Pokemon Ivory - Chapter 1

Chapter One

The First Proving Ground
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Two years and four months earlier...
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Crap, crap, crap!


Ivory bolted between two thick hawthorn trees, but the furious shrilling from behind her didn't stop. Something large and angry hurtled through the tall grass, intent on its prey. She already knew how intent from the deep scratches bleeding into the back of her torn t-shirt. At least it hadn't bitten her. But that hadn't been for lack of trying. Only a quick swipe with the club she usually carried to and from school had saved her from the rabid Liepard's poisonous bite.

Not that I'll be safe for long, she thought as a stitch knifed her side. Especially since I dropped the thing like an idiot. Ow! Crap! Home, she had to get home! People in town had rifles. They could shoot the stupid thing! Before it bites me!

Perspiration streamed down her forehead, plastering her hair to her face. More sweat dripped from the ends of her bangs into her eyes, blinding her. Heart screaming in her chest, adrenaline pumping, Ivory fought the burning pain in her side and tried to keep running. A thorny ebony branch sliced across her face. Narrowly missed her eyes. And behind her, the maddened Liepard raced after her, intent on ripping her to pieces.

They're not supposed to get this big, she thought desperately, leaping over a fallen log. That thing's the size of a freaking Rhyhorn almost! Ivory glanced behind her, trying to spot the Pokémon that had been slavering after her. She could still hear it crushing foliage as it chased after her.

Not looking was a bad idea. Right as she was turning back around, a tree banch caught her in the face and slammed her to the forest floor. The air exploded from her lungs. She nearly forgot how to draw breath. Her head thumped against the mossy ground and she saw blinding stars. Ow. What? For a minute she could only stare up at the forest canopy, blinking stupidly. Then she heard the furious growling and snarling.

The Liepard! Ivory tried to roll over and pain exploded in her head. She tasted copper and spit blood onto the loam. When she touched her fingers to her nose, they came away coated in red.

The Liepard growled again, and she rolled onto her hands and knees. Pushing to her feet, she stumbled dizzily and smacked against a tree, unable to stand. Gray eyes locked with the glassy emerald gaze of the Liepard. There was nothing but insane hatred in those glass green eyes. The leopard Pokémon stalked toward her, its hungry gaze never leaving her face. It's long, pink tongue licked at its froth-speckled lips.

If it bites me, she thought, if it so much as nips me, I'm going to die. There was no hospital or Pokémon Center near enough for her to get the rabies booster. Unlike with Pokémon, humans could only get the shot after they'd been bitten, but it had to be within twenty-four hours. Otherwise... Otherwise I die. And no one in town has a car. I can't let it bite me. I can't let it touch me at all.

Ivory watched the rabid Pokémon's hindquarters coil and bunch. Watched it ready itself to spring at her. Her fingers bit into the rough bark of the tree trunk as she eyed the Liepard with a racing heart. Fear was an icy poison sliding coldly through her veins, freezing her in place. She could smell the thick musk of the angry cat monster. It would spring any minute. In just a second, it would be on her, ripping at her face and throat with razor sharp claws the size of kitchen knives. Struggling to gnaw at her throat with its needle-sharp, vicious teeth. Hungry for the hot blood of a fresh kill. And the only thing that stood even somewhat between it and its all-too-vulnerable prey was an oak tree.

Tomorrow is my birthday, Ivory thought, nearly choking on her pulse. I'll be old enough to be a Pokémon Trainer. I'll finally be old enough to leave home. This isn't how it's supposed to happen. And on the tail end of that thought came a sudden surge of fury. No. No, that's not how it's supposed to happen. That stupid Liepard isn't going to do spit to me. I won't let it!

Ignoring the throbbing in her skull and the sweat and blood trickling into her eye and mouth, she reached up and grabbed one of the oak branches. The wood was somewhat rotted. Gritting her teeth against the pain, Ivory wrapped both hands around the branch and yanked as hard as she could. It ripped away from the tree with the wet cracking of wet-rotted wood.

