Pokemon Johto Journey
By Pensuave
Author's notes:
I really wanted to bring about a fresh perspective on the standard Pokemon story by not starting the main characters with their first Pokemon, but rather with giving them histories and having them build new memories off of those histories. I also wanted a humorous group of characters that can lighten up the action aspect of the fic. I hope you all enjoy it!
Chapter 1: The Journey Begins
"We have now arrived at Olivine City, all passengers please make sure to take all of your luggage and Pokemon with you," a voice said over a loudspeaker, "Thank you for traveling with Clee-Ferry Transportation, we hope to see you again."
A throng of people ranging from the ages of 13 to 60 exited the ship that had taken them from the Kanto region to the Johto region. Most people getting off of the boat were Pokemon trainers who were concerned with gathering badges from each town's Gym Leader in order to compete in the Pokemon League, a large tournament where the best trainer in each region was crowned champion.
However, on this sunny day on the coast of Olivine City, that was not the case for Grayson and Krista. Grayson stretched his arms into the sky as his pearl-coated Ninetails yawned elegantly next to him. Grayson stood at about 5'10" and wore a gray t-shirt with a black jacket over it. The sun made Grayson squint his blue eyes as he cupped his hand in front of his face when he heard a voice shouting from behind the disembarking crowd.
"Grayson, wait up, here I come!" a girl, about the same age as Grayson shouted.
"Krista, watch out for Nine-," Grayson said too late as Krista tripped over the now yelping Ninetails and landed flat on her stomach.
Krista's long legs were spread out as she paused before coming to terms with her horribly embarrassing spill that she had just taken. Grayson put his hand out to help her up, when Krista's left arm grabbed onto one of the straps of Grayson's pants and yanked him to the ground as she stabilized herself.
"Now, now," a stern voice said, "no fooling around the exit, you two, we don't want anyone falling off of the boat."
Krista whipped her maroon hair around as the sun caught her pale complexion, and stared at the lady with tears filling up in her green eyes.
"I'm so sorry, mam, it's just that I'm trying to enjoy as much as I can since I don't have any money to eat with and no bed to sleep in," Krista said as Grayson got up off of the platform with a look of disgust in his eyes, "My brother and I are simply wanderers with no place to go."
"Oh, you poor dears," the woman replied, "here, take some of this money and buy yourselves a meal. The local Pokemon Center will take you in, if you can find some room, otherwise they are lending out tents which can fold up and fit inside of your bag so that you can camp out. This is the busy season, with the Pokemon League starting tomorrow, and all."
"Thank you so much, mam!" Krista said as she grabbed the money from the woman's hand, "I promise that one day I will repay you!"
"Don't worry about it, dear," the woman replied, "now get going before this ship takes off again."
Krista turned sharply and ran off of the platform tugging Grayson along as her small Glameow followed alongside her.
"Well that should help us out a bit." Krista said as she counted the money.
"Nice scam and all, but we didn't need the money," Grayson said, "We have enough to survive on, and I'm not your brother!"
"But I wanted to get that really nice pair of cat ear's that I saw advertised on the Goldenrod City Department Store website." Krista replied as she put the money into one of the many pockets of her oversized jeans.
Krista stood a couple inches shorter than Grayson, but she appeared even shorter due to the baggy legs of her pants. She wore a white and black striped tank top which made her torso appear thinner than it already was due to her pants being so large since they held her treasures.
"So, should we grab a bite to eat around here before we head off to Goldenrod?" Krista said as she slung her messenger bag over her shoulder.
"Sure, if we can get a table," Grayson replied, "Since your stunt allowed for everyone to get ahead of us."
"Oh, I'm sure we'll be fine, Gray," Krista replied, "We both make friends easily, so I'm sure that someone will let us sit with them."
Grayson couldn't refute that point. He and Krista both were rather amiable towards others and enjoyed simply traveling and enjoying their lives to the fullest. Neither of them seemed to care all that much about competition or Pokemon battles, but both of them were indeed trainers. Grayson was known for his fire Pokemon and his warm nature. While most Fire Pokemon trainers were known for their rather aggressive style of battling, Grayson took a much more easy-going approach.
Krista, however, was a little less knowledgeable about her Pokemon, but she knew that she loved them, nonetheless. Her team consisted of mostly all normal monsters, but her most prominent theme was that her team consisted of many feline Pokemon. Krista and Grayson both had strong bonds with their Pokemon, and due to this, they treated their Pokemon with the utmost respect, while receiving the same back from their Pokemon.
