Chapter 7 part 2: Dealing with People

I landed outside my home in Viridian and let myself in. I quickly changed out of my training clothes that smelt like murky dragon water, and threw on my usual outfit of white cargo pants, a black tank top, and my black and red uniform jacket. Then I left for the gym, already discovering Mike had unlocked the doors.

"So where did you vanish off to?" he asked curiously, sitting on the bleachers looking bored.

"Just the Dragon Den," I offered, walking over to the far wall to flick the battle field lights on. The lighting in the gym was special; with it I could play on my dark type pokemon's strengths. When I was feeling mean, I'd dim the lights down so Honchkrow and Weavile were un-seeable to an untrained trainer. It was a bit of a perk being a gym leader, the challenger usually ended up in an environment customized to the gym leader.

Mike perked up. "You train there quite a bit. I heard that only members of the Dragon Clan are allowed in there, though."

"I know people," I offered, taking a seat beside Mike.

He gave a small smirk, probably knowing that meant I snuck in there against some rules with someone to help smuggle me in. "I gave those two trainers a ring. They said they'd be here, soon."

I gave a nod. "What about Yellow?" I asked.

Mike grinned. "Yeah. That, too. I'm sure she'll be here soon with something for you to do."

I gave a small nod, then a girl dressed ridiculously in some insane black and neon blue trainer outfit came prancing in. I scoffed aloud and couldn't help rolling my eyes. "I beat her prize money that she's got one of those eevee evolutions."

Mike frowned as he looked her over. He hummed thoughtfully. "That's a tough one. It's not following her around, so maybe not. Can I wait to see if she whispers at her first pokeball before she throws it out?"

I scoffed. "No. That's not fair."

Mike groaned. "Fine. What do I lose if she does?"

I hummed. "You have to lock up for the next month."

"Harsh!"

"Next two weeks, then."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Just for the hell of it."

The girl was looking over at us curiously. "Um, hello?" she uttered in an obnoxiously excited voice as if we didn't notice her. The girl had to be sixteen or older, but she was acting like a ten year old. I hated these ones.

I stood up and sighed. Mike did as well. The girl stared at us with wide, curious eyes. I walked over towards the gym leader's side of the gym and placed my hand on Feraligatr's pokeball. Mike cleared his throat. "May I have a name?" he asked.

She bobbed her head. I glanced over towards the entrance curiously. A few people were wandering into the gym. I was used to it, though. Quite a few people in the city liked to come into the gym when it was open, so they could watch the battles. The doors were only opened when I had challengers. I kept them closed if I was training—or lying around with nothing to do.

"I'm Skyling from Goldenrod!"

I was half temped to yell out another bet to Mike about her name being fake, but these types of trainers cried so pitifully.

She looked at me eagerly and dramatically stabbed a finger in my direction as if she actually thought it looked cool. "And I'm going to beat you, Silver!"

Mike chucked. "Well then. This battle will be between Silver, the gym leader of Viridian, and Skyling of Goldenrod City. Begin!"

I threw out Feraligatr and she sent out a… pidgey. God, she was obsessed with birds. Great.

I KO'ed the poor thing in a single hit. Sadly, almost all of her pokemon were defeated in the same way. Only her last pokemon, a low leveled Skarmory endured an attack, and the thing couldn't even fly after Feraligatr's aqua tail. "Put it out of its misery," I sighed, folding my arms across my chest. It was one thing to battle a young child that was totally pathetic (I gave tried to be gentle with them), but this girl was a teenager. I was embarrassed even having to battle her.

"No! Skarmory!" she sobbed, running across the field to embrace the pokemon.

I rolled my eyes. Mike came over to me, grinning excitedly. "I won the bet!"

"I'm not done yet! I have my trump card!" the girl sniffled. "Go, Eevee!"

I smirked and Mike smacked his forehead with his palm. "Sorry. You sent out six pokemon! League rules dictate that a trainer can only use six pokemon. Besides, you entered the field, which automatically disqualifies you."

