The Story of Amy Ketchum

A/N: Chapter 11! I still can't believe we're in double digits. Well I can because I'm writing this chapter, well you get the point. Thank you to you all for reading through this all the way to here! I am so grateful that people like my work even if it's long (my last two fics stopped after the 5th or 6th chapter). By the way, if anyone if interested I could use a beta reader. Right now it's just me sitting in my bed trying to come across mistakes that I most likely won't recognize. Now then, to the story!


When I woke up the sun had risen just enough to lightly shine through the curtains. I hadn't closed the blinds the night before because I wanted to make sure Courage and I would be able to find the last five pieces of the Professor's research and get back home before dinner. Courage was still sleeping and I decided not to wake him. Again I used my fingers to comb through my messy bedhead. Once I put on my vest I approached Courage and gently nudged him awake.

"Courage, come on wake up. I wanna go to the stowe befowe we head out today." I whispered.

Courage picked up with fluffy feathered head and blinked his eyes a few times to try and eliminate any sleep left in them. "Yawn," he sighed out loud, "Good morning Miss Amy, it is morning now isn't it." Courage continued with our face talk.

"Yea it is." I replied talking with my voice instead of my expressions like I usually do. "I wanna use some of the money we got yestewday on some food for me and you."

Courage started his morning preening while I laced up my sneakers. Once we were both ready we headed downstairs. Right before we left I turned to Nurse Joy.

"Hey Nuwse Joy!" I called almost yelling. In response she lifted her head from her papers. "Courage and I are gonna go shopping. When we get back can we use the kitchen?"

"If you're careful, and you can't use the stove or oven." She calmly replied.

"Thanks Nuwse Joy! We'll be back soon!" I called back to her as I walked out of the Pokemon Center.

The walk to the Poke Mart isn't long. After walking out of the Pokemon center it's easiest to turn left and walk until you reach the dirt path, after walking across that and looking both ways walk across the street then walk right until you get to the Poke Mart. Of course this is from first person perspective. The directions would be different from a top down perspective.

When we opened the door a familiar ringing sound rung from the bell hung above the door. The shop keeper was busy with another customer so all he could do was nod in my direction to acknowledge my presence. I motioned for Courage to follow me as I walked by the many isles.

"Pokeballs, Potions and other medicines, health and beauty pwoducts," I muttered walking by the various collections of goods, "Aha, food stuff. Come on Courage, let's look down this isle, it's got pokemon food." I turned down the fourth isle Courage following close behind. "Now I'm gonna need two Pecha bewwies, so that's 300P. I think that leaves," I contemplated counting on my fingers, "300P. You have to remember about tax. Courage." I taught the small bird as we walked down the pokemon food isle. "Now let's see, Gwass types, Fiewe types, Watewe types, Electwic types, Gwound types, Psychic types, Fighting types, Rock types, aha, Flying types! OK Courage, you can pick your food, as long as it doesn't cost over 300P."

I stepped back while Courage stepped forward. He stood in place scanning the rows of canned food before hopping to the sides a bit and scanning some more. It wasn't long before he took gently flight being careful not to knock anything down. It almost looked like he was in the wild, hunting for prey to take as a meal. He looked across the higher shelves and before I knew it he'd found a can and flew down to me releasing a can from his talons into my hands.

"You want this one?" I asked, Courage nodded in response.

The food was meant for small flying types and was made with some fish like pokemon. Now before you start getting really mad, this was almost 12 years ago. By now most people are trying to preserve pokemon life and instead eat things like tofu. Now most pokemon food is made with flavored tofu and berries. But at the time we were still learning a lot about pokemon, before Professor Oak found out it to be false, it was commonly believed that feeding a pokemon berries would make it sick. Now that I've helped explain things, on to the task that was at hand.

"Okay then Courage, let's head down the next isle over, I think that one has berries."

