I don't own Pokemon!
Chapter 9: Alison Bouvier: Young, Wise, And Beautiful
Thursday, June 21st
The girl hurriedly lead me back to the center, I left my weak team with Nurse Joy, then we went to the cafeteria where she got me some hot chocolate and huge cookies of every variety. I ate a lot, silently, while the girl watched me, smiling. When my mug was empty, she left to get me another cup of hot chocolate, and when she returned, she began to talk.
The girl was a few years older than me, and had large, bright, dark green eyes. Her hair was about as long as her mid chest, and perfectly straight. It was dyed hot pink.
"So how are you?" After taking another swig of my drink, I stared back at the girl and replied.
"Um, fine I guess. I just got kind of lost on the way here." The girl didn't stop smiling, but she did raise one of her eyebrows.
"You didn't get lost, you found your way here. It does look like you ran out of supplies though." I grumbled to myself, looking away. "That's alright, it happens to every novice trainer, especially on their first long trip. Just make sure to know how long it takes to get from one center to the next, so that you can properly stock up."
"Yeah, whatever..." I mumbled, looking down again.
"My names Alison by the way. I've been a trainer for a few months now." I glanced up at her curiously.
"You're really enthusiastic." Alison smiled awkwardly, and cocked her head to the side.
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" I chuckled and shook my head.
"My name is Violet Marzaroli. I've only been a trainer for a couple of weeks, but I've already got my first Gym Badge!" I exclaimed, already digging through my bags to show Alison the Boulder Badge I'd won in Pewter City.
"Wow Violet, that's impressive! I've got four Badges so far, from my hometown in Fuschia, Celadon, Vermillion, and Cerulean, where I just came from." I blinked, embarrassed to have been so excited about my one Gym Badge. "Oh, I almost forgot, but thanks back there for helping me get away from that guy."
"I didn't do anything!"
"Sure you did! You distracted him so that I could get my Pokedex back!"
"You have a Pokedex too?"
"Obviously!" Alison pulled the device, also hot pink covered in neon orange flower stickers. "I met Professor Oak while he was visiting Fuschia, and he saw me battle Janine with my Hoppip. He said that he was so impressed with a young trainer such as myself, that I deserved a head start at being a trainer, and he gave me this 'Dex and one of the starter Pokemon!"
"Wow, that's sweet!"
"Mm hm! That was pretty much the best day of my life! Now I think that you should probably get a room for the night Violet, it's late and you look just exhausted." I put my hands up to my face as Alison jumped up and left our table, wondering just how bad I looked...
The next morning I was eating breakfast silently when Alison pounded through the hallway and nearly slid off of her seat when she sat next to me.
"H-Hi Alison."
"Hey kid! Hey, where are your Pokemon, I wanna meet them!"
"Um they already ate in my room,"
"Oh please Violet! I really want to meet your Pokemon! Here, I'll show you mine first!" Alison grabbed a handful of Pokeballs from her belt, and threw them up into the air. Four Pokemon appeared, only two of which I really recognized. Her Clefable, which is a popular mascot for girl related things, and a Wartortle. I got the Pokedex entries on all four Pokemon.
"Wartortle, the turtle Pokemon. It often hides in water to stalk unwary prey. For swimming fast, Wartortle moves its ears to maintain balance.
Clefable, the fairy Pokemon. It has an acute sense of hearing. Clefable can easily hear a pin being dropped nearly 1,100 yards away.
Venonat, the insect Pokemon. Its eyes act as radar, enabling it to be active in darkness. Their eyes can also shoot powerful beams.
Jumpluff, the cottonweed Pokemon. Jumpluff drifts on seasonal winds and spreads its cotton-like spores all over the world to make more offspring."
"Cool," I said, putting away my device and kneeling down to pet and say hello to all of the Pokemon. Wartortle backed away from me and bared his teeth, to which Alison promptly swatted the water type on his shoulder. Wartortle crossed his arms and chewed the inside of his cheek but came no closer to me.
Venonat happily hopped over to me, while Jumpluff floated towards me, but both nuzzled my face and hands, hoping to get pet. I gladly obliged, both of them were pretty cute. Venonat was surprisingly soft, considering he's a bug type Pokemon. Jumpluff was warm, and I actually giggled when I touched one of her puffy dandelion buds, and all of the soft white seeds dispersed around us. Clefable, who had been standing back until now, sneezed.
"Haha," I grinned at the pink Pokemon, who gave me a thumbs up and then suddenly a hug.
"Seeee Violet, they love you!"
"I guess so..." I told her, my cheeks a bit red as I pushed Clefable gently away.
"Now you have to show me your Pokemon!"
"Fine." I grasped for two Pokeballs sitting in my bag, and released Ghastly and Charmander. Both were ecstatic to be out and about, especially with all these new Pokemon friends hanging around. I was kind of terrified though when Alison easily noticed that I had left Mankey in his Pokeball.
"What about that guy?"
"Well... He's kind, um, wild, and-"
"So what? The poor guy still needs to breathe!"
"H-Hey!" Alison, being the freaking pick pocket she is, easily snatched the capsule from my bag, and swiftly released Mankey from his Pokeball. Oh crud.
