Heaven in Hell
A/N: First actual chapter. Keep in mind that Canalave City looks like it does in the anime, so that's why the bridge is so long. Now prepare to be showered with questions. Will Barry outrun the thieves? Will he ever get his Pokemon back? When does Paul get a chapter? Have you actually read the prologue, or did you just skim? How do I know what you're thinking? Why won't the chapter start yet???
~CHAPTER ONE~
"Who's our next loser, boss?"
"Paul Jones. This is his picture."
"Holy crap! He's an emo!"
"Jones?"
"What? Jones is a common last name."
"It's only a common name for normal people, and he doesn't look so normal…"
"He looks scary. Is he worth it?"
"We took that Barry's Empoleon, and we can evolve Ash Ketchum's Chimchar. All we need is Jones' Torterra."
Chimchar and Empoleon looked longingly through their metal cages, murmuring. Whenever one of them got too loud, they were slapped with a whip. Now they were silent, believing that their trainers would be there to rescue them soon…
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Paul stood in line at the Canalave Library quietly, looking through an old book about Palkia and Dialga. It was more boring than he had thought, so he closed the book, put it back on the shelf, tucked his hands in his pocket and walked toward the exit.
"Nothing today, sir?" a friendly women at the counter asked with a smile. Paul gave her a hard glare as a response. The women sunk back into her chair and ignored his rudeness.
The moment Paul stepped outside, he headed straight for the dock. It had always held a calming feeling to him. Now that he had beaten Byron, he was taking a day off and spent most of his time at the dock. This time, however, it wasn't so calming.
"S'cuse me! Pardon me! Outta my way, woman! Am I gonna have to choke someone??? Move! I'm fining you all!" a voice yelled. A blonde-haired strange-looking boy dressed in mostly orange bolted down the street. Paul muttered to himself as he looked away. Annoyed, he stood up and walked somewhere else. As the boy's yells suddenly got dangerously louder, Paul whirled around. He only got a mere glimpse of the boy as their heads collided painfully and they both fell to the ground and hit it hard.
"Running into someone again's the last thing I need…" the boy groaned. He sounded about ten and hadn't quite hit puberty yet. As Paul opened his eyes to look at him, he noticed that he was soaked clear through and covered in scratches and bruises. He looked as if he had been beat up five or six times before running down the road like that. He already had about four black-and-blue bruises on his forehead, and was rubbing it as if he was in bad pain.
As the boy opened his eyes, he stared at Paul with wide eyes and stood up quickly and a big smile full of teeth lit up his face. "You're…You're Paul! Wow! I never thought I'd actually meet you in person!" he rambled. He continued his fandom speech as he walked toward Paul like a stalker. Paul backed up a little, but Barry just doubled his movements. He leaned up close to Paul so their noses were almost touching.
Aside from his face being so close to his, Paul still had to avert his eyes to his clothes. Not only did he look like a walking carrot, he was also smelling of salt and so wet, he got Paul wet as he leaned up so close. But that didn't bother Paul at all. What was bothering him was the lingering smell of blood and the revolting sight of his bleeding leg. He wasn't worried in the least, just disgusted. His entire kneecap was completely scarlet red—his pants weren't visible from that spot. The blood had also rolled down his leg in streaks of red on the lower half of his jeans.
"So I instantly idolized you when you totally rocked in the Hearthome tag battle. I met Ash and the others and man, he's nothing compared to you! Ash didn't even deserve to win! He only won with a partner like you! Man, you rock! I want to be as great as you one day! Oh, I see you're staring at my leg. It's nothing, just a little scratch. Anyway, I saw you in that competition when…"
"You should really get that cleaned up," Paul said, still staring at the blood and getting head sick.
"Oh, you're worried about me, aren't you???" the boy said, exited. "Wow, Paul the Great is worried about me!!! I need a camera!!! Paul the…"
"I'm not worried about you. It's just disgusting for me to look at."
The boy looked slightly hurt. "Oh…"
"So where were you going in such a hurry?"
"Hurry? What hurry? Oh, that. I was being…being…being…" The boy suddenly stopped stammering and whirled behind him. "Bugger!! I have to go!!" he said.
Bugger? Paul thought. What the crap does that mean?
