Welcome to Gaia! ::

Felt the need to tag it there. This is a Pokemon fanfiction, so if you're unfamiliar with the glitches in R/B/Y, you might want to check up on this and this.

Since I really do not feel like parsing the entire story thus far into BB Code, I'll just copy paste an earlier version (well, before I went back and fixed typoes) from where I have it posted.

Please don't mistake this for a light and fluffy fanfic. I just decided to start it that way, the part I'm currently working on is dark to the nth power.
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JACRED

It always got so dark there at night. The light from the city seemed more like many tiny, twinkling stars from a distance and not many others besides me came out that far from the city. It was, in a word... Peaceful. It was a refreshing change from the hectic city.

I smiled a little. It would be nice if I could just live out here, I thought. But I wouldn’t last a second without something to keep me busy, or the luxuries of everyday life.

My friends had warned me not to wander outside the city limits, but I needed my escape. The signs in the city made me paranoid; the signs that read “255 is 23’2 and he’s watching you” or “255 KNOWS” were the worst. Even worse because not many glitches, including myself, actually knew who this “255” was.

So, I wandered outside of the city limits weekly. Nothing bad had happened to me.

Yet.

But there was another reason why I was outside the city that night...

PENNY

Life in the Southern City wasn’t glamorous like the Eastern City or Northern City. However, being so highly ranked among the glitches helped my family avoid living the sad, cramped life most people lived. But “mischief” probably could have been my middle name, seeing as I wandered away from the outskirts on a regular basis.

I loved being with the Pokemon that lived along the route to the Eastern City, both glitched and non-glitched. Missingno, though they stood about twice my height, were lovable companions. Unfortunately, apparently the local Luxray and Magnetric think they’re tasty snacks. In fact, one that had grown attached to me had been attacked only a few weeks before. I never saw it again. But, life went on.

I wasn’t there to play with Missingno that night.

It was risky business, sneaking out of the city. And I wasn’t about to break my promise.


JACRED

It didn’t take long for us to find each other; the path from the Southern City to the Eastern City was almost a straight line. It had been almost five years since we last saw each other in person (well, since I moved to the Eastern City), though she called me every so often (usually on a Saturday when she knew I wouldn’t be doing anything of worth).

“Long time no see, Jacred!” she squealed, practically crushing me in her embrace. “Five years felt like five centuries! What’s it like in Eastern City? Is it nice? I bet it’s way nicer than Southern City. But I bet the human world’s even nicer!”

I carefully pried her off of me and waited until I was sure she was done speaking before replying, “Well, Eastern City’s pretty noisy during the day, and you can’t see the stars at night. But yeah, it’s pretty nice. Now, before we leave,” I began, “Do you have everything you need, Penny? Once we leave-”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” she interrupted. “I have everything. Repel, some Poké Balls, my team, a change of clothes, medicine, and some snacks,” she paused, reconsidering, “My snacks. And, of course a journal.”

“Good. Now, which team are you talking about? You have like three,” I teased. After I had showed her how to catch Pokémon, she started catching more Pokémon than she knew what to do with. She gave some to her friends, I knew, but she kept all her favourites.

“Well, I brought one from each team,” she explained. “So I have my Gallade, Beldum, and Poochyena.”

I never understood why she didn’t train her other teams enough to evolve them, but with the waning darkness I didn’t have much time to ponder it. Penny wrapped her hands around my wrist and said, “We have to go now, Jacred. We can get anything we forgot in the human world.”

I nodded, closing my eyes as the mark under her eyes began to glow a soft pinkish colour. She let go of my wrist and wrapped one of her arms around my waist and lead me forward.

I opened my eyes a little and peered down at her, her mark then glowing an intense, fiery yellow. “Ready?” I murmured down to her. She nodded in confirmation, then grabbed onto my arm once again, using her relatively free hand to trace a wide oval in the air in front of us. Briefly, it flashed green before sending a gust of wind outwards from its center.

