Chapter 4: Viridian City
The young girl was standing in the field. She had brown eyes with a distinct lack of an iris. She couldn't remember where she was or even how she got there. All she could see was black.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" said the girl, no more then six, to the open field. The large, open plain did not respond, but she didn't know that. For all she knows, there was someone there, but they weren't responding to her. Just ignoring her... hating on her. Like all the big kids.
As she kept walking, the girl accidentally bumped into a tree, and began crying. She put her hands over the bump on her head and the tears began flowing downwards.
"Ow, it hurts!" cried out the girl in pain, and yet nobody came to her aide. Except for one – a Pokemon. It was large, green and had large scythes at the end of it's arms. It saw the girl and hovered over her. The girl, noticing that something had come towards her, stopped crying.
"Who is th-there?" the girl said, "Are you a bully? Are you mean?" The Pokemon responded with it's cry, and the girl knew who it was by the sound of it.
"Scyther..." she repeated, "...Nice to meet you Mr. Scyther, my name is Kelly." She raised her hand to meet the Pokemon's scythe, to which the Pokemon let her. And at that moment, all fear disappeared.
"You'll protect me, won't you?"
"What do you mean my Squirtle is low leveled?!" Luna yelled at Michael as he and her walked to the ever closer Viridian City, the first stop on their journey together. While Luna was ecstatic to go on the journey at first, after travelling with Michael for the past day, she realized that it may have been the biggest mistake of her life. Michael was a talker, and an annoying one at that. It didn't help that she felt he was a know it all.
"I mean your Squirtle needs quite a bit of training," Michael explained as Grimer trudged along beside him, "It's quite a good Squirtle but it only knows Tackle and Tail Whip. And it'll also need EV training-"
"Have you ever thought that I wanna raise the Pokemon the way I want too?" Luna yelled back. Michael attempted to stay calm, although this took some effort. "And what about the sludge following you? Put in a Poke Ball!"
"All I'm saying is that if you are going to become a strong trainer, you gotta raise strong Pokemon – and Grimer doesn't have a Poke Ball. He's just been my loyal companion for years." Grimer responded back with happiness.
"No wonder you seem to have a hard time making friends," Luna said back with sass. Michael's face turned red. Thankfully, it was around this time that they finally showed up at Viridian City.
Michael had never been in a city before. Throughout his life he lived in smaller towns, where he could name almost everyone who lived there by name and interacted with everyone there on a regular basis. Viridian City was a different beast entirely – it was much bigger, many more people in it then Pallet or Cinnabar. Michael's eyes lit up (to which Luna rolled her eyes) and ran into the city with Grimer, with Luna running closely behind them.
First thing they decided to do is drop off their Pokemon at the Pokemon Center. When they walked in, they headed over to the counter and are greeted by a pink haired nurse who gladly took their Pokemon. She told them to come back in a bit, as it will take time for the Pokemon to heal. Grimer also went with the Poke Balls, in order to both guard them and heal himself.
"Thank you for coming!" the nurse said as the Pokemon went into the back room with her. Luna yawned, stretching her arms while doing so.
"Well, we got all the time in the world," she said, "We can look around the city for a bit maybe." Luna started rubbing her hands together like she was planning something. "Maybe we could even challenge the gym leader here. I hear he is quite the challenge."
"The gym isn't open right now," a voice from the corner of the room said. Both Michael and Luna turned their heads to the voice, which came from a girl with a large Scyther next to her. Michael noticed her eyes and knew from the lack of iris this girl was likely blind. Her hair, which was of medium length, was also brown, albeit lighter then her eyes, glistened in the sun coming from the window. She wore a simple blue t-shirt with jeans, though Michael could not help but notice that they were somewhat tight fitting on her.
"And how do you know that?" Luna said with a sense of smugness to her, "For all I know they could still be open and you are just bitter that you lost!" Luna began walking out when the girl got up and grabbed her wrist. Luna stopped in her tracks and ripped her wrist from the girl's grip.
"I told you the gym is not open," the girl repeated in her serious, monotone voice, "Now please leave, you are bothering Scyther." Luna looked over at the giant green bug, which looked back at her with what seemed to be a scowl, at least what could be interpreted as scowl.
