"Kar! I'll miss you!" His sister had cried, running up to him and giving him a bear hug. Tam pulled at his hair and giggled-but it was nonetheless a sign of admiration. He smiled and patted them both on the head.
"I'll be back, you two. I'll be back the best, I promise." The sunlight shone brightly, beating down on his shirt and jeans. He had his backpack over his shoulder and various empty pokeballs, coupled with a small sum of money to start him on his adventure. "Katie, take good care of them." She said to the old lady who would be babysitting them both.
She nodded, waving him off as he started to embark on his quest to be something less of a complete and total loser, his sister grinning and waving him off, having the utmost faith in him, and he turned back one last time to see her smiling face, with the sun reflecting highlights on her blonde shoulder length hair, before moving forward, nervous but completely exhilarated.
Kar had left Verdanturf town early that morning with his Growlithe a bit hesitant though firmly by his side. He felt terrible about leaving his siblings behind, but he knew that it would eventually be for the better…well, he hoped, anyways. He didn't really know what he was doing…
All he knew was that a trainer must obtain all eight gym badges from eight towns in order to enter the league challenge. He also knew the to the right he would come across Mauville city and would be able to challenge Wattson, who specialized in electric type pokemon. He saw no reason his Growlithe couldn't beat electric types.
At the moment he sat contemplating this on route 117 under a berry bush in the shade, as the hot sun had made him practically fall over and collapse. He shined the Wepear berries on hit shirt thoroughly before eating them as lunch. His Growlithe was asleep, contented and having a lovely dream, and though Kar offered it some food it still didn't completely like him, or obey him, or want any of his damn Wepear berries.
As Kar Shined another berry and was about to put it into his mouth, he looked upwards to find a girl hovering over him, looking amused. She had a plain blue tank top on with a hood and a plaid skirt, and her long ginger hair hung in her face, matching her golden eyes.
"Can I help you?" Inquired Kar with berry still in his mouth.
"You seem a little newbish. That amuses me, so I came over to see who you were." She smiled.
"Oh…rightyo." He scratched his head, figuring she could have said something more flattering, "My name is Kar, and I come from Verdanturf town which is," He got up and pointed to the left, "That way. And you?"
"I heard about you!" She exclaimed, bolting upright and putting her finger on her chin. "You were that one with the rabid Growlithe!"
"That's Growlie alright." He agreed, and gave a good-natured laugh. "Gossip travel fast here."
"You bet. Hey, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Rhea." She said, sitting down and sprawling out one of her legs.
"Nice to meet you. Are you new to this training thing, too?"
"Not exactly. I already have two fairly high level pokemon, but like you the first badge I need is in Mauville town, and I can't beat that gym leader."
"Is it hard?"
"Well, not exactly. But," She picked two red and white pokeballs off of her belt and released them. "Go, Swablu and Speal!" In two blares of white light the bird type Swablu appeared along with the water type Speal.
"Why is that an…oh. Right. Water and flying." He frowned. "Sucky."
"You really are slow." She laughed, hitting him playfully on the head and recalling her two pokemon.
"Can't you just catch a ground type pokemon?" He asked, thinking hard.
"Which are where?" She asked him, massaging his Growlithe behind his ears.
"I don't know. You're the smart one."
"Well, Kar, I have a proposition for you, okay?"
"Sure thing."
"Help me catch a pokemon to beat the gym leader Wattson and I'll agree to travel with you." She giggled.
"Why can't you catch your own pokemon, miss expert?"
"That's the thing; actually, I don't have any money." She blushed. "I kind of spent it all buying supplies to beat Wattson, like super potions, and paralyze heals."
"Oh. So basically you want to mooch off of me, huh?"
"Please?" She sat down next to him and nuzzled him, then gave him the puppy dog face.
"I never said no, did I? I have more then enough poke'balls. C'mon, let's catch you a Roselia. They reside in this area from what the trainers around here have said."
"But…Roseila isn't the ground type!"
"So what? It's grass type, which means electric attacks don't work very well against it."
"Oh." She said, flustering again. "I knew that!" She crossed her arms and pouted. Kar laughed.
"You did, sure you did. Well, come on Growlie. We're going to help this chick out." Growlie woke up, yawned, and peered over at the girl sitting next to Kar. He sniffed her and then let her rub his hand down his back lovingly. "How come you're not mean when she's around?" He demanded, and Rhea giggled.
