Jen immediately sat up in bed with a start and glanced at the clock. It was 10:45.
“Was that…a dream?” She asked aloud.
Vulpix looked up at her from where it was cuddled under her arm. Gastly lay on the pillow next to her, still fast asleep.
“Perhaps we can try the gym in a few minutes?” She asked her tired Pokemon.
Vulpix yawned in response and jumped down from the bed.
“Yeah, you’re right. We have better face the gym leader before my mom starts hunting us down.”
Jen quickly shuffled through her bag for her clothes and food for her Pokemon. After laying out two bowls of PokeChow for them, she quickly got dressed in the bathroom. While Jen got dressed, Vulpix hopped onto the bed and nudged Gastly awake. The ghost Pokemon groaned and rolled over onto its side. Annoyed, Vulpix head-butted Gastly off of the bed.
“Yeeaa!” It cried.
Jen froze at the sound of its cry. It wasn’t supposed to say anything, but its name, right? “Odd. I must be hearing things.”
She noticed her Pokedex sitting on the nightstand and picked it up. She scanned her two Pokemon and listened to her Pokémon’s bio.
Vulpix: The fire fox Pokémon. At birth, Vulpix has only one white tail, which apparently splits and grows more beautiful and warmer as it grows older. Vulpix also has a flame constantly burning inside its body.
Gastly: the ghost Pokémon. It has the capability to topple an Indian Elephant within two seconds by enveloping it within its poisonous gas. On rare occasions a gastly can possess the ability to speak like a human and transform.
“Cool.”
A moment later, she marched to the door and turned about-face to her Pokemon. “Alright you guys, whose ready to go claim our first gym badge?”
Her Pokemon cheered as she led them out of the Center and to the gym. It seemed much larger now that the sun had completely risen.
Noticing her hesitation, Gastly nudged her forward. Vulpix looked up at her curiously.
“Alright. Let’s do this.” She said as she opened the doors.
The inside of the gym looked more like a rocky quarry. Jen slowly walked farther into the dimly lit gym with her Pokemon, and looked around for the gym leader.
“Hello?” Jen called. Her voice seemed to echo off the rocky terrain.
Something, or rather someone, moved on top of a platform carved out of a boulder a little ways away from her. The figure stood and walked towards her with a grin on his face.
“Welcome to the Pewter Gym. I am Flint, Brock’s father. I’m standing in as gym leader for Brock. Hope you don’t mind.” Flint said in a gravely voice.
“That’s alright, sir.” Jen said with an awkward laugh.
Flint grinned at her and held up a Pokeball. “So, you ready to battle?”
Jen shook herself back into focus and nodded eagerly.
“Geodude, I choose you!” Flint cried as he summoned the muscular, rock Pokemon. “Alright, kiddo, who are you going to chose first?”
“Hmm…” Jen thought as she looked at her Pokemon. She wasn’t very good at discerning what types were weak or resistant to what types. She took out her Pokedex to see if it would help her.
Geodude: The ground type Pokémon. Geodude can be found on mountain paths or in caves, which is why they are often mistaken for rocks.
“Gastly, I choose you!”
“Aww…” Vulpix sighed sadly.
Jen knelt down and rubbed the Pokemon’s head. “Don’t worry, Vulpix. You’ll get your chance to battle soon enough. I promise.”
“Geodude, use tackle!” Flint cried.
“Ha ha! You’re going down, ghost freak!” Geodude cackled as it swung at Gastly.
Jen flinched and her eyes widened. Did she just hear the Pokemon talk?
Gastly groaned as Geodude suckered punched it.
“G-Gastly…”
“Geodude, rock smash now!” Flint barked, using Jen’s shock and hesitation to his advantage.
“Master…” Jen looked towards the direction where the hoarse and eerie voice was coming from. Her Gastly was talking. “Please, tell me what to do.”
Geodude charged at Gastly again, and Jen screamed, shaking herself out of her shock. “Dodge it, Gastly, and use shadow ball!!”
Gastly barely evaded the attack, but quickly followed up by launching a black orb at Geodude before it could move out of the way. The shadow ball sent the rock Pokémon flying into one of the nearby rock formations.
“Geodude?” Flint called. Geodude did not get up from where it had fallen. “Dang it! Geodude, return!”
