A soft rustling in the bushes woke us up from our trance-like state, still in disbelief that we were about to go on a journey throughout the world. I was the first to notice, Ash still fixated on the path in front of him. Quickly, I tapped his leg to get his attention, pointing at the rustling bush. He understood what I was alluding to, and grinned. He paused for a moment, hand on his chin and eyes fixated on the bush, until he nodded to himself, turning his signature red cap backwards.
"Now's our chance! Drake, use growl!" My eyes widened, I had never tried my attacks out, let alone on a real Pokémon.
"Uh… ah… grrr?" I stuttered, until I finally let out that pathetic groan. Suddenly, I heard laughter from the bushes.
"Really, for a ferocious fire-type that's the best you can do?" a purple form appeared, rolling on the ground in fits of laugher.
"H-hey that's not nice!" I stammered back. The Ratatta rolled its eyes.
"There you are! Quick, use scratch!" Ash barked from behind me. I grit my teeth and stared down the rat, I would show them. With a battle cry, I ran as fast as my stubby legs would take me, claws at the ready. As I got close, the Ratatta jumped to the right, causing me to completely miss my attack and fall on my face. A wave of pain coursed through my side as my opponent used tackle.
"No, Drake! You can do this!" I heard through the ringing in my ears. Slowly, I pushed myself up, determined to put this rat into place. I felt anger boil up as I let out a guttural roar, causing the Ratatta to recoil in fear. My eyes widened at what I had just done. "Great job, use scratch one more time!" I was still hesitant after the surprise growl that had left my throat and narrowly missed. The Ratatta used my hesitation to flee.
"Oh, no! We almost had it," Ash complained. I sighed.
"I'm sorry Ash, that was my fault. I still need to get used to this form," I muttered in disappointment.
"Well hey, you did a great job with your growl attack the second time," he complemented as I scratched my head. I had managed that attack when I was angry, but would I be able to while in a positive mood? This world made my head spin.
"Yea, I guess so. I did that when I was angry, maybe I need to train my anger?" Ash nodded in agreement.
"Come on Drake, just one more! Then you can rest," Ash encouraged, as I panted, sweat dripping down my face. Focusing one last time, I let out a war scream with whatever voice I had left as I rushed towards the tree, giving it a huge scratch. The scratch left several sizeable holes in the trunk, but not enough to finish it. Out of breath, I fell backwards landing on my tail. "Great job, that should be enough training for today."
"Oh thank god," I half-whispered, still struggling to catch my breath. Part of me wanted nothing more than to lie down on a couch with a bowl of popcorn or some sweets, but the other, more competitive part knew that if I ever wanted to become a strong Pokémon and possibly even a fully grown Charizard, I'd have to put in the work. I justified it as basically just working out, but the payoff is even better.
While I recovered from the brutal training, Ash laid out a picnic blanket stored in his backpack and pulled out two packs of food and water bottles. He then grabbed some sticks and branches from the few trees I had managed to knock down and collected them in a pile. As I sat up, I noticed him seemingly stop and think for a second, until his eyes lit up and he turned to me.
"Drake, can you use your tail to light this fire for us?" Ash asked, and I nodded, half-expecting it. I waddled toward the fire pit on my achy legs, until I was close enough, and turned around, catching some of the smaller sticks on fire. Eventually, the small embers spread to the large chunks of wood, causing the fire to flare up. Ash took the opportunity to place his food, a can of soup, into the fire to heat it up. Then he turned to my food pack and opened the top.
"Mom gave this to me, it's special Pokéfood for fire-types," he explained. I investigated the can, interested. The food was essentially just a bunch of red-colored pellets, which as far as I knew looked just like dog food. However, I decided to trust Ash as he has shown nothing but kindness during our short time together. Smelling the food, it smelled like spices, like the ones used in Indian cuisine back on Earth. Finally, I shrugged and took a bite. The flavor was a huge surprise, it was very savory with hints of pepper, utterly delicious. The pellet filled my mouth with a comfortable warmth, that travelled down into my throat when swallowed.
"Wow. I was not expecting it to be this amazing," I gaped, still in shock. I dug in, eating pellet after pellet as I watched Ash pull his soup can out of the fire, and immediately slurp it down without second thought. Eventually after eating about half of the can, I could not eat any more, as the can was supposed to be a serving for a full-sized fire-type, which I was not. Ash glanced towards the can, intrigued.
"I wonder if…"
"Uhh, I wouldn't do that if I-" I watched helplessly as he grabbed a pellet from the can and popped it into his mouth, only for him to spit it out immediately.
"HOT HOT HOT!" he screamed as his face turned a bright red. He snagged his water bottle, and chugged the rest, which by the look on his face seemed to considerably lessen his pain but not fully.
"I mean I tried to warn you," I muttered sheepishly.
The next day, I woke up in mid-morning, probably around 9-10 based on the sun. Suddenly, I heard a long snorting noise, only to realize Ash was still asleep, snoring loudly. I decided to give him a few more minutes, but after waiting for a while, I became impatient, and decided to wake him up. If we waited until afternoon to travel, we probably wouldn't make it to Viridian City until the next day, which would mean another day of camping on the route.
