Chapter Two - Venom Aurora awoke to the sound of a Dodrio sending out it's call, awaking the world as the sun rose on the horizon, taking away the puddles that remained of yesterday's rain. Aurora lay still, staring at the ceiling, wondering why she felt so shaky and scared. Then it all came back, quickly, too quickly. She turned over on her stomach, groaning quietly, wondering if Star had left yet or if their parents would let her leave. She stood up, rubbing her eyes free of sleep and looking down at herself. She was a mess, paler than usually, shaky as hell and her hair was a mess of brown sitting on her head, looking not unlike a Pidgey nest. Too exhausted to drag a brush through her hair, Aurora stretched and yawned, making her way slowly out the room, the white walls blurry about her. She didn't notice how agitated her Goldeen were, or how Sunflora was prodding her coat, as if something lay alive in there. She stumbled down the stairs, falling on the last few steps, groaning as she hit the floor, standing up she brushed dust from her clothes, the same clothes that she had been wearing yesterday, she realised. She must of been in a lot of shock yesterday...but she just felt a little sickly today. "Mornin' Dad." She said as she entered the kitchen. Steven looked over his paper, dark eyes glaring at me through his glasses. I paused. "What?" she asked, blinking. It was odd to see her father this angry...she knew a lot had happened yesterday but how could they blame it on here. "Your sister left yesterday." He announced, seemingly to the world at large. He stood up and walked around the table, "We told her not too. She was still bruised, slightly bloody. Your mother got in the car this morning to go and find her, bring her back here. We don't want our only girls getting themselves killed." The words sunk in, slowly, but they came. Aurora gritted her teeth, it was all she could do not to start screaming, shouting and crying. "You're not going to let us go on a journey are you? Ever." Aurora said through her teeth, each word filled with venom. This was just...unfair. It wasn't their fault, it was better if they DID go on journeys! Then they would have strong pokemon to protect them! It wasn't fair! "No. It's too dangerous." Steven said in a very serious manner. Aurora came near to her father, looking up at him. He was a tall man, a head and shoulders taller than her but he was a wimp. He wouldn't even let her get a pokemon and now they were stopping Star living her dream! This wasn't right! She didn't want this, she wanted to go out and train pokemon! And she would, she swore silently to herself that minute, right there, she would train pokemon. "Dad, we're going to go on our journeys. We'll come back strong, with pokemon to protect us. You can't stop us!" Aurora said, her words got louder as she spoke. She shook, her fists clenched and her green eyes blazing at the injustice of it all. Couldn't they see logic! One incident and they couldn't even dream any more! "We're just looking out for your well-being." Steven said in such a calm manner it infuriated already angry girl. Aurora brought her fist down on the table, shaking the coffee cup sitting there. "You can't stop us! Star is going to be in the Hall of Fame and I'm going to have every single pokemon in the world, every single one of them strong! We don't need you!" Aurora screeched and tried to storm away. Steven grabbed her shoulder and dragged her back, his face red. "We're looking out for your well-being! I'm not having my girls go out and get themselves killed by psychopath pokemon!" Steven yelled and Aurora stepped back, shakily. She had never heard her father this angry before, nor had she ever heard him say things against pokemon...THEY had always been the tree-huggers. After all. "You can't stop us Dad!" she yelled and stomped up the stairs before her father could say anything more and threw herself back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling as if it was responsible for all of this. This was unfair! It was unfair! It was unfair! She screamed into her pillow, half-ashamed of herself. She was being so immature but it was unfair! She should be able to do what she liked! Grr...if only she had a pokemon! Then she'd show them! She'd show them, alright! She sat bold upright suddenly, she DID have a pokemon. Sort of. She grabbed her coat, causing her Sunflora to run away on her roots, screeching bloody murder. She pulled the pokeball out of her pocket, the rocket's pokeball and pressed the button on the front, enlarging the ball to it's full size. She raised it above her head and paused...what would come out? What if it killed her? So what? She could run, couldn't she? A reckless voice in Aurora's voice