by Martial Arts Master
Pokemon and all related characters copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., Satoshi Tajiri, TV Tokyo, 4Kids, and Wizards of the Coast. For you to know who Richie is, you'd have to have seen the final three Indigo League episodes, where Richie appears. He's the guy that beat Ash and got beaten by Assunta later. I have to confess, I had an ulterior motive for writing this story. You see, where arguements are concerned, I try to stay impartial. For example, I don't go for all that "pairing up" stuff in the Digimon section, I think Pokemon and Digimon are equal, I don't care doodly squat who "ends up" with who, yada, yada, yada. But when I wrote a story called "Ash Versus Richie: Who Is Truly Better?", I wasn't impartial. I admit it. For once in my life, I slipped up. I made my favorite character win. I became a hypocrite. I had always hated stories where the authors simply make their favorites win battles, and now I see that I'm no better then they are. I had done what I myself hated. I had made Ash beat Richie just because Ash was my favorite character. Naturally, at the time, I had no idea of what I had done, but now I regret having written that fic. This does not mean I don't think Ash could beat Richie in a fair fight, and this does not mean that Ash isn't still my favorite character, it simply means that I should never have expressed that opinion in that particular way. I know you're thinking, "Yeah, now this guy's apologizing, when the damage is done already!" That is precisely why I decided to write a story devoted to Richie, for those of you who were offended by the "Ash Versus Richie: Who Is Truly Better?" fic. Actions speak louder than words, right? I've learned my lesson. I hereby promise you that from here on in, I shall be impartial in all issues. That way I won't offend anyone. This fic is written from Richie's point of view. Now, on with the story.
***
Hi. My name's Richie.
If you watch the show, though, you'd probably already know that.
Anyway, maybe you'd like to know more about me.
See, I'm pretty much widely known as a "nice guy".
I don't really know if I deserve to be known as a "nice guy" or not.
Others have called me sweet, polite, mature, pleasant, thoughtful, smart, and helpful.
Whether I am or not isn't up to me to decide. Nobody should judge himself or herself, because the person will just end up praising himself or herself, and that's where conceit starts.
So I can't judge whether or not I'm a nice guy. I'll let others do the judging.
Actually, people have been describing my good qualities almost my whole life.
For instance, once I climbed up a tree to save an old lady's Meowth. No, it's not stereotypical. The stereotype is for regular cats, not Meowths.
The old lady praised me for my helpfulness. To be honest, I was pretty embarassed. I mean, I only did what was the right thing to do.
Wanna know where I started my Pokemon journey? Actually it was in Vermillion City.
Every city has different starting Pokemon, and in Vermillion City, trainers got to pick their choices from any non-evolved Electric-type Pokemon (except of course for the legendary ones).
What's that? You wanna know whether I started with a Pichu or Pikachu?
Well, actually, this was before Pichu was discovered, so I started with Pikachu. I named it Sparky.
I didn't evolve it into a Raichu yet because I couldn't afford a Thunder Stone. I still can't.
But anyway, I'd barely gotten out of Vermillion City when I got my next Pokemon.
It happened like this: I was training Pikachu, because of course a fundamental of becoming a master is to train your Pokemon well.
Anyway, in the middle of my training, a Charmander stumbled into view.
And boy, did this Charmander look beat up.
There were scratches all over its body, and also bruises.
And it was bleeding!
I hadn't the slightest idea how Charmander got to be in this condition, but I had to help it. That was the right thing to do, after all.
I caught it with a Poke Ball and took it to a Poke Center.
Nurse Joy healed it.
I know, I know, you're probably wondering whether or not Nurse Joy automatically accused me of letting it get in that condition.
Well, actually, this one knew me. As a little kid I used to wander into the center sometimes so I could see the Pokemon, and Nurse Joy was one of those people who were constantly praising my good qualities.
As usual, I was embarassed every time she did. I mean, it wasn't like I went out of my way to be nice. I just wanted do the right thing all the time, that's all.