“Stay with me,” I commanded. I lead her through the portal, the threshold offering little resistance as we travelled beyond. Secretly, I wondered where we’d end up. Kanto? Johto? Or some unknown land I knew little about?


JACRED

“Wake up!”

Ugh, please... Five more minutes...

“Jacred, come on! I know you’re tired, but I need you to figure out where we are!”

I opened one eye a little, almost immediately blinded by the sunlight. What happened...? I asked myself. All I knew was that my head hurt, but where-- oh. Oh right. That’s right. Human world. With Penny.

I pushed myself into an upright position. “Alright.... I’m up, I’m up.” That didn’t mean I wasn’t still tired as hell. She handed me her smart phone (I admit, I was a little jealous. My phone’s just one of those old flip phones.) and briefly instructed me on how to use it and get to the map app. I doubted the map would show us where we actually were. With all the trees, though, I couldn’t tell, either.

My doubts were quickly proved wrong. According to the map, we were in Kanto. That is probably the single most important piece of information, besides the fact that we were close to a city. We probably wouldn’t have to camp out.

As soon as we had eaten a “healthy” breakfast (she ate peanut butter crackers, and I had a (half-melted) hollow chocolate rabbit I saved from Easter and a can of warm soda; better than it sounds), we set off east. Given the map, I knew exactly where we were. Route 6, Kanto. Familiar ground.

It wasn’t long until we found the trail – a relatively short, winding dirt road lined with grass. To the north, a gate no doubt leading to a city. To our south, the seaside town known as Vermilion.

Penny swung her arm around my neck. “What do you say we make some money? You said if you win a battle against a trainer, you get prize money, right?” Her expression darkened, her green eyes shining with mischief.

“Yes, that’s true, but...”

Anticipating my refusal, she pinched my ear. “Come on, Jacred. Even you know that we need more money than whatever you managed to save. What’d you get, like ten bucks?” She let go, then started messing up my hair as if I were a child. “Be a man!”

“Okay, I take offense to that last one,” I muttered, pulling the hood of my cloak over my head. “If you want to battle so badly, why don’t you do it? I don’t think humans would take kindly... to Missingno... Or most of the Pokemon I have for that matter. At least yours can pass for real.”

She pushed a few strands of her violet hair behind her ear and crossed her arms. “Because the only decent one I have a Gallade. Come on, you have a team of six you’ve been caring for since before we met.”

I forced myself no to groan. “Fine. But just for the record, this is your idea, so you’re doing most of the work!”

“Fair enough,” she said. She was hasty in selecting my opponent. “How about that guy?” She pointed at a teenager – probably no older than sixteen was my bet – who had an Umbreon following close behind. Before I had any time to think of a response, she was already trying to get his attention.

