Chapter 1
"Quick Attack!" yelled a male. A Vulpix leapt into action and picked up speed. A young girl stammered with her orders.
"Dodge!" she ordered. Too late. The quick attack hit her pokémon before it could respond. Vulpix landed neatly while the brown and cream pokémon hit the dusty ground. The girl rushed over to it.
"It's over. Too easy, rookie," the male grinned before calling back his Vulpix. It sat happily at its trainer's feet. Its six tails waving gently in the subtle wind.
"Eevee, are you ok?" the girl asked. Her Eevee looked up a little, sore and beaten, but it's eyes shimmered bravely.
"Wee," it called weakly. The girl picked up the injured pokémon. She cradled it in her arms gently, looking for any serious injuries. She sighed in relief when there were just scratches and bruises. She turned to glare at the male.
"That's not fair, Darius! You have had more experience than I have! You vulpix is a much higher level than Eevee," she snapped. Darius grinned. He took out his pokeball and called the vulpix back inside it.
"Sorry, Veronica. A battle is a battle," he answered. He turned his back and walked away, kicking up dust from the battlefield in his wake. Veronica growled bitterly before carrying Eevee to the pokémon centre, thankfully just around the corner. The cream building with half a pokeball on the roof wasn't hard to miss. The door opened smoothly as she strode towards them.
Veronica was a rookie trainer. She was 16 and spent most of her life learning about pokémon. She had waist length black hair and silvery green eyes. She normally black jeans, a crimson t-shirt, purple sleeveless overcoat and white trainers, but she wore a black shirt that came halfway down her thighs.
Darius was her older brother and had left on his journey with a Bulbsaur 8 years ago. He had just come back and had caught more pokémon than she thought possible. He had travelled Kanto, Johto and Hoenn. Darius had pale brown hair, with knowledgeable hazel eyes. He was a good foot taller than Veronica. He always wore a black cap with a pokeball on it backwards on his head; he also had a black long sleeved shirt with a red short-sleeved t-shirt. His dark blue jeans and red trainers were normally muddy or torn because of the amount of travelling he did.
She had only stayed in Viridian City – her home town – and trained with Eevee on route 1. She had battled Rattata and Pidgey many times over. Eevee was a good level also, thanks to her brother's TM's he didn't need, she knew a few moves other than tackle, tail whip, helping hand and sand attack. Eevee knew Return, dig and façade as well. She had only gotten Eevee when her brother caught one a year ago for her.
Up until recently, Eevee was a pet pokémon until Veronica had learned more about Eevee and its strange evolutions. She was having a tough decision between Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon. She had also heard of two more evolutions from her brother when he was in Johto.
She had a close bond to one of her brother's pokémon, which he kept at home. He had a Ponyta, nicknamed Amber, who he had gotten as a result from an egg. He had given Amber to his family because he already had his Vulpix at the time and didn't want or need a low level, weak fire pokémon when he was so close to competing against the elite four.
Amber allowed Veronica to ride her, so she normally took her to go through the Viridian Forest when she wanted to visit her friend. It was safer than walking, the Beedrills were very dangerous. It learned flamethrower from a TM Darius sent, after hearing his sister was attacked by a swarm of Beedrill with no way to fend them all off.
Nurse Joy appeared behind the counter, the small brown pokémon looking happy and healthy.
"Your Eevee is back to full strength," Nurse Joy smiled and put Eevee in the counter. Eevee cried happily and jumped into Veronica's arms. Veronica beamed.
"Thank you, Nurse Joy," she bowed a little before walking outside. Amber was waiting for her. She nuzzled Eevee gently. "She's ok, Amber," Veronica soothed.
She wanted to go out on an adventure. However, with only one pokémon it seemed like a horrible thought. She wanted gym badges too. However, the newly rebuilt Viridian Gym was way out of her league. She would need a miracle to defeat the new gym leader.
