The Story of Silver Ketchum
Chapter 4- The Forest Battle
Silver stared. She, her Mew, and her friend Jacen were standing on a hill overlooking the largest city she had ever seen. Okay, so it wasn't that big. It was bigger than Pallet, Silver's hometown.
Suddenly, the earth shook. A huge monster blocked out the sun. It wasn't a Pokémon. It looked like a huge mutated version of Amanda, Silver's arch rival. The thing laughed, sickeningly. Silver screamed.
And woke up. She gasped for air, and then laughed at herself for being scared by such a stupid dream.
Silver glanced around. Mew and Jacen weren't awake yet. Silver pulled out her hand-held Pokédex computer. "Albert, what time is it?" she said, quietly.
Albert the Pokédex pinged. "The time is- 7:43 and eighteen seconds."
"Wow, no wonder no one's awake."
"Meeeeew," Mew yawned and walked towards Silver- accidentally stepping on Jacen.
"Huh? Five more minutes…" Jacen muttered groggily. Silver laughed.
Twenty minutes later the trio were discussing what they were going to do that day, head straight for Viridian City, or try to catch more Pokémon. They decided to hunt for more Pokémon near the lake where Jacen had caught his Poliwhirl.
Near noon, Silver decided that water Pokémon were not early risers. She decided to take a hike around the lake.
Meanwhile, a Pikablu sulked across the lake from Silver. It was feeling more than a little ticked off at its trainer, which had insulted, abused, and then abandoned it. Right now Pikablu wanted revenge against its horrible trainer and the rest of the trainer's Pokémon, which weren't much nicer. Maybe it could find a better trainer.
Approaching footsteps alerted Pikablu's little ears to the presence of a human. A trainer? Maybe. Pikablu's'eyes scanned the girl (hmm, I wonder who it could possibly be?) and saw the Pokéball on her belt. A trainer! But what if she didn't like him either? Impulsively, Pikablu raced out of the bushes as fast as its short little legs could carry it and clung to Silver's leg for dear life (don't ask me why, the brain of a Pokémon works in strange ways).
It took Silver about ten seconds to realize what the strange weight on her right leg was. When she did, she was not happy. Silver hobbled, hopped, and tripped her way back to Jacen and Mew, trying to at least shake Pikablu off. When she finally collapsed into camp, it was all she could do to gasp out, "I think I've been adopted," before proceeding to pry Pikablu off of her jeans.
"Try to get it in a Pokéball," suggested Jacen, "I think it wants to come with you."
"Why-would-it-want…oof!" Silver gasped. She had succeeded in prying the last of Pikablu's hands off of her.
"Pika! Pik-a-blu! Pi!" Pikablu squeaked.
"I don't know, maybe it's been abandoned," Jacen said.
"Why would anyone abandon such a sweet little Pokémon?" Silver asked. She had obviously gotten over her prejudice toward the round little mouse.
"Some people can be pretty twisted. Maybe it wasn't strong enough for them, or they weren't a very good trainer, so it wouldn't obey them."
"Yeah." Silver grabbed something out of her backpack. "Pokéball, go!" Pikablu was willingly sucked inside, and the group continued their travels.
Late in the afternoon Mew discovered that Viridian City was just over the next hill, to the obvious relief of her trainer. Silver practically sprinted to the Pokémon center, where she met a smiling Nurse Josie and an army of Chansey nurses. While Mew, Doduo, and Pikablu were receiving medical treatment and Jacen was trying to get them rooms in the Pokécenter hotel, Silver plugged her Pokédex into the designated cord and called her parents.
After assuring her parents that she was perfectly all right and telling them about her two new Pokémon, Silver switched off Albert, her Pokédex, and collected her now-healed Pokémon.
Silver, Jacen and Mew explored Viridian after dinner, and bought supplies for the road ahead in the Pokémart. Unfortunately, they lost track of time and were greeted by an obviously ruffled Nurse Josie at ten minutes to curfew.
