Pokémon Mercury Chapter 1: Untraditional Start (Patreon)

Chapter 1: Untraditional Start

“I’m very sorry!”

Seeing his mother bow her head towards the sanctimonious hag seated behind the desk caused something inside of Silver to twist into ugly knots, and he felt bile rise in his throat. It didn’t help that she was still wearing her PokéMart apron, meaning she had just come from work to be here.

“This is not the first time this has happened, Ms. Kiku,” the old bitch said as she looked down her nose at his mother, sniffing haughtily, as if she was any better. “Indeed, he has proven to be a very disruptive presence in our school.”

The hag who also happened to be the school’s principal pulled out a thick folder from the desk, and made a show of leafing through it. “Three physical altercations in the last month alone! To say nothing of the violence he has been involved in in the past and his most recent fight! It’s a miracle there were no broken bones, though that bloody nose young Hojo suffered was quite severe.”

‘Hojo is a wimp,’ Silver thought to himself, a glare on his face. ‘One punch is all it took and he goes crying to the teachers.’

She slapped the folder onto the desk. “We have had a bevy of complaints since the start of the year from parents and teachers alike, and frankly, Ms. Kiku, this cannot keep happening.”

She leveled an unamused stare at the teenager sitting next to his mother. “If this continues, he will be expelled.”

“No!” his mother gasped. “That-! You can’t expel him!”

“Ms. Kiku, we do not make this threat lightly,” the bitch warned. “If Silver continues to act like a delinquent and get into fights, he has no place here.”

‘They started it,’ Silver thought, glaring at the principal. ‘They always start it. But I finish it.’

“But, where will he go to school?” his mother asked, grabbing Silver’s hand and holding it tight.

“I am told there is room for him at the Olivine Correctional Institute,” the wretched woman declared with a flicker of smug disdain in her tone.

“That-!” his mother exclaimed, horrified by the suggestion.

“Where else but there, Ms. Kiku?” the principal demanded. “He has been expelled from two other schools already, and there aren’t many willing to allowing him past their doors with his… record.”

“It won’t happen again,” his mother claimed with a shaky voice.

“It better not,” the hag retorted, her tone dismissive, and his mother stood up and bowed once more before all but dragging him out of the office.

For a while, there were no words between them. Just the two walking briskly through the streets of Ecruteak City away from the school, before reaching their home on the outskirts to the north, near what was known as the ‘bad’ side of town.

Cheap apartments, rundown houses, and places that were, for one reason or another, not nearly as well kept as the rest of the city, abounded. This neighborhood was kept away from the prying eyes that wandered the nicer, picturesque parts of Ecruteak City.

Ecruteak City prided itself on being the ‘Picture of the Past,’ a glimpse into what Johto used to be before industrialization and the formation of the Indigo League. Old-fashioned buildings, old-fashioned food, old-fashioned clothes, and worse, old-fashioned values.

They called it ‘traditional’ but it was all just old biddies and bastards treating tourism as their meal ticket while complaining about ‘the good old days.’

Never mind the fact that the majority of the inhabitants had to live here, in the ‘bad part of town’ because there just wasn’t any other room in the city due to the ‘historical zoning laws’ making it impossible to expand.

Never mind the fact that the city was slowly dying as it was forced more and more to cater to tourists and trainers and giving less and less of a shit about the people who actually lived there.

No, just pretend that Ecruteak City was nice and pretty and had no problems whatsoever! That was all anyone did. Well, that and try to make his and his mother’s lives miserable.

When they got back to the apartment, his mother locked the door before getting onto her knees in front of him.

“Why, Silver?” she asked softly.

Silver pointedly refused to look up at his mother, keeping his eyes locked onto the floor.

‘Because they called you a whore,’ he thought but did not say. It didn’t matter what he said. She couldn’t do anything to them. Couldn’t hurt them like they deserved. Couldn’t punish him, either. Not in a way that mattered.

“Silver.”

He finally looked up at her, and the tears in her eyes made the twisted knot inside of him constrict even further.

“You can’t keep doing this, Silver,” she whispered, desperately begging him to listen. To understand. The problem was, he did understand.

“I don’t want you to keep getting into fights,” she begged.

Silver clenched his hands. Could he do that? Sure, if the other kids stopped their harassment! That wasn’t what she wanted to hear, or needed to hear, so he did the only thing he could.

“I will try,” he finally told her, and she smiled a watery smile. It made the twisted feeling inside of him worse.

“Okay,” she said, believing him. She then stood up, brushing a bit of dirt off of her PokéMart apron. “I’ll get dinner ready. Curry alright?”

That made the pain in his chest ease up a bit, and he nodded. Curry was always good. Especially when she made it. Somehow, even store bought tasted better when she was done with it.

After dinner, Silver helped clean up by washing the dishes and ensuring his mother didn’t have to do anything else by doing the laundry and making her a bento for work tomorrow.

