History’s Past, Present’s Future

Chapter 1, Part II: When Brantley Met Nina

gatene2k3@hotmail.com

She landed like a soft whisper onto an unfinished building, in a crouching position.

Surveying the town, she stood tall, looking in all directions, greenish black hair swaying with the slight breeze, her eyes flashing lavender.

Inside her slender purple suit, she took a Pokéball out, and held it in her small and smooth hand, before releasing it onto the ground, and yelling her instructions.

“Alakazam” Sabrina shouted to her large bipedal Pokémon, its tail twitching from excitement of being let out of its cage.

“Keep their path cleared, make them win each battle they face. They need not become discontent with their training. Remember, Alakazam, you cannot be seen, keep yourself cloaked.” Sabrina explained to her special Pokémon.

Alakazams do not ordinarily keep their tails from when they were Kadabras. The only way that happens, is when they evolve from not being traded. Golems’ shell stays gray. Gengar has the same face and body, but has no feet, and stays suspended in the air. That is just to name a few.

She then left as quickly as she came, and reappeared over a forest, nearly invisible, save for the blurred motion that made up her body when she made the slightest move. Her body leaning forward, giving the appearance that she could fall at any moment, her hair giving the very impression that gravity was holding on to that hope.

She peered onto Brantley and his Eevee, while Alakazam was over a highway, watching a young girl in the back of a yellow pickup truck, keeping the same appearance as its trainer.

“Kazam” it sighed, wishing there were more it could do.

“I know Alakazam, I enjoy all this fresh air too, but our time needs these two people. Please hold on for a bit, we will reveal ourselves when they are alone.” Sabrina telepathically spoke with her Alakazam.

<><><><>

Nina’s face was sodden with dust and boredom. She practically made an art of watching other travelers on the road that would ride behind Chuck; she’d just stare at them with an emotionless face, never flinching when they would peer back at her.

She never dreamed that this day would come. She always thought that her mother was blowing steam, from her father’s sudden death. He had died while in a trainer’s battle.

She could picture the day of her father’s untimely death. It was a day somewhat like this day, except the smell of stewing Shitake mushrooms hung thick in the air. The forest in the background surrounded their battlefield, so did other Pokémon from the forest, herself, her mother, even her father’s friend’s daughter was there too.

“Go baby! Get that Mareep; show him why God took the legs of snakes!”

Nina gave a half smile from her mother’s lack of religious knowledge.

Her mother’s voice was full of life, and her appearance was neat and motherly.

The match began; her father’s friend’s Mareep knew Dig, and dug a hole under the ground.

“Seviper, go into the ground, and get away from it.” Her father commanded the solid black snake Pokémon.

Mareep’s sound of digging grew closer to Seviper, and shot up from the ground, spreading soil all over the place. The dirt was caught into its tight matted coils of wool, and tiny static sparks emanated from them.

“Seviper, come out and Poison Sting attack!” Her father gave his last command.

He didn’t know where Seviper was, and in turn, the Pokémon was only obeying its trainer as it shot up from the ground, and in mid-air, gave a hiss, and large shards of white solid venom shot from the Seviper’s mouth, accompanied by the hissing sound of its name.”

Everyone stood silent. Nina’s father collapsed. Nina’s mom was the first to react, and ran towards her fallen husband, and spilled the Shitake mushroom stew in turn.

That was Nina’s last Pokémon battle, but his last breath was taken a week later in a nearby hospital, after softly rubbing Nina’s cheek, wishing her the best with her Pokémon.

“Pidgey” a faint chirp was heard, which startled Nina, and caused her to jump from the bed of the truck.

Nina’s face lit up for a moment and looked around her, using her hands to push herself up from the back of the cab of the truck. She was once again disappointed, and went back to counting each bump Chuck would hit on the numerous dirt roads they veered onto, her eyes welling with tears once more, and began to chew on a lock of her hair. She quickly spat it out as the dust on her hair nearly made her gag.

“Pidgey” It was heard again.

This time she saw her bag shaking and hope was still within sight. She nudged her purple and green book bag of hers, to see if the sound would reiterate.

“Pidgey!” This time the chirp was more like a wail, and her bag was shaking violently.