"I said I'm not done! Eevee, tackle!"

Mike sighed in dismay as the hairy creature collided with Feraligatr's kneecap. The thing hurt itself more than Feraligatr. Feraligatr looked down at it, un-amused. "Return your pokemon and leave, or you risk getting yourself in a lot of trouble—even having your trainer license revoked."

She sniffled again, returned her pokemon, and went running off crying. "Technically it wasn't part of the battle."

"But she did have one," I stated, an eyebrow raised.

Mike dropped his head and sighed. "Yeah, I know. Fine, I'll lock up for the next two weeks."

I chucked, and a short girl with a long blond pony tail emerged from the bleachers and towards me. I winced, for something so adorable she did strike fear in me. I would have thought that Green would have been more of my mentor, but it seemed Yellow was the one always telling me what to do, who I needed to talk to, how I had to act. Though I didn't see her as often because she always seemed to be attached to Red. I wondered if they'd get married soon.

I held up a hand nervously as I noticed a boy hesitantly step towards the challenger side. "Hold on, Yellow. I just have one more challenger. Then I'll do as you command."

She giggled and sighed. "Fine. But it's important and I can't believe you haven't learned to do it on your own, yet!"

Crud. What could that possibly be…? I'd worry about it later. I had fresh prey to deal with.

Mike returned to the sidelines and I returned Feraligatr, he gazed up at me curiously from inside his pokeball. "That was a good battle. I'm sorry your opponent was so weak. You're not tired at all, are you?" The pokemon shook his head and I smirked. "Good. I may need you this battle."

The fire burned in my water type's eyes and I happily returned him to my belt. I examined my next opponent in silence as he chatted quickly with Mike. He looked about 16 as well, and I wondered if he was friends with the girl I'd just demolished. When I'd talked with some of the other gym leaders, my seniors, they'd told me that you could often get a vibe from a challenger about what type of pokemon they used. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite so good at it unless it was blatantly obviously. I felt like Twister would like to take place in this battle. He was my weakest pokemon, but he was still amazingly strong. As I wrapped my gloved hand around the sphere, I felt Twister get excited.

"This will be a single three on three battle between Archen of Accumula Town and Silver, the Viridian City gym leader. Begin!"

Accumula Town… Where was that? I was awful at geography. It was either in Shinnoh or Unova.

I sent out Twister and my opponent sent out a very odd looking yellow, red, and blue bird looking thing that didn't fly. "Go, Archen!" my opponent cried out.

That was a Unova pokemon, a rock and flying type I recalled from my studies. They were powerful beasts akin to Aerodactly, although when their HP got low, the things were laughable.

"Twister, thunderbolt." A flying type is a flying type. Wait... was his name the name of a pokemon?! I had a strong urge to face palm.

"Archen! Like we practiced! Earth Power!" I watched, impressed as the bird squawked and rose the earth to block Twister's attack. Twister looked highly ticked off, but I was impressed. Then the earth lurched forward to strike my serpent.

"Take to the air," I commanded simply, and he did with ease, the earth passing harmlessly under him.

"Rock Throw!" my opponent ordered.

I frowned. I could see another electric attack wouldn't do any good, so we'd just have to get close, which would be difficult with that bird tossing rocks. Twister could easily avoid them in the air, but up close he was sure to get pummeled and with this bird's massive attack stat…

"Twister, use twister," I stated, smirking slightly. It wasn't an overly strong attack, but it would work with the strategy I had in mind.

We'd attack faraway and constantly until Archen's ability kicked it, then we'd go in for the kill. Finally, when I noticed Archen drop its guard and its eyes droop, I smirked. "Aqua Tail!"

"U-Turn!" the boy commanded, but not before his bird was knocked out.

Twister looked over at me expectantly and I chuckled, folding my arms across my chest. "Yeah, yeah. Good job." Twister let out a happy cry and slithered over to nuzzle me happily. I sighed in dismay. "The battle isn't over."