She put Eevee on her shoulder before mounting the growing Ponyta. Amber was still young, only a few years old, but she was soon becoming a large steed. Amber only wore a bridle when she was being used for riding but she had some battle experience with Beedrill.
The ride home to her house – which was on the opposite end of Viridian – was peaceful. She didn't know how long Darius was going to stay here before heading out for a new region. He was always out on one adventure or another. She was worried that he might decide to stay in a region she couldn't get to, and lose contact with the only member of her family that wanted her to leave home and start a journey. She sighed heavily.
"C'mon Amber, lets hurry, it looks like it's going to rain," Veronica urged. Amber started to canter slowly home on the concrete road home. It was quiet for a change.
The house was the same as all the Viridian homes, the typical Japanese style wooden home with a green roof. Her garden was small, decorated with flowers and trees. A pale grey cobbled path led to her house.
She dismounted before walking into the house, Amber followed, she was allowed in the house because the garden was too small to let her have a good stretch in. Darius was inside with a new pokémon she hadn't seen before. It was mostly white other than the black claws, tail, face and the strange arc at the side of its face. Amber snorted. The pokémon looked up, almost boredly before the arc glowed.
"Absol, it is my sister. Do not attack," Darius told it sternly. Absol looked at him before the arc ceased to glow. Veronica blinked.
"It…was about to use Razor Wind wasn't it?" she asked. Darius grinned. He always grinned in some form or another.
"Seems you have been studying after all," he answered. Veronica growled. Her brother always teased her, no matter what it was about; he always made fun of her.
"Just because I don't know how to battle doesn't mean I don't know pokémon moves!" she snapped. Darius shrugged easily.
"Ok, just saying." He answered. He got up from where he was sitting and walked over to Amber, he went to pat her when her mane erupted into flames.
"Amber!" Veronica said sternly. Amber looked at her before calming down. Darius shook his head a little.
"Just as well, I never did fancy fire types other than Ninetales," Veronica rolled her eyes and removed Amber's bridle. She slung it over her arm.
"She hasn't seen you in what, 5 years?" she asked. Darius shrugged again.
"Maybe. I'm gonna be heading out of here soon. So if you want to go on a journey I can take you the start of Johto if you like, but that it," he answered. Veronica shook her head.
"I'm going to stay in Kanto and get the badges here." She replied. He nodded.
"Good choice," he commented. Veronica looked at Amber.
"Can I keep Amber? I feel safer with a way I can easy get of danger should I need to," she asked. Darius shrugged, his shrugging was annoying Veronica greatly.
"Sure, but only if you give me that firestone you have," he replied. Veronica groaned loudly.
She collected evolution stones; she knew a lot of evolution and had helped her mum's poliwhirl evolve into a politoed. Her mum loved water pokémon. Her dad preferred fighting types while her brother was more of a grass type person. Veronica wasn't fussy about pokémon by their types, although she had a soft spot for fire and psychic type pokémon. Veronica headed upstairs to her room and looked around.
It was natural, just the dark wooden panels on the wall that went from floor to halfway up the wall, white cream extended from above the wood, up the wall and over the ceiling. Dark mahogany wooden floor with her bed in the top left corner as you come in, her wardrobe on the right wall, her window directly in front of her with her deck on the bottom right.
Shelves lined the bottom left of her room. She walked over and opened a small red box. Inside were a few firestones she had collected on journeys to Celadon with her dad. She took one and closed the box. She jogged down the stairs. She kept her stones out the reach and in a glass cabinet so Eevee couldn't get to them. She didn't want her to evolve accidentally. She had also found an everstone while she was going through Mount Moon, so she had given Eevee an everstone to hold.
"Here," she handed him the red stone. "Is it for Vulpix?" she asked. He nodded.
