Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon. I only own the main character, Marca, and well... Actually, I don't even know if I own Jack. You see I got him out of my pokemon silver guide. He's right outside of goldenrod in the park. But then I took away voltorb, cause I don't like voltorb, and just left him with... well the other pokemon he has. So really I only took the name and one of the pokemon. I suppose just he's /based/ on the one in the crystal guide. So really, Jack /is/ mine. Are you still reading this? I'm sure the story will be much more interesting. Go! Shoo! ------------------ “But, who would I trade him to?” Jack said, scrapping his first choice. “You?” I asked Marca. Marca smiled. “No. But I do know someone who might take him.” “Who?” I asked. I hadn’t seen Marca since I got my trainer’s license. She hadn’t had any special trainer friends then, but I guessed that she could’ve met someone in the nearly five years that had lapsed between then and now. “Oh, you’ll see.” Marca let Zap out of it’s poke’ball, then climbed up on his back. “I’ll have to bring him back for him to believe it, so I’ll have to leave you for a while. Where can I find you?” “I don’t know. I’ve been wandering around aimlessly for the last few weeks trying to practice before I headed up to the Elite Four. I was thinking about taking the train to Kanto, but I don’t know what I’d do when I get there.” “I see.” Marca said. She paused for a moment then went on again. “Saffron City is having it’s annual Battling convention pretty soon. I think you can make it if you go now.” “Okay. I’ll see you later.” “Bye!” Marca said. “Zap, use fly. Go to Pewter city.” And with that, Zap took off. “I wonder who she’s going to get.” I murmured. “Jack, we should probably get-“ I started, but then realized that Jack wouldn’t be able to hear me, as Zapdos wasn’t out of sight yet. Instead of waiting in silence, I turned to Umbreon. “You’re going to have to go into your Poke’ball, you know. They don’t allow Poke’mon on the train out of their Poke’balls.” Umbreon nodded to say she understood.. “You can stay out until we get to the train station?” “Who can stay out until we get to the train station?” Jack asked. I smirked. “I see Zap has left, huh? That’s too bad. I was starting to enjoy the silence.” “Yeah, Zapdos and that incredible trainer left. I wish Zapdos would stay here forever.” Jack said, staring dreamily off into the distance. “Believe me, I wish Zap would stay here all the time, also.” I shook my head, and started walking forward. “Come on, we have to find the train station. I haven’t been here in a while so I don’t exactly remember where it is.” “It’s just a few streets up.” Jack said. He pointed to a dark line in the middle in of the town. “That’s the rail. You can’t see it because of that building in the way, but it’s right by the radio tower.” I started walking toward the train station. “Oh, right, I remember now. Last time I was here I decided I would stop off at the radio tower, then missed the train, so I had to stay here another day.” When we got inside the train station, I looked around the room. Most of the chairs were occupied by dreary-eyed people who looked like they had been there for a half an hour or more waiting for the train to come in. One mother I felt exceedingly sorry for, as she had three children who apparently weren’t bored anymore because they jumped around from seat to seat. Their mother tried to settle them down, but even she had to know that this was an impossible thing to do. Another person who caught my eyes was a man who wore slightly fancier clothes than normal for someone who was traveling. This seemed very odd to me, but after I studied him for a few more seconds, I shook it off. I selected two seats near the place where we would eventually enter onto the train. In my experience there were good seats and bad seats on the train. There were some that were more comfortable than others, and according to the time we were going to spend the night on the train. “Jack? I forgot ask you; Do you have a rail pass?” “I live in goldenrod.” Jack said indignantly, “Of course I have a rail pass!” “Good.” I said, and started concentrating on other things. Almost immediately after we had finished talking a man came out of the door and walked across the room to where there was a microphone hooked into a small metal box. After he turned a knob on the box behind him, the man thrust the microphone into his face and said in a very dreary voice, “All aboard to Saffron city. Ladies and gentlemen I would like to remind you that this will be the last train of the day. Thank you.” He put the microphone down and walked over to a desk. where everyone drifted to, including us. “May I see your rail passes?” The man said, when we reached the desk, in that same dreary voice that he had spoken in before. I put my pass on the desk, as did Jack. “Trainer Caitlin and trainer Jack, you’re cleared. Walk right through that door please and select a seat. And thank you for choosing Goldenrod City’s transportation.” After stepping on the train I looked around for some seats, being careful to avoid the mother and her children. I wanted to sleep that night. I selected two seats, then immediately got up again because they were too hard. I went up two more rows and found seats that would serve our purpose. Two minutes after we sat down the oddly dressed person that I had seen before came and sat in the seat across the aisle. He calmly reached into a bag he had brought with him and pulled out a book, which he proceeded to read. Relieved that he didn’t try and talk to us (Jack had been quiet for five minutes now and I didn’t want to break the streak), I looked out the window. “Are we there yet?” Jack asked, even before we started moving. I sighed. Was he going to do this the whole way there? “Does it look like we’re there?” “No, but I just can’t wait to get there. Then I can use my poke’mon