Interlude
by Leto
"Where are we NOW?" demanded Terri. She was in a bad mood, having not eaten for over an hour. Her friends, and Vulpix, were giving her a wide berth.
The trio stood on the edge of a cliff, seeing the endless ocean sparkling and stretched out below. And between it and the cliff face, a collection of buildings, jetties and anchored boats. A town.
Kerra pulled out a wrinkled sheet of paper and smoothed it out. "Um. According to my map, I have no idea."
"They must have food somewhere, right?" said Aurora. Terri's eyes lit up.
"Yes! Fabulous! That's a town. Towns have means of incomes. Thus, towns have restaurants and motels. Let's go right away!"
"Um, just one thing. How do you intend to get down the cliff?"
Terri laughed. "No problem! Jump!"
She ran to the edge of the cliff, and Aurora and Kerra grabbed her arms.
"You idiot," snapped Kerra, "you wanna kill yourself?"
"Aww, how sweet, you care," she said, "but like I was really gonna jump!"
"Care? All I care about is how *you're* gonna pay for the hospitality."
Terri stomped on her foot, and he kicked her in the shins.
"You aren't supposed to hurt girls."
"Tomboys don't count, right?"
"Tomboy? Do tomboys wear this sort of thing?"
"I guess you're right. Most tomboys have some sense of self-respect."
"Wha-a-a-at?!"
"Your voice goes really nasal when you're upset. You ever thought of singing? You'd be a good soprano."
"..."
"Oh yeah, I forgot, you can't sing either. Hahaha! That's right, now I remember, it's kind of like a Snorlax with a stomachache, only more all-over-the-place."
"I'll show YOU all-over-the-place. You splattered all over those rocks down there!"
"And you're the one promoting your image as sweet, delicate female?"
"Who's sweet and delicate?"
"Not you, apparently. Look at that nose ring. You look like a Tauros."
"A TAUROS?!"
"Consider it a compliment!"
"Aurora, help me kill him. Aurora...?"
The two sweatdropped. Aurora was at the bottom of the cliff, Farfetch'd on her shoulder.
***
"So, this is Kingfisher Coast," mused Kerra. The three were walking along a cobblestone road through the centre of town. Or what town there was.
"Very low-key place," said Terri, "haha, get it? Key, like in an island, and we're right next to the sea. I'm so pun-ny I can't stand it!"
"Hit her for me," said Kerra, who was busy folding up the map. Aurora was happy to oblige.
There were old-style houses, brick with ivy crawling all over the walls and creeping through the cracks. The streets were paved with stones, a weed poking through here and there, and the background sound, the lapping of waves, set the atmosphere perfectly. It was quaint, traditional, and peaceful.
The large, plasterboard-ed Pokemon Center with the neon sign looked a little out of place.
"It's kind of..."
"Gaudy."
"You mean ugly."
One of the townspeople saw the trio gazing at the Pokemon Center, and sidled up to them.
"Awful, innit," she hissed, "we tolds 'em, we don't need no Pokemon Center in this here town, we can take care of our Pokemon ourself. And no-one here's fool enough to take up Pokemon training. This here structure, it's ruinin' our atmosphere. Not to mention..."
A Chansey came skipping out of the Pokemon Center. It smiled brightly at them and waved, before ducking back in.
"Not to mention, all them Chansey and Nurse Joys are too dern perky for us!"
The old lady scowled, showing a general absense of teeth, and skulked off. Kerra scratched his head.
"Okay, I'm guessing this is not a thriving metropolis for Pokemon."
"Parasecto."
"Vul vul."
***
They didn't need any Pokemon healthcare at that point in time, so Kerra bought some hot fish from a stand and they all walked down to the beach. Fish seemed to be this little portside town's only claim to fame.
"A town of Kingfisher Coast," mused Kerra, "doesn't even have a name, right. And why did I have to buy the food?"
"Because you're such a great trainer and have more money than us," said Terri, sucking up.
"And becaush you wougn't want your dear friendsh to shtarve to deaf," added Aurora.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," said Kerra.
