This story is a work in progress, I've already completed seven chapters all of which can be found on my FanFiction.net account under the name inkShade. You guys can feel free to go ahead and read more there if your impatient, but I will also post more chapters here as time goes on.

Hope you like it






Countdown
Rated: PG 13


One

Brook crouched down in the bushes and watched the small creature rummage through her pack. It pulled out her knife and toppled over with the extra weight. On four legs it sniffed at the metal then returned to her pack no doubt looking for food. She grit her teeth. She’d been expecting a rattata, but a rats a rat. She looked at her companion resting on her shoulder and gave a nod. She looked out across their camp and gave a wince when the bushes rustled. Thankfully the thief’s head was buried deep in the bag.

It happened flawlessly thereafter. The tiny Pichu popped its head out of the bag, holding a bag of dried fruits only to be confronted by a horrible shock: Squirtle, a relatively larger pokemon leaped out, pulling the corners of its mouth into a tooth revealing grimace while shrieking out as loud as it could. Pichu squealed and fell over onto its back. It rolled over and raced unknowingly in Brooks direction.

‘Spinarak!’

Pichu skidded to a halt. A sticky mess of string shot tangled over its arms and legs, covered its mouth. Yellow sparks danced over the cocoon and shot up the web to the green spider. Spinarak curled up and fell off her shoulder, effectively cut out of the action. Brook grabbed at her belt, enlarged a poke ball and threw it at the squirming mass. Within a moment it was all over. Their little stalker safely locked in a ball and Spinarak twitching weakly on the ground. She shook her head and scooped her up. Squirtle stepped forward to accept his customary pat on the head.

Brook pulled out a medical kit and picked a paralyze heal. Spinarak soon relaxed enough for her satisfaction and was recalled. She cleaned up her things and found the path she’d walked down the previous day with Squirtle at her side.

--

‘A Pichu? Don’t those things usually live in colonies? You know, with Pikachu’s?’

‘Do they?’ Brook noisily slurped her soup. It had started raining just before she’d reached the pokemon center and only just now stopped shivering. She was luckier than those slumping in now at least, the rain had gotten heavier. ‘All I know is something’s been stealing my food for the past two nights. I’m pretty sure it was stalking me.’

She pushed her empty bowl away, wiped her mouth with a sleeve and pulled the tie out of her hair. Shaking her head back she roughly brushed her dark hair with her fingers before retying it. She was a girl of average height and a little slimmer since the start of her journey. She missed home cooking.

‘Well, yeah. Why do you think their such high demand pets? Their cute, famous, and hard to get.’ Brook grimaced. She wasn’t sure exactly why they were so famous, something about an old cartoon that used to play on tv, but their reputation as wonderful pets had gone through the roof and stayed there long after the show died. ‘There are laws against over breeding and trying to separate one from a group can get hard without an experienced trainer.’

‘oh.’ Squirtle climbed up onto her lap. ‘How much would someone pay for one?’

The girl stared at her.

‘What? I just want to know, I’m not going to sell it.’

The brunette huffed, ‘If you didn’t consider it then you wouldn’t ask. I’ll take it for twenty bucks.’

It was Brooks turn to stare, ‘screw you, I’m not selling her!’

She made a mental note to think more about what came out of her mouth in the future, although she honestly couldn’t think what was wrong with such a simple question. The rest of the day passed by rather slowly. She’d read some magazines and played cards and even went so far as to show off her pokemon. Her reasoning being it wasn’t showing off if everyone else was doing it too.

To her delight plenty of girls freaked out over Spinarak, squealing and backing up in disgust, as an added bonus plenty of boys gave some extra attention. She personally had learned to ignore her natural reaction to the bug and had grown used to its strange habits and sudden movements. When people asked where she’d got the pokemon she admitted that there were many back in her town. Despite them being a Johto exclusive pokemon, they’d suddenly appeared and infested the area after one trainer with an Ariados had passed through. People suspected it had laid a nest of eggs somewhere before it left. They called it sabotage, though of what she couldn’t figure. In any case one had gotten in their house and the first thing she’d done after receiving her Squirtle was capture it much to her mothers relief (and her brothers disappointment, he’d wanted to catch it).

Her Pichu on the other hand had to be recalled almost immediately, the other people and pokemon caused it to freak and shock itself into a faint. Embarrassing. Squirtle just stood quietly at her side, refusing attention and glaring at any who attempted contact.

She was now sitting by a window, completely zoned as she stared out at the rain. Squirtle had gone to sleep under her chair, withdrawn in his shell and snoring quietly. She snapped back with a start after receiving a tap on the shoulder.

A smiling nurse handed her a blanket, ‘You’ll have to settle on the floor tonight. Sofa’s and rooms are all taken.’

Brook looked around and saw most people had indeed gone to sleep. She got up and stretched. Picking up her Squirtle, she picked a dusty corner of tiles and settled down for sleep.

--

‘So Squirtle… Nice day? You like rain, don’t you?’

The tiny turtle glanced up at her with his red eyes then looked back at the road, ‘Squirt.’