Oh, in the name of...

~~~

MICHAEL

“Hey you! Wanna battle?”

I silently ignored the girl who was apparently calling me over. All I wanted to do was get to Vermillion City. I didn’t want to keep battling people whom used Pokémon mine already surpassed.

“Hey! Hey! You! Come on! Please?”

She started following me after that, still pestering me. My Umbreon started walking in front of me, if only to get away from her, I supposed.

“Just once! It’s not that much to ask, mister!”

I turned to face her. She backed up a little. “So? Please?”

“Will you leave me alone if I do?”

“Yes! Hold on, I’ll be right back!” She ran off in the direction she came from then came back, practically dragging along a young man whom I assumed was her boyfriend. He muttered something I couldn’t understand, which she promptly responded with, “You agreed to this.”

“So, which one of you am I going to battle? or is it going to be a double?”

“Oh, no!” the girl started, shaking her head. “I don’t battle. All I have is a Gallade and I wouldn’t want it to get hurt!” She shot a look at my Umbreon, who didn’t seem to notice. “He’s gonna battle you!”

The young man and I stared at each other for a second. He was dressed a little strangely (I don’t know anyone who wears a cape like that... Or at all. And what the hell was the black mark on his cheek supposed to be? Was it a tattoo?), but it was pretty much impossible to tell what he was thinking behind his blank, grey eyes. “Oh,” the girl beside him piped up, “and he’s just a little shy. He doesn’t like people much.”

“I just hope he’s good,” I sighed. “Umbreon? You up for a battle?” The black, cat-like Pokémon gave me a stiff nod, then trotted out in front of me.

The young man silently released one of his Pokémon. The white light materialized into a Pokémon I’d seen before and absolutely despised – Zubat. A simple Psychic from my Umbreon easily took it out. He sent out his next Pokémon – Houndoom – and I feel almost cheated as I realize my former tactic would not work again.

“Retaliate,” he ordered. Houndoom charged at my Umbreon and took it down in one hit. I returned my poor Umbreon to it’s ball and sent out my Charmeleon, who at the very least would resist Houndoom’s fire attacks, if it knew any.

“Charmeleon! Dig!”

“Quick, Houndoom, Faint Attack!”

Charmeleon was already underground by the time the attack was launched. It emerged from the ground behind Houndoom and attacked before it could react, knocking it out near instantly. This guy was a pushover.

“That’s not funny,” he said. “Didn’t want to have to do this...” he returned Houndoom to its Poké Ball and swapped it out for another on his belt.

White light spilled from the Poké Ball, and at first I couldn’t tell what it was. Even after it materialized, it didn’t look like anything I’d seen. It was pretty much a ten-foot tall Kabutops skeleton. My Charmeleon and I just stood there, staring up at it. “What the hell...”

“Missingno,” the young man said as if that was supposed to explain everything. I’d never heard of anything called Missingno.

Regardless, there was a battle to be won. “Charmeleon, Dig!”

Only after Charmeleon was underground did Missingno receive a command from its trainer, “Earthquake.”

Missingno raised one of its blades and slammed it into the ground, making it shake beneath my feet. Unreal! Charmeleon emerged from the ground once the shaking stopped and merely crawled over to Missingno, possibly planning to use one of its fire attacks instead. But before it could even get back up on its feet, Missingno swatted it aside. “Missingno, let’s finish this. Slash!”

“Stop!” I cried. “You win!”

The trainer held up his hand and Missingno stopped its attack. In a beam of red light, the skeleton was gone, leaving only its trainer and the girl who had wanted me to battle him facing me. “Forgot to introduce ourselves,” the girl said. “I’m Penny. And this is Jacred.”

“I’m Michael.”

“Pleased to meet you, Michael,” Jacred said.

“Now, since Jacred won,” Penny began, “how about that prize money, eh?”

I sighed, swung my backpack off of my shoulder, and dug through it for a second to find my wallet. It felt empty. I didn’t have much left after my shopping spree in Saffron City. “Will three hundred be okay? It’s not much, but...”

“Three hundred? That–”

“Yes. Thank you,” Jacred said quickly, before Penny could finish. I started to hand the money to him before she snatched it out of my hand.

“I’m in charge of the money. He’d just go and spend it on cheap, useless stuff,” she asserted. Jacred sighed but made no argument. “Bye!” Penny grabbed Jacred’s arm and dashed off in the direction of Vermillion City, jamming the money into her bag as she ran.

Uh, what just happened?

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A/N: that's a very good question.

Questions/comments/concerns? Did you know flan is a kind of pie, not pudding? Everything I know is a lie.

ETA: Also I'll only post more if I feel like it/get feedback. There's actually a lot more story than that. <:3

Thanks! ^.^ For the first sentence, I asked about that on another forum i go to and they said to use "there" since I was writing in past tense, so I did. sweatdrop

I always italicize thought, and I've always read it as italicized.

I really have no idea what I was trying to do with Penny's first tidbit. I just wanted to include her somehow since she's a major character up until about halfway through, when she stops being a character.

I'll grab the next part real quick...
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PENNY

“You did great, Jacred! You’re a really good trainer, you know that?” I sang, skipping along with my arm hooked around his. “But what I don’t get is why you didn’t use Vulpix, Oddish, or Pidgey before you used Missingno.”

“Vulpix is a Fire-type... His Chermeleon could have probably taken her out with Dig like it did Houndoom. Charmeleon is sure to know Fire moves, and Oddish is grass-type,” he explained, failing to explain why he didn’t use Pidgey. But I didn’t prod him any further and decided to be grateful he decided to battle at all. He won, we had more money, and that was all that mattered.

We reached Vermillion City in no time at all. The first thing I noticed about it was how busy it was, and the first question that I wanted to ask him was, “Is this city anything like Eastern City?” which, of course, would only be met with silence.

“I suppose,” he started, surprising me after we had traveled in near complete silence, “The first thing we should do is find somewhere to stay the night. I, for one, don’t want to camp out tonight. Besides, look.” He pointed at the sky, which was growing dark with clouds and the coming night. He took off his backpack and dug in it for a second before he found his little red umbrella – the same one I bought for his tenth birthday. I was surprised he held onto it for so long.

~+~

Thunder rolled overhead as rain pelted the umbrella. I clung to Jacred as if my life depended on it.

We’d already found shelter, but I insisted on going out to explore the city a little. He didn’t make any argument, but after about an hour (or what felt like an hour), it started to rain. “I want to go back,” I whimpered. Of course, that was what we were trying to do, but with the rain it was pretty hard to see anything.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll get back, Penny.”

I looked up at him. “I have the money with me. Do you think we could go out and eat dinner...?” I rolled up my sleeve and checked my watch. “It’s only five-thirty...”

“I guess that wouldn’t be a bad idea,” he murmured. “At least to get out of the rain...”

“Then it’s settled! Let’s find somewhere to eat!”

~(-)~

MICHAEL

The day was rather uneventful. After I was beaten by ‘Jacred’, I healed my Pokémon and continued toward Vermilion City for my next badge. The leader’s Raichu was terribly strong and hard to hit, which made the battle longer than I would have liked, but my Charmeleon somehow managed to land a hit.

I stared out the window of the Pokémon Center, only to see the rain showing no signs of letting up. I leaned back in my chair and let my mind wander. After a few minutes, I settled on Missingno. It didn’t sound familiar and looking it up on my Pokémon Browser yielded nothing but a blank entry that locked up my PDA for a few seconds.

What is this ‘Missingno’?