Then, when that was done, he made his way to his room and did his homework. Well, that’s what he told his mother he’d be doing. In truth, he was writing a note.

As the night wore on, he went into the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth, though when he was done, he ended up staring at himself in the mirror.

Silver ran a hand through his hair. It was a dark red, a beautiful crimson. Just like his mother’s. The only thing he’d inherited from her. The black eyes, the scowl, the sharp, angular features of his face? That was all from his father. Whoever he was.

The scowl on his face darkened and he resisted the urge to punch the glass. Barely, though. He’d never known his father, but he could only assume he was a weak piece of shit.

His mother, a former Kimono Girl, claimed he had been tall, dark-haired, and handsome, with a hidden compassionate side behind his severe features. Silver wasn’t sure that was true. Probably just a lie she told him to make herself feel better about being knocked up by some random customer.

‘Because if he did care, where the hell is he now?’ Silver thought bitterly. If he had cared about her, why hadn’t he stayed, or done anything to support her?

No, whoever he was, the man was scum. He abandoned Silver before he was born and left his mother by the wayside. And a pregnant woman can’t dance, so his mother was thrown out. Wasn’t even allowed to keep her Pokémon who’d been her companion during the dances for countless years.

Now, she was forced to work crappy, poor-paying odd jobs. Her current job at the PokéMart was a lot better than the one at the diner, or working as a tour guide at the Burnt Tower. But it had long hours, she often had to work nights, and the manager was a disgusting creep who kept making advances on her.

But it never stopped the people of Ecruteak City from calling her a whore behind her back. All because of him.

And Silver hated it. Hated them. Hated everything with such a burning passion he could feel it poisoning everything inside of him until there wasn’t any room for anything else.

‘But that all changes tonight,’ he decided.

In three months, the Gym Circuit would begin for newbie trainers. Unleashing a bunch of fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds into the world unsupervised was probably a bad idea, but it was an important rite of passage for everyone in the world.

Many would only get a single badge, and most of those who did would be getting said badge in the city they lived in, meaning they wouldn’t travel around. It wasn’t easy raising a super-powered monster. Nor was traversing the wilds.

Silver, though, had a plan. He had just turned fifteen, the minimum age requirement, and he had an idea of what to do to become independent.

When a person got their first badge, they became eligible for a Trainer’s License. This was how most people got them. And a Trainer’s License acted as an ID that allowed for a lot of things. With one, a person could buy all sorts of items, use it as a legal form of ID at banks and hotels, and it allowed for access to resources normal, badgeless people didn't get.

With a Trainer’s License, Silver could set up his own bank account and start making his own money. He’d be able to stand on his own two feet. It was, simply put, a form of power. And that was all that mattered in the world. Power was all that anyone cared about.

‘This is for the best,’ Silver told himself as he stared into his reflection. ‘If I’m not here, mom will be better off.’

She was weak, always bowing her head and apologizing for things that weren’t her fault, but did her best to be strong for him. If he wasn’t around, she’d be able to have a better life. Like a weed, if Silver were to be removed from the equation, she could finally flourish.

Silver waited until his mother went to sleep to make his move. Once he heard her soft snores, he threw open his tiny closet and grabbed a backpack already filled with everything he’d need.

‘Just to make sure…’ he thought as he opened it up.

Inside, he found cans of food, bottles of water, and other things scrounged up from the grocery store. It was criminal what they threw out that was still good even past its expiry date or damaged in some way.

Alongside his rations were some clothes. He didn’t have much. Aside from his socks and underwear, the hiking shoes were second-hand but still more than good enough for him.

Some money was tucked away in the backpack as well. Not much. Maybe a thousand Poké-dollars in coins and small bills. When every cent mattered in the household, Silver had to go without lunch for several months to amass even this much. Not like he’d missed much. School food sucked.

Last but certainly not least, a single Pokéball, resting at the bottom of the pile of supplies. The red and white orb had been stolen from the very PokéMart his mother worked at. The fat slob of a manager hadn’t even noticed it was missing, and likely never would. It was his, now, and it was the corner stone of Silver’s plans.

Satisfied that everything was where it should be, Silver put on his black and red coat and quietly snuck out of his room, leaving behind a single note.

He knew it wouldn’t be enough. That what he was doing was cowardly. But he needed this. He had to become strong.

“I’m sorry,” Silver whispered as he walked past his mother’s room.

He heard her turn in her sleep and mumble something, but she did not wake up, and he continued on to the door. One final look around the apartment was all he allowed himself before steeling his nerves and opening the door.

He stepped out into the darkness, and took a deep breath as a chill breeze through the area. Was this what freedom tasted like?

With only the moon to light his path, Silver left the apartments, and soon, he was at the edge of Ecruteak City, right on the border of Route 37.

“I will be strong,” he vowed, and he took a step forward. It was time to become the master of his own destiny, once and for all!