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"A New Joy"
Part 1: "Sara"
Cerulean City.
I gazed out the window of the pokemon center at the bright blue-shaded city which had once been my home. Things were so different now... I was no longer the gym leader, no longer full of myself, no longer ignorant. I had changed inside... but the city was still the same, in a way, as if it hadn't changed at all, for all the years I had been away.
I glanced behind my shoulder at Gary and Ash, who sat in the center of a sitting pit in the floor, arguing about whether they'd just leave me and Brock here and go to the Unknown Dungeon alone. Suppressing a chuckle, I couldn't help but wonder what had made them become friends again, after so many years of hatred. Yet.. there seemed something more than friendship. They acted strange sometimes, as if they had a secret they didn't want to tell me.
Looking at Ash, I remembered the first time I had seen him. He had been a bit of a fool, new to pokemon training. Originally, I had come along with him because he owed me something, but now, it was a friendship. True friendship. And now, he was the Pokemon Master, having defeated Gary at Indigo Plateau. But what had I become? Nothing of importance.
From off to the side, I heard a voice. "Next patient, please," it said, sounding as if the cheeriness in the voice of the person was forced, rather than genuine. I turned around and nodded to my Golduck, who followed me up to the counter.
"He was poisoned," I explained to the nurse who stood there. I couldn't see her face clearly... she held her head down, as if she didn't want anyone to see her expression. Her long magenta-coloured bangs hid most of her face, and the rest was pulled back into two loops behind her head.
"We were fighting a high-level Gloom, and-"
"Fine, fine," she muttered, waving her hand. "I'll give him some antidote and some other stuff, he'll be fine."
I glanced at her name tag. Like all the others, it read "Joy". Somehow, this Joy wasn't really joyful.
I followed Joy into the back room, a dull, metallic-looking room where she ordered my Golduck to sit down while she injected some antidote into his blood. The whole room gave off a cold feeling, just like her, though it probably wasn't on purpose. There was a shelf full of medicines on one side of the room, and a low examination table where my pokemon now sat. I leaned against the table and watched her closely. She did her tasks with a cool air about her, as if she didn't really care whether they got done or not, just as long as the ones she finished were finished properly. Still... there was something about her. She knew what she was doing.
"You do good work," I murmured, trying to encourage conversation.
"Thanks." She muttered stiffly. "I appreciate it."
When she looked up at me, I finally got a good look at her. She wasn't much older than me, strangely enough. All the other nurses I had seen on my travels had been in their mid-twenties, like Brock. But this Joy.. she couldn't have been older than fifteen, at the very most.
"You're younger than most of the Pokecenter nurses," I remarked.
"I'm just starting out. As an apprentice, kind of." her voice was flat, cold. "But I do all the work around here. The other nurse, my sister.. she was here before me, and now she leaves me to tend to the patients while she goes out and goofs off." She frowned, and tried to busy herself with applying gauze to one of my Golduck's wounds. "I really never wanted to be a nurse at all... I wanted to be a pokemon trainer."
"Really?" I asked, mystified. I had always thought that the Joys did their jobs because they wanted to take care of pokemon. It had never occurred to me that some might want something else.
"Yeah." She narrowed her eyes, and her voice developed a bitter tone. "But I can't. My family... the adults always made it clear that they wanted every girl in the family to be a pokemon center nurse, no matter what." she sighed. "It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have to dress the same, look the same, talk the same... use the same name..." Frustrated, she ripped the name tag off her dress and threw it in the corner of the room. "I hate this. I was never meant for this... I like pokemon, but I want to train them. When I work in this center, it feels like I'm one of those people who work for the SPCP. I want a pokemon of my own.. one that can love me, and be my friend, not just a patient." She closed her eyes tightly, and turned her head away from me. "Sorry." she muttered. "I just..."
"That's okay..." I said softly. "I know how you feel... sort of."
"How? You've never been pressured like this.. everyone wants me to be perfect, to be a Joy.."
"I don't know what that's like, but.." I stepped up to her and put my hand on her shoulder, hoping it would bring some comfort. "I used to be the leader of the pokemon gym, here in Cerulean City. I didn't really want the responsibility, though. I wanted to train pokemon, not bother with inexperienced trainers.... so I left."
"Just like that? You left just like that?" Joy turned to look at me, her dark eyes seeming to light up at the thought.
"Yeah," I replied, nodding. "I decided I'd do what I wanted to do, and not what someone else expected of me." I paused, thinking for a moment. "Haven't you ever thought of just doing what you want?"
She stared at me for a moment, silent. "No." she whispered. "I haven't."
"I think it's about time you did." Suddenly, a thought popped into my head. "You said you wanted to be a pokemon trainer. Why don't you come with me and my friends? We're probably only stopping for the night... we'll be gone in the morning, and nobody will be able to come after you..."
I saw her hesitate. She looked away, thinking. "I..."
"If you don't want to, that's all right." I said softly.
"No." she whispered, inhaling deeply. "I'll go with you. I'll never get another chance.... If I don't take this one, I'll never get out of here. But..."
"Yeah?"
"Don't you... need a license to be a pokemon trainer? Not to mention a pokemon..."
I smiled slightly. "Hey, don't worry about the license. We'll head down to Pallet and get you one there... Ash and Gary were planning to go down there anyway, so it's not like you're going to be causing us any problems. As for a pokemon....." I thought for a moment. "I have an idea."
I turned on the PC, and accessed my pokemon storage. "Let's see now.... what kind of pokemon do you like?"
Joy looked over my shoulder at the screen. "You're not going to give me one of your pokemon, are you?" she whispered. "I mean.."
"Hey, it's not a problem. I have too many anyway.. they probably get bored, not being trained..."
She blinked, in almost disbelief. "Thank you..."
"So, what kind of pokemon do you want?"
"Hmm." she mused. "I've always liked water pokemon.. they're powerful, but cute... yeah, that's it. A water pokemon."
I grinned. "Awesome. Water pokemon are my specialty... let's see now..." I scanned the lists of my pokemon, looking for the right one. And then, I spotted it. Perfect, I thought.
"All right, here he is.." I said as the pokeball popped out of the slot. I handed it to Joy, grinning. "Seadra. Level thirty five. He's kind of a jerk a times, but I think you'll be able to set him straight."
She stared at the pokeball in her hands, eyes glittering with happiness. She looked up at me, and for the first time today, she smiled a real smile. "I just can't believe this is really happening." she whispered.
"Believe it." I replied, turning off the PC. "We're leaving tomorrow." After a moment of thought, I realized something. "Joy?" I asked, turning to her. "What's your real name?"
"Sara." she replied, voice small.
"I'm Misty." I said. It was then that I realized I had found an unexpected friend. The thought hit me in a wave of emotion, and I smiled. Perhaps change was a good thing, after all.....
Author's notes: and so ends part 1. This is still in the rough draft, and I'll probably edit it some more and then re-upload it again after I get part 2 up. As I said before, there's no yuri in this one YET, but there will be as the story goes on. so beware......=) I'm willing to accept any comments/flames ye have... Oh, and in case you were wondering, SPCP stands for "Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Pokemon". it's like the SPCA.=)