If you want to read more, please let me know via the review feature. It will encourage me.
This may be easier to read if you've played Red/Blue/Yellow. (I wish Gold/Silver hadn't taken out the Safari Zone...)
All Pokémon concepts, and all characters except Rose, Walker, Mr. Edengrian, and Chance copyright Nintendo, Game Freak, and all sorts of people who aren't me. This isn't meant to detract from the show in any way.
Cosmetic revisions made 12/27/01
Chansey Trainer's Stories
Episode 1: Fuchsia City
Fuchsia City is known for its Pokémon zoo, its Pokémon gyms, and its Safari Zone, where, in exchange for a small fee, Pokémon trainers get a chance to capture wild Pokémon using by throwing a lucky combination of bait, rocks, and special Safari Zone Pokéballs. It is a nice-sized town, with a modest Pokémart and Pokémon Center--the perfect place for an aspiring Pokémon trainer to grow up.
Rose Edengrian, an aspiring Pokémon trainer, spent all of her spare time--and money--at the Safari Zone.
"Let's see," she said, stalking through the grass carefully. She saw something move, and froze, then slowly took a few steps closer.
"A lady Nidoran," she realized, and tossed it a bit of bait. The Pokémon ate obediently, but Rose walked off, instead of trying to capture it.
Shuffling through the grass attracted a few mosquitoes, and got the attention of a Kangaskhan, a huge and kind of scary Pokémon, despite its adorable offspring stored in its pouch. Rose threw some bait far away, and the Pokémon followed it.
"Hey! What are you doing?" a voice demanded. Rose looked over to see a boy her age--a bit older than most rookie Pokémon trainers--who might have been cute if he didn't have a smirk pasted on his smug face. It was Walker, one of the most popular boys at school. He laughed. "Aren't you here to catch Pokémon?"
Rose glared back. "I just want a Chansey! It's not fair to take these other Pokémon away from their home when I don't really even want to use them to battle."
"You're gonna use a Chansey to fight?" Walker laughed again. "Whatever..." He started to walk away, but turned back. "Hey, if you really like Chansey, why don't you just become a nurse? You'd almost look like a girl in that skirt..." He laughed again and walked off.
Rose seethed in silence. She wanted to go on adventures, not spend her life healing injured Pokémon. She spent almost a minute trying to come up with a snappy comeback.
"Well, if you just bought a wig and took the uniform, you could look just like Officer Jenny!" she yelled, sending Pokémon scurrying every which way, away from her. Rose paused, and looked around, only to realize that Walker was long gone. She sighed.
Ding! An announcement over the intercom system informed Rose that her time in the Safari Zone was up. She had spent her allowance, and all the spare change the family Meowth had found that week. Another Saturday, and she hadn't so much as seen a Chansey.
But as Rose made her way out, she thought she heard a high-pitched voice call to her. She looked behind her, but saw nothing.
"I'm so proud of you," Rose's father beamed. "You just never give up, do you?"
"Yeah, Dad."
"Always working hard!"
"Uh-huh."
"No matter how many times you don't succeed in the Safari Zone, you just--"
"Dad, you're not making me feel any better."
"Sorry."
Rose sighed, and settled down to work on her homework. Meowth nuzzled up to her, and she petted it.
"Meowth?" It grinned, and opened its mouth. A few pieces of metal fell to the ground with a 'ping.' Rose swiftly counted the change.
It was just enough.
"I'm going to the Safari Zone again!" Rose shouted on her way out the door.
Her father smiled and told her to be careful.
"All right, Chansey, this time, for sure."
Rose paid her money. She knew the attendants must think she was the stupidest trainer in the world; she had come in every week for nearly a year, and never once came out with a filled Pokéball. She heard some of the them say she must be the most superstitious trainer ever, to insist on starting her journey with the "lucky" Pokémon Chansey.
Of course Rose pretended not to hear. She was too proud to tell them the real reason she wanted a--
"Chansey!!"
Rose froze. Fifteen feet away, there was a wild Chansey. It was staring at Rose, and shaking out of fear of her. Rose knew that if she threw a Safari Ball at it, the Chansey would just run away. She wanted it more than anything in the world, but she set down all of her Pokémon bait and stepped away from it, slowly. She hid in the grass more than throwing distance away from the bait and waited. The Chansey looked at it for a while, then, after what seemed like hours, finally stalked over and started eating. Rose smiled.
