Setting:
•Violet City Gym, Violet City, Johto•
•Late February, Present Day•
•Amber (Wolfe Alias) POV•
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Trust Given Quietly
Once I approached Gold, he stood up to meet me at eye-level and smiled. "Awesome battle!"
I could tell he wasn't trying to curb his enthusiasm there. Although, I guessed working in a lab and staying near New Bark most of his life—or at least I was pretty sure he didn't do too much traveling—he didn't get to watch too many real live battles with Pokémon other than your average Rattata or Pidgey.
"Thanks!" I replied as I fastened my badge into my new badge case. It was a perfect fit, and I felt pretty damn proud to have won against Falkner and especially against Pigeon, who now went simply by the name of Pidgeot.
"Hey Chika, look! Our first badge, buddy." I showed Chika, who was still prancing around happily, the badge in the badge case. She sniffed and stared at it for a few seconds before grinning and returning to her happy frolicking.
I then turned back to Gold. "Well, now that I got my first badge, what next?" I noted that Falkner had let his Noctowl back out and was getting ready to go for a flight.
"Uhh, Wolfe…can I talk to you about something?" He glanced over at Falkner then back at me.
"It's about Pidgeot, right?" I asked pretty certain I knew what was coming.
"Yeah…" He trailed off. I could tell he didn't know exactly how to address his concern about my lying saying I was a new trainer.
"Hey, listen. Let's go somewhere, like maybe the Pokémon Center, and I'll tell you what you want to know. 'Kay?" I grinned.
I still didn't know exactly what to tell him, but I definitely didn't want to be overheard when I did tell him something.
"Oh. Okay then. Let's go!"
With that, Chika jumped on my shoulder while Zuku landed on Gold's. From there, we left the gym and made our way to the Pokémon Center.
Halfway there, Gold's pokegear gave a resolute ring, to which he answered. "Hello?"
"Ah, Gold. I have a request for you. Meet my aide at the Pokémon Center as soon as you can, please." It was none other than Professor Elm, who hung up as soon as he gave Gold the message.
"Uh, well good thing we're going there, anyway. I wonder what Professor Elm wants me to do…" I could see Gold's mind shift from his uncertainties about me to whatever Professor Elm wanted him to do.
"Well, whatever it is, I guess we can tell the aide to bring back Professor Elm a report on Lizardus too, since he did hatch after all." I grinned.
"Oh yeah! Good idea! Today's been so…I don't know…hectic? That I totally forgot to tell Professor Elm."
We finished walking the rest of the way in silence, making it to the Pokémon center at around 3:30 in the afternoon. The battle at the gym didn't take more than an hour, so we still had plenty of daylight left, though I was really starting to doubt we'd be heading towards Azalea Town today.
Once we reached the center, we recalled our Pokémon to their pokeballs. Gold entered the center first and immediately was met by an older man in a white lab coat. I walked up behind him, staying out of the way, but certainly wondering what was going on.
"Ah, Gold! There you are. I have a special delivery from Professor Elm," I saw the man grab an egg incubator off the counter of the reception desk and hand it to Gold.
Inside was none other than that egg I delivered in the first place. Gold looked at the egg, puzzled on why Professor Elm would have the aide bring it to *him* of all people.
"Professor Elm wants you to look after the egg until it hatches. It has been shown that eggs won't hatch unless they are around a watchful trainer and his or her Pokémon. Professor Elm is too busy, and with enough research, he actually found out which Pokémon will hatch from the egg."
"Really? What Pokémon is it?" Gold asked excitedly.
"He told me not to tell you. It's your own project as his aide. He does want you to call whenever you find out, though."
"Okay," Gold took the incubator that contained the white egg with the red and blue triangle pattern. I certainly had no clue what to expect from it. If anything, I was no "eggs-pert", even though it seemed I was hatching them left and right ever since I started my Johto journey.
"Well then, I better head on back to the lab before it gets dark. Oh yes, please call Professor Elm to let him know you got the egg. Goodbye and good luck!" With that, the aide walked right past me as though I didn't exist and exited the center.