Krista and Grayson both were traveling together since they met in the audience of a Kanto League Championship battle. Grayson had complimented Krista on how well groomed her Glameow was and Krista began to give Grayon tips on how to best maintain a Pokemon's coat. From then on, Grayson and Krista were inseparable and they experienced many things while in Kanto. After traveling the surface of Kanto with many exciting adventures behind them, Krista and Grayson decided to save up their money for a trip through Johto. The jobs that Krista had to take to save up enough money were anything but lady-like. One of the worst was working on being a PDA (Pokemon Defense Agency) lab assistant; where she was required to stand in front of a series of Pokemon attacks all day to gauge the intensity of the pain of each elemental attack. Krista wasn't sure what this had to do with a Pokemon's defense given the fact that a Pokemon wasn't being attacked, but it did pay well, and that was what was of prime concern to Krista.
Grayson had a different issue before him. While money was no issue with his family, his strict parents were. They insisted that Grayson never leave the Kanto region under any circumstances, and tried to buy him into staying. While the new entertainment systems and video games kept Grayson in Kanto for some time, his desire to explore a new region overtook him and drove him into leaving. His parents realized that they could no longer keep their son locked in and agreed to let him go to Johto, so long as he called them every time he reached a new destination, which reminded Grayson that he hadn't called his parents when he got off of the ferry.
Grayson reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
"This will just take a minute," he said to Krista as he dialed his phone and held it to his ear.
"Give mommy and daddy my love, smoochums!" Krista taunted with a cute face as she looked into the sky and took in the fantastic weather.
Suddenly, Krista saw a large dragon soar through the air with, what seemed to be, someone on its back.
"Woah." Krista mused to herself, "that is amazing."
"Glam-Glameow!" Glameow replied as if it was trying to announce its amazement as well.
"Well, Glow, we made it," Krista said to Glameow, "Hopefully, this trip will give us as many adventures as Kanto did."
Glameow smiled up at Krista as Grayson returned from his phone call with Ninetails by his side.
"So, do you want to get something to eat now?" Grayson asked in a way that made Krista feel that she didn't have a choice.
"Sure, we can get something to eat." Krista said.
Grayson and Krista reached the local restaurant, "Steel Meals," and saw an enormous line before them. It appeared that the restaurant was just opening and the line was now moving rapidly into the restaurant.
"It looks like we are going to get a table, after all," Krista said with a smile on her face.
Suddenly, Krista received a hard nudge out of the way as two sailors stepped in front of Krista and Grayson in line.
"Hey, those were our-" Krista began until her mouth was cupped by Grayson's hand.
"Don't pick a fight; I'm sure there will still be enough tables for us." Grayson added.
As they reached the front, the waiter that was greeting everyone as they came in said to the sailors, "Oh, you two are lucky, you got our last table."
"Enough for us, eh?" Krista said to Grayson as she squinted her eyes and said out loud, "Hey, beefcakes, you cut us in line!"
The two sailors turned around as they towered over Krista and Grayson.
"Yeah, and what's it to you?" one of the sailors said, "We just got back from fishing and we want some real food. Magikarp and Crabby meat gets very plain after awhile."
"Umm, Kris-" Grayson said as he tapped Krista on the shoulder.
"Well I can smell that you just got back from fishing, but that doesn't mean that you can just cut in line!" Krista said with a bit of fire behind her voice as she ignored Grayson.
"Krista, you really shouldn't-" Grayson tried again to get her attention.
"Well, guess, what?" the sailor said, "We just did, and now we are going to go enjoy our meal and if you ask nicely we may bring you a doggie bag."
"Krista!" Grayson shouted.
"What?" Krista replied just as loudly as she noticed that her argument had taken herself, Grayson and the sailors out of the line as another group of two walked inside.
"Sorry, everyone, but our restaurant is filled." The waiter at the door said, "Please come back in an hour if you would like a seat."
A sudden breeze kicked up at the rest of the line left to explore the town and Krista was in a shocked standstill as were both of the sailors.
"I tried to tell you." Grayson said.
"That's it!" one of the sailors shouted, "You cost us our meal, you brat!"
"Well you can blame yourselves, if you didn't cut us at least two of us could have been eating right now!" Krista replied.
"I'm gonna teach her a lesson." The other sailor said, "Let's battle!"
"Fine!" Krista said as she pulled out a Poké Ball.
"Go get her, Dwight!" the sailor said as he and Grayson stepped to the side of the battle.
Krista suddenly burst into hysterical laughter as she said, "Your name is Dwight?"
