Soul: Hello, my name is Soul, I am one of the "nonexistent" writers of this story. The other writers of this chapter Eve, Amber, Misery and Dess, who are also "nonexistent". So, we erased Wishbone23's (he's called Aiji in the story) memory and took his place as the writers, while he became a character. We got to decide what happened, being a writer is awesome! Things in italics are thoughts, and things that are underlined are being said by someone on the television.
I brushed my hand along the side of the cave that I called home. It wasn't a bad place to live, as far as caves go, but it wasn't the best place to live either.
"If only I had been stronger, or smarter, then maybe I wouldn't have lost my pokemon to that girl in black. What's the point in wearing all black anyways, what is she, goth? Well, I stuck here now, I can't go back home, not when I was told that if I returned without the pokemon I would be banned from the town. I'd prefer to save myself from that humiliation," I thought out loud. I slammed my fist against the cave wall, which ended up being a bad idea, the cave wall was harder than I had expected. I grunted in pain and then grabbed the first that had punched the wall with my opposite hand. "Dang it, just dang it all. I won't let them ban me, I'll ban myself first." My stomach growled at me. "I know, I know, you want food, shut up, would you? I'll go get some food. You jerk"
I walked out of my cave home and into the forest that surrounded it. I felt like I had chosen a great place to live, here Auburn and Ray would never find me. I couldn't let my rivals know that I had lost my pokemon, so living in the forest was a great idea. There was no reason for Auburn or Ray to come into this forest, thus the forest kept me safe from their judgment. I took my pointer finger and slid it up my nose, as to push my glasses closer to my eyes. I did that habitually, sometimes when I had my glasses off I would still try to adjust them, only to realize that they weren't on my face.
There were more trees than I thought there were when I came to the cave last night, I guess that's because I was hanging my head while walking last night. I looked around, there was a vast expanse of almost every type of tree I could imagine, and luckily for me, there was a tree that had some oran berries that was close to where I was standing. I jogged over to the tree. I carefully scanned the oran berries and grabbed the one that looked like it was the most delicious. I tried to pull it towards me, but something seemed to keep it on the tree. I pulled harder, but still something seemed to stop me from getting the berry. I perked up my head to see if there was something on the other side of the tree that was keeping me from getting the berry, I still kept a firm grip on the berry though.
To my horror there was something stopping me from getting the oran berry, it was an ampharos, who looked like she was trying to pull the berry off of the tree as well. Yes, she, I can tell because of all the time I've spent studying pokemon. I studied for fourteen years before receiving the family pokemon, so of course I could tell what gender a pokemon was. Well, usually, I still had trouble telling what gender muks, and pokemon like muks were, but I never planned on training a pokemon like muk, so that was okay.
I let go of the berry and began put my head back down. I saw the berry come off of the tree and the ampharos stared into my eyes. I put my hands palm towards her, in front of my shoulders and slowly began backing away.
"Please do not shock me. I have some good reason why you shouldn't, but I can seem to remember it, so how about you just don't shock me, and the next time we see each other I'll tell you," I said.
"There's enough oran berries to go around," she said in a relaxing voice. She's a pokemon, how is it that she can speak?
"How do you know how to speak human?" I asked her.
"I taught myself, am I speaking human well?" She asked.
"Very well," I said.
"Wonderful. You can pick some oran berries if you want, I'm not going to shock you or anything." I walked back to the tree and picked a good looking berry from it.
"Thank you, so what's your name?"
"My name is Xena, what's yours?"
"My name is Aiji."
"So Aiji, why did you think I was going to shock you?"
"I wasn't sure, but I decided to try to be on the safe side. You know, your an ampharos and all"
"But you seem like you're a pokemon trainer, why would you be afraid of a pokemon? Couldn't you just send out one of your pokemon and have it protect you?"
" My pokemon was stolen."
"Oh, sorry for bringing it up." She took a bite of her oran berry.
"So for how long have you been living in this forest?" She swallowed the part of the oran berry that she was chewing before speaking.
"For my whole life. How about you?"
"I just came here last night."