‘…ok’ Somehow she’d always imagined her starter as something more lively. Squirtle was cute, and they had no Charmander so she’d shot straight for him. He was obedient, quiet and… That was all she could say. The thing seemed to have a severe lack of personality. Their first week out she had tried to chat with him and ‘bond’ but it just didn’t seem like it would happen. Despite this though, she had gotten used to his constant company, feeling very alone if he weren’t there with her.

They had left early that day so there was no time to challenge (or be challenged) to a battle. She wanted badly to get to Pewter City. Nearly a month out here and not a single badge to show for it. She’d only yesterday gotten her first glimpse of Mt. Moon. None of her friends had gotten farther so far as she could tell. From what she’d seen one had even returned after only a week, that was before she’d managed to get Squirtle. Her family was pretty well off and ordered him right away, but their package had gone through complications before arriving. The day she had gotten her license her dad had brought home a pamphlet containing information on livestock ideal for house pets and new trainers. The choices weren’t all that exciting, especially since they didn’t have a lot of the pokes she would have really been interested in. Her mom had tried to persuade her into choosing an eevee, but she stubbornly refused since every other kid on the block seemed to have one.

She felt Squirtle grip her pant leg and looked up. A boy was walking towards them. When she’d looked up he smiled and raised his hand.

‘Hey there little miss, want to battle? I got two new Pokemon that need some experience.’

She looked at him doubtfully and didn’t return the greeting. He was taller than her and his hair was messy: Looked like he’d been rolling in some dirt. He carried his ball-belt loosely across his hips and looked to be about seventeen. He frowned at her studying stare.

‘What? Do you want to or not?’

She thought about it then nodded with a smile, ‘two on two. Twenty bucks says I win.’

He frowned, ‘Only twenty? Forty at least!’

‘I don’t have a lot of money…’ a lie.

He looked disappointed, ‘alright fine, twenty.’

She chucked forward a poke ball and released Pichu. The mouse looked around nervously. Her opponent smiled and released a Sandshrew.

‘Pichu, thundershock it!’ Pichu didn’t respond, it just stared at her. ‘go go, now before it does anything!’

‘Sandshrew, scratch!’ Sandshrew lunged forward and raked its claws over the yellow mouse. Pichu squealed and released sparks before going down. ‘Dude, Sandshrew’s ground type, even your Pichu figured that out before you.’

‘I can’t help it if it looked like a normal type!’ She withdrew Pichu and turned to Squirtle, ‘Kick its butt!’

‘Squirt!’ It ran forward and took a deep breath.

‘Sandshrew, dig!’

Squirtle blew out a small cloud of bubbles just after Sandshrew disappeared underground. The turtle hunched over and looked around.

‘Withdraw!’

Just as the tiny turtle snapped into its shell, Sandshrew scratched its way back to the surface and tackled him from behind.

‘Bubble!’

‘Dig!’

Squirtle grabbed onto the shrews tail and blew out another cloud of bubbles. The small shining orbs made tiny explosions as they made contact with Sandshrews hide. It curled up and refused to re-emerge. Its trainer sighed and withdrew it.

‘Well, that was better than round one at least. Now go, Pidgeotto!’

Squirtle leaned back to watch the big brown bird soar up out of its ball.

‘Squirtle, bubble it!’

Squirtle took a deep breath and blew hard, but Pidgeotto was out of range.

‘Quick attack!’

The bird disappeared from vision. Brooks head snapped back to the ground as Squirtle gave a choked yell. Pidgeotto flew back up leaving Squirtle winded in the dirt. She didn’t think a turtle could get winded, it had a shell. She searched her memory hurriedly. She couldn’t think of what to do, he had to shoot his attack farther somehow.

‘Squirtle, try Water Gun!’ Squirtle got up and took aim, but when his mouth formed an ‘o’ only small spurts of water and bubbles would come out, not nearly enough to cause damage let alone get that far up. He just wasn’t ready for it.

‘Pidgeotto, another quick attack.’ Brook watched her turtle get knocked over once more. She silently handed over the cash.

She crouched down next to her fallen fighter and gave him a few sprays of potion before recalling him. Now she would have to walk alone. When she got up she watched as her opponent whispered praise to his bird before turning to her.

‘You’ve gotta work harder kid.’ He grinned at her.

‘Whatever.’ She turned and walked away. Not even five paces down the road and she heard footsteps jogging up behind her.

‘What’s with the attitude? I’m just trying to be nice.’ There was still a smile on his face.

‘If you’re being nice you’d go away.’

‘Oh, me being here has nothing to do with niceties. If you haven’t noticed there are only two directions here, forward and back. I’m going to Mt. Moon.’

‘So why do you have to be talking to me?’

He frowned at her, ‘wouldn’t it be weirder if I was always just a few steps behind you the whole way there?’

She’d have preferred it.

‘So, what’s your name kid? You going to be some super awesome Pokemon master like all the other little kiddies?’

‘Err…. My names Brook.’

‘That’s nice.’

They walked along without saying anything for a couple minutes. He started humming to himself.

‘Well?’

‘Well what?’

She harrumphed in irritation, ‘What’s your name?’

‘oh… Bob.’ He gave her a sideways grin.

‘They actually name people ‘Bob’? You’re lying.’