"You sound like my mother," grumbled Terri.
Kerra didn't take the bait, for once, and the three lay back on the sand and stared out at the ocean and the sky. It was a grey, gusty day, with typical seaside breezes, and green, foam-tipped waves that crept up close to their feet before slipping back.
Some boats were out weathering the ocean, fishermen casting off and shouting to each other, taking in sails or sending them billowing out. This seemed to be the biggest hive of activity in the whole town.
"Let's give some of our Pokemon a break," said Terri, and flicked a Pokeball out onto the sand. Magikarp appeared and flopped in the shallow water, splashing around.
"Omanyte, Cubone," said Aurora, opening their Pokeballs. She hadn't used either of them in a while, and thought Cubone might like the sand. Soon, Cubone, Paras and Vulpix were engaged in a sand fight while Omanyte and Magikarp had a waterfight in the shallower water. Kerra glanced up at the clouds, felt the cold wind, and left his Pokemon where they were; inside their Pokeballs.
"Excuse me."
The three trainers sat up and turned to see a young boy standing behind them.
"What is it?" snapped Kerra, ever friendly.
"Umm...." the boy looked nervous, "you three are Pokemon trainers, right?"
"Who'd wanna be a Pokemon trainer," muttered Kerra, but the girls nodded. Terri elbowed Kerra, hard, to tell him to stop being rude.
"Well, I was wondering if you could, umm, help me out."
"What with?" asked Terri.
"Don't tell anyone in town this, but... I wanna be a Pokemon trainer."
"Are you completely mad?" said Kerra, "why would you want to do that?"
Terri punched him, and said, "isn't Pokemon training accepted here?"
"Well, it goes against our traditions... I'm s'posed to learn to catch fish... but I'd train water types! That's nearly as good, right?"
"If nobody here likes Pokemon, why is there a Pokemon Center?" asked Aurora.
"Nobody likes Pokemon *because* of the Pokemon Center," he said, "it's ruining the town. We don't want tourists."
"What a friendly attitude," said Kerra, "we don't want you either."
"Shut up," said Terri, pushing him. He landed face-down in the water, and came up spitting out sand.
"You - *pwuit* - idiot, what'd you - *pwuit* - do that for?"
"What do you need help with, um...?"
"Brian. I need to know how to catch a Pokemon."
"Well, you sure shouldn't ask these two for help," said Kerra, "this one trains a Magikarp, and that one didn't actually catch ANY of hers."
"Magikarp will be a mighty dragon some day," snapped Terri.
"And so what if I get Pokemon without beating them senseless first?" snapped Aurora.
Brian looked alarmed. "Can you help me then, sir?"
"Sir?!" sputtered Kerra, laughing, "me, a sir? Sure, son!"
He started laughing quite hard, and Aurora and Terri stared at each other over his head, a little puzzled. Kerra was not the laughing-hysterically type.
"It's sad when people lose their minds at young ages," said Terri.
"Tragic," agreed Aurora.
"CAN any of you help me?" asked Brian, hopefully, "I can't ask any of the other locals, they'd get mad at me."
"Well, to catch a Pokemon," said Aurora, "all you need is a Pokeball. If you hit the Pokemon with the Pokeball, and the Pokemon's weak, or willing to be caught, it'll be yours."
"I know that," said Brian, "but what if you can't hit them?"
***
Brian demonstrated his problem. He was a bad shot. He was a *terrible* shot. He practised throwing a Pokeball at a pine tree, and ended up having to fish it out of the sea. He threw one at Aurora's Cubone, and hit Kerra in the face.
"Bet this kid was picked last for the local baseball team," muttered Kerra, rubbing his nose and glowering.
"Wow," whispered Aurora, "can I really have found someone worse at sport than me?"
Brian sighed and turned back to them. "You see my problem? Pokemon don't come here much. I got my Pokeballs from the Pokemon Center when everyone was at a boat race. But when one does show up, I try to catch it, and I can't."
"Try knocking the Pokemon out," offered Aurora, "then you can just walk up to it and drop the ball on it."
