Church bell

Becky startled, and turned around with a half eaten bagel in her hand in fright of being called out so suddenly from behind..

She immediately took a defensive stance with an aggressive frown on her face for a moment before she saw my face…the frown changed to confusion which morphed again as it looked like she suddenly figured out who i was….

"...Gideon?"

She seemed rather surprised to see me, not that I blamed her, I just up and vanished..

"How are you here right now?…..they said you died in the fire…."

Oh so they assumed I died in the fire?, nice!, that was best case scenario for me, but I couldn't give away to much information, she might still be under the Miss A and Miss C's thumb…so let's just be vague and get as much info as i can…

"What are you doing going through the trash like that?"

I wasn't trying to shame her or anything…95% of what I own I found in the trash, I was just trying to change the subject of my exaggerated demise..

".....looking for something to eat..."

"What happened to everyone after the fire?, did everyone make it out alright?"

Another subject change, the shame and anger on her face when she told me she was looking for something to eat felt like a bit of a touchy subject….

"All of the orphans made it out of the fire, well except for you, but here you are..….but Miss B and Miss A never made it out...…the morning after the fire, some men came around, they were dressed in Black with a big R on the front of their shirts….they told us they would take us to a better place….but I got a bad feeling from some of their smiles, so I made a run for it….I don't know what happened to everyone else after that."

So it was a Team Rocket front then!….my excessive paranoia really saved my bacon…..to be honest I don't much care for what happened to the kids, it sounds cold…but I just don't have the time or energy to spare anyone but myself and my Pokémon if i want to have a real shot at living a decent life in this world..

But Becky is a little different…she actually saved my life, I have no doubt Miss B would have dumped my corpse out the back soon after my arrival if Becky didn't tend my wounds….they were pretty bad….

"So you have been living alone on the street for nearly a month? In winter?"

She was bone thin, and she was wearing a dirty old blanket over her shoulders like a poncho, but the rest of her clothes were not made for winter…the look in her eye and the slight tilt of her head told me all I needed to know..

She looks broken...if I just leave her here I know I'll regret it….so…

"*sigh*...alright…..you can stay with me for awhile….my place is no palace, but it's better than nothing…."

She seemed hesitant to answer…..that's a good sign…..when something seems to good to be true, it normally is….not that I have ulterior motives, but being cautious is always recommended…

"Where do you live?, and you weren't exactly known to be the friendliest back at the orphanage…..why are you helping me?"

"If it was anyone else from that hell hole I wouldn't be offering, you saved my life when that cop dropped me off bleeding and dying on the doorstep and Miss B told you to get rid of me, but you didn't….so just think of this as paying that back…..and my place is pretty far from here….so if you're coming with me, we got a ways to walk….. if you have anything to go and grab, hurry up and go get it"

She hesitated a little more before she nods

"Alright, ill come with you, and I don't have anything except what I have on, so let's get going"

I just give her a stoic nod and turn around, grab my carts handle and keep waking the way I was going before I stopped to investigate..

Becky jogged up to me to match my walking speed, and that's when it hit me….she stinks…..like really bad….she's gonna have to shower right away when we get back…

I also noticed she was still holding on to the half eaten bagel…

"Look, if you can wait a few hours for something to eat, do it, but I won't judge you for eating that, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive out here…."

I had prep time and an adults mind with loose morals to get me through all this bullshit…she's just a kid doing whatever it takes to survive, I can't say I wouldn't be eating out of a trash bin if I didn't have my advantages…

She turns her head as she bites into her "food" making sure I don't see her eating trash food…

We continue our way through the city with Becky copping dirty looks from more "well to do" people, with some of the looks spilling over to me for being in her company, dude fuck these people, I can see my burglary spree hitting this side of the city just out of spite…..eventually we make it to the stretch of wild before the "abandoned zone" and Becky seemed to get more and more nervous…

Ignoring that I took out two pokeballs from my inner jacket and released slowpoke and meowth, we were far enough away where people wouldn't bother me anymore..

And as they appear in a full beam of white light Becky freaks out a little..

"YOU HAVE POKÉMON?!"

"Yeah"

"HOW!?"

"Long story, quiet now, we are making our way through pokemon filled territory, we don't need your shouting attention to us…"

She shut up real quick after that, and eventually we were back on our way…I was carrying a bunch of food, and I was praying no Pokémon got close enough to realise that..

But my payers weren't answered…

We eventually got ambushed by a pack of 5 Rattata and something I really wasn't hoping to see for a few more months of training at least….a Raticate..

Stand at about 3'5 feet tall, plump with brown fur and big ol teeth that I knew for a fact could bite me in half….I was kinda freaking out a little…

But before I could order my Pokémon to respond they already had…

A pink glow covered all of our assailants locking them in place as they struggled to free them selves, the Raticate having a bit better success than its un evolved pack members….

But before Raticate could break himself totally free meowth was in the air spinning forward to gain momentum with his tail glowing white..

Meowths tale connected with Raticates cranium and the sound produced would have made church bell blush, Raticates whole head was driven into the ground as the earth below formed spiderweb like cracks with the rats most likely concussed if not fractured skull at its center…

A one hit KO….was I worried for nothing about Raticate?….no this could just be a weak one, no need to get cocky…

I was stunned, as were the rattata gang….but meowth wasn't….as soon as he saw the big one was down he instantly set himself upon the rest in a flurry of iron tails and fury swipes, reaping the lives of the would be bandits…all in all it barely took 20 seconds from the appearance of trouble to the handling of said trouble…

Slowpoke at at my side with a face more serious than I've seen on him…I mean it's still goofy, but I could tell he wasn't playing around….

After meowth finished off all of the rats he practically strutted over and sat in front of the Raticate, turned to face me and begged with his eyes…..he wants to eat it….

He'd already made sure it was dead, if the deep and blood claw marks across its neck were any indication…and his eating it would save me a lot of food….

"Alright buddy you can eat it, but be very quick, the blood will attract more Pokémon, and we aren't exactly top of the food chain yet…you have a few minutes"

Meowth started tearing into the big rodent with relish….slowpoke just watched from the side….he really only eats fish, he's not a big meat guy…..

Becky was silent with her mouth practically touching the ground, trying to pull together a sentence to articulate what just happened…

"They….and you….and then he!!…THEY ARE SO STRONG!!…HOW!?"

"Again Becky stop shouting, the blood is going to draw enough of them, you don't need to add more, and if you're asking why my Pokémon are strong, it's because we train…now shush, I'm trying to listen"

5 minutes…that's how long I gave meowth….and he finished off most of that Raticate, which should mean a smaller dinner tonight or better yet no dinner….that thing was bigger than he was…how did we eat all that?

Becky took my hush comment very seriously and didn't speak another word until we finally reached my home…

"This is where you live?"

"Yep….it's nicer on this inside…help me load the stuff onto the dragging crate and drag it upstairs"

Me and Becky with the help of meowth and slowpoke got everything upstairs in under 10 minutes….meowth restocked the fire pit with wood on arrival and slowpoke went to claim my sleeping bag for a nap

Beckys jaw dropped again at my little bachelor pad made of bits and pieces….it was nothing special, true, but it sure beat sleeping on the streets in winter in a dirty blanket poncho…

"You absolutely reek, come with me I'll show you the shower.."

She didn't blush or shy away, simply nodding, she had been on the streets for weeks, she probably knew she smelled like shit….

I turned on the shower for her and left her with some soap and a change of clothes…my clothes…and went to get some instant ramen cooking while I waited for her to finish up so I can explain some rules..