Chapter 2; The Beginnings of a Journy

Story by Guardian the marked soul on SoFurry

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#2 of Bloody Journey

Second chapter of Bloody Journey, hope you like it!


====JONKO====

I crawled out of my tent and looked around. The forest south of Moonstone city was quiet this morning. I took a deep breath through my nose and smiled, no civilization with in possibly a six mile radius.

"Perfect, now all I need is to see if anyone would like to accompany me" I thought to myself as I turned and packed my tent. I felt happier than I had in a long time, almost a year after the battle of Opal city most of it has been rebuilt thanks to the regions infamous determination. Pausing to adjust my machete and hunting knife I had strapped to the back of my black cargo pants, I started to do a quick inventory check.

"Bag's good, six shirts plus this long sleeve blue one, three more cargo pants check, spare jaws, steel jaws, MRE's, machete, Huntsman's on my right, Hacks, Fang, throwing knives, two med packs, ski mask needs washing,-" A snapping branch distracted me from my thoughts. Quickly I spun to the sound and dropped onto one knee, resting one hand on the hilt of my machete.

"Show yourself!" I said angrily, my lips curling instinctively, showing my off-white fake teeth. For several minutes nothing happened, then,

"Z... Zor zorua rua" I watched as a little black and red furry ball came out of the bushes. Large blue eyes met mine as I watched when I smelt an all too familiar sent.

"Your bleeding, come here, I have some bandages and full restores." I turned back to my collapsed tent and bag and started digging around for my medical package. I looked over my shoulder at the little Zorua, it had not moved at all but continued to stare at me. I sighed, and grabbed the supplies, "I'm not going to catch you, but please let me try and help you." I stood and remained still, watching the injured Pokémon for a sign of permission.

======FLO=====

I watched the human in front of me, he had not yet moved and I did not know if I could trust him.

-SNAP-

I quickly started to limp over to the human, fear of what could be chasing me over riding my fear of what this one man could do. I looked back and tried to go faster, ignoring the pain in my rear leg as the men in jungle camo jumpsuits who hurt me came forth from the brush.

"There it is!" one of them pointed at me.

"Shit!" I turned back to look in front of me and was shook to see the other human jumping over me. "What the fuck?" I skidded to a painful stop and looked back again.

====JONKO====

"OY! Back off!" I demanded as I landed on the other side of the wounded Pokémon. My machete still resting in its sheath with my hand on the handle. It didn't take me long to realize they were members of the Lightning Commanders, they're the only ones besides the military's Special Forces who would wear camo jumpsuits, and I highly doubted the military would be the hunting innocent Pokémon.

"What? Who the heck are you?! Oh never mind, Grimlock, get rid of this kid!" One of them threw a pokeball and released a very irritable looking Nidoking. We stared at each other for a moment, giving me enough time to do a head count; four humans, minus me, Grimlock here, and the Zorua. "Sludge Bomb!"

I braced myself as the Nido swung his arm back and piled a glob of poison in his hand. As he shifted to lob it at me, I charged him, releasing the grip on my weapon.

"What the-" one of the grunts started to say as Grimlock threw the ball like a baseball pitcher, only to have it smash into my fist and his palm. Before he could recover from the surprise, I grabbed his forearm and jerked myself up and forward. I swung my feet up and around, ensuring my steel toed boots connect with his cheek and making him stumble. Releasing his arm, I let the momentum carry me over his shoulder and stumbled towards the grunt who sent him out.

"Wait what-" was all he got out before I delivered a round house kick to his temple, smiling as I felt the bone give way under my boot.

"Ni-" Grimlock started to say something but I cut him off as I planted my foot back on the ground.

"If he's still alive, I suggest you take him to the hospital before the rest of you can't." I growled before jumping back and ran backwards towards the Zorua, being careful to give the Nidoking a wide berth as he moved to his trainer. The other grunts started to back off as Grimlock started to emit a broken growl, then ran back into the forest as he let loose a massive roar before turning to me.