Kar pouted, remembering the puppy was nice to his sister. "Ack! I get it! You're only nice to girls, huh?" The puppy barked and seemed happy enough closing his eyes and letting Rhea massage his back. "That's odd…I wonder what guys have ever done to you…" As he started to ponder on it, however, Rhea pulled him towards her.
"You're supposed to be helping me, come on!" She waved her hand towards her, and ran off to find a roselia. Growlithe bounded quickly after as if in entranced by her.
"Hmm." He shrugged, bolted after her, and stopped where she was, near to a white fence, the interior of the fence filled with beautiful roses, swaying gently in the wind. "Good job, Rhea. This seems like a viable guess of where we might find a Roselia." Paying him no mind, she hopped over the fence and started pushing around the flowers to find a Roselia hidden amongst one of the plants. "Well that's no good. Here we are!" He stuck his finger up proudly, as if he had formulated a plan. "I know what we'll do!"
Her interest finally peaked; she turned around and looked at him. "What, Kar?"
"We'll just set it all on fire! Come on, Growlithe. Ember!" Seeming proud of himself, he watched his Growlithe obey him, (Just to impress Rhea, of course.) and set the whole field on fire with a spark of his ember. Shreiking, Rhea hopped back over the fence and whacked Kar over the head.
"ARE YOU RETARDED?" She exclaimed, looking at the burning field.
"But…I…thought it was a good idea…" Said Kar, shuffling his feet.
"Oh holy-" As Rhea was about to release her Speal, amidst the flames, suddenly a Roselia appeared, running back and forth in the field of burning flowers seeming very distraught.
"Catch it, now's your chance!" He said, seeming pleased that his plan was working despite a certain amount of fallouts.
"But I don't have a pokeball; you didn't give it to me yet…"
"Not quick enough!" Ripping out an empty poke'ball from his belt, he hurled it at the burning pokemon that his Growlithe was following back and forth with his eyes and watched it roll-the red light flashing a total of three times. When it stopped, Kar ran out to go meet it, completely forgetting that the field was on fire. After he picked it up, he grumbled a quick holy crap and ran back over the fence back and forth screaming.
Shaking her head, Rhea released Speal. "Water gun attack!" She ordered, and the pokemon blasted Kar and the burning-or burnt, now-field to wet it all off. Singed completely, he walked over to Rhea and smiled affability. He handed her the poke'ball containing Roselia.
"There you go." She smiled, and then sighed; wiping ash off of his burnt clothing, As Growlithe sat wagging his tail by Rhea's side.
"Thank you, Kar." She said, and couldn't help but kind of blush and look away from him. "I suppose I have to keep up my end of the bargain and travel with you now, huh?"
"Hey, I agreed to help you, but I never said I wanted you to travel with me! You seem like nothing but trouble." She knocked him over the head playfully. "Hey!"
"For a second I thought you were nice!" She laughed, hitting him again. He ran away and she chased after him, ready to smack him again.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He cried, though he was still kind of laughing, too.
"Excuse me." Said a voice from behind both of them. They both wheeled around to see Officer Jenny standing there, her uniform blue and black, seeming kind of serious with a white ticket in hand.
"Uh oh…" Grumbled Kar. Rhea stopped too, scratching her head.
"Did you two start those fires?" She asked, her hands on her hips.
"Erm. Yeah, kind of…it was only me, though!" Kar volunteered. Officer Jenny finished writing her ticket and stuck it on his shirt, frowning with utmost seriousness. He pulled it off and looked at, and his expression quickly dropped. "10,000$'s? Are you KIDDING ME?" He asked, gasping. "That's all I have!"
"Maybe next time you should think before you set fields of expensive rose's on fire. Especially A police officer's field of expensive rose's." She frowned, tapping her toe up and down. Moaning, he fished the money out of his wallet and handed it to her, seeming very let down about himself. "Have a nice day" She then remarked, turning around.
"Ugh. I don't have any money left. Now I need to beat the gym leader more then ever." He sweat.
"I'm sorry, Kar!" Said rhea, embarrassed for the third time. "I'll make it up to you, I promise."
"No, it was my stupid idea. I'll make up for it myself. To Mauville we go!" He said, with burning determination. He then rushed ahead, seemed much more enlightened. Rhea looked down at his Growlithe, and the Growlithe looked back up at him.
"I have a feeling that there will be plenty more retarded ideas where that came from." She told the Growlithe.
"Growl." It sighed, seeming to understand. And then the two of them followed the enthusiastic Kar to Mauville town.