~~~

JACRED

One word sums up the restaurant Penny chose: delicious.

The restaurant had the best food I’d had since I graduated from college, and was probably healthier, too. It wasn’t until we were out of the rain that I realized that I was probably starving to death, having not had anything to eat all day besides a two-month-old, half-melted chocolate bunny (which isn’t much of a meal anyway).

I never wanted to leave.

“So, Jacred,” Penny began, picking bits of food from between her teeth, “Let’s discuss our next plan of action.”

“Hm? Fine, okay. Wouldn’t be a bad idea,” I replied absently, taking another sip of my tea.

“Firstly, we need more money. We only have enough to stay at that hotel for one night,” she said. “Then, I kind of want to catch some Pokémon from this world! That Michael’s Pokemon were so cool. I especially liked that one black cat-dog thing, what was it? Umbreon! That was it.”

“Can’t catch Umbreon wild,” I replied. “You have to get an Eevee to trust you, and train it at night.”

“Oh,” she murmured, obviously disappointed. “Well where can you find Eevee?”

“No clue. You can probably find one somewhere, though.” I finished the tea and set the glass on the table. “If I remember correctly, when my parents and I visited Celadon, you could win one somewhere....”

“Then we’re going to Celadon next!” she announced.

“You do realize the key word there was ‘win’, right, Penny? You can’t just buy one, it takes effort,” I groaned. I glanced around the restaurant. “Let’s pay the bill and get out of here. We can discuss this later.”

