CHAPTER 2: Nothing In The Name



The fearow hovered majestically in the air above the golden sand of the beach, 
its powerful wings flapping slowly as it eyed an enraged, land-bound snubbull. 
The small pink pokemon glared upwards at its opponent, squinting against the 
bright afternoon sun. The snubbull's trainer, a young boy who looked about two 
years younger than his seventeen years of age glowered in a similar manner at 
the fearow's trainer, before turning back to his own pokemon. "C'mon Al! Use 
another Scary Face attack!" 
The snubbull responded immediately, screwing up its face in a fearsome manner. 
The other trainer, who stood with his back to the crystal clear sea, burst out 
laughing. He wore a cocky smirk, his youthful face suggesting that he was no 
more than nineteen years of age. He had a slight layering of stubble, which was 
the same dark brown as his foppish hair, which hung down almost entirely 
obscuring his eyes. He moved it out of the way with a lazy motion, before 
calling out,"Your snubbull looks like he needs laxatives! Marco, Wing Attack 
now!"

Seemingly oblivious to the snubbull's ferocious scowl, the fearow swooped down 
with fearsome speed. Realisation that standing still would only lead to a new 
world of pain dawned on the snubbull, and it started to dive even as its hapless 
trainer looked on. With agility that defied belief, the fearow corrected its own 
angle of attack at the last moment, and delivered a crushing smash to the back 
of the snubbull, sending it rolling towards it's trainer, before pulling up 
again.
"Al, return! This isn't over, Nik!"
"Hah! Consider it a lesson on what happens when you name your pokemon after 
yourself, Alex!" Nik grinned arrogantly at Al. "Hurry up and choose your next 
pokemon for me to defeat!"
"If it's a bird battle you want, then that's what you'll get! Go!" 
From out of his pokeball, a pidgey materialised, wearing a slightly confused 
look. It cooed, while stumbling around in the sand, before catching sight of its 
trainer. "Lex! Behind you! Go! Fly after that fearow!"

A large shadow fell over Lex, which turned round slowly. Looking up, it met the 
eyes of its huge adversary. With a terrified squawk, Lex scurried back towards 
his trainer. "Hey! What are you doing! I said ATTACK!" Meanwhile, Nik, could 
hardly control his mirth. Suddenly, Alex called out, "Nik, behind you! I think 
there's someone in trouble in the water!"
"Haha, you seriously think I'm gonna fall for that-" He was cut off by Alex 
running past him towards the shoreline. He turned quickly, to see a body lying 
at the very edge of the sea. 

Alex reached the body within seconds, and dragged the young girl onto the beach. 
However, he seemed at a loss as to what to do next. "Nik... NIK! What... What 
should I do!?" The panicky young boy waved his hands frantically. Nik walked 
over, and felt the girl's wrist. He noticed that a large part of her leg and 
some of her left arm were burned quite badly. "There's a pulse there, but it's 
weak. Let's get her back to the Underground Cavern." He called Marco over, and 
got on carrying the unconscious form. Her wet hair was pasted to her face, but 
moved slightly around her mouth, showing that she was breathing. "Marco, quick, 
get us back to HQ now!"

					*		*		*		*		*

Sofia gradually regained consciousness. She heard voices, both male and female, 
and upon opening her eyes, she saw a middle aged woman in a nurse uniform 
standing over her, with a young teenager standing next to her, holding a towel.
"Stay still, don't try to move!" commanded the nurse. "You have some serious 
burns... I don't know what you've been up to, but you'll bear some scars for the 
rest of your life in all likelihood. Other than that, there should be no lasting 
effects" The no-nonsense woman then turned away, and walked out of the door, 
calling out, "Try to get some rest, food will be brought along shortly"

The boy smiled at her, and then also left the room, shutting the door behind 
him. Sofia was too dazed to call out and ask any questions, so she just looked 
around at the room whe was in. It seemed to be a bedroom that had been converted 
into a makeshift hospital. There were several other beds, all empty, and trays 
with medications everywhere, which seemed entirely out of place with the 
cheerful clefairy wallpapers. Looking up from her bed, Sofia squinted at the 
brightness of the lamp that hung over her. She coughed, and let out a dry groan. 
She had never felt so thirsty before, or so it seemed. Her throat felt like 
sandpaper, while her tongue seemed not to exist anymore, for which she was glad. 
Trying to move resulted in excruciating agony from her left arm and leg. 
Glancing at them, she saw clean white bandages wrapping them, and shuddered at 
the thought of what wounds lay underneath. She had been dressed in a horrible 
green gown, which was painful just to look at, and smelled as if it hadn't been 
washed in quite a while.

