Chapter 27: Problems at Home
I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Neither could my new Golbat. It was all golden with a golden Poké Ball on top and wings on either side. The Orange League trophy. And once we got home and got some R&R, we would set off for the Jolt League. According to Zach, the Jolt League trainers are much harder than the Indigo trainers, which is why there aren't as many people in the Jolt League as there are in Indigo.
"Hey bro, how much longer until we reach Vermillion City?" I asked.
"Shouldn't be more than a couple hours." Zach said, eating a cheese sandwich.
Josh was taking a nap in the cabin while Megan was feeding her Pokémon. Raichu was playing with Beedrill while Politoed was swimming briskly along the water. Just then, Politoed jumped up, holding it's bottom. Looking down, the frog saw that Kingdra had poked it with one of its horns. Kingdra just giggled as Politoed belly flopped the sea dragon.
"Hey! Are you two gonna fight, or catch up?" I yelled out.
Kingdra and Politoed stopped fighting just in time to see us about 100 feet away. Both Pokémon raced towards the boat at top speed. In order to gain a boost, Politoed jumped off Kingdra's head, sending it underwater, and managed to land on the boat. As Kingdra looked off, it saw Politoed with its tougne out and holding down the bottom of its eyelid. Mad, Kingdra decided to get even in a big way. Water gathered around it as it created a huge wave, heading straight for the boat.
"Kingdra! Don't use Surf! Stop it!" I tried to yell.
Kingdra wouldn't listen, heading straight for Politoed. Before it could connect, though, I returned it to its Poké Ball. However, the wave still collided near us, shaking the boat a great deal. Raichu, Machop, Pichu, and the other Pokémon tumbled around the boat, as Zach desprately tried to control the boat. Beedrill and Golbat didn't have a problem since they could fly. Finally, the water settled down long enough for us to catch our breath. I was soaked.
"Nice job." I glared at Politoed, who shrunk.
Josh came up from the cabin.
"Geez. What was that? I had such a good dream too." he said, smiling.
"Politoed and Kingdra got in another fight. We gotta stop this." I said.
"I'll say! Can't you two at least TRY to keep your Pokémon from fighting!" Zach yelled out.
Raichu went over to the side of the boat to relieve its sudden seasickness. Machop joined him soon after. In the corner, Flareon sat and watched us all with a sad face.
"Huh? What's wrong Flareon? You seasick too?" I asked.
Flareon just shook its head.
"Maybe it's hungry." Megan suggested.
Once again, it shook its head.
"It probably is upset for losing to Sebulba in the match from last chapter." Josh said.
Flareon shook its head once again. All three of us were stumped. What was he so down about? I went up to Zach to see what he had to say.
"So, Flareon's down in the dumps huh?" Zach asked.
"Yea. It's not seasick, hungry, or upset about the match with Sebulba." I said.
Zach told me what he thought, and I went to tell Josh and Megan.
"He thinks Flareon is homesick?" Josh asked.
"Is that right, Flareon?" I asked.
Flareon just stared off into space, not making any kind of motion.
"It has been almost a year since we went to the ranch." Josh said.
I talked to Zach and we decided to make a detour to the Pinker Ranch. Raichu and Machop didn't like the sudden turning. Flareon pipped up when it heard we were gonna go down to the ranch. Raichu was sad that we delayed it seeing Amy, but I told it that we were going there next. Then Raichu was happy again. We had to make a detour near Celadon City because it was almost nightfall. That night, Flareon could barely sleep a wink. It tossed and turned all night with a smile on its face. The next morning, we set out once again. Well, after dragging Josh and Zach along before they found the Department Store and Game Corner again, we were off. Luckily, Celadon and Fuschia aren't very far apart, and it only took a few hours to get to where we needed to go.
"Hey! There it is!" Josh said, looking out in the horizon after we got into the dock near Fuschia.
Sure enough, there it was. The Pinker Pokémon Ranch. The place was the exact opposite of the last time we visited there. Then, the place was a complete wreck thanks to a rogue Venusaur, which I managed to catch with Flareon's help. There were a bunch of Mareep grazing on the grass while some Tauros pass the time in their section of the farm. Some Miltank were eating some hay and sleeping in another part and a Growlithe was rounding up a bunch of mischevious Ponyta. There, checking up on the health of one of the Miltank, was Mr. Jones, the head of the ranch.
"Hey Mr. Jones! How's it going?" I said, running down the hill with Golbat and Flareon.
"Huh? Hey! Matthew! Zach! Josh! How are you doing?" Mr. Jones said upon seeing us.
We got down as fast as we could. Flareon was running at high speed and jumped into its friend's arms. As Flareon smothered Mr. Jones with its tougne, we finally made it down to the ranch. We introduced Mr. Jones and Megan to each other. Megan couldn't believe how big the farm was and how he could handle all this with just his Growlithe.