======FLO=====

"Well human, it seems you HAVE killed my... master." The large Pokémon sneered with a wicked smile, I shivered in fear.

"Dear Arceus, what have I gotten myself into?" I whimpered, the human who saved me looked back at me.

"Nidoking, I don't understand your language," He turned back to the Nido, "But if that guys dead and you want revenge, please wait till I tend to this one... Or if you don't, just take your pokeball and go." The human spun around and walked over to me, I couldn't help but shiver and try to make myself small.

The Nido just laughed and went to looking around the dead man's pockets as the man kneeled before me. He gently touched my side and carefully spread my fur, looking for my wounds.

"Shh... shh... It's okay, I'm just trying to help." His voice was soft and soothing despite the slight coarseness about it. "I'm going to start applying the Full Restore, this is going to sting so if you need to, bite down on my hand." He said as he moved his left hand level to my snout. I lifted my head to look at him, certain my face asked if he was crazy. He just chuckled and suddenly I felt an intense burning along my side, without thinking I cried out in pain and latched onto his hand. "I told you it'll sting." his voice remained even, as though my bite didn't hurt him in the slightest. My eyes wandered to his, surprised by the lack of pain on his face as I tasted blood.

"Oy, human!" The Nidoking's voice drew our attention as we both looked over to the large Pokémon slowly approaching us.

"Need something?" The human asked calmly, the Nido just smiled and dropped a small box. The human looked at it then back to the Nido, who pointed to the box, then the man, his own ear. I saw the humans eyes widen. "Is that..." the Nidoking nodded.

*"Wh... what is inside that box?" * I asked as I released the man's hand, finding the pain had died down.

"It's a translator, it will allow him to understand us." the Nidoking said, lowering himself to a sitting position. The human looked between us briefly, then set the spray on the ground and pulled out another one.

"I'll worry about that later, can you turn around please?" He asked me. I looked up at him and slowly did as requested.

====JONKO====

I watched as the little Zorua turned around, carefully noting any stiffness or signs of pain. Seeing none, I nodded and gently prodded its side for anymore wounds, grumbling when I felt fresh blood on my fingers.

"Zo zorua zorua." I looked at its face with a slight frown, then reached over and grabbed the box that supposedly had a translator inside. Quickly popping it open, I saw it had one of SlipCo.'s most expensive pieces; a half lensed glasses set with a one inch circle around where the ear would go and a small silver flexible microphone cord.

"Holy shit! This is a Multi-Dex!" I quickly and admittedly somewhat clumsily, put on and adjusted the mic before pausing and returned to treating the Zorua. "Sorry, let me take care of this first then I'll worry about the translator." Placing one of my hands in front of its mouth I began to spray the second bottle on its side. It didn't bite down this time, though it whimpered slightly.

"King nido nidoking" I heard the Nidoking stand up and start walking away, but ignored it.

"Alright, that should do it." I scooted back to let the Zorua move as I started fiddling with my newest toy. The Multi-Dex is perhaps one of the most amazing inventions from Slip Co. thus far. Not only does it allow you to understand poke-speech, but it also has a complete Global Pokedex, Regional map feature, Skype, Video recorder, and a phone rolled into one VERY expensive machine. After fiddling around with the functions for a minute, I finally found the controls for the translator. "And I think I got this thing figured out." I looked down to the little Pokémon I had helped.

"C... can you understand me?" a feminine voice came from the Zorua, I smiled.

"Yep, looks like this thing works like a charm." I chuckled, "How are you feeling?"

"B... Better," She swallowed, "thank you sir..."

"Aww, don't worry about it," I smiled, making sure my lips stayed together, "Hey Nidoking, Is Grimlock your actual name or do you have a different one?" I turned to the purple giant who now stood by what I assume is the corpses of his former owner with a pokeball in his paw.

"Grimlock works just fine," Grimlock squeezed the ball till it cracked and broke, "And thank you for freeing me from this trash." He stated as he dropped the fragments of the ball on the body.