The drawstring was fastened tight to the mouth of the bag, which she quickly fixed, and a tiny bird Pokémon came crawling out, wobbled onto the bed of the truck, and flew into the air to live with its rediscovered freedom.

“PERCY!” Nina yelled, but the sound was sufficiently muffled by the wind, to keep her mother from hearing.

Percy’s eyes were alight, at seeing her friend, and quickly flew into Nina’s arms, and they embraced each other.

Nina held the Pidgey at arms length, and set her down on the bed of the truck.

Feeling that she could never be happier, she threw Percy into the air, and watched her soar back down onto the bed of the truck, feeling amazingly envious at Percy’s freedom to just fly around at will.

“I still miss the others, Percy.” Nina stated to the Pidgey, which was now scratching her brown and white feathers with her beak.

“Pidgey” She chirped happily again.

“Yeah, I know Percy, I have you.” She smiled back at the small Pokémon.

<><><><><>

“Hmmm, which way should we go, Eevee?” Brantley stated while standing in front of his and Samuel Oak’s log cabin, which was used for Brantley’s training.

“Eevee!” It squealed, running to the western direction of the cabin.

“Hmmm, the Viridian settlement, huh? Alright then, I guess we should go.” Brantley said aloud. Leaving the choice to Eevee, only seemed like the move to make, because he had no idea where to go, and it could make Eevee feel better about missing the logs with her, “Freeze Star” trick.

Without looking back, Brantley and his Eevee walked off out of sight in to the forest that lead to the Viridian settlement, carrying nothing but themselves, some money, a keepsake from Samuel Oak, and a square item bag with various necessities within.

“You know Eevee?” Brantley began, practically thinking aloud, but his Pokémon was listening.

“Eevee” it answered.

He looked down into his heavily worn hands, at the keepsake his friend left him, in an old jewelry box. The cerulean blue stone glistened with the light of the sun, which shone in majestic rays through the forest’s ceiling of trees and their leaves.

“Samuel was very kind to us, I want to look for him, and not rest until I do. Would you go with me? It will be a really tiring trip.” He looked at his Eevee with a vivid smile, knowing Eevee would be overjoyed at the idea.

At this news, Eevee began frolicking and playing with the many Rattata that were in the forest, which would scatter into the forest upon seeing Brantley moving closer towards them.

“Eevee” The Pokémon proclaimed, with its ears limp on the sides of its face.

“Oh, I’m sorry Eevee. I know, I’ll sit right here, until you have had your fun with some friends.” Brantley said with a sincere face.

Eevee quickly ran deep into the forest, as happy as ever.

Brantley lied onto the forest floor, hearing the sounds of the Pokémon all around him; some drew close to him, but ran away at first movement. He pulled out the keepsake which he earlier returned to his pocket, and held it up to his attentive face. He knew at once what the stone was, but the decision on using it, would be easier said than done.

The water stone which he held would make Eevee evolve into a Vaporeon, and every good trainer knows, that once a Pokémon evolves, their personalities change, and Brantley loved his Pokémon just the way she was.

“Vaporeon! Hydropump!” Brantley said in his mind, to try and somewhat soothe his aching heart, at what he might need to do one day.

A long battle between his Vaporeon and a wild Mawile went on in his mind. The Mawile used bite several times, but Vaporeon took the hits, nearly absent-mindedly, and followed them all with surf and Bubblebeam attacks, depending on the Mawile’s position.

“Pikachu” A voice came from behind, and broke his concentration, but surprisingly didn’t frighten Brantley. He craned his neck to see a small yellow mouse Pokémon, complete with large red sacks on his cheek, and a gentle face. The Pikachu’s tail, which blended from brown to golden yellow like the rest of its body, was planted to the ground, which told Brantley a storm must be coming.

“Eevee” Brantley called out, as he began to jog closer to the Viridian settlement.

“Come on, Eevee, we need to go.” He yelled once more.

“Eevee” The Pokémon sighed behind Brantley when she caught up with him.

“Good, we need to hurry.” Brantley said as he broke out into a run.

“Eevee” She stood still, opening her mouth to let a herd of yellow shining star-shaped projectiles fly from her mouth.

