route_1065 | Welcome Carter

Welcome Carter

Who: Blake, Shaun, and eventually Norman
Where: Outskirts of Violet City
When: Feb. 16, afternoon
Summary: Blake gets to Violet and meets somebody who isn't happy to see him.
Rating: PG-13 for Blake's mouth
Log:

A week. A solid fucking week of tramping on foot through woods and fields full of rats, birds, and giant bugs that all wanted a piece of him. This morning a caterpillar the size of a Dachshund tried to crawl up his leg and he kicked it into a lake.

Steve Buscemi was dealing with it like a champ, though. Blake never would've thought the little dog had it in her. She'd been biting the shit out of everything and leaving a trail of cold-cocked rats and pigeons behind her. Good thing, since the turnip did nothing but flop around like a moron.

He had both of them put away in the little baseball things, after trying it a couple times just for a few seconds to make sure they wouldn't suffocate or anything. He didn't need to be hauling around spheres of dead animal. The pink piggy-bank thing that hatched on the night of the blackout thought dodging the laser was some kind of game, so he gave up and let it float along behind him. He'd woken up to the thing chewing on his head.

The best lead he had was Norman Jayden. Fuck if that's not worse than giant killer ladybugs.

He was supposed to meet up with him here, but now that he was on the fringe of the town he wasn't in any hurry. The son of a bitch was going to be smug enough about catching the Origami Killer without adding in being the one who knew how this world worked. And sooner or later he was going to have to deal with Shaun Mars, the kid convinced he'd killed his father.

What do you know. There was somebody kid-sized in the grass by the road. It couldn't be. Blake's luck wasn't that horrible.

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In his daily training excursions, Shaun went into the long grasses on the Violet City end of Route 30, since the pokemon there were lower-leveled than on the other Routes, and he was training Calvin up by letting him handle as many individual battles as he could, instead of relying on the bait-and-switch technique.

On that particular day, he was hot on the trail of a Pidgey who had almost beat Calvin with a lucky Gust the day before - the excited little Pichu wanted revenge, and since Calvin needed the experience Shaun was willing to let him at it.

But then he heard a voice that he knew too horribly well. He dove into the wild grasses, pulling Calvin close to his chest and putting a hand over the Pichu's mouth, peering out through the grasses until he was sure who it was he was seeing. He's probably not being half as stealthy as he thinks he is, given that he's 11 and this is a cynical, hardened cop he's trying to hide from.

That had to be Shaun Mars. The look of horror and dive into the grass confirmed it. Blake was used to people not being happy to see him. Things like Korda tossing coffee in his face and making a break for it were practically routine. What he didn't usually get was kids being scared of him. Most of the time when he dealt with them during his job, it was because somebody'd been killed and they were too out of it to give a damn about some cop.

Blake stopped on the road and sighed.

"Get up, kid."

The little balloon thing floated over and sank down into the grass. It nudged Shaun with its head, making an inquisitive "Munna?"

Shaun didn't move for a long moment, didn't even breathe, even when the lieutenant addressed him. Maybe if he just pretended he wasn't there, the man would go on and leave him alone.

But then the pokemon floated over and nudged him, and he almost fell over, standing up to get his feet back under him. Calvin squirmed and flailed out of his arms, bouncing as he caught himself on the ground, cheeks sparking as he scowled at the invasion of his trainer's personal space.

He looked at the angry little Pokemon, and then at the floating pig, and then ignored the hammering of his heart and looked at the pig's trainer with a glare.

"Battle me."

"Goddammit, Mark Wahlberg, get back here."

The Munna floated up curiously. Being very young, it didn't know if people often greeted each other by falling on the ground.

The little yellow bunny thing looked mad, but not real intimidating. Electricity zapping around an animal's face didn't even bother Blake much anymore. What the kid said, though, that took him by surprise.

Blake's brows furrowed. "What?"