"It's a family name, now let's battle!" Dwight replied as he reddened in the face. "It will be a one on one match, so pick your strongest Pokemon!"
"I don't need to use my strongest Pokemon on the likes of you!" Krista said, "Go, Persian!"
Krista threw her Poké Ball into the sky and it exploded with a white light as a Persian appeared on the field licking its paw. The coat on Persian was very well taken care of, and it shined in the sunlight.
"A Persian?" Dwight taunted, "Ha! Try this on for size! Go, Pelipper!"
The sailor lobbed his Poké Ball into the air and it too exploded into white light as a Pelipper glided onto the field.
"Your kitty, can't hit what it can't reach," the sailor said, "Pelipper, use Water Pulse!"
"Persian, Fake Out!" Krista replied quickly.
Persian appeared to the left of Pelipper and then to the right and continued the pattern at a rapid pace. Then, before Pelipper could find its target for Water Pulse, Persian leapt on top of it from behind and tackled it to the ground.
Pelipper then twitched on the ground as it fired its water pulse into the sand.
"Ha, Persian's Fake Out made your Pelipper flinch!" Krista said, "Now, Persian, use Thunderbolt!"
"Th-Thunderbolt?" Dwight screamed out as he recognized Pelipper's double weakness to electric attacks, "Pelipper, Protect!"
Persian grounded itself with its claws as it let out an ear piercing screech and arched its back as a stream of electricity sped towards Pelipper, ripping up the earth beneath. Suddenly, Pelipper encased itself in a shield that absorbed the electricity until Persian's attack was over.
"Now, Pelipper, use Tail Wind!" Dwight ordered.
Pelipper opened its wings and a great wind kicked up over the battle field. Pelipper then sped around the field as a very rapid pace and all Krista could see was a white blur all around her.
"This ability increased by Pokemon's speed, so now your Persian won't be able to even find my Pelipper, much less, attack it" Dwight taunted.
"C'mon, Persian," Krista said in an encouraging voice, "We can do this, use Screech!"
Persian aimed its head into the sky and opened its mouth to let out a large screech when suddenly a stream of water shot from a point in the sky straight into Persian's mouth. The attack rifled Persian to the ground as it struggled to stand up.
Dwight laughed at Krista's attempt, "Direct hit, I sunk your Persian!"
"Persian, we can't wait any longer," Krista said, "Use Shockwave!"
Persian charged up another electric attack and aimed it at the sky as it was slammed to the ground with another Water Pulse. Persian fired the ball of electricity into the sky but it appeared to miss the blur that was Pelipper. As Persian got up from the ground it lost its balance and fell down again.
"Your Persian is confused!" Dwight pointed out, now you have no chance of winning!"
Suddenly, a large explosion of light came from the sky over Krista's shoulder and Pelipper was on the ground as black as charcoal.
"It looks like I got it just in time." Krista winked as she ran over to Persian and gave it a pat on its head as it shook off its confusion, "You were great, Persian."
"Wh-What did you do?" Dwight stood amazed as he ran over to his KO'ed Pokemon.
"It's the effect of Shockwave, it never misses." Krista said, "If you are using a water type or a flying type I think that you may want to know about electric attacks, but if you are using a water band/b a flying type, then you need to know everything about electric attacks."
"Pelipper, return." Dwight said in a defeated tone as he called back his Pokemon into his Poké Ball.
"Persian, return." Krista said as she did the same.
"Well, you might have won this match, but now that I know your trick, I'll beat you another time." Dwight said as he and the other sailor stormed off.
"Great job, Krista!" Grayson said as he ran over to her.
"Thanks," Krista replied, "But we still have nowhere to eat."
"Well, I've got some snacks, do you want to head to the next town and we can snack on the way?" Grayson suggested as he pulled out a map. "It says that a Miltank Farm is just above this town. If we take Route 39, we can get there in no time."
"Actually, I think I may have another route that we could take." Krista answered, "If we go east we can cut through a forest and end up on Route 35, which is right above Goldenrod City. I hear that it is bigger than Saffron and Celadon combined!"
"But what is in the forest?" Grayson inquired with an uneasy look on his face.
"Nothing that we can't handle, I'm sure." Krista smirked as she nudged Grayson, "Besides, I really want those cat ears and there will be plenty of restaurants to choose from."
"All right, let's go then." Grayson said with a smile.
Any adventure was a good adventure in the minds of Grayson and Krista, and they were sure that there journey through Johto would bring them many great times. Little did they know how grand of an adventure they were about to embark on.
To be continued...