First, I tried shaking him, which didn't work. I then shook him harder, still nothing.
"Ash, wake up it's late we should get going," I say loudly into his ear. He didn't even stir. So, I considered my options. In the show, I remembered that Pikachu would always use thundershock to wake Ash up, but I obviously couldn't use that, as my only two attacks were scratch and growl. Scratch would have been highly effective, but I would be hurting Ash, likely leaving him with cuts and eventually scars. In the end, I decided to give him my best growl.
Clearing my throat, I focused on my anger. Anger at Ash for not waking up, anger at that pesky Ratatta for making a fool out of us, it all pent up in my stomach. I took a deep breath in, making sure to focus on inflating my diaphragm as much as possible, and let it out. Well, not exactly what I had meant to let out.
"OH CRAP!" I yelled, as Ash stirred, his shirt's arm lit on fire. I grabbed the rest of my water bottle from the night before and poured it onto his arm. This finally woke him up, as well as put the fire out, as he sputtered and frantically looked around, until he locked eyes with me. I smiled sheepishly. "Uh… oops?" Ash sighed and was about to reprimand me when a robotic voice cut him off.
Congratulations, Drake has learned the move ember. Both of our eyes widened, as I realized what I had just done. My inner fan was squealing about how I was able to use fire now, but I controlled myself for the sake of Ash's sanity. Instead, I looked at Ash's now slightly burnt shirt in concern.
"I'm not mad, actually I'm really happy you finally learned a new move, even though it burnt my shirt," Ash smiled, lowering all tension as I grinned back, giving a fist pump to show my excitement. "I'm gonna need a new shirt though," he sighed, staring at his newly charred sleeve. Shrugging, he stood up, packing his sleeping bag.
After a quick breakfast of some berries, we picked from the lush bushes on the route, we continued down the path to Viridian City. I used every opportunity I could get to practice summoning fire, hoping it would eventually become more natural. Although I had significantly improved since the first attempt with gradually larger attacks and shorter recharge times, it was still nowhere near the level of a fully developed fire type, yet I was determined to get there.
"Hey look, there's someone ahead," I pointed, spotting a small silhouette in the distance near the large pond we were walking along. The silhouette was short and had a single pigtail, but we were not able to make out details due to the light fog. Eventually as we got closer, the figure's bright orange hair stuck out, revealing a young girl. She was- wait a second, that hair seemed very familiar, could that be-
"Hey! Who are you?" Ash's voice called out, causing the girl to stiffen, and turn around, an annoyed expression on her face.
"Who are you?" she remarked mockingly.
"Hey, I asked you first!" Ash complained, as she rolled her eyes.
"Misty Waterflower, future water-type master," she responded proudly.
"I'm Ash Ketchum, and I'm going to be the world's greatest Pokémon master! And this is my partner Drake," he boasted, pointing his arm down as I waved.
"Nice to meet you Misty," I responded. Nothing happened for a few seconds, until Misty did a double take.
"Wait did you just-" she was interrupted by a tug on her cast fishing rod. Forgetting the previous encounter, she focused on the bob, being sure to reel it in quickly to not give the bite any time to escape. She grunted as the bob darted back and forth through the water, sweat dripping down her forehead. Suddenly, a huge splash, as a Gyarados sprang up in the water.
"Ahhh!" Misty screamed, as she quickly backed up. However, Ash had a determined look on his face.
"Drake, use ember!" My eyes widened as I heard the call. Did he seriously expect me to do any sort of damage to this giant monster, let alone a water-type?
"ASH ARE YOU CRAZY!" Misty screamed at his response. Regardless, I summoned the best ember I could muster, a tennis ball sized fireball which raced towards the serpent, simply bouncing off its scaly build. The Gyarados roared, shooting a huge blast of water in my direction. I screamed, trying to dodge but was hit on the side. Pain shot through my side as I flew backwards, crashing into Misty's bike in a dripping, shivering mess.
"Drake!" Ash called out as I struggled to stand back up. Throwing his backpack next to me, he shuffled through it until he found what he was looking for, a leftover oran berry from earlier. I accepted the berry gratefully, immediately feeling revitalized. There was still pain in my side, but it was more of a dull ache than a sharp pain.
"My bike!" Misty cried, noticing the damage our collision had caused. The front wheel was bent into an awkward oval shape, and the tire completely deflated. The chains broke in two places, leaving the pedals, which were not unscathed either, to be completely useless. She pointed at Ash. "You're going to pay for a new one!"
"Me? How is this my fault?" Ash complained, as I struggled to keep it together noticing the irony. Even without his Pikachu from the show, we had still managed to break Misty's bike.
"If you weren't a complete bird brain and tried to fight that Gyarados with your Charmander, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Well how was I supposed to know that was going to happen?" Ash questioned, looking at me, then back at Misty.