My opponent was grinning as I managed to pry my dragonair off me. "Alright then, Palpitoad." He sent out a horridly ugly frog…thing. I raised an eyebrow at it. It was a ground water type. Twister could only really use his dragon type moves, which was fine.

"Rain Dance!" the boy yelled.

I winced, hating weather moves in my freshly renovated gym. Still, a battle was a battle…

"Dragon Pulse!"

"Go around and use echoed voice!"

My eyes widened in surprise at how fast that frog could move. It let out a loud croak and Twister and I winced. I also hated sound based moves, too.

"Twister!" I ordered and violent winds because to rip around my dragon's body, doing minimal damage to Palpitoad—but at least it was damage.

"Echoed voice!" my opponent ordered again. The attack got stronger when used in succession, and there wasn't a way to get away from it. All I could do was attack and hope I could knock my opponent out.

"Aqua Tail!"

But that stupid frog was just too fast. I sighed and removed Twister's pokeball from my belt. I returned the serpent and he looked up at me angrily. "I'm not having you senselessly hurt," I grumbled, returning him to my belt.

I could fight fire with fire. "Alright Kingdra, show him what speed is." I sent out my other dragon, calling out an attack as the pokeball burst open. "Hydro pump!"

The frog was blasted roughly against the far wall—his trainer has to dive out of the way to avoid getting hit with his own pokemon. His mouth fell open in awe as he gazed at my kingdra. Hesitantly he returned his second pokemon. "You have one more," I spoke up, "make it count."

He nodded vigorously and sent out a red and silver pokemon covered in blades. I raised an eyebrow at it. "Go, Pawniard!"

A dark and steel type, I believed. Possibly steel fighting… I couldn't remember. It looked fairly strong. Was it an evolution or not? I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Didn't matter. It was fast, I could tell by looking.

With the remaining effected of the rain, I ordered another hydro pump. The rain both doubled Kingdra's speed and powered up her water type moves. The opponent was blasted away. Didn't stand a chance.

My opponent looked fearful for a moment, and then Pawniard stood, looking very weak, but very mad. "Use dig!" That was impressive, with standing that attack. The boy had potential.

He was waiting out the last of the rain, which was smart. However, he was also dealing with a water type. "Surf," I sighed, a bit upset the battle was ending without my third pokemon even taking the field. I would have liked to use Weavile against that thing, speed against speed, blade again blade.

Pawniard laid knocked out as the water receded.

The trainer dropped his head and sighed, returning his pokemon. I saw Yellow ready to start gnawing on my ankles. The boy hesitantly crossed the field, towards me. He was a hand shake kind of guy… alright…

I returned Kingdra and raised an eyebrow at the boy sudden bowed with his nose practically touching the dirt. "I'd be honored if you'd take me on as an apprentice!"

What?!

"Um—"

"Silver would be honored!" Yellow stated. I looked over at her in horror as she came bouncing toward me, her blond ponytail bobbing.

"Wha-? When did you get to decide this?!"

She raised an eyebrow, usually so shy… I missed her being shy. "Silver, almost all gym leaders have other trainers in their gyms that they train. They also weed out unworthy challengers."

"I don't want to have to look after some obnoxious kid!" I hissed.

Yellow frowned. "Silver, at least give him a chance."

I glanced over at the kid…teen. He was gazing anxiously towards the ground, shifting back and forth. I didn't blame him for feeling uneasy. No, he wasn't a bad trainer. Yes, he did have a lot of potential. However, what right did I have to teach the kid? I mean, I taught the little kids in the forest about pokemon—Crud. That's what Yellow was biting my head off about. It was…that time of the month.

"Fine." I glanced down at the kid. "But I'm not your babysitter."

"O-Of course!" he uttered nervously, his face a bright pink.

I sighed softly, folding my arms across my chest. "I'm assuming you have somewhere to stay?"