As the boy took his first step to run away, he instantly got that same painful look on his face and dropped to one knee. The bloody knee. "Goddammit…" he whispered to himself. The blood coated the spot on the cement.
"Well," Paul said plainly, still disgusted. "I'll leave you to that."
"Can you help me???" the boy pleaded. "The Pokemon Center is on the other island, and I think I still may be being followed! I don't have any Pokemon to defend me because a group of bandits stole them all!" He crawled over to Paul and kissed the ground underneath his shoes. "I freaking worship you! Please help!" he shouted, sounding more and more stalker-ish by the minute.
"Don't think so."
"Wha…?" the kid gaped. "Why won't you??? You know I'd do this for you!"
"Yes, but I'd never be weak enough to get beaten and robbed like that," Paul sneered.
The kid bowed his head and tried to stand up. His eyes were covered by a shadow, and he looked devastated. "I don't know why I respected you."
"Neither do I," Paul muttered. "Like I really need a slave."
"Ash said that you abandoned your Chimchar. He said you were cold and heartless. He was…He was right. And I was wrong. I am weak."
Paul turned around and started to walk away. If he was trying to get him to feel sorry for him, it wasn't working. "It took you that many episodes to realize that?"
The boy picked himself off the ground and started to walk away as well. However, it was only a few seconds before he stumbled on his bloody leg once more. Paul turned and frowned.
"Kid."
He turned around. "What do you want now?" he said harshly. His eyes were full of tears. He was obviously depressed.
Paul sighed. "You're going to hurt yourself. I'll walk you back to the Pokemon Center, but that's…"
"YAY! YAY!" he instantly jumped into the air as high as he could twice. His orange eyes were glowing with happiness. "Come on, come on!"
"…all."
"You're not heartless, you're awesome!" he shouted, still jumping with joy. "I'm Barry, by the way!"
"Barry," he repeated. "All right, let's go. The Pokemon Center is on the other island."
"Okay!"
"Now tell me what happened to you and don't stop this time."
"Oh," Barry frowned again as they both started walking. "I was being beaten by these two thieves and they took all of my Pokemon. Then they shoved me in the water over there." He pointed in the direction of a body of water by an abandoned alley. "I was drowning, but a guy in a boat got me out."
"Sailor Eldritch."
"You know him?"
"Yes. I've been to Iron Island dozens of times, and he's the only one that can take you there," Paul explained, not exactly caring. "How'd you get to bleed so bad?" he pointed down to his bloody knee.
"I hit a boat propeller when they pushed me."
"And it didn't cut your leg off?"
"When Eldritch saw they were going to push me in, he turned the propeller off, but it only halfway stopped when I hit it."
"I see. And the thieves—You have no idea who they are? They came out of nowhere and attacked you?"
"Yes."
"That sounds like a group of thieves that's been going around for a weak now. They call themselves the Hell Bandits. There are twenty of them. Only two attacked you?"
"Well, yes, but after I got out of the water, they came back with twenty or so."
"…And that's when you came running."
"Yes."
"I see. You outran the Hell Bandits with that injury on your knee," Paul said, not believing a word of it. "You can barely walk fast enough to keep up with me."
"I think they…gave up."
"What Pokemon did they steal?"
"My Roserade, Staraptor, Heracross, and my Empoleon."
"All they wanted was your Empoleon, then. They had no reason to chase you. That's why they stopped."
"Why? How do you know?"
"They're interested in the three starter Pokemon in Sinnoh."
"Why?"
"Did you know that each of the starters in every region specializes in a certain stat?"
"They do?"
"Infernape specializes in Speed, Torterra in Attack, and Empoleon in Defense. If you have all three of them, you can use them together to use all the stats and have an invincible threesome."
"How do you know all this?"
"Ash came crying to me about the same thing. They took his Chimchar, and now your Empoleon."
"How do we find them again?"
"We don't."
"What?"
"They'll find us."
"What?"
"I have a Torterra, you know."
"Oh…I almost forgot about Torterra."
"Do you feel alright?"
"Yep—Just fine."
"You're limping."
"I…I am?"