~(-)~

Back at the motel (which was a little too sleazy for even my taste, and that’s saying something), I took my cell phone out of my bag and pulled up the map app. I laid on the bed exploring the world as best I could in a motel room while Penny took a shower – making a mental note to take one myself before I went to bed – which took about fifteen minutes.

“Which way’s the quickest to Celadon?” she asked. I barely registered the question before I answered something apparently invalid and she snacked my phone out of my hands.

“Which way is the quickest way to Celadon?” she repeated.

“Through Saffron, up north,” I replied. “Actually, you’re going to hear that a lot. Saffron has four different paths to take to get to four different cities. If you’d give me my phone back...” She quickly handed the phone back to me. I stared at the screen for a second before I wiped it off with my shirt, somehow closing the map app. I reopened it and zoomed in on Saffron City, Route 6, and Vermilion.

“We’re here. We can go back up Route 6, through Saffron, then out west to Celadon. If you go North, you’ll end up in Cerulean.” I scrolled the map a little. “If you go east, you’ll up in Lavender. From there, you can take Route 12, 13, 14, and 15 to get to Fuchsia. You can also go through Cycling Road, which starts at Celadon, to get to Fuchsia,” I explained. “Kanto’s like a big circle.”

“Oh. Neat!” She wrapped her arms around my neck. “Let’s go to Celadon, then Fuchsia. Actually, I want to see all of Kanto. Then we can choose someplace to live. Give every area a fair chance, you know?”

“Yeah,” I murmured.

