Chapter 3- Two’s company, Eight’s a crowd…   

It was a short trip to begin with...but as we stepped off the path and into view of the large city I was awe struck. But as I continued looking down at the sprawling city below a thought suddenly crossed my mind as I blurted out "Where the hell are we?"

I then noticed that everyone's gaze was centered on me, and me alone. I turned to face our group and the looks on their faces said what they were thinking, as Jon shouted "ARE YOU STUPID?!" My response was to grin and rub the back of my head.

Rachel sighed and said to me "We're in the Sinnoh region."  

I nodded in response and then asked, "And this means what to me?"

Both Jon and JJ started laughing...rather hard at my little outburst...so hard in fact that JJ fell to the floor and started rolling along it. And that was really making me angry, however before I could raise a protest Buddy stepped in by saying "Come on guys give him a break, he did hit his head before he met us...it could be memory loss!"

This only made Jon laugh harder as he replied "Or...he could...be hitting those...Oran berries!" And still he laughed.  

All right by this point I was severely pissed off! I walked over to Jon and smiled as I slapped him hard across the face, and then one heartbeat later I was running as if my life depended on it. In truth it really did as Jon swiftly gave chase, leaving the others to follow behind us and the trail of lighting Jon was using to try and strike me down.

I had no idea how long I ran for, or how far I ran, but at one point I must’ve lost Jon because as I slowed to a stop I sighed, but my peace was short lived as one thing became clear to me.  

“Crap…I’m lost!”

The voice that approached me next was one I wasn’t expecting. “So, what are you going to do?”

I whirled around to face the speaker, but saw no one…which honestly kinda freaked me out, but then the speaker showed up, in the form of a Lombre. I smiled as I said “So, can you help me? Or are we supposed to stand here and talk all day?”  

The Lombre stood there for a moment and laughed as she spoke up… “Well I can help you, but first you have to do something for me.”

I looked skeptical and possibly a little confused as I asked “And that would be what exactly?” I still wasn’t too convinced when she gave her answer.  

“Well, I need help finding someone…a friend of mine, he lives in the nearby forest and I haven’t heard from him in weeks. I just want to make sure he’s okay.”

I nodded reluctantly and asked a question “So, what’s your name?” The Lombre smiled as she replied “My name’s Treith” I must’ve looked more confused than I meant to be cause she then said “Relax I get that look all the time.”  

I blushed at my mistake and said “Sorry.”  Treith smiled back and shook her head and replied by saying “Come on I’ll take you to the local pokemon center. It’ll be easier to get around the city that way.”  

I nodded but kept quiet for a moment before I asked another question that was on my mind. “If you don’t mind me asking what’s your friends name, just in case…”  

“Okay, his name is Josh, he’s a Meowth perhaps you’ve seen him around?” said Treith. I sighed and replied “Yes he’s with my traveling group…somewhere in this town…speaking of which, where the hell am I anyway?”  

Treith then laughed as she replied “heh…been hitting those Oran berries again huh?” I audibly snorted in anger as I shouted back “I don’t eat Oran berries, I don’t even know what they look like!”  

She just laughed harder and after catching the look on my face, she abruptly stopped much to my joy. She then cleared her throat and spoke “We happen to be in Jubilife City in the Sinnoh region!”

I sighed and muttered aloud by accident “Stupid cat bastard.” Treith looked confused as she asked “Who’s stupid now?” I looked up and laughed as I replied “Oh, no not you I was talking about Mewtwo…he woke me up and then just left me on my own…he’s the stupid bastard.”  

The female Lombre nodded her head and croaked “Fine by me. Come on let’s get going.”  

I nodded my head again and the two of us walked out of the alley way and for a short time we were both quiet and after a few minutes walk, we reached out destination. “Ahh….the pokemon center. This I suppose would qualify as a new experience for me.” I said.

The next thing I felt was a rather slimy appendage smack me across the face and honestly I didn’t know wither to be angry or out right disgusted as Treith for one reason or another glared at me as she said “You never told me your name…how do I know you’re telling the truth?”  

I wiped the slime left on my face off and stared at her for a moment before saying “First off my name is Rick the Squirtle, and second you didn’t need to hit me. All you had to do was ask.” I then turned as the door to the pokemon center opened up and I was staring at none other than Jon as he smirked and said “You left without your gift!”   


He then brought his Mega Punch down upon my skull knocking me out in a single hit…  

I may have been out cold, but I could still hear myself think, and that was always a good thing. My personal thoughts on the last few hours seemed to raise questions that I didn’t know I had. But aside from all those, one stuck out in my mind… ‘How the hell did this happen to me? Although with my memory loss which sucks by the way…I have no hope of ever finding out the answer to that question. Oh well…I do know one thing though, when I wake up I’m paying Jon back in triplicate! Now I can call two pokemon stupid bastards! Cool!’   


Two hours later…


I was finally starting to come to and my head still hurt! Stupid Jon…oh yes my payback was going to be grand!

I sat up for a moment and sighed as I felt my forehead and felt a rather large bump knowing that’s where he hit me. I frowned and checked myself over, and despite the lump on my head and the wires attached to my shell no doubt supplied by Nurse Joy, I was fine. I proceeded to rip the wires out and after that was done I stood up for a moment and although unsteady at first I quickly gained my footing back.