The next day, after a good night's sleep in real beds, the trio moved on to the dark, foreboding Viridian Forest. There, Doduo made short work of two trainer's Bug Pokémon and Jacen's Arbok did the same. After a hard day of traveling in the forest's perpetual twilight, the group decided to find a spot to camp, and Mew again proved herself to be an excellent campsite-finder.
"This is great!" exclaimed Silver, "Who would have thought there'd be a clearing in the middle of this forest?"
"Yeah," agreed Jacen, "It's almost like it was…"
Just then a sharp voice called, "Hey, loser! What are you doing in my campsite?"
"…cleared for us," Jacen finished, as Amanda stormed through the bushes.
Silver shrank back, preparing to feel the wrath of Amanda, but at first sight of Jacen, Amanda forgot all about Silver.
"Oh…hi," Amanda smiled, batting her eyelashes and trying (unsuccessfully) to look cute. She appeared to have entirely dropped the tough-girl attitude in front of what she considered a hot guy.
"Who are you?" Jacen asked, backing away.
"And who do you think you are?" Silver said, having regained her courage. "I believe it was me you had a problem with five seconds ago, wasn't it?"
"Yeah! Now get out, unless you want my Pokémon to make you leave!"
"All right, if it's a battle you want then I choose…Doduo!"
In a flash of red light, Doduo burst out of his Pokéball for the third time that day.
"Go, Parasect!" Amanda yelled.
"Uh, Amanda, Bug Pokémon are weak against Flying…"
"Shut up, loser! Parasect, Stun Spore!"
"Doduo, dodge it! Use Agility!"
Doduo raced around the clearing, dodging the blasts of paralyzing powder.
"Now use your Fury Attack, Doduo!"
Doduo's well-placed kicks rammed the helpless bug into several trees, knocking it unconscious.
"Parasect, return! Go Poliwrath!" yelled Amanda. She smirked when she saw that Jacen was obviously impressed with the evolved version of his Poliwhirl.
"Go, Mew! Metronome attack, now!"
Mew glowed with Psychic power. Suddenly, a bolt of scarlet light erupted from the ground, blasting the Poliwrath skyward. When it did not appear after a few seconds, Mew moved to the spot the Poliwrath had last been seen at and gazed skyward.
Silver cautioned, "Mew, I don't think that's a very good…"
WHUMP. The Poliwrath had fallen out of the sky, directly onto Mew. Both Pokémon were knocked unconscious. Silver quickly rolled Poliwrath off of Mew and gave her to Jacen, along with a Revive she had purchased in Viridian.
"Poliwrath, return!" called Amanda. "All right, loser, what's your next Pokémon?"
"Go, Pikablu!"
"Ha! That Pikablu couldn't hurt a sleeping Metapod! It's a total wimp!"
"Oh, yeah? How would you know?" yelled Silver.
"Who do you think abandoned the little wuss? Go, Machoke!"
A massive gray Pokémon burst from Amanda's Pokéball with a ridiculously high-pitched cry of "Machoke-choke!"
"PI! Pika-pika-blu! Blu-pika!" cried Pikablu in terror. It ran and hid behind Silver.
"Machoke, Mega Punch!"
"Pikablu, drench it with your Water Gun and then give it a Thundershock!"
Machoke swung its fists at Pikablu, who dodged them and blasted Mackoke with water. This alone didn't seem to affect it, but the blast of electricity that ripped through it next sure did. Machoke fell to the ground, charred and completely knocked out.
"Machoke, return!" Amanda growled. She immediately turned and stalked inot the forest.
"You were great, Pikablu!"
"Mew!" Mew had been revived by Jacen in time to see the last of the fight.
"Thanks, Jacen."
"No problem, Silver."
Our heroes, now even more tired from the recent battle, prepared to camp for the night, not realizing that unseen eyes were watching them…
To Be Continued
(And I Swear I'll Explain Next Time)