"Wah-ak!" The first thing the fight type did was tackle Alison's unsuspecting Wartortle, and both Pokemon fell to the ground. Wartortle was quite obviously ticked off, and tried to bite Mankey, but he was too fast and by the time Wartortle had even moved Mankey had jumped away, ready to cause trouble all over the room. I tackled him to the ground and sat on top of Mankey before he could do anymore damage.
"Jeez, no wonder you were keeping him in!" I gave Alison an 'oh really' look and she smiled guiltily.
"I really don't know what to do with him, he's too wild and won't listen to a thing I say!" Mankey huffed beneath me, and Alison gave us a look which said that she knew better.
"Not every relationship you have with your Pokemon will be easy Violet, sometimes you have to work to get along with your new friends. And every once in a while, you won't be able to work it out." I frowned at the latter part of Alison's life lesson.
"What does that mean?" The older girl sighed, and looked down at Mankey's Pokeball, which was currently sitting upside down on the floor.
"Just a few weeks ago I had to release a Pokemon I had caught. He just couldn't get along with anyone else, and ignored me completely. I tried, I really did, but sometimes you have to let it go. So I did, and now that Pokemon is free again. But I'm sure he's happy again." Wow... That's... not what I expected. I didn't know that trainers sometimes released their Pokemon because of things like that.
"I'm sorry." Alison smiled brilliantly at me. She always seemed so carefree.
"There's nothing to be sorry about. I did what I had to do for that Pokemon to be happy. That is a trainer's only job." I blinked and stared up at Alison in wonder. I could have sworn that she was Mark, my older brother's female counterpart, despite their age difference. Alison held a level of wisdom that I'd only ever seen on television and from my older brother.
"Anyways, why don't we go get you some more supplies Violet? They've got an area where you can buy supplies in this Pokemon Center, since it's such a long journey between cities."
Alison knew how long it would take for me to get to Cerulean City, about a week, maybe more depending on how much time I would spend on Route 4 and how long it would take for me to get through Mt. Moon. She helped me figure out how many supplies I would need for a time period of two weeks, and then helped me pack everything too. Then we hung out outside for a while, to get some fresh air.
The Pokemon Center had been built right at the base of Mt. Moon. The area was surrounded by the mountain on three sides, and littered with rocks and small ledges. A fairly large, crumbling hole in the side of the mountain was the only entrance on this side.
"You know, meteoroids are supposed to fall on Mt. Moon. That's how it got it's name."
"I know the legends. The whole Clefable line of Pokemon is said to have arrived here on those meteorites. On Mt. Moon. Did you catch Clefable there?" All of our Pokemon, excluding Mankey, were out running and playing with each other. Clefable turned at the sound of her name and waved at us.
"Sort of, but that was awhile ago. I caught her as a tiny little Cleffa, who had gotten lost and wandered all the way out in the woods outside of Celadon City."
"All the way out there?"
"Yeah. She was only a baby, and was starved when I found her. I nursed her back to health. We've been together ever since, and she's really powerful now too." I nodded at Alison, watching the Pokemon start up a game of tag. "Are you going to enter the mountain tomorrow?"
"Yup, I'd really like to win my next Gym Badge soon, and besides, it'll take such a long time to get to Cerulean."
"I get that. It's important to keep moving."
"Ally!" We both turned and looked and looked to see a boy about Alison's age coming out of the Pokemon Center. He was bulky and much taller than either of us. I narrowed my violet eyes, he seemed slightly familiar. With long strides he quickly came to stand before us at the picnic table which Alison and I were seated at, with a cocky expression on his face and a Jolteon trotting and obediently sitting beside him.
He had dark brown hair which poked out of his black beanie. There was a red symbol of a Pokeball on it. His eyes were gray but there was an unmistakable spark in them. One that I had seen many times in my brother, in Brock, and a lot of the trainers I'd met recently. I often hoped that people saw that same spark in me. He wore a pair of simple blue jeans, a pair of black and gray fingerless gloves, and a dark green army jacket. When I looked over to Alison, her expression was unreadable, but she did roll her eyes.
"What do you want now?"
"A rematch, obviously. Since someone interrupted it last night." He pointedly looked at me. His eyes were angry, but his smirk didn't falter.
"So you're the guy that was pestering Alison last night?"
"I wasn't pestering, I just wanted a rematch that she won't give me." He crossed his arms, glaring back at Alison. She sighed.
"Taking my Pokedex wasn't the way to go about it Fisher." The guy became red in the face, suddenly yelling at Alison, who was as cool and collected as always.
"Well you wouldn't even listen to me Ally! What was I supposed to do?!" Alison sighed again, looking at the ground. When her green eyes flicked back up to Fisher's, they were ferocious.
"You were supposed to accept your losses, all of them, graciously," Fisher gulped. "But you never do Fisher. You keep pushing and pushing with no real purpose, and only your ego gets bigger. Your skills remain the same, and your strategy weak. If you ever want to beat me in a battle, something's got to change Fisher. And I don't think it's going to be you." Alison stood up suddenly, leaving us and her Pokemon and heading back into the Center. After she was gone, I whistled at the exchange which had just happened.
