Chapter 4: Allies and Rivals

Ivy

Ivy pedaled down the road that led to Virdian City. She had just left Pallet Town, though she had reluctantly stayed since after she got her Charmander it would have been night time soon. So she started off on her real journey the next day with her trusty Charmander by her side. Well, maybe "trusty" wasn't exactly the right word, but it at least stayed with her, even if it had a bit of an attitude.

While going down the road she saw a pond out of the corner of her eye. She smiled slightly and turned off the road and down towards the pond. She rested the bike against a tree and brought Charmander out of the basket that it had been resting in. She had decided to keep it out of its Pokeball so that she could, hopefully, get it to trust her more. At least it listened to her. Sort of.

"Here we go," She set Charmander on the ground. It looked around curiously as she sat down at the edge of the pond.

She half turned to face it and said, "Come on, Charmander, sit by me."

Charmander gave her a weary look before moving over. It sat down by her, with a few feet in between. She sighed and said, "Seriously, Charmander, I'm not going to bite."

This didn't seem to help since it let out another ember attack at her, but aimed wrong and it hit to the side of her. She let out a sigh of relief and said, "I wish you would stop doing that." It only gave her a glare this time, thankfully.

As she sat there, she stared out at the blue waters that reflected the sky. She smiled as she tipped her head back and felt the wind rustle her brown hair. Her hair only fell to her shoulders, so at least it wouldn't get too messed up in the wind. Her bangs were a different story, however.

I can't look perfect all the time on my journey, I have to remember that, She told herself.

Then, suddenly, she heard something moving in the water. She straightened up and looked over at the pond as she saw a Poliwag popping up and down in the water, disappearing for a second as it went below the surface and then reappearing again this time above.

"A Poliwag," She murmured, reaching for her Pokedex as she scanned the Pokemon.

"Poliwag, the Tadpole Pokemon," Dexter explained, "Its skin is so thin, its internal organs are visible. It has trouble walking on its newly grown feet."

Her nose scrunched up at the explanation as she looked at Poliwag thinking, Internal organs are…visible? Thanks, I really needed to know that…

"Well, a Pokemon is a Pokemon," She said as she stood up, "Alright, Charmander, let's catch it!"

It yawned and stayed sitting on the ground.

"Come on, Charmander!" She exclaimed, "Let's show this thing what we're made of!"

Charmander gave her a look but reluctantly got up. She smiled and pointed at the Poliwag and said, "Alright, Charmander, use ember!"

As the flames traveled from Charmander to the Poliwag, she felt confident that she would be able to show this Poliwag what she was made of. However, she didn't expect it to dive under water almost immediately as she called out the attack.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, her hand tightening around the Pokeball she had been planning to catch it with, "That's cheating!"

Right as she said that, though, the Poliwag jumped above the surface and let out a water gun attack. Charmander ducked, hoping not to get sprayed, but the attack instead hit Ivy right in the face. Before she could do anything, the Poliwag dove back into the water, leaving her soaking wet.

Thanks for the bath…

"That's no way to catch a Pokemon."

She whipped around when she heard the voice, expecting to see that kid, Alex, but instead seeing someone else. It was a boy that looked about the same age as her. He had brown hair and rectangular glasses that were held over his dark gray eyes. He crossed his arms before bringing one hand up to adjust the position of his glasses, causing them to reflect sun and blocking out his eyes from her point of view. His eyes then reappeared from behind his glasses as he moved closer, his hands dropping to his sides.

"Yeah? Says who?" She snapped at him.

"Says everyone," He examined her once before saying, "You're not much of a trainer from the looks of it."

"I'm a fine trainer!" She exclaimed.

"Then how come your Pokemon is wandering around outside of its Pokeball?" He pointed to Charmander, "You clearly can't tame it, I have no idea why Professor Oak would give you a Pokemon."

She gritted her teeth and snapped, "I can take care of my Pokemon just fine! I've just been spending time with it."

"If that's what you want to call it," He responded, giving her a flat look.

"How do you know I got Charmander from Professor Oak anyways?" She demanded, crossing her arms defiantly.

He raised his eyebrows and said, "Where do most beginning trainers get Charmanders? Anyways, I got my Bulbasaur from him this morning and noticed the other two Pokemon were gone already. No problem though, I wanted a Bulbasaur anyways."

"A…Bulbasaur?"

"Yep," He took out the Pokeball and released his Bulbasaur. It looked up at Ivy with distaste. Before she could even stop it, it took out its vines again and slammed them against her legs. She let out a yelp and fell the ground again.

"Ugh, thanks a lot!" She snapped, glaring up at Bulbasaur and the kid from the ground.

"Sorry…." He waited for a name.

"Ivy."

"Ivy. I'm Jay, by the way, but it's not my problem Bulbasaur hates you."

"It's your Pokemon!" She snapped.

"So?" Now he was starting to lose his temper.

"So you should learn how to control it!"

"Maybe you should start learning how to control your own!"

"Yeah? Well why don't you stuff it!"

"Why don't you stuff it!"

As the two trainers argued, though, the two Pokemon watched the exchange. Charmander looked down and over to Bulbasaur. The Bulbasaur gave it a cocky grin and taunted it by sticking its tongue out at Charmander. Charmander, deeply insulted, ran towards it for a scratch attack. The Bulbasaur dodged though and started to run away from the quarreling trainers. Charmander ran after it, out running it so that it stood in front of the Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur growled then and sent a vine whip attack right towards Charmander. Charmander, though, jumped to get out of the way, but as it did so, the vines smashed down onto the bike.

"My bike!" Ivy screeched. No, it's Misty's bike…Oh no!

Charmander took no notice as it went behind Bulbasaur and sent an ember attack its way. But Bulbasaur dodged and the attack went straight towards the bike, destroying it even further.

"Return, Bulbasaur!" Jay said then, returning Bulbasaur to its Pokeball.

"Return!" Ivy commanded and this time Charmander actually complied to what she ordered. She then ran over to the barbequed bike, giving it one look before turning to Jay and yelling, "This is all your fault!"

"My fault?" He cried indigenously, "It's your fault, you were the one that got our Pokemon all riled up!"

"Your Bulbasaur smashed it with its vine whip!"

"Your Charmander burnt it with its ember!"

The two glared at each other for a few seconds before Jay turned his back and said, "This is useless. I'm leaving before more damage is done."

"No way," She followed him, "You're going to repay me for that bike."

"Repay you?"

"That's right."

He glared at her from behind his glasses before finally breaking with a sigh as he said, "Well, I suppose mentoring a complete novice could do me some good."

"What did you say?"

"Come on," He ignored her comment as he walked off, "Viridian City isn't far off."

…

A/N: And another girl's bike is destroyed…haha. Now things will start to get interesting, so keep reading!