Gold then turned back to me. I could tell he was unsure what to do with the egg. "Well, I guess I better call Professor Elm. I don't get why he's having *me* raise this, though. You obviously have more skill with these than I do."
By then, I was pretty certain he meant more than just me hatching two Pokémon already, but I let it slide since, after all, I owed it to Gold. He was a cool kid, and deep down, I did feel pretty bad for lying to him all this time…as well as to my Pokémon, which really I wanted to kick myself for.
I mean, what trainer lies to their own Pokémon, right?
"Good idea," I simply replied.
From there, Gold took a seat at a videophone and called the lab. Professor Elm answered. "New Bark Town Lab, Professor Elm speaking." Like always, I could tell that right out of view was a book, which obviously held his attention.
"Hey, Professor. I got the egg, and I'm calling just like the aide said to do."
"Oh Gold. Good, you got the egg."
"Err, Professor. Why am I raising the egg? Why not have Wolfe raise it instead?"
"Well, you are my aide, aren't you, Gold?"
"Yeah, but…"
"As my aide, I'll ask certain things of you to test you. Think of it as training to be a researcher. You still want to do that when you are older, right?"
"Err, yeah."
"Well, okay then," he smiled. "Don't worry, Gold; hatching that egg should be easy. I won't tell you what will hatch from it, but I'll give you a hint: the Pokémon inside is a rare one. They're very hard to find. I think it'll be a good experience for you."
"Cool! A rare Pokémon?!" I could tell that kid's whole attitude just did a 180-degree shift.
"Yep. You need to stay with active Pokémon and walk around in order for it to hatch, so for the time being, I want you to accompany Wolfe. If that's alright with you, that is," he added to me.
"Oh, sure. Gold's cool. I don't mind him hanging around at all. Besides, I want to see what hatches from that egg, too!" I couldn't hide my enthusiasm.
A rare Pokémon inside of the egg? Totally awesome.
"Oh yes, speaking of eggs, how is that Charmander egg of yours?"
"Oh yeah, Professor! That Charmander hatched today. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Gold piped up.
"Oh? May I see it?"
"Sure," I fished around my bag for Lizardus' pokeball, found it, and called the little guy out. I held him in my arms for the professor to get a good look.
"Hmm. I see. Looks very healthy."
"Lizardus, meet Professor Elm," I told my little buddy in my arms.
"Char!" Replied the Pokémon, who waved at the professor.
"Certainly seems gentle for his species."
"Well, he does have a Modest nature. Oh yeah, and he has egg moves, too!" I added proudly.
"Egg moves? Which ones?"
"He knows Flamethrower, Dragon Claw, Dig, and Crunch," I replied happily.
"Wow. That's not bad. Certainly interesting. A newly hatched Charmander should know Scratch and Growl and maybe Ember. Looks like you've got a little powerhouse there, Wolfe."
"Yeah, he helped me escape a swarm of Sudowoodo today, actually."
"Swarm of Sudowoodo you say? That's pretty rare even for Johto, their native region. Where'd you see them?" Professor Elm asked me.
"They are northwest of Violet City. There's so many of them, it looks like a weird forest," Gold piped in. "Even though I already told you that earlier," Gold added under his breath to where even I could barely hear.
"They're still there?"
"Yup," Gold replied.
"Guess I'll send an aide to check that out; thanks for letting me know, Wolfe."
"No prob, but I believe Gold did mention something to you about it earlier." I recalled Lizardus to his ball since he was getting kind of heavy. I didn't want to steal all of the attention from Gold, after all; Gold told him first, and he deserved credit.
"Okay, well I'm returning to my research now. Thanks for calling. Let me know when that egg hatches, Gold. I'm sure it won't be too long. Good night." Professor Elm hung up, leaving us with a blank video screen. It was as if he didn't even hear the second part of what I said.
"Well, that was fun. He seemed to want to talk to you more than me," I could hear the agitation in Gold's voice.
"Well, he did want to know about Lizardus, and I am his trainer after all," I said a little defensively.
I didn't want to get into a fight with Gold, especially if we were supposed to travel together. Besides, I liked the kid; I didn't want to ruin my new friendship already.
