A/N:

ArchXDeath: Whoa! Thanks for your very, very long review. To answer your questions, in order:

She is fourteen because of her 'traumatic event'. Normal journeys start at age 10, when a trainer can finally get their trainers' license, and, in the first chapter, says Natalia (not Natalie, although I do know someone with the name Natalie) spends 2 years getting past her, well, past. So, the traumatic event, must have lasted 2 years (eg. two year coma. Not going to happen, though.). Secondly, yes, now the story will focus a lot more on her training, and Julia. Next chapters will be longer,this one is about 1500 words long. Yashaskar, please PM me if you need any help on your fanfics, instead of as a review. I also capitalize moves (Tackle, Razor Leaf, Ember), types (Grass, Fire, Water), et cetera. I know it isn't correct grammatically, but I am still going to use it. Lastly, some of the gyms will be new. In the anime, Ash meets trainers with different badges than him. One had four in common, four different. Another had eight completely different badges. All in all, there is a minimum of 27 different gyms in the Kanto region(Did I teach you something?). For that reason, I thought it would be cool to have one or two of the last gyms new. And I will add a texture for the new badge(s) (It will be in the fanfic picture.). Fist bump!

Me and Julia wake up around 6 a.m., in one of the pokécenter rooms. I remember my mother, and give her a short call. When we are both ready, we realize it is slightly too early to leave, and talk for a while.

"Are you going to challenge the gym leader in Pewter?" I ask Julia.

"Yeah, it will probably be easy anyway, my Bulbasaur has grown a lot, and I have a type advantage. Will you?" She replies.

"I've been thinking about it, and I don't think so. I have a type disadvantage with Charmander and Pidgey, so it will be really hard. I was thinking of trying to find a Grass or Fighting-type pokémon. If I did, then I would consider it again, but I don't think so. We should probably get going, we have to cross Viridian Forest by the end of today." l answer.

We leave the pokécenter, and head in the direction of Viridian Forest.

"Would you want to catch a Pikachu?" Julia asks while we enter the forest.

"If I were to come across one I would catch it, but it wouldn't really help me. Ground pokémon are completely immune to Electric attacks," I say.

"But there are plenty of Water and Flying-type pokémon in Kanto. You could catch one for after Pewter City. Electric pokémon are some of the best pokémon because of their type," she says back.

"Well, I would catch one, but they are rare, so it isn't that likely. Although they are adorable," I say and laugh. She does too.

"So are you going to build your entire team on 'adorable' pokémon?" she asks, joking.

"Oh yes, only a full team of Jigglypuff or Clefairy. That's it. Nothing else. Not even Charmander, here," I say back. We both laugh.

"Have you decided your future team?" I ask, turning the conversation serious again. That's a habit of mine, and I don't have a very good sense of humor to people I don't know very well or like.

"I'm just going to catch what interests me. Pokémon I like, I catch. I'll leave filling the pokédex to you. Do you have yours figured out yet? You always plan ahead. Remember school?" she says. "It was so annoying when you would have all your work finished for a project before the due date, and you basically sat in class doing nothing while the rest of us did our work?"

"Well, not finishing my work just stresses me out. Complete opposite for you, though. You would ask me to come over to finish your work. On the day before it was due," I say. "Totally not fair."

"Well its not like you had anything else to do, what with your large amount of friends," she says back. Julia would always make jokes about that when we were in school. We hung out all the time, even if I had other friends. Julia was my best friend, I was also friends with Julia's friends, but not as much. Barely, in fact.

"Of course, whatever you say, Julia. Anyway, I was thinking of adding an Gastly, Abra or Kadabra to my team. But those are all very hard to catch, Gastly are basically invisible, and Abra and Kadabra Teleport whenever they know someone is close," I smile and say back.

"Unless they are asleep. Abra sleep, like, 18 hours every day. If you find one, it's likely it will be asleep. Or you could paralyze it, or put it to sleep if it is awake. See? Jigglypuff and Pikachu would be useful for those things!" Julia says excitedly.

"What is it with you and Pikachu?" I ask rhetorically, still smiling.

We enter the forest, and see the small, almost invisible path that leads to Pewter City. It runs through the tall grass, where pokémon are hiding, ready to attack us. We summon our pokémon, Rattata and Charmander.

"Why aren't you using your Bulbasaur? It is immune to poison, and there are lots of Weedle here," I ask, slightly confused.

"Maybe, but this Rattata hasn't had any training," she replies.

"But pokémon might disobey you. They gain respect for you if you have badges, right?" I say.

"Well, I'll try to train it, anyway. Maybe it will listen," she says, her confidence in Rattata slightly lessened.

We have many battles, and our pokémon do look stronger. We even have some dual battles, and our pokémon are still in perfect shape.

"Do you think we should try and get our pokémon to evolve?" Julia asks me.

"I think my Charmander is close," I say. "It's skin is more red, and it's hands have grown claws. Now if only it would learn a Fire-type attack."

"It will,"she says. "It has to, right? It isn't possible for it to not learn Ember, or Flamethrower?"

"I haven't heard of anything like that, so I am assuming not. She can make fires, but she can't control them," I tell her.

"Well, lets train some more. I'll go fight wild pokémon, you should help Charmander to control its fire," she says, then yells as the distance between us grows.

"Okay, Charmander, lets see you breathe fire!" I say, looking at my pokémon.

It makes an attempt, but the fire only goes an inch or two out of her mouth. Her tail is blazing, so I don't know what is wrong.

"You just keep trying, Charmander." We train for the next hour, and the flame now goes about 6 inches from her face. Not bad, for a day of training.

Julia comes back, excitedly talking about her Rattata's progress, and I tell her about Charmander's new ability.

"Let's head into Pewter City, then," she says, calling Rattata back into it's pokéball, and bringing out Bulbasaur.

We leave the forest, fighting only a small amount of Caterpie before reaching Pewter City.

"Yes! We're finally here!" Julia yells, getting a couple trainers' attention.

We engage in some battles with the bug trainers, my Charmander being able to use Ember in the last one. It seems extremely happy, I can see it wants to show off more. Some people have gathered around us, my Charmander breathing fire around, and some of the people jealous of her.

Not all trainers start off with Charmander, Bulbasaur or Squirtle. If they have formed some kind of friendship with a pokémon, sometimes they use it as their starter. Or the lab is just too far away from where they live, and their parents give them a pokémon for their 10th birthday. Good thing I live in Pallet town. One of many perks of living in the smallest town in the region, is that the pokémon labs are always in that town.

My Charmander gives me a smile, and I return it to its pokéball. The crowd diminishes until only Julia and I remain. We head to the pokécenter, heal our pokémon, and then find a room for the night. Tomorrow Julia will challenge Brock, the Rock-type Pewter City gym leader.

But for now, sleep.

A/N: Okay, so I don't think anyone got the authors note joke in the beginning of the third chapter (Damn you, Abra). Glameow learned Confusion because of the Abra in the yard. Go back and check it out :). Fell free to like, follow, or review. Remember, reviews are like chocolate, addictive for the soul.

xXxXx Lily