[Story] Different Directions

[Fera]

 

 

Chapter One: Wurmple

 

 

 

[Fera]

Chapter One: Wurmple
Table of Contents

 

The sun rose over a beautiful summer morning in Fortree City. A brilliant blue sky stretched out in all directions, with only a few scattered clouds hanging far off on the horizon. The forest surrounding the city teemed with Pokémon—everything from the tiniest of bugs to the greatest of Tropius—but men and women were slowly beginning to move about the trees as well. Homes had been built on platforms high in the canopy, each one connected to the next by a series of rope bridges, and these structures blended seamlessly with the branches and leaves. Even more buildings were on the forest floor, but they too appeared to belong there, half consumed by tall grasses and underbrush.

Sophia’s eyes fluttered open, sunlight dripping in through the windows of one such treehouse, bathing her bedroom in morning light. She sat up sleepily and stretched as she reached for her Xtransceiver, squinting at the device to read the blurry numbers; it was 07:36, the clock told her. Right on time.

Grabbing her glasses off the windowsill she slid them onto her face and ran a hand through her tangled, auburn hair. A quick glance out the window told her what she already expected; it was a bright day, probably warm as well. She smiled dreamily as she snapped her Xtransceiver onto her wrist, crossed the room to her closet, and quickly dressed. As she was pulling a brush through her short, knotted mess of hair, she caught sight of something in her window.

A little red Wurmple was staring in at her, his face pressed up against the glass.

Bug Pokémon often flew or crawled into windows in the treetop city, so Sophia paid him little mind; her window was closed after all. She continued getting ready, and glanced toward the window every so often to see if the caterpillar was still there.

Probably just wants food, she thought absently.

It wasn’t until she tossed her bag over her shoulder and was heading to the kitchen for some breakfast that she really took a look at the Wurmple. He wasn’t only watching her, but appeared to be waving at her as well. His tiny front legs wiggled slowly as if in greeting, and only when Sophia turned toward him. She watched him, suspicious.

Then her Xtransceiver chimed softly to announce an incoming call; it was Professor Hail, the device told her, and displayed the image of a familiar man wearing a crisp white lab coat.

“Good morning, Dad,” she said as she tapped the screen to answer the video call.

“Hey! Good morning!” her father greeted her brightly. “How are you feeling? Have a nice day off yesterday?”

“Yeah I’m fine, yesterday was really nice. I’m about to head over to the Institute now.”

“Actually,” her father began with a smile, “I still have Professor Elder and his assistants here to help me so you can take another day off if you want.”

Her brow furrowed. “Why? Is something wrong?”

“Well, no. But, ah…” The Professor sighed. “I’m just worried about you, Soph. You’re working too hard. When I was your age I was still off on a Pokémon adventure! I didn’t even start training until I was twenty-two.”

“We’ve talked about this, Dad—I want a head start. Everyone my age will just be returning home and I’ll already be fully trained in meteorology.” She paused. “Besides, I don’t think traveling around with Pokémon is for me.”

Her father smirked. “This is coming from the girl who was at the top of every Pokémon training and battling class in school. You’d be great.”

“That was two years ago,” she said adamantly, shaking her head. “I hate arguing with you about this. Even if I did want to, it’s too late now! I’m almost twenty.”

“Soph,” her father said quietly. “It’s never too late with Pokémon.”

She didn’t respond, but sighed in frustration and rubbed her eyes.

“Just promise me you won’t come to the Weather Institute today. You’ll be Ms. Professor Hail of the Weather Institute before you know it, and you won’t get to take any time off.”

“Fine,” she grumbled reluctantly. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you then.”

Tapping the screen again to end the call, Sophia sighed and sat down on the edge of her bed, dropping her bag. So what if she wanted to start work early? She wasn’t about to go on some Pokémon journey, so what else could she do? She didn’t like the idea of sitting around doing nothing all the time and she enjoyed working and training at the Institute with her father and the other meteorologists. And the work they did actually helped people, giving early warning of potentially dangerous conditions. She wanted to be a part of it.

But her thoughts turned to the little card she’d safely stored in her bag nearly two years earlier—her Pokémon training license. Even as she swore up and down that she didn’t want a Pokémon, that she wasn’t interested some grand adventure, she could never bring herself to take the license out of her bag. It was technically useless—you weren’t officially allowed to train Pokémon until you were registered with the Pokémon League and assigned a trainer ID number—but the idea of not having it on her person made her uncomfortable.

Just in case, she told herself.

A light tapping on the window reminded her that she wasn’t alone. She’d nearly forgotten the Wurmple, but he hadn’t forgotten her.

She smiled at him, waving. He frantically waved back with his tiny wiggling arms. Her appetite gone, she decided she might as well enjoy the sunny summer day. Sophia picked up her bag and headed for the door.

