When they got to the actual park Ellie avoided other trainers and found a spot to nest so to speak. She released her other pokemon who looked confused but were soon excited to know that they were given the day off to play in the park. They however stayed close to Ellie and played. Ellie found this a little odd but let it slide and found a nice place to sit on the ground. The pokemon played with each other, mainly chasing each other around and tackling each other to which Nila had the advantage of being the biggest of all four.
When a boy came up asking for a battle she just looked at her pokemon. She wasn't going to force them to do something they didn't want. After all it had been a long day and the sky was beginning to darken just a tad. Hazel, surprisingly, stepped up and held her bone in her hand. The boy sent out his own pokemon which Hazel quickly dispatched. The boy looked disappointed and tried to hand her prize money but she quickly turned it down.
"You, girl!" a female voice called out. Ellie turned her attention to the woman and the tiny girl around 9 hanging on to the woman's shirt.
"Yes?" Ellie replied unsure what this woman wanted with her. Ariana stepped protectively in front of Ellie.
"My little girl wants a pokemon..." the woman began.
"A Growlithe! Growlithe!" the little girl cut in.
"However, I don't have any pokemon and I haven't even seen this supposed Growlithe thingy," the woman finished giving a sharp glance towards the little girl.
"Um, if I'm not mistaken Growlithe can be found in Route 36..." Ellie said.
"Oh wonderful. This thing exists. Can you please go with us and catch one for Charlotte," the woman said. The little girl's expression turned to pure bliss.
"Oh please, please please please," she said rapidly.
Ellie laughed. She looked at her pokemon.
"Do you mind? After we do this we will have to go back to the Pokecenter," she said. Her pokemon just nodded in agreement.
"Ok, I'll do it... this way okay?" Ellie said, returning all of her pokemon. She walked onward making the duo follow her all the way out on the outskirts of Route 36. She dug through her bag and pulled out a few berries and let Luna out.
"Go look for...well you've never seen a Growlithe before. It's a orange dog with stripes and it has a tuft of hair and a fluffy tail...watch out it may spit fire. Make it run in this direction so Hazel can attack it. Tell it about delicious berries or something," Ellie told Luna. Luna looked at her and went ahead and did as told.
Ellie placed the berries on the ground and told the mother and daughter duo to be quiet while they waited. She released Hazel and told her be ready to attack at the sight of the orange dog. They waited and waited until Ellie soon grew bored. Hazel stood ready to attack and soon enough their patience was rewarded. A rustling sound came as a Growlithe pushed it's way out of the brush running from a now dirty Luna. Ellie thought with mild amusement that a bath was heading in Luna's direction after they got back.
"Hazel now!" Ellie said. Hazel looked back at her and nodded. Hazel rushed forward with bone in hand and hit the Growlithe hard. She quickly handed Charlotte a pokeball.
"Order Hazel to use False Swipe. Hazel listen to her," Ellie said, stepping back and pushing Charlotte forward.
"U-u-um..H-hazel. Use False Swipe!" Charlotte said, stumbling over the words. Hazel just commenced with the attack and hit the pokemon hard with it's claws.
"Now, Charlotte," Ellie said.
"Throw the pokeball," Ellie added quickly. Charlotte nearly dropped the pokeball but managed to throw it and hit the injured Growlithe on the head. Ellie held her breath as the pokemon was sucked into the ball and it shook back and forth until a sudden click.
She went over and picked up the pokeball and handed it to the girl.
"Here you go, one Growlithe..." Ellie said with a smile.
"Oh thank you. Oh thank you!" Charlotte said. Her mother was shaking her head.
"I've never understood why the big deal about pokemon but if dear Charlotte wants one then who am I to stop her. As long as you feed him and take care of him! I don't want you participating in battles either, young missy!" Charlotte's mother said, pointing a stern finger. Ellie gave the girl a understanding smile and told her to release the Growlithe so they may treat it.
Ellie dug through her bag for a Super Potion and handed it to the girl who fumbled with the pokeball before managing to get it open. Ellie quickly returned Hazel so the Growlithe wouldn't freak and watched as the girl tended to the fire pokemon's wounds. The pokemon was soon up and walking. It had already bonded with Charlotte and ended up being carried in her arms.
Ellie just had to smile. She remembered when she had received Luna. It was the best moment in her life. She figured she should feel the same way about her other pokemon but it was just different with Luna. Although a pet originally, Luna was her first pokemon and no one could take that special bond away. She imagined this Charlotte was going through the same thing.
"Oh my it is so late!" Charlotte's mother said.
"I must be getting you back into the city...you are staying in Goldenrod yes?" the woman said. Ellie nodded in response.
"At the pokecenter. You don't really have to do it...well you should probably take the Growlithe to the pokecenter to get checked out. I'm sure it's perfectly healthy but you need to take the pokemon for checkups regularly," Ellie added on.
