Latest Update:Complete
Summary: Saylee wants to find her brother and protect her town, and to that end teams up with Chaz the Charmander. Chaz, too, wants to know something- just what exactly happened to Kanto since he was last out of his Pokeball? Based on my FR Nuzlocke run. First in the Saylee series.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1610585/chapters/3429596
Word count:131k
Chapters:53
Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Dear Mum and Saylee,
How is everyone doing? Are the houses finished? I'll have to come back and visit soon—imagine, having a roof over our heads every night! I'm near the settlement anyway, I'm just going to check out the Indigo area first. There's supposed to be something pretty valuable hidden up there, some kind of treasure. I've gotta find that, right? That could set us all up for life!
My Pokémon are doing really well. Eric's just evolved, I don't know what into—he doesn't look like Flareon, Vaporeon or Jolteon. I'll ask the old Professor when I'm next home. Perun still doesn't want to evolve, though!
I love you guys, and I'll be home soon, so look after yourselves.
Red xxx
Saylee read over the letter for what must have been the millionth time in the year since it had arrived. Then she carefully folded it up and, after only a moment's hesitation, placed it carefully in the inside pocket of her bag, along with an old photo of her brother. Her mother could keep the photo he'd sent with the letter. It would comfort her more than the letter did.
Saylee carefully moved the old computer she'd scavenged out of the way—it might be useful someday, if they ever got an electric-type to provide power for the town—and started packing the cache of supplies that she'd been scavenging for some weeks now. There were some survival supplies, a potion for healing Pokémon, and a filter bottle for water. If she got a water-type, she could be assured of clean water, but until then she would often be stuck with possibly toxic rivers. You couldn't ever be sure that something was safe. It had been that way since before she was born.
Pushing her glasses up her nose, Saylee took one last look at her room—their room, a room they'd built with space for both her and her brother, a room he'd never set foot in—trying not to think of when she might next be here. Then she carefully walked down the shaky stairs.
Downstairs, her mother was sitting at the table, crying over a picture of Red and Saylee together as children. Saylee hugged her mother warmly from behind, looking down at the photograph. The two of them had different colourings, Red with black hair and dark red eyes, Saylee with light brown hair and light blue eyes, but they were both pale and looked somewhat alike despite the colours. Saylee wondered what he'd look like now, three years since she'd last seen him in the flesh. He had been fifteen, the same age she was now, and slightly shorter than her. He should be eighteen now, and he'd probably hit a growth spurt like Blue had. Saylee wouldn't care if he'd shrunk as long as he was still alive.
"…The Indigo area's so big and remote," her mother whispered, clutching her daughter's arms. "It's so dangerous out there… Do you have to go, honey?"
"I do, Mum," Saylee sighed. "Somebody has to go find Red. And we finally managed to build a village of our own—somebody has to make sure we get supplies, money to tide us over until we can fix up the wastelands enough to start farming. Besides, you can stretch our food twice as long with me gone!" Saylee tried to say it jokingly, to raise her mother's spirits, but it only made her choke out a sob, before turning to hug her daughter tightly.
"Please be careful, Saylee," she sobbed. "Please. I don't want to lose you too. I can't. It won't be worth struggling through all this without…"
"Don't talk like that, Mum," Saylee said firmly, stepping back. "I'll always come back. And I'll bring back Red, too. I promise."
"I know, honey," her mother sniffed, wiping her eyes and tucking her greying hair back. The stresses of the life of a nomad in a ruined land had aged her far beyond her years; she'd had grey hairs as far back as Saylee could remember, as if the colour had been drained from her hair into her baby boy's. "Just… no. Just go. I love you, honey."
"I love you too, Mum," Saylee said, turning and walking out over the sleeping blankets spread across the floor, not letting herself look back.
It was just late enough in the morning that the sunrise had stopped painting the clouds brilliant colours, and they too had faded back to grey. A few people were working on the fourth hut in their "town", built from scratch on the wastelands that nobody else wanted. They didn't even have the advantage of being able to scavenge the remains of former cities as others did. Instead, they were clearing trees and building with the wood, and were beginning to till the land that the trees had been on for farming, reasoning that if it could still sustain forests, the land should be able to grow edible crops. It was slow going, with the entire project being dependant on the few Pokémon that Professor Oak had left for protection, and Saylee felt guilty that she was about to take another. Well, if I can catch more while travelling, I can send them back with the money and letters.
She stopped to fill her filter bottle from the pond at the edge of town, ready to roll away from the pond if the ripples attracted anything hungry. Taking a moment to tighten the laces on her trainers and straighten her red shorts, she set off for the laboratory.
It was probably too grand a name for the ruined building, broken stone walls patchworked with wood panelling and roofing, inside of which they'd found some vestiges of the old technology and information. It had been enough to convince them that this was a slightly better patch of desolate wasteland than any other on which to settle. What towns there were now were so undersupplied that none had been willing to take in any wandering families. Saylee could vaguely remember the endless rejection of those early years; they'd found this place when she was eleven. Four years of work and they had three and a half solid buildings and an almost safe path to Viridian City.
