In Spikemuth

Brother

Marnie rubbed her cold hands together and shivered in the cold wind. She was leaning against a wall in a dark alleyway which she had come to call a safe home. It was a dead-ended alleyway that none of the Team Yell grunts hung out in and had claimed as their own. Marnie shuddered, Team Yell was terrifying. She was definitely going to try and get rid of them when she had her own pokemon partner. 

Her heart stopped, she could hear some grunts stomping down the street in their jangly boots and spiked wristbands. She held her breath and pushed herself against the cold wall, sending a shiver up her leather back. The grunts stopped near her and turned to look her in the eye. 

Marnie gave in and looked back at them, with their bright pink makeup and black outfits. Their team logo seemed to pop off of their black tank-tops and t-shirts.  

"Scram, kid. Quit thinking you own the streets, you're what, nine?" taunted the biggest grunt, his muscles bulging out of his ripped, leather jacket. Marnie scowled, 

"I'm eleven, punk! Shut your fat gob!" she snapped and folded her arms. The grunt scoffed, 

"Ooh! You better watch out kid," he hissed and threateningly reached for a Pokeball on his belt, the other grunts he was 'patrolling' with jeered and cheered him on, encouraging him to call out a pokemon to smack Marnie around, she stepped backwards in fear.

"St-stay back! Or I'll..I'll," she stammered. The grunt had already pulled his Pokeball from his belt and was rolling it around in his hand, his finger hovering over the button used to release it. 

"I'll tell my brother if you hurt me!" she snapped and stamped her foot in a hissy fit! The grunts looked at each other until finally, they gave in and the grunt re-attached his Pokeball to his leather belt. He sighed and gave her a light punch to the arm, 

"You win this one, Marnie. But that's only because we're Piers superfans," he said and struck a pose. With that, he gestured the other grunts to move on and the continued to strut down the dingy alleyway. Marnie heaved a heavy sigh of relief and started to wander down the alleyway until she reached the end. A rusty ladder lay at her feet. 

With a heavy pull, she hoisted the ladder up and against the wall. With quick steps, she climbed it and crawled through a smashed window into a dingy room, then knocked the ladder down back to the ground, so that no one would follow her back up. She stood up and brushed herself down in a room with ragged, faded curtains being the only decoration in the darkroom. Well, that and a tattered black box in the corner. She smiled and pulled a tiny key out of her dress pocket. She inserted the key into the chest and cracked it open. 

Inside was a little snow globe with a gorgeous wild area scene inside it. She smiled and stroked it a bit, she'd never seen fields like that in real life and dreamed of fighting in them.  There was also a tattered, black and white photo of a man and a woman posing for the camera at a posh dining table. 

She looked at it for a little bit and weakly smiled. She sighed, 

"What happened to you, mum and dad?" she whispered and delicately placed the photo back into the box before closing it and locking it tight. She sighed and smiled before standing upright and crawling through a smashed in a hole in a locked door.  She found herself in front of an open window, to which she easily slipped through and hopped onto a railing outside her brother's gym next to a wall. She sat on the railing and leaned against the wall as she watched Piers scream into his microphone one of his many popular songs that everyone in Spikemuth listened to. Everyone was a fan of his, as far as Marnie knew. 

One of the grunts pushed slammed the railings to make Marnie wobble on it and eventually drop into her brother's 'gym'. Piers had just finished his loud song and noticed her. He slumped over to her and smiled. 

"Hey, Marnie," he said and ruffled her hair, Marnie giggled and gave her brother a slap on the back. 

"Great song, is that a new one?" she asked, her brother nodded, he sighed, 

"You know, someday you have to start singing my gym song when I start going big with my rock music," he said and leaned against the railing, shooing off Team Yell grunts with the flick of his hand. Marnie sighed, 

"How am I supposed to do that without a Pokemon?" she sighed and leaned with him. Piers thought to himself for a moment. He sighed, 

"Fine," he groaned, Marnie looked confused, "back when I lived with our people, I had to go to this place called Wedgehurst to catch a weak Pokemon." Marnie's face lit up, 

"Are you saying... I get to leave here and go to those beautiful fields to catch a pokemon?" 

Piers nodded and tossed her a scrappy wallet. She opened it up and found a train pass and a wad of pokedollars, as well as Piers league-card. She smiled so wide and draped her brother in a thankful hug. Her brother seemed stunned but eventually patted her back and pushed her away. He turned away from her, 

"But don't be scampering off too long, you better scurry back home soon!" he said with a light smile. Marnie grinned and gave her brother a final hug goodbye before scampering away to start her pokemon journey.