their capitol, they planned it out methodically. A series of lines ran across the north of the town. These lines were made up of apartment complexes that housed the citizenry. The buildings closer to the city, starting with district one, were made up of bigger buildings that housed almost a thousand people each. Each subsequent district housed a smaller number of wealthier people, until the twelfth district was made up entirely of individual families living in mansions at the edge of the forest. Most of them were government officials. Some were businessmen. And then there were a few others who were officially businessmen or government officials. I was going to see one of those people.
--SoV—
I kept staring up at the house in front of me. I knew that a security guard was probably going to get suspicious soon, but I couldn’t leave. It was the largest of the mansion bordering the forest, five stories high and equally enormous in every other way. A number of white stone pillars supported the grey and white structure, making it look like some sort of a classical monument. Ancient, powerful, and proud. The headquarters of an empire. Many would never come close to realizing how accurate that was. Mr. Kyo was the owner of the mansion, as well as various laboratories around the region, as well as the Celadon Game Corner and the Kanto Electric Plant. Between all of this, he was quite wealthy. The mansion in Viridian was just the center of his economic empire. This was the public perception. There was quite a bit of private information as well, but very few living individuals knew about all of that.
I glanced through more of the house’s features. My eyes dwelled on a balcony a few floors up for a minute or so. I had almost fallen from that balcony once when I was playing with a friend. A wild Pokémon had caught me as I fell, and my dad let me play with it for years after that. My mom didn’t like him so much. When we moved to Pallet, he had to stay behind. It was probably pretty old by now, maybe even dead. I wasn’t exactly sure what to think of that. It would probably take some reflection before I made up my mind on the subject. Could I really accept it as dead? Had I already done so?
I noticed a guard moving in my direction out of the corner of my eye. I sighed, and took off in the other direction, cursing my stupidity under my breath. Being recognized was the last thing I needed, and I had known that from the beginning. It was my fault for standing there so long. It was stupid to go there in the first place, with no real reason to do so. But some idiotic part of me that I was normally quite good at keeping caged had taken control. Once again, this could have been prevented, and it was all my damn fault.
“Hey, lady!” The guard shouted out, running somewhere behind me to keep up, but at a much slower pace. “Will you slow down for a second?” Yup. They definitely recognized me. This was bad. I glanced back over my shoulder. The guard was panting, barely keeping within a few hundred feet when my head start was factored in. “The Master’s son wished to convey something to you!”
I almost stopped. I hadn’t seen Mr. Kyo’s son in ages. But I kept running until I was almost out of breath, and well into the residential districts. I looked back then, hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath from the multi-mile run. The guard was nowhere in sight. He had probably given up miles ago. Once again, I’d been an idiot. I swore at my own stupidity, and glanced down at my watch. I promptly swore again. I had about twenty minutes to reach the restaurant we had agreed to meet at. It happened to be about five miles away. I took a few deep breaths, and ran off again, keeping pace with a string of mental cussing.
--SoV—
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” I glanced across the battling court at Eli took his stance.
“Of course,” he replied. He was trying to look confident, but it was fairly easy to deduce that he was very nervous. He naturally knew that I was the superior battler, and would likely win.
Gary nodded on the sidelines. “Alright, Bianca, because of the coin flip you send out the first Pokémon.” As if I needed to know that.
I quickly thought things over. I had three Pokémon, as did Eli. Two of ours were the same species. Since we knew each other’s teams, I wanted to scout for tactics. In this case, it was best to sacrifice the weaker Pokémon first for the good of the team. And my most recent acquisition needed training. “Sting, come on out!” I said forcefully as I threw a Pokéball into the air. A stream of light flowed to the ground, and condensed into a small insect about the size of my foot. It was wormlike, with a brown segmented body and a horn on top of his head. Weedle weren’t known for combat, but they had a surprising amount of uses in certain sectors. I was hoping to use some of those skills in the fight.