"So why'd you move here?"
"I moved here so that my rivals would never find me."
"Why are you hiding from them?"
"If they find me they'll ask for a battle, and once they figure out that I have no pokemon the ridicule will never end."
"Why do their opinions matter so much to you?"
"They're also my friends, my only friends."
"We're friends, aren't we?"
"My only friends other than you."
"Thank you. Well, if they're going to ridicule you about it then they aren't true friends."
"I guess you're right."
"So why don't you get back out there and keep being a pokemon trainer?"
"I don't have any pokemon."
"Are you sure about that?" She winked at me.
"Yes?"
"Well, I'm a pokemon, and I'd like to go on an adventure with you."
"Thanks, but I'm not sure I have the heart to get back into pokemon training."
"It isn't pokemon training, it's a team effort from both pokemon and human. Pokemon training would imply that the trainer is the one doing all of the work."
"You have a really good point, calling it pokemon training is a dumb idea."
"So what do you say, do you want to be a team?"
"Um, sure, I guess."
"Wonderful, so where do we start?"
"Well, there's a city called Violet City near here, they have a gym, so I guess we should go there."
"So we're just going to walk right into a gym without any prior training?"
"Oh, that's right. We should start by seeing what moves you know." Xena walked over to the side of the tree I was on.
"Okay, this first move is called thundershock." Xena planted both feet on the ground and launched a bolt of electricity at a tree. I don't think the tree enjoyed being shocked. "This next one is called growl." A cute sound came out of Xena's mouth. That was cute. So this is growl? I don't see the use it has in battle, but dang is that cute. Is it bad that I find that cute? Well, to figure out if that's bad I would have to define cute, and bad. Let's see, bad is something not good, and cute is something attractive. So I'm really asking if it's not good that I find growl attractive. Okay, that doesn't help me solve anything. I guess I have to figure out if being attracted to a pokemon is bad. Arg, my brain hurts! I'll figure all of this out later. "Are you listening to me?"
"Oh, sorry, I zoned out, what just happened?" Xena laughed.
"I just showed you thunderpunch."She smiled. Her smile seemed to lighten my spirits, as if our moods were connected somehow, in some fashion.
"Okay, so I have one more move, but it only works on other living beings. It's called thunder wave, it paralyzes my opponent."
"That's cool."
"So should we go challenge the gym leader now?"
"I don't see why not."
"Okay, but you're going to have to hold my hand, I don't want to get separated from you, or lost." I blushed. Wow, the people in Violet City are going to think we are so strange. Then again, we are kinda strange. You know what, that's okay. Seeming a little odd is okay. So I took Xena's hand and together we walked through the forest. Past the trees that swayed in the wind, past the sleeping hoothoots, and to the path that lead to Violet City. We hadn't taken two steps on the path before I heard a voice that annoyed my ears.
"Hey Aiji, wait up! Let's battle!" I looked over my shoulder, and sure enough Auburn was running towards me. Xena and I stopped holding hands and turned around. Auburn had long light brown hair, and always wore blue clothing. Today she was wearing blue sneakers, blue jeans, and a blue t-shirt. When she finally reached us she was breathing heavily. She wasn't an athlete. One time, back when we were ten, we ran a race, Auburn, Ray and I. Ray finished in around seven minutes, and it took me around twelve minutes. Well, after it had been thirty minutes we started getting pretty worried about Auburn. We walked the trail backwards and found her passed out at the halfway point. When I say we walked the trail backwards, I literally mean that we walked backwards for half of the trail while trying to find Auburn. We ended up having to carry Auburn's unconscious body to her parents, and boy were they not happy. So, Auburn wasn't allowed to go on her pokemon journey until she was fourteen, due to medical reasons and all, this means that she had around one year longer than I did to train. Ray started his pokemon journey when he was ten, so he was way ahead of us.
"Auburn, you have to remember to take it easy, your body can't handle as much running as a normal body can. You wouldn't want a repeat of what happened when we were ten, would you?" I said.