Lying back, she tried to think about what had happened. "I fell out from the 
ship... How did I survive!? And where am I? Who are all these people?" she 
thought to herself. Voices filtered into the room from outside the door, and 
Sofia strained to make out words.
"How is the girl?" Came on male voice, quite deep and with a resonance of 
authority that resembled her fatherss.
"She's gonna be fine, according to Nurse Joy"
"Any info on who she is? She looks awfully familiar..."
"Rhi's still working on it. She... She's kinda pretty, don't you think?"
Sofia blushed. While she wasn't ugly, neither was she a stunning beauty; quite 
average, in fact, and so it felt nice to hear a genuine compliment for once, 
rather than the unctuous lies of those who sucked up to her because of her 
position, or the unfair remarks of those who resented her wealth and privilege.
"Haha, you need to improve your standards, Alex!"
"Hey!" thought Sofia indignantly. The last comment stung her, and she shot up 
into an upright position, only to gasp at the tremendous pain, which soon put 
all thoughts of good looks into true perspective.
"Oh.." Alex's voice was the last thing she heard before the pain sent her back 
into unconsciousness.

					*		*		*		*		*

After two days of being bedbound, counted by the regular meals brought to her, 
and seeing no-one other than Alex and Nurse Joy, Sofia was almost able to walk 
unsupported once more. She sat up in the bed, while Alex fussed about preparing 
her food. She had quite quickly made friends with him, and found him to be an 
outgoing but somewhat naive person. He chattered almost constantly, but when she 
pressed him for information about their whereabouts, or what he was doing here, 
he would suddenly become embarrassed, and mutter, "Sorry, I can't say..."

"So, Alex, I notice that you have some pokemon..." She began. 
"Yeah! I'm a trainer!" he blurted out, "I've got a pidgey, snubbull and a 
butterfree!"
"Wow, you have three pokemon! That's amazing!" Sofia could not hide her glee 
that he was willing to talk about his pokemon. "I've never had my own pokemon, 
and I've always dreamt of being a trainer!"
"I got my snubbull in a trade, cos you don't get them in Kant- Oops! Oh no! 
Nik's gonna kill me!"
"Who's Nik? And why would he care that I know this is Kanto?" Sofia was plumbing 
new depths of confusion. Alex was contemplating his reply, when the door opened, 
and Nik walked in. Sofia suddenly wished she'd been able to put on some make up, 
and at least attempt to look like less of a wreck, and tried not to stare. 
Slightly unshaven as he was, this seemed only to add to his 'rugged' appeal. Her 
stomach felt knotted, and suddenly she couldn't voice any of her questions. He 
whispered something to Alex, who nodded briefly and then ran straight out from 
the room. Nik turned to face her. She noticed that he was tall and quite well 
built under his light t-shirt.

"Sofia Martinez, daughter of John Martinez, Minister of Johto!" He announced 
this fact in a fierce growl, that suddenly made Sofia nervous.
"Y..."She cleared her throat, and started again. "Yes! How do-"
"Quiet! All that you are to do is answer my questions!" barked Nik.
Sofia swallowed nervously. "Yes... Sir" She added, since it seemed like a good 
idea to stay on this guys good side.
"We found you washed up on the shore. How did you get there?"
"Well..." Sofia explained briefly about how the ship she was on had been 
attacked. "The next thing I know, I'm in here" She could not entirely keep her 
voice from quavering. Nik seemed deep in thought.
"Well, it seems that your father is furious, at your 'death' and the Minister of 
Kanto has pinned the blame on the Kanto Liberation Force. That is, us!" 
Sofia sat, mouth agape. So that explained the secrecy! She swallowed in terror. 
Her future seemed dim; admittedly her father was Minister of Johto, but she 
doubted that such subtleties would bother these people.
"Calm down!" Nik had noticed how agitated she had become. "We haven't decided 
what to do with you yet. We weren't behind that assassination attempt, and we're 
just as curious as to what's going on here. You could be of some use to us yet! 
Word from main HQ suggests that the botched murder was planned by your old 
buddy, the Minister of Kanto!"

Sofia gasped in shock. "But... Why would Minister Kaspar want me dead!?"
"That's what we want to know... We suspect that he wants to remove you and your 
brother, and put his own son in as next Minister of Johto. Of course, the 
official line remains that we are the ones responsible. Which means that your 
father will send over resources to help crush us!" He curled his lip in 
contempt, and turned to leave. Sofia wanted to call out, to ask more questions, 
but she couldn't build up the courage. Instead, she sat stupefied on the bed, 
trembling as she anticipated her fate.