As she stepped outside the red caterpillar was already there to greet her.

The Wurmple looked up at her curiously with his head uguued to the side. His legs stopped their wiggling to reach towards her eagerly as she pulled an Oran berry out of her bag.

“I’m not supposed to feed wild Pokémon, you know.” She placed the treat on the ground next to the tiny caterpillar who wrapped himself around it and took a big bite.

But he wasn’t the only hungry Pokémon nearby.

A few Taillow raised their heads out of the canopy, staring in Sophia’s direction and crying in voices that seemed too loud to belong to such small birds. The bravest of the three left the trees to perch a short distance from her feet, and with a sigh she reached into her bag to grab what few berries she had left. But when she held the berries out to the Taillow, she realized with a shiver that it wasn’t looking at her at all. None of them were.

They were staring past her, their eyes fixed on the oblivious Wurmple.

Taillow eat Wurmple, a detached voice in her head said. Everyone knows that.

The closest of the Tiny Swallow Pokémon let out a sharp screech and suddenly the air was full of fluttering wings. They showed no fear of Sophia, and dove straight at her—she dropped her handful of berries and stumbled out of the way.

“Look out!” she cried in warning to the little bug.

The Taillow surprised him, but hearing Sophia’s voice the Wurmple dropped his berry and was braced for a fight. His spiked tail glowed purple as he smashed it into the beak of the first bird to get close, landing a powerful poison sting. The Tiny Swallow squawked in pain and flew off crookedly.
The two birds that remained hovered above him just out of reach, chirping loudly.

What moves can Wurmple use? She wracked her brain for the information she knew was there. Poison sting, and…

“Try a string shot!” Sophia called quickly, more a suggestion than a command, but to her surprise the caterpillar quickly obeyed. The sticky silk hit one of the birds in the shoulder and forced it to make an awkward landing on the platform.

“Okay, now poison sting!”

But the Taillow was faster. Just as the Wurmple’s tail began to glow, the Tiny Swallow Pokémon rushed forward and pecked at the caterpillar, striking him in the face and drawing strange, green blood. He winced painfully but still managed to hit the bird in the chest with his barbed tail. The bird screeched and hastily retreated to the trees.

“You’re doing great, Wurmple!” Sophia cheered, nervously glancing at his bleeding wound. “Just one more, you can do it!”

The bug Pokémon faced his last opponent, his tail raised defiantly and glowing with poison.

Suddenly, a dark shape dove out of the sky.

The Taillow screeched and flapped away in a hurry as a large Swellow swooped down on the Wurmple, her red talons digging into his back and stomach and drawing a scary amount of blood.

“Stop!” Sophia shouted at the bird, her voice shaking. “Let him go, you’re hurting him!”

The Swallow Pokémon rolled one cold eye to glance at her before propelling herself toward the forest with a powerful beat of her wings, the caterpillar struggling in her grip.

“Come back!” She screamed, running after the fleeing bird. Time seemed to slow. Her heart pounded as she strained to think of a way to rescue the Wurmple.

My Wurmple, she corrected herself. He’s my Wurmple.

And he knew a move or two.

“Wurmple! Use string shot at her wing now!”

For one terrifying moment Sophia was sure he was too injured to attack. The bird would take him to her nest, tear him to pieces, and eat him. It was over.

Then the bug Pokémon raised his head and shot a line of string upwards. The silk wound itself around the Swellow’s large wing, and with a surprised cry she released the caterpillar, flapping violently to stay aloft.

But her Wurmple was falling. Sophia jumped off the platform to catch him—and with the little red caterpillar safely in her arms it took her a moment to realize her mistake.

On the ground five stories below, someone screamed as Sophia began to fall.

 

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Edited January 24, 2015 by Feravyne

[2GoSu4Ya]

I'm sorry who are you?

[Kababs]

I'm sorry who are you?

Mercy Guyver's still with your sister and this person be more important than you.

[Bimps1002]

to much plot

[ThinkNice]

One of the few stories that actually wants me to read more of it. I like your style.

[Dev]

Hey, I want to be in it;)

[AzizFTW]

I loved this story, Fera, it was great in many aspects.

 

Though, out of all those, one thing of the story stood out to me. I really liked how you gradually introduced the Wurmple and not just straight away. The effect this had was that it reminded the reader about Sophie's background/ story's plot.

 

10/10 would read again!

[Aztek]

wheres chapter 2? :(

[Munya]

[spoiler]

I hope you enjoy. A huge thank you to everyone who's reading this. It means a lot!
[/spoiler]

 

 

Came here expecting it to be good, this is actually quite incredible, loved it.  No thanks required for reading this, to good.

 

Also  "The Wurmple looked up at her curiously with his head uguued to the side."  Good job filter