Goodbye To Saffron (Open)

Falling out of bed, Victoria finally woke up around 10:00 A.M. She finally managed to get about five hours of sleep before her Pidgey-shaped alarm clock went off. The brunette got off the carpeted floor and stood up, dusting herself off. It was a good thing that no one was around to see her fall.

She got up, got a shower, and got dressed in a black short-sleeved t-shirt and gray skirt. She walked over to the circular wooden breakfast table and got a nondescript ceramic bowl. She set it on the table and got out a nearly empty box of Chansey-Os. They were a grain-based cereal with sweetened Os and small oval marshmallow eggs shaped like Chansey eggs. The box was yellow and featured a smiling Chansey holding a bowl of cereal in its hands.

"Chansey-Os... an EGG-Citing part of a balanced breakfast!" Trumpeted the advertising slogan.

Victoria dumped the box's contents into the bowl. Along with the Chansey-Os came a prize. It was a cheap plastic Chansey with a cheap plastic smile etched onto its cheap plastic face. The brunette plucked it out of her cereal bowl and set it off to the side. She poured some milk into the bowl and tried to eat the cereal. It tasted about as appealing as eating the cereal box.

She ate the cereal anyway and threw the box in the recycle bin. She washed the bowl and spoon and rinsed out the plastic gallon milk jug. She then threw the empty container in the recycle bin. Now that "breakfast" was finished, Victoria went to her room to finish getting ready.

She got out a raincoat, a hat, some extra shirts, skirts, and shorts, plenty of extra socks and underwear, and her tan hiking boots. This was going to be a long journey. She wanted to have plenty of clothing with her because she might not be able to go into a town whenever things got rough. What she carried with her might be all she had.

She dug through her closet and brought out a large brown backpack. It had many compartments and would be just big enough to hold all of her clothing. Victoria might even need to pare down what she carried.

After an hour and a half spent getting ready, Victoria was finally ready to leave home. Her backpack was packed with clothing and other needed items. Leaving home hurt a lot less than she thought it would. That was probably because there was nothing left for her here. Nothing was left but memories that she would rather forget.

Victoria made sure that the Poke Ball with her Vulpix was at her side. Vulpix was her only friend after Veronica died. The small fire fox was her only friend after her parents had met an untimely end in the ocean off of Olivine City. Vulpix would see her through her Pokemon journey, however long it lasted. Once all the lights were turned out and all the appliances were unplugged, Victoria left her home of twelve years.

-In Saffron City-

Victoria locked the door behind her and pocketed the key. She had no intention of returning for a long time, not until she was here to claim Saffron City's Gym Badge. The brunette had too many bad memories of Saffron City to ever willingly live here again. She spotted the gargantuan Silph Co. building towering in the distance and sighed.

Silph Co.

That entity that her parents gave twelve years of their lives to. The entity her parents forced her into almost being recruited before their death gave Victoria the opening and the reason to nix the "plans" to work for Silph Co. Maybe not taking their employment offer was a bad idea, but the brunette did not want to work for a big company. She wanted to make her own way in the world. She wanted to follow her heart like Veronica had the courage to do.

Victoria walked towards the Pokemon Center. She wanted to make sure that Vulpix was OK before setting out for Pallet Town. Victoria wanted to retrace Red's journey through Kanto and win the Gym Badges in the order that he did. However, it was time to address the Donphan in the room. Would Victoria live long enough to make it to Pallet Town?

"Marie" had appeared before her last night and had wailed the sound that had spelled doom for all the other members of her family. Now Victoria felt like she was living on borrowed time. She had slightly over thirteen hours left before her life would be cut short by some act of violence. She had better get to the Pokemon Center while she still could. She walked briskly to the Pokemon Center and entered through the automated sliding glass doors.

-Inside Saffron Pokemon Center-

Victoria stepped through the sliding glass double doors and felt cool air slap her in the face. She took a place in line and waited her turn. There were at least two dozen people ahead of her, so this could take awhile.

Victoria waited a good thirty minutes in line, so by the time she had finally gotten Vulpix checked out and learned that it had no health problems, it was time for lunch. The Chansey-Os she had eaten earlier were starting to wear off. That was what she got for eating only a single bowl of cereal for a late breakfast. Unfortunately, no solution appeared to be in sight because the cafeteria was packed full of trainers and the lunch line snaked out to the lobby. Victoria frowned.

That was what she got for not being able to sleep until 5 A.M. Oh well. Victoria turned around and started towards the exit when she had another thought. She had completely forgotten to pack food for the trip! Victoria cursed "Marie" under her breath as she had no choice but to brave the line after all.

Victoria took her place in line and waited behind seventy other hopefuls for a chance to get something to eat before setting out on her long-delayed Pokemon journey. It was already noon and she still had not left Saffron City. The flustered brunette was starting to wonder if this was a good idea or not. The line ahead of her shrank until it was her turn. Unfortunately, when she sidled up to the counter to be served, they had run out of food.

"Sorry folks, we've run out out of food!" The cafeteria worker announced. A chorus of groans sounded from Victoria and the disappointed people behind her before the line gradually dispersed. The brunette's mood was starting to sour. Maybe she could at least grab something from a vending machine before she set out. It would not be a completely balanced meal, but it beat having nothing to eat.