Geodude dematerialized into a red light as it was summoned back into its Pokeball. “Alright, I’ve got to admit, girlie, you’ve got quite a Gastly, but I wonder how well it will do against my Rhyhorn?” Flint said as he tossed up Rhyhorn’s Pokeball, summoning the rhino-like Pokemon.
Rhyhorn: the spike Pokemon. Rhyhorns are known for their physical power, and hard shell protection.
“What a puny trainer. This is going to be easy.” Rhyhorn sneered.
Gastly glared at it. “Don’t get your hopes up, and don’t you dare insult my master!”
“Yeah! You tell that pea brain, Gastly! Kick his ass!” Vulpix squealed. Jen looked down at her fox Pokemon in astonishment. Vulpix sounded so young…almost like a child.
“Rhyhorn, use-”
“Gastly, use confusion ray!”
A white orb appeared before Gastly and nailed Rhyhorn in the head. Rhyhorn flinched and shook its head as if it was trying to shake off a minor concussion. It tried to glare at Gastly and Jen, but it didn’t seem to be completely focused.
“Rhyhorn, mow’em down with megahorn!”
Rhyhorn shook its head again and began to charge at Gastly. Its horn was glowing with energy.
“Gastly, dodge it!” Jen screamed.
Gastly was about to obey, but stopped when he realized how close Jen was. If he moved, the charging Rhyhorn would hit Jen.
“Gastly!” She cried, completely oblivious to the danger she was in.
“No, master.” He replied. He quickly created another shadow ball and rushed at the Rhyhorn, which was only a couple of feet in front of them.
Rhyhorn collided with Gastly’s shadow ball, creating a small explosion. Both Pokemon were blasted backwards into different corners of the gym.
“Gastly!?” Jen cried as she ran to her Pokémon’s side. The ghost Pokemon was barely hovering above the ground when she reached it. “Are you okay?”
Gastly floated back towards the battle, but Jen grabbed its sides. Her fingers passed through most of Gastly’s being, but she managed to hold him back from the battle. “Slow down. You’re hurt, Gastly. Let Vulpix fight this next one.”
Gastly flinched. “Master, please, I want to fight for you.” It complained, but Jen would have none of it. She carried him back to the field where Flint and Vulpix were waiting for her.
“You ready, girl?” Flint asked. He was holding onto another Pokeball. Rhyhorn had fainted during the explosion.
“Yep. I’m going to give Gastly a break. Vulpix, you’re up.”
Vulpix perked up and happily bounded up onto the field. “This is going to be so sweet!”
“Go, Onix!”
Onix: The rock snake Pokemon. Onix is capable of creating large tremors due to tunneling under ground at fifty miles per hour or faster. Onix is also able to rotate its head and other parts of its body a full 360 degrees.
The giant, rock snake towered over Jen and her tiny Pokemon. It stared at the little Vulpix and laughed. Or at least it sounded like a laugh to Jen.
“Dang…maybe using Vulpix during this round wasn’t such a good idea.” Jen grimaced.
“Keep laughing, rocky. I’m gonna send you to the Center in pieces!”
Jen couldn’t help, but chuckle a little a long with Onix. Both she and Onix couldn’t take Vulpix’s threat seriously. She was too small and adorable to be seen as dangerous, especially with her childish voice.
Gastly looked up from Jen’s arms worriedly. “Why is she laughing?” It thought.
“Onix, use wrap!”
Onix lunged for Vulpix, but the nimble little fox easily danced around its attacks without Jen having to warn her. Eventually, Onix began to tire and sway dizzily.
“Vulpix, use ember while Onix is still dizzy.” Jen cried excitedly.
Vulpix stopped in front of Onix and released a large tongue of fire from her tiny mouth. Onix howled and wriggled in pain.
“Onix, fight through it! Come on…use iron tail!” Flint cried. He knew he was about to lose.
Onix tried to attack, but Vulpix hit it again with ember. The rock Pokemon cried out one last time before collapsing to the ground.
Flint sighed heavily and summoned Onix back into its Pokeball. “Well, good job, kid. You beat me on your first try.” He grinned as it took out a gym badge for her. “As Pewter’s gym leader, I present you with the Boulder Badge.”
He held out the silver badge to Jen, who took it eagerly and pinned it onto her messenger bag.
“Thank you so much, sir!”
“Good luck on the rest of your journey…”
“Jen. My name is Jen.” She replied as she left the gym. She turned to Vulpix and smiled. “Let’s go take Gastly to the Center to get healed.”
