Follow Me Ch 17: Leaf Storm

Follow Me

A Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver Story


Chapter Seventeen

Leaf Storm


    Chocobo chirped angrily at the boy in the orange-and-white-striped, long-sleeved shirt, his talons planted firmly in the sand in front of his master, whom he seemed to be defending.  The older man with feathery blond hair regarded the Pokémon with a chuckle.

    "Looks like you've made yourself an enemy, Barry," the man said with a laugh, clapping the boy's shoulder.  He turned to Soul and offered her a hand.  "This little one yours, Soul?"

    "Yeah," Soul said, accepting his assistance.

    "Here," Silver, who'd joined her side, said, handing her the stray items from her bag that he'd collected.

    "Ah!  Thank-you, Silver..."  There was a heavy pause while she replaced her items, during which there was a shuffling of feet a few coughs exchanged.  When she'd finished, she glanced around, and she realized everyone was waiting to see who should start the introductions first.  "Right, sorry; this is my friend, Silver, and Silver, this is Palmer, the Tower Tycoon."  She turned to the boy, who looked to be around her age, and smiled weakly.  "And I'm afraid I don't know who you are."

    "This is my son, Barry," Palmer said, putting an arm around Barry's shoulders.  "He's here visiting from Sinnoh."  He nudged the boy with his elbow, adding, "Apologize to Soul for knocking her over."

    "I already did...!" he complained, but with a stern glare from his father, he sighed and puffed his lips sulkily.  "Right, sorry about that," Barry said in dull tone.  "I don't usually look where I'm going."  This sounded incredibly rehearsed and unfeeling, something Palmer took note of, because he slapped the boy on the back of the head, muttering something that sounded like, "Smart ass."

    "Really, it's okay; I wasn't looking, either," Soul said, shaking her head.

    "So, Soul, were you coming for a rematch?" Palmer asked hopefully.  "I've been itching to have another go."

    "Rematch?" Silver asked with mild interest.

    Soul chuckled, saying, "About four months ago, I got a streak in the Battle Tower that was long enough to warrant a match with Palmer.  But," she said with a grin," I lost."

    "But only just, didn't you!" Palmer said with a hearty laugh.  "Never sweated so much during a match before, I can tell you that!  Got my blood pumping.  I was really hoping you'd come back before I left Johto."

    Soul's eyebrows raised.  "You're leaving?  For how long?"

    Palmer opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a low, booming rumble from the storm in the distance.  "Hmm, looks like we won't be picking them up after all, Barry," he said with a frown to his son.  "If we headed toward Olivine now, we'd get caught up in all this mess that's coming our way.  I'll phone the dock to leave a message for them to stay at the Olivine Center for the night."  He turned to Silver and Soul.  "And what about you two?  Have a dry place for the night?'

    "We were headed to the Frontier Center just now," Soul said with a nod.

    "'Fraid that's going to be a problem," Palmer said, shaking his head.  "When Barry and I passed it, they were turning away trainers left and right; said they were overcapacity with people trying to ride out the storm."  Palmer paused as the two teens exchanged troubled glances, and then he grinned merrily.  "So I guess you'll have to come stay with Barry and me in the Tower!"

    "Eh??  No, we really couldn't—"

    "Nonsense!  You expect me to let you stick it out here on the beach?  You'd all drown, or catch a death of cold.  Now, come on, both of you.  Ah—excuse me, all three of you," he corrected when Chocobo gave him a reproachful crow.

---

    "My apartment's at the very top of the Battle Tower," Palmer explained as they all boarded the elevator.  "This lift is private and is pretty much the front door to the place.  You should count yourself lucky; not many trainers get to see the Tycoon Suite."  The four piled into the elevator as Palmer pressed the up button on the console.  "Hang on," he added as the elevator lurched and slowly started its ascent.

    "So, how long will you be gone, Palmer?" Soul asked.  "I was planning on re-challenging you when I had some spare time..."

    Palmer sighed and leaned against the handrail.  "I'm afraid the only way you'll be able to do that is if you come visit me in Sinnoh.  Y'see, I'm resigning as the Johto Tower Tycoon."  Soul couldn't conceal her surprised gasp, and Palmer chuckled.  "Don't worry; I had this planned from the beginning.  I closed the Sinnoh Battle Tower for a year to come help establish the Frontier here in Johto.  But now that that's settled, it's time for me to head home, back to Sinnoh; my wife's been giving me hell for being gone so long..."  He grinned fondly.  "Barry and I were headed to pick up my replacement in Olivine when we ran into you—Ah, here we are."

    They'd reached the top floor, and the small box grumbled to a stop.  There was a small chime, and the doors slid open.

    Never in her life had Soul seen such a spacious, splendid apartment.  The main room was massive and wide, broken into smaller areas by furniture: a dining room set on the opposite side of the room from the elevator, a living area with a wall-mounted flatscreen sectioned off by two emerald curved couches, and a kitchen on the right of the entrance, with a small island in the center and a bar-stool counter with overhead lights.  Leading off from the main room was a large hallway, for the master bedroom, two guest rooms, and the toilet and bath.  More impressive than the apartment itself was the view: a glass doorway, the plastic curtain-blades drawn open, made up the living room's outer wall, a small balcony the length of the Tower outside it, and beyond that, a view of the entire Battle Frontier and onward to the ocean.  If she strained her eyes, Soul could just make out one of the Whirl Islands, a small speck on the gloomy, stormy horizon.  Even Silver had to stop for a moment and look around the room in awe.