Shaun stepped out of the grass and onto the path, crossing his arms over his chest and shifting his weight to one side. Confident as he's trying to look, there's an unease in his posture and on his face, a fear that brings out his father's image in him (in a smaller package, of course).

"That's what you do when you meet another trainer on the road. I challenged you, you have to battle me."

Calvin looked up at his trainer in excitement. "Pi?"

For a split second, the way Shaun holds himself reminds him of cornering Ethan on the hotel rooftop. But that was a crazy bastard about to jump, and this is an eleven-year-old with some kind of trauma delusion.

The Munna floated over by his shoulder, seeming to understand the word battle. It had happened a few times before that some people on the road wanted to fight his animals with theirs. A lot of them were kids who shouldn't have been out on their own at all, let alone challenging strangers to dogfights. There wasn't any way of get rid of them besides accepting. One guy had followed him for half a mile. Shaun didn't look like he was going to give up, either.

"All right, all right," he said resignedly.

Beating up his pets, that'll help. He could hear Jayden yelling at him already.

"Here, I'll send out this guy."

He gave the Munna a push to send it floating out into the space between them.

When Blake accepts the challenge, Shaun uncrosses his arms and looks down at Calvin. Calvin looks up at him.

"Are you okay to battle, Cal?" he asked. The Pichu bounced happily and nodded, sparks flying off of his cheeks. "Okay, then go, Calvin!" The Pichu jumped forward.

"Calvin, use Thundershock!"

That little thing wouldn't be much of a threat. Blake had fought plenty of other little rat monsters, though none exactly like this one. How much different could it be?

That's what he was thinking right when it electrocuted the shit out of his pig-balloon.

The Munna hit the ground and rolled on its back, legs twitching. It was out cold. Maybe Blake should have been taking this more seriously.

"So much for that one," Blake muttered to himself. He zapped it back into a ball and tossed out another.

"Spiro Agnew! Do something useful!"

Interpreting that as a command to use Tail Whip, the Hoppip bounced from side to side and waggled its tail playfully.

Blake smacked himself in the forehead.

"God damn it, turnip."

Edited 2013-02-18 04:12 (UTC)

Calvin wiggled in excitement, waiting for the next pokemon to come out. Shaun didn't know if he liked how it felt, watching the little pink pokemon hit the ground. The bottom of his stomach dropped out, but he didn't have room for conflict.

The little Hoppip (he'd encountered them before - his Pokedex had told him all about them already) that came out didn't look very threatening either - it was a little bigger than Calvin, but Calvin was a baby so that didn't count. Calvin faltered a little, but sparks flew from his cheeks again.

"Use ThunderShock again!" Shaun said. Calvin braced himself against the ground and obeyed again.

Spiro was hovering just off the ground when the lightning hit it. it yelped, leaves sticking straight up. When the shock stopped it was still on its feet, though wobbling a little.

Carter was getting fed up. "Come on, attack it!"

The Hoppip used Splash! It waved its stubby little arms and bounced around.

It did fucking nothing.

Calvin glanced back over his shoulder at Shaun in disbelief. Shaun bit his lip uncertainly, and then slumped his shoulders.

"Keep using ThunderShock," Shaun said. Calvin shrugged as much as he could, and braced himself against the ground so that he didn't shock himself as he obliged.

Spiro didn't last long. All it did was flop around and wag its tail once more. Soon it was slumped on the ground. Enough fucking around. Blake zapped it back and sent in the heavy pink dog artillery.

"Steve Buscemi! Bite it with fire!"

The Snubbull leapt in with an enthusiastic Fire Fang.

Edited 2013-02-18 05:09 (UTC)

Neither Calvin nor Shaun saw the Fire Fang coming. The flames licking off of the teeth of the angry pink dog made Shaun scream in terror, and the hit landed soundly, with Calvin's trainer unable to tell him to evade.

The Pichu crumpled to the ground, down but not out, staggering on his four little paws with a feeble "Pi..." as he tried to stay up.