“Sounds good!” Vulpix agreed happily.
Gastly looked down in disappointment from where it rested in Jen’s arms.
“Poor Gastly,” Jen thought as she walked out of the gym, “He must think he didn’t do well enough.” She released Gastly from her arms and grabbed her bike. “You both did so well during the gym battle. I don’t even think Flint knew what hit him.” She giggled with a warm smile.
Her Pokemon smiled back, but she could see through Gastly’s smile. He almost seemed…nervous as they neared the Center.
“Do you think master is going to put me into the computer like our previous master did?” Gastly asked Vulpix, not knowing Jen was listening in on their conversation.
Jen was still very curious as to how she was able to hear and understand her Pokemon talk. When she had first read that Gastly could potentially have the ability to talk, she thought it was normal to hear him speak. However, when the others started speaking, especially Flint’s Pokemon, she began to question her sanity.
She had also thought back to the last time she was around any Pokemon who could have spoken to her. Oddly enough, her mom kept her far away from any, and pretty much all Pokemon. Should she even tell her Pokemon that she could understand them? And if so…when? Then another thought accord to her. “Can my mom hear Pokemon too?”
“There are two of us, Gastly.” Vulpix replied calmly, drawing Jen back into their discussion. “She still has four more spots to fill before anyone is to be sent to the computer. So relax.”
“But you fought better than I did. Master didn’t have to tell you to do anything except to use ember, and you took down that Onix without getting hit.”
“So?”
“I took too many hits, and when she told me to dodge Rhyhorn’s attack…I disobeyed.”
“Gastly, you protected our new master from getting hurt. She would be a foolish trainer not to see and respect your loyalty.”
Jen smiled. She had noticed how close Rhyhorn had been to her after Gastly’s noble sacrifice, and was immensely grateful towards her ghost Pokemon for doing so. If only they would stop calling her master, and just referred to her as Jen, or better yet, their friend. “Lib, what did you do to these two…or who did you save them from? Especially poor Gastly.”
“She’s not speaking. Could she be upset? Our previous master would get upset if we did not obey her, regardless to the danger she was in at the moment.”
“Lib, if you did this to them…I’m going to kill you.” Jen thought bitterly. A tear rolled down her cheek for her Pokemon as they neared the Center.
She left her bike outside and walked up to the Nurse Joy at the counter.
“Hello, how may I help you?” Joy asked kindly.
“Can you heal my Pokemon? We just got back from the gym.”
“Certainly.” Joy said as Jen summoned her Pokemon back into their Pokeballs. “It’ll only take a moment.”
“Thank you.” Jen said as Joy walked to the healing machine with her Pokemon. Jen immediately slipped her hand into her pocket for her phone, and began calling Libby.
The dial tone sounded twice before Libby picked up.
“What’s up, Jenny?” Libby chirped on the other end.
“What’s up? Lib, Gastly is scared that I am going to put him away into the computer because he protected me during battle.” Jen hissed softly into the phone. She didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself.
There was silence on Libby’s end.
“Jen…what the hell are you talking about?”
“Did you have Gastly and Vulpix stored away on the PokeDatabase before giving them to me? Were you unhappy with how they battled? Is that why you put them away?” She was getting faster and louder.
There was a long pause.
“Jen, there are two problems with what you just said. One, I rescued Gastly and Vulpix from mom’s computer to give to you. They were the only two she had not released yet. They were never mine. And two, how could you possibly know what mom did to them? Heck, I don’t think I even knew that before you told me.”
Jen grimaced. She had said too much again. She quickly thought of a good response that made her sound as if she was still sane. “My Pokemon and I have connected in a way since we last saw each other.” Jen replied bluntly.
“Within eight to nine hours of having them? Damn, Jen, I’m jealous.”
Jen checked the clock on the wall. It was 1:26. According to her strange dream, she would have to be on the move again very soon.
“Here are your Pokemon. They’re both good as new!” Nurse Joy said with one of her heart-warming smiles.
“Thanks. I gotta go, Lib.”
“Kay. I’ll check in again later. G’luck, sis.”
Jen replaced her phone in her pocket, grabbed her Pokemon and raced for her bike. She hopped on and peddled out of the city. She only managed to get a few yards into Route 3 when someone called her name. She just about jumped out of her skin, but turned to look over her shoulder at a Pikachu chasing after her.