Ding! Her time in the Safari Zone was up.
"I'll be back next week," Rose whispered as the Chansey, having finished the bait, ran away.
The next week, Rose took a chance and sat in the grass right where she had seen her Chansey. She waited and waited and waited, but the Chansey never showed up. When her time was up, she left all her Pokémon bait where she had been sitting.
And she swore she could hear the Chansey laughing at her as she walked off.
"Maybe it's just shy," her dad offered. "But I think it likes you."
"If it liked me, it'd just hop into a Safari Ball," Rose said moodily.
"Honey, you have to earn its trust," her dad said. "Remember your sister?"
"That one just followed her home," Rose said angrily. She couldn't think of her sister without tears coming to her eyes, and she had to blink hard.
"But they trusted each other..." Rose's dad turned back to the spaghetti. "Anyway, just keep trying, and you'll catch it, okay?"
Rose didn't feel any better.
The next week, Rose's favorite Chansey showed itself almost as soon as she reached their meeting place. It refused to get any closer than ten feet, but it let Rose throw bait to it. When it caught bait in its mouth, Rose applauded it. The Chansey disappeared right before the chime to call Rose back out of the Safari Zone.
The week after that, the Chansey ate out of Rose's hand. But Rose knew if she so much as thought about taking out a Safari Ball, the Chansey would run away, and probably never come back. Well, the Chansey at least let Rose scratch behind its ears.
"Why don't you talk to it?" Rose's father suggested.
"It doesn't know English," Rose objected.
"I don't know about that," he replied. "Connie's Chansey seemed to understand her."
"But she was just a kid!"
Mr. Edengrian smiled. The idea of his fifteen-year-old daughter striving to become a Pokémon trainer was a little funny, but he was still very proud of his girl. "Just try it, all right?"
Rose got up that night to get a drink of water and saw her father drop a handful of change onto the ground. Meowth, who was just coming back from its nightly jaunt, sprinted to pick it up, and tried to give it to her father. Mr. Edengrian shook his head, and Meowth ran off obediently to drop the change in Rose's room. Rose snuck away as if she hadn't seen, but she couldn't keep from smiling.
In the Safari Zone, Rose asked her friend, "Can I talk to you?"
"Chansey?" The Chansey looked nervous for a moment, then grabbed another piece of Pokémon bait from Rose's hand and chewed.
"Look..." Rose stared at the Chansey's feet. "I...don't worry; I won't catch you if you don't want me to...but...but I really really want to catch a Chansey..."
"Chansey?" It didn't look afraid.
"My little sister...Connie...she...she wanted to be a Pokémon master...she...she made friends with a Chansey...she never put it in the Pokéball...but they left the house in the winter, without telling any of us--I guess she wanted to start her Pokémon journey or something...and...and they...they never..." Rose tried to explain that they had found the pair frozen in cave, many miles north, but couldn't.
"Chansey." The Chansey patted Rose's leg, understanding, then offered her a piece of Pokémon bait.
Rose smiled weakly. "No, that's okay..." She brightened. "Anyway, so I thought I should get a Chansey--just like my sister, you know? So we--I mean, my Chansey and I--could fulfil her Pokémon journey for her."
"Chansey, chansey" Chansey said thoughtfully.
"Well, if it isn't a Chansey!" an irritating voice chimed in.
"Chansey?!"
It was Walker! He extended his arm, twisting a Safari Ball in his wrist.
"I thought Chansey weren't any good for fighting!" Rose noted angrily.
Walker shrugged. "Still don't have that nurse uniform yet? Too bad..."
"Shut up, Jenny!" Rose yelled back. Walker just gave her a funny look, then shrugged. He threw a Safari Ball at Chansey. Rose caught it and threw it as far away from the Pokémon as she could.
"You're right. They can't fight," Walker replied. "I'm just trying to complete my collection. Besides, it's a good luck Pokémon, huh?" He threw another Safari Ball, and Rose couldn't block it. It hit Chansey in the head and sucked the Pokémon inside. The ball wobbled a few times before Chansey managed to free herself in a flash of red light.
"Chansey!!" it yelled, and hid behind Rose.
"You don't want him to catch you, do you?" Rose asked.
"Chansey," it said forlornly, shivering.
"Do you trust me?" Rose asked.