to win the battle in Saffron.” “Jack! I told you not to use him!” “But he can make me a poke’mon master! I just have to use him!” “No!” I told him sternly, “There’s no quick way to become a poke’mon master, period.” “But-“ “Go to sleep Jack.” “But--!” “No ‘buts’. We have to travel a long way if we’re going to make it to the battling convention.” “Fine.” I think he was happier than he would let on that he would get to go to sleep now because he was out not long after that. After I had confirmed that Jack was asleep I let out my held breath. If he still thought that Suicune was going to make him a Poke’mon master I didn’t know how Marca and I were going to get him to trade. Maybe this mysterious friend of Marca’s would bring something that Jack would consider cool, such as a Machop. Marca would know that Jack would have to have a “cool” poke’mon before he would trade. I convinced myself that I didn’t have to worry, then settled down to go to sleep. I was almost asleep when the young man beside us decided that it would be a good time to finally talk. “I see your young friend has fallen asleep.” “What? Who?” I said, having been temporarily confused by my half dream. “Oh, Jack? Yes, he’s been asleep for a while now.” He was quiet for a moment. “I heard you say that there was no poke’mon that could turn someone into a Poke’mon master. Do you really believe that?” I technically hadn’t said that, but I believed that also. “Yes, I believe that, don’t you?” “Well, I believe that’s true with most poke’mon. However, I am going to catch a poke’mon that will most definitely make me a better trainer.” “Oh?” How much better a poke’mon could you get than Suicune? Suicune didn’t make Jack into an instant Master. In fact, he was far from it. “Yes. You see, I’ve been tracking a poke’mon for weeks now with a tracker.” “That’s got to be an expensive way to catch a poke’mon.” “Yes, but quite worth the price. This poke’mon is one of a kind. Very powerful. However, each time I see it I’ll attack it, but it uses roar and gets away before I can attack more than once. Anyway, I tracked it to here, but my tracker suddenly stopped working once I got off the train. It started working for a few minutes after that, but it hasn’t worked since. That’s why I’m going back to Kanto. That is to say, it was working fine in Kanto. I think that if I go back it may start working again.” “Which poke’mon are you tracking?” I asked. It’s Suicune, it has to be. The times that his tracker was working is at the same times that Jack had Suicune out, I thought. “Suicune.” He said triumphantly. Maybe I could let him down easy, try and get him to go after another legendary. “You seem proud of yourself.” “Well, obviously. I’ve spent months trying to catch Suicune!” Ok, scratch that idea, I thought, He likes Suicune too much to simply make him uninterested. “I’m sorry to have to tell you, but I battled with someone who had caught Suicune. You’re too late.” “What?!” He tensed up, but regained his composure quickly. “No, no, Surely you must be kidding me.” “I’m not. I’m really sorry. The poke’ball must be interfering with your tracker.” He sighed. “I was afraid of this. That’s the dangerous thing about going after such a great poke’mon; everybody wants it. Did you win?” He asked. “Against Suicune? No, nobody could win against Suicune! Believe me, Suicune is in good hands.” What was the harm in a white lie? After all, he’ll be in good hands soon enough. “Yes, I’m glad he’s in good hands.” He looked so dejected, I just had to say something else. “Look on the bright side, you can always go after another legendary, like Zapdos” Oops, not Zapdos, “or Articuno.” Jack suddenly sat up. “What? Zapdos where?” “Nowhere Jack, go back to sleep.” I pushed him back down against his seat. “Actually, we were talking about Suicune. It’s actually a very tragic stor-“ “I have a suicu-“ I covered his mouth before he could say more, but Jack licked my hand, forcing me to let go. "Ew!" I said, glaring at jack. To the oddly dressed person I said, “Heh, um, he’s just a little out of it. He must have been dreaming.” “I wasn’t drea-“ “Look Jack! Zapdos!” I said, and pointed out the window. “Where?” Jack dove over me to get a look out of the window. I glanced over at the oddly dressed person. He looked at us with growing interest. Quickly I changed the topic of the conversation. “So what’s your name?” That did it. The oddly dressed person’s eyes started flashing and he smiled a dazzling smile. “I am,” He said, rather dramatically, “Eusine. I will be the greatest poke’mon master in the world!” I could almost see the background he would’ve wanted for this show: a dark-blue sky with only a few stars shining, one shimmering much brighter than the others to which whe was pointing. “A few months ago, I vowed to challenge and beat any trainer that came near Suicune, to show I was worthy to be it’s trainer.” “Did you beat all of them?” I asked. “That is not the point. What the point, you may ask. The point is that now I vow to catch Suicune, no matter what!” “But I told you, Suicune has already been caught.” “Oh. Right. Well, there’s always Zapdos.” ^.^ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ^.^ A/N: Poor Eusine. Will he ever catch a break? First he get's beat up over and over while trying prove himself to Suicune (If you don't know what I mean you should get the crystal version of the pokemon game), then he tries to go after another pokemon that's already caught! Well, I'm sure Caitlin (the name of the main character!!! Have you been paying attention at all? Okay, okay, her name is only mentioned once. I forgive you for not remembering) told him that Zapdos had already been caught too. Wait, maybe she didn't. It might make for a good plot twist if I ever make a sequal to this one... Hrmmm. Well, you'll just have to wonder for now. ByeBye! Faithful Avenger P.S. Someday I'm going to have to tell you my full name, not just Faithful Avenger.