21 Dirt encrusted zombie

It was daybreak by the time we got back to the abandoned zone, we had to take a few detours through the city to avoid detection, some less pleasant then others… but we managed it..

I had slowpoke sitting in the wagon with the bags while meowth shadowed us as we moved, slowpoke was meant to feel around for any curious eyes, and meowth was going to close those eyes forcefully if they were found…No witnesses

But we made it out of the city without being spotted once, the trickier part was getting through the wild zone of a nighttime…

The place was crawling with nocturnal predator Pokémon out for a feed….and we looked tasty enough….we were ambushed multiple times by dive bombing zubats packs and even a few golbats.

Just a whole bunch of ekans decided that we were easy prey and took their shot only to find themselves bleeding and broken corpses in a hasty manner…there was even an arbok…and while that thing went down eventually, it was still a pretty rough fight even 2 on 1, it was bulky and unnecessary fast, it never actually landed a hit on meowth or slowpoke, but it made us work for the win that was for sure..

That's not even going into the Rattata and even a few Raticate that tried to ambush us on our way home, but they were easy enough to deal with…but constant moving and battling non stop for hours really drained us, even with slowpoke pumping out heal pulses left, right and centre..

And by the time I made is kinda close to home I was so tired I could barely stand, I'd been running all night pulling a wagon filled with stolen merchandise from a murder happy gang of thugs who would skin me alive if they ever caught me..

I knew I couldn't bring all the bags home…not the drug bags anyway, I just didn't trust Becky enough with any possible information that could lead her to suspect me in what happened last night, when she eventually finds out what happened when she gets back to the city….it was a long shot of people finding out through her…but it's a risk I didn't have to take

The machop I could explain as finding him injured and alone, dying him from starvation and capturing him to help him out…

The cash….well no really explaining that, it's a lot of cash, not to mention the TMs and pokeballs…

So with a heavy heart, on my way home I grabbed a few of the pokeballs and great balls out of the bags, about 20k cash and decided to bury the rest for now….

I dragged my weary body to where I normally train my Pokémon and found one of the trees I usually sit under and had meowth dig out a big and deep enough hole for the bags, it took about half an hour…it would be a lot quicker if meowth had the move "dig" I reckon, but sadly he doesn't…maybe there is one in those TM's i looted, I never actually checked which ones they were … and I'm to tired now..

But after burying the loot me and my VERY tired pokemon dragged our husks back to the house and walking upstairs…

I wanted to feed machop before passing out, I know the pokeballs put them in a semi suspended state, so they are still aware of their surroundings, but injuries and hunger slow way down…this dude was gonna have my back from now on, I wasn't going to leave him hanging, but his friend would have to wait till I finished my nap

When I walked in the door looking like a dirt encrusted zombie Becky startled a bit in fright as it looked like she was cooking herself something to eat.

"Gideon you're back!!, how was night training!"

For my stakeouts in the last few nights I told Becky I was just night training, she knew nothing about training Pokemon so she believed it easy enough…

But this time when I came back I looked dead to the world, covered in mud and grime, probably stank too, I did have to crawl through a bit of garbage to avoid detection…

"It was a rough night, we ran into some unexpectedly strong and aggressive pokemon looking for easy meals, we have been battling all night…but we made it back in one piece, can you fill up these twos food bowls please, we are going to take a shower"

She saw our states and looked a little worried, we probably like like shit, meowth and slowpoke aren't much better than me, blood staining their fur, still covered in singe marks from the battle with the mightyena pack in the basement, both looking very droopy and ready to pass out..

I knew we couldn't just fall asleep right away, if we did we would stink up the entire place, smelling of garbage like we did, so we just trudged past the worried Becky straight to the shower…

We all sat under the hot water for about 10 minutes in silence enjoying the sensation of the hot water washing over us before we actually started to clean our selves…slowpoke had fallen asleep…so I just gave both of them a quick scrub down with Pokémon shampoo before we got out and I dried them and myself off before getting dressed all in the open corridor just near the now enclosed room I fall home..

I take out machops pokeball and look to my very tired mons who just watch me with bloodshot and tired eyes, waiting for me to speak

"As you two know we have one, possibly two new members on our crew, I'm going to release machop now, I'm pretty sure he's on board with us, just keep on eye on him incase he loses his cool for some reason"

The two just nod slowly..