    "Nice, eh?" Palmer said with a bemused grin, acknowledging their bewilderment.  "I had them make it this nice on purpose; my suite back in Sinnoh isn't nearly as fancy as this one.  I'm thinking when I get back it'll be time for a remodel..."  He laughed.  "Anyway, I need to make a phone call, so you guys get settled in the living room for now, and after I contact the Olivine docks, I'll see if the pizza place will make a delivery before it gets too stormy."

    They made themselves comfortable on the arced couches as Palmer entered the kitchen, Chocobo choosing a squashy beanbag in the center of the area to snuggle into with a contented chirp.  Barry was running his finger over DVD cases, looking for something to watch, Soul supposed.  It wasn't until he turned with his choice that she realized it wasn't DVDs he'd been looking at, but video games.

    "Wanna play?" he asked with a broad grin.  He was holding a white game case with several characters plastered on the front.  Soul recognized the tell-tale format of a fighting game, but from a distance she could only make out the word, "Brawl" on the cover...

    "Video games are a waste of time and energy," Silver said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

    Barry frowned and turned to Soul.  "How about you?"

    "I'm no good at fighting games," she said honestly.  "RPGs are more my thing."

    Barry flopped into a beanbag—Chocobo's beanbag, to be precise, and the small Pokémon screeched in anger before fluttering over to settle in Soul's lap where it was safer—and sighed huffily.  "Jeez, you guys are no fun," he muttered.  After a moment of quick contemplation, a grin twisted on his lips, and he added in a casual tone, "Not that it would've mattered, anyway; I totally would've kicked your butts.  You both look like you wouldn't be much of a challenge."  Both trainers' shoulders went rigid as the boy continued on.  "I mean, sure, it's just a video game, but honestly, to turn down a challenge so quickly...you guys must both be wimps or something."  He shrugged with a smug smile, his eyes closed, unaware of the glinting glares focused on the back of his head and the veritable auras of death in the air.  "Of course, I can understand why you'd hesitate when faced with an opponent like me—"

    "Shut the hell up and give me a controller," Soul and Silver said in unison, their eyes overcast by angry shadows and their arms extended rigidly.

---

    "What do you mean she already left??" Palmer asked the person on the other end of the phone line as he stood in the kitchen, drumming his fingers on the island's countertop.  There was a roar from the living room, and he growled irritably.  "Hang on," he said, and then, cupping the receiver, he yelled, "Hey, keep it down in there!"

    The shouting had been from the three teens, Barry's a moan of unfair defeat and Soul and Silver's a bellow of triumphant victory.  The two exchanged a high-five, serious expressions on their faces, as Barry sulked in his beanbag chair.

    "That's not fair; you guys tag-teamed me!" he griped.

    "Hey, you're the one who said you could take us both," Soul said unsympathetically.

    "Yeah, not at the same time, though!  That's called cheating!"

    "No, that's called strategy."

    "If it were me, I'd be pretty embarrassed," Silver said with his typical, stern expression as he aimlessly pressed buttons on his controller, "considering I lost to a bunch of novices at a game I'm supposedly good at."  A smile twitched on his lips.  "Guess that makes you the wimp."

    Barry growled through his teeth, folded his arms in a huff, and sulked, thoroughly flustered.

    "Let's go again, let's go again!" Soul cheered, shaking Silver's shoulder eagerly.

    "Yeah, yeah, one more round..." he said with a small grin.

    After the following round was over (Soul emerging the victor), Palmer came to join them, flopping on the other couch near the glass doors.  "Well, I have some good news and some...somewhat troubling news," he said, and the three slackened their controllers to turn to him.  "The good news is, the pizza place said they'd deliver even in the rain, so we should have food in about thirty minutes.  The somewhat troubling news is...my replacement left the docks before I could get my message to her.  So she's on her way here, and I imagine she's probably caught in that storm right about now...I hope she changes her mind and heads back to Olivine..."  He stared out at the black sky, troubled.  Sighing, he sat up properly and brightened.  "So then, how about you toss your old man a controller and let me have a go too, Barry?"

    There was another intense round of battling and trash-talking, and Palmer emerged the victor, Silver very narrowly taking second place after their sudden death showdown.  They were getting ready to start another bout when the intercom on the elevator wall started buzzing.

    "Ah, that's probably them saying the pizza is here; you can ignore it," Palmer said with a wag of his hand.  "Come on, one more round before food gets here."

    No more than a few minutes later, when they were deep in the middle of their current round, the elevator chimed, signaling their visitor had arrived.

    "Come on in, I'll be with you in a minute!" Palmer said, not tearing his eyes away from the screen for a second as the elevator doors opened.

    White and red sneakers stepped onto the carpet, the owner's long brown hair dripping onto the floor.  The light blue socks clung damply to the thin, smooth legs, and black spandex-like bike shorts peaked out from underneath the red pleated miniskirt.  Her light blue, thinly-strapped tank top clung tightly to her body and chest, the thin strap of the black undershirt falling down on one of her shoulders, touching the top of the long, fingerless gloves that covered most of her arms and matched the color of her shirt.  She adjusted the white hat with the red Pokéball insignia as she walked over and stood behind the couch where Palmer was seated, the four too entwined in their match to notice her presence.

    A rush of emotion and a whoop of joy accompanied Barry's first victory, and it was at this moment, the girl decided it was appropriate to speak.

    "Cool, a fighting game!  Can I have next out?"

    The four turned to her, startled.  Most noticeable about her, other than her damp clothes and hair, was the curious green Pokémon perched on her shoulders, its tail wrapped around her to support itself.  Soul had never seen anything quite like it: it looked a bit like a snake, but...since when did snakes have arms and legs?

---

Selected quote for the next chapter:
"His story begins in the fifth generation..."