At the time you couldn't grow many berries in Kanto they were purely for human consumption only and didn't see use as a battle item for a good 7ish years so many people didn't see much use in them. Mom loved to use them for cooking, she used them in almost everything. I don't know about now since I haven't seen her in a good 4, almost 5 years. At home the pantry was always full of the 10 berries you could get in Kanto back then. Because many people didn't see much use in them, and they didn't grow in Kanto, they were kinda pricey. They didn't even receive proper names until a year after they became recognized as battle and healing items. Guess who helped Professor Oak name them? After walking down the slightly barren section of the human food isle meant for berries I found the berries I nicknamed "Pecha berries" I don't know why, it just seemed right. I grabbed two of them, enough to make me a smoothie, and we headed to the counter.

"Hey there Amy." the cashier greeted. Leaning over the counter so he could see me. I could barely see over the counter on my tip toes. "On a run for your father?"

"Nope!" I said enthusiastically. "Guess what Bwyan. (His name is Bryan) I got my own Pokemon. I'm not a licensed twainer yet because I'm not 10 so I can't paweticipate in the league. Pwefessor Oak sent me on a mission. I got some money the other day battling some twainers so I thought that I could spend it on some food for me and my pokemon, his name is Courage. He didn't come from Kanto though. The Pwefessor says that he comes from a wegion called Unova."

"That's nice for you Amy." Bryan said smiling. "Now, what are you going to buy today?"

"I got two bewwies and some pokemon food." I stated as I placed the items on the counter.

Bryan calculated the price before leaning slightly over the counter to tell me. "That'll be 654P."

After digging through the back pockets of my jeans I pulled out 700P. "Here ya go!" I stated cheerfully. "You can keep the change."

"Thanks." Bryan then put all three of my purchases into a bag for me and then waved me off. "Bye, have a nice day Amy."

"You too!" I said walking out of the store. Walking back to the Pokemon Center didn't take long. I waved to some people I knew and hummed my dad's "battle song" cheerfully. After getting inside I happily cheered.

"I'm back Nuwse Joy! Can I use the kitchen now?"

"Of course, just don't use the stove or oven."

"Thanks! Come on Courage."

After one slightly splattered smoothie and one adventure to find a bowl to feed Courage with we were off to fund the last five pages. Confident that I'd find all 5 of them I told Nurse Joy that I wouldn't be needing the room I'd been occupying for the last 2 nights before Courage and I set off to Route 22.

I'm not going to go into the details of the searching. It's kinda boring and didn't entail much. Courage and I really just looked through some trees and tall grass. It took a while. Especially when we were attacked every now and then by some wild pokemon. Usually the battle would cause a nearby piece of paper to take flight meaning that we had to finish the battle quickly so I could have Courage chase after the runaway research. All in all it took about 2½ hours. Once we had all 5 pieces of paper Courage and I headed back into Viridian City. I remembered my Dad's promise to take me home the day I got done so I headed that way. Before that though I swung by the Pokemon Center to get Courage healed up from the battles that we fought that day. Once Courage was all better we went to go see my Dad.

The gym was the same as usual. Everyone greeted me in the same fashion they always did and I walked to the back of the gym with Warren. We talked about my adventures gathering the 10 pieces of Professor Oak's research and that happened while I was gone.

"And then the Nidowan, it was male by the way, twied to use Tackle on Courage. But I told Courage to dodge upwards. The Nidowan then ran into a tree. While it was still dazed I had Courage use Wing Attack. The Nidowan fled after that and Courage was able to get the last piece of wesearch for the Pwefessor." I explained ecstatically.

"That certainly sounds very exciting Amy. It was smart of you to use that tree to momentarily stun that Nidoran." Warren commented.

"Oh, I didn't notice the twee was thewe, but thanks anyway." I beamed.

"Silly girl." Warren said as he ruffled my hair.

"Hey." I said in teasing protest.

I loved hanging out with Warren, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't "like like" him back then. It was probably my mind just acknowledging the way I look up to him and admire him.