"Put your arm around my shoulder," Paul said, crouching down to his level. Barry did so as they continued walking. Barry was blushing bright red. "Don't get any ideas about me," Paul snapped, blushing as well. "You just look dumb and weak. You obviously couldn't make it to the Pokemon Center by yourself."
"You're mean."
"You're pathetic."
"You still rock."
"You're still pathetic."
"Thank you."
"No, thank you."
There was an awkward silence. Barry released a slight smile to go along with his blush. Paul continued to glare straight forward, supporting Barry's weight. He didn't weight much at all, even with his wet clothes. He was very skinny and his clothes were light as well. Paul couldn't help but glance over at him, wondering how a ten-year-old was getting along in the wild training Pokemon by himself. Barry was now resting his chin on Paul's shoulder, looking exhausted. Paul didn't mind.
"When we get to the Pokemon Center, you're on your own," Paul said, closing his eyes.
"Oh," Barry murmured, a little disappointed.
At once, Paul got too annoyed to put up with him. The Pokemon Center was across an extremely long bridge. Losing his patience by the second, Paul picked up his pace. Barry struggled to keep up. He looked devastated again.
"Why can't you help me get my Empoleon back?" Barry said determined, finally speaking up.
"Because your Empoleon means nothing to me."
"It's not fair! It'll be so easy for you!"
"It'll also be a waist of my time."
"But they're coming to you anyway! Can't you beat them and help me instead of just beating them?"
"No. That's just one more task."
Barry took his arm off Paul's shoulder. "I can make it the rest of the way myself."
"Don't think I'll care if you're stuck out here for the night," Paul said plainly. Barry looked surprised and turned toward the sun. He realized it was going down already and turned back to Paul sternly.
"Fine! I'll just get back to the Pokemon Center on my own!"
"I doubt you can handle it, but I couldn't care less."
"Good night!"
"Good night."
"Bye!"
"Good luck making the other half of the bridge."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXIt was midnight. Barry knocked on the glass door of the Pokemon Center. "Hello?" he said slowly, completely exhausted. 11:00 was curfew at the Pokemon Center. Barry had limped the other half of the bridge on his own and made it just in time to figure this fact out. Barry stomped on the ground with his foot. "Damn luck! Damn it all!" He knocked harder. "Someone, please, open up! Hello! Hello!" Barry turned where he was standing and slide his back down the door to a sitting position. He buried is head in his knees.
"There's no way this can get any worse…" he mumbled to himself, wiping away a tear. Why am I crying? Barry thought. Paul wasn't worth it! It's not like I'm gay or anything! I'm just…a little…
…lonely…
Barry continued to cry to himself, muttering. His knee was still stinging. He felt three drops of water on the back of his neck. He looked up.
"RAIN??? You've gotta be goddamn kidding me!" he screamed. He fell back down to the ground and continued to sob.
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Paul opened his book up as he sat back down in the brown chair in his hotel room. He couldn't get Barry off his mind. Even if he made it back to the Pokemon Center, it's closed by 11:00. He looked outside.
Rain. Nice, Mother Nature, real nice.
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Barry's eyes slowly opened. Where am I? he thought. He took a deep breath. Dirt filled his lungs. He stood up and choked it out. That's right, he was on the ground in front of the Pokemon Center. The goddamn Pokemon Center. His new mortal enemy.
He pushed on the door. Still locked, but someone should open it up any minute. He pounded on it. "If someone doesn't open up right now, I'm fining you!" he threatened. Nurse Joy walked into the room and stopped him. In fear of going bankrupt, she grabbed the key and unlocked it for him.
"Oh dear, were you stuck out here all night?" she said sympathetically. "I'm so sorry! What made you stay out so late?"
"It's a little late, but I was robbed by the Hell Bandits!" he hissed through bared teeth.
"Oh, you poor dear! Come inside and I'll get your wounds treated." She grabbed Barry by the shoulders, pushed him inside, and led him to the infirmary. "I usually treat Pokemon, but this is an exception."
Barry sat down as Nurse Joy began to search for some bandages. Barry looked out the window.
I don't care about what happens to me…As long as I can get my Pokemon back!XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Wow, why am I being so terrible to Barry? Why is there so much rambling between my two victims? I mean, characters. Why is Nurse Joy so stupid in this chapter? I don't know! ~Furyfur