"Oh, uh, well I could rent an apartment here in Viridian."

I gave a nod when Yellow spoke up. "Actually, I'm sure you could stay with Silver." I glared at her and she raised an eyebrow. "You have plenty of spare rooms."

I sighed in annoyance and rubbed my temples. "Whatever. I don't care." I shook my head in dismay. "I guess it's time to go take the kids to Viridian Forest."

"Yes, yes it is!" Yellow chimed, happy I remembered. She looked over toward the boy. "Archen, you should come along."

How embarrassing.

"Bye, Mike!" I called out as we left the gym.

"See ya, Silv!" he responded, and I left him to do the locking up for the next two weeks. I'd been nice though. He'd discover a surprise next time he glanced at his train card's balance. I'd transferred the prize money to him from that girl's lose. We both won.

The three of us headed towards Yellow's pokemon salon, where she gave massages and medical treatment to pokemon, she also babysat pokemon as well. It was a busy place, growing rapidly. It often drew traveling trainers to Viridian that weren't here for the gym. She did a good job, and she loved her job. I helped her out sometimes when I had free time.

Once we stepped inside, I was swarmed by ten small children. They all clung to my legs and I winced. I guessed Yellow's apprentices had been watching them while Yellow had been hunting me down.

"Silver! Silver! Are you taking us to Viridan Forest?" "I wanna catch a pokemon this time!" "The other day I saw a butterfree in Mama's garden!"

It went on… and on… and on. And Yellow wondered why she had to chase me down.

"Yes, we're going to Viridian Forest today, but we're not capturing pokemon. I'm going to teach you guys about a status problem." I tried to speak gently with them. I knew it was the gym leader's job to teach the local children about pokemon. And since Viridian Forest bordered the town, I had to teach them how to at least be safe around the pokemon in it. It could end up being a dangerous place, even for an experienced trainer. I often let my father's pokemon roam the forest for weeks at a time, and if some random trainer stumbled across one and pissed it off…well, poor sap.

Yellow and, I guess his name was Archen, followed behind the kids while I led them though the check point, into the forest. The first time I'd brought them here they'd tried running off and making brats of themselves. Now they quieted and waited patiently for my words (now they knew I didn't mess around and take crap).

I ended up giving them a lesson on poison, how it affected a pokemon and how it could even affect humans. I cautioned them on weedle, the main pokemon in the forest that caused poison. I had my father's beedrill fetch one so they could see one, and they ended up playing with it (Yellow and I of course made sure they didn't agitate it). I'd taught them a while ago about respecting a pokemon and not harming or angering it. I taught them about antidotes and berries that cured poison, I even gave them a few moves that would cure it and abilities that would prevent it. After the two hour lesson, I sent them home for dinner.

It really was getting late. The sun was starting to set, and in the summer it didn't set until really late.

"Would you like to join us for dinner?" I asked Yellow as we all headed back to the city. She hummed.

"Sure. That would be nice. Let me give Red a call and let him know."

Archen was sulking silently behind us, obviously feeling very invasive. He was of course being invasive, but that was mostly Yellow's fault. As Yellow chattered away to Red I glanced down at the boy, his shaggy brown bangs covering his face. "So. You have a pokemon's name as your name," I stated, not really liking to talk but feeling like I should say something.

He perked up and nodded hesitantly. "Y-Yeah. It's one of my favorite pokemon, so I guess it worked out."

We were drawing near the mansion. It was at the end of the street, a block from the gym. Part of it actually sat in Viridian Forest. Archen's eyes grew wide as we stepped through the large iron gates that were always open. "This is where you live?" he asked in soft awe as he walked down the path, through the lush front gardens. Most of the staff loved to garden and they maintained the grounds in their free time. Gold liked to help them out, he was actually gifted with a green thumb. Exotic berries grew all over the place, full and ripe. I needed to pick some chople berries for Weavile soon…

"Yeah. It was my father's home before he passed."

Archen was looking around in awe, so I decided to let him be.