The Pokémon looked up at Rose. "Chansey, chansey...!" it said quietly.
"Okay. Pokéball, go!" Rose dropped a Safari Ball onto Chansey. It looked shocked for a moment, but Rose smiled, and Chansey almost managed to put its trademark smile back on its face for Rose. Chansey was sucked inside, and the ball only wobbled a little before its light went out.
"Well, guess I beat you on that one," Rose said, smirking at Walker. He tried to grab the Safari Ball, but Rose fended him off, and finally he walked off, grumbling.
When he was out of sight, Rose threw the Safari Ball. "Chansey, go!"
"Chan--sey!" the Pokémon said, coming out.
Rose touched its head. "Sorry, but it's the only way I could think of to save you. But you're free now."
"Chansey! Chansey!" Chansey said, bowing.
Rose glanced at her watch. "Hey...if you ever find a Chansey who wants to get caught, could you send it over to me? I mean...if you think I'd make a good trainer and all..."
"Chansey!" Chansey hugged Rose, and then ran off, right as the alert bell called Rose back out of the Safari Zone.
It was three PM the next Saturday afternoon, and Rose was working hard on her homework.
"Hey, aren't you going to the Safari Zone?" her father asked.
Rose shook her head. "I might as well take a week off...it won't matter..."
"I thought you wanted a Chansey," Mr. Edengrian replied, sounding disappointed. "Doesn't sound like you're trying very hard."
"But I've been there every day for almost a whole year and--"
"And I'll bet you're real close to catching one." Her dad smiled. "Go on. I'm sure that Chansey is expecting you."
Rose pictured Chansey sitting in the grass, waiting for her to come...or even being caught by another trainer, being out in the open like that...even Walker...
In five minutes she was in the Safari Zone. But Chansey wasn't at their waiting place.
"Maybe it got caught by a good trainer," Rose sighed.
"CHANSEY!!" The sound echoed through the whole Safari Zone, and almost deafened Rose. She was suddenly surrounded by pink, egg-shaped Pokémon.
"Chansey chansey, chan!" a voice said, and Rose recognized it as the Chansey she had befriended. She offered it some Pokémon bait, but it declined, motioning to the other Chansey. Rose timidly threw some at them, and a few of them caught it. Soon she was surrounded by hungry Chansey, who ate all the bait from her hands, and rummaged through her backpack and pockets, looking for more.
"Hey! That's all I have!" Rose objected, but she really didn't mind.
That afternoon she watched the Chansey play a variation on soccer--they used their eggs for balls and their tails as extra legs and played pretty well--or, at least, better than Rose when she tried to join in. No trainers tried to interfere or catch the Chansey; there was a group of Eggsecute guarding for them. But when the ding from the main gate went off, the Chansey all scattered as quickly as they had appeared.
Rose's smile faded as the Pokémon hurried away. "I guess none of those Chansey want me to train them," she said, walking back to the gate. "I wonder if I can get any of them to trust me enough...maybe I should just give up...I mean, Chansey are hard to catch and all, but I've been working for over a year...maybe I'm just a bad trainer..."
She handed her 30 unused Safari Zone Pokéballs to the attendant.
"No luck again?" the attendant quipped.
Rose nodded glumly.
"Hey, wait a second," the attendant said. "I think this one's got something in it..." She threw it to Rose, who cautiously pressed the button in the front...
"Chan-sey! Chansey, chan!" Rose's favorite pink Pokémon came out triumphantly.
Rose's eyes widened. "You...want to come home with me?"
"Chansey!"
"And be my Pokémon?"
"Chansey! Chansey!"
Rose leaned down and put her arms around Chansey, who did its best to return the hug with its short arms. The Chansey didn't even seem to mind when Rose spilled her tears all over its fur.
"I told you you could do it," was all Rose's father said when she brought Chansey home.
But she saw the grin on his face, and she was pretty sure she saw a tear in his eye.
Rose turned to Chansey. "You don't mind learning how to fight, do you?"
"Chaaan...see!" it replied, punching the air.
Rose smiled. "It'd be okay even if you didn't want to fight...but wouldn't it be cool if we won a Pokémon battle against Walker?"
"Chansey!" the Pokémon laughed.
Rose forgot to do her homework that weekend, and as they slept that night, she and Chansey both dreamed of their upcoming Pokémon journey.