We arrived at the pokemon center just after 11:30, the Misdreavus train ride had made good time, "Alright we made it to the pokemon center" Noah excitedly ran into the pokemon center to have nurse Joy check out his pokemon.
Now officially done with pulling, Misdreavus floated on top of Kyra's head, practically looking like melted ice cream.
Once both me and Kyra were off she put the dolly in her bag, after that we both walked in. The pokemon center had some activity, there were some trainers here and there but no one in need of urgent care.
Noah placed his pokeballs on a tray being carried by a Chansey, seeing us the Chansey waited until we were closer and held up the tray. Kyra recalled Misdreavus, then placed her ball on the tray, I did to with my pokeballs.
"Thank you Chansey", "Chansey", Chansey said before walking away
"Since our pokemon are relatively fine it shouldn't take that long, what should we do to kill sometime?" Noah asked, mentally going over what we needed I responded, "we need to at least buy some supplies, for when we eventually leave Jubilife."
Considering Noah's word for a second then remembering my promise to my parents, "I'll call my family when I have my pokemon". At my reminder Noah, and Kyra nodded, then steered the conversation back to supplies.
"We all could use some supplies, especially after using a good amount with the Wooper and Quagsire, sure lets go."
Walking out of the pokemon center, we quickly noticed the pokemart nearby, hopefully it won't be too expensive, we all thought.
----fifteen minutes later---
Three young kids were sitting on the curb of the street outside of the pokemart, all three of them had a vacant dead look in their eyes as they looked down at the receipt in each of their hands.
Even the boy who had always had the warmest energy and a smile on his face, was as down as the other two.
After staring at the final number at the bottom of the little paper, I couldn't stand it anymore, I started clutching my head with my hands, "What the heck was that?! That was a robbery in broad daylight."
"Which part? The fact that the pokemon food alone almost bankrupted Noah, or the fact that just the basic supplies for surviving the journey to the next town stole over half the money in our wallets, Hikari?" Kyra hollowly replied back while drawing circles on the ground.
"This has to be price gouging right? Because we're in the Sinnoh region's biggest city right?" Noah frantically looking over to us with slight hope in his eyes turned to face us.
"Nope, I asked the sales woman, these prices are all set in stone across the Sinnoh region" Kyra mercilessly burst Noah's small bubble of hope.
Kyra remembered something turned to me, "also Hikari, doesn't your dad own the pokemart? Why are the prices so much cheaper there?"
"Because my dad's store is the only one around with all the necessary pokemon medication until Jubilife, some of the town's taxes go into keeping prices down." I responded back
After a few more minutes of moping around, staring at our empty wallets, I slowly stood up, which gained Noah, and Kyra's attention.
Lowering my voice so only they could hear me, "I'm gonna saw the n word"
"What?" It took a second for them to register what I said, but when it did both their eyes widened in alarm.
Noah jumped off the curb, and started shaking me, "Hikari don't, we don't want you to get in trouble" meanwhile Kyra had pulled up her hoodie over her head and moved her hair to cover face, before standing up.
I lowering my head, so Noah couldn't see my face, "I'm gonna say it"
"Hikari don't", Kyra hissed towards me.
I just inhaled, "Hikari don't!!!" Noah charged, trying cover my mouth, "Niiii-"
"Well we're screwed" Kyra added then slowly started backing away trying to look like she didn't know us.
Looking up at the sky I finished, "-ntendo" I yelled out, at my words Kyra paused mid motion, while Noah stopped trying to tackle me to the ground.
"You greedy bastards, extorting us common people while you sit on a mountain of gold, tossing us peanut shells"
I got weird looks from passersby but not much more than that, "Nintendo? That little gaming company?" Noah asked
In the pokemon world there was the nintendo company but since there were almost no indoor kids in pokemon, gaming wasn't that popular.
I just turned to him giving him a dead serious look, "Nintendo is bigger than you could possibly imagine or believe"
"And how do you know that?" He asked his eyes in doubt
Looking back up to the sky, "I'm the only one who knows that"
Kyra done with my antics cut into the conversation, "so how do we solve the problem of us solving our empty wallets?"
Noah, now back on topic, grimaced for a second, then hardened his face and said with a voice full of confidence and determination, "let's go to the pokemon center, then to the training grounds to bully then extort some kids."
At Noah's word both me and Kyra twitched before sinister smiles bloomed across our faces.
"Noah", I said while putting an arm around his shoulder, "I never would have expected an idea like yours to come from you, maybe Kyra -"
"Hey!? What do you mean that idea would come from me Hikari, well it would but still what the heck?!"