"Don't worry about it, and I think we should get out of here before they come back." I got up and jogged over to my stuff to quickly finish packing.

"W... wait." I looked over my shoulder to the little Zorua as I packed. "C... can I come with you? I... I don't have a place to go..." she looked down, and I suspected she was about to cry.

"Hey, come on get over here," I called softly, shifting to face her completely. "You wanna stay with me all you need to do is tell me your name and help me pack." I smiled as she looked up.

"R... really? Y... You're not going to p... put me in one of those... balls are you?" She cautiously came forward, I laughed and shook my head.

"Naw, truthfully I don't have any on me at the moment." I shrugged and went back to packing, "Besides, I'd let you choose to stay or go." I waved a hand.

"... Flo." I turned slightly to my left, slightly surprised to see the Zorua at my side picking up one of the tent rods and moved it over to my bag.

"That's a lovely name." I smiled and took the rod from her and set it in my bag. We heard the rustling of bushes and I quickly took a defensive stance over Flo. We were surprised to see Grimlock slowly tromping into the bush and out of sight. "You take care!" I laughed and grabbed my bag.

"Where is he going?" Flo asked, I looked down at her.

"No clue, maybe to hunt those Lightning Commanders or find a place to call home." I took a knee beside her and picked her up, much to her shock.

"What are you-?"

"You were injured just a moment ago, and I want to get as much distance from here as possible." I started to run in the opposite direction Grimlock went, "And with your smaller legs, you may have a harder time keeping up with me." I chuckled as I moved into a sprint, "Oh, I'm D-err... I mean, Jonko, Jonko Jofre. You can call me JoJo for ease."

"Jonko- LOOK OUT!" Flo looked ahead just in time to see me head straight for a tree at full speed. I smirked and jumped to my side, narrowly avoiding the tree but ran in the path of another. "EEK" I started to laugh as Flo curled up in my arms and tried not to look as I continued my insane movements through the forest.

=====TIME=====

I leaned back and sighed as I waited for Flo's check up at the Pokémon Center to be complete. After almost twenty minutes of nonstop running (and tree dodging) we arrived in the small Moonstone city, a lovely little place... if you liked cities, city folk, or people in general. I however had had my fill of the last long ago, but I still tolerated people enough to act like I like them. I sighed and started tossing the luxury ball up and catching it, trying to pass the time.

"Jonko." I caught the ball and looked over at the male Chansey who wore with a dark blue eye patch over his right eye, a nurse hat and had a large scar running down his left arm.

"Simpson, how is she?" I asked rising to my feet and walked over to him.

"She's in fair condition, a little shaken up about something having to do with trees and high speeds" He chuckled, "I must admit Blood, I am honestly surprised about your decision."

"Doc, come on," I rolled my eyes as we clasped forearms, "you treated me on several occasions, and I treated you to more than one strong drink."

"Much like you told me when we last met, that's in the past now." he chuckled and started to lead me to the back rooms. "Anyway, the Zorua is good to go whenever the two of you are ready." we walked through the double doors leading into the back rooms and Simpson pointed to a door on the left. "Second on the left, give a holler if ya need something."

"Thanks Simpson." I walked to the room as he went back to the main lobby. The inside of the room was much like every other standard medical room; slightly oversized wrap around counter surrounding almost the entire room, cupboards following it around the top, and a single medical bed in the center. The little Zorua looked up at me from her position on the bed.

"Well, what did the doctor say?" she asked and stood up.

"Said I scared you with my transportation methods," I laughed and rubbed my head. "He also said we're good to go whenever you're ready.

"As long as you don't try to run through anymore trees, I think we can go." she chuckled. I saw her eyes catch sight of the pokeball in my other hand and she frowned. "Are you going to capture me?"

"Only if you want to be my Pokémon." I said and walked to the bed. She watched me as I sat on the bed with her. "You can travel with me as a free Pokémon if you want, but I intend to recruit some Pokémon to join me to take on the League."