Someone needed to support this town if it was to survive. Someone needed to convince the towns to support each other if anyone was to survive. And someone had to find her brother.
She entered the laboratory and headed past the villagers who were feeding some of the Professor's Pokémon their breakfast, chatting to them about the plans for the day, and started looking for Professor Oak, the oldest member of the community and default headman. He was nowhere to be seen; however, his grandson Blue—a boy a year older than Saylee who had grown up with her and Red—was standing at the back of the room, staring impatiently at two pokéballs on the table.
"Blue?" Saylee said tentatively. Once they'd been close friends, but he'd been getting colder and angrier ever since she'd declared her intent to go find Red on her fifteenth birthday, six months ago. He didn't agree with her plan, considering it suicide, and hadn't reacted well to her refusal to change her mind. He didn't like Pokémon much anyway, and didn't agree with Saylee's idea to set off into the world with one. She never knew these days if he'd be mean and bullying, or if he'd forget his funk for a while and be friendly again. She prayed for the latter, and feared the former.
"Gramps isn't here," he said, crossing his arms, jaw ticking. "Where could that old man go?"
"Did you come to say goodbye?" Saylee asked, half-hopefully. "You didn't have to. I was going to come say goodbye to you and Daisy before I left, of course…"
"No," Blue bit out. "I came to say that I'm leaving too. If I can't convince you to give up your suicide attempt, you might as well not be completely alone out there. That way, if you get yourself in over your head, I can haul your stupid ass back home."
Saylee stared. She had not been expecting this. "Seriously…?" She searched his deep green eyes for some indication that he was bluffing or pranking her. He looked away, his eyes avoiding hers, and laughed.
"Besides, somebody's gotta support this place with Red gone," Blue continued snidely. "Someone with, you know, talent."
"Why, you—!" Saylee bit her tongue and turned to leave, fuming. She could still hear Blue laughing at her.
{}
Blue's older sister Daisy looked a lot like him, though her long brown hair was much softer and fell in a long bunch rather than sticking up above her head. She was also much, much, MUCH nicer.
"I'm sorry, Saylee," the young woman said kindly, stirring whatever was in the big pot over the fire in front of her. Saylee wouldn't say it in front of her mother, but the nineteen-year-old was definitely the best cook in the village, and it was currently the practice for the whole town to pool supplies and for her to cook for everyone. She could stretch supplies, too, which was another bonus to her cooking. "Blue left a little while ago, but I don't know where Grandad is. I thought he'd be there, to be honest."
"Maybe he met a new Pokémon," Saylee suggested. "I'll go look around."
"Good luck," Daisy said, giving Saylee a one-armed hug while stirring. "And I know that Blue's hard work these days, but still, you two… a lot of the time, you'll only have each other out there, so look out for each other, alright?"
"I'll see what I can do," Saylee said, rolling her eyes. A year ago, the thought of travelling with Blue might have been cool, but these days… well, a year ago, they still had Red.
{}
The others in the village wished her luck, but none had seen Professor Oak. Saylee was standing at the edge of the half-safe route to Viridian City, wondering if she'd be safe if she kept to the very edge of the tall grass thickets, when a familiar voice yelled at her.
"Saylee! What are you doing? Get away from there!"
Saylee gratefully stepped away from the slightly rustling grass, grinning when she saw the Professor. "Where were you hiding? I've been looking for you, Professor!"
"And I for you, now what were you thinking?" Professor Oak fumed. "There are wild Pokémon living in that grass!"
"No! Really? Whod've thought!" Saylee said sarcastically, not particularly wanting to be made to feel like a moron on the day that she left home. The Professor ignored her and started heading towards the lab. Saylee followed and felt her irritation dissipate behind the excitement of finally getting a Pokémon to call her own.
"'Bout time," Blue said irritably when he saw Saylee and the Professor enter the lab. Oak ignored him and picked up the pokéballs.
"I kept these from the old days," he said fondly, looking over the two capsules. "Don't know if there's any left in the wild… my notes say that there used to be a colony of this little guy on top of Mt Moon, but these days the Golem herds live up the mountains, and, well… never mind, I'm rambling. These are for you two," he said, holding them out. "You can pick first, Saylee."
"Gramps! What about me?" Blue complained. Oak glanced at his grandson, and then back to Saylee.
"Be patient, Blue, you'll get the other," he said. "Saylee's been planning this for months, and you just up and announced that you're leaving last night. You need a little practice at patience, I think."
Blue looked furious, but fumed silently while Saylee looked over the two pokéballs. One had a fire emblem, the other water.
Fire… Red fire… she thought with a smile, deciding that a fire-type would be good luck and picking up the pokéball. Oak nodded and handed the water pokéball to Blue. "I'll take this little guy. Let's see what he is!"
Opening the pokéball unleashed a small orange creature, a little over Saylee's knee, with a big round head and a little flame at the end of his tail. He looked up at Saylee and smiled.
"Hey," he said. "You're Saylee, right? The Professor told us about you. My name's Chaz, and I'm a Charmander. Nice to meet you!"
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1610585/chapters/3429596