"Yea. It is bigger. I don't remember there being so many Miltank and Ponyta last time." I said.
"Well, after you caught that Venusaur, the ranch was getting back to its peak performance. Soon the ranch was pulling in more money that I could handle. Demand became so grand they gave me more land and Pokémon to care for. But it was too much for me & Growlithe. I tried to hire some help, but these financial people said it was a waste of money." Mr. Jones told us while holding Flareon.
"What? Since when has help become a waste of money?" I asked.
"Since this ranch became so big. After buying the land and Pokémon, the supplies have become over-saturated and profits are going down. Not a lot look like it, but I'm willing to bet a good chunk of those Pokémon are not healthy. It's too much for Growlithe and I alone."
"No problem! We'll help ya!" I exclaimed instantly.
"You will?" Mr. Jones asked.
"Sure. We always help out friends in need." Zach said.
And so, we were off to work. Zach, Golem, Pinsir and Scizor helped to replace the old posts with new ones. Josh taught many of the Pokémon Rest, so they could get better. Megan and I helped to groom some of the Miltank. Pichu was helping Megan out as Raichu and Graveler were carrying supplies to Zach and the others. The other Pokémon were helping out. Wisely, Josh and I didn't release Politoed and Kingdra. Growlithe and Flareon were running around randomly, talking and playing. It was around noon when we stopped to have some lunch. Mr. Jones made his specialty, Ceaser Salad. I woulda preferred some meat, but I guess that's not allowed on a ranch like this. Mr. Jones said all the meat was to be shipped to the stores. While we were having lunch, a large, black, limo drove up to the ranch. Outisde stepped two tall men in black suits and dark glasses, with a slightly shorter young man with jet black hair and a wiry moustache. By his side was a buffed-up Granbull. Mr. Jones went out to meet with them, leaving us watching.
"I told you yesterday, I will not sell!" he said.
"Ah, but you haven't heard our proposal yet. Ten million dollars for the ranch, all in cash." he motioned to his right-hand man, who produced several breifcases filled with cash.
"TEN MILLION DOLLARS!?" All of us shouted at once.
"Oh? And who are they? Did you finally find some help?" The moustached man said.
"These are friends of mine." He said without expression.
"Who is this guy?" Megan asked, worried.
"His name is Anthony Stragona. He wants to buy the ranch and have a monopoly on the market." Mr. Jones said.
All of us just looked at him blankly.
"Why would a guy like that want a monopoly?" I asked, puzzled.
"None of your concern." he said, "Now, if you would just accept this deal, we will be leaving." He pulled out a shiny handheld gun and pointed it straight at Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones didn't budge an inch. Suddenly, a giant fireball engulfed the gun, heating it too much for Anthony to handle. A small, red dog came bursting through, teeth bared.
"Growlithe..." Mr. Jones started to say. We all took battle positions. Golbat was ready to strike at any moment and Pichu let loose some shocks menacingly.
"So, you want to do this the hard way, eh?" Anthony said, pointing at Growlithe.
Just then, Granbull bared its teeth and rushed Growlithe. It was about to pounce on the dog Pokémon when a huge fire blaze sent Granbull into the ground.
"Flareon!" I said as the fire-type was standing right next to Growlithe, ready to attack.
"Hmm. I see I'll have to do this the hard way." Anthony said, snapping his fingers.
The two tall men produced larger handguns, and fired near our feet. Anthony said next time they won't miss. Mr. Jones was about to give in when Golbat let out an ear-piercing screeh. Growlithe and Flareon rushed the two and knocked away their guns. The two humans hit the ground and were knocked out. Granbull had recovered and started to attack us again. Pichu promptly let out a Thunderbolt to put the dog in its place. However, it wasn't beaten. Just then, both fire-types ran in front, and charged up. Granbull tackled them both, but that didn't faze them. Both their eyes glowed blood red as they were charging up.
"It's Rage!" Zach yelled.
Both Pokémon, enraged at Anthony for threatning us, combined their power to produce a huge Fire Spin column. The fire column engulfed the three humans, Granbull, and the limo, and sent all three into the air and out of sight.
"Nice job, you two." Mr. Jones said, as both Pokémon ran up to him and hugged him.
The next day, we decided to set off.
"Zach & I need to get back home. Our parents are probably worried sick." I said.
"Thank you for all your help. I think I'll be able to keep up the ranch with everyone knowing Rest." Mr. Jones said.
"Sure. No problem." Josh said.
"You'll be able to keep up with both Growlithe and Flareon helping you." I said.
Flareon, Growlithe, and Mr. Jones were surprised with this. I bent down to Flareon to explain my situation.
"Look. That 'Sopranos' reject may be back sometime. You need to help out Growlithe is keeping everything in place. Besides, you seem a lot happier here at peace than almost getting killed time after time with me." I said, petting Flareon's head.