yelled and Aurora nodded. She was right! She could run. She was the third fastest runner in her class! She dropped the ball and it exploded in a flash of white light, revealing a serpent-like pokemon. Aurora was disgusted by what she saw, the snake's purple hue was faded and grey, like the yellow bands. The snake shied away and Aurora felt pity grip her heart for the poison type. Scars and bleeding wounds were visible on the pokemon's skin, which was loose about it's starved body. She stepped forward and the pokemon hissed and spat a glob of acid. She dodged to the side and twisted her body about, expecting to see a huge chunk missing off her bed. The acid wasn't even effective...Aurora looked at the pitiful pokemon as the Ekans backed away and hissed. "I won't hurt you." Aurora assured the snake in a gentle tone. The snake slithered away, to the corner of the room, not looking at all convinced, "Please, I can help. Ekans, just go back into the ball." Ekans didn't seem happy about it, but it submitted itself into the ball, disappearing in a ray of red light. Aurora stood up and pocketed the ball, she had decided. She was going to get out of here and get Ekans healed. Tipping her money jar over, she slipped the money into her inside coat pocket. She was taking it all, she had no idea how long it would be until she got some more money. Walking downstairs, she decided to leave her coat with Ekans' pokeball in it upstairs for now. She opened the cupboard and decided she would make herself some sandwiches for the road. Carefully, she made various sandwiches and wrapped them, throwing in a chocolate biscuit for later. "What are you doing?" a suspicious voice said. Aurora looked up from the table at her father, who was sitting on the sofa, not looking at her. "Making myself a sandwich." Aurora said, well, technically she wasn't lying. She just wasn't telling him in detail. Blocking the stack from view, she looked at her father. He was in a state, he looked older somehow, his glazed green eyes staring into the TV screen, the light highlighting the grey hairs among the dark brown. She shook her head, she had made her decision. She couldn't change her mind now. Creeping upstairs, she found her school bag and spilled the contents on the floor, putting her sandwiches inside instead as well as a notebook and a pen. That could be useful. She grabbed her coat and put it on, slinging her bag over her shoulder, stomping down the stairs. "I'm going out!" she yelled. "Oh no you're not!" Steven said, grabbing her by the shoulder, freezing as he saw the bag slung over her left shoulder, "Where are you going? What do you think you're doing, after I told you as..." "Dad, I'm going out ok!" Aurora said, wriggling free of her father's grip and opening the front door. Steven watched, his rage building up swiftly inside him. "Aurora Greenslate! If you go out of that door, you will be in serious trouble young lady! I'm warning you!" he yelled. Aurora stuck her tongue out and stepped outside, staring at her father rebelliously. "Aurora!" he yelled, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her inside, "Aurora, you are NOT going out, not after yesterday. Are you completely stupid?" Steven released her and Aurora looked down at the red ring about her wrist, rubbing it and glaring at her father. She just wanted to do something with her life! Couldn't they understand? She wanted to go out and live her life how she wanted! "Aurora, get to your room. I don't want to hear a peep out of you all day." He said and Aurora stomped upstairs. He didn't hear a peep out of her all day. In fact, he wouldn't for weeks as Aurora Greenslate had sneaked out the back way before Steven noticed. Aurora ran down the street, Ekans' pokeball in hand, her bag bouncing against her back. Oh, what a predicament, she thought silently to herself as the pokemon centre loomed ahead. She had kept to the main pathways, not wanting a repeat of yesterday's fiasco so far, not daring to stop for breath. She had to get the hell out of here before her father realised she was gone and came snowballing down on her, shouting and bawling all the way. The metallic blue door of the healing centre opened up for her and she dashed past the other trainers, sending a boy about her own height stumbling away into his Charmander as she fought her way through the loose crowds, reaching the desk. "I have...an...injured...pokemon." she panted. The nurse furrowed her brow at the girl leaning on her counter, running a hand through her dark black curls. "Alright...alright. Came down dear. Let me see the pokemon." She said, Aurora nodded and took the pokeball out of her pocket, tapping it and releasing Ekans, who was less than happy to be surrounded by humans. It