"Calvin!" Shaun cried, picking up the little mouse in his arms and cradling it gently. "Y-you did good...It's okay, you're gonna be okay." He took Calvin's pokeball and returned him with a shaking hand.

The look on his face when he stood up again, a new pokeball in his hand, was the same hatred that he had when he first saw Blake through the Pokegear.

"Go, Susie!"

The Buizel appeared in a flash of white light.

"Quick Attack!"

"Oh, shit, sorry kid-" Carter started, alarmed. Jesus, he didn't mean to beat the hell out of the thing.

He could hear Norman already. Christ, Carter, is terrorizing children just what you do in your time off?

The little rat thing had to be okay. They always were, no matter how beat up they got. Still, the kid was glaring pure hatred at him.

Steve whimpered. Had she done something wrong? She'd gotten a little out of hand, but wasn't fighting what she was meant to do? But the little boy was sad and frightened. She pawed at the ground uncertainly, ears flattened.

She barely saw the thing that leapt out and sent her flying. She rolled a few times in the dirt and hopped up.

This one looked like a ferret wearing an inner tube.

Carter rubbed the back of his neck. "Tackle it or something."

Steve moved cautiously to obey, though her heart wasn't really in it.

Shaun had never let any of his own pokemon faint before. That was one of the few times that any of them had ever gotten so close, since Shaun had gotten good at telling when they were starting to get tired and knew when to switch out or give them a potion.

The guilty whimpering from the little pink dog in a dress snapped Shaun out of his blind fury, and he looked at her and swallowed. It didn't look like the quick attack did too much damage to her - surprised her more than anything, and Shaun was glad, but...he had to beat her because one of them had to win. And it was going to be him.

It wouldn't do anything to bring his dad back, or even properly avenge him, but...it would be something.

"Susie, dodge!" he yelled when he saw the little dog hesitantly run forward to tackle Susie. "Then use SonicBoom!"

Susie dropped to all fours and bounded out of the way, and then stood up and opened her mouth to let out a loud, shrill cry. Shaun covered his ears.

The ferret thing was fast. Before Blake could react, it got up on its hind legs and let out a screaming noise that made his bones vibrate.

Steve Buscemi was knocked back. She got up and scowled in determination. She didn't want to make the boy sad, but she didn't give up on a fight so easily.

"Try again, Steve!"

She nodded with a low "Snub" and charged.

The second tackle connected solidly, and Susie went skidding back a few feet, knocked off-balance. She wasn't badly hurt, though, and responded to Shaun's flash of concern with a cheerful "Buizel!" after shaking herself head to toe. Shaun smiled.

"Alright," he said, hands still cupped over his ears. "SonicBoom again!"

When the soundwave hits, Steve sways on her feet, rocks back and forth, and finally faceplants into the dirt.

"Come on back," Blake said, and zapped her into one of the balls.

The kid looked expectant, waiting for the next. Blake held up empty hands. "I'm out."

He put the balls back in their bag. He wasn't sure what you were supposed to say when a kid who thinks you murdered his dad beat up your dog with his ferret. Shaun knew what he was doing, though, that was clear.

Blake shrugged the bag back on his shoulders. "Not bad, kid."

Shaun was expecting the man to have more pokemon than that. He wasn't exactly expecting it to be as much of a shut-out as it was, and he shifted uneasily on his feet. Susie blinked up at him and looked between them in confusion.

It's a long moment before Shaun speaks. "You should go to the Pokemon center." Then he adds, reluctantly: "I'll go with you to make sure they're okay."

Blake was still pretty new at this. He hadn't picked up many of the little things yet. He shouldn't have been surprised; it seemed like everybody under 18 here lived and breathed this dogfight stuff.

He glanced at the kid, surprised by the offer. "Yeah, I'll take them there."

That reminded him, and he dug in his backpack until he felt the little spray bottle. He checked that it was labeled POTION and handed it to Shaun.

"For your mouse thing," he muttered.