‘What?’ He feigned shock, ‘I’m not!’

‘Yes you are!’

He laughed, ‘No seriously, I’m not. My parents must’ve hated me.’

‘Oh… So are you collecting badges too?’

‘Naw, gave that up after my fifth Gym loss. I’m more of a traveler, I take pictures and sell them for a living. I’m screwed once I retire.’ He was watching the trees with vague interest, ‘Do you mind holding on a second? I’ll be right back.’

Before she could say anything he threw out his pidgeotto and crashed through the underbrush off road. She stared at the spot he disappeared and then looked around quickly before heading in his direction. Before she reached the grass though he came back looking rather disappointed.

‘Missed another one. Quick little bastards…’

‘You can’t catch a Pokemon making that kind of noise!’

‘Well if it’s seen you already I don’t see the point in care.’ He brushed himself off and sucked the air between his teeth at a long thin cut along his upper arm. His pidgeotto settled down on his shoulder. ‘Pidgeotto couldn’t get through the branches either or she’d have caught it.’

She pulled her bag off her shoulders and rummaged around for her first aid kit. ‘What was it?’

He accepted the bandage and worked the wrapper off, ‘A natu.’

‘Natu?’ She said doubtfully, ‘You can’t find them in this area.’

He crunched up the wrapper and tossed it over his shoulder, ‘Sure you can.’

‘…’

He glanced at her as they picked up the pace, ‘listen, the pokedex doesn’t know everything. It just tells you the general location of most Pokemon, it’s to help the newbies. Chances are there are a lot more Pokemon out in one little area than you think, their just smarter that’s why you don’t see them. Those pidgey and rattata? There are loads of them so they don’t have to worry about trainers as much. The occasional rare ones that are unlucky enough to be caught by someone are either stupid or heavily disadvantaged.’

Her hand brushed uncomfortably against her pichu’s pokeball.

‘There’s also a reason most new trainers start at the beginning of summer, spring time means babies and babies don’t know much about anything yet. They wander out, meet some snotty brat and don’t come back, simple as that.’ He stretched his arms above his head, temporarily unsettling his bird.

‘But that doesn’t mean a Pokemon from another continent would just teleport over here…’

He chuckled, ‘Natu are psychic… But yeah your right. They have a limited range, they can’t go anywhere they’ve never been to before. But there are plenty of trainers crossing boarders these days, you don’t think one might’ve released one?’

‘Oh, that makes sense.’ She thought of her Spinarak.

‘’Course it does, I said it!’ He laughed and sped up, ‘c’mon, I want to get to the entrance by noon.’

Wow, the fanfiction forum isn't to active here is it? I guess I'll just post up one more chapter then and leave it at that for now )= . If anyone cares to read more they can always find my fanfiction link in my profile.







Two

Book stayed so close to Bob that she could practically feel the heat radiating from him. He snorted in irritation and shoved her back for the sixth time that night.

‘Grow a backbone girl!’

She kept her hands close to her chest and ignored him. It was dark and spooky. When they had first entered the cave a swarm of zubat had spun all around them when another trainer had tried to capture one. She didn’t like this cave at all.

‘Why do we have to go this way? Why can’t we follow the lanterns like everyone else??’ She complained. Bob had dragged her away from the main path because he claimed he needed to pick someone up.

‘I already answered that. Will you please give me some room to breath? You’re weirding me out!’ Bob pushed her away again. And came to a halt. He shone his flashlight all around, they were by what appeared to be an underground pool. ‘Hmm… guess their not here yet.’

‘Why would you meet up here instead of the-‘

‘Hey Sqeak, who’s the squirt?’

Bob spun the flashlight around and scowled at the figures standing before them, ‘She’s my cousin, why is Iris here?’

Brook blanked out and looked from Bob to their new companions. The one speaking was a tall blond girl. She wore a black cap and a short skirt, a sack hung from her shoulders. Just behind her was a somewhat shorter girl, though still taller than Brook. She wore a simple t-shirt and jeans. She had dark hair and sleepy eyes.

‘Cousin-?‘ She started but was quickly cut off.

‘Stuff it. Now can we get going or not? I’m hungry and I’ve gotta get to Viridian by tomorrow.’

The tall girl gave Brook a quick study over before replying, ‘Alright, lets go. Your going to be late though if you have to get there that soon, what was the hold up?’

‘I didn’t know you had relatives here,’ Iris’s voice was soft.

Bob turned and took Brooks hand leading her back the way they came, ‘I didn’t, that’s why I’m late. Family sent her over just a couple days ago and thought it would be great if I showed her the hoops.’

‘Err…’

A hand dropped on her shoulder making her jump, ‘Family comes first, right?’ the blond smiled toothily at her.

‘Listen Brook, I’m going to drop you off at Pewter once we’ve gotten through. You can handle yourself right?’

‘um… Yes?’

‘Awesome, I’ll send a friend over to help you out later. I’ll be to busy to have you tagging along.’

Brook turned silent and stared at the ground ahead of her. She didn’t know what was going on but was getting scared. Quietly she followed them the rest of the day through the gloom and rested when they took breaks. She didn’t participate in the conversations and wasn’t challenged to a single match, the sight of the older kids made most trainers walk by. She found herself wondering how she might lose them.