Flareon looked a bit worried, but then nodded. We said our good-byes and waved at the three as we got to the top of the hill. As we were heading back to the dock, I wondered if I did the right thing. It was going to be hard winning a lot of battles from here on in without Flareon. At least I still have my others though. And Flareon deserves to be happy after all it did for me. While walking to the dock, however, we came across a strange traveler.
"Hey kid. How would you like your very own Pokémon egg?" the man said.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" I asked him.
"Here. I can't raise another Pokémon right now, so you can have it for free." he said, handing the egg to me. It was bright yellow with stripes all over the place, and a strange star on the top.
"Are you sure this thing is real?" Zach asked.
"Guarenteed!" the man said.
"OK, thanks a lot!" I said, holding the egg tightly in my arms.
After we were gone, the man went back into the forest, where a similar egg was sitting.
"Heh. Suckers. They got a special weak egg. With this machine, I can gauge how strong or weak an Egg Pokémon is." he said, holding the gadget in front of his egg. The readings reported that the Pokémon had low stats, "Huh? How can this be? Unless!" He checked the top, but it was yellow, no star. "Noooo!"
He ran to the docks just to see us leave on the boat. "Crap!"
As I sat in the boat, trying to keep my new egg warm, we were headed for Vermillion City. Luckily, time was on our side and we managed to make it there by morning. Also lucky for us was the fact that the weather was nice that day. Zach said that once we get some R&R we can book some plane tickets for New Bark Town, where I can register for the Jolt League.
"Mom! Dad! We're home!" I said, as the four of us came into the house. Strangely, there was no answer, even though the door had been unlocked. We saw a shadow coming from the hallway. Fearing that someone had broken in, I told Golbat to be on standby. My egg was in my backpack, keeping warm. Then, the shadow revealed itself.
"Dad?" Zach and I gasped in surprise. It wasn't like him to scare us like that. His face showed that something was wrong.
"Dad. What is it?" Zach asked.
Dad led us into the guest room, and we were shocked to find who was in it. It was Amy! And by the look on her face, she was suffering from some kind of illness. A bad one. Mom saw us and ran up to hug the two of us. Raichu came out of its Poké Ball when it heard Amy was sick. Josh and Megan went beside Amy and asked what had happened.
"Well, about a week ago, Amy had collapsed at her house. We had called hours later, and when she didn't answer, we rushed over there. After we got her into the hospital, the doctor said that she was suffering from a rare disease called kusomia. It affects the respiratory system and blocks the air and blood from coming in or getting out. The doctor also said that she must have had since birth, but it is hard to detect and proceeds slowly. On the outside it looks like arteries clogged with fat, but when they actually looked at it, they found the disease. Without medical treatment, her lungs and heart would automatically disintegrate. Luckily, the doctors have a medicine that slows down the process drastically, but it causes the taker to lose much of their energy, which is why Amy has been here all this time. The only times she has been awake are when it's time to eat or take the medicine."
All four of us were speechless about what Dad had to say. Mom was crying her eyes out. Raichu ran up to its former trainer and shook her lightly to wake her up.
"Uhh...Raichu?...Good to...see...you're OK." Amy said groggily.
"Amy! You feeling OK?" Zach asked, taking her hand and looking at her with worry.
"Not really...stupid disease...makes me stay in bed," she said, then coughed, causing all of us to jump in alarm, "Feel so...weak." She laid back on the bed, breathing heavily.
"All right, Amy. You go back to sleep and let the medicine do its job." Mom said, covering her shoulders up. Amy was back asleep within seconds.
Raichu could only sink into the floor after seeing the awful position Amy was in.
"If only we had..." then an idea came to Josh, "Hey Matt! Switch one of your Pokémon for your Staryu. It should know Recover already, and we can use that to help Amy fight the disease. "
"Good idea, Josh!" I said, grabbing my Pokédex. I selected the Pokémon I wanted to switch, and soon enough, one of my Poké Balls glowed white and was replaced by another one. I grabbed it and released Staryu.
"OK, Staryu, use your Recover to help cure Amy of that disease!" I said.
Staryu nodded, and its core began to glow red. Amy was being covered in red sparkles as the Recover seemed to be working. Staryu stopped, but Amy was still asleep.
"Huh? Didn't it work?" Megan asked.
Staryu talked in its own language about what was going on. Golbat translated for me.
"According to Golbat, Staryu isn't used to using the skill on humans, whose DNA is very different than a Pokémon's. Plus, it's never seen a disease like this one, and when it uses the skill, the cells keep multiplying very fast. Even faster when it gets tired and needs a break. Not only that, but to be fully cured, the walls of her lungs and heart also need to be restored, which is taking its toll. It said it'll take months for Recover to fully purge the disease by itself."
"Maybe if we had more than one Pokémon who knows Recover?" Megan suggested.