"Sorry, but I was so exited to battle you, look, I have pokemon too!" She threw a pokeball, which hit the ground and created a flash of red light, and out of the red light came a croconaw. "This is Toady."
"You named him Toady?" I asked.
"Yeah, it made more sense back when he was a totodile. So how is your jouney as a pokemon trainer going so far?" Auburn asked. You know, now that I think about it, Blue would be a much better name for her, it's not like she even knows what auburn looks like. I do though, I think. It's a shade of brown, I know that much.
'I'm not a pokemon trainer, I'm a human, and the pokemon who come with me to challenge gyms and other teams are my teammates. We are all equally important, thus, I am not a "trainer",' I said.
"The difference is important," Xena added.
"Oh my gosh, your ampharos can talk! And it's so fuzzy!" Auburn said over-excitedly.
"Auburn, first of all, she is not my ampharos, she is my teammate. Second of all, she is a she, not an it," I said.
"Okay, I appreciate that and all, but you don't need to get too worked up over this," Xena said.
"Sorry," I replied.
"Okay, so if you can really talk then say the swellow eats at midnight," Auburn said.
"The swellow eats at midnight?" Xena said confusedly.
"Oh my gosh, where did you find a talking pokemon?" Auburn asked me.
"Near a cave in the forest," I responded.
"What were you doing near a cave in the forest?" Auburn asked.
"Trying to find some food," I responded.
"Why were you trying to find food, and why are you two both carrying oran berries?" I completely forgot that I was carrying an oran berry. Xena and I quickly finished eating our oran berries.
"Now we aren't carrying oran berries. Anyways, I was trying to find food so that I could eat. I believe the better question is, why does trying to find food seem odd to you?" Auburn thought about this for a few seconds, and then stomped her foot down on the ground angrily.
"You and your mind games! Arg! I'll never understand why it makes you happy when you confuse me!" Auburn yelled. Xena and I laughed.
"Because you react like that," I said.
"Well let's see how you two do in a battle," Auburn said. I looked at Xena, who nodded, as if to say, "let's do this".
"We'll take you on," I said. Auburn and I took five steps each back, something that we had practiced a ton when we were younger. You see, we would battle imaginary pokemon back when we were young, and so we had habits that came from battling imaginary pokemon constantly, I think we pretty much did it every day for five years. I would usually have a tyrogue, and she would always use a totodile.
"Toady, use water gun!" Auburn commanded. 'Toady' turned around and shot a weak water gun at Auburn. Xena and I laughed. Auburn facepalmed. "Wrong way Toady." She said that like it happens every day. Poor Auburn. 'Toady' turned towards Xena and shot a more powerful stream of water. Xena sidestepped, thus avoiding the stream of water, then she shot a thundershock at the water, causing to electrocute 'Toady'. His body moved in a seizure-like fashion. He fell to the ground, and before Auburn could give another command Xena ran up to 'Toady', and punched him with a fist of electricity. So that's what thunderpunch looks like. That's pretty cool. He was knocked backwards several feet. Auburn used a pokeball to call Toady back and quickly sent out her next pokemon. It was a gastly. "You know that you're supposed to do something, right?" Xena turned to me.
"Oh, are you supposed to give me commands like she's doing? Sorry, I thought I was just supposed to beat up her pokemon. Okay, ready and waiting for orders teammate," Xena said. Next Auburn sent out a gastly.
"Gago use, wait, what moves do you know?" Auburn said. If "Gago" could have facepalmed he would have. Gago? What a stupid name.
"Xena, use thundershock, and follow it up with thunderpunch!" I said. Xena used thundershock on Gago, who couldn't react quickly enough to dodge it, then she followed up by punching him with a fist of thunder. He was sent spiralling into the air. Auburn recalled him too.
"Well, that's all of my pokemon, great job," Auburn said.
"So that's the skill that comes from a year of training?" I asked Auburn.
"A month, I was in the hospital for around eleven months," Auburn explained.
"Why were you in the hospital for so long?" Xena asked.
"I was in a coma," Auburn said.
"What caused the coma?" I asked.
"A miltank fell on my head," Auburn said.