Once they caught sight of the exit she breathed a sigh of relief and pulled away from them in favor of joining the crowd of trainers camped around. She breathed the green air and felt refreshed. When she felt the familiar arm sling over her shoulder all the good feelings disappeared. He lowered his head and spoke to her,

‘Hey, the bus is actually here for once so we’re going to take that instead of walking. Do you want to come or would you rather walk?’

Brook saw the other two watching them with annoyance, ‘I want to walk.’

‘Are you sure its ok to leave her here? You said you had to take her to Pewter.’

‘She won’t tell nobody, will you?’ He smiled at her.

‘I won’t tell!’ She shook her head a little to vigorously.

‘Great, see? Besides, this countries got to be safe if people are ok with handing walking weapons to ten year olds and letting them go off alone.’

The blond snorted, ‘Sure, why not.’

‘Alright, you guys mind waiting at the stop for me? I want to talk to Brook before we leave.’

The blond shook her head and lead Iris away, ‘C’mon, Squeak wants some privacy.’

Iris looked back at Brook once and followed her away. Once they were out of ear shot Bob knelt in front of Brook and talked to her quietly, ‘Thanks for the help kid, but as a word of advice don’t trust a stranger so easily next time. They might not be me.’

‘But you were the one that-‘

‘Stuff it.’ He pondered for a moment before a strange smile passed briefly over his features. Reaching behind his back he unclicked something, ‘I was going to give this to a… a close friend of mine a while ago but some issues got in our way. Actually he had it for a little while, I don’t know how much its been trained though. I don’t care what you do with it, keep it, sell it or drown it it’s all up to you. If I ever want another I can always go back home and get one, the place is crawling with them.’

He pulled open her hand and dropped a pokeball into it, ‘Consider it a thank you for playing as the excuse.’ He grinned.

She stared at him in shock, ‘…D…Drown it?!’

He went on as if she hadn’t said anything, ‘If anyone asks where you got it tell them that your cousin gave it to you, ok?’

‘But… What??’ He got up and left. Brook stood there staring at his back, ‘What’s with you?! Why did you …’

She trailed off, he clearly wasn’t listening. She looked down at the ball and took a deep breath, at least she wouldn’t have to hang out with that bunch of weirdo’s anymore. She tilted her head and frowned in thought. Then she pressed the button.

--

‘Nurse, I need some help.’

The man behind the counter put aside his papers and swiveled in his chair to face her with a friendly smile, ‘How can I help you miss? Did your Pokemon get hurt?’

Brook fiddled with the ball in her hand and shook her head, ‘No, I just got this new Pokemon. I don’t know what it is and my pokedex won’t tell me anything about it.’

‘Oh? Lets have a look then.’ He pulled off his glasses and reached out to accept the ball. Once she handed it to him he stood up and pressed the button, a splash of red light landed on the desk and materialized. Immediately the growling started as the creature hunched its back and lowered its head. Rounded blue ears twitched to and fro and yellow eyes glared up at them from beneath the mat of black fur. It’s tail lashed from side to side. The nurse blinked then slowly reached out his hand, ‘Well this is certainly a surprise. How long have you had it?’

‘I just got him yesterday, a trainer left it with me. He said he didn’t want it.’

‘It’s-‘ He snapped his hand back as the cats teeth made an audible click.’…it’s not well kept. This is an evolution of Shinx, I don’t personally know much of the Sinnoh regions Pokemon but I know that much atleast. Will you please calm down? We’re not going to hurt you.’

He attempted to stroke it’s back but once more had to withdraw his hand when it lunged at him with teeth bared. He sighed, ‘If you would give me your pokedex I’ll upload its information for you. Have you tried battling with it?’

‘Yeah but… All it does is roar. All the other Pokemon are to scared to fight with it.’

‘Well considering the number of beginner trainers around here that’s understandable. Its more intimidating than a lot of the more common Pokemon they have caught.’ He plugged her pokedex into his computer and pulled up a file on a much smaller and cuddlier version of the Pokemon she had now. ‘Here we go. Your Pokemon is called Luxio, the second stage of Shinx. It is an electric Pokemon and is known to communicate by placing its paws on others and sending out various pulses of electricity through its claws. I wouldn’t advise attempting such a thing with this one though, especially since those same claws are used for most of its attacks.’

She eyed her new Pokemon cautiously, ‘Are they all this angry?’

‘I wouldn’t think so.’ He wiped his glasses then put them back on, ‘I will take Luxio in for a checkup now and return him to you if he passes the examination. If you have others on you that need any sort of attention now would be a fine time to leave them.’

‘If he passes the examination? What if he doesn’t?’ She plucked pichu and spinaraks balls off her belt and dropped them in his hands.

‘Luxio’s previous trainer did not appear to have treated this Pokemon well. If he doesn’t pass then it would be to dangerous to leave it with someone inexperienced.’

--

Brook sat in the patio of a local burger stand with Squirtle taking his favorite place under her chair. It didn’t look as though she would be able to make that gym challenge today. From what she had learned of the gym Squirtle put her at an advantage but she would still rather have the others with her as backup.