Pretty soon we came up on the portion of the gym where my Dad battled challengers. He didn't have a theme to his gym but is Blane hadn't already taken it he would have been a fire type gym leader. His prize pokemon and corner stone of his team was his Rapidash. My Dad didn't nickname his pokemon because it was against league rules for a gym leader to do so. Don't ask me why. But I gave his pokemon nicknames for him. His Rapidash he was nicknamed Flash because he was so fast. Then he had his Ninetails, I nicknamed her one Grace, because of how gracefully she battled. Then his Arcanine, his name was Pride, because of the pride he took in his strength. Dad's fourth pokemon was a Poliwath, his name was Blur, because his punches looked only like blurs. Dad's Electabuzz I nicknamed Thunder, because he made thundering noised with his electric attacks. Then he has his Victreebel, I named him Gloomy, because he was, well gloomy. The team was pretty rounded. Flash, Grace and Thunder were bruisers. Pride, Blur, and Gloomy were tanks. Though is needed Grace could act as a tank and Pride could be a bruiser. My Dad was the strongest of the gym leaders. Very few managed to beat him.

Warren and I watched my Dad take on a few challengers. No one was able to beat my Dad that day. Three people did get close though. One girl almost won, with a team made up of primarily water types, but she lost. Warren said this was because she looked into only the type of the pokemon, and she didn't consider things like Flash knowing Solar Beam and Pride knowing Thunder Fang. The other was a boy his team had various different types of pokemon each made to be able to beat a certain type. He lost because his pokemon didn't work together according to Warren. The last one was a boy, his pokemon worked together, and he looked into almost every possibility and was very strategic. After the battle I talked to Warren about him.

"Hey Warren, how come that guy lost?" I asked completely puzzled.

"It's because he didn't have a bond between him and his pokemon." He simply answered.

"Weally, that can affect if you win or lose?" I said now curious.

"It certainly can. The Better bond you have with your pokemon the more they will trust you. The greater the trust the stronger that pokemon can become."

"Wow, that weally cool Warren!" I exclaimed.

"It certainly is."

It was then that my Dad was done healing up his pokemon after his battle. He then hollered a big "Go get her guys!" at his pokemon. Warren was quick enough to get out of the way. Courage managed to fly above me. I didn't move. I loved it when this happened. What's "this" you ask. "This" is what I like to call a group tackle. Not once of the six would ever hurt me. They all loved me a lot. They didn't really "tackle" me. But they all ran over to me to show me their affection.

"Hey there guys!" I shouted happily. "And giwl, I know you'we thewe to Gwace, even though I can't see you wight now. I can pwactically feel your pwesence. I'm pewefectly fine none of the guys will huwt me. Hey thewe Pwide." I said scratching the giant K-9 on his chest, as I couldn't reach his head. "You did Weally good today I watched the whole thing. Woah, easy Flash, I know you did gweat as well. Blur, you did awesome, if I didn't know better I'd say you got faster! Thunder hey there! No shockies! Good boy. You made some really loud noises. I think next time I'll need ear plugs! Gloomy, stop being so gloomy. You did gweat as well. You all did gweat!"

My Dad let us play a bit. I also introduced them all to Courage. After a bit my Dad said the team needed to get some sleep so he returned them all to their pokeballs except Flash and set them in his "office". My dad's office is just a little room behind the battle arena where he does all of the work needed to be a gym leader that doesn't involve battling. He keeps a little box with a small heated blanket in there because the gym got cold at night. After that we rounded everyone up and all said goodbye and went our separate ways. Once we got outside the gym and my Dad locked it up he send out Flash. Dad knew I loved riding Flash, especially at night because his mane is made of flames, but they were weird in a sense that if never burnt anything unless he wanted the flames to. Other than that they acted just like regular fire. Courage flew above us, my Dad walked beside me, and I rode on Flash. Before we knew it we had gotten home. Dad helped me off of Flash and then put Flash back in his Pokeball. Dad took my hand and we both walked into the house with Courage hopping along behind me.


A/N: OK I'm ending this chapter here. Wow this one is loooong isn't it. Congratulations if you managed to read with me this far! Please don't for get to do all that fave, and follow, and review. Stuff. Even if you already reviewed on a different chapter, you can review again I'll gladly take all forms of criticism, whether it be constructive or not (although constructive is preferred). I'm still willing to answer any questions you may have! Well, until I write again, see ya later!