"Can't do that," said Kerra, "unless they already belong to that Pokeball, a Pokemon cannot be caught when it is unconscious. Some Pokemon, even when they do belong to a Pokeball, cannot be drawn back into its ball if they are beaten unconscious. That's why you see some trainers recall their Pokemon before they faint, or see them run to the Pokemon Center carrying them themselves."
"Fine, big-shot," said Terri, "what do you suggest?"
"Take up after-school sports coaching," said Kerra, "or have you tried bowling?"
The others facefaulted.
"Well," said Aurora, "I guess you could try to make friends with the Pokemon first, so they'll willingly go with you."
"But you can't catch any strong Pokemon that way! And that's wimpy, I wanna catch my Pokemon and train 'em!"
Aurora got a little sweatdrop. "Well, I don't know..."
"I know," said Terri, "get a Pokemon using the wimp's way. Make it your main Pokemon. Pokemon are fighters, they all have great aim. They can throw for you!"
"That's not a bad idea," conceded Brian, "even if it did come from a girl."
Terri gaped, and Kerra smirked. "This kid's not so bad."
***
They prowled through the streets of town. They peered up pine trees, they searched behind signs, they hunted around houses, creeping under clotheslines and sneaking around shrubs. But they didn't find any Pokemon.
There weren't really any places for Pokemon to hide; the houses were small and close together. Their gardens were quaint, allotments with wild tumbling roses and unmowed tufts of grass, and the occasional daffodil showing its head. But no grass Pokemon in this tall grass.
Every window ledge seemed to bear a potplant, obscuring any sight of inside the house. Perhaps that was the point. It was a cosy town, with women walking together in a chatty cloud of words, balancing baskets of shopping on their hips. A man knelt by the docks, cleaning fish, and another was tying up a net. This place was built and bound by its traditions. The only thing that defied this was the Pokemon Center.
"Why is this called the Kingfisher Coast?" asked Kerra, as they trudged back to the beach.
"In summer, it's great," said Brian, "the sky and the ocean are both kingfisher blue, almost the same as each other."
"And now, it's just grey," said Aurora, the wind whipping her hair. The wind did not whip Terri's hair; she had too much hairspray in hers and it hung spiked and solid as a rock.
Terri looked back up at the cliff that shadowed so much of the town. "If you went back there, you could find wild Pokemon," she said.
"That'd be too dangerous without a Pokemon of his own."
"There's only one solution," said Terri, grinning.
"What's that?" Kerra was predictably wary.
"Give him one of our Pokemon! Of course, I'd be willing to donate one of my own, but a Magikarp can't throw or be out of water for that matter, and you really think Charmeleon would obey? And since Aurora here has to train to be a super great trainer, there's no way thinkable she could let one of hers go! This leaves us with Kerra, who hates Pokemon so much that he'll willingly let go of one of his, right?"
"Now - now wait a minute!" he sputtered, "you think I'd have these Pokemon if I hated them? They're mine!"
Terri responded by picking up a Paras. It clicked happily and she placed it on Brians head. He went cross-eyed looking up at it.
"Paras, you're happy to go with Brian, right? You want to fight instead of having to follow brain-dead ol' Kerra around everywhere, right?"
"Paras, paras."
"I resent that," muttered Kerra. Parasect smiled and blew a wave of harmless spores at her child, giving it her blessing.
Paras grinned.
"Well, I guess... all Pokemon have to be seperated from their mother some time," said Kerra, "and it if wants to, but... you could've asked!"
"But you'd have said no. You're such a grouch."
"With good reason, having to travel with you."
"Nobody's forcing you to."
"Yeah, but you'd probably get Aurora killed by Team Rocket or something, and then I'd have to put up with your whining for years. Anything but that!"
"You say such stupid things!"
Aurora waved to Brian as she followed her friends, engrossed in arguing as usual. Paras sat on his head and practised tossing a Pokeball up and down with billows of Stun Spore. It would work out okay.
Brian watched them leave, and turned away himself. He was young, too young to leave home, but it was the way of the world. He was ready to go out into it.