"Need a band aid for that burn buddy?" Fisher turned to me, his eyes full of disdain.
"What do you know kid?" He spat, but didn't move.
"Well Alison obviously hates you-"
"She doesn't hate me."
"Fine then, she really doesn't like you, and you can't take a loss very well I'm guessing. Also I think you two have known each other for a long time, since you've been calling her Ally and all."
"She doesn't like being called that."
"Then why do you?" Fisher blinked, surprised, but shook his head and looked toward the Pokemon. His Jolteon had wandered towards them, and was currently sniffing a terrified Charmander.
"Who are you anyways kid?" I stuck my tongue out in distaste.
"I am not a kid. My name is Violet Marzaroli and I-"
"Marzaroli? Do I know you from somewhere?" Mark. My mind immediately went to my brother, who was well known across the region.
"Nope! Unless you read about my amazing battle with the Gym Leader Brock somewhere, I mean, it was a pretty amazing battle!" Fisher gave me a doubtful look, but then he sighed and shook his head.
"Whatever kid, I've got to go."
"Hey, wait! You wanted a battle didn't you? I'm a trainer, and I want to battle!" Fisher let out a short, deep, and impatient laugh.
"You? Right, because you could put up a fight." I jumped up at Fisher, ready to defend my trainer pride.
"Of course I can! I already have a Gym Badge and three Pokemon!"
"Ha! I already have four Pokemon and three Gym Badges!"
"Well I can still beat you! Three on three!" Fisher smirked, calling over his Pokemon.
"Jolteon, get over here. We've got ourselves a battle." The electric type smiled as best it could, and gleefully bounded towards its trainer.
"Jolt, jeol!"
"Good. Ghastly, let's go, you're up first!" My second Pokemon vanished into thin air cackling, only to reappear in front of me. Fisher and I walked towards the west side of the Pokemon Center, where there was a battle field printed out in white lines among the rocky terrain.
"Let's just keep it simple, shall we? No subs, no items, just a regular old three on three battle." I nodded to Fisher, signaling my agreement from the other side of the field. Jolteon stood in a wide stance in front of her trainer, and Ghastly hovered in figure eights in front of me. "You can have the first move kid."
"Shadow Ball Ghastly!"
"Dodge it!" Jolteon was very fast. It simply jumped back and away from our attack, then quickly made it's way around the smoke and small dent in the ground. "Quick Attack!" I took in a sharp breath, before I saw the super speeding Eeveelution pass right through Ghastly. Right, ghost type, duh. I saw Fisher grit his teeth from afar thanks to his rookie mistake.
"Shadow Ball again!" Ghastly wasted no time in opening up his huge mouth, shooting a huge ball of deep darkness into Jolteon's hindquarters. The electric type barked in surprise and pain, before falling and rolling over the dirt. It landed on it's feet though, snarling and in a cloud of dust.
"That's alright Jolteon, one little mishap won't get them far." I tightened my fists. I didn't like to be doubted. Or looked down upon. "Use Discharge."
"Get out of there Ghastly, use Energy Ball to deflect it!" Jolteon crouched down, and suddenly a storm of electricity came shooting from it's spiky body, all around it. Ghastly flew up higher and higher, but the sparks came at him faster than he could get away. Ghastly let loose an Energy Ball to try and hold the attack off, but it exploded just as soon as he could release it, compromised by the electricity, and then Ghastly was caught up in it as well. "Ghastly!" I called out to him. The ghost and poison type slowly floated towards the ground, in obvious pain and paralyzed from the attack. "Use Payback!" Ghastly's eyes glowed a bright, creepy, dark purple color, and he charged towards Jolteon. A trail of sparks followed behind him, proof that Payback was using Discharge's power against the original user.
"Dodge it and use Thunder Fang!" Jolteon was much faster than I was comfortable with, and way too easily skirted around Ghastly, attacking it from behind just as we had earlier. Jolteon held on for a about ten seconds before releasing Ghastly's poisonous body from it's grip, falling nimbly to the ground. Ghastly wasn't doing nearly as well as his foe. There was no way he would survive another one of Jolteon's speedy and powerful attacks.
"Guess we have no choice... I'm sorry Ghastly. Use Curse Ghastly!" It was a sacrifice which I was willing to make. The ghost and poison type screeched eerily, a sound which I had heard before, but still hated. His eyes became a violet reddish color, and he disintegrated before my eyes, reappearing right beside Jolteon.
"Discharge!" Even though Jolteon sent wave after wave of electric power, Ghastly would not release his terrible grip on Jolteon's left back leg. It looked as if a poison unlike any I had ever seen before was spilling into the electric type's leg as Ghastly dragged her down into the Earth. After they were gone, Jolteon suddenly reappeared like magic in front of her trainer, shaking badly. Ghastly appeared in front of me, unconcious.
"Am I still just a kid?" I asked in a mocking tone. Fisher's face was blank as he answered.
"Still just a kid huh. Yeah, that sounds about right." I readied my next Pokeball with a grin on my face.
Friday, June 22nd