"I'm going to wait until he's a higher level before evolving him. But I won't be here and firestones are rare where I'm going," he answered. He put the stone in his bag. "Well, I gotta go to the mart and get a few things before leaving. I'll buy you some healing items if you're leaving,"
"Thanks, Darius," Veronica smiled before taking Amber's pokeball from the mantelpiece. "Amber, return," the red beam shot out the pokeball and called Amber back into her pokeball. Darius had already walked out the door. Veronica sighed a little before trotting back up to her room, Eevee hot on her heels. Eevee jumped on the bed, watched her trainer pick up a cream/peach two-shoulder strap bag, and started to pack things away. She called out a quietly. She jumped off the bed and rubbed her ankle worriedly.
"Don't worry, Eevee. I won't leave without you," Veronica smiled at her pokémon. Eevee wagged her tail slightly before jumping onto the top of her wardrobe and picking something up. "What you got there, Eevee?" Eevee jumped down with a pokémon guide in her mouth. "So that's where that went!" she shook her head and took it.
"Veronica!" called a male voice. She groaned, her father. Typical.
"In my room, dad," she answered. She hid her bag quickly before picking up a brush and grooming Eevee. Her father walked in. He smiled.
He was a well-built man, muscles budging out from him. His short, brown hair, now turning grey, and watchful brown eyes scanned her carefully. He leaned against the doorframe. He looked intimidating but he was nice. Her father was totally against her going on a journey. He always said it was far too dangerous. Whenever Veronica brought Darius into the equation he answered he had experience and if he had known what happened on a journey, he would never have let Darius leave on one either. He also managed to convince her mother to make her stay put. The only way to get free from Viridian was to leave on a journey without their knowledge.
"I heard from Darius you tried your first battle today," he started.
"Did me mention he whooped me?" she asked. Eevee looked up at her trainer before calling softly. Veronica smiled before putting Eevee down and picking up her pokeball. She had turned Eevee's pokeball into a necklace, using a clip used on pokeball belts so she wouldn't need to attach her ball onto her belt and risk loosing it when she had to take it off. She carefully clipped it in place.
"He did say you lost, nothing about being whooped," he answered. Veronica smiled before tying the pokeball around her neck.
"What…would you say if I wanted to go on an adventure, a journey like Darius?" she asked. Her father's face became stern.
"I would forbid it. A journey is dangerous and Darius has been hurt on more than one occasion. I've told you before to get these adventure thoughts out of your mind. Why not stay home and be a breeder? Or study to become a professor and specialise with evolving?" he asked. Veronica looked down.
"I was just asking, dad. I don't want to go on a journey," she lied. He smiled.
"Well that's good," he answered, pleased. Veronica smiled a little.
"I'm going to a friend's tonight. She is in Pewter City," she said. She was lying again but he bought it.
"Ok, Veronica, be careful," he smiled before leaving. Veronica sighed in relief before grabbing her bag and throwing in a map, an empty TM case, a berry pouch and a bike voucher she got a while back. She slung the bag on one shoulder and turned to the Eevee.
"Eevee, come," Veronica urged, Eevee hopped into her shoulder and Veronica took Amber's bridle before sneaking out the house. Her dad didn't want her going out on an adventure. He did everything he could to stop her. Not this time. Darius knew and have given her many tips and a guidebook. He had also given her a small book with different pokémon, sorted by colour. She headed outside and walked to the mart. It was a while away, the noon sun shining brightly. She raced down streets, passing houses and people. She familiar blue topped building came into view. She saw Darius leave.
"Hey Veronica," he handed her a bag. "Potions, paralyze heals, antidotes and awakenings, basic items." She took them and put them in her bag.
"Thanks Darius, you never know, when I get back I might just beat you and vulpix," she grinned. He laughed.
"Keep dreaming, kid. Anyway, I'll see ya around," he headed home.
Veronica headed towards the Viridian Forest. She released Amber from her pokeball. Amber reared and neighed a little. When she settled down, Veronica stroked her creamy white nose. Putting on her black leather bridle, she mounted and galloped towards the forest. She didn't want to return to Viridian in a while. The Viridian Forest loomed ahead of her, the trees tall and forbidding. She dismounted before calling Amber back to her pokeball. She took a deep breath before entering the trees.