Shaun used to beat Jason at the old games all the time. The fact that he hadn't played for two years and was now living it instead of playing it didn't mean that the mechanics weren't entirely lost on him (it was just the strategy he had to rethink).

He looked genuinely surprised when the man handed him the potion, and if it weren't for the fact that he had used them before and knew what it was, he wouldn't have taken it. But he did, with a hesitant hand, and eyed Carter suspiciously.

"He's a Pichu. ...Thanks."

He took out Calvin's pokeball and released him, kneeling down and scooping up the injured mouse. He sprayed the potion liberally onto the bite marks, and Calvin's ears twitched and his eyes brightened again as it took effect. He hadn't quite fainted, so he recovered fast enough, but Shaun still held the squirming little electric mouse protectively close. The observant might have noticed that his hands were still shaking as he applied the potion and then held the baby 'mon.

"C'mon. Susie, watch out for wild pokemon, okay?" The Buizel nodded and fell into step beside her trainer.

When Blake was a kid, they didn't have any of this crazy crap. They had baseball cards.

He was half-expecting the kid to throw it right back at him, and was relieved when he didn't. He seemed to have calmed down some.

It was weird to see the stuff work. It was hard to tell with the fur, but it looked like the bites and scratches actually started closing up. He wondered if it would work on people too. Probably gave humans cancer.

They walked for a while in silence before Blake said, "Guess we should give Norman a call."

Shaun wasn't exactly being friendly, and Susie had put herself between the two trainers so that she could get to Blake first if he went for Shaun. The boy was walking along staring at the ground, holding Calvin to his chest. The Pichu was being oddly cooperative, sensing that something was bothering his trainer and therefore staying quiet for the time being.

Was Shaun betraying his dad's memory just by walking with this guy?

...No, his dad wouldn't want him to just beat up the guy's pokemon and go on his way. And Shaun genuinely wanted to make sure that they were all gonna make it. He hoped they would - he didn't know what he'd do if he accidentally killed someone's pokemon. And the little pink dog thing had looked so worried and scared, too. Shaun wondered if that was because it was abused - he definitely wouldn't put it past the dad-killing policeman to beat the poor thing.

He'd talk to Norman about it.

"--Huh?" Shaun finally tuned in to the fact that Carter was addressing him.

The ferret kept giving Blake protective glares, like a guard dog on two legs. Even the damn animals acted like he'd done something wrong.

He hadn't done anything anybody else wouldn't have to save this kid. If there was anything this job had taught him, it was that real life didn't have plot twists and elaborate set-ups like a mystery novel. If it looked obvious that somebody did it, nine times out of ten it was because they had. Hell, everybody had thought Ethan Mars was the killer, including Ethan Mars. Holding back and not doing everything he goddamn could to save this kid, that would've been something to be ashamed of.

Shaun was quiet and withdrawn, but Blake hadn't really expected him to be chatty, anyway.

"I was supposed to meet up with Norman somewhere around here. Didn't figure I'd run into you first."

"Oh." Shaun lapsed into withdrawn silence again, staring at the ground in front of his feet. There was a little path up ahead, a passable part of the slope of one of the waist-high ledges that were impossible to climb up otherwise. Susie wasn't keen on forgetting the faces of people who made Shaun cry. It had taken a couple of days for her to warm up to Norman, and that had been with Shaun actually liking Norman right off the bat.

"He's probably back at the inn working on his big project. He never comes out training with me. I guess it's because he's already got the badge for this city, so he must be way too tough for any of the Pokemon around here." That last bit was said almost as a warning, like if Blake thought Shaun was tough, then Norman had to be even tougher, clearly, because he already had the badge.

Of course, if Blake didn't know what the badges were for, then the warning meant absolutely dipstick to him.

too bad for that PG-13 rating Shaun is 11

He's also much too young to buy the game he's in

but not too young to buy Pokemon!

that doesn't even have quicktime events to chop your finger off

it also doesn't gun down the fathers of little boys right in front of them

hey he only sort of maybe did that

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