Eli looked slightly puzzled at my choice. He knew that I was aware of his Pidgey, and yet I had sent out a Weedle anyways. I’m sure he suspected some sort of a trap. Regardless, he shrugged it off, and through his Pokéball into the air. “Jet, let’s do this!” His male Pidgey appeared in the air, fluttering a few feet above the court. It was only about the size of my fist. The first round would be a battle of tiny Pokémon.
I kept a straight face and looked at the field. He had one logical option, and that would be hard to beat. But if he should ever use anything but brute force, the match was mine. “Gust,” he called out. How unexpected. The Pidgey began to beat his wings particularly hard, creating a miniature windstorm that raged towards my bug type.
“Tether yourself to the ground,” I called over the wind. Right before the volley hit, Sting shot a clump of sticky thread at the floor of the court. As the winds picked up, the little insect was lifted into the air and blown around furiously, but the string held. He never flew into any objects, which kept him somewhat healthy.
Most people don’t pick up on such subtle things, but very few Pokémon have a straight out “weakness” to another type. Every one of these was explained in one way or another. The first and most common was simply anatomy. Fire types, for instance, didn’t like having their inner flame put out. Water was very painful to them if it got into contact with their flame. This often ended in an immediate KO unless the Pokémon was quite experienced. The other was far less common. Certain species had become abnormally good at hunting prey of a certain type, and their skills could be put to use in a battle. This was true of birds and bugs. Bug types didn’t hate the winds. Bird Pokémon were simply good at targeting vital areas with their close range attacks. For all practical purposes, a normal gust attack wasn’t any more dangerous than a neutral hit. Not that Eli would understand that.
“Dang. Really expected it to do more,” Eli muttered to himself as Sting fell back to the ground. I just smirked. Just as expected “Alright, let’s hit him up close.”
I flinched a little. Either he actually knew what he was doing, or he just randomly hit on it, but this was going to hurt. “Grapple on. Hurry!” I shouted out quickly. I wasn’t sure Sting would react in time, or even get the command at all. It was still better than the alternative.
The Pidgey flew downwards, and slammed into Sting, blasting him back a few feet. I put my hand over Sting’s ball. If he didn’t have a shot I might as well end it here. Suddenly a pulse of white shot up from the ground, connecting with the flying-type’s belly and causing him to cry out in shock. As he fluttered just a little higher, Sting was lifted off the ground. The rest of the round would be fought in the skies. Right in a bird’s element.
Eli stared up at the engagement above the court for a few seconds, watching in awe and confusion as Pidgey desperately flapped around, trying to maneuver safely and simultaneously trying to deal with the stowaway hanging from his belly. As Sting fought to climb, Eli finally lowered his head across the battlefield to look at me. “I have no idea where this is going, but I trust you have a plan?” I smiled slightly. If only he knew. “Shake him off Jet. Do a barrel roll!”
Gary cracked a smile on the sidelines. I have no idea why. Regardless, my attention was elsewhere. Pidgey was turning around desperately to no avail. Sting was latched directly onto the bird now, positioned to strike. This was going to be fun. I crossed my arms and continued to watch the struggle with a look of apathy. “Poison Sting,” I called out nonchalantly. There weren’t many things that could get Eli irritated. An opponent beating him, [I}and[/I] not seeming to care was one of them. I assumed that would apply to battles too.
My calm combined with Eli’s rather dark situation was not helping his composure. “Quick Attack, Tackle, do something!” he cried out in agitation. Of course, I doubt the Pidgey heard it. It’s kind of hard to hear over an extremely loud avian shriek. I glanced back up, a smile playing on my lips again. Perfect. The Pidgey was breathing heavily, barely staying aloft. It was obvious he was in pain, and a lot of it. I almost felt bad. Of course, it’s not like I hadn’t seen far worse.
Eli stared up at his battered Pidgey. “Since when can a Weedle do that?” he asked me, not taking his eyes off of his Pokémon as it tried to peck at the bug just out of his beak’s range.
I shrugged. “An old friend taught me some tricks. What more is there to say?” I glanced back at Eli, briefly making eye contact. “Again.”
