Leah Coyta's Pokémon Journey
1
"… I'm gonna knock ya down, and bite your throat! And you're left dyin' in my arms! Just before I let you go, I'll be drinking your life force! And that's becaaaause… I'M A VAMPIIIRE! VAMPIIIRE! Here to drink your blood!…"
"Leah! Will you please turn your music down, we're trying to read down here!"
"Yeah, well, so am I!"
"Leah!"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry Mom."
'CLICK'
"How can she be reading on my birthday? It's bad enough that I'm not a Pokémon trainer right now. I'm 13; I should have left three years ago tomorrow. AHHHHH!" Leah screamed.
Footsteps on the stairs made her realize that she screamed a little too loud. She looked over at her door to see her kid sister standing in it.
"Leah, Mom wants to know why you screamed. She's scared. Are you hurt?"
"No, Jenna, I'm not hurt. I'm just frustrated."
"Why?"
"Why do you think squirt? I want to go on my Pokémon journey!"
"Leah, be nice. It's not polite to call people names."
"Yeah, I know. Sorry. Tell Mom I'm sorry I scared her."
"All right. Bye." And she headed back down the stairs.
"Back to studyin' then. Gyarados is the, a, atrocious Pokémon." She flipped to the index pages of her A Guide to Pokémon. "Yup." She closed the book. "Haunter is the, uh…, oh what is it again?" 'FLIP' "Gas! How could I forget that! Oh, at this rate, Mom was right not to let me go!"
'Thud, thud, thud.' "Leah, can I come in?"
"Yeah, Mom." When Leah opened the door, Nurse Joy walked in. "Hey, what's up, Mom?"
"Leah, I think that you should clean your room. It's getting a mess."
"Sure, whatever. Uh, Mom, um…, what are we going to do today?"
"What do you mean, Hun?"
"Never mind. I'll clean it."
"I thought about getting you some paint, you know, for your ceiling. Maybe, black, with stars?"
"Are you serious! Oh wow! Cool! You're the best!"
"Really, well you can show me that by cleaning your room, kay." As she said this, Nurse Joy opened the door, and left. Leah was left to contemplate the meaning of the sentence and…
"Hey! That doesn't make sense, Mom! The way you said that, it, it, AHHHH!" She slammed the door closed, and leaned against it, facing her room, with her hands still on the doorknob. "No one cares anymore." And she sank to sit on her ass.
2
"…If I fly, no one could find. I would be anywhere!"
'CLICK'
"MmmmmmnnnaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAHHH! I can see you, but you can't see me. The darkness is my home. I sneak up behind your back, and grasp your neck! 'Caause I'm gonna knock ya down, and bite your throat!"
'CLICK'
"I need their new C.D. Hey, Mom, I cleaned my room, when can I move my furniture?"
"What? You're going to have to come down here and talk to me."
"Fine. I'm coming."
Leah Aethen Coyta. A thirteen- year- old, punker- wanna- be. She is five feet tall, one hundred pounds even, and has a mean attitude. However, she is a kind, caring, thoughtful person. Her favorite clothes are her cut-off purple shirts, and her jade green pants with sparkles, and her dark pink skaters, all adorned with black stripes. Her 'accessories' are her spiked bracelets, necklace, and belt. After weeks of pestering her mother, she was allowed to both die and bleach her hair. It is now dark brown, her natural hair color, with blond bangs and a blue streak down the middle. Her eyes are just a few shades lighter than the streak. Her favorite thing to do is play with her father's Meowth, and listen to her favorite band while reading. Her life is dedicated to the lead singer of 'THE VAMPIRE BANDITS,' whose name is Keson 'Bandit' Ryokusu. To Leah, he is the hottest, sexiest, most badass male figure in the world. Now, getting back to Leah. When she turned ten, her mother, Pewter City's Nurse Joy, refused to let her start her Pokémon journey. Leah was so upset at her mother, that she went punk. She also started to hang out with older kids. They were mostly junior high kids, and her mother started to get worried. In actual fact, what Leah started doing was exactly what her mother was trying to prevent when she didn't let her go. Later, after she had turned twelve, her older friends, who were now in high school, started to use drugs. A few months past, and soon Leah started to try them too. Fortunately, she was caught, and she has been grounded ever sense. To Leah, being grounded didn't mean shit. So she wasn't allowed to talk to or see her friends. That just meant not within her mother's knowledge. One of her friends had given and paid for a cell phone for her. She talks to them daily. Leah also had her many projects to keep her busy.
"Mom, I said that I finished cleaning my room. I wanted to know when I could move my…" Leah stopped talking when she got to the foot of the stairs and looked into the living room. Her family was gathered around the coffee table, which happened to be covered with different shaped packages that were wrapped in oddly colored paper. After giving Leah a few seconds of comprehension, her mother, father, and sister yelled…
"Happy birthday Leah!" And they started clapping. Jenna then got up and ran over to her side. She grabbed her hand, and as she started to pull her over, she cried, "Come on Leah! Come open your gifts."
Leah was stunned. She couldn't believe that she was wrong about her mother.
"Leah sit down and open them." Her father said. After she sat, she smiled, and started laughing.
"Wow! Thanks!" There were ten packages in all. Leah was given a new backpack, a diary, a sleeping bag, a camera, a new CD player, Pokéballs, a Pokégear, new clothes, some cans of paint and…"Money! Oh wow! Your gonna let me go! Yeah!"
"Actually, you still have four months left of being grounded, but yes, we're going to let you go."
"When do I get to go?"
"In four months, when we un-ground you."
"That's fair, considering…"
"Hey, Mommy, I still don't know why you grounded Leah. You never told me. I usually know."
"That's because you're a sneak. Besides, It's none of your business."
"Your sister's right Jenna."
"What, about it not being any of my business?"
"No, about you being sneaky. Leah, what do you say about your father helping you to move your furniture, but you paint it by yourself?"
"Okay. Dad?"
"Sure. I think we can get it done tonight, if we get started right now."
"Let's go then." Leah said as she stood up and held out her hand for his. He took hers, and stood up also. Just then, the phone rang.
"I'll get it." Nurse Joy said. She barely had to listen to know what it was about. "I'll be right there." She hung up. "There's been an accident, they need us at the center."
"We'll come too." Leah and Jenna said in unison.
"If you ride you bikes. We don't have time to wait for you." 'THUD.' As was the norm, Leah and Jenna knew that was coming, they just speak out of reflex.
"Come on Jenna. Find your helmet." Another reflex seeing as their helmets were always in the same place. By the garage door. And, with the skill and practice of six years of the same action, Jenna and Leah had their helmets on in seconds, and Leah had lifted Jenna into her Little Rider seat that was attached to Leah's black 10-speed. They were off as soon as Jenna had her seat buckled. By now, Leah had done this about nine times a month sense she was Jenna's age. She also has the equivalent of a P.H.D. in veterinary medicine. She has been helping her parents to care for Pokémon sense she was old enough to stand. She can lift and soothe even the most stubborn Granbull, with help on the lifting of course. And even has a weird sense of how to diagnose them; she can feel their pain. She also knows which kinds of medicine to give to each Pokémon, and the amount of dosage needed. Of course, she isn't allowed to do it, she just studies what her parents do. Tonight, there was a big fire at the gym, and even Brock's Pokémon were injured. She actually got to care for his Geodude! He even thanked her! She was so flattered that she hugged him! She quickly found out that he didn't mind that much, but he didn't act like a child like when he was on his famous leave of absence five years ago. He silently showed her that he liked it. She then acted like she was acting childish, and let go. Leah saw a hint of sadness and rejection in his eyes, and felt sorry for him. But then she thought 'Statutory Rape,' and the thought left her mind. When they finally got back home, it was 11:00, and way, way past Jenna's bedtime. So, Leah had to wait through another boring day of doing nothing, save for talking to her friends and finding out what kind of sex and drug filled parties she was missing. In all truth she had actually never participated in any form of sexually related activities, and the only time she had even seen a joint was when she was caught, so in reality, she was quite an innocent.
3
Eventually she did get her furniture moved and her ceiling painted. Her mother even bought her a ton of those glow-in-the-dark star thingies. Now it was finally time to leave on her Quest. Her mother was actually crying. For the first time, Leah actually wondered about what she was going to do on her own. It made her think for more than just a few seconds about what this journey was really about. Jenna finally woke her when she asked her to catch a Jigglypuff. "Wha, oh, yeah, sure Jenna. Bye Mom. Bye Dad. See you in about a year." And so, she was off.
4
"I can see you, but you can't see me. The darkness is my home."
'Click'
"Now which way to go? I could go to Mt. Moon," She pointed left. "Or I could go to Viridian." She pointed right. Leah had just reached the outskirts of Pewter when she reached this impossible decision. "If I really want to get to Pallet, I'll go right. If I want to be a little bitch and fuck around, I'll go left. Left." And with a flick of her hair, she turned toward Mt. Moon. It was a beautiful day and Leah just couldn't help looking around. As she looked to the northeast, she got a stinging feeling in her right arm and side, which made her skip a step. Then she saw a flash of red-orange and black in the bushes. When she got closer, she saw that there were palm fronds laid across the entrance to a clearing. When she moved them aside, she noticed more of the red-orange. As Leah got closer, she was startled to see a Growlithe lying in the middle of the clearing. She stifled a frightened gasp, for Growlithe are very protective of their territory and their owners. But in her prolonged stillness it became clear to her that it was badly injured, and in risking her own health, she rushed over to it. Leah could see it's wounds more clearly now. Without even thinking of the danger, which was a bad mistake, she decided to clean and dress the worst of them. When the Growlithe heard Leah open her backpack, it awoke. Sensing that it was in danger, the Growlithe nipped Leah's moving hand. She quickly backed away from the Growlithe. Knowing that puppy and dog type Pokémon can smell fear on one's breath, she stopped breathing. Slowly, she stretched out her hand for it to smell. When Leah was quite sure that it was not going to bite it, she spoke. "I'm not going to hurt you. I have medicine that can make you feel better. If you will trust me, nod your head. I will not attack you. I know that you can sense my fear. I have no chance to win against you. Please, let me help you."
When she had finished talking, Growlithe looked into her eyes, paused, and then nodded its head. "Thank you, um, this will probably sting, but it will help." In all, spraying, setting, and dressing the Growlithe's wounds took Leah ten minutes. Leah was quite impressed by the Growlithe's bravery. "There. All better, for now. For the best treatment, I should get you to a Pokémon center. The only way that I can get you there safely, is to capture you. Will you allow that?"
"Grow." It put its right paw forward in agreement.
"Okay, just let me get a Pokéball."
5
When she had the Growlithe safely in a Pokéball, she started to think. I just caught a Pokémon. Now what? Oh yeah! I have to get to a Pokémon center! So, like all of her previous trips to a Pokécenter, Leah ran to her bike, which she had set down at the entrance to the clearing, got on it, and raced toward Viridian City. In her haste, she bypassed the path and the entrance to the Viridian Forest. From the second she put on her helmet, to the one just outside the city, the ride had taken her nearly a half an hour. If she had gone through the forest, and not the secret path that her friends had shown her, it would have taken her two days. The familiar buildings and street signs of the city were not noticed as Leah sped off toward the town square, where the Pokécenter was located. Thankfully, Officer Jenny was nowhere around. In fact, 2:00 was never a busy time here. Thank the Gods.
Knowing that everyone in the city knew her, and knew what her bike looked like, she was not very compelled to lock it up when she reached the center.
"Aunt Joy! Aunt Joy!" Leah yelled, breathless.
"What's the matter? Oh, hello Leah."
"Aunt Joy, I found an injured Growlithe, can you help him?"
"Really? Where is it?"
"In here." She gave the Pokéball containing Growlithe to Nurse Joy.
"You captured it?"
"It was the only way to get it here. Please help it."
"Right away. Why don't you go home and wait there. And call your mother."
"Yes Aunt Joy. What me to wake Joy when I get there?"
"No. That's all right. Head home. I'll call when he's healed."
"Okay. Bye."
When Leah stepped out of the doors, she saw her bike right where she left it. No one dares touch my bike. If they do, I'll just kick their ass. She showed her words by making fists and a high kick.
6
"Where was the key again? In the Oddish planter, or the Goldeen fountain? Under the mat."
'click'
"La, la, la. Anybody home?" Leah whispered stupidly. "Ha. TV." She ran into the room, shutting the door behind her, and jumped over and onto the couch.
7
"It's already four. Was Growlithe hurt that badly?" Riiiing, Riiiing, Rii.
'click'
"Hello?"
"He's healed, but he should stay till tomorrow."
"Okay. See you in a couple hours." She hung the phone up. "Boy am I tired. I'm taking a nap."
8
"Leah, wake up. Don't you want to see Growlithe?"
"Huh? What time is it?"
"It's nearly nine in the morning. You fell asleep last night, and you've been that way sense. Come on. Get up."
"Wow. Okay. I'll meet you there."
"All right."
9
"I'm here, Aunt Joy."
"I'm in the back with Growlithe. You can come in."
"How are you feeling Growlithe?"
"Grow!"
"I suppose that's a 'fine.'"
"I have other Pokémon to look in on." And Nurse Joy left them.
"Okay. Growlithe. That is so common. Can I give you a name?"
"Grow!"
"Kay. How 'bout, uh…"
"I can see you, but you…"
"Wow, my CD player is on. Hey! How 'bout Bandit? That's the name of my favorite band's singer."
"Grow."
"Okay then. Bandit it is. Welcome to my life Bandit." Leah held out her hand, and Bandit put his paw in it. "Do you think that we could head out now, or do you need more rest?"
"Grow!"
"Um, kay. I'm glad I was bored."
"Grow?" Bandit tilted his head at her weird statement.
"Tell ya later. Pokéball, go!"
10
"Heading out so soon?"
"Bandit said that he felt fine." She patted the Pokéball that she had attached to her collar. "I'm off now. Thanks. Bye." Leah walked out of the doors, got on her bike, and didn't get off again until she was just outside the city. When she had leaned her bike against the 'City limits' sign, she let Bandit out of his Pokéball. "Bandit, I have two things for you. One is a collar, which is one of my belts, and the other is an experimental voice box."
She set down her backpack, opened it, and got those two things out. The belt looked just like the one that she was wearing, and the voice box looked just like those things that scientists put on released wild animals so that they can track them, only smaller. "This artificial voice box can change whatever you say into English, so that I can truly understand you. That won't hurt your pride, will it?" Bandit shook his head. "Good. I made it myself, so if it doesn't work or it shocks you, I'm sorry." Leah put the box on Bandit's real voice box, buttoned it, and turned it on. Then she moved his fur around so that it covered it, and put the belt on over it. "Yeah. You look like a punked-out pup!"
"Punked-out?"
"I understood you! It worked! Wooooo!" Leah jumped up and ran around him, and did some spins and twirls. She then sat down and hugged him. This sort of scared Bandit, but then he realized that this apparently had never happened before, so he decided to bark too.
"Woohoo!"
"We can talk in the same language now. So, how did you end up in that clearing anyway?"
"Well, I had this owner. His name was Arcane. He trained a lot of us. I was the weakest one. When he fought me against a tough trainer, I couldn't handle it, and I fainted. He must have left me there 'cause seeing you was the next thing that I remember. I wasn't good enough for him."
"He wasn't good enough for you. Someone who leaves his or her Pokémon to die in a clearing shouldn't even have Pokémon. I promise that I will never do that to anything. Now, let's continue on our journey to become masters of both Pokémon and life."
"All right. Uh, do you remember how you named me?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, that song sounded neat. Can I please listen to it?"
"Why, of course you can. Anything of mine now belongs to you. Here, want me to put it on continual, or do you want to listen to just that song?"
"You can put it on continual, if you don't mind."
"I don't. But before I do, I have to tell you a few things. First of all, no one knows about my device, so don't talk in front of other people. Second, this CD has a lot of profanity in it, do you mind?"
"No."
"'Kay, lastly, where do you want the volume?"
"I guess it would have to be fairly low."
"All right. Here you go."
11
"Bandit!"
"Yes?"
"You sing very well."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that I was."
"Don't worry. I do it to." All of a sudden they burst out laughing.
"We're going to have to camp here for the night Bandit, It's getting late."
12
"Okay Bandit, remember what I said? Please don't talk to anyone while you have that thing on. Professor Oak is waiting for me. Let's get going. Hey, do you hear that?"
"Hear what? Those Pidgey playing on the side of the path?"
"Yeah! Go catch me one!"
"Okay." Bandit left Leah's side and walked over to a tree where a group of Pidgeys could be seen in the branches. He jumped onto the lowest bow of the tree. He continued to climb up to the same height as the birds. Then, as he was just below them, one of the quieter Pidgeys hopped down to sit next to him.
"Piddgey. Pid pidg."
"Grow lithe, row. Lithe, lithe grow grow row?"
"Pidg." It shrugged in response to Bandit's question.
"Grow." Bandit yipped. "She says 'cool.'"
"Huh?"
"I know these Pidgeys. I saved them from my owner. They said they owed me a favor. This Pidgey is willing to be caught. She's bored with the wild life. Her name's Adori."
"Okay then. Now what?"
"Throw a Pokéball at her."
"Okay."
