The Long and Winding Road

The Long and Winding Road
By: BetterButterBuddha
Chapter 10: The Urban Jungle


July 3rd, 2000 Mandarin Island


The pokemart loomed over me, its shadow blocking out any hope the sun had of making the ornamental trees and summer flowers in front of the building grow. Some young trainers stood in front of the pokemart, showing off their pokemon to each other. Just as Harriet had said, many signs on the outside of the building pointed out the “evolution special today, and today only”. I checked my wallet to see that I had about two thousand dollars in cash, and quickly closed it in the realization that, for at least today, I was rich. Despite myself, I smiled as I opened the glass doors to the pokemart.

The front desk was being attended by a pretty Asian woman in a blue dress. Seeing her eye glance towards the pokeballs on my belt, I realized that most of her interest in me was directed to my wallet.

“Hello sir! Have you heard about our new evolution special? Today only, 50% off on all evolution stones! Isn’t that special?” she said with a forced smile.

“Ummm, yeah, that’s ‘special’. Listen, where do I find the elevator?” I asked.

“Down that hall, to the left. Have a nice day!” she said.

I walked away from the front desk. The marble walls reflected with the light of the fluorescent bulbs attached to the ceiling. Just as the attendant had informed me, the elevator was down the hall. I pressed the button on the outside, and waited for the doors to open. Once they did so, I stepped inside the elevator, and waited.

There was only one person inside the elevator. A guy about my height, with long red hair and a stoic expression on his face stood sternly, staring at the buttons on the console. I noticed some pokeballs attached to his belt, so I deduced that he must have been a trainer.

“Hey,” I said, smiling at the stoic, “Are you here for the sale too? Or is this just a routine visit?”

He stared at me, and his facial expressions gave the impression of an annoyed spider about to eat a fly. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to bug this guy. “Something like that,” he replied.

With that, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. I stepped out, and proceeded to look around. I was on the fourth floor.

Signs were placed everywhere; they told quite incessantly of the wonderful benefits one could extract from fifty percent off on evolution stones. I sighed, and continued to walk to the counter. A man in his late forties stood at the counter.

“Are you here to buy an evolution stone? We’re selling them at three hundred each today. It’s really quite a catch. Would you like to buy one?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’d like to get a water stone.” I replied.

“Great,” said the man as he put a small blue cardboard box into a bag, “Anything else?”

I considered this for a minute. Since today was a sale, I could probably afford to buy one more stone. Even if I didn’t get a pokemon later on which evolved with it, I could sell it for more than I bought it for if I ever ran low on cash.

“I think I’ll take a fire stone as well.” I said.

“That comes to six hundred and twenty, with sales tax,” he said. I got out my wallet and paid for the stones, and the man handed me a bag with my precious stones in them. I sat down in a bench which had been neglected by the flocking tourists and pokefans who frequented events such as these.

I got out the water stone and stared at it. It was an irregular cut, and a matrix of reflections stared back at me as I watched it. Deep inside the stone was a small blue mark, in the shape of a teardrop. As I held it, thoughts began to flow through my head. Inside this stone was a special type of radiation that only affected certain water type pokemon. If I were to break the stone open, that radiation would escape in just the right quantity to trigger the evolution of any nearby eligible water types. Poliwhirl could become poliwrath. It would be powerful, for sure, especially with his perfect genetics, but would it be worth it? The stones blue symbol shone some light back at my eyes, and I decided then that it would be better to wait, at least for now.

I got up, and ascended on the stairway. Upstairs from here was the TM center, owned exclusively by Sliph co. They were likely to sell at least ten TMs, and for me, that was an open invitation. Poliwhirl was decent right now, but he only knew water type attacks, and double slap. That wouldn’t hold up in most serious battles. And Rhyhorn could use some help with his moves too. I soon stood at the counter for the TMs.

A man similar to the one in the Wiseman Gift Co. downstairs stood at the counter.

“What kind of TMs do you have?” I asked.

“We’ve got a selection of ten in the new series of TM, and we have five left from the older, discontinued series. Naturally, those are more expensive. They can be seen in this counter,” he replied. The counter was glass on all sides but the bottom, and indeed, there were all sorts of TM inside them.

TMs are ingenious inventions. They were created by Sliph after a long period of research into the pokemon genetic code. Their findings state that some pokemon have the genetic potential to learn moves that they wouldn’t learn via normal training. However, these genetic potentials were hidden, and they would remain so because they were being suppressed by a protein that the pokémon body was secreting. The company then led a research team in finding out the most useful moves that most pokemon could unlock. Once they had done so, Sliph produced 50 proteins to unlock the move in certain pokemon. However, they soon found out that when unlocking a move, the pokemon had to secrete a different protein to block a separate move, or else it would put to much stress on the poke Mon’s genes. So know TMs are sold in almost every major pokemart in the world. They come in the form of a small, breakable, glass container which contains a protein structure which has to come in contact with the pokemon in subject. One could simply let the pokemon smell the protein, or you could put it in the pokemon’s food. Once it comes in contact with a pokemon, the pokemon learns a new move. Simple, huh?

