Setting:
•Pokémon Center, Cherrygrove City, Johto•
•After 3 PM•
•Late February•
•Gold POV•
Chapter Ten
The Ball That Vanished
When Gold woke the next morning, the first thing he noticed was a presence on his chest. He cracked open an eye and realized it was his Cyndaquil, Hino, who was fast asleep. He tried to fall back asleep, but he heard some girl talking from behind him. Curious, he tried to get a good look, but he couldn't see anything from his angle.
Finally, she did pass by him, and he noticed the girl looked to actually be maybe a young woman. She looked to be about his height, but he was tall for his age, or so his mother always said. He decided to doze off again as the girl finished her business and left the center. He ignored the florescent lights of the center as well as the other trainers who came and went as he managed to drift back off.
Finally though, the sound of someone using a machine behind his sofa woke him with a start. The first thing he did was check his pokegear to see it was almost three in the afternoon. Not only did he oversleep big time, but also he had an important job to finish.
"Shoot!" He yelled as he sat bold upright, which sent Hino sprawling to Gold's feet.
The poor Pokémon stretched and flared his back for an instant from being startled, but he settled down once he realized it was just his trainer who woke him up.
"Sorry, Hino. Didn't mean to startle you like that," Gold scooped up the Pokémon, placed him on his shoulder, got up, and folded the blanket he borrowed from Nurse Joy. "We're really late. We need to get a move on if we want to find Totodile," he replied determinedly to the little figure on his shoulder.
"Quil!" Nodded Hino as he gave a huge yawn.
After placing his cap on his head, Gold and Hino headed out the door and into the main street of Cherrygrove City. He decided to check the guide gent's house first to see if he'd have any leads. And so, both trainer and Pokémon headed near the Cherrygrove Sea, where just before Gold approached the door to knock, the old man exited and beamed at the teenaged boy.
"Ah, laddie! Just the person I was hoping to find! A friend of mine just spotted your Totodile a few minutes ago. It was in Route 30. You better run along now before it gets away. My friend told me it was quite the trickster. She fed the youngster some food, and before she knew it, it raided her kitchen for anything left, hohoho." The man shook his head in a tsk-tsk sort of fashion.
"Thank you, sir!" Gold replied as he ran off toward the entrance to Route 30.
He decided to call Professor Elm, so he dialed the number—which was on speed dial—as he ran. The professor answered, and Gold began. "Hey, Professor Elm! It's Gold. I have a lead on Totodile's location. It was just spotted on Route 30. I'm on my way to catch it right now," Gold replied as he left the city's limits.
"Ah, Gold. Good. I have another trainer who should be around that area. I'll call that person to help you out. It's a new trainer running an errand for me. Name's Wolfe. I just received word Wolfe just left Mr. Pokémon's house." The Professor said calmly.
Gold was dismayed at the thought of receiving "help" from a new trainer, but he agreed and hung up.
________________________________________
•POV Shift: Gold -> Amber (Wolfe Alias)•
•Outside of Mr. Pokémon's House, Route 30, Johto•
•After 3 PM•
•Late February•
It felt like as soon as I closed the door to Mr. Pokémon's house behind me, my pokegear rang. I answered it and found it to be Professor Elm on the line. I didn't even know he had my number, but oh well. Maybe Professor Oak contacted him…
"Hey, Professor. I just finished getting the delivery item. I'm on my way back to the lab as we speak," I started walking down the gravel driveway while Chika hummed a calm tune on my shoulder.
"Wolfe, hold up on returning to the lab immediately for now. I have a second request for you."
"Yes?" I asked. If he wanted more proof that Chika and I were fine, I was ready for the challenge.
"My assistant is coming down Route 30 as we speak in pursuit of a runaway Totodile. I want you to help him capture that Totodile before it falls into the wrong hands. Two trainers should be able to get the job done quicker, and it'll test the bond between you and Chikorita. Understood?" He asked.
"Sure, no prob. Wolfe Out," I hung up.
I then looked at my partner on my shoulder, who stopped humming. "Well, Chika. New plan. First we find your friend, Totodile. Then we can go deliver that egg to Professor Elm. Ready to help?" I asked.