She munched on her burger and looked down at Squirtle. He was sitting quietly watching the pidgy with a very lazy expression on his face. He wasn’t eating anything as usual. The miracle about pokeballs was that so long as the Pokemon was called into it once a day they would never go hungry. Of course you would also have to take the pokeball itself to the Center every month or so for recharging but that was much more preferable to actually carrying around special diets for each of your team members.

When she finished with her meal she paid the bill and headed out to look for a hotel.

‘Since it’s just me and you for the rest of the day maybe we should work on a new attack. Are you up to it?’

Squirtle looked up at her, ‘Squirt.’

‘Er… ok, then we’ll head out now then?’ He didn’t object so she assumed he was for it. She picked up the keys to her room, said a thank you and headed for the open fields outside of the city. The first thing they did was go around the local battlers. Once they reached an empty spot away from the other children she dropped down her bag and stretched.

‘Ok, we’re going to try and work on water gun. Gym leaders are supposed to be tough, so bubble probably won’t cut it.’ Squirtle stood and looked up at her expectantly as she tapped her finger on her lips. ‘Hmm.. Try it now, let’s see how close you are.’

Squirtle nodded and turned around taking a very deep breath. He blew out as hard as he could. There were no bubbles this time, he was badly roughed up the last so probably couldn’t concentrate. But the stream that did come out lacked any visible strength or distance. It fluctuated from thick to thin and rather than shooting out wards just curved to the ground barely four feet away. When his breath ran out he stopped the spray and looked over his shoulder at her.

‘That was, um, good.’ That was horrible, she thought. ‘How about you try to hit that tree over there? No don’t move, from where you are now.’

The tree was a good ten feet away. Squirtle scrunched his brows, took a deep breath and once more tried his best. Slowly the spot where the water touched the ground moved outwards and away, gaining distance although growing thinner the farther it went. When he needed to take a breath he’d just managed to reach the roots of the tree.

‘That’s a little better!’ She congratulated him with a pat on the head. Squirtle gave her half a smile, the first hint of one she’d ever seen. ‘Ok, try that a few more times. You should get used to shooting it as far as you can. We’ll work on strength later.’

--

The sky was turning orange with dusk by the time they were done. They had managed to determine one thing during practice, long range needed more work. Squirtle had managed to develop a decent little punch with his water gun at close range but once it got stretched to far it just wasn’t working. Brook recalled him to rest in his pokeball when she left and headed towards the Pokemon Center to pick up the rest of her team.

Evenings were always busy at the center. Most trainers preferred to get a room there since it was free and many others would just hang around to chat, play games or tell stories. When Brook walked in the first thing she looked for was the nurse she had left her Pokemon with earlier that day. He didn’t appear to be present, instead there was a rather stern looking woman sitting behind the counter talking to a Chansey. When Brook walked up to the counter it took her several moments before she was noticed.

‘How can I help you?’

‘I’m here to pick up my Pokemon,’ She pulled out her ID and handed it to the nurse who inspected it and typed her number into the computer, ‘I left them here this morning.’

‘Yes I’ve got them. There was a special case with one of them I see.’ She got up and went into the back room. When she came back out she was holding a tray containing three pokeballs, ‘Your Spinarak and Pichu are fine. Your Luxio though I have to talk to you about.’

She was handed back two of the balls, the third the nurse held onto, ‘Whats wrong with it?’

‘The nurse who examined him left a note. First of all I want to ask you, how much do you care for it?’

Brook started feeling nervous, ‘I take good care of all the Pokemon on my team, I didn’t do anything to it. I just got him from another trainer who-‘

‘Your story is on record, I don’t need it repeated.’ She smiled tiredly, ‘I mean rather, do you want to keep it? It will probably give you trouble.’

‘Oh! Yeah of course. It’s my Pokemon now, why would I abandon it?’

‘Ok, because if you don’t want it it will be fine. You can leave it here and we’ll find someone else to adopt it.’

‘I want to keep him.’

The nurse looked her over and handed the ball over, ‘Then listen. Luxio’s not to trusting and he was a little on the rough side but it wasn’t anything that we couldn’t patch. He seems reluctant to let anyone near him, I would say he got a bad first impression of humans. Don’t use him in battles for a while and just let him out every once in a while with your other Pokemon. Help him socialize, he’s still young and impressionable. If he gets dangerous or makes you worry just recall him and let him cool off. Understood?’

Brook nodded.

‘Good. Good luck then,’ She turned away and called for Chansey, wanting to finish what she had been ordering it to do earlier.

When Brook got to her hotel room that night, she locked the door and flopped onto her bed without changing. Tomorrow she would wake up early to beat the line for the badge, she'd worry about Luxio later. She reached over and set her alarm clock before closing her eyes.

Post mooooooooooooore plz.




"have a sever lack of personality" I think its 'severe.' And I also think that (1) the forum is basically dead, so don't worry about not getting many responses and (2) this story is a really good one, keep it up!