“You should get ready for bed,” she whispered. “It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

~~~

JACRED

She woke me up practically at the crack of dawn to get ready to leave. I had planned on staying in Vermilion a little longer, but she insisted on leaving for Celadon.

I laid in bed for a while longer, trying to fall back asleep. Penny wouldn’t dare leave without me, not in this world, at least. But eventually I did drag myself out of bed. I questioned whether I should take a quick shower or not for a second and ended up deciding against it. I would, as I usually do, end up staying in for far longer than I intended.

“Hurry up,” she whined as I pulled a fresh shirt over my head and stuffed my old ones in my bag. I somehow managed to fit everything in my backpack (including my cloak, which was somehow still damp from the rain) as she rushed me out the door. It wasn’t long until she’d paid the bill for the room and started dragging me off towards Saffron, using my phone as a guide. Her eyes were practically glued to it.

She didn’t spend any time in Saffron. It felt like as soon as we entered, we left again. It wasn’t long until we had entered Celadon. We stopped to rest at the Pokémon Center for a while. Good thing, too. I didn’t think I’d be able to walk any farther without passing out.

“This place reminds me of Central City,” Penny muttered. I made no comment, until she started to leave, saying she was going to find out where she could win that Eevee (doesn’t she ever quit?).

“Penny, I’m not going to let you spend all the money trying to get an Eevee,” I warned. “Give me half.”

“But what if I can’t get the Eevee with only half?” she pouted. “Let me take three fourths, please, Jacred?”

“We still need food, a hotel room, I think we should probably buy another change of clothes, we need to wash the clothes we took with us,” I began listing off reasons we would need the money.

She considered this for a moment. “Fine. I guess it would suck to walk around in dirty clothes. And I guess if I see a cute dress or something not being able to buy it if it’s in my size would be worse than that time I had to wear your clothes after I fell in the pool and got soaked and-”

“Can I please just have the money?” I interrupted.

She stopped speaking and counted out the money, then handed me half. “Call me if anything comes up, okay, Penny?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine! If I can get another prize, I might get you something, too!” With that, she skipped out of the Pokémon Center.

~(-)~

MICHAEL

Taking the long way around to Celadon paid off. As it turned out, Silence Bridge was full of trainers to battle along the way, and Fuchsia, although there really wasn’t much to see, was worth the visit. The Cycling Road was full of bikers and thugs I tried my best to avoid.

The gym leader, Erika, as elegant as she was, was no pushover. She managed to defeat all of my Pokémon but my Charmeleon, who, after the battle, evolved into a Charizard. I rushed to the Pokemon Center to have my Pokémon healed.

I couldn’t help but notice the guy sitting in the corner, who kept glancing up at me from whatever he was doing with his phone. He looked suspiciously like... The guy with the ‘Missingno’! What was his name again? Jacred. That was it.

I wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry, so I took a seat next to him and tried to think of a way to start a conversation. He backed even further into the corner. He didn’t seem very social, but I remembered what that girl (Penny, was it?) had said about him not liking people very much.

I guess not all of us are social butterflies.

“So, uh... Jacred, your name was...?”

He stared at me in silence, neither confirming or denying my statement. So I went on, “That Pokémon you battled me with, you remember, on Route 6? Missingno. What is it?”

“Long story,” he replied softly, and left it at that.

“I have time.”

“I, uh... Well, I don’t really...” He tried to avoid directly answering my question, or at least it seemed that way. I decided to drop the subject.

“Where’s your girlfriend?” I asked.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he answered immediately. “Or at least, we’re not together like that. We’re just really good friends. But, uh, she went to find out where you could win an Eevee because I told her that my parents told me when I was little, you could win one in Celadon somewhere... She liked your Umbreon.”

I nodded. I didn’t expect him to go on any further, but he continued, “I didn’t expect to see you in Celadon... Is there any particular... reason why you’re here?”

“I’m a trainer,” I replied. “I’m collecting the badges so I can challenge the Pokémon League. The Celadon Gym was the next one I had to challenge.”

“I see. There’s something like that in the place I’m from,” he said. “Except, it’s... Different. Kind of like selection for a government position that everyone who’s 18 is given the option to enter. My parents would’ve wanted me to go, but...”

“I’ve never heard of a region that did that.”

“I never said it was a region. Actually, it’s not even in this world...” He seemed to realize what he’d said and covered his mouth in one hand.

But it was too late, and then my head was flooded with questions. “I-I really should leave, I should go find somewhere for Penny and I to stay the night.”

I put one of my hands on his shoulder. “Celadon’s huge. If you leave, do you think she’ll even be able to find you?” That stopped him.

“Heh, I guess now you’re going to think I’m crazy, right?” he laughed nervously.

“Yeah, you totally ran the asylum.” The sarcasm in my tone was almost tangible. “What with the weird Pokémon and the strange mark on your face.” He defensively traced the mark down from his eye onto his cheek, as if he didn’t believe that it was strange. “I have time. You seem like a good person. Why not stay and chat?”