"Chika!" She replied happily.
"I guess we can just keep walking until we run into the assistant. I wish Professor Elm would've given me his name, much less a rough description. For all I know, we could pass him up without ever knowing it," I said a little flustered.
"Ah, no matter. Let's just find Totodile you and me, all right? I know we can pull this off." I stroked my Pokémon's fuzzy leaf.
"Chik," she replied with a content sigh.
Finally, we came to the exit of the driveway that merged with the rest of Route 30. I walked slower than usual to take in a good look at my surroundings. I didn't want to miss Totodile or that assistant.
________________________________________
•POV Shift: Amber (Wolfe Alias) -> Gold•
•Route 30, Johto•
•Near 4 PM•
•Late February•
Gold continued his walk as he tried to spot this "Wolfe" that Professor Elm had mentioned. That's when he noticed someone walking amongst the trees nearby. He decided it best to ask the stranger if he had seen Totodile. After all, for all he knew, the stranger could've been Wolfe, anyway. He diverged from the path and approached the young man amongst the trees.
The guy appeared to be older than him, maybe eighteen or nineteen years of age if he had to guess. He wore a black jacket that looked like fleece, and his jeans were also a stately charcoal black. He wore black dress shoes, and Gold couldn't tell anything else about his apparel, really.
The guy smirked slightly once he saw Gold approach him, as if amused. The guy's fierce red eyes spooked Gold a little, and the guy had brilliant red hair to match, which looked somewhat unruly with the bangs slightly covering his right eye. His hair itself reached to his upper back in slightly wavy layers.
Even though the guy looked a bit scary in appearance, Gold approached him anyway. "Excuse me, sir. Have you seen a Totodile around here? Professor Elm's Totodile escaped, and I've been looking for it since yesterday. I'm his personal aide, and I need to find it for a new trainer." Gold knew he sounded like a total kid since he let this guy's intimidation work on him, so he dug his heel into the ground nervously.
The guy seemed to ignore him at first, as though caught up in a battle of whether or not to even talk to him. Finally, he replied rudely in a fierce voice, "I haven't seen one, and I wouldn't tell the likes of you if I have. Weaklings don't deserve second chances. If the Totodile escaped, obviously it didn't want to hang around with the likes of that stupid Professor, so I suggest looking someplace else, kid."
Gold was initially upset with how rude that guy was, but he held his tongue and backed away slowly since he didn't want to start a fight. Unfortunately, he ran right into someone else while moving backwards. He turned around quickly to find none other than the girl he saw at the Pokémon center earlier that day.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" She yelled at him. She sounded more startled than upset.
________________________________________
•POV Shift: Gold -> Amber (Wolfe Alias)•
•Route 30, Johto•
•Near 4 PM•
•Late February•
Chika and I continued our walk until something obviously caught her attention since she jumped off my shoulder near the edge of the surrounding forest.
"What is it, Chika?" I asked as she peered into the trees.
She pointed her leaf in the direction southwest of us, where I made out two people in the nearby brush. Both looked to be male, and they seemed to be talking. I decided to try my luck and see if one of those happened to be Professor Elm's assistant.
And so, I approached the two just to have the shorter one—whom I recognized as the sleeping boy from the Pokémon center—back up right into me.
I focused my entire attention on him while yelling. "Hey, watch where you're going!"
The boy whirled around and gasped at me, as though I had startled him, and I guessed I did. He then looked at me sheepishly, which I took to be an apology.
I shrugged it off as I addressed both guys, even though I had my attention focused on the one who just ran into me. "Hey, one of you two work for Professor Elm? I got a call asking me to help find a Totodile."
I caught the other guy turn to look at me out of the corner of my eye, so I turned my attention to him. As soon as I saw him, I felt my face turn into a mixture of a smile, a grimace, and then complete nothingness. I felt my stomach knot up, and I had to blank my mind for a few seconds before continuing. Of all the people I'd run into in Johto, I never expected him to be one of them.
The younger guy brought my attention back to him, luckily, as he seemed to ease up and speak. "Oh, you're the new trainer Professor Elm was telling me about, right? Yeah, I'm his assistant. My name's Gold, and this Cyndaquil is Hino," he grinned sheepishly at me.