I hit the release for machop and he appears in a mild flash of dull light, still looking just as malnourished and abused as I first found him.

Machop take a look around before setting his eyes on me before lunging at me, I thought I'd made a terrible mistake trusting this thing but meowth and slowpoke didn't react to his sudden moment..

He wrapped his arms around me in a hug before while sobbing silently into my chest..

I was only 10 and stood about 4'5 while machop looked around 4'2 so his head ridges came roughly up to my my nose..

He stayed like that, sobbing and moaning and wouldn't let me go for another 10 minutes before finally pulling away, eyes still red..

My jacket was a bit of a mess, I'm gonna have to change..

"I don't know what you've been through mate, but I can tell it hasn't been a pleasant experience, I'm sorry you had to go through that and I hope burning down the building of the ones who did you dirty help you vent a bit"

He looked directly into my eyes before nodding with as much seriousness as his emaciated frame could give him…

"Well whatever happened is done now, and it's not going to happen again, you're family now and we look after our own, and being part of this crew means training harder than you ever thought possible….but I promise that if you do you will become an absolute monster of a machamp when you finally evolve"

When I mentioned he was family his eyes turned near fanatical and I knew at that moment he was team Gideon for life, and he couldn't nod his head hard enough when I told him about training he looked ready to run out and train right now…

But I knew I had to give him some time to recover and feed him up to put back on some weight, so I beckoned him to follow as I lead meowth, slowpoke and my new machop into the "house" where was Becky cooking some breakfast for me.

I didn't know if machop had some sort of phobia with humans after his ordeal so I made sure to warn him about Becky before hand, but he didn't seem to hate all humans, I reckon any human wearing something with an mightyena on it might be on his shit list though…

As we came through the door beck called "breakfast is just about done, meowths and slowpokes food is already in their bowls and-" she stopped speaking mid sentence and stared in horror at the sight of the emaciated new family member..

"Arceus above Gideon!! What happened to that machop!?"

Meowth and slowpoke ignore her shrieking question and launch themselves at their bowls of food leaving me and machop standing there..

"I found him last night wandering the forest alone and decided to lend him a hand, so meet the third member on my team….machop this is Becky, Becky is this machop"

Machop just give a little bow but doesn't move from my side, and Becky just blanks for a second before shaking her head.

"Well it's very nice to meet you machop, would you like something to eat"

Machop just nods his head slightly, I thought he would be more enthusiastic about eating after being starved for so long, but I can see the distrust of Becky in his eyes…

Becky just turns around to grab my breakfast which consists of a tauros steak, 3 eggs and a couple hash browns she cooked up…

I grabbed the food and went placed it on the coffee table before looking to machop.

"It's all you bud, I'll have her whip you up some more, you're going to need to recover all you can before we start training for real"

Machop darts his head towards me and looks at me with hesitation and I could tell why….he didn't want to take away food from me….

"Don't worry mate, I'll eat soon enough but this here is for you, I don't have any Pokémon food for you at the moment, I'll run into town in the next few days and get some but for now you'll just be eating stuff like this"

I would try and feed him meowths or slowpokes food, but neither of them liked the other so I doubt machop would like theirs…so I'll pack as many meals as I can into him before heading out in a few days to load up on supplies in bulk so I can stay away from the city for awhile and just focus on training..

Machop only hesitated for a moment more before grabbing the plate and just tipping everything into his mouth and started chewing like someone was going to take it away from him…or more like he was just that hungry…

I ended up having breakfast about an hour later after machop finished off 8 plates worth of food before dozing off..

Meowth and slowpoke didn't last longer than 5 minutes after their meal before hitting the hay, and seeing as I didn't have the sleeping bag set up as it was still in the wagon, siowpoke decided he would share the lounge with meowth, but meowth was to tired to care and they both are sprawled out across a lounge that was to small for both of them to fit on…

I eventually took out and set up the sleeping bag but let machop sleep in it after convincing him he wasn't taking my bed…

I was so exhausted from last night that I've basically been on auto pilot since I got back, so eventually after the shower and breakfast, I laid down on the ground covered in blankets going over in my kind who my 4th Pokémon could be and what some of the things I was going to buy now I had money

I wasn't going to spend needlessly, but I needed some things….like a bed for one, maybe a tv or something…but thinking about all of that can waiting till tomorrow….

Im so sleepy…..zzzzzz