"To be fair, considering I just learned ember like a few hours ago, did you really expect me to do anything against that thing?" Ash facepalmed, as Misty smirked.
"Drake, you're supposed to be on my side!" he complained.
After a few more hours of walking, we noticed some shadows of buildings rise up behind the setting sun.
"Alright, we made it!" Ash cheered.
"It's about time, I could have been here hours ago if you hadn't wrecked my bike!" Misty sneered. I rolled my eyes, having grown used to her bickering over the past few hours.
"Last one there is a rotten egg!" Ash called, as he took a running start.
"HEY! Get back here!" Misty yelled, as she chased after him, me struggling to follow along on my stubby legs. Ash seemed to disappear into the distance, only to reappear a few minutes later talking to a woman dressed in a police uniform. As we approached, we overheard their conversation.
"ID? I- uh…" Ash stammered, as I understood what was being asked. I hopped up and snatched his Pokédex from his back pocket, handing it to the officer. She nodded in satisfaction and turned to Misty.
"Ma'am, we've had reports of Pokémon robbers entering the town, please show your ID to prove you are innocent," the officer said curtly. Misty pulled a case out of her purse, containing a teardrop-shaped gem. "Misty Waterflower, you're good to go," she nodded, as we head towards the heart of the city where the Pokémon Center was located. "Stay safe you guys!"
"Thank you for waiting, your Charmander is now in perfect health. We hope to see you again!" the pink haired lady behind the counter smiled warmly and waved.
"Oh, I almost forgot, how much does it cost to spend the night here?" Ash asked. The nurse smiled at the question.
"For travelling trainers, you can request rooms here or at any Pokémon Center for free! Of course, there are limits to this, such that you can not stay for longer than a week at a time."
"Great! I'll take a room then," Ash exclaimed.
"Me too please," Misty added.
"Sure thing, I'll have the keys right out," Joy said. As she was turning around to find the room keys, the lights suddenly went out. A chorus of screams rang out, followed by sinister laughter.
"Prepare for trouble!" a female voice filled the center.
"And make it double," a male voice joined. I jumped up onto the desk, where Nurse Joy was still standing frozen.
"You need to get the injured Pokémon to safety," I whispered, tugging on her sleeve. This seemed to break her out of her trance, letting out a startled yelp, and then relaxing. She nodded and ran through the double doors into the medical wing.
"Meowth, that's right!" a third, heavily accented voice finished. Suddenly, the lights turned back on, and the nurse ran back through the double doors, panting.
"You there!" Meowth called, pointing in my direction.
'Please don't be me please don't be me-'
"Fire tail, on the desk, yea you," he confirmed.
"Crap," I muttered out loud, looking up at the trio. Once I saw their faces, I knew I had made a huge mistake.
"I knew it! The way she understood you, you can speak human too!" the Meowth exclaimed, stars filling his eyes. Jessie and James grinned.
"The boss would love a rare catch like you," James remarked. Ash, finally snapping out of his shock, stood up.
"I won't let you get Drake!" he cried out.
"Fine then, we'll just have to take it from you. Ekans get him," Jessie yelled.
"Koffing," James added.
"Oh no you don't, go Staryu!" Misty announced. I looked back at Ash and nodded, facing the threats.
"Ekans, wrap that lizard," Jessie sneered.
"Dodge and use scratch!" Ash called. Facing the snake, I jumped out of range as they were about to reach me and thrust my arm forward with all my might, catching its midsection. Ekans hissed in pain, backing up towards the rockets.
"Koffing, smog," James said.
"Staryu, block it with rapid spin!" Misty yelled. The star Pokémon spun wildly, and I felt a gust of wind. The smog was pushed out and disappeared once it had spread too much.
"Drake, ember!" Hearing the command, I built up some flame. I was determined to make this the best ember I had ever used. Once my throat felt like it would burst, I let it loose. The fireball, a bit smaller than a bowling ball, shot towards the floating ball.
"Staryu, help him out with water gun!" The water gun impacted with the ember, causing a large explosion, catching all the rockets.
As the smoke cleared, the rockets were gone, although I could have sworn, I heard them calling out "we're blasting off again!" But maybe that was just my imagination. Suddenly, the center erupted into cheers as the few trainers who were caught in the crossfire were grateful the thieves were brought to justice.
"Thanks to you and your Pokémon, we were able to save all of the sick and injured Pokémon in this center," Nurse Joy commended, patting me on the head. I smiled, giving her a thumbs up.
"Aww thanks, but it was nothing," Ash said sheepishly, scratching his head.
"Sorry about your roof," Misty muttered, looking up. Confused, I followed her gaze until my eyes landed on a gaping hole in the ceiling of the building.
"Woah," I muttered, staring at the hole, "we did that?" I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see Misty's Staryu. He gave me a nod, patting my shoulder a few more times. Although he didn't say anything, I understood what he was trying to say, and smiled back.
Thanks for reading up to this point! Please let me know in the reviews if you have any recommendations for the upcoming chapters. I have some ideas in mind, but I'm curious to see what you guys think.