The Liepard stared at her, obviously puzzled. This little hairless thing was prey. It wasn't supposed to be doing... whatever it was doing. It should be trying to hide, quivering in terror as the huge cat stalked toward it, intent on the kill. Adrenaline lacing its hot blood, adding flavor. Fear in every beat of its terrified heart. And when the Liepard sank its teeth into the back of the creature's neck and snapped the spine, it would scream once and die. Instead there was anger in the thing's eyes. Anger, and determination.

The Liepard spread its paws and screamed, the shrill and furious screech of a hunting cat.

"Shut up," Ivory snapped, clutching her branch tighter. Part of her was clamoring that she turn and run. But if she turned her back on the Liepard, it would pounce, and she would die. Terrifying. Unacceptable. So instead, she tightened her grip on the oak branch until splinters bit into her fingers and her knuckles bleached white. And she waited for the thing to leap at her.

When it only stared at her, snarling its hunting cry with fury in its eyes, she yelled, "Come on! Stupid thing! Just do it already! I'm not scared of you!"

Big lie, the girl thought with a faint kiss of hysteria. Big, big lie.

With a sudden scream of fury, the Liepard launched itself in the air. Before Ivory could even swing her club, a huge, dark shape leapt between her and the rabid creature. The big cat's hunting shriek cut off abruptly. Ivory stared up at the looming, sinuous thing in front of her with wide eyes. Dark jade scales glittered in the weak autumn sunlight filtering through the canopy. Golden banding accentuated the slender shape of the thick, scaly body. And when the thing's gold-crested head turned to look down on her, she found herself trapped in the oldest, wisest crimson eyes she had ever seen. Gossamer-thin viridian lashes blinked once, but those eyes never looked away.

Serperior, Ivory realized. Final evolution of Snivy.

"Excellent work, Serperior," a cool, brisk voice said, and those blood-red eyes finally broke eye contact. Ivory shook herself and realized she still held the branch, now stained by tiny streams of red from her bleeding hands. She dropped the club and fell back against the tree trunk. "Very effective. If you're going to eat it, though, you should probably take it somewhere our young friend won't see you. She's had enough of a fright for one day, I think."

The Serperior shifted its slender, pale jade head to look once more at Ivory. Then it turned and leaned down to lift up the dead Liepard carcass.

"Oh, it's rabid!"

"Stop, Serperior!" Now the woman came into view. Tall, with light brown hair in a tight braid down her back, a thick scar slashing across one sightless, milky blue eye, Professor Sakura Juniper stepped forward and looked down at the carcass. Ivory noted with almost clinical detachment that the cat's head had been rotated almost a full one-hundred-eighty degrees; probably thanks to the Serperior's vine whip attack. The jewel-like serpent Pokémon peered down at the Liepard as well.

"Rabid, eh?" Professor Juniper added. She didn't seem to notice the blood splashed across her blue jeans, or the ragged tears in her tank top and field lab coat. "Well, that makes you twice as stupid. And twice as brave. You're lucky my Serperior and I were doing some field research, or you'd have been cat's meat."

At the words "cat's meat," Ivory fell flat on her butt on the ground and closed her eyes. The sudden absence of adrenaline made her eyes sting, but she refused, at a day short of sixteen years old, to cry like a baby in front of the legendary Professor Juniper, one of the only female Pokémon Professors in the world. She would not cry in front of a woman who, at eighteen, had killed a man-eating, child-searing Charizard with just a pistol, a severely burned Oddish and a level-five baby Squirtle. But Ivory's trapped sobs made her shoulders heave.

Professor Juniper asked, "Hiccups?" The sarcasm was a gentle nudge.

"N-no, ma'am." Then Ivory clamped her teeth together so that their chattering wouldn't make her bite her tongue. The scarred Professor glanced at the girl before plopping down next to her and slinging a muscular arm over her shoulder. Ivory noticed a shiny patch of skin on the inside of the older woman's arm that looked a bit like melted wax - an acid-burn scar.

"Well, welcome to the wonderful world of Pokémon, my dear! I'm Professor Juniper, though you probably knew that already." The Pokémon Professor's carefree tone of voice helped push back some of the fear still clawing at Ivory, and she nodded. "I'm the Pokémon Professor, obviously. Pokémon have mysterious powers. They come in many shapes and live in many different places. We humans live happily with many Pokémon! Living and working together, we complement each other, blah-blah-blah and all that bullcrap they feed you in school. Also, Pokémon are dangerous, most of them are highly toxic, they eat each other and screw to make babies just like people, they will kill you if you're not careful, and some of them will not only kill you, they will crack open your bones to suck the marrow." For some reason, the totally off-hand way Juniper said all this not only dispersed the rest of the post-trauma panic, it actually made Ivory laugh. "Anyway, that's enough from me... what's your story, kid?"

