The 16 year old girl laid spread eagled on her back amongst the weeds in the field along route two as she panted trying to catch her breath. Her fair skin glistening with sweat in the harsh sunlight as her jeans clung tightly to her legs with perspiration. How long have I been walking? Days? Weeks?
"Two hours." Emily muttered to herself with a frown after lifting her arm over her face to check the time on her PokeNav. "No, mom, I don't want to work in your air conditioned restaurant anymore; I want to go on an adventure!" Emily rolled her bright green eyes making a "psh" sound. She checked her PokeNav again as she scanned over her trainer I.D. trying reignite the excitement she had felt just days before.
"You're finally doing it! You're living your dream!" She told herself while sitting up and reaching for another water bottle in her pack before quickly sucking it down. "Yeah, my childhood dream."
Emily usually found herself hanging out with the Professor and his assistants while pouring over research and reading books. Pokemon were fascinating. Where did they come from? What made them tick? Why do we battle with them? How does a potion work? Why do antidotes work on Pokemon and not people?
"You know, you can't learn everything from a book. It's not too late..." He had said to her two weeks previously. Emily had all but given up on her dream of traveling when she had fallen ill as a child. The Professor had told her all kinds of stories about what was out there outside of Pallet Town and Emily had always eaten it up. Suddenly the fire inside her was lit once again and to commemorate, she had chosen a Charmander as her starter. (Only because Bulbasaur was gone.) It's not like she was sick anymore.
To say her mother was displeased of her suddenly up and leaving was the understatement of the century, but her mother always babied her. Not to mention she was losing her free labor.
"You had never put up this much of a fight with Ash…" She had said. "And he was only ten!"
"Ash didn't grow up under the same circumstances you did either." Delia had argued back. After being pestered from, well, everyone Delia had no choice but to let Emily go. After all, her circumstances were no longer an issue. So a week and a half later Emily was packed and ready to go.
It was a huge relief she was on good terms with the Pokemon Professor when she "accidently" broke her packs sensor taking it apart to learn how it worked. Seeing as how one of the women who practically raised her was his granddaughter, Daisy Oak, the old man hooked her up with a new one. Why she always insisted everyone call her Rachel instead was anyone's guess. All Emily knew was that the name change annoyed the old man, but Emily figured if she too was named "Daisy" she'd probably change it as well. Emily also knew it annoyed him when she referred to him as "great grandpa" so she called him that any chance she got just to pick on him. What really drove everyone crazy was when Emily referred to her mom and Rachel as her "moms" making it sound like they were a couple of lesbians. That one never got old, she thought with a hint of a smile. She knew Rachel only lived with them because she couldn't afford to live on her own after her hair salon went under, so Delia Ketchum had invited her to live with them until she got back on her feet.
That was before Emily had gotten sick though, or was it after, she couldn't remember. It was a long time ago and Emily's memory had always been a bit fuzzy since then. Apparently Rachel's true calling was nursing since she had practically raised Emily from the dead, or so she said. Emily had always rolled her eyes at that one, but she couldn't help but notice in the pictures of her as a kid, she had indeed looked terrible. She was severely underweight, ghostly pale, and worst of all...incontinent. Emily shuddered at the thought. Glad that's behind me. Apparently changing a ten year olds diapers had earned Rachel a "Lifetime Favor Award" with Delia and she had been living with them ever since.
"I never did completely figure out how you work." Emily said to her pack that rested against the ledge where she decided to make camp. Science truly had come a long way. By utilizing the technology used in pokeballs, the same principle had been administered to her backpack enabling children the ability to store and carry up to 200 pounds of gear without breaking a sweat. Of course if you looked inside the pack, it would appear and feel empty. As soon as you placed an item inside, somehow it would seemingly disappear until you needed it. Emily was smarter than that though having studied under Professor Oak. It didn't really disappear, but rather, was broken down into data and stored into her PokeNav on her wrist. When the item was needed again, all she had to do was select it from the menu option on her PokeNav, open up her backpack, and there it was. Sure, she understood the concept, but what she really wanted was to know how to make one from scratch.
"He'd never forgive me if I broke this one too." She mumbled with a sigh flicking through her inventory to see how much supplies she had left: twenty seven bottles of water, twelve pokeballs, seven antidotes, ten potions, one sleeping bag, one tent, one portable commode, (no way was she squatting in a bush!) cooking supplies, toiletries, books and a weeks worth of food for herself and her pokemon. On the plus side of waiting tables since she could walk and talk, she had saved up plenty of money in tips as long as she had stayed away from Xanadu Nursery. If she wasn't at Professor Oak's; she was at the nursery buying plants to research. It really was a shame Kanto's volcanic soil couldn't sustain berry crops; buying imported goods all the time really put a strain on Emily's finances. Who knew dirt and seeds could be so expensive? She longed for the day she could make it to Johto and just pluck them right out of the ground.
"Guess I better get moving if I want to make it out of Viridian Forest by nightfall." She said checking her gps. According to her navigation system it should take three hours on foot to make it out of the forest. Knowing her though, it might take five. Even if she had the state of the art tracking system (thanks to Professor Oak who worried about her poor navigating skills) she'd still get lost. Or distracted by various things growing out of the ground. Or both.