She seized one of the last stars, by hopping onto it, and flew at a high speed towards Brantley. Large raindrops were falling like apricorns from a tree caused by angry Tailow, swerved in every direction, and seemingly toward the Eevee. She dodged each and every one of them with a quick swish of her hips. She didn’t have much time to react to the trainer that was running at a much slower pace than she was flying. She leapt up, and grabbed onto Brantley’s left bare forearm, and swung herself up to land safely onto his shoulder.

“Wow, you’re getting good at that Eevee. After the storm, why don’t we celebrate?” He asked while panting. He didn’t know the half of it, the fox-like Pokémon thought to herself. All of her midnight training finally paid off.

“Eevee!” The Pokémon replied, followed by nuzzling on his wet cheek from the rain that was now beginning to drizzle on them.

The drizzle didn’t last long, it was soon pouring upon the both of them, and they were forced to exit through the forest onto the side of the highway, so they wouldn’t slip and fall from all of the mud.

They passed a family of Nidoran that were protected by their Nidorina mother aloft the trees, which was watching them apprehensively. The younger Nidoran backed up slowly, into their mother’s back paws. The Nidorina did nothing to Brantley or Eevee, but would soon regret her forgiving nature.

<><><><>

Rain was pounding the bare bed of the yellow pickup truck, and its occupants were covered by a thick graying blanket, that Chuck handed to them from the sliding glass door in the back of the cab.

“Oh god, I hope we’re almost there, I’m getting soaked.” Nina protested against the rain.

“Pidgey” Percy chirped agreeing with Nina.

The vehicle stopped, and Nina hurled the covers off of her and Percy, in hopes they were already there, only to see a boy with a wet red flannel tank top, brown hair, a pair of blue denim jeans, and an Eevee perched on his shoulder, trembling with cold.

“Thank you ever so much sir and ma’am.” Brantley said as he hurriedly ran to the back of the truck, and slung one foot onto the top of the tailgate, and the other followed suit. Brantley’s hair drowning with rain, closed his eyes from accumulating some in his eyes, and rapped on the side of the rusted yellow pickup truck, to let Chuck know to continue on the trail.

Nina shot one hand out from underneath the blanket, to let Brantley know she was willing to share the blanket.

Brantley took the invitation thankfully, and settled Eevee between his Indian-style crossed legs, and looked over at Nina.

“Wow! I’m sorry ma’am, I’ll leave now.” He said upon seeing the person letting him in was a girl. He could never allow himself to sit so close to a girl nor a woman that wasn’t relation in some way. Yes, he was old-fashioned, but it still didn’t feel right.

He started to crawl out of the blanket, laying Eevee on the bed of the truck, just as Chuck started to get at a good speed, before Nina held onto his collar, and dragged him back down. Eevee, who was moved by Nina before jerking Brantley back down, was looking happy having a Pokéchat with Percy.

“What are you dong? You’ll get soaked out there.” Nina said, looking cross at Brantley.

“I am sorry, it just didn’t feel right. My name is Bra…”

“I know who you are, I have seen your coming, and I know why you are here.”

Nina said with a twinge of malice in her eyes, trying to get the point across to her newest victim, while looking into his eyes.

“You did? You’re psychic?” Brantley asked confused and yet disbelieving.

“Nah, I was just kidding around with ya, what’s your name?” Nina said with a hearty laugh.

“So your name is Bra, huh? It’s an odd name, but then again, you did grow up in a different region than me.” She said facetiously, barely holding back a large bellowing laugh from her own joke.

“Brantley is my name, and that is my Eevee.” He explained, and found nothing funny about her comment, as he was too wet to take a joke at all at the moment, but forgave her all the same.

“Eevee” The Pokémon squealed as if introducing herself.

“Well, I am Nina, and that Pidgey there is Percy.” Nina explained, pointing Percy out proudly.

“Pidgey” Percy exclaimed to follow suit with Eevee.

“Isn’t that a female Pidgey?” Brantley asked curiously, wondering why this girl would give such a name to a female Pokémon, even if it were a Jynx.

“Yeah, she is. I uhm, named her before I saw any of her vitals.” Nina retaliated, feeling slightly offended, yet mostly embarrassed.