(please)

Hullo Poplers~
I wont stop writing just because I'm not getting reviews on here, I started this story long before posting it on any website and I have the full intention of finishing it. I know what I'm doing (to some degree, lolll), and I know where I want to go with it. But while I did start this story for my own amusment, I admit that I post it because I want to share it =P If nobodies going to read it here, then I'll go somewhere else because otherwise it seems like a bit of a waste lol.

I'll post some more because you asked though. I thank you for your kind comments and I'm really glad you like the story. You were right about 'severe' btw, I hopped back into there and fixed that. If you spot anymore problems (ie, grammar, spelling, anything) then don't hesitate to point it out, I'll fix it the next time I login. I usually look over my chapters myself a couple times and somehow manage to overlook alot of little mistakes like that e.e'






Three

It was only 8:30 and there were a large number of people milling about the front yard. Brook couldn’t understand it, why would any of them come so early if they can sleep in?! She completely overlooked her own logic from the night before as she reached the head of the signup line. Writing her name and information down she sat on the bench and waited for her cue. People around her were just as impatient and started up battles not long into the wait. She tapped her fingers on the back of the bench as she watched a Mankey worry itself over a Metapod. The thing had hardened itself to the point where Mankey was hurting itself more than the bug with each hit. She felt the old bench wiggle slightly as someone took a seat next to her.

‘Hey, you want to battle?’ Brook looked over and saw it was a girl about her age. She wore a puffy dull pink jacket over blue short cut jeans.

‘Not really. I want my team completely ready when I face the Gym leader.’

‘Oh, ok.’ They turned to watch the Mankeys frustrated trainer verbally abused the other. His Mankey sat huffing at his feet, cradling its paws. The girl next to her snorted, ‘What a baby.’

‘I’ve never heard of anyone losing to a Metapod before.’

‘Oh it’s not a loss, it’s a tie. Neither has fainted but neither can strike the other.’

‘Well, I’ve never heard of anyone pulling a tie with one either. Usually a tie is when they knock each other out, isn’t it?’

The other trainer laughed, ‘Yeah, usually. But not always. You haven’t been in a lot of battles yet have you?’

‘um… no? I thought everyone that comes to Pewter is a beginner.’

The girl laughed again, ‘Of course not! Imagine how annoying it would be to travel all the way across Kanto just to start your first match, that’s practically the whole journey right there! They test you one your skill level. I’ve already got two badges, this will be my third.’

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small velvet case and grinned. Inside were indeed two badges, ‘I’ve already gotten the Rainbow badge and Cascade badge.’

‘Oh… So Brock will have lots of different level Pokemon to battle with?’

‘Well, yeah. But you don’t always fight the head of the gym. I never saw Erika when I was in Celadon, instead I fought one of the other trainers. Apparently Erika will only fight the best that show up. Misty was a little nicer, she actually said hi to me when I went through the doors to my battle but I didn’t fight her either.’

‘Oh… So then you’re probably way stronger than me if you have that many badges already.’

‘Heh, probably.’

‘Then why did you challenge me?’

‘Well, you can’t always tell what levels people are at. Besides, a little easy money on the side wouldn’t hurt.’ She grinned and Brook felt irritation growing at her. The girl suddenly seemed a little uncomfortable with her, ‘So… What did you start with? I caught a Caterpie all by myself once I saved enough for a pokeball. She’s now a Butterfree and my favorite.’

‘I got a Squirtle from my parents.’

‘Ooo, a traditional starter! Mind if I see it?’

Brook shrugged and called him out. He stretched and yawned before looking around at his surroundings. The other girl picked him up before he knew what was happening and looked him over, ‘nice, he’s a cute one. I’ve seen two Ivysaurs and one Charizard so far, haven’t seen a Squirtle yet. Must’ve been expensive.’

‘My family knows people.’

‘Did you know that the three Pokemon Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle used to be the starter of every trainer once? That was like ages ago though, when they first made pokeballs-‘

The loud speaker boomed, ‘WILL SARA WOLF PLEASE REPORT TO THE REGISTRATION DESK, SARA WOLF. THIS IS THE LAST CALL BEFORE YOU ARE DISQUALIFIED.’ The person behind the mic sounded p*****.

‘Opps, I guess it’s my turn. Sounds like they called me a few times already, heh. It was nice meeting you, bye!’ She got up and rushed away, the entire courtyard watching her go.

By the time it was Brooks turn it was well past noon and she had missed lunch. When the loud speaker finally called her name (in a somewhat calmer tone than with Sara’s) her stomach churned with anticipation. She recalled Squirtle and jogged up the steps. She was asked to swipe her trainer card through their system before entry. When she stepped through the door into the battle arena she was disappointed to see her opponent was not the famed Brock but a rather thin man wearing a simple white shirt over dark blue jeans. The arena though was not a disappointment. It was large and designed to look like rocky terrain.

‘This match will be two on two. We will battle until one of us is no longer able to battle or you give up.’

She nodded. From their distance there was a good chance he didn’t catch that.

‘Ok, let’s start’, He threw out a ball. Of all the Pokemon a rock type gym could send out, this one was least expected. Out flew a Gligar, a Pokemon who’s shade of purple she could only relate to poison. Choosing the side of caution she pulled out her pokedex and used it for the first time. It labeled Gligar as a Ground/Flying Pokemon. Ground was still close to rock then right?