"Quil!" The Pokémon on his shoulder replied happily.
It looked so adorable; I wanted to hug it. As soon as it saw Chika on the ground, however, it seemed to shrink away. I looked down to see Chika sneer at the poor little thing.
"The name's Wolfe. And this Chikorita is Chika," I extended my arm for Chika to jump up on my own shoulder.
The Cyndaquil tried his best to hide even further away now that my Pokémon was almost eye-level.
"Chika!" She then replied as she straightened out her act and looked at Gold with a grin.
Gold gaped open-mouthed at the two of us. "How?! How did you get that Chikorita to be so friendly to you?!" He asked incredulously. "She's got to be the meanest starter Pokémon I've ever seen!"
I grinned and stroked her leaf. "Really? I think Chika's swell. We understand each other perfectly. Trainers and Pokémon who are alike tend to bond faster; Chika and I hit it off from the start, right buddy?"
"Chikori!" She replied as she wagged her leaf happily.
"Wow, that's so incredible! Maybe I wrote you off a little too soon," Gold replied a bit under his breath. I could tell he wished he wouldn't have said that out loud.
"Wrote me off?" I asked puzzled.
"Err, well, you see… I thought that since you were a new trainer and all, you'd slow down my work of finding Totodile. But from the looks of it, you don't actually look like a rookie, ya know?" He said.
"Umm, alright? If you say so," I replied with a shrug.
I knew I'd need to change that subject as to not leak my identity, especially in front of the other guy. That's when I realized he ditched us while we were talking.
"Hey, where'd your friend go?" I asked assuming Gold really knew that guy—small world, right? Last I knew Silver, he didn't make friends too easily, but I really had hoped maybe he made a few more since my "death".
"Oh, that guy's not my friend. Really, I just saw him and thought maybe he was the new trainer I was looking for. I asked him if he saw Totodile, but man, that guy's so rude—and scary!" He mentioned as an afterthought. "Now that you mention it, I wonder where he ran off to… I didn't even notice him leave. Did you?"
"Nope," I admitted with a shake of my head.
I then noticed Gold gasp as he looked down at his belt.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Totodile's pokeball! It's not on my trainer belt any more! I think that guy might've stolen it while we were talking!" Gold replied frantically.
"Damn! If that's the case, we need to find him before he finds Totodile, right?" I asked.
I realized that if I failed in my mission, it was possible Elm would take back Chika, and I wasn't going to let that happen. That, and my ex-student, ex-BFFE just did a very big, VERY bad no-no.
"Sure! But where do we look first?" Gold asked.
That did puzzle me since I wasn't familiar with too many Johto Pokémon. And so, I took out my handy dandy new Pokedex to see if I could get any information on how to find Totodile. I first pointed it at Chika to see what types of abilities she'd have and started messing with settings.
"Chikorita's leaf has the ability to check the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air." The device stated in an electronic male voice.
"Cool! Is that really a Pokedex?! Where'd you get one?!" Gold looked completely enthralled.
"Oh, this? Professor Oak was at Mr. Pokémon's house, and he gave it to me," I replied casually.
"No way! You really met THE PROFESSOR OAK?! I wonder if he'd give me one!" Gold exclaimed.
"Well, after we find Totodile, maybe you can find out for yourself," I tried to put him back on task.
"Yeah, true! So what'd you check your Chikorita for anyway?" He asked curiously.
"You heard how Chikorita's leaf is sensitive, right? I was thinking we could use that leaf to find a water source, and since Totodile is a water Pokémon, he's bound to be around one at some point!" I loved my ingenious spur-of-the-moment plan.
"Sounds like a good plan!" Agreed Gold.
"Chika, do you think you can find us a body of water nearby?" I asked my Pokémon on my shoulder.
"Chikori!" She replied as she hopped off my shoulder, stood stock still, and angled her leaf in different positions. Finally, she darted off into the woods.
"Let's go!" Cried Gold.
Hopefully we'd have luck finding the runaway Totodile before Silver. But at the same time, we'd still need to get that stolen pokeball back somehow.