"Um... I was walking home from school and that Liepard attacked me." She pressed a hand to her forehead. The cut from where she'd run into the tree branch had clotted with congealed blood, and the pain in her head was swiftly fading. Now she just wanted to go home. But she didn't think she could manage walking just yet.

Juniper arched the eyebrow over her blind eye. The thick, purple scar bisected the slender brow and carved deep into what would have been a supermodel-exquisite cheekbone. The regard of that strange, sightless eyeball gave Ivory the distinctly uncomfortable impression that the milky eye could see right through her skull. Could see how terrified she'd been that the Liepard would rip her to pieces. See how desperate she was for a chance to become a Pokémon Trainer - and better, to be a Pokémon Master. But all the Professor said was, "That's it?"

"Well, yeah." Ivory picked up a fallen acorn and popped the cap and stem off to fiddle with. "I mean," she added, staring intently at the acorn, unable to meet either the blind eye or the opposite, sparkling green one. "What else do you wanna know?"

"I'll take your name."

"Oh." Duh. Feeling like an idiot, the sixteen-year-old extended her free hand to shake. The Professor pumped it once before letting it go. "I'm Ivory. Ivory Nox. I live in Nuvema Town." Professor Juniper lived in Nuvema, didn't she? Ivory couldn't remember ever seeing this battle-scarred woman in person before - although Ivory's mother had all of the Pokémon Professor's interviews and documentaries on DVD - but somehow she was sure there was a Professor (or maybe it was Doctor) Juniper in her little town.

"Ivory Nox of Nuvema Town. Lemme guess: you're friends with the somewhat difficult but always honest Cheren Gozen, he of the coke-bottle four eyes and the massive brain, as well as the flighty but dedicated, not to mention sweet-tempered Bianca Noire, right?"

At the thought of Cheren and Bianca, Ivory grinned and nodded. Wait till they heard about this: being chased by a rabid Liepard intent on disemboweling her, being rescued by one of the most beautiful Pokémon she'd ever seen in her life, and then sitting down to talk to Professor Sakura Juniper herself. It had been scary as the Devil's own personal nightmare, but with the famous - and reportedly lethal - Professor Juniper seated beside her, the fear and panic were (almost) a distant memory. But Ivory said only, "Yes, ma'am."

"Don't call me 'ma'am.'" But the Professor was smiling warmly now. "Anyway, I think you three have potential, so I'm going to give you a very, very unique opportunity, Pop-Tart. You're sixteen tomorrow - I keep track of the kids coming of age in the nearby towns - so you're old enough to have your own Pokémon starting tomorrow. You're going to fight your way to Victory Road, aren't you? And you plan on being League Champion, don't you?"

Ivory nodded, hands clenched into fists. Yes. Yes, that was exactly the plan. She would fight her way through the Gyms to Victory Road, and she would kick butt, and then she and her Pokémon would be Champions. She would be a Pokémon Master.

"Excellent." The approval in Professor Juniper's voice was warm as spring sunshine. Her unscarred green eye shone with something that might have been delight. "The moment you choose the Pokemon that will accompany you on your journey, your story will truly begin. During your journey, you will meet many Pokemon and people with different personalities and points of view. Most of them will be hapless morons, of course, but don't let it get you down.

"I really hope you find what is important to you in all of these travels. Befriend new people and Pokemon and grow as a person! Things will be tough - really tough. If you think you can't handle that, don't even bother trying to get to the first Gym. Only Trainers who can handle the tough stuff should bother to try. But you're tough... aren't you? A teenage kid ready to fight a rabid Liepard with a stick. You can handle it. Come on."

Juniper got to her feet and hauled Ivory to her feet. "I don't think you've got a concussion, but I'll walk you home anyway. C'mon, Serperior. Let's find some obnoxious Watchogs to fight on the way."