Strange still, she thought before she reached to her belt and threw out Spinarak. Her little spider hissed and wiggled its butt and fore arms up and down trying its best to look tough. Her opponent snorted, ‘Sand-Attack!’

Gligar circled around and came close to the ground, turning sharply upwards at the last second before hitting Spinarak. A cloud of sand had gathered behind it and hit Spinarak in the face. She struggled trying to wipe the sand out of her eyes.

‘Spinarak, string shot!’ As she tried to aim Gligar’s outer skin seemed to shimmer for a moment. An unusual shine developed over it as it used harden. It slowed down while doing this just long enough for one of Spinaraks strings to connect, ‘Good, anchor it down and tie it up!’

Spinarak attached the string to a boulder before it was dragged into the air and shot a few more out at it. Gligar pulled and hissed, snapping a few strands in its struggle, ‘Leech life!’

‘Gligar, dive bomb it!’

Gligar stopped struggling and dived right at Spinarak, she shot a tread up to the ceiling and pulled herself out of the way. Gligar too pulled away before he hit the ground but was soon sprayed in a shower of webs from above and crashed. Spinarak curled her legs and dropped down with her stinger aimed at Gligar. There was a crack as she made contact. She bounced away and viewed her handy work. There wasn’t a scratch on it, its shell being to tough for her horn to get through. They all stood there for a moment and watched Gligar struggle before Brook heard the other trainer sigh, ‘You win round one, Gligar can’t make a move, return.’

He put the ball away and pulled out another, ‘Go, Geodude!’

As the living rock materialized it cracked down into the earth and flexed its arms. Brook scrunched her nose at it, ‘how ugly’ she thought.

‘Spinarak, Constrict!’

Spinarak immediately shot out a web and tangled Geodude up then proceeded to pull on the strings tightening it as much as she could manage.

‘Geodude, reel it in.’ It easily broke out of the strings and grabbed hold of the main line before either Brook or Spinarak knew what was happening. It pulled her in with one swift movement, Spinarak screeched as the round terror raised a fist. Brook panicked and recalled her immediately, Geodudes fist banged into the ground leaving small cracks in the arena floor. She heard laughter from across the room, ‘I didn’t know they could scream so loud.’

Brook felt a heat rise in her face, ‘Go, Squirtle!’

The laughter cut off as her opponent looked the turtle over, Squirtle in turn sized up the enemy, ‘fine then, Rock Throw!’

‘Squirtle, Bubble!’

Geodude dodged off to the side aiming to grab a chunk of the nearby rocks, Squirtles bubbles got to him first and popped in its face, ‘Great, get in close now, Water Gun!’

Squirtle sprinted at Geodude, took a deep breath and shot out as much as he could. The water came off of Geodude at first without appearing to harm its rocky hide. Then little by little the water turned muddy as Geodude tried to fend off the stream with his arms. The water was slowly eroding its armor and it sank weakly to the ground under the spray. Not long after the assault it was recalled.

‘Good match. You can pick up your badge at the registration desk before you leave.’

--

Spinarak had gotten over her near death experience with the Geodude, although she did seem nervous for a little while after being brought out of her ball. Brook had fumed a little about that, the force that trainer had allowed his Pokemon would have easily squished her poor bug. Squirtle on the other hand seemed a little more social. He would actually take part in Pichu and Spinaraks squabbling every so often. She looked across the campfire at Luxio. After being brought out he had immediately distanced himself from their group. His yellow eyes remained unblinkingly fixed on Brook. Out of all her Pokemon that one was the largest by far. And the most frightening. Since the start of dinner she’d caught herself on more than one occasion imagining it lunging across the fire for her throat.

She looked down at her empty pot and tapped the spoon on the rim for a moment. Then reaching a decision got up and moved slowly around the fire. She crouched down by Luxio a good five feet away and spoke to it as calmly as she could, ‘Why did you come over here all by yourself?’

Luxio answered with a lowered head, growling softly.

‘Look, if you don’t want to battle with me that’s fine. I’ve already got an electric type anyways’, Luxio glanced at Pichu. When she too decided to look over she noticed that Squirtle had gotten up and the other two had grown quiet. Pichu had hopped behind the turtle when the she had noticed the large cats attention. ‘I won’t call you out anymore, ok? I’ll just bring you out whenever we hang…’

Luxio had lost interest in her words and gotten instead into licking his fur. She frowned at it until its eye flicked back up to hers. Then she decided to just back away. When she sat down she instead pulled out her pokedex and decided to figure out some new attacks she would practice with her Pokemon instead. She jumped a little when she felt Squirtles cold hard shell press against her leg. When she looked at him she saw him glaring at Luxio. He slowly withdrew into his shell and it wasn’t long before his soft snoring began. Before she went to sleep that night she recalled all her Pokemon except Squirtle, put out the fire, and snuggled as best she could under her blanket. The Viridian forest was famous for its bug population and she hoped that none of them would be visiting her in her sleep.