The second sting didn’t have nearly the same effect as the first, but it was irrelevant. The poison was already in the bird’s blood. It would be over soon enough. As Sting withdrew his stinger, I noticed something. Eli hadn’t said anything in the entire time it took to complete the attack. I’d noticed in his battle with Gary he was fairly analytical, but that was pushing it. At long last he looked back down to give his orders. “Tackle the ground.”
“Get off. Now.” I called out as his Pidgey began to dive bomb towards the ground. He had hesitated briefly when given the orders that would cause him pain, and that had given enough opening for Sting to blast a jet of string towards a light post before the bird slammed into the ground with full force. It didn’t look good, to say the least.
“Come on Jet, you can do this!” Eli pleaded. Unfortunately, he couldn’t. The Pidgey shuddered once more before collapsing on the ground, the poison momentarily overcoming him.
We both stared down at the Pidgey for a moment as Weedle dropped back onto the court. Eventually, Eli withdrew him in a flash of red. “I never knew a Weedle’s venom was that powerful,” he murmured to himself.
“Normally it isn’t,” I affirmed. He glanced up at me, clearly wanting more explanation. “I can’t tell you everything, can I? Let’s just say that a friend taught me. He closed his eyes and nodded slowly.
“Alright,” he reopened his eyes, new intensity shining in them. “Let’s do this, Hive!” In a flash of light, his Weedle appeared in front of mine, the two bugs glaring at each other. I tapped my foot on the court thinking of options. Either by luck or skill, he had sent out the Pokémon I couldn’t take down easily. That and he had ensured a long battle. “Let’s go for a poison sting!” he called out. Maybe he was trying to imitate my last move. Or he simply didn’t have any better options.
I sighed. “Bug Bite,” I called out wearily. “Wake me up in about sixty exchanges,” I told Eli across the court.
It didn’t quite get to sixty. At around Bug Bite/Poison Sting thirty I stopped caring. “Sting, come back. You’ve done enough, and I have things to do.” Gary turned towards me as the beam of red emerged from my Weedle’s Pokéball.
“You know that-“
“Disqualifies him? Yeah, I know,” I replied. “Ace, let’s destroy him.” With a small battle cry, my female Pidgey appeared over the field, clearly intent on showing her younger brother how to kill a Weedle. Speaking of which, Hive was shaking pretty intensely. If he knew he was able to, he probably would have withdrawn himself back into his Pokéball. I shook my head as Eli gave some sort of a pep talk. This was going to be one fast round.
“Quick Attack!” I called out with a bit more enthusiasm than usual. Check.
Eli smirked, apparently grateful I’d just taught him how to counter it. “String shot when he gets close,” he called out boldly, probably to convince his Pokémon that, yes, he did want him to go into the air with a flying type. The training simulator denying crazy requests given without much force was surprisingly realistic.
“Veer to the right,” I casually ordered. Ace continued to rush forwards, but lunged off to the side, causing Hive’s hastily prepared attack to go wide. “Fly back into the air.”
Pidgey hovered a few feet above the ground in front of me, awaiting her next orders as she gave Hive the glare that only a predator could give. I smiled. I was quite lucky that I got the bird with hunting instincts. I just had to avoid having her and Sting fight together. I gave Eli my own arrogant smirk, arms crossed and head cocked in a way that simply screamed ‘beat that.’
Eli gave a wry smile in return. “I don’t know when you got time to train your Pokémon like that, but I’m quite impressed. Maybe you could teach me some time?” I smiled a little. “But I’m not giving up yet, String Shot his wings.”
“Her,” I calmly retorted. “She’s female,” Eli shrugged, which just ticked off Ace more. As Weedle finally prepared his String Shot, he was quite a bit slower than mine, I gave the only words that seemed right. “Get ‘em girl. Gust.” Check. As the silky fiber flew through the air, Ace beat her wings furiously, giving off a hunting cry as the string flew back, ensnaring a terrified Weedle. “Quick Attack,” I called out, voice imbued with the rush of victory. Ace gave one last predatory shriek, jaws wide open as she closed in on a particularly vulnerable segment.
Checkmate.