"...Fine." Luna, peeved, marched out. Michael reached out to stop Luna, but didn't catch.
"That girl has been nothing but trouble since I got here-" Michael was interrupted by the girl now pointing her finger in his face,
"Stay away from me and Scyther," she said, "Please and thank you." After that, the girl went back and sat down at her spot, with Scyther next to her. Michael, still slightly perturbed at what just happened, walked over to the nurse.,
"Hey, that girl over there," he asked the nurse politely, "What's up with her?" The nurse sighed motioned for him to come over in the other room. Michael followed her inside and the nurse put her hand on her forehead.
"That there is Kelly," the nurse explained to the curious Michael, "She's been living in Viridian her whole life, and well, she's never exactly had it easy here. You see, she's-"
"Blind?" Michael interrupted, knowing the answer, "I saw her eyes." The nurse seemed surprised but continued onward.
"Yeah, and because of that she has had a tough life. She really has had no friends over the years... the only one that really seems to like her company is that Scyther who watched over her after a car crash took her vision and killed her parents. Either way, it's incredibly loyal to her. You seem to have a similar bond with your Grimer." Grimer jumped up and down in joy.
"Yeah, but Grimer seems much more lively then the Scyther over there," Michael joked, to which the nurse smiled back.
"Kelly hangs around here a lot because she really has nowhere else to go. She's very cold but I personally think she's just lonely... but all she knows is loneliness, so she pushes people away so she can keep her own status quo."
"Lying brat," Luna mumbled to herself as she made her way through Viridian City, "She's just jealous that she isn't good enough for a stupid gym leader!" It was this moment that Luna realized she had no idea where the actual gym was, and that she wandered off for no reason.
"Oh yeah, the gym," Luna said to herself, "I should ask someone where it is... hey you!" Luna ran towards a kid, who looked about 10-years-old, with her hand waving in the air.
"Do you know where the gym is?" Luna asked politely to the youngster.
"Do you wanna know the difference between Caterpie and Weedle?" the youngster asked. Luna immediately got confused.
"What are you talking about?" Luna asked the boy, "What about Caterpie and Weedle?"
"Weedle has a poison sting!" the youngster said with enthusiasm. Luna, completely bewildered and confused, simply frowned and left the boy alone, who simply smiled back and watched her leave.
"Well that didn't help at all," she said to herself, "I still need to find the stupid gym-" As she looked in front of her, she noticed that she was in front of the gym herself.
"Huh, I knew that," she said to herself, almost having to reassure herself that she was in control of everything. Grabbing the handles, she attempted to open the large doors that made up the entranceway. However, she couldn't open it up as it was locked. Getting frustrated, Luna pulled harder and harder, shaking the doors to their limits and attempting to enter.
"What is this?" she said to the gym doors as she attempted to pull her way into the gym, "I have to beat the gym, I have to win, I have to... I have to..." Luna slowed down and stopped pulling on the door handles.
"That girl was right..." Luna said solemnly, "It isn't open..." Luna walked away with her head slumped down. Heading back to the Pokemon Center to find Michael, when she got there she found that Michael was no longer there, as well as that Scyther girl. Both had disappeared.
"Don't tell me that he ran off with her?" Luna said to herself before stomping out again. Looking around for Michael, she searched the city for him but there was no luck to be found. Most of the people in the city were no help repeating random phrases. She noticed the girl, along with her Scyther, who seemed unconscious, wandering off with a group of people.
Curious, Luna decided to follow them secretly, hoping that it would lead her to wherever Michael was. As she followed them, she noticed that the girl seemed to be struggling against her will, with one of the people, clearly a man grabbing her by the arm and almost dragging her. Luna's curiosity changed to concern for the girl, and she followed them as they turned into a dark alley way.
Luna got close enough to hear the conversation.
"Look, we have the blind girl here," one of the men said, "Not so powerful now, huh, are you?"
"Scyther will protect me," the girl said in her normal monotone voice, "Like he always does."
"Ah, you mean the giant green thing?" the other man said, as he kept hold of the injured Scyther, "He's not gonna protect anything anytime soon."