"... You'll let me travel beside you... without being your Pokémon?" I could fill her confused face staring at me as I smirked.

"Honestly? Yeah." I looked down at her as I shrunk the ball and pocketed it, "I've traveled the world despite my age, and I have seen too many unhappy Pokémon fighting for people they didn't want to. I've felt the strength of both free and captured Pokémon, and although a captured Pokémon can hold its own, they rely too much on their trainers." I held my hand out for her to jump onto, "Free Pokémon have my respect because they make their own way."

"What do you mean?" She asked as she ran up my arm and onto my shoulder. "Most Pokémon who have trainers are stronger than an average wild one."

"Only against free Pokémon." I started walking out and down the hall, "Take that Nidoking for example, if he was a wild Pokémon for any length of time as that stage of his evolution, that Sludge Bomb would of caused me some degree of damage." I waved to Simpson as we headed to the main doors. "However, he had been captured long enough for him to develop the irritating trait most captured Pokémon do, they won't hurt a human." I shook my head.

"Won't?" Flo shifted on my shoulder slightly, I sighed sadly.

"Not consciously." I stopped as I noticed Simpson coming towards us. "Right Doc? A captured Pokémon will avoid hurting any human?"

"Aye, that's true. You can trust Jonko's knowledge on fighting and how people react to some events." Simpson smiled and nodded to Flo, "And I have a letter for ya." he pulled a large brown envelope from his pouch.

"Eh? Who..." I looked at the sender's address and chuckled. "Well I'll be damn, that Machamp actually kept his word..." I folded the envelope and reached to shake Simpson's hand/arm. "It was good to see you again comrade."

"Aye, you watch yerself eh? I can't always patch your hide up." Simpson clasped my forearm and smiled.

===TIME/POV===

I learned little more of Jonko since we left the Center. He was eighteen and orphaned, forced to wander to survive, hearing about some of his travels surprised me greatly. He had a strange and rare condition that allowed him not to feel pain, which he considered a mix blessing. I also learned that he had another condition that left him without a lower jaw bone, and it was held in place with a piece of plastic that also doubled as his bottom teeth.

"So, you have NO bone there at all?" I asked, poking his jaw just below the cheek. He chuckled and reached into his mouth, stopping our walk to the motel room.

"Na, ti'z ez all I have." he pulled out a wide, off white chunk of plastic that bowed like a human's jaw bone. I looked at it then back at his jawline, which now sagged miserably. The corner of his mouth turned up so he was grinning or smiling, but his lower slowly pulled down. I poked his flesh with a paw, silently hoping he had something only to find myself leaning over further and further till I felt his upper teeth on the far side of his mouth.

"Holy..." I leaned back and watched as the blob of flesh fall and jiggle as he laughed. He started walking again and put his jawbone back in using both hands.

"Yeah, pretty ugly ain't it?" he looked up at the numbers on the doors and quickly back step to one we had past. "Ah, here we go." he pulled out a set of keys and quickly moved us inside.

As soon as he turned the lights on I was admittedly reluctant to leave his shoulder. The walls where cracked and an off tannish color. A foul smell came from a closed door which I assumed was the bathrooms. The bed itself was... well, it was most definitely a used bed and let's leave it at that. I turned to look at Jonko, thinking he's either crazy or really broke.

"Umm..."

"Don't worry, you can sleep on my sleeping bag, just let me put some trash bags under it. He took a knee and unclipped his oversized camping bag, allowing it to come off without me moving.

"But what about you?" I asked, feeling a little guilty that he was giving me his bed. He shook his head and pulled out a box of trash bags and the sleeping bag.

"Sleeping against the wall, I'm not going to touch anything more in here than I have to." He set up the sleeping bag folded into a square and waited for me to jump down.

"You sure?" I laid down on the bag and watched him. He nodded and leaned up against the door.

"Yep, night Flo." He reached up and killed the lights.

"Alright, night Jonko."