Eli withdrew his Weedle back into his ball, and reached down for his third ball as I rubbed Ace’s head. “And that’s how you beat a Weedle,” I called out at him.
“Remind me not to irritate you unless you’ve got half your team unconscious,” he replied. “Marine, finish the bird.” His Squirtle appeared at his side, a battle-ready look on his face. I flicked my head from Ace to the water type and she flew back over the court.
Gary glanced out at the two competitors. “Alright, are you guys ready?”
“What about this doesn’t seem ready?” I wanted to glare at him, but I really couldn’t. Dominating a competition of any kind was too much fun.
He shrugged. “Begin.”
“Bubble, quick!” Eli shouted as his turtle began to spit out a slew of slow moving bubbles. Ace glanced at them all nervously, unsure of what to against all of the objects that entered her airspace.
“Gust,” I ordered reassuringly. With that she got her confidence back and beat her wings again, popping or redirecting most of the bubbles when they hit the winds. “Trust me, Eli. If it didn’t work against Gary, it won’t work against me.”
Eli nodded his head, “Well, it was worth a try. Let’s try to collide with him head on.”
I shifted uneasily on my feet. Wasn’t I the only one who could give orders without shouting out the name of my attack for the world to hear? Squirtle ran slowly across the battlefield on two legs, awkwardly waddling towards Ace. I shook my head, “Just dodge it.” Ace flew up in the air, and Squirtle broke into a malicious smile. Something bad was coming.
Sqirtle jumped into the air, withdrawing into his shell to make him more aerodynamic and spin higher. The attack hit Ace directly. I bit my lip as she blasted back by the much larger turtle, eventually stabilizing herself before she hit the ground. I’d forgotten how much more time Eli had training his Squirtle than his other Pokémon. For some reason I’d expected another easy fight. “Fly higher.” I said, trying to maintain composure and come up with a better plan.
Eli grinned over at my side of the field, a boastful look on his face. Once again, not good. “Same strategy, but let’s boost it a little!” he ordered. Normally he wasn’t one for grandeur. Apparently winning a fight brings that out in everyone.
“Dodge it,” I called out preemptively. I didn’t want to wait for the hit. And apparently I didn’t call it a moment too late, as a second later Squirtle shot into the sky, bubbles being launched from his shell as he propelled himself higher into the air. Ace barely ducked to the side. Even then she still got bubbles into her face and a slight scratch from the water type. “Tackle him while he’s in the air,” I had my composure back, and a plan to boot. This could be fun.
Ace slammed into the turtle as he plummeted, speeding up his descent and driving him into the ground hard. At the last moment, my Pidgey pulled back up, leaving a battered Squirtle beneath her. “She’s a her. She doesn’t like it when you call her a him,” I was giving Eli my best condescending smirk, which was quite impressive.
Eli laughed, and looked intently at his Squirtle as he pulled himself back up, slowly and painfully. “It’s not over yet.”
How tough can that thing be? My smirk turned into a frown. This was going to be more difficult than I expected.
“Marine, same tactic!” Damn it. How much longer can he keep this up? Ace was too close to dodge, which left me with almost no options. Ace stared into the onrushing turtle, beating herself up higher with every flap of her wings. It wasn’t going to be enough. That’s when it hit me. I couldn’t get Ace higher in the air, but did I really need to? “Gust attack, now!” I shouted quickly. Ace understood almost immediately, and beat her wings faster, but not to fly. The winds slowed Marine’s ascent to a stop, right before he hit Ace. The water type struggled against the gale with blasts of bubbles. But it wasn’t going to work. With one final cry of his name, Squirtle fell back to Earth once more.
As Marine hit the ground, Ace lowered herself closer to the court floor to keep it up. Squirtle was still in his shell, and was blown back towards the fence, where he continued to spin in the face of the gust attack. Sparks arced as Squirtle continued to grind against the fence. The friction, winds, and bashing against metal obviously wasn’t doing Squirtle any favors, but both Eli and I knew that it would only get worse if he came out.
“So, can you just surrender now and get it over with?” I asked Eli, trying to keep my tone from showing my satisfaction at putting him in checkmate. To my surprise he just shook his head.