“I’m not a person,” he muttered. “Not by your standards, at least.”

I raised an eyebrow. Maybe he really was crazy. Still, I went on. “Sure you are. I bet you and your friend just got those tattoos on your face while you were drunk or something.”

“We were born with them.”

Awkward silence.

“So, about that ‘Missingno’... It looked like one of the things I saw in Pewter Museum, but way bigger, and, uh, alive.”

“Missingno is one of the most common Pokemon where I’m from...” I refrained from asking where, exactly, he was from. “There are different forms. One takes the form of a ghost, another of what you call Aerodactyl. And the one I have takes the form of Kabutops. And then there’s one that randomly shifts between forms. The rarest of all is dangerous, and otherwise looks like shifting Missingno. Ghost, Areodactyl, and Kabutops Missingno can learn any move as long as they see it.”

That made sense. Or at least, I thought it did.

~(-)~

PENNY

My luck sucks.

Not only did I not get enough coins to get the Eevee, I managed to spend all the money I’d brought with me. Maybe if I ask nicely, Jacred will give me some more money, I thought. Deep down, though, I doubted it. No, I didn’t doubt. I knew he wouldn’t. We knew each other too well to fall for the other’s tricks. It would be stupid to let him know I wanted more money. He’d just make sure I didn’t.

I walked back inside the Pokémon Center and scanned the building for Jacred, quickly spotting him sitting on one of the corner chairs next to the Umbreon trainer – Michael was his name, right?

I walked over and took a seat across from them. Jacred immediately took notice and stopped speaking to Michael, who turned his attention to me soon after. “Ah, how’d it go, Penny?” Jacred asked, although probably not out of curiosity. I would have probably been a little louder and been first to speak if I had gotten what I set out after.

“My luck sucks,” I replied. “I didn’t get enough coins to win anything. But enough of that. Where are we going to stay the night?”

“You guys can stay with me,” Michael offered. “If you don’t mind sleeping on the floor.”

“Do you mean it?” Jacred asked.

“‘Course I do! Trainers have to stick together, and from what I hear Celadon starts getting dangerous after dark, at least recently. There have been thugs hanging around on Cycling Road, so I wouldn’t doubt it,” he said. “Besides, you guys aren’t from around here.”

Jacred smirked a little. “Nope. All we have as a guide are phones that are probably almost out of battery by now. Or at least mine is. The battery won’t hold a charge.”

“No wonder you didn’t answer your phone three hours ago,” I muttered.

“Then it’s settled. You two are going to stay with me tonight!”

~(-)~

MICHAEL

Jacred and Penny had gone to sleep two hours ago on the floor next to the window. I didn’t notice it with the lights on, but when I turned off the lamp beside the bed, allowing shadows to creep into the room, but their marks seemed to glow ever so slightly in the moonlight.

Hours before, Penny and I chatted a little while Jacred took a shower. I purposely avoided talking about anything Jacred had said to me in the Pokémon Center, but it wasn’t really much of a feat. Mostly she just asked about Kanto. I was more than willing to tell her about my travels, starting in Viridian City and ending there, in Celadon.

But in the dark, I laid in silence; trying and failing to fall asleep. Given that they, too, were traveling Kanto, it wasn’t completely irrational to expect them to turn up again. I’d offer to take them along with me in the morning – even though I’d already gone though about half the region already, I’d have to backtrack to make it to the Pokemon League...

~(-)~

PENNY

Where is it?!

In the darkness, it certainly was a challenge to find the other half of the money Jacred and I had split. That, and I couldn’t risk waking either Michael or Jacred. Come on, how hard is it to find his damn wallet?

When I was about ready to give up, I finally found it. I tiptoed over to the door and slipped out silently, leaving the door unlocked.

~(-)~

“And the rich get richer!”

My ‘luck’ was better this time around, except maybe my incredible ‘guessing’ skills helped out a little. It only took a few rounds of cheating to get what i wanted, between spending Jacred’s money on coins, rigging the slot machine (although, rigging is such an ugly word!), and a few rounds of Voltorb Flip (highly addicting. Requires so much luck it’s not funny. I’m so happy I’m not human.), I finally got the Eevee I wished so much for.

Then I realized Jacred would probably wonder why his money’s gone. Oops.

I hung around the prize exchange for a little bit, listening to peoples’ conversations. Rude, yes, interesting, also yes. An old guy mentioned a downstairs level of the game corner that used to be the hideout to some team. Rocket? But nothing on how I could earn the money back.

Jacred wouldn’t take too kindly to having no money (effectively putting us back at square... Well, not square one, because when we arrived we had at least five grand. Turns out that doesn’t buy much.)

After wandering the city for a few hours, I returned to the hotel. I’d just have to take the heat.
-----------------------

I'm pretty sure this all is filler and transition. There's only one more part before we're up to where I'm writing, which might take a while considering I have a habit of wasting my entire day on Tumblr.

I love how the horizontal ruler doesn't work on Gaia, making me change all the [hr] to ~(-)~

Obviously, I got way more into it as it went on. Beginnings are the hardest parts for me. :/ At least with endings I can leave them open to interpretation...