Anyway, Nurse Joy did ask me for an explanation, and I said I found it like this.
As luck would have it, some female jerk in the Poke Center started talking to a friend of hers, paying her 10 dollars and grumbling.
I asked what that was about.
She said that she'd started out with a Charmander in Pallet Town years before, but recently it had become too weak to battle, according to her.
Then her friend, who was male and also a jerk, said that he'd made a bet with her that if she abandoned Charmander, it would survive the ordeal. The female had bet that Charmander's tail flame would go out before anyone even knew it was there.
Nurse Joy gasped, and no wonder. Putting a Pokemon's life in danger for a bet was manslaughter.
I was furious, and that rarely happens, believe me.
I sent out Pikachu, who paralyzed those two jerks with a Thunder Wave.
Nurse Joy called the police, who hauled them away. Yes, even the male jerk, but with him it was a charge of conspiracy to commit manslaughter.
As usual, I was thanked for my help.
Charmander remembered that I'd saved its life, so it decided to come along with me.
I captured it with a Poke Ball, and I named it Zippo.
If you're wondering where I got my Butterfree, that'll probably bore you. I just caught a Caterpie on the way from Vermillion City to Pewter City, and I raised it until it became a Metapod and then until it became a Butterfree. I named it Happy.
I'd tell you about my other Pokemon, but I don't want you to be bored, so I'll move on to something else.
Well, when I was competing for my first badge, the Boulder Badge, I had a really tough time.
You see, the gym leader specialized in Rock Pokemon, and at the time, all that I had were Sparky, Zippo, and Happy, all of whom had disadvantages against Rock-types.
However, I was able to win by having Happy knocking out the Rock Pokemon with its Psybeam attack.
So I won my first badge.
I had a great journey, and then I came to the Indigo League, where I made friends with Ash.
Ash is pretty cool, actually. Obviously he likes Pokemon as much as I do, at any rate.
We did have a great battle...once he showed up. I still haven't figured out what made him late, but it must have been something major.
Later I heard that Ash won the Orange League trophy.
I was astonished. That league is extremely difficult to win.
I guess that makes up for his loss in the Indigo League.
I hear some people think it's Ash's fault for not training Charizard well.
Believe it or not, I disagree.
Yeah, I know you're surpised. Me disagree with those who criticize my opponent?
But I don't have the ruthless mentality some trainers have. You know, the mentality of having to win at any costs.
And actually, I pretty much doubt even I could have controlled his Charizard if Charizard were mine. That particular Charizard didn't seem very nice to me, deliberately costing Ash his chance at the league.
Maybe I would have beaten him anyway, since Sparky's Electric-type attacks work well against Flying-type Pokemon, and Charizard is a combination Fire/Flying type.
I don't know for sure, though. And the question is moot now anyway.
Am I worried about my own Charmander turning out bad when it evolves into Charmeleon and then into Charizard?
Nah, I'm not worried. Zippo likes me, as all of my Pokemon do. It would never turn on me.
Anyway, I didn't wanna be satisfied with just hearing about Ash's Orange League match, so I ordered a tape of it.
It was expensive, but worth it.
I even saw Charizard obey Ash during the battle. Looks like bad things don't last forever.
Well, I lost to Assunta, as you probably know.
Yes, I do have flaws, just like everybody else. Nobody's perfect, you know, and one of my flaws is that I haven't been able to train Sparky to overcome the disadvantages that Electric-types have.
That's why Sparky lost so badly to Assunta's Ivysaur.
I heard later that Assunta only got second place in the Indigo League.
She must have lost the final match, which was the match right after the one I lost.
It's a shame. She was a great opponent.
As for my own standing in the Pokemon League, I'm just grateful I got here at all.
I'm just grateful that I got anything other than last place. If I'm as a nice a guy as everybody says (which I doubt), then maybe it just goes to show that since I didn't finish last, nice guys don't finish last...
The End
E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com.