“Not a chance. Marine, come out.” To Eli’s credit, his Squirtle had a lot of trust in him. A lot. The Squirtle slowly poked a limb out of his shell, only to cry out in pain as it was bashed against the fence hard. “Come on, keep trying!” The Pokémon continued to get his flesh pinched and slammed between the metal and his shell. This was followed by a splatter of a watery liquid and a cry of pain. This went on for about a minute, both Eli and I staring at Squirtle and waiting for something to happen as the pool of liquid grew.
“Stop,” I breathed out. Ace looked at me questioningly, trying to figure out if she’d heard me correctly. “I said stop,” I told her with a bit more force, eyes still locked onto the pool on the ground. Reluctantly, Ace stopped flapping her wings and landed on the ground. As Marine pulled himself off the ground, I turned back to Eli. “Shall we con-“
“Rapid Tackle!” Eli shouted.
“Dod-“ I didn’t finish before the attack was completed. Squirtle burst forth, spinning back in his shell and causing pale blood to spiral over the immediate area. At the last moment before collision, he jumped out. The water type slammed into Ace with a spinning tackle, taking her out for the count. I withdrew her quickly. “Lava, go!” In a flash of light, my Charmander appeared at my side, claws raised. I smiled faintly. However good Ace and Sting were, they were nothing compared to the one Pokémon I had been training for years. This would barely be a fight.
“Alright, let’s take him out fast. Bubble!” Eli shouted out. Hadn’t he figured out that the move never worked for him?
“Ember all of them,” I stated. Lava nodded and lashed out his tail towards Squirtle’s swarm of bubbles. Some of them instantly popped when exposed to the attack. Others popped when bubbles near them popped. A few made it close to Lava, and he simply tore them apart with his claws. Only one or two hit, and they weren’t going to be nearly enough to take Lava out of the fight.
I faked a yawn. “Are we done yet?”
---SoV---
The cathedral was a very impressive sight in the evening. A huge, black building stretched into the skyline. It illuminated the square around it with lights shining through massive red stained glass windows, giving a red hue to the plaza. I lost my breath as I looked up at the massive archway leading into the building. I’d almost forgotten how impressive this place was. I glanced over at Eli and Gary, both of whom were staring up at the building, mouths hanging open. I turned to Gary. “You’ve really never seen the cathedral at night?” He just shook his head, continuing to stare up at it. I laughed inside my head. If I’d had a camera, I definitely would have taken a picture of him staring dumbly at the structure.
“It’s more impressive inside if you two ever get around to closing your mouths.” I ran off towards the entrance. They could follow when they wanted to.
I feel as if I might need to give some background here, although I expect Gary will do it at some point during one of his tangents. Viridian was the headquarters of the League in Kanto. When the league had moved in, they decided to build a cathedral to the deity associated with Pokémon training. Fairly fitting for a league city. At least, as fitting as a church in that particular city could be.
Mew might have been better. Not many people would’ve understood though. So, Palkia it was.
The inside of the cathedral was the most spectacular sight in the city. Considering the luxury of some of the general’s and executive’s homes, that’s saying a lot. Red stained glass windows provided most of the light. As the sun went down, some was supplemented by torches in red spheres of glass. The largest of these was the gem on the gigantic relief of the Lord of Space above the alter. Along the walls, huge murals depicted the myths associated with Palkia.
The church was relatively crowded in the evening. Some of the people there were worshippers of Palkia who were offering up the prayers. There were a few tourists in the crowd, as well as a few new trainers who wanted to ask for Palkia’s benevolence in their training career. Most were locals, worshippers of Arceus or Mew, who simply used the cathedral as a place to worship their deity, and meet up with others.
With all of these groups together, it was packed in the main room. That makes it even more surprising that I noticed heart all. She couldn’t have been more than eight, and was noticeably shorter than those around her. Her eyes, hair, and clothing were either red, or light enough to be shaded pink due to the stained glass. Looking at the shade the light made her skin appear, probably the latter. She didn’t seem to have any parents with her, which was already strange. But what was stranger was that she was staring right at me.