snapped at he nurse as she extended her slim fingers towards him, blue eyes full of pity for the injured pokemon. Her gaze, however, turned steely and cold as it met the other human's. "What were you doing? This poor thing looked starved half to death. Looks like it's been beat as well. They can have your license for this girl, are you aware of that?" she said in a very icy voice, glaring at the girl. Aurora shifted uncomfortably, casting her eyes down to her feet, which fidgeted uncontrollably. "I found it in the wild. I think it was recently abandoned." She muttered. The nurse didn't looked too impressed with her story, Aurora was worried. Would the nurse try and get it back to it's original owner? Her stomach churned, she couldn't let Ekans go back to that Rocket! "Oh what do I care! This pokemon needs healing and here I am listening to the stories of a silly girl!" the nurse said, "Aipom!" A purple monkey swung in on his tail, grinning eccentrically at the humans. Aurora thought it looked a bit mad, with those wide crazed eyes and insane grin. The nurse put a note into Aipom's paws. "Aipom, deliver this to mister Goka, the man with the big brown beard and take two potions, those are the spray bottles with the purple colours. Like your fur." She explained patiently to the girl while running her finger's across Ekans' body. The Aipom did a mock salute and swung off, note in paw. Ekans lay, allowing the nurse to check it all over. "She seems to be badly wounded and scarred. There seems to be no damage to her organs or any other innards." The nurse said, mostly to herself. Aurora looked up. "Ekans is a girl?" she asked. The nurse looked at her sceptically. "Of course she is, dear." She said as she gently nudged Ekans over onto her back. The snake released a faint hiss as the girl dragged her finger across her stomach. The nurse shook her head. "She's hungry. It's got to a point where she's so very hungry that her stomach is beginning to hurt. She's also very dry. It seems as if SOMEBODY neglects and abuses their pokemon." The nurse cast her gaze towards Aurora and she opened her mouth to protest but was shushed immediately. Aipom returned, clutching two potions in his tail, grinning maniacally, seemingly oblivious to the injured Ekans on the desk. "Why don't you just use the machine?" Aurora blabbed out, pointing to the healing machine. "We generally reserve that for trainers with a lot of pokemon. It's a waste of power using it on one pokemon." She said before adding to the Ekans, "Not that you're a waste dear. I'd say you should go sit down girl." Aurora left obediently, sitting in the sofa area, sipping the tea that a Chancey had brought her, mulling over the past two days events. She picked up a magazine, it was a battling magazine with a picture of the three Kanto Eevee evolutions on the front, surpisingly it wasn't outdated either. Which, for Silverfish Town was a small miracle. Recent reports show that crime is on the rise on Tuenn. "No duh..." Aurora muttered to herself. It seems that the Kanto crime group, Team Rocket, has started causing mayhem here. Why the sudden change, Tuenn authorities are not aware. There are no exclusive pokemon on Tuenn, at least nobody's discovered any. There have only been one recorded legendary sighting here, and that was of Latias flying, where Latias could be now is for anybody to guess... The magazine slipped from her hand as Aurora fell into a light, dreamless sleep. It didn't last long, the nurse that had attended Ekans was soon prodding her awake. "Wake up dear." She said in a low voice. "Whuzzat?" Aurora said, opening her eyes blearily and looking about. Where was Ekans, "Whuzekans?" "...I'm presuming that you're asking about Ekans. She is healed and ready to go. Don't push her so hard," She said, picking Aurora up of the couch and standing her up. Aurora grinned, she could go now! Wait...she didn't have a license to train pokemon yet. It was, of course, a simple case of getting to Tuenn's lab, which lay somewhere to the east in Sussuri village. She didn't know how long that would take though... "Excuse me, do you have a spare map I could have?" she asked in the most polite way she could muster. The nurse turned around, looking thoughtfully up at the ceiling, "Well, we've got one on the wall you could look at but none you could have. Don't you have a Pokegear or a Pokenav or whatever?" she asked. Aurora shook her head and received a loud 'tut' from the boy behind her. She twisted herself around to face the boy, who was sitting and reading a magazine, his Charmander napping next to him. "Do you have a problem with that?" she asked. The boy shook his head and looked back down at his magazine. Aurora strode off to the counter, Ekans