"Ok, once we get back into National Park I have a car waiting," the woman said. Ellie raised an eyebrow. Not many people in Johto had cars and it was a serious luxury item. Mostly rich people had them because normal people would just rely on walking, biking, or pokemon transportation which was all much cheaper then owning a car and keeping it in running condition. Hell, flying on a pokemon was even faster then taking a car. It was no wonder cars weren't very popular among the masses. She supposed she should have expected such. Goldenrod has quite a few rich people in it. She was bound to run into one eventually.
Ellie let out Ariana to guide the way with her tail lighting up the path as the sky grew darker and darker. They eventually got back to Route 35 and into a black limousine. She kept out Ariana as a precaution even while sitting down and watching the little girl play with her new pokemon. As much as she would love to trust these people, she just didn't. She wondered if she would be able to trust anyone ever again. How could she if she was worried about Archer coming back to finish the job?
They got back to Goldenrod quickly without to many words exchanged.
"Thank you for the ride, Ma'am," Ellie said as they walked in the lobby. She waved before disappearing up the stairs to find her room. First order of business was to give a bath to a very disgruntle Luna who was trying to escape her. She had even managed to fire off a Ice Beam to freeze all the water in the bathtub.
"Luuuna! Come on. Do you wanna stay all nasty from your little forest trip?" Ellie said to the cowering Delcatty. She sighed at the lack of response and set to work melting the ice with straight hot water. It took a while but the traces of ice disappeared.
"You can either take a bath like a civilized being or I will have Nila spray you with water. Either way you are getting wet," Ellie warned as she turned the water to a more suitable temperature. She filled it up about halfway and Luna peeked her head in and walked into the bathroom with head hanging down.
"Aww I know. Poor kitty doesn't like water," Ellie said picking up the now pouting pokemon and placing her in the water. Ellie dug through the set of cabinets and found a bottle of pokemon shampoo and set to work on Luna. Luna hissed at her but didn't try to bite or anything so Ellie continued with the bath.
Eventually Ellie picked up the soaking wet Luna in a towel and helped her out of the tub.
"Don't you dare run away. I've got to dry your coat," Ellie said taking the towel and beginning to dry off the Delcatty. Luna growled at this and ran away as soon as Ellie was done. Ellie could just imagine her other pokemon making fun of the still damp Luna and laughed at this. She drained the water and started up a shower. Nila walked in and turned her head away at the half-naked Ellie.
"Oh you silly goose. Do you want a shower to?" Ellie said, giggling at her pokemon's reaction. Nila nodded.
"Let me shower first, there's not enough room for the both of us and I actually wanna clean. You just want to be in the water," Ellie said sticking out her tongue and shooing Nila away. She finished getting undressed and stepped into the shower. After she was done she let Nila play in the water for a while and all of them went to bed. Ellie closed her eyes and slowly drifted into sleep.
A dark room. Silence all around, the only sound being a beating heart coming from herself. She started to breath heavier and heavier as it felt like something was restricting her throat. A green and white figure came into the picture and began to warn her over and over about Alex with no stop as the pressure on her throat grew and grew. She began to run around the room trying to find a way to escape and was faced with a terrifying Dragonite who seemed even bigger then Dragonites were suppose to be. It lashed out and prepared to attack her.
The scene changes and a younger version of herself is standing with a young Bagon. The Bagon plays with her and Luna for a while before attack the poor normal type and knocking out the pet. It turns on Ellie and begins to attack drawing nearer and nearer-
Ellie woke up with a start, her heart racing way faster then normal and possibly healthy.
"Just a bad dream, just a bad dream," she told herself. She rubbed her throat and couldn't believe just earlier today she was almost killed and was a member of Team Rocket. She sighed to herself and told herself that she wasn't a bad person. After all she was doing it in order to help bring down Team Rocket even if she never really did anything but participate in the horrible activities taking place.
She listened to the steady breathing of her pokemon and wondered if they were dreaming. Some recent science had suggested that Pokemon had dreams she had even heard a scientist far far away was working on a way to harness the energy of dreams. She thought it was an interesting idea to be able to see what your pokemon dreamed about. Maybe they relived battles over and over. Maybe they just dreamed of meeting other pokemon and playing games. Maybe they even dreamed about being back in the wild away from humans.
She laughed quietly and told herself she was silly to be thinking about such things. She closed her eyes and tried to drift back to sleep. After all, she had to come up with something to do tomorrow. She couldn't just laze around even if she wanted to. Both her pokemon and she would get really bored very quickly. Perhaps she would go shopping and try to find another Teddiursa bag for sale. She tried to remembered what store she had gotten it but her world went blank before she could remember as she fell asleep.
Author's Note: This is more of a filler chapter than anything...
