Ch. 1: Abandoned but not alone
"Go, Crystal!" She appeared suddenly in a grassy field. Standing opposite of her was an Ivysaur, standing ready to battle. Her ears went flat against her head. This was going to be a hard battle. She didn't think she could win.
"Scratch attack now!" She heard her trainer, Jared, yell to her. "Ivysaur, Vine Whip!" his opponent commanded.
Pushing her doubt aside she leapt forward and charged at Ivysaur. It tried to hit her, but she was much faster. She jumped at its face and scratched it repeatedly.
"Ivyyyyyyysauuuuur!" her opponent growled. "Meeeeeeooooowwww!" Oh great, now it's mad! She exclaimed. The Ivysaur used its Vine Whip, and this time Crystal wasn't fast enough to dodge it. She crouched on the ground, the Vine Whip hitting her repeatedly. Suddenly it stopped and she looked up in time to see Ivysaur charging at her. She was flung several feet and landed hard.
"Crystal, don't just lie there! Use Scratch again!" Jared yelled impatiently. She tried to get up again and managed to swipe a few times at the Ivysaur, but it used its Tackle again, and this time she couldn't get back to her feet.
"Yeah! A victory for me!" Jared's opponent said happily, thrusting one fist in the air. Jared sighed, annoyed. "Return, Crystal." He grumbled. After she disappeared, he looked at the Pokéball with disgust. Adam, his best friend and now opponent, walked over to him with a grin on his face. "Some Pokémon you got there!" He joked. "Where did you catch that thing? I'll make a mental note not to get any Pokémon from there!" he laughed.
Jared glared at him, "I didn't catch her. My friend at the Breeding Center gave her to me." They walked to the Pokémon Center and healed their Pokémon. "Well, I have to go get some Great Balls from the Pokémart. I'll meet you outside of town," Adam said. Jared nodded and started off. After a few minutes of contemplation, he walked deep into the forest, away from the trail. He pulled out Crystal's Pokéball and called her out. The Meowth looked around, thinking she was going to be in another battle. No one was there. She looked up at Jared questioningly. The way he was looking at her made her feel kind of guilty, though she didn't know why she should be.
"I don't train worthless Pokémon like you – I train strong Pokémon that can actually win. Fend for yourself from now on. You're worthless," He said harshly, turning and walking away.
"Meeoww! Meeoooooowwwwthhh!" Please don't leave me, Jared! I tried to win, really I did! She yelled after him, running to catch up. He turned and threw a rock at her, but she dodged, her eyes wet with unshed tears, and took a few tentative steps forward. He pulled out a Pokéball and she stopped. Was he recalling her?
"Onix, go!"
"Ghooooooooooorrllllll! The huge rock snake appeared, suddenly charging towards her. She shrieked and ran as fast as she could, finally stopping when she was too exhausted to go any further. She lay there panting, winded and now utterly lost. Why had Jared done this to her? She had tried her hardest to win. All Pokémon were strong deep inside, they just needed trainers that could bring that strength to the surface. Maybe she wasn't as powerful as his Onix, but she was still strong and faster than most of his other Pokémon. Crystal lay there for a while, long after sunset, then slowly got back on her paws and found a sheltered place to lie down. Someday she'd find a way to show him just how strong she was. But now it was time to rest.
***
The next morning when she awoke, she was hungry. Not extremely so, but she would need to find food soon. The little Meowth walked for hours in the direction she thought would lead to the road, but just ended up going deeper into the forest. She sighed and went over to a small pool of water to get a drink, glancing up after a second to see several Pidgey fly above her. In a second they were gone again. I wish I could fly. Then I'd be able to find my way out of here, she thought.
"Rrrrrraaaaaataaaataaah!" Hey! You! What are you doing
here?
She jumped in surprise and looked over to see two Ratatta nearby in the grass. Neither of them looked too happy.
"Me..meeeowwww," Um…, hi. She said, backing away. "Meow, meeeee…Meowth meow!" I'm ah… just passing through, so… please leave me alone! With that, she ran in the other direction as fast as possible. I'm not a coward. I was outnumbered. There's no way I could have defeated both of them! She thought. Then she stopped in the middle of a small clearing, her eyes watering, and lowered her head. No. I have to stop making excuses. I have to fight sometime, and running away is no way to learn how to win! I'm not supposed to be afraid of some scrawny wild rats. No wonder Jared abandoned me… I can't even stand up for myself! Her eyes began to water more.
"Dro! Drowwzzzeee-drowz?" Hey! What are you doing here?
a voice from behind her demanded. She whirled around, the fur on her back
standing straight up. This time she was going to fight it out! A Drowzee stood
behind her, scowling. "Drowzze-zeee! Drowzeee!" This is my clearing. Go find
your own!
She glared and closed her eyes tightly for a second, shedding her tears and talking on a very dangerous look. "Mew meeeowth!" Make me! She roared, lunging at it. The Drowzee was caught completely off guard by her sudden attack and wasn't fast enough to react. She scratched it several times in the face and it backed away.
"Drowzee… Dro!" Now you asked for it! The Drowzee started waving its arms, "Drowzee… drrroooowwwwzzeee…..drrrrrrooooowwwwzeee.." You are getting sleepy. Sleeeeeepppppyyy…..sleeeeeeeeeepy…
Crystal closed her eyes tightly and covered her ears. The last thing she needed was to fall asleep! When the Drowzee suddenly paused, she leapt at it, scratching away. It didn't seem to do anything. Suddenly she got the urge to bite it. She recoiled. BITE IT? She shook her head and then decided to go with her instincts. She latched onto the Drowzee's arm and bit down hard. To her complete surprise, it fainted. She stared at it, dumbfounded, then felt excitement well up in her like nothing she'd ever experienced before. She'd won a battle!