sat there swallowing what looked suspiciously like a Rattata. Her colour wasn't as bright as most Ekans, but it had lost the grey tone to it that it had before and a nice tint had returned to it. She looked up, not quite as distrustful as before but her yellow eyes, now bright, still looked at the girl with unease. "Hello Ekans," Aurora cooed, the Ekans slithered forward slowly, licking the hand that had reached over to pet her on the head. Uncertainly, Ekans allowed the pat before being returned to her pokeball to rest. Aurora looked up at the map above, tracing a finger across the route she'd have to follow. It was easiest to just go south and get a ferry from Port Nebula. She had no clue, however, how much a ferry would cost. The first gym, however, was to the north. Quite a while further than that would be a rather large bridge which would drop her directly off at Sussuri. Making a quick decision, she decided it would be best to go past Chestnut Town then to the first gym in Spectrum City and cross the bridge. She nodded. Yes, this seemed correct. First though, there was a case of pokemon supplies. She looked at the money filling her pocket, it looked like a lot but good pokeballs and the like were expensive nowadays. She left the pokemon centre and headed to the mart, these thoughts filling her mind. After buying around three pokeballs and few other supplies (including a collar which, conveniently enough, translated pokemon speech). She walked onto the first route, wondering if she should call her parents once she reached Chestnut. They would be worried soon enough. "Hey kid!" a voice called, she twisted around to see a tall, thin girl running up the path, her light pink hair tied back in a single plait that fell down to her waist. Aurora stopped as the girl approached, panting and holding a silver and red sphere in here hand. "Hey..hey...you dropped this." She said, handing Aurora the orb. She dropped to the ground and released her Ekans, who looked well rested, though the scars were still horribly visible on her skin. "Thank you." Aurora said, stooping down to fix the collar around Ekans' neck. The snake tried to twist away but the collar was fixed easily across her neck. "What is this?" Ekans said in a rather quiet, hissing voice. "It's a collar. It's so I can understand you Ekans," Aurora explained. Ekans flicked her tail, "So, what's your name Ekans?" "My name...well...my old owner...used to call my unit F19." She said with a shudder. Aurora closed her eyes, deciding to pursue such matters on a later date, "How does Poison sound?" Ekans looked down, clearly unsure of what to say. "Well...I don't like it but you're my master..." she said in an undertone, the word master full of bitterness. "If you don't like it...you don't have to have it you know. You could just be Ekans. Or Sha or Twist or..." she blabbered. Ekans interrupted her with a rattle of her tail at the name 'Twist'. She guessed Twist it was. "Hey, kid, do you want to have a pokemon battle?" the girl asked, grabbing a pokeball from her belt and enlarging it. Aurora grinned and nodded. Twist shyly slithered forward on her stomach, looking slightly scared. She paused...she had no clue what Twist was capable of yet. She hadn't an equipment to check so...she would just have to trust the Ekans to do the right thing at the right time and so on and so forth. "Great, I'm Sara by the way," She said, removing a pokeball from her belt and throwing it onto the ground, "I choose you, Vulpix!" A Vulpix appeared in a flash of white light, crying out a bark that sounded like it's name. The red-brown fox pokemon threw a flame into the air, grinning and showing pearly white teeth, snapping at Ekans, who dodged the blow swiftly in a nervous fashion. The Vulpix gave a barking laugh before stepping back, lithe paws dancing across the grass and his six tails spread out like a fan behind him. The fox reclined and licked his paws in a relaxed way, beady brown eyes closed. "Vulpix, tackle!" Sara commanded, pointing at Twist. "Twist...uh...dodge." Aurora said uncertainly. Vulpix charged forward Twist easily slithered away, head barely an inch above the ground, the grass stroking the sides of her smooth serpentine body. The fire type fox turned around and growled loudly at the serpent, barking and spitting out a deep crimson ember at the snake, which hit Twist on the back. The snake hissed loudly as the flames were put out, leaving a charred red and black mark where they had previously been. She threw her head around, eyes narrowed and glowing bright red with malice. Vulpix stumbled backwards, his brown eyes fixed on Twist's yellow ones. "Vulpix! It's just a leer attack, shake it off!" Sara yelled, rather angry with her fox pokemon for