A/N: First, I want to say, this prompt was freaking hard. Partly because she's not a very spiritual person, which requires getting a bit creative with the Soul prompt, but mostly because Carissa's a freaking ditz. No seriously, she's like Buffy before the ex-cheerleader got serious about slaying, except worse, because at least Buffy had something to do with herself and goals. Carissa? Not so much. Hopefully I can start working in the character development soon…the next prompt is Devotion…
Leaving Carissa's hometown of Pallet for Viridian City was more exciting than she ever wanted to admit to. She had, of course, been to Viridian before, but she had always gone on the main road by car, or occasionally bus. Now she was walking along Route 1, one of the "trainer trails."
Beside her was her Doduo. Who she still hadn't nicknamed. She was a bit confused on whether she should name each head or what. There was the whole identical brains thing, but she also knew they acted independently.
And wasn't that a shocker. She had settled down to sleep with Doduo next to her, a nice little warm ball of feathery fluff. Then something woke her up—she wasn't sure what, probably just a Pokemon in the bushes—and there was her Doduo, one head tucked next to his body, the other wide awake and looking around alertly. Then, to her complete amazement, the sleeping head woke up and the awake head settled down next to his body to sleep.
And yes, she knew it was male. It had dark necks, a sign of the male of the species. She knew she could be a little oblivious, but she wasn't stupid, no matter what that trainer she battled earlier thought.
But back to the road. She was on her way to Viridian, but she wouldn't be staying too long. Maybe long enough to find a female Nidoran. It wasn't like she could challenge the gym; Giovanni still refused to take challengers with less than seven badges.
But what was she going to do afterwards? Go to Pewter City and challenge Brock? Do the whole gym circuit thing? She supposed it could be fun, but thinking about doing only that left her with a hollow feeling.
She wondered if that was what Mia had always meant by "knowing." Mia had always described it as a soul-deep knowledge that you could or couldn't do something, or that you should or shouldn't. Did that hollow feeling mean she should find another goal? Certainly it seemed like everyone and their Charmander took that route, and she didn't want to walk in everyone else's footsteps. She wanted to do something fun. Different.
Still a badge wasn't a bad goal to go for. At least until she figured stuff out.
The tricky thing was, there wasn't too many things she could do to still qualify as a "trainer" and keep her license. Gather badges, gather ribbons, become a Ranger, or join the League and train to become an Ace. Nothing super exciting.
Maybe she should focus on what Pokemon she wanted to catch. Clearly a female Nidoran, because she wanted a Nidoqueen, and maybe somehow get a Lapras? They were so rare, but she would love to have one and just sail around the sea for days and days. And maybe a Scyther…
She felt a little less hollow at least…
Finally she sighed. She could figure it out later. Right now, though, she was going to keep walking along.
After another half hour of walking, she was becoming bored. Far more so than she thought. Where were all the trainers to battle? All the wild Pokemon? Surely they didn't all hang around in the tall grass, avoiding the road?
Not that battling wild Pokemon was really fun. She didn't want to catch any of them, so Doduo was pretty much just grinding up experience right now, and most of the competition was now seriously underleveled. But it would break up the monotony, which she would be forever grateful for.
So a few minutes later, when she saw a ten year old hanging around the trail, she actually squealed in delight. The boy looked up, eyes wide with alarm, and instinctively took a step back.
"Nope!" she crowed happily. "Too late! Our eyes met!" Finally, another battle! She was so bored. The kid just groaned.
"Come on, this isn't fair," he protested. "I just started last week!"
"That's great, so did I!"
The kid blinked. "Really?" He grinned. "Alright then, one-on-one?"
She pushed the bad joke that immediately sprang to mind into a corner and nodded. "Doduo, you ready?" The bird squawked.
"Come on out, Charmander!"
Of course. A kid with a lab starter, not really surprising, but did it have to be Charmander? Everyone chose Charmander. Why not Squirtle for once, or Bulbasaur? But she refrained from whining, snorted at him, and said, "Doduo, Quick Attack."
"Scratch!"
Despite knowing her Doduo could probably dodge, she didn't order him to. She felt bad about her starter taking damage that could have been avoided, yeah, but she also knew she would feel worse if the kid ended up crying because she crushed him without taking said damage. Never let it be said she's heartless.
"Peck."
Both heads immediately sprang into action, and the Charmander was hard pressed to defend itself. Finally it spat a mouthful of flames out, singing Doduo's feathers in the process, and the bird backed off, hissing in alarm. Carissa frowned; that wasn't supposed to happen. She had thought it would be too weak to have a good grasp on that attack, since the pair had only been training a week. Unless the kid was like her and battled anything that moved.
"Keep using Peck, Doduo!" she yelled.
From there, it didn't take very long. Even if the kid and his Charmander had trained extensively, Doduo had the height advantage and Carissa, while not the smartest crayon in the box, was certainly sharper than a ten year old, and was able to come up with some decent tactics.
The boy grumbled as he handed over half his cash.
"Thank you," she said. "It really was a good try," she added sincerely.
The boy looked slightly shocked, like he'd expected her to gloat and move on. She held back a snort; she was shallow, but not that bitchy. "Thanks," he muttered.
"Well, thanks for the battle. See you around!" The boy nodded and stepped away into the tall grass. Carissa brushed a hand over Doduo's heads gently, looking for any sign of serious injury, and then sprayed him over with a potion. "Come on, Doduo," she murmured gently. "Viridian's waiting for us."