--

The trail through Viridian forest was well worn and surrounded by way to many trainers. Everywhere she looked they were capturing of caterpillars and cocoons, battling and bragging going on. There weren’t this many people here last night, she couldn’t imagine where they all came from. A small boy with a bandage across his nose jumped out of a near by bush and challenged her loudly to a match. He couldn’t have been old enough for a license.

‘Ok, two on two. Forty says I win.’ She reached for her belt.

The boy pouted, ‘I’ve only got twenty…’

Dejavu… She shook her head, ‘Alright fine. Go, Pichu!’

‘Weedle!’

The two Pokemon materialized before them. Pichu stood nervously on the spot eyeing the opposing Pokemon stinger.

‘Weedle, Poison Sting!’

‘Thunder Shock!’

Pichu stood rooted to the spot and released her attack a tad to late. They both went down into a twitching heap. Brook covered her eyes in embarrassment. That mouse hadn’t won her a single match, maybe it just wasn’t battle material. The boy had already sent out his second Pokemon, a Rattata. Brook called Pichu back and threw out Spinarak.

‘Did you get that here? I haven’t seen one of those yet!’ The boy eyed the spider with interest.

‘Nope. There are plenty South of Cerulean though. Spinarak, Constrict!’

Spinarak tangled up the rat and proceeded to squeeze it into submission.

‘Hey, we didn’t say start!’

‘We didn’t say start the first time around either…’

‘Gah, fine.’

He recalled his Rattata and walked up to her with her winnings, ‘Would you like to trade your Spinarak for my Metapod?’

‘Erm, no.’ she counted the money then bid farewell. She stopped and looked around, she’d thought she heard a faint buzzing on the wind. She shrugged and continued on her way.

Since she had learned that she could take the gym challenge in any order she wished, she had decided to hit all the gyms she would have an advantage against first. Rock, then ground and fire. From the island of Cinnabar she hoped to get her own fire type as well. She frowned when she thought of her next challenge though. Viridian gym was famed for its strength. Most people left that one for last just because of that.

‘Oh well,’ she thought, ‘Water beats ground too, it shouldn’t be much harder than rock.’

Very suddenly something large and heavy bounced off her head and onto the ground at her feet. She groaned clutching her head and looked down, she saw it was a Kakuna. It mustn’t have fastened itself to the tree very well. She looked around and couldn’t see where it might’ve perched itself. The branches currently above her head looked to thin to support it’s weight. She watched it blink up at her then shrugged and reached for a pokeball. She very simply dropped it on its head and without much struggle she captured it. She grimaced, at this rate she was going to turn into one of the bug catchers that swarmed these woods.

The buzzing from before started up again, this time much louder. She picked up the pokeball and looked up. Her stomach churned. Circling above was a swarm of Beedrill, all carrying their pre-evolved counterparts, Kakuna. The only one that wasn’t hovered in the air above her looking down.

‘uh, if you want it back you can have-‘

‘Idiot, what are you doing?! RUN!’ A strong hand gripped the back of her neck and dragged her very forcefully into a tripping run. The bee’s swarmed angrily and gave chase, their leading figure had its stingers pointed straight ahead. Just as suddenly as she’d been grabbed she was shoved into the bushes on the side. She screamed as she hit the thorny bush and screamed again when the bees flew by.

‘Blaze, Flame Thrower!’

A huge burst of flames flew down the path, burning everything into ash. After the fires died down she saw a particularly scorched Beedrill limp up and away through the sky. Looking up she could see a number of them flying weakly off into different directions. A shadow fell across her as someone gripped her hand.

‘That was incredibly stupid of you. Beedrill aren’t known for their understanding nature, they’ll attack you on sight even if you try to correct your wrong.’ She was pulled to her feet, ‘Are you ok?’

She looked at the man in awe, he was dressed in a rangers red suite and had clearly worked out for some time to get into the shape he was now. Behind him stood a tall red and yellow… something. It’s plumage, beak and forearms the only sign that it might’ve been a bird once, it stood up straight like a human. When she finally found her voice it wasn’t with an answer to his question, ‘Stupid of me? What else could I have done, those things could easily catch me and my teams no match for that many Pokemon!’

The bird glared at her over its trainers shoulders. ‘You could have run into the trees, called for help. When the Beedrill migrate we always come out to make sure nobody does something stupid. Apparently I was almost late this time.’

‘How could I have known there was anybody to help me here??’

He sighed then pointed over his shoulder. There was a large red sign with ATTENTION written in bold right along the path. Beneath it was a bulletin board with a large poster about the Beedrill migration and the rangers. ‘They don’t work if trainers don’t read them. Those signs are everywhere, including all entrances to the forest.’

She looked down at her feet, feeling embarrassed about her naivety, ‘I’ll still give them back their baby if they want…’

He shook his head, ‘no point. The way they act sometimes I think their just looking for an excuse to fight. They won’t take it back now anyways. Strangely, like birds, they’ll abandon their young if it has a foreign sent on it.’

‘I didn’t even really want it though, I only caught it ‘cause it was there!’

‘That’s a horrible reason to take away something’s freedom.’ He looked down at her, ‘The exit to the forest is just twenty minuets that way. Be smarter next time.’

Brook left hurriedly.