I then stared at a nearby window and decided to have a look. After two unsuccessful tries I finally climbed up on the sill and looked down as my face pressed against the glass. ‘Oh…crap.’ I thought to myself as I could easily see the three-story fall from this window. I stepped back from the window and hopped down to the floor and smiled.   

‘They must all think I’m still out of it. Oh, this is just getting better and better!’ I said to myself with a devilish grin.

After a few moments I had everything I needed set in place. I walked over to the door, which at my current size was huge. Lucky for me I knew a secret to these things…it had a glass window that I knew I could shatter easily enough…now to find something hard to strike it with. Then I saw the perfect tool…a syringe that Joy must’ve used on my while I was out. ‘Too easy.’ I thought still wearing my grin.

Several seconds later a loud crash and the sound of broken glass could be heard from the main lobby, and as expected the sound of running feet were coming closer and closer.

I smiled in spite of myself…this was going to be too much fun! The door to my room burst open and of course Nurse Joy was the first though it and I was waiting for a certain pokemon to notice my faked absence.

And sure enough after a moments silence Jon jumped up to the now open window and shouted with worry “Rick? Rick answer me?!” And for a fleeting moment I felt bad for what I was about to do…but then I just laughed mentally and inhaled.

As I did I took stock of how much fun this was going to be…I mean a lot of fun! But when I exhaled I was expecting Bubblebeam, which would’ve worked fine, but instead I got a large stream of ice cold water shooting straight for my intended target.

The attack landed straight and true and knocked dear Jon out of the window. I heard him scream like a girl as he plummeted down three stories to the ground below. I then took that moment to step from behind the door to face the rest of the group who had also appeared to see what had happened and I let loose a loud yell as I said “I’ve just learned a new attack! That must’ve been Watergun…awesome I feel like a legendary pokemon! I am so badass!”  

I walked over to the window and climbed up looking down at the ground and smiled as I saw Jon sprawled on the ground very much unconscious. Nurse Joy of course ran out of the room and went to reach the now injured Raichu as I called out from the window "Hey Jon…Sucks to be you!"  

I then laughed as I added "Ain't payback a bitch?!"  

Unfortunately for me I was  swiftly reunited with a rather painful sensation as a thunderbolt ripped through my body provided by JJ who I'm guessing was upset at me...I would've said I'm sorry but the fact that I was out cold again, before I hit the ground kind of made that impossible.

I am fortunate however that JJ's abilities aren't quite up to his brothers’ standards, or I may've been out for longer than five minutes. I was getting tired of having to wake up feeling pain.

I was sure of one thing this time...Jon was going to try and kill me. Now I'm sure you're wondering how I knew this while I was still coming around from being out cold...yeah well it wasn't that hard to figure out when I opened my eyes and saw him staring at me.  

Now of course that startled me but I was surprised to see that something was stopping him from beating the crap outta me. "Huh...a rather strong plastic window...." I then took the time to check myself over and noticing that I was unharmed made me smile as I was beginning to wonder just who this plastic cage was surrounding. However I got my answer when Jon let loose with a Thunder attack only to see the lighting attack take the form of a giant cube. “So this is your little prison…sweet!”

My joy was short lived however as I was swiftly picked up by my shell and put into a round circular container with a lid on the top. I looked around waiting for something to happen when Treith and everyone else for that matter could be heard laughing.

I turned around to see the gang laughing hard at our predicament. At first I was confused for all of ten seconds, then curiosity gave way to my anger. “LET ME OUT!!!!” I cried. That of course only got a larger and louder sound of laughter from everyone.

I looked up to see the lights becoming brighter and I looked over to Jon’s prison and smiled as I knew what was going on…he was being used like a battery. But that brought me back to my own prison…so what was I being used for?

The answer came when I heard Nurse Joy say “Okay, who’s thirsty?” She picked up my container and placed it on a rather large looking metal container in the main lobby and then it hit me as I shouted “I’m the WATER COOLER!?!”

Rachel looked a little concerned as she said “Is this really necessary Nurse Joy…I mean sure what Rick did wasn’t right, but…” She looked down to the others including Buddy and Vixi as the latter just yawned and sat down.

I however smiled a wide grin and said “Hey, I got my payback and I’m away from Jon trying to continually fry my tail..so I can deal with this. Besides I get a free swim outta the deal as well!” I then fired a powerful watergun into my container and smiled the whole time as it filled to the top.

Just as I was getting comfortable an explosion sounded from room we’d left Jon in. The smoke that billowed into the hall was quickly followed up with several lighting bolts streaking through the air and bouncing off the tiled floor.

We all turned to see Jon standing at the top of the stairs and honestly from my position in the cooler only made it worse as it looked like the gates of hell had opened up behind him.

He jumped down what I had counted previously to be fifteen steps in a single bound and landed without missing a beat. He then screamed into the air and looked in my direction as he said “Oh…you want payback…fine…suck this!”

He ran forward gaining speed as he did so, and then a sickly yellow light surrounded his body and I realized what he attack he was now using…

Our minds must’ve synced up or something as he shouted the name as I cursed it in my mind simultaneously…

“VOLT TACKLE!” ‘Volt tackle…’

My next thought was ‘Aww…crap.’

And our eyes met as he smashed into the plastic cooler shredding it like tissue paper and throwing me to the ground…