Victoria turned around and went back into the main lobby, then took a left and found some drink and snack machines. There were lines forming for both vending machines, so she hustled into the snack line and took her place as twenty-fifth in line for a pack of peanut butter crackers. Maybe she would have better luck getting something from a vending machine.

Victoria waited in place for what seemed like forever. The line was moving about as quickly as a Slowpoke. On second thought, that insinuation was an insult to Slowpokes because the Pokemon could not help the fact that it was slow. This line could. Someone needed to put down their PokeGear and keep the line moving.

"Like yeah, did you see Misty's outfit the other day? Like those shorts were SO short..." Some young blonde woman wearing a red minidress at the front of the line babbled into her PokeGear. She was leaning on the food vending machine and casually talking like she was the only one there. Victoria simmered in silence. It was no exaggeration to say that she was dying here. In roughly twelve hours, she might actually be dead because of the family curse.

Victoria mustered the resolve to continue waiting and willed herself to stay alive long enough to actually get something to eat. She did not want to die on an empty stomach. She did not want to die yet, but that was totally out of he hands. All that the brunette could do was make the best use of the time she had left. To think that she would spend most of it waiting in line was a deeply unpleasant thought.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. Victoria turned around and faced an unusual young woman with hair evenly split between pink and brown. The young woman also had heterochromia... she had one pink eye and one brown eye. Victoria had never seen that before. She decided to answer the young woman's question.

"Yeah, this is the end of the line for the snack vending machine. I hope you're not in a hurry." Victoria said, pointing towards the young woman still gabbing on her PokeGear. People were starting to get annoyed at the lengthy delay. The brunette was right there with them.

"Oh? That's good because you're gonna be here awhile. It looks like there's someone else gabbing on their Pokegear." Victoria said to the young woman with pink and brown hair. Another young woman on a Pokegear had started a conversation, but this one was about Erika, the Celadon Gym Leader. The subject of conversation was about Erika's perfume business.

"Like, there's so much perfume to choose from! It's amazing! I don't know how Erika can keep making it all and still be an amazing Gym Leader!" Another blonde girl in a red tank top and really short denim shorts gabbed while standing in front of the snack machine. Victoria sighed. So close, yet so far.

"I lived here ever since I was six years old. Now I'm on my way out. I'm trying to get to Pallet Town to start my Pokemon journey, but as you can see, I kinda got stuck here." Victoria lamented her bad decision to come here during the lunch rush. The line was slowly making its way forward after Miss Pokegear finally hung it up and got her snack food, but progress was still painfully slow because someone else took her place and was on their Pokegear without a care as to who was waiting behind them. Maybe Victoria could get out of here before nightfall.

"I decided to start my journey by retracing Red's trip through Kanto. It's cliche, but I want to get a small idea of what it was like for him." Victoria explained her reason for attempting to start out in Pallet Town. She then realized something. She had not told the young woman her name!

"I'm Victoria. What's your name?" Victoria asked the young woman behind her. Since they were the last two in line, they were not holding anyone up by talking. They also had enough sense to move forward instead of standing in place like Graveler and holding everyone up for the sake of their conversation. Why did all the inconsiderate people have to come out on today of all days?

"Hi Scarlett." Victoria greeted the happy trainer with heterochromia. Her interest was already piqued because of that fact, but her interest was further piqued when Scarlett said that she flew her from Pallet Town with the help of her parents. The brunette was kind of hoping to hitch a ride to Pallet Town, but then she decided against it. She would just take the long way and hoped that she lived long enough to get to the hometown of Red and Blue.

"So you came here straight from Pallet Town, huh? What's the best land route to get to Pallet Town from here?" Victoria asked Scarlett. The line was still moving about as quickly as a Slowpoke in molasses. What in the name of Arceus on roller skates was taking so Froakie-ing long up there?

"...So yeah girl, Erika's like SO cute. I'm surprised that she's not a model who just does the Gym Leader thing for the fun of it. Erika probably makes perfume as a hobby that happens to bring in big money. I wish that I could do what I loved for a living!" The blonde continued to babble to her friend on the PokeGear. Victoria was starting to get more than a little agitated over the wait. All she wanted was something to eat and the simple wait that should have taken ten minutes tops was turning into an ordeal worthy of epic literature. When would this purgatory end?

"Oh. OK. I'll just make my own way there then." Victoria said in response to Scarlett's statement about not knowing the best land route to Pallet Town. This was going to be quite an interesting trip because the brunette did not know very much about Kanto's landscape other than the layout of Saffron and Celadon City. She also knew about Mount Moon, but that was a place she preferred to forget about because of some "classmates" deliberately trying to get her lost in there when she was a child. When Scarlett said that she was not from Kanto, Victoria felt compelled to chime in.

"I'm not a native of Kanto either. I'm from Johto myself." Victoria volunteered a bit of information about herself. She did not feel that Scarlett was a threat to her, so it was safe to tell her that much. Besides, the brunette might not be around for very much longer, so what was the harm?

"I've got a Pokemon. I've got a Vulpix." Victoria announced, letting the small fire fox out of its Poke Ball. It stood near its Trainer's feet and sniffed the air. It then stood in place, starting at the Buneary in Scarlett's arms.