"The only one I have that can learn it is Abra, but it can't learn it until it evolves into a Kadabra." I said.
"Hmm. You know, it'll be hard, but I think I can rig a blank TM to teach Recover, since Abra can learn it naturally." Josh suggested.
I quickly ran to the phone and called Professor Oak and explained everything to him. He agreed to send both Abra and the Pokémon I switched for Staryu. Both Poké Balls soon arrived. I let out Abra for Josh to try to teach it Recover while Staryu continued to heal by itself. Raichu, Staryu, Mom, Zach, Josh, and Abra stayed in the room with Amy while the rest of us sat in the living room. I told Dad all about my adventures in the Orange League, from the busting of Butch & Cassidy's robbery attempt to foiling Kataki's plans against the Grand Masters to my battle with Josh Nickerson at Pummelo Island. I kindly left out the parts where we were in the hospital after our first encounter with Kataki.
"I got some good experience for the Jolt League, but now I'm not sure if I wanna go." I said.
Just then, Josh & Mom came out. Josh said that he managed to teach Recover to Abra, and both Pokémon are giving it their all. Luckily, Abras have good stamina when it comes to using Psychic powers, so it can make up for when Staryu gets tired. I went into the room where Zach and Raichu were cradling Amy's hands while the two Pokémon tried to cure Amy.
"You OK, bro?" I asked.
"Yea. I'm OK." Zach said, not really hearing what I had said.
My week-long trip that was supposed to be relaxing was anything but. Staryu was totally exhausted by weeks end, but Abra was teaching it how to use Recover correctly so it wouldn't use up so much energy. Abra, with it's ability to attack while sleeping, was basically using Recover 24/7. The only times it ever stopped were when Staryu was helping out and Abra needed to recover its own strength. Mom and Dad were worried if this was really going to work.
"Don't worry. I'll be here to help them out if they need it." I said.
"Well then. We had better get going then." Josh said.
"Huh? You're leaving?" Zach asked.
"Yea. We'd just be in the way if we stayed here. There's no way Megan and I could end up living here until Staryu & Abra are done, so I'm going to head out to become the world's greatest enthusiast. That's why I started my joruney, remember?" Josh said.
"And I'm going to help him out." Megan said.
"If we manage to capture a Pokémon that knows Recover, we'll be sure to send it here, OK?" Josh said, giving a wink and a thumbs-up.
I stood up and walked over to my best friend. Josh and I exchanged a friendly handshake as I wished the two of them good luck.
"Huh? You're not going with them?" Zach asked.
"Of course not! I'm going to stay here and help care for Amy." I said.
"Don't worry. I can take care of things here. Mom & Dad need some more money to pay for the medicine, so I am gonna take my old job at the dock back. You go on out and try out for the Jolt League. I'll call you if there's any change whatsoever." Zach said.
"But...I want to stay here and help out!" I exclaimed.
"Listen, bro. There's just not a whole lot you can do right now to change anything. If I know Amy, she would want you to accomplish your dream of being a Pokémon Master, and you can't do that sitting around here. She would hate for you to skip out on your dream like I did because of something like this." Zach explained.
"If I didn't know any better, I would think you didn't want me around." I said, smiling.
Mom & Dad couldn't help but smile at that comment. The first time they smiled since they found out about Amy. I finally agreed, but told Zach that I would call him every day to check up on things. The next morning, Zach and Raichu saw us off at the airport. I decided that it would be too risky to bring along Raichu since it was so worried about Amy. Just then, the intercom announced boarding for New Bark Town.
"All right, here you go. Good luck bro. Now you won't have me to get you out of any jams." Zach said.
"You haven't gotten me out of anything since Fuschia, which was months ago." I said, forcing a smile.
"See ya, Zach. Now I don't have anyone to compete with in Pokémon knowledge." Josh said.
"Yea, Matt isn't exactly the next Professor Oak." Megan commented.
Raichu squeaked in agreement.
"Hmph." I said.
"It'll be weird with just the three of us. Take care, Zach." Megan said, giving Zach a good-bye hug.
"Don't worry about me, it's you guys I'm worried about. Hopefully you guys can make it without me." Zach said.
"Hey, I got three badges and caught 5 Pokémon before you came along." I said.
They were announcing final boarding on the intercom.
"See ya bro. Bye Raichu." I said, giving both of them a hug. Golbat and Raichu said good-bye to each other, as did Pichu. Josh and Megan said good-bye as well, as we boarded the plane. I knew Zach was making all of those jokes just to cover up his sadness about Amy.
Zach and Raichu watched the plane take off from the windows at the airport. I had a window seat and could see both of them. As we waved good-bye to each other, I fell into my seat, wondering if I had made the right decision.
To be continued...
<< Previous Chapter/Back to Main Page/Next Chapter >>