"Yeah, but I think it's more than that. It's like he respects you more than me—and I'm his own employee! And my dad works for him! AND I've known him for practically all of my life!" He sounded a bit hurt, to be honest.
I knew that had to bug Gold a bit. Locating an unoccupied booth in the corner of the center that no one else was sitting around, I ushered Gold to sit, which he did so a little reluctantly. Now that we were out of the way, I blocked the window with the advertisement thing on the table so that no one looking in could read my lips. Gold gave me a puzzled look. I then leaned over as much as I could to the center of the table since Gold sat opposite of me.
"Alright, now I'll talk, but I gotta keep it low. Also, when you're talking to me, lean forward so no one can see your mouth." Gold gave me a really weird look, but he complied.
"Okay, so what's all this about? I thought you said you were a new trainer. How'd you get a Pidgeot, and a really high level one at that?"
I sighed. I really felt uncomfortable about telling Gold everything; after all, I barely knew the kid, but I was pretty certain I could trust him. And, I did tell Bill even though I knew Bill would be way too busy to be telling my secret to anyone. And then I told Liza, who was in charge of caring for Charry, and Professor Elm found out via Professor Oak.
I looked Gold in the eyes, seeing if maybe I could judge his character. After a few minutes of just staring, with Gold's demeanor visibly deteriorating, I began.
"Okay. What I'm about to tell you is top secret. I trust you, but you can't tell ANYONE. No one at all: not your parents, friends, Professor Elm—though I think he knows already. No one. Got it?"
"Sure." He shrugged.
"Okay. Well, to start things off. My real name isn't Wolfe, but you can call me that since it is my name as long as I'm here in Johto."
"I kinda figured that already," Gold replied, which shocked me some. "I mean, who names their daughter Wolfe?"
At that I smirked. Is my alias really that fishy? What was Darrius thinking when he assigned me this name, anyway?
"Yeah, I guess it does sound pretty weird," I admitted.
"So, what is your name, then?" Gold looked at me earnestly.
Damn. Do I really tell him my name? What if Team Rocket catches him and tortures him for my name or something? Nah, that's just preposterous. Now I'm just being paranoid.
"Alright," I leaned in closer and made certain to lower my voice as I let out a sigh. "My real name is Amber. Amber Neilstone."
Gold's eyes went wide a little. "No way! I've heard of her!" He said a little too loudly for my own comfort, at which I glared at him.
He lowered his voice. "I saw her on TV for the Pokémon league a few years ago. No way you're her; you don't look anything like her. Besides, she's a celebrity! You're well…no offense, but you don't seem like you have too many friends."
At that, I smirked again. "Well, duh, I don't look anything like the old me; it's called a disguise. And remember, I just moved to Johto, too. Of course I don't know anyone here."
"Oh, but wait! Disguise?" He asked curiously.
"I can't really tell you too much since it goes against my mission, but I'll tell you what I can. I'm here in Johto to find Team Rocket."
"Really?! I thought some trainer made them disband years ago. I never heard about them being in Johto, either, for that matter."
He kind of struck a nerve with me there. I guessed that maybe Johto news just did not really care about what went on in Kanto.
"I'm the one to make them disband with the help of my friends. And yeah, they are in Johto, or so I heard. My mission is to find them and stop them."
"Okay. Makes sense, but why the disguise?"
"Have you heard anything about Amber lately? She's 'dead'. Team Rocket 'killed' her." I said simply.
"Oh?" He looked pretty surprised. "Didn't hear that in the news."
"Yeah, I'm not gonna go into details, but it was necessary for my mission."
"Well, actually, that all makes sense now! Why your Chikorita listens to you; why you defeated Falkner like that today. You really are an experienced trainer, aren't you?" He asked a bit wide-eyed.
I blushed just a little, glad to hear that compliment after so long. "Well, I've been a trainer for over half my life. My first Pokémon was my Charizard, Charry, who is Lizardus' mother. That Charizard from the other night was Charry."
"That makes sense. I read somewhere that a Charizard will lick the face of the person it is most affectionate to. I didn't really pay too much attention to that the other night since I was so sleepy, but I get it now. Wait, Wolfe. Do your Pokémon currently with you know?"
I sighed as I shook my head. "Nope. I need to tell them, but I'm not sure how."