***
It took Crystal quite a while to realize what had happened. Bite was a Dark-type attack, and Drowzee was a Psychic- type Pokémon. She knew that, but why she had learned the Bite attack, she didn't know. Maybe she had really known it all along and just hadn't used it. That was the only logical solution.
However it had happened, it was a good thing it did. Bite was a good attack, and she needed good attacks to get stronger. Right now, she was just overjoyed to have won a battle. As she walked, she became aware of a sound in the distance.
"Raaaaaaaaaaiiiii! Raaaiiiiii!"
Curious, she stalked towards the sound. Rounding a large tree, she spotted what was making the sound. A Raichu was in one of those odd net traps, high up in a tree. "Raaaaiiiiiiii… CHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" It shocked the net, but to no avail.
"Meooooow?" Hello? She called.
(From now on, the story will be fully dubbed into Pokémon language.)
The Raichu stopped and looked down. "Yeah? What?" he asked.
"I ah… heard you yelling. Do you want some help?"
"No. I don't need any help. I can get down on my own." He replied.
"Oh, well then if you're going to act so independent, then I guess I'll just be on my way." She said irritably. To think she was actually going to try and help him! If he was going to be so ungrateful as to –
"Um, wait! Wait, uh, Meowth! Wait!" the Raichu called. She turned around and looked up at him impatiently. "What?" She asked.
The Raichu sighed. "I guess I could use some help. Could you maybe untie that over there?" He pointed to a rope that held the net up, tied to a stump that was almost hidden in the grass.
"Well… I can't untie it, but… maybe I can chew through it," She said, scampering over to the rope and biting down hard. It was thick and it hurt her jaws, but she wasn't about to give up. She chewed on it for several minutes, her mouth aching, but eventually she got through it and the net came crashing to the ground.
"Oh, sorry!" She said, running over to the net to see if he was all right.
"That's no problem," The Raichu replied, rubbing his head, "Thanks for getting me down, anyway…" their conversation stopped suddenly when they heard voices from down the trail. They rushed into the trees and watched as two humans came to check the trap. After looking it over and cursing to themselves, they continued walking in the direction Crystal had just come from. The Meowth sighed and stepped out of the bushes. Raichu smiled and extended one paw to her, "My name's Pulsar."
"I'm Crystal," she replied. "So what are you doing out here? I mean, wild Raichu aren't exactly a common occurrence…"
"I'm not really wild," Pulsar replied, "I ran away from my trainer." Crystal looked shocked. "You what? Why?" She asked.
Pulsar's ears went back, as if he was thinking of something upsetting. "He caught me as a Pikachu a few months ago. No – actually I followed him as a Pikachu. He looked like a strong trainer so I went with him. Big mistake," he said angrily.
"He wasn't a good trainer?" Crystal asked.
"Oh, he was. Too good," Pulsar looked almost sad, "He trained me constantly. I was always tired. Even though he was a good trainer, he didn't care about me. All he cared about was winning. Then he used a Thunderstone on me and evolved me when I couldn't win against this Psychic-type Gym leader. After I did manage to win, I ran away. That was almost a month ago, now. I've been on my own ever since. I like it this way." He looked Crystal over, "You don't look like a wild Pokemon. Are you?"
"No," she said. "My trainer abandoned me because I was too weak to win. He never even bothered to train me – just sent me into battle a few times and when I lost he ditched me," She dropped her gaze to the ground, "I guess he's not the only human that doesn't know what it really means to be a trainer."
"Guess not…" Pulsar looked down the trail, "So… how about coming along with me? There's strength in numbers, and if you want I could teach you some things about battling." Crystal's eyes widened. "Really? You would do that? Oh wow! Thanks, Pulsar!" she jumped up and down excitedly. "So, where do we start?"
"Hey look! That must be what got out of the net!"
"It's that Raichu again!"
"Get it!"
Pulsar looked at the approaching humans wide-eyed. "We start by running!" he replied, turning down the trail. "C'mon, Crystal! I know where we can go!" he called over his shoulder. She followed along behind as best she could, but Pulsar was an evolved Pokémon, and very fast. Suddenly a net appeared in front of her and she was swept off the ground. A butterfly net. How original.
"Hey! Let me go! Pulsar! Hey Pulsar!" She couldn't see him anywhere.
"Well, we at least got one Pokémon. Think maybe someone would want to buy her?" one of the humans asked.
"Hell yeah. Look at 'er. She'd make a great pet fer one o' them rich people," the other replied.
"RAI!" The two humans spun around.
"Try this on for size! RAAAAAAIIIICHHHHHUUUUU!" Pulsar's Thunderbolt fried the two humans, but luckily for Crystal the net she was in was designed to catch Pulsar, and therefore was made of rubber.
The net dropped to the ground and she crawled out and walked over to Pulsar.
"Thanks!" She said.
"Just returning the favor. Now let's get out of here. I know where we can get some food," he replied.
(End Note: Neither of them knew exactly what they had started, but from then on others would join up with them, too. If you'd like to join an RPG about this story, e-mail me at Mew_@thepokemasters.com with a detailed description of the past and personality of the Pokémon you wish to play. Your character might also show up in the story later on. No really powerful Pokémon, please, or any made up ones. Thanks! -Darkelf)
