AUTHOR'S NOTE: Greetings, readers! It's been a while, but here is Chapter 15 of Tristan, Hillary, and Pikachu's continuing adventures in Kanto. I thought I'd put in an instrumental version of You Can Do It (If You Really Try) in this chapter. The song was co-produced and arranged by John Siegler while the lead vocalist is John Loeffler. This chapter is a little shorter than some of the others, but as always, please feel free to read, review, and enjoy.

TEASER: Tristan and Hillary take a day off to kick back and relax at the beach, but after some chaos, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle meet another kid in the center of town. They have their own differences, but what is something they all have in common?

Chapter 15: PLAY DAZE

(Music Cue: Opening & Title Screen 1997-1998 (as heard in "Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon"))

Our heroes are still continuing their journey, but today they're taking a trip by ferry from Vermilion City to the town of Porta Vista. It's a nice way to take a rest, especially after earning three badges so far.

"This is a great way to take a break, isn't it?" said Hillary excitedly.

"I was kind of hoping to get my next badge soon," replied Tristan. "But I guess a break at the beach would be a good way to kick back and relax for awhile."

"Relax, Tristan," said Hillary. "That's what you need to do. You need to think about other things besides training your Pokémon all the time.

That gave Tristan an idea. "Why don't we let the Pokémon enjoy a day of fun in the sun as soon as we get there?" he suggested.

"Okay," said Hillary.


(Music Cue: Sunbasking)

When they got to Porta Vista, Tristan and Hillary made a quick change into their swim gear and made their way straight to the beach.

"Come on out, everyone!" called Tristan as he threw five of his Pokéballs into the air.

Pidgeotto, Butterfree, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle all materialized from the white lights that shot out of them.

Squirtle was nervous at the presence of Tristan's other four Pokémon.

Tristan explained the situation to his other Pokémon. "There's no reason to be suspicious, guys," he said. "This is Squirtle, your newest friend and the newest member of our team."

The other Pokémon then greeted Squirtle warmly after that.

"Hey, guys, let's take a day off to just kick back, relax, and play," suggested Tristan.

The Pokémon agreed that it was a good idea.

Tristan then turned to Hillary. "Let's go swimming!" he said.

"Good idea!" replied Hillary.

Tristan and Hillary ran into the water and began to play. They swam and splashed water onto each other.

Squirtle enjoyed swimming in the water even more than they did.

Pikachu and Bulbasaur rested on the warm sand.

Butterfree and Pidgeotto flew gently through the air, enjoying the nice weather.

A little water splashed onto Charmander. As a result, Charmander ran from the water so it wouldn't get wet.

"No surprise there," said Hillary as she looked on. "Charmander hates the water."

"I guess we should be a little more careful," said Tristan.

"Charmander should be a safe distance away at this point," replied Hillary.

"Okay, but what about you?" teased Tristan as he splashed water onto Hillary. He began to swim away.

"Hey, get back here, you!" said Hillary as she happily swam after him to try and splash him back.


A little while later, as Tristan and Hillary finished their swim, they found a beach ball they could play with. They invited the Pokémon to play along with them.

"Le't hit the beach ball around," suggested Tristan.

The Pokémon happily agreed to Tristan's idea.

Tristan hit the ball first. The ball flew toward Pidgeotto, who used its left wing to thrust the ball toward Squirtle, who used its head to hit the ball toward Bulbasaur.

"Way to use your head, Squirtle," said Hillary.

Bulbasaur jumped and used its head to thrust the bell toward Charmander, who then used its tail to unintentionally toss the ball into the center of town, much to Tristan and Hillary's surprise.

Charmander scratched its head.

"Well, it looks like we'll have to get the ball," sighed Tristan.

"I know," replied Hillary. "But where did it go?"

Squirtle came and scolded Charmander for thrusting the ball with its tail too hard.

Charmander scolded Squirtle for being a lousy player and for having no neck.

Bulbasaur tried to stop them, but was struck in the bulb on the right side by Charmander's Flamethrower and on the left side by Squirtle's Water Gun. Bulbasaur glared at the two Pokémon and tackled them, causing all three of them to start fighting. They pushed and shoved one another into a heated brawl that didn't seem to end.

"Come on, guys, knock it off!" ordered Tristan.

"There's no reason to fight," added Hillary.

But Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur continued, and there was no way to stop them.

Pikachu saw the commotion and tried to stop them itself, but failed when it was shoved out of the fight. This made Pikachu very angry, causing it to launch a huge bolt of electricity at everyone in the vicinity to stop the fighting, much to Tristan and Hillary's shock.

Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur lay in a heap beside Tristan and Hillary, who lay in a heap of their own.

"Well, that's one way to stop a fight," said Hillary.

Pikachu scratched its head.

Tristan came to Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. He was not very happy. "You three should know better," he scolded. "That's no way to treat your friends, especially when they're having fun with you."

The three Pokémon sadly hung their faces in guilt. They felt bad about the chaos that they caused.

"Maybe we should test their friendship with one another to see if they can bring the ball back to us," whispered Hillary to Tristan.

"Okay," replied Tristan. He turned to the Pokémon. "Okay, guys. Hillary and I have suggested that you three work together to try and bring the beach ball back to us. Can you do that?"