"The easiest way would just be to tell them straight up," he offered kindly.
"That's not what I meant. I mean I need a secluded area so no one can eavesdrop. Last thing I need is to be found out."
"Oh, that is true… I don't know what to tell you, there. Oh yeah, Wolfe, one more thing. That Silver guy…"
That part piqued my interest right there. "What about him?"
"You seem so, I don't know, insistent that he gets caught; yet he's still free, and your dad is a cop. Whenever you're around him, it's like you automatically turn aggressive. What's up with that?"
"It's a really long story, Gold," I sighed somewhat gloomily.
"Oh," he replied.
His tone indicated that he was pretty certain he wouldn't get more of an answer than that. I felt like giving him an explanation, though.
With this entire truth coming out in the open with one person to confide in, hell, I might as well tell the whole rest of the thing. Maybe he'd bring me some outside advice, anyway.
"You see, Silver and I know each other. Or at least we used to…" I trailed off.
Gold looked at me, waiting patiently for more; I complied. "Back when I was in the Indigo League, I met up with him when my Larvitar ran away. He's the one who found it since it was playing with his Sneasel. We kinda became friends there, and I let him borrow some of my Pokémon for the league since I felt sorry for the guy; you can't go far in a six-on-six battle with only one Pokémon."
"He only had one Pokémon?!"
"Yeah. He refused to catch any more. I learned a few years ago that I actually met him when I was younger—just starting out as a trainer. He gave me my Jigglypuff, which was a present from his mom, since he didn't want it. He wanted to be the best he could with his Sneasel, so that was the way he did things. I didn't question it, and I still wouldn't today if he would have stuck to it."
"So, if he was like that, why'd he steal Totodile? I don't get it…" Gold crossed his arms in thought.
"Let me get there, 'kay?" I piped in.
"Alright." He nodded.
"Anyway, so we met at the league and all, and eventually, I beat him in a battle. I don't know what happened to him from there. He returned my Pokémon and kinda just vanished. But then again, I was concerned about winning the league. Not to mention I also had my sights on testing my team against the Elite Four, too."
"Wait! Elite Four?! Like with Lance the Dragon Master?!"
I smirked again. Everyone knows about Lance, no surprise there.
"Yeah. I beat Lance in a battle. It was a really close battle, though. One of the few people who can claim that honor, really."
"Wow! Cool! Did anyone else ever beat Lance?!"
"Actually, my childhood rivals, Red and Blue both did. I beat Blue, but unfortunately I've never been able to have a battle with Red. I bet he's an even better trainer than me…" I trailed off quietly.
"Wait, Blue. That's the guy in the final round against you, right? He's pretty cool." I could tell he somewhat idolized my old childhood rival.
"Yeah. Blue and I go way back. Now, anyway, before we go off on any more tangents…" I smiled as Gold blushed a little, probably embarrassed from the fact that I knew his heroes personally.
"So, from there, I won the league—all that good stuff. A few months later, they had a competition on Mount Silver, which Blue dared me into doing. One thing about me back then, I NEVER backed out of a dare, no matter what, so yeah, I did that. From there, Silver and I met back up, and I ended up saving him from a rampaging Rhyperior."
"Wow, a wild Rhyperior?!" Gold was clearly enthralled with my story.
"Yeah. Mount Silver is teeming with really tough Pokémon. Anyway, I was hospitalized for some time since the cave we were in collapsed on my legs. After that, both Silver and I were declared the winners of the competition, so we each got a lot of money. With it, I decided to open up my own Pokémon trainer school, which became well known throughout Kanto. Silver helped build it. Well, really, he built most of it with some workers he hired. From there, I built him his own room add-on to the place and let him stay there. In exchange, he became my student."
"Oh, I'm starting to see where this is going. That makes sense, actually. You keep telling Silver how to treat his Pokémon…" Gold caught on.
"Yeah, because it goes against EVERYTHING I ever taught that sorry little—" I balled my fist and took a deep breath.
"Whoa, there! Calm down!" Gold caught me before I went off on how mad I was at Silver for his horrible treatment of his Pokémon—especially Sneasel. I wanted to rattle some sense in to that guy's brain badly.