After standing and brushing off debris from her clothing and hair, Emily grabbed her weightless pack and continued hiking along the path careful to avoid the patches of areas where wild Pokemon lurked. There were none she wanted to catch here anyway other than a Pidgy, which she had already caught yesterday. She looked forward to the day she could teach it to fly her from town to town so she wouldn't have to walk and that day couldn't come fast enough.
Emily froze as a sudden rusting in the grass alerted her to the possible threat. She swallowed nervously chanting silently in her head, "Please be a Pidgy or something." When a purple head popped out between the tall blades of grass, Emily's fight or flight reaction had her running for all she was worth for the entrance of the forest. Chicken! You can't just run away from every Rattata you see! "Watch me!" Emily argued with herself as she took off down the path.
"Hey, you, stop!" Emily heard as she halted her escape and turned her head to find a young boy with a net approaching her from out of the bushes. "I want a battle!" That sneaky little… She just had to go and make eye contact with him. "You must have tons of strong pokemon with you; you're so old!"
"Old? I'm only sixteen!" Emily said selecting her glasses as the boy did the same.
"Exactly! I'm only eight, I want to see your pokemon!" He said flipping through some invisible prompts in front of him with his fingers. "Let's do this!"
Emily sighed before slipping her glasses on as text appeared in front of her. Bug Catcher Joey wants to battle! She flipped through the prompt as a digitized battle field began to display before them. Trainers take your positions and choose your Pokemon.
"What do you identify as?" Joey asked. "It shows you just as Emily. Are you a Battle Girl? Aroma Lady? Lass?"
"Haven't set it up yet." Emily said as her three pokemon displayed in the bottom right side of her glasses. The middle screen in front of her displayed her menu with four commands. Fight and Item on the left; Pokemon and Run to the right. Emily selected her Pidgy and sent it out of it's ball.
"A level two Pidgy?" Joey said sounding disappointed. "That's what you have?" He asked pulling a ball from his belt and sending out a Caterpie. The green worm slithered around on the ground sizing up the Pidgy. The enemy pokemon's health and level was shown in the top of Emily's glasses as her own status was shown to the lower right. She selected the Fight icon as a list of her Pidgy's current moves were displayed along with it's PP.
"Caterpie, use String Shot!" Joey commanded as white silk shot from the worm pokemon's mouth and wrapped around the bird. Pidgy let out a hoot as it shook off the sticky looking tendrils.
"Pidgy, use Gust!" Emily said as the bird flapped it's wings sending a gust of air…completely missing the target by a mile. "You've got to be kidding." Emily mumbled. "That wasn't even a move that could effect accuracy!"
"It can if silk gets in it's eyes!" Joey shouted. "Caterpie, use Tackle" The green worm slithered toward the struggling bird as its suction cups for feet popped on and off the ground as it slowly gathered up speed before throwing its body into the brown bird. Emily watched as the green bar over her right corner slowly dipped as the numbers dropped down to zero.
Critical Hit! Pidgey has fainted. Please send out your next Pokemon.
"Now let's see what you really have!" Joey said as Emily released her Charmander. "Level…five… Are you serious?"
"I just started a few days ago!" Emily said. "I'm new to all this."
"But you're so old! What have you been doing all this time?"
"Research mostly." Emily mumbled not wanting to get into her past.
"Well research will only get you so far!" Joey said before ordering his Caterpie to attack once again. Minutes passed as the two trainers went back and forth before the Caterpie attacked from the right just as Charmander attempted a Scratch. "No, don't scratch him there!" Joey yelled, but it was too late. Charmander's claw came into contact with Caterpie's pink antenna as a wretched odor quickly filled the air.
"Ugh! What the hell!" Emily shouted covering her mouth and turning her head as breakfast threatened to make a reappearance.
"Caterpie's release a musk to fend off attackers when their antenna's are touched, but I bet you knew that-Oh-Wise-Researcher." Joey's now squeakier voice said through his plugged nose before ordering it to finish off her Charmander.
Charmander has fainted. Please send out your next Pokemon.
"Well that's it for me." Emily said admitting defeat, eager to get away from the smell. "What do I owe you? 80 yen?"
"It says you still have one more Pokemon." Joey said. "We're not done until I wipe out your entire team."
"But…I don't want to use her to battle. She's more of a pet. Can I just pay you before I throw up?" Emily asked but Joey refused. She tried to hit Escape but to no avail.
Cannot escape unless both parties agree.
"Fine." She grumbled holding up the Luxury Ball she had special ordered from Johto. "Sorry, Namine, rule are rules." She said before releasing what was inside.
"Aww, a level 1 Eevee. Does it know any moves?"
"She knows Growl and Whine." Emily said.
"What's Whine?"
"She does it when I'm not paying her enough attention, or I'm late feeding her. It's supper effective." Emily explained.
"Ah, well, look I'll even let you have a free shot." Joey said smirking.
"Get him, Namine!" Emily said as the Eevee remained motionless. "Namine?" She looked down to find the Eevee's fur sticking up in all directions as Joey and Emily watched motionless as it slowly tipped over.
"80 yen's fine." Joey said with a grimace as Emily called the petrified Eevee back into her ball.