Ignoring Kyra, I patted Noah's shoulder, "welcome to the dark side". Moving quickly to dodge Kyra's swipe at me, we started jogging to the pokemon center.
Our pokemon were already healed and were waiting for us, we thanked nurse Joy who handed us our balls. Now we were all set, Noah pointed towards the door.
"To the battle grounds", the world started to spin around us, all we heard was, nananananaanana, "HEY, how'd you get here!?"
Then we appeared outside somewhere, "What just happened?" Noah, now confused, asked.
Kyra, slightly off balance, regained her footing before rubbing at her head, "I have no idea, one moment we were in the pokemon center, the next the world was spinning, then someone yelled at us."
"Noah, try it again" I said
Kyra hearing me tried to stop him "Don't you -"
"To the pokemon center" Noah said, as he pointed ahead, suddenly a red pop up window appeared in front of us.
Your access to this mode of transportation has been blocked by dimensional duct tape.
"Freaky", said Noah as his finger passed through the pop up. Kyra and I couldn't help but agree I could only wonder if I would make some interdimensional friends.
Suddenly we heard a boom and turned around, we were at the battle arenas and a Machop had just chucked a Geodude into the ground from the air, the Geodude was knocked out.
"bwha!"
The blast that came from the Geodude had created a shockwave, the shockwave had blasted a newspaper in Kyra's face.
Kyra pulled the newspaper off her face and was about to throw it away, until I grabbed it from her. Kyra looked like she wanted to protest, but realizing it would be over a piece of random paper she stopped herself.
Noah, noticing me looking at the picture on the front page, asked about it, "Something up Hikari?"
I was engrossed in the picture. It was a picture of three individuals. All three of them had a green bandana that had swirls on it, but one had hot pink hair, another had blue hair, and the last one looked like a cat with a gold bit on its forehead.
I instantly recognized those three it was team rocket looking at the date the paper came out today. Seeing the date I had a predatory smile on my face, turning to Kyra and Noah, they were both giving me raised eyebrows.
"I have a plan to make us a lot of money, but first I need to go back to the pokemon center."
That gained their attention instantly, "come here I'll explain" then we huddled in.
"I don't know about this, this just sounds wrong", "Hikari, this plan of yours sounds slightly illegal."
"I understand both of your concerns, but team rocket's main goal is to steal pokemon from their trainers, so we will be doing the Sinnoh region a favor while getting paid for it."
At my words my friends who were originally concerned and gave me worried looks joined me in smiling all teeth.
Kyra even started patting my back, "well why didn't you just say that from the start, you're right we should use this opportunity to save the Sinnoh region from these evil criminals."
I could easily see the dollar signs in her eyes as she said that.
"alright I'm going to the pokemon center, then be right back, you two keep an eye out for that trainer.
"Got it", they both called.
In a big city full of unfamiliar tall buildings and a lot of people I admit I was a little nervous, since we had teleported to the battle arena I didn't know the way back to the pokemon center.
While I was walking around I saw a guy in a purple shirt, who had some facial hair, handing out pamphlets to anyone who looked like a trainer. I decided to approach him, to ask for directions.
"Good luck young lad in your search for the clowns!" the man cheered at the last trainer who talked to him before me. "Hello sir, do you know where the pokemon center is?" I asked
"Ah, a young trainer, yes just go down the street for three blocks, make a left, then you're there. However before you go I must ask, do you have a poketch?"
"Thank you for the directions, but no I don't have a poketch, frankly I don't think I'll be able to afford one for a while."
Poketches were like modern smart watches but without the internet adapted to the pokemon world.
"Not to worry young one, I invented poketches and now I am running the promotion campaign for it. For a limited time only, find four clowns in Jubilife city and you get yours free of charge.
At the f word of free, he had my complete attention, "so all I have to do is find them?"
"Well not exactly" he said while rubbing the back of his head, "you have to find them, then correctly answer the question they ask, if you get it correct they will give you a ticket, turn in all four to me and you get your very own poketch."
"I'll do it, thank you" I said waving goodbye, "good luck finding them all" he called back.
Following the original directions to the pokemon center, I kept my head on a swivel, surprisingly enough I could see two clowns already.
Fun fact: when you wear bright yellow and red clothes in a grey cinder city, you stick out like a sore thumb.
One was near the pokemart from earlier, while another was pretending to be the clown mascot of a burger restaurant.
Going up to the Ronald impersonator first, "are you with poketch?"
At my words he put his hands on his cheeks, "my oh my, perfect disguise has been revealed, you found me I am with the poketch company."
"Are you ready for your question?", I nodded
"Alright then, how many badges does it take to enter the Lilly Valley conference?"
