by Martial Arts Master
The original concept of Pokemon and all related characters copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., 4Kids, TV Tokyo, Satoshi Tajiri, and Wizards of the Coast. All characters I use as Pokewomen are copyrighted by their original creators and owners. I made up Rick, though. See the first chapter for the rules by which the Pokewomen world operates by. Now, on with the story.
***
Rick finished a large meal with Saria, the Pokewoman he started out with thanks to Professor Oak. The meal had been bought from a fast food place.
Saria was currently out of her Poke Ball, since she couldn't very well eat when she was cramped in that little ball.
Rick was currently thinking about what he should do next.
He and Saria decided to listen in on what the people at the next table were saying, so they could catch up on any news.
"So, how have your Pokewomen been doing?" someone at the next table asked someone else.
"Oh, they've been doing great!" the second person said. "I've come a long way since I first started my Pokewomen journey, and I think I'm ready to face this city's gym leader!"
"You sure? I hear he's pretty tough," the first person said.
"Nah, it'll be a cinch," the second person said.
Rick had heard enough.
"You hear that?" he asked Saria.
"Yes," she said. Then, she added, "I guess you'll be headed to the Viridian City Gym, right?"
"Sure, if you think you're up to the challenge," Rick said. He had already decided that Pokewomen deserved to be treated as friends, not as servants. Anybody who forced his/her Pokewoman to do something she didn't want to was, in Rick's opinion, an (expletive deleted).
Since Saria's personality was basically your typical "sweet little girl" personality, Saria replied, "Sure. I'm ready."
"Excellent!" Rick said. He recalled Saria back into her Poke Ball, and left the fast food place.
Rick walked around the city until he found the Viridian City Gym. He decided that he had better finish this match in a hurry, since the sun was already setting. It would soon be night, and time for bed.
He walked towards the gym's entrance only to discover two men in Roman-style armor blocking the entrance.
"I am Rick, from Pallet Town, and I come to issue the gym leader a challenge for the Earth Badge!" Rick shouted. His parents had taught him about how badges worked and how you needed them to compete in the Indigo League.
"Only trainers with seven badges may enter the gym to compete for the eighth," the two men said in unison. "Do you have seven badges?"
Rick sweatdropped. At the moment, he didn't have any badges, much less seven.
"No, but this city is like nowhere near anyplace really important," Rick replied. "Why should this particular gym leader demand trainers that have already earned the other seven badges?"
"This gym leader is the toughest gym leader in the Indigo League," the men replied. Then they added, "Not everyone comes from as close to this city as Pallet Town."
It was starting to creep Rick out that both men constantly spoke at the exact same time. How did each know what each other was going to say?
But Rick reluctantly turned around and walked away from the gym. It was obvious that his first badge would have to come from another city's gym.
He was walking toward a hotel when he heard people screaming.
He rushed toward the sound of the screams only to discover that they came from Viridian City's Poke Center. Poke Centers were places where Pokewomen could be healed of almost anything. The service was free of charge, because Poke Centers were considered so valuable to Pokemon training that they got special funding from the governments that were in the vicinities of the Poke Centers.
So why would people be screaming there?
Rick rushed inside the building. He soon found out why people were screaming.
A crowd of rough-looking men and women were inside, and they had guns. They were wearing black uniforms with red R's on them.
Rick felt a chill as he realized who these people were. His parents had told him about these people, saying that Team Rocket was a criminal organization that was dedicated to stealing Pokewomen.
But Rick had thought his parents had made Team Rocket up as part of an entertaining story. Now Rick knew they were all too real.
The Team Rocket members were pointing their guns at the trainers inside the Poke Center and at a red-haired nurse.
"Give us your Pokewomen and you won't get hurt," one of them said.
"Yeah, don't make us shoot you," another one of them said.
"And we'd do it, too!" yet another said.
"And that's because," still another said.
"We're Team Rocket!" a fifth member said.
Rick could see by the way everyone was shaking that they were scared.
Then Rick looked closer and noticed something. There was a logo on at least one of the guns.
The logo looked to Rick like it said, "Parents rejoice: this is a toy."
Come to think of it, all the guns looked like that gun.
So Rick realized that the guns weren't real; they were toys! These people were such wimps they didn't even use real guns!
"You're not taking these people's Pokewomen!" Rick shouted, sending out Saria.
Saria looked at the guns and gasped, but Rick quickly whispered to her that the guns were fake. Then Saria relaxed.
But the Team Rocket members were looking at Saria with glee, having caught sight of a Pokewoman to steal.
"All right, guys, get her!" the leader of the group said.
All the Team Rocket members threw away their toy guns and charged at Saria.
"Saria, quickly, tap into your Forest Sage powers and do something about these jerks," Rick said.
Saria nodded and concentrated, glowing green a little bit.
Suddenly vines grew out of nowhere, tripping the Team Rocket members up.
Rick wondered why the Team Rocket members weren't using their Pokewomen, and then he realized they probably didn't have any.
"All right, now let's send these jerks outta here for good!" Rick shouted.
Saria concentrated some more, and the vines wrapped around the Team Rocket members.
Then, the vines threw the Team Rocket members through the ceiling, and through the newly-made hole, Rick could see that they were thrown over the horizon.
Before they disappeared completely, Rick heard them all say, "Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
Then they were gone.
The trainers all sighed with relief.
Saria, having not been trained well enough to be able to use her powers well yet, nearly fell over from exhaustion.
Rick had to catch her, much to his embarassment.
The red-haired nurse laughed.
"I was trying to decide how to repay you for getting rid of Team Rocket, but I think I can see how now," she said. "Recall her back into her Poke Ball and place it on my machine, and I'll have her fixed up for you."
"Thank you," Rick said, doing as he was told. After putting the Poke Ball on the machine, he asked the nurse, "What's your name?"
"My name is Nurse Joy," the red-haired nurse replied. "In fact, I'm just one member of an extremely large family. The family is so large you'll find an identical Nurse Joy in every Poke Center. I'm telling you that so you don't mistake the others for me."
Members of the family that all looked exactly the same? Personally Rick thought that was a little weird, but he thought that since he didn't know the family personally, who was he to question it?
Suddenly the machine beeped.
"That sound means that your Pokewoman has been healed completely," Nurse Joy said.
"Thanks!" Rick said, picking the ball up off the machine.
He looked outside and was surprised to see it was nighttime already.
"I think you better get to a hotel and get to bed," Nurse Joy said.
Rick took Nurse Joy's advice and went outside.
He found a hotel pretty quickly, and he went inside the hotel.
Once he found the receptionist, he asked her, "May I have a room, please?"
The receptionist typed something into the computer and said, "Yes, there is a vacancy. Follow me, I'll show you to your room."
Rick was shown to his room. The room had seven beds in it, much to Rick's surprise. Then he figured out that one bed was for a trainer to sleep in, and each other bed was for a Pokewoman to sleep in.
He called out Saria, and invited her to sleep on one of the beds.
After Saria climbed into that bed, she fell asleep pretty quickly.
Rick climbed into another bed, and he, too, soon fell fast asleep...
To be continued...
***
You're probably thinking, "Oh no, not another new trainer fic that the author won't bother to finish!" Well, let me tell you, I hate those kinds of fics too, and let me tell you in advance that I DO plan on finishing this fic. I never start a fic that I don't intend to finish. In fact, if I'm lying about planning to finish the fic, may I get pounded by a madman. E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com.