Seething, I took another deep breath and continued. "Yeah. Sorry. Silver was my top student. He attended every class, took on every challenge—and I gave him some really tough ones. He was a prodigy in a sense, even though really he's like a year younger than I am. I saw myself in him, kinda. At least some qualities. We had quite a lot in common, though I was the social butterfly, and he was the lone wolf."
Really, my alias so doesn't fit the old me.
"And, over time, he became my very best friend…" I trailed off, a little sad at the revelation at how crummy things had turned out.
"Oh." Gold looked a little taken aback. "Well, thanks for telling me, Wolfe. It all makes sense now. And I'm really sorry about Silver. That must really suck to be worst enemies with your ex-best friend."
"Eh, I'll live. But thanks, Gold. You have no clue how badly I want to set his ass straight, but no matter what, I absolutely can't let him know I'm me."
"Because it'll complicate things?" Gold asked delicately.
"Complicate things? Pssh. That's the least of my worries, though seeming how he thinks I'm dead, that is a candidate. But actually, I think he's on the trail of Team Rocket. He's the only lead I have for busting them up in Johto before they get a strong foothold. I can't let them take over Johto like they did Kanto. That's why he took Totodile; I'm sure of it!" I explained.
"They took over Kanto again?!"
"Let me ask you this, Gold. When's the last time you heard a news report from Kanto?"
I could tell Gold really was thinking hard. "To tell the truth, I don't know. I don't really watch the news, and when I do, they rarely ever broadcast anything outside of Johto, but still, it's been a while."
"That's because they are regulating the news in Kanto. Unless you are from Kanto, and trust me right now it's really hard to travel out of region, you're stuck there unless you are with the police force or other government agencies or have steady Pokémon transport."
"I was lucky to get to move to Johto. But anyway, unless you are from Kanto, you have no clue what it's really like there. Team Rocket is taking over everywhere. Not just Silph this time—though that's a start. They are getting more and more organized every day, and they are using deadly force for all who stand in their way of world domination. I used to laugh at that goal, but now it actually seems like it could be plausible." I grimaced.
"And now they're after Johto?"
"Yeah, though it's really secret and underground. My bet is they're going to come out of the woodworks altogether and take the region by surprise. I can't let that happen, Gold. It's my mission to stop them. I can't live peacefully another day as long as I know that I didn't succeed the first time in stopping them."
"Hmm, I understand. Can I help?"
I smiled at how serious Gold was being. I could tell he really was a good friend, even if we only met days ago.
"Well, you don't have the exact training, but you are coming along with me right now, so sure! Just listen to my instructions if we ever encounter them, okay Gold?" I grinned at my eager friend.
"Sure! Anything to help out Johto," he grinned. "So, where do we go next?"
"I think we should go to Azalea Town next since we can't get to Goldenrod from Violet. We need to get Hino that Everstone, after all, and Azalea has a gym, so of course you know I'll challenge it!" I said a little louder so that it would appear we were having a normal conversation.
I then lowered my voice again. "Also, it's where Silver is headed. He said he had some business with someone there—someone from Team Rocket—so that's where I go next."
"Make sense. We're not leaving tonight though, are we?" Gold looked outside, and I followed suit. Evening was setting in; the sun would set really soon.
"Nah, we can head out tomorrow. From what I understand, we have plenty of ground to cover, anyway. How about we get some dinner and call it a night early? We can leave out early in the morning to hopefully get there in one day." I suggested.
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Gold's stomach rumbled, signifying that he was hungry. Mine joined in, and we both laughed like a bunch of school kids.
We ate our meals and participated in small talk. If anything, that conversation with Gold actually helped free us up some. We talked more freely, as if we were old friends. Gold was a pretty cool kid. I was glad we became friends and got to travel together. He made for good company.
After eating, we took our respective showers and settled down for the night. Chika nestled firmly in the covers of the sofa as Gold and I took the two sofas in the room. At least tonight we weren't sharing the center with anyone, unlike last night where I spotted none other than Silver out of the corner of my eye before I went to sleep. Knowing it would be a busy day ahead, I settled down and forced myself into a peaceful slumber.