"8"
"Congratulations, here is your ticket", now in my hands was a golden ticket
"Now good luck finding the other clowns" with that I thanked him as he resumed his Ronald impression.
The next clown's question was just as easy as the last one, "what is the official bird of Sinnoh?" The answer was Staraptor.
Now having two out of four tickets I entered the Pokemon center.
A few minutes later I walked out having made a very important phone call, I decided to try to find the other clowns.
While I was inside the Pokemon center I got a map of the city, looking at the map the first place I noticed was the park.
Sure enough there was a clown in the central square but this clown was performing magic tricks for little kids with his Houndour that had a little hat on His act seemed to have just finished, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls I Dribbles the clown will be doing an intermission and be back in fifteen minutes.
"Ahhhh", all the kids complained but their parents still took them away. While dribbles was still packing up I approached
"Sorry, I'm currently packing up, but I'll be back in fifteen minutes"
"I'm not here for magic tricks, are you with the poketch company?" At my words he turned around and got all excited.
"Yes I am, your question is what would my Houndour evolve into?"
"Houndoom"
"Correct, here you go"
With that I only needed one more, it was now noon Kyra and Noah probably were wondering where I was.
-----one hour later---
Where the heck is that stinkin clown?! I could not find the last clown I had walked all over this city, nothing, not one new clown. Now I was starving, it was so tempting to just go into a restaurant, blow some money and eat.
Currently I was walking down a street full of restaurants, I could see and smell food being prepared, my stomach growled but I just kept walking. Taking a deep drink from my camel back I noticed ahead there was a fancy looking restaurant ahead.
But what caught my eye wasn't the food, no it was the door man, he was dressed all fancy but had a neck brace on, passing by the restaurant I noticed the name, Che Whitey.
I had given up the search for the clown and was almost back at the battle arena's when I saw a group of teenagers laughing while looking at a group of kids.
Going over to lighten my mood, I moved around them and stilled, there, teaching them was the clown.
While my whole body was shaking, I looked to see where I was. I was at a school, two blocks from the battle arena, and around the corner from the promotional guy.
While I was mentally cursing up a storm, I listened to "class" if it could be called that.
The clown was teaching a group of six year old's, and had just beaten one of them on the head with a sock that had some small ball in it.
"Alright childrens my name is Dopey D clown, for our first activity I'll be showing you how the man finger paint"
"Yayyy", the children cheered, then he took one of the little girl's hands and started finger painting on an actual finger print clearance card.
"It's not very pretty" said the little girl, Dopey just looked at her "you're dam right it aint, and by the looks of your face, neither is your mama, now sit down."
"Alright I love all the fun childrens, cuz I'm about to explode with joy. It's time for the reading lesson, A is for arrested, can anyone make a sentence with the word arrested?"
"oo, oo, I got one, I think Dopey has been arrested before"
"Very good, that brings us to the b, I'm going to bap you upside the head" then he took his sock and bashed the kid.
"Remember, Dopey don't play that"
The class was being held outside the school at a picnic table and everyone near me was struggling not to burst out laughing.
"That takes us to the letter c, which is for conspiracy ca- "
"Dopey, why did you become a clown?" one of the kids interrupted the clown, the other kids not wanting to get hit moved away from the boy that asked.
"It's because I have so much love to give, and part of my prison work release program" Dopey responded, "alright childrens I'm going to pause our class, since we have an audience."
Dopey then turned his head away from the children, towards the group I was in, the other kids near me ran away but I stayed.
"And what can I help you with" Dopey said as he came over to me
"Are you with the poketch company?" I in turn asked
At my words he went for his pocket then pulled out five dollars in singles, "Here is your question: if I have five dollars, and you take three, what do you have?"
"Three dollars?"
"A size twelve clown shoe up your ass"
He then put away his money, then pulled out the ticket, "here take it and scram"
Keeping my mouth shut, I just took the ticket and left, heading back to the promotion guy.
"Ah it's you, did you find all four clowns?"
"Yes, here are the tickets", I said, then pulled out the tickets handing them over to him. "Congratulations, you were the first to find all four today, I thought you would never find Dribbles."
I just sighed, it wasn't Dibbles I struggled with, it was Dopey, I could find him until a few minutes ago.
"Dopey?" he just shrugged then continued "Alright then here is your poketch", he then handed me a red poketch, "thank you sir"
I made my way back to the battle arena, I saw Kyra and Noah both battling, so I just plopped down on the bleachers waiting for an arena to open up.
Exhaling, "what troublesome day"
(Author note - I have so many ideas but I need to advance the story, so here is another chapter. I love dark/ racist humor, Instagram is my favorite racist app also if you want put some racist Mexican jokes in the comments, (I'm more central American but live in the U.S.)