"If Scyther is injured, then we have to get him to the Pokemon Center quickly-"
"No we don't, not after we are finished with you," the man said with a smirk while chuckling, "Besides, that Scyther will come in handy. Now hand over the rest of your Pokemon!"
"No, I won't-" the girl said before getting punched. A big bruise showed up on her cheek, but she did not flinch – not for nobody, not for them.
Luna had enough of this. She couldn't stand by and let these two bullies torment a blind girl simply for Pokemon. She came out of hiding and yelled as loudly she could.
"Hey you!" she screamed, "Yeah you! You want a Pokemon... come and get one." She took out her Poke Ball and sent out Squirtle, who was immediately in a battle position.
The man holding the girl hostage was not impressed. "What is a weak Squirtle like that gonna do against me?" he said with a laugh. Luna winced.
Michael is right, she thought, my Squirtle is still a bit weak. Maybe if I... I got it! Luna gained confidence and gave a look that said "Yeah, I got this".
"Squirtle!" she said, "Tackle their stomachs! Full speed!" Squirtle ran as fast as she could, and collided with the first guy, knocking him over and injuring him in the process. He tried to get back up, but clenched his stomach in pain.
"The pain..." he said in agony, "It's too much..." At this moment, Luna issued for Squirtle hit the other man in the face with Tail Whip, which knocked him to the ground as well, and caused him to let go of the heavily injured Scyther. Luna ran over and stood Scyther up.
"Who are you?" the girl said, "And where is Scyther?"
"Don't ask questions!" Luna responded while grabbing her hand and helping her up. The girl followed her lead and ran off with her, hand in hand, away from her attackers.
Scyther was rushed to the Pokemon Center as quick as possible, given emergency care right away once he was brought in. As Luna and the girl, who Luna learned was named Kelly, waited in the lobby, they conversed about themselves.
"So, you wish to be the strongest Water Pokemon trainer?" Kelly inquired.
"That's right, and one day you're gonna be hearing my name throughout all of the world!" Luna exclaimed, "Since you know... you can't..." Luna stopped in fear of offending her, Kelly simply raised a hand for her to continue.
"It's alright, you can say that I'm blind. It's not like it's going away anytime soon."
"It's just that... it seems so difficult living behind a world of darkness."
"You get used to it. You start to appreciate things like touch and sound more, And I can imagine what things look like so that's pretty cool too." Kelly kept the same look. Luna noticed that she hadn't smiled once this whole time.
"But what you don't get used to is nobody around you," she said solemnly, "Nobody liked me because I couldn't see, and thus I couldn't do the things everybody wanted me to do. And after my parents died I didn't have anyone else... until Scyther. He's been my constant companion the whole time. We even had a trip through Kanto together."
"Well, you have someone now," Luna said happily. Kelly simply just stared, unfazed. She continued on with her story.
"My dream is to one day go on a Pokemon journey... travel all of the regions and meet all kinds of new people. I've already been throughout Kanto, but I want to do it with people I can call friends." Luna pondered for a second and immediately knew what to say.
"Well, you should come with us then," Luna suggested. Kelly perked up, "I mean, you're pretty cool and I think it would be nice to have an experienced trainer with us-"
"I shall come with you," Kelly said without hesitation, with the same expression.
"Wow that was easy," Luna said in response, "You'll really come with us then?"
"Yes." Luna smiled at her, before realizing that she couldn't see her expressions. It was at this point that Michael ran inside.
"Nurse I can't find Luna-" he said before looking beside him, next to the window, seeing Luna and Kelly sitting down next to each other, talking. Luna, upon seeing Michael's face, seethed with anger and her face became red. She smacked Michael across the face.
"What was that for?!" Michael exclaimed to Luna, "I just got here!"
"Don't run off like that again! I spent the whole time looking for you!"
"Looking for me? I was looking for you!" And as the two kept arguing, Kelly simply continued drinking her tea. And despite keeping the same expression, she thought about the possibilities of the adventure she was about to go on.
Her mind flashed back to the day she met Scyther. "You'll protect me, won't you?", she had said to the Pokemon.
"We made it friend," she said to herself, "We finally made it."
A/N: Sorry for the wait – I got busy with other projects and other personal things. There should be another chapter next week and it should continue on as normal from there. Thank you.