The three Pokémon happily nodded their response and set off to find the beach ball.

"Do you think the Pokémon will be okay on their own?" asked Tristan nervously.

"Don't you see?" said Hillary. "This is a test for them in two ways: The first is to test their friendship. And the second is to see how well they do on their own, especially if we can't always be there with them.

"I guess that's true," said Tristan.

"Now that that's settled, let's relax in the sun," said Hillary.

"Okay," replied Tristan

Pikachu came along with Tristan and Hillary to two beach chairs while Pidgeotto and Butterfree flew alongside.


Meanwhile in the center of Porta Vista, the beach ball was rolling along. It was noticed by an innocent little passerby, who was approximately seven years of age. He was waiting outside of a convenience store, but when he noticed the ball, he ran after the ball and picked it up.

"Oh, wow!" he said. "I found a beach ball!"

It turned out that he had never actually played with a beach ball before. He'd seen many beach balls throughout his young life, but now, he had found one and wanted to keep it.

Just then, a young lady came out of the convenience store with a little sack of groceries. "Okay, Roger, I got what we needed," she said.

"Hey, Mommy!" said Roger excitedly. "I found a beach ball!"

"You did?" she said.

"Yeah, it just rolled to me!" replied Roger.

"May I see?" asked her mother.

Roger handed the beach ball over to her mother, who wanted to get a better look to see if it belonged to somebody.

"This is an interesting ball," she said. "But I don't think we can keep this one."

"Why not, Mommy?" asked Roger.

"Because even though I can't see any kind of writing on this ball, there's a good chance that it belongs to someone," she replied.

"Okay," sighed Roger.

"I know you like that beach ball," said her mother, understandably. "But let's see if we can find its owner."

And they both set off to begin the search.


(Music Cue: Today's Pokémon Curiosity 1997-1998)

Meanwhile, in another part of town, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle were searching for the beach ball so they could play some more.

Just then, Charmander spotted the ball in Roger's hands. Charmander ran to him and his mother. "Char, Char!" it said.

"Look, Mommy!" said Roger. "A Charmander!"

"Yes, I see," replied Roger's mother.

"May we keep it?" asked Roger hopefully.

"Now hold on, Roger," cautioned his mother. "You don't know if this Charmander belongs to anyone or not. However, you might be able to get it to play with you for a little while."

"Really? I can play with it?" he asked.

"Sure you can," replied his mother, "if you're careful."

"Okay," said Roger. He turned to Charmander. "Would you like to play ball with me?"

"Charmander," replied Charmander. It called to Bulbasaur and Squirtle to join it.

Roger was getting even more excited. "Are those your friends, Charmander?" he asked.

Charmander nodded.

Bulbasaur and Squirtle introduced themselves to Roger warmly.

"Now we can all play together!" said Roger excitedly.

Roger and the Pokémon got into a circle as they started another game.

"I'll go first," said Roger as he hit the ball toward Charmander.

Charmander used its tail to hit the ball toward Squirtle, who used its head to thrust the ball in Bulbasaur's direction.

Bulbasaur used its hind legs to hit it back to Roger, who hit it back to Squirtle.

"This is fun, isn't it?" said Roger excitedly.

(Music Cue: You Can Do It (If You Really Try) (instrumental version as heard in "Bound For Trouble"))

All the Pokémon agreed that it was fun. But deep down, they missed Tristan very much. They remembered all the adventures that they had so far with Tristan not too long ago.


Bulbasaur remembered the time when Tristan went out of his way to comfort it even when it attacked him because it hated humans. But now that it had made new friends, it wanted to keep on adventuring with him.

When Charmander followed Tristan and Hillary at the Nugget Bridge, it remembered when it was saved from falling in the river by Tristan and Bulbasaur because they didn't want its flame to go out.

Squirtle remembered when Tristan worked with it to put out a huge fire at the Vermilion City Gym. It was shown that even though it had a mischievous personality to some people at first, it was shown that there were people that can be friendly to it.

All three haven't been with Tristan for very long, but together, they learned about friendship, trust, and teamwork from him because they knew that he would be a great Trainer to be around. And they were certain that they would learn more as they continued their journey.


Roger noticed the somewhat sad looks on their faces. "What's wrong, guys?" he asked. "Don't you like playing ball?"

"You know, sweetie," said his mother as she approached. "I think these Pokémon belong to a Trainer, and I think they miss him."

Roger turned to the Pokémon, who were still looking sad. "Is this true, guys?" he asked. "Do you miss your Trainer?"

The Pokémon nodded.

"That's understandable," said Roger's mother. "You three seemed to have learned so much from your Trainer, even though you haven't been with him for very long."

"Do you think we should go find him, Mommy?" asked Roger.

"I think that's a great idea," replied her mother. "Let's find their Trainer."

"Okay, guys," said Roger. "Are you ready to go?"

The Pokémon replied happily and led the way.

"Wait for us, guys!" called Roger as he and his mother followed them.


Meanwhile, back at the beach, Tristan and Hillary were just waking up from their naps on the beach chairs.

"That was great," yawned Hillary, who stretched her arms and legs.

"I agree," yawned Tristan.

Pikachu, Butