A Pokemon Story



Disclaimer: The same as every other chapter.

"Michiko!! Come back here NOW!" We are about two days away from Vermilion, and we needed to rest. We found a nice, quiet spot near a lake, and of course Michiko decides to play Vaporeon. I don't like how far out she is going. I curse myself for not catching a water pokemon. Yukiko is not helping, she is cheering Michiko on. Chan finally goes into the water and grabs onto the little Eevee. For Chan, the water is only up to his waist, but for Michiko, it is easily over her head. Chan brings her back and puts her down. I grab a towel and dry her off.

"Didn't I say not to go into the water?!" I scold. Michiko gives the sad puppy eyes.

"Just wanted to play with the fishy..." she says. I look at her. Fishy?

"What fishy?" I ask her. She starts to run back to the water, but I pick her up before she can take a step. "Just tell me."

"Fishy!" she says. She points with her paw. I look out. In the water, is a Mantine. I can't help but wonder what it is doing in a lake with no visible connection to a river or an ocean. Calatain shouts to me.

"Hey, there is someone over there!" he says. I look, and see a young boy about our age with a few more pokemon. But they all look..kinda scared. Lance goes over to him. They talk for a bit, but I can't understand a word of it. Calatain looks over at them too. The other guy is getting pissed. He finally throws a pokeball at Lance. We can hear him say something about 'bleeding heart' and 'you will see how much trouble this stupid thing is'. I frown. Calatain looks ready for a fight. Lance comes back, but not before recalling whatever pokemon he was given. He comes over to me.

"Jerk." He says. "I can't believe he does that!" Caelestis comes over and looks at me.

"Why does he call his pokemon that?" he asks. I shrug.

"Some people just shouldn't be trainers." I respond. I know that I am not the best by far, but I don't abuse them. Lance pushes the pokeball into my hand.

"One water pokemon, for you." He says. I release it into the lake. The Mantine we saw earlier comes out. But. it has some cuts and bruises on it. I go up to it.

"Don't worry, we'll have you better in no time." It looks at me, then nods a bit. I recall it, and we head for the closest city.





**three hours later**



We finally found a city. I didn't realize how far out we were. We go straight to the Pokemon Center, and enter. Chancey is there, but no sign of Nurse Joy. I go up to the Chancey.

"Can you help us?" I ask.

"What do you need?" it responds, then puts it's hands over its mouth. I smile.

"I have a translator." I say. The Chancey calms down. I hold up the pokeball with Mantine in it. "This Mantine we just got is really hurt."

"Oh dear.." Nurse Joy comes out from the back. "What happened?"

"Some kid was abusing it." Lance replies. "That was the only one I could get away though." Lance looks like it is killing him. Nurse Joy takes the pokeball and goes into the back with Chancey. Lance goes over to the couches and sits down hard. I go over and sit next to him.

"You OK?" I ask. He doesn't respond. I pull out Michiko. She seems to be able to make anyone smile. The little Eevee sees Lance and jumps onto his lap. Lance finally looks up.

"No sad face." Michiko tells him. Lance pets her, but his mind seems to be somewhere else. I snap my fingers in front of his face, and he seems to come back to reality.

"You OK?" I say again. He just shakes his head. Calatain comes over and sits on the other side of him.

"I never thought I would see a trainer who absolutely HATED his pokemon." He says. I know what he means. I have never seen him so shaken up before though. As we are sitting there, I "feel" someone behind me.

"If you don't back off you will have a bloody nose." I say. Lance looks at me, then behind me.

"Will, you would think you would have gotten the idea by now." I turn around. Will, another of Lance's Elite Four buddies, is standing there. Dressed like he usually is, white slacks and white shirt and vest, and that dumb mask over his eyes that he never takes off.

"I never expected to see you here." Will says.

"What are you doing here?" I ask. He smiles at me.

"I live here. That's what." I shake my head, then look up as Nurse Joy comes back with the pokeball.

"He's fine now." Nurse Joy says. "Just take it easy for a couple of days." I thank her, and go back. Calatain is telling Will how his Machoke would easily smash his birds. Will apparently forgot a very important detail. I decide to save him before Lance and Will get any bright ideas.

"Calatain?" he looks at me. "You remember him, right?" I let Caelestis out. He looks around a bit, then comes up and rests on my shoulder. Calatain nods. "Will's 'birds' are this guy's evolution." Calatain stares at me, and I see Will smirk. Lance just shakes his head. At least we got his mind off earlier.

"Just ruin the fun, why don't ya?" Lance says. I smile.

"You wanna tag?" I ask him. Lance thinks a moment.

"OK, but me and Will on different teams."

"Fine." Calatain is confused, and so is Will.

"Tag?" Will asks. I look at him.

"Yeah, team battle. 4 on 4. Two from each person. You have to try to work together to get the result you want. First to lose all 4 pokemon is out." Will looks at me. Then we all go outside.



It takes a bit, but we finally found a place where we can do this. Will and I are on one side, while Calatain and Lance are on the other. I turn to Will.

"Mind if I go first?" I ask.

"Ladies before Gentlemen." He replies. I smirk at him.

"Since when are you a gentleman?" I ask. He gives a half-hearted glare, then gestures for me to get going. I pick up a pokeball. Lance throws his out.

"DRAGONITE!" he calls. The dragon pokemon comes out. I like Dragonair better, but oh well. Can't tell him what to do.

"YUKIKO! PLAY TIME!" I call. The little ice pokemon comes out. Now to put her training to the test. Lance gives me a strange look.

"You're kidding, right?" he asks. Yukiko takes that personally. I quickly check my pokedex. Good, the Dragonite is male. This will be fun.

"Yukiko! ATTRACT!" I say. Yukiko makes herself sooooooooooooo cute. The Dragonite just stares at it, even though Lance yelling at him to do something. I smile.

"Now, Powder Snow!" Yukiko makes a mini blizzard around the Dragonite. Not enough to knock it out, but a decent hit. Dragonite is still in 'attract mode', and not moving. Lance is turning red from yelling. Calatain just shakes his head. Will is outright laughing.

"Big bad Dragonite can't handle a little Smoochum?" he says. Lance directs some 'colorful' language to Will. I just shake my head. Time to end Lance's misery.

"Yukiko! Use Ice Beam!" Will stops taunting Lance and looks at me strange.

"Smoochum doesn't learn Ice Beam...." he says. Meanwhile, the ice beam hit the weak spot, and Dragonite is down.

"TMs are a wonderful thing." I reply. Will shakes his head. Yukiko is really happy. Lance calls back his Dragonite. They confer to figure out a strategy. Then I see Calatain get a really evil smile. He picks his pokeball.

"Huo! Come out and heat things up!" The Vulpix comes out and sees Yukiko.

"This is gonna suck." I say. Will shakes his head. I look back out, then decide to pull out the other TM I gave her.

"Yukiko......RETURN!" Yukiko glows slightly, then runs full force at the Huo.

"Huo, jump as high as you can!" Calatain yells. The Vulpix jumps up, and Yukiko misses with the attack.

"Confusion!" I yell. This time, the attack hits. Next to me, Will opens his mouth to say something. "If you say what I think you are going to, I will hurt you so bad." He closes his mouth.

"Huo, Flamethrower!" The fire attack hits Yukiko, and she is down. I call her back. Will pulls one out.

"Xatu, go!" The psychic bird comes out. I still think it looks like a totem pole. It stands on the ground.

"Huo, burn it!" Huo tries her Flamethrower again, but the Xatu flies up into the air.

"Psychic!" Will calls. A huge blast of psychic energy hits the Vulpix. She goes down. Lance gives Will the 'you are so dead' look. Calatain pulls Huo back. They confer again. Then Lance pulls out another Dragonite. Will gives him a strange look.

"We can play like this too." He says. But before he can give the command, Dragonite rips off a Hyper-beam and nails Xatu. Xatu goes down. Will is pissed. He recalls his pokemon. Everyone is down one. I am out of ice types as well. We have to think up another strategy. Chan looks at me. Maybe I do still have an ice-type.

"All you Chan!" Chan goes onto the battlefield. Dragonite is charging up another Hyper-beam. But Chan already knows what to do. He nails Dragonite with a huge ice-punch. Then he follows it up with more. After about five minutes of this, and Lance's yelling for him to try something else, the Dragonite goes down. I think Lance is losing it. Calatain looks at Chan, then decides to fight by type again.

"Noctowl! Go! Use only aerial assaults and confusion!" the owl pokemon complies, and Chan fights off as best as he can. But since he can't reach it, he takes all the damage, and goes down. I recall him. It's between Will and Calatain now. Will smiles.

"Jynx, go!" he throws out the ice pokemon. "Ice beam followed by Psychic!" Jynx complies. Noctowl was able to avoid the Ice-beam, but fell to the Psychic. One more blast and he is gone. Calatain calls him back, and Will just stands there smiling.

"You're losing it Lance..." he says. Lance glares at him.

"I did that on purpose." He says. I groan. Will laughs. Calatain just shakes his head.

"Sure you were." Will says. We all go back to the Pokemon Center for a healing trip.

To be continued....