"A miltank fell on your head?" Xena asked.
"Yeah, true story. Well, I have to go get Toady and Gago to a pokemon center, see you later!" Auburn said before walking in the opposite direction that Xena and I were walking in before she stopped us.
"Thank goodness she isn't running this time," Xena said when Auburn was out of hearing range. I laughed.
"Yeah, hopefully she's smart enough to not make that mistake twice," I said. Xena laughed. We continued our walk to Violet City, hand in hand.
Smoke and fire filled the air. Shouts of screaming civilians could be heard, if fact, they couldn't be not heard. Even if you were outside of town you could still hear them screaming. The Bellsprout Tower was being eaten alive by flames. The citizens were running frantically, to where, not even they knew, but to stop running one would have to think, and the last thing you want to do while people are burning to death is to think. At least no one gave Xena and I any odd glances. The thing is, we were in the Bellsprout Tower. We were on the top floor when the tower began to burn, and we were on the seventh floor when we got separated. Auburn was in the tower, and I was running alongside Xena before she grabbed me and dragged me into the mob of people trying to get out of the building. I couldn't see Xena, and I tried to get out of the mob, but the force of the people moving forward, especially Auburn's dragging me kept me moving with them. We quickly descended the stairs, and got to the door leading out of the tower relatively quickly. Auburn tried to pull me out of the door, but at this point I was able to resist the force of her pulling.
"What the heck are you doing?" She screamed at me. I shook my arm so that her hand no longer gripped my hand.
"Xena's still in the tower, and I'm not leaving without her!" I yelled before running back into the depths of the burning building. The wooden stairs sometimes snapped behind me as I ran up them to find Xena, making me wonder how I could make it out again.
I found Xena on the fourth floor, she was sitting in a corner of the room, tears steaming down her face. Flames were creeping towards her, destroying wood in the process. Without saying anything I began to walk over to her, but before I could reach her I heard I sound coming from above me. I looked up and saw a burning plank of wood falling towards me. Then everything went dark.
"In other news today it seems that the Bellsprout Tower has burned down. Police have reported that they are still searching for the cause of the fire, but we do know that it started on the top floor. If anyone has any leads as to what may have caused the fire, please contanct the police. We are happy to report that thought there is five trainers and two pokemon in the hospital, there was not any deaths. This is Kathleen Roberts, if there's news to be reported, you know that I'll be the one reporting it." The television above my hospital bed turned black. My left leg hurt like I had never thought that it could hurt before, and there must have been some burns on my neck, because it felt like there was.
"So, do you know why I'm still alive?" I asked the nurse who had shut the television off. The room I was in was surprisingly white themed, or, at least, it would be surprising if I wasn't in a hospital. The nurse was wearing white sneakers, and a light pink dress with a white apron on top of it. She also had pink hair, and was wearing a white hat with a red plus symbol on it. She turned towards me and looked at me in a sympathetic way. I guess she felt sorry for me, that I was in the fire and all.
"You are very lucky to have such a loyal pokemon. It-" the nurse started.
"She," I interrupted.
"She carried your unconscious body out of the tower before collapsing of exhaustion," the nurse explained.
"How is she?" I asked worriedly.
"Why don't you see for yourself?" The nurse asked. Before I could ask what she meant the door to my hospital room opened at Xena walked in. She seemed to be limping, and had some burns on her skin, but otherwise she seemed healthy.
"Thank you so much for saving my life," I said.
"Thank you for coming back for me," she said. She gave me a light hug so that she wouldn't aggravate my injuries. It was undoubtedly the best hug of my life.
Unlikely, yet true,
the story of these two.
Both saved by one another,
in both literal and mental aspects.
Sometimes we all just need someone to be our hero,
and sometimes we just need a chance,
to rise up and show how great we can be.
Soul: Any questions on what happened after that? Don't worry about it, this story'll have a second chapter, eventually. This chapter was written by Eve, Dess, Amber, Misery, and me (mostly me). Dess wrote the poem at the end, Misery gave us all of the complex information we needed, and Dess and Eve helped write some parts of the story.