falling into Twist's trap. The serpent darted forward and snapped at the Vulpix's heels, catching one of his front legs in his tight jaws. This woke Vulpix up, with a snarl, she thrashed about, the serpent held on until the Vulpix flipped over onto her back, throwing the snake pokemon off easily. The Ekans flew through the air and landed with a loud thump on the ground, shaking his slightly bruised head, the purple and yellow snake inched her way forward before launching another attack at Vulpix, trying to catch a tail in her mouth. Vulpix was on the alert this time thought, and spat an ember attack at the pokemon before she could land hers. "Vulpix, keep using Ember!" Sara cheered for her pokemon, a bright smile stretching across her face now. The fox pokemon shook his head and ran forward, heels kicking up sand as he ran about the snake pokemon in confusing, fast patterns. "Twist...do...something!" Aurora practically pleaded her pokemon. Sara cast a look towards her, one brow raised. "You don't know your own pokemon's attacks?" she said with a snorting laugh. Aurora scowled at the girl, annoyed by Sara's confidence. "I just started today. I suppose you're the expert?" Aurora spat at the other trainer. Sara blinked at her. "God, cool it. I was only saying. Anyway, use your pokedex to get a look at Ekans' attacks," the girl said, completely ignorant to the fact that Aurora was training illegally and without a pokedex. Vulpix was using speed to his advantage now, dashing at Ekans at odd moments and using Ember, with Twist countering this attack by snapping at the fox pokemon's heels. Vulpix inhaled deeply as Ekans managed to knock him to the ground and exhaled dark flames again, throwing the snake away. Vulpix jumped onto his feet, grinning at the thin snake, who looked less than happy. Vulpix leapt at the snake pokemon again, who simply slithered under the fox's stomach and coiled her long, thin body about the fox. Getting tighter every time she went around the body, Vulpix was soon gasping in pain. The fox threw himself to the side, pressing all his weight upon the lighter pokemon's body. Twist let loose a wild hiss and a gasp as she was thrown to the ground. Vulpix stood up and Twist remained still. "Ok...Vulpix, you win." Aurora said gruffly as she walked over to the serpent and picked her up. Twist instantly slithered around her trainer's shoulder's prodding at the pokeball on the other side of the waist. "I'll have to take you back to the pokemon centre now." She grumbled. She wasn't displeased with Twist, she was mostly disappointed in herself. She only knew that Twist knew wrap, bite and leer, she hoped this would be enough to get them through the routes southwards. "Oh...come here." Sara said, taking a potion out of her pocket and spraying it over Twist. She snapped at Sara's fingers as the stinging liquid went into her bruises and cuts, healing them in a rather painful way. Aurora looked up at Sara. "Thanks." She muttered, still grumpy about her loss. "Oh, you'll get over it. Most people lose their first battle and besides you were against Vulpix and me so you barely had a chance. And you're Ekans isn't even level 7 yet. I was checking on my pokedex before," Sara said, standing up proudly as Vulpix wandered forward to be returned to his ball. "I wasn't aware of that," Aurora snapped, continuing to walk. She returned Twist safely into her pokeball and stuffed the metallic sphere in her pocket, as Sara jogged beside her, rather like an annoying fly. "Come on, you at least should of looked at your pokemon's attack and level before you decided to battle. And then you should of looked at mine and considered what you were up against and..." Sara began to blabber but Aurora raised her hand to cut her off. "I don't actually have a pokedex," she told Sara coldly. Sara stared before opening her mouth, shaking her head and closing it again. "That's bad. You can have your pokemon taken from you if you haven't got your pokedex. That count as your license as well you know. It stores your trainer's card and everything," Sara yapped, she folded her thin arms and looked down at Aurora in a disapproving manner, "You ARE going to get it, aren't you?" "Of course, do you think I'm stupid?" Aurora said in the most polite voice that she could muster, Sara really was annoying her now. If she didn't get some quiet soon she might have to strangle her. What a tragedy that would be. "Well, I'm coming with you until you do," Sara said, Aurora inwardly groaned and her brain seemed to scream. She had never met such an interfering person in her life, "What's your name?" "Aurora Greenslate." Aurora said in a dry voice as she wandered onto her first route, with the most annoying partner you could find.