					*		*		*		*		*

Sofia remained prisoner in the dank room, but at least now she could walk. Or, 
more accurately, limp slowly. The constant paint that had been there before was 
gone, and even mild exertion didn't hurt as much. She decided that the best way 
to recover now was to exercise as much as possible. Every time Alex or Nurse Joy 
came in, she would pretend to be less mobile than she actually was. She didn't 
know why she did this, but just rebelling, even in this small way, made her feel 
better. Alex was as friendly as ever, and she questioned him at length about 
being a trainer, and how he had ended up with the KLF. It turned out that his 
story was quite simple. At the young age of 14, he had started out on his own 
pokemon journey; on his return, he found from a neighbour out that his parents 
had been imprisoned by the state for 'actions against the state'. He didn't wait 
around after that, and in his wonderings, he had met Nik, an aspiring member of 
the KLF. "He's head of the Vermillion HQ, and he's only been here a year!" The 
admiration in Alex's voice for his older friend was quite apparant. "He's got a 
reputation for being ruthless, but I know that he's only doing it because he 
believes in the cause! He's always been a great friend to me. And he's a 
brilliant trainer!"

Outwardly nodding, Sofia thought to herself, "Brilliant trainer or not, the 
guy's still a jerk!"
Another part of herself replied to this. "Yeah? If he's such a jerk, why do you-
"
"Shut up! That's not true! I only hope he doesn't decided to kill me!"

While she was deeply engaged in debating with herself, Alex walked over to the 
door, and looking around to make sure that Nurse Joy had left, closed it. Then, 
grinning, he returned to the bed, and excitedly whispered, "Sofia! I... I got 
you a present!"
"Huh? Why, Alex?"
"Uh... Cos, you're my friend, and...I uh..." He trailed off embarrassedly, 
looking down at the floor.
To spare him the shame, Sofia quickly said, "So, what is it?"
"Well, I convinced Nik to let you come watch everyone train!"
Sofia was overjoyed! Finally, she could leave this depressing, tiny room! 
"Thanks Alex!" She grabbed him, and hugged him.
"That's not all... I also convinced him to let you have a pokemon!"

Sofia's shriek of joy brought Nurse Joy running back into the room, to see a 
hysterically ecstatic Sofia hugging Alex so hard that he couldn't breathe.
"You're... Welcome!" he managed to gasp.

The next day, out at the beach, Sofia sat on a rock, the fresh breeze blowing 
through her hair. It was looking to be another fine day, and wreathed in the red 
early morning glow, Nik addressed a small army of people. Sofia looked around at 
their location; she'd been blindfolded and carried all the way there by Nik's 
fearow. They must have been far from any civilisation, as there were no other 
noises than Nik's voice, and the occasional pokemon call. As Nik droned on about 
the exact details of the days training, Sofia played with a small shrub with her 
foot. Her shoes were useless, worn ridiculously thin by overuse. "No wonder Nik 
gave me this pair" she thought to herself. "I wonder how Alex convinced Nik to 
do this..." She zoned back in on what Nik was saying, as he explained her 
presence to everyone. There was a sea of hostile glares from the assorted boys, 
girls, men and women, all of whom wore dark, hooded clothing to obscure their 
faces as much as possible. She swallowed nervously, and tried to bolster 
herself. 

The others started to pair off for battles, while Nik walked towards her. "So, 
rich girl, do you even have any idea what being a pokemon trainer is about?" he 
asked, in a patronising voice. Less afraid that she had been of him before, 
since he wasn't actively about to kill her, Sofia's temper flared.
"Yes, of course I do!" she snapped, "I can read, you know. That is, if you know 
what books are? I know you seem to be able to think with your genitals, but can 
you read with them?"
"Don't act like a wise guy here!" said Nik, with a calm that belied the fire in 
his eyes. "This is not a decision I made lightly, to let you come out here and 
see us train. In fact, the only reason I agreed is because I don't want you 
sitting around using up our resources. From now on, you'll train, and you'll 
take part in our supply raids, understand?"
Sofia couldn't mistake the dangerously icy tone of his voice. "Yes" She 
whispered.
"Good" He smiled, and there was no humour in it. "Here's your pokemon, take a 
few minutes together to get used to eachother! You'll soon learn that your books 
can't teach you everything about life. You may read about it, but me...", he 
stabbed his thumb at his chest,"..I live it!"

He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a pokeball, which he tossed to Sofia, 
and handed her a pokedex, before stalking off. She caught it in trembling hands, 
and looked on it in awe. This was the very thing which she had spent so many 
hours looking at in her Trainer Manuals. Her throat dry in anticipation, she 
prepared to release the pokemon within. "Please be a growlithe! Please be a 
growlithe!" So many evenings passed learning about her favourite pokemon, 
growlith and arcanine...

"Go!" She whispered. There was a flash of red light, and then the pokemon 
materialised... "What!?" She cried out in shock and disbelief. A tiny light 
brown teddybear-like pokemon with a yellow crescent mark on its forehead sat on 
the ground, sucking a paw. "How am I supposed to battle with THIS!?" She took 
out her pokedex. "Teddiursa: Male. The little bear pokemon." Before it could 
finish, she snapped it shut. She'd heard of teddiursas before, but had never 
really bothered learning about them. She was interested in powerful pokemon, 
that would help her become a champion... Then people couldn't accuse her of 
being dependent on her father and his money... 