I glanced to the side to make sure that Sting wasn’t still on my shoulder. Not many people would take it well if I walked into the most sacred site to Palkia in the Indigo League with a bug riding along on my shoulder. He would probably get crushed in the crowds anyways. I breathed a sigh of relief when I confirmed she wasn’t staring at my Weedle and turned my gaze back to meet hers.
She was still staring at me. If anything, her gaze had just gotten more intense. It felt really, really weird. It was almost like she was staring right through me and looking at something else. Something inside me. Mrs. Ambrose had done something similar a few times at the lab, but never for so long. Or as intensely. This girl, she had to know I saw her, but she just kept staring anyways. I was torn. Part of me wanted to go up to her and see what was wrong. Part of me wanted to get as far away from this girl as possible. Something just didn’t seem right. She resolved the matter.
The girl raised her hand in front of her slowly, and curled it towards her, motioning for me to come. I almost didn’t have a choice. My body started moving through the crowd before I could even think, and I would’ve done the same after thought anyways. Something was wrong. And I wanted to know what.
The girl slipped out of a door onto the outside balcony before I could catch up. When I got to the opening, I paused momentarily. Then I walked through. And fell right into history.
”Come on Silver, just come on out already. I give up!” A small girl in blue clothing walked out onto a balcony high above the ground below. Nearby, a small boy with dark hair and mischievous grin locked on his face crouched behind a vase, well hidden from the girl. His grin tightened, and he burst out from behind the vase.
“Boo!” he screamed out, causing the girl to whirl around and instinctively step back in shock.
One step too far.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!” She tripped on a toy car the boy had been playing with earlier and slid back, slamming into the balcony railing. Unfortunately, she was just a bit too small. Small enough that the cracks in the railing could let her slip through if she hit it just right. She hit it. Just right.
Falling.
She was falling now, screaming her last scream for years after the event. She would always deny it, but she felt like she had to remain composure. Had to remain some of the dignity that was almost all lost in the fall. Oh, there were other reasons to be sure. The events of the following years didn’t help her any. Maybe it had nothing to do with the first fall. Maybe it’s just a part of growing up. Whatever the reason for the subsequent absence of screeching, the scream during the fall was the loudest of her life.
The reason? There wasn’t hope. Some part of her mind may have tried to reason that daddy would save her, but daddy wasn’t there. Silver and Janine were both above her. No one was in the yard. It was time to give up, and simply scream her objections to fate for another fifty feet. Or forty-five.
Right before the impact, a feral beast jumped up. He was young, still fairly small for a member of his already small species. His teeth were bared, and he was yelling something in his strange language of battle cries. Yeah, it could get worse. She should have just been thankful for a full fifty feet.
But then something completely defying the laws of nature occurred. The Mankey, a member of the most vicious species in the Pokémon world, caught her, breaking her fall. She opened her eyes, still screaming as her mind tried to process what was going on. People were running out into the yard now. The Mankey put her down, and jumped in between the people and the girl, teeth bared. What was all of this? The girl couldn’t piece it together before she finally went unconscious from shock.
He was older now. This time I still screamed after he picked me up in his arms, now more silver than tan, and dragged me onto a rather large ledge. He backed off, giving me a few minutes to compile my thoughts. I had fallen. It was impossible. That doorway had just led to another room. How had I ended up out here. Where was out here? I glanced back up at the building above me, taking some comfort in the sight of the stained glass. At least I hadn’t gone too far. After I caught my breath, I laughed quietly, causing the Mankey to stir uneasily. “How are you doing, Reaver?” I breathed out between small intervals of quiet laughter. I hugged my first Pokémon friend tightly, laughing louder now, not really caring if anyone else heard. Or why he was even here for that matter. It was just beyond caring about at the moment.
After a minute or so of that, Reaver pushed me away and held out his hand again. I noticed two things tied to it by a small string I hadn’t seen before. A Pokéball and a note. After glancing up at his eyes to make sure he was doing what I thought he was doing, I gently reached out and untied the knot.