This particular pokemart had only a few that I could teach my pokemon, or afford, for that matter. I decided which ones I wanted to buy, and then faced the man at the counter. “I’ll take Iron Tail, Attract, and Icy Wind.”

“Alright, that’s one-thousand, two hundred and twenty,” he informed me. I sighed; my inner cheapskate was screaming at me. Nevertheless, I handed over the money, and in return got three glass parcels.

I had gotten pretty much all I needed for now, so I decided to get out of the building before the tourists completely invaded the pokemart. The elevator dropped me off at the first floor, and I got out. I walked out the glass doors with the realization that I had just blown eighteen hundred dollars, and then sat down on the side of a fountain in the shadow of the pokemart.

I got out my pokeballs, and pressed the button on all of them. Out came Poliwhirl, Rhyhorn, and the newest member of my team, Mareep. Poliwhirl and Rhyhorn immediately started to play with one and other, but Mareep strayed away from them.

“Hello, Mareep!” I said, invitingly, “I’m your new trainer; my name’s Vincent. I expect a lot from my pokemon, but I give a lot in return. Come here, will you?”

Mareep shyly edged towards me, and finally sat down next to me. I reached out and put my hand on her fleece, softly. I could feel the static building in the fleece; her muscles were also very tense. She didn’t really trust me. In an attempt to console the small creature, I petted her wool softly. Her tenseness soon dissolved, and she let out a soft, “Maaaarrr.” She now knew that I was not going to hurt her.

“Alright guys, come here!” I shouted to Poliwhirl and Rhyhorn. They obeyed, and walked steadily to me. “Today I got some TMs for each of you. A TM is a machine that can help a pokemon learn a new move. I’d like to use them on you now, so who’s gonna be the first to volunteer?”

Poliwhirl slowly raised his hand. I got out the TM marked “Icy Wind”, and broke the seal on it.

“OK, Poliwhirl, the easiest way to do this is to smell the liquid. You’ll feel a little bizarre at first, but afterwards, you’ll know a new move! Here, try it,” I said. He held still as I put the glass container near his face. He inhaled, and I could see some of the blue dust from the container fly up to the sensitive skin between his eyes (the olfactory area for Poliwhirls), and become absorbed in the skin. His eyes suddenly widened with knowledge, and he nodded at me.

“Alright, that worked well. Let’s try you next, Mareep,” I said. I got out the “Attract” TM, and did the same to her as I had done to Poliwhirl. Her eyes widened just as Poliwhirl’s had, and I could tell that she now knew how to use attract.

Before I began on Rhyhorn, something strange caught my attention. Several police cars drove up to the sidewalk, and screeched to a halt. Five officer Jennies ran into the building, armed with tranquilizer guns. Something was clearly wrong.

“Hey, what happened?” I shouted to one of the passing officers.

She stopped, and looked at me. “Grand Larceny! I can’t talk now, there’s a very serious crime in progress,” she said.

I sat back down. “Somebody would have to be pretty stupid to try a theft on a day when there were so many people in the building. Bad planning on the criminal’s part. Oh well, good riddance,” I thought to myself.

Rhyhorn came up to me, and I petted him on his hard rocky head. I opened the final TM, entitled “Iron Tail”, and applied it to Rhyhorn. He inhaled deeply, and then his muscles suddenly relaxed. Now all of my TMs had been used up.

I noticed that the same officer Jenny that had stopped to see me was now posted at the door. I walked up to her, leaving my pokemon to play with each other. “Jenny, do you know anything new?” I asked.

She looked at her shoes with a tired expression on her face. “Yes, the criminal got away. He stole about fifty very valuable TMs, about one hundred thousand dollars worth. I’m guarding the door to make sure that nobody new comes in. We’re interviewing the manager now. This job can be so tough,” she said.

“Oh. Well, I hope you find the guy,” I said. I walked back to the fountain, where Poliwhirl was playing in the water. “Guys, it’s time to leave. Tempus Fugit.” I got out all of their pokeballs, and squeezed the two sections on the balls. A laser shot out of the white button on each one, and made contact with all of my pokemon. They returned to the balls, now in laser form.

I tossed the three used TMs in a nearby trash can, and began to walk on the sidewalk. After a half hour of walking and thinking, I finally reached the harbor where the catamaran lay in wait. I extricated the boat from the ropes which held it in place, and crawled inside. I piloted the catamaran out into the ocean. As the wind picked up and my speed increased, it occurred to me that for the first time in my life, I didn’t have a destination. Onward I went.