Slowly, reality set in. This was a rare pokemon; Nik had given her this pokemon 
specifically, so this must have been his idea of a joke. Now she understood why 
he had allowed her to have a pokemon. The teddiursa had not moved from its spot 
on the floor. "Well, you are pretty cute, I'll give you that..." She bent down 
to pick it up. "Geez, you're heavy!" she grunted as she lifted it. "Aw, I can't 
hate you... You're just too lovable!" She giggled as the small blob fur made a 
purring noise.
"Named him yet?" Nik's voice broke through her reverie.
"Oh... erm... He's called... Killer!" Sofia blurted out the name that she had 
previously been reserving for the arcanine of her dreams.

Nik's normally impassive face broke temporarily into a smirk. "Well, maybe you 
and... Killer... had better go and try your hand at battling some weak wild 
pokemon. Since you're so knowledgeable, I'm certain you'll know what to do." He 
pointed to some long grass at the edge of the sand. "Try your luck in there"

Sofia kept her expression immobile, though inwards she was terrified. She 
started to walk towards the grass, which waved gently in the light winds. 
Despite the noises of training battles all around her, Sofia was certain that 
she could hear ominous rustling noises from within the grass. She looked behind 
her, to see Killer waddling furiously to keep up with her. Bending down, she 
picked him up once more. "Don't worry, I've read about battling hundreds of 
times, and I've seen thousands of TV shows... It'll be easy!" Killer seemed to 
respond to her confident voice, and made a happy gurgling noise. She paused as 
she reached the edge of the patch of grass. It reached up slightly higher than 
her waist, and the patch was larger than she had anticipated, stretching out for 
a few metres. Taking a deep breath, she took a step forward, half expecting to 
be ambushed by a thousand enraged wild nidokings... and almost collapsed with 
relief when nothing happened. Looking around, she spotted an innocent caterpie 
on a long blade of grass, that was facing away from her. "Perfect! Killer, go!" 
Sofia whispered to the teddiursa, while checking her pokedex for attacks 
available; Scratch and Leer. "Not too bad" she thought to herself. "A nice 
combo; take out his defence, then take him down! Killer, use a Leer attack!" 

Killer nodded, and then glowered up as fiercely as it could at the caterpies 
bottom. Suddenly, there was hysterical laughter from right behind Sofia. She 
jumped up and shrieked, only to realise that it was Alex. "Your pokemon has to 
make eye contact for Leer to work!" he panted between fits of giggles.
"OI! Caterpie!" she yelled, annoyed that she hadn't realised that. The caterpie 
refused to turn, but instead took a languid bite out of the grass. Fuming, Sofia 
decided to change tactics. "Killer, Scratch! Just knock it out!" Carefully 
moving forward, Killer brought back his paw, and as he swung it forward, Sofia 
noticed the tiny, budding claws, which slammed into the caterpie with a thud. 
Knocked flying from its leaf, the caterpie landed hard. Sofia grinned. Surely 
victory was hers! But the battle wasn't over yet. Slowly, the caterpie raised 
itself back up, and suddenly let loose with a stream of String Shot. Within 
moments, Killer was coated in sticky thread, and could barely move! "No! Killer! 
Break free!" Sofia yelled out, suddenly panicking, as the caterpie began to run 
forward in a tackle attack. Inspiration struck her, and she called out to Killer 
once more, "Use your claws! Cut through the thread!" Struggling to move his 
arms, Killer began the slow task of slicing through the thread that was knotted 
all around him. Time seemed to slow down for Sofia, which was almost pointless, 
since not only was Killer moving like a slowpoke, but the caterpie's idea of a 
tackle attack was to walk towards the opponent at a leisurely pace.As the small 
bug approached, however, Killer was still nowhere near freed, and stumbling, 
fell forward... onto the caterpie! With no time to react, and a maximum speed 
that wouldn't have allowed it to outpace continental drift anyway, the caterpie 
was flattened. 

"You won!" cried Alex, staring in shock at the unconscious caterpie. Sofia was 
so relieved that she was temporarily gobsmacked. "Yeah... I... I knew we would!" 
was all she could manage. "Return, Killer!" Killer disappeared back into his 
pokeball, as Sofia asked Alex, "Is there anywhere I can heal Killer?"
"Sure, back at base! But training isn't over yet!" he said gleefully, as Sofia 
visibly sagged. "C'mon, I'll give you some potion for Killer..." He trailed off 
in hysterics. 
"Shut up!" Sofia growled. "It's a perfectly good name! At least I didn't name 
him after myself!" 
Wearily accepting the potion, she stood up once more and began to search for the 
weakest pokemon she could see. Unfortunately, she was almost certain that was 
Killer.

					*		*		*		*		*