Yellow smiled. "It's been a while since I visited this place. It really is beautiful. Hey, after dinner, will you come with me to the salon? I need some help with a pokemon and I think your own could use some attention."

I gave a shrug. "Sure."

I opened the front door and was hit the aroma of pasta, garlic, and shrimp. It smelled amazing.

"Welcome home, Silver! You're late!" Heather called from the kitchen.

We all removed our shoes and wandered into the kitchen where some of the staff were washing up dishes from the cooking. The table was already set as if we were at a formal dinner party. "I hope you don't mind if I brought some people home."

Manny perked up. "No, that's perfect. I made too much."

Yellow sighed happily. "That smells amazing…"

Archen nodded in agreement.

"Well, then let's eat!" Heather laughed as she pulled a large basket of garlic bread from the oven where it'd been keeping warm.

I gave a nod and curled up at my place at the head of the table, usually Gold sat beside me, but Yellow plopped down in his place, Archen sat hesitantly on the other side of me.

It wasn't a bad dinner. It was sort of nice having the table so full, and the food tasted absolutely amazing. Keith forced me to try some wine with it, and it did go nicely even if I only had half a glass. For desert we had a bit of chocolate ice cream. I learned a bit about Archen when the staff interrogated him—that he was from Unova. He'd explained with a deep blush that he'd come to Kanto to battle me, which was mildly creepy but whatever. He had to pick his things up from the pokemon center. Yellow explained we could do that on our way back from the salon (such an unmanly word…).

After we'd eaten and talked a bit, we left for Yellow's place of business. Her apprentices had already headed home for the night, so it was empty. It was fairly late, about 8 in the evening. It was also a warm summer night, and the bugs were buzzing.

I had to help Yellow tame a feisty Houndoom that wouldn't settle down until it got a battle. Once I defeated it she got to work. Then I had to shed my jacket and kick off my shoes and socks to help Yellow with my pokemon. "Take off your gloves, Silver," she chuckled as I ran my hands gently over Weavile in the ways she'd taught me, moving over pressure points to help release stress and relax my pokemon.

"Can't. I cut up my hands today."

She sighed in dismay at me and bumped me playfully away with her hip. "Then get to work on Gyrados."

"Yes, Master," I mocked and Yellow giggled. I snatched up the buckets of water and brushes to clean the massive dragon's scales, taking a deep breath. It was hard work, and the pokemon was massive.

Archen and I finally dragged ourselves home at 11 that night—exhausted. However, our pokemon were delighted. "The growlith and arcanine are on guard, you're safe with me now but if you try to enter alone at night they'll rip you to shreds. It will take them some time to get used to you. Once you go to your room, I suggest you stay there. I'll introduce you tomorrow."

Archen nodded sleepily, lugging all of his bags.

The door was surprisingly open, which meant someone was still up. Sure enough, one of the oldest maids, Lace, was reading in the living room. She gave me a gentle smile. "It's good to see you home safe, Silver. Sleep well. Archen, let me take you to your room."

Archen nodded and followed Lace and me up the stairs. "Thank you, Lace. You take care as well."

She smiled and continued to lead Archen down the hall to one of the rooms while I thankfully slipped into my room, closing the door behind me. I was already shrugging out of my jacket. I stripped off my tank top and removed everything from my pants before I removed them, placing my wallet, pokegear, and pokeballs on my bedside.

It was warm, so I only bothered to pull on an overly large gray shirt before I collapsed into bed. I turned on the bedside lamp and grabbed my pokegear. I had six missed calls from Gold. I spat out a curse, realizing I'd had my pokegear on silent. It was late. He'd be asleep, but I tried calling just in case. I didn't get an answer. I sighed, turned off the light, and fell asleep, dreaming of none other than Gold.

So, we have a new character named Archen. Don't get too excited. He's nothing but a plot enzyme (I hate OCs). Still, hopefully you guys won't mind having him around for a bit.