'Wow, I wonder how many more teammates we'll find!' gasped Will.
I grinned. "Yeah," I sighed. "I just hope everyone survives, though…"
Suddenly, a hand clamped down on my shoulder. Holding my hand in a fist, I curtly said, "Ethan, get your friggin hand off my shoulder, or I'll knock the shit out of you."
"Who's Ethan?" said an unfamiliar voice. Embarrassed, I turned to see a bug catcher staring at me, confused.
"Sorry, I thought you were someone else," I apologised. I heard Will snigger behind me, and made a mental note to tell him off after this.
"Nah, it's ok," said the boy. "Now, could you please battle me?"
I nodded. "Sure," I said.
At first, he didn't seem too tough. I sent out Hana, and she beat the heck out of his three Caterpies, but then he sent out Weedle. Hana didn't manage to knock it out, and it used Poison Sting, poisoning Hana.
"Shit," I swore as Hana's body glowed purple and she winced in pain. "Hana, switch with Will!" Hana returned to my side and Will knocked out the Weedle with Ember. Then I raced through the route, Will running at my side while I carried Hana in my arms, begging her to stay with me until we got to the Pokemon Center.
To say we got there in the nick of time is an understatement. We reached the center and handed Hana to Nurse Joy just as she was nearly about to pass out. Will and I then waited, my other Pokemon already healed, for Hana to come back. Please don't be dead, I thought. Please, please stay with me…
Five minutes later, Nurse Joy came back into the room with Hana, who leapt into my arms. I hugged her tightly, just glad she was alive. Then we headed to Route 32, where I wanted to catch another Pokemon.
The first Pokemon was a Mareep, munching on some grass.
"Sam, come out and help me!" I yelled, sending out Sam.
"Quick Attack!" I ordered. Sam ran at the sheep, a bright white streak behind her, and slammed into it. Then the Mareep fell to the ground…dead.
"Sam, you bitch!" I moaned. "How could you kill it? We could have used him!" But Sam was already asleep on the grass. I moaned before returning her, and I put her in a PC box the moment I got back to Violet City-after some grinding, of course. And during that grinding, I trained Carly.
"Carly, use Tackle, one more time!"
Carly banged into a wild Rattata and defeated it. Then, all of a sudden, she froze, and her entire body glowed white. Then she started to change shape, until she stopped glowing, changed into a green cocoon-like Pokemon I had seen-and battled-before. Metapod.
"Wow, Carly!" I gasped. "You evolved, congrats!"
Carly didn't respond, though she did look at me as though she had heard me. Then I realised…she had no mouth.
After that little horror session, Will and I then entered the gym.
"What the hell…?" I gasped, staring up at the battle floor far above my head. There was an elevator of sorts, with no sides, just the platform, but a man blocked my access to it. "I'm sorry, but you can't battle the gym leader right now, he is currently busy, but you can train at the north end of town, in the Sprout Tower, while you wait," he said, before quickly showing me the door. I groaned before heading over the bridges to the Sprout Tower.
'Why do they call it Sprout Tower?' Will enquiered as we entered the rickety building.
"I'm not su-," I froze, the answer on my tongue, for I had found out why. In front of me stood a statue of a Bellsprout. Oh no, I thought. Not Bellsprout. But, indeed, this tower was built to worship Bellsprout, and so most people here would have Bellsprout, I guessed.
"Will," I said. "Prepare to fuck this tower."
Will and I advanced up the tower, killing Bellsprouts everywhere we turned. I basically let Will burn them up with Ember, and tried not to look at the foes too closely. We were on the second floor, and just beat a dude with a Bellsprout (surprise, surprise), when Will suddenly stopped, and his body started to glow white, just like Carly's. I gasped in delight as his body changed, and when he stopped glowing, he was standing there on all fours, a flame Mohawk coming out of his head and more flames out of his back, his red eyes now finally able to see. He was a Quilava.
'Wow, I evolved,' he said; his voice was much deeper and less child-like because of the evolution. He then looked up at me. 'Wow, so that's what you look like.'
"Wait, so you couldn't see before?" He nodded. "Then how were you able to battle, if you couldn't see where the foe was or what they were doing?"
'I had really good listening skills,' he said with a shrug. I nodded and we moved on.
Soon we had reached the top floor of the tower. As I went in to see the Elder, however, I realised he was here.
Flint.
He had just battled-and defeated-the elder, and was now taking a TM from him.
"You are a good battler," the man said. "But you don't treat your Pokemon with care and respect."
"Yeah, whatever," Flint snapped, snatching the TM before using an Escape Rope, which took him through the ceiling and outside.
'Ya know, it'd be better if he just took the stairs,' Will sighed, staring at the hole in the roof. 'Less damage.'
"So, you have come here to train, I'm guessing?" the Elder said as the two of us entered the space.
"Well, yes," I said.
"Well, come at me," said the Elder, before sending out a Bellsprout, which died five seconds later. He then sent out a second Bellsprout; a charred mass of mulch was all that was left.
'This is too easy,' Will said, shooting a ball of fire into the air while standing on his head to show his, I dunno, awesomeness maybe? Then the Elder sent out a Hoothoot.
"Go, Rocky!" I cried, sending out Rocky, who simply glared at the bird in front of him. "Rock Throw!" I ordered, and Rocky shot a large boulder at the bird, flattening it.
"Hmm," the Elder thought. "Your Pokemon seem to trust you. Well, here it is, as promised, TM70 Flash."
"I don't remember you promising me anything," I said, taking the flat disc. The old man shrugged. "It's part of my contract."
Back down the tower, Will and I headed onto Route 36 to see if anything was there. We found a man, who gave us HM06, Rock Smash, which I taught to Rocky.
"Here you go, Rocks," I said, letting Rocky hold the disc and learn the move. "You're up for this gym, it's your specialty."
'Got it,' Rocky said, handing back the HM. The team and I then trained….and trained…and trained on Route 32, until the sun the end of the day, before camping out underneath the stars.
A couple of hours later, I saw awoke to the sound of a small body falling. I quickly looked outside to see a wild Rattata fall to the ground at the feet (or was it a base?) of Carly. It seemed she hadn't gone to sleep, but had been training outside. I then realised that all she wanted was to evolve, to no longer be a weak, ugly cocoon, but a strong and beautiful butterfly.
"You will evolve again one day," I said to her. She jumped, having not realised I was awake, before turning around and hopping to me. I stroked her head.
'Did someone say my name?' yawned Will, coming out of the tent and stretching.
"No, I said that Carly would evolve, soon," I said.
Will yawned before lying beside me. 'Why do you hate Bellsprout so much?' he asked with a yawn.
"Well, I don't hate them," I sighed. "I hate Victreebell. When I was a little kid, this wild, evil Victreebell, with a scar over its left eye, came near New Bark Town. My dad was outside with me. Suddenly, the Victreebell launched itself at me, and Dad quickly shielded me from it." I could feel the tears starting to come up in my eyes. "It swallowed him whole. I screamed, and soon the whole village was there, and Mum sent out one of Dad's Pokemon, a Typhlosion called Tyler, and it was trying to attack us, we had no choice but to burn it up with Tyler's Flamethrower, and so my Dad's body-which was probably dead by then, and still inside the Victreebell-was burned up with it." I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my jacket. "Ever since, I've hated Victreebell and its evolutions."
'I'm really sorry to hear that,' said an unfamiliar voice. I whirled around to see Carly had now changed into a Butterfree, with beautiful blue wings and shiny red eyes.
'Same here,' sighed Will. 'Oh, and congrats on evolving, Carly.' Carly blushed brightly.
"It's ok," I sighed. "But I just don't trust them at all. And yes, good job on evolving, Carly." Carly beamed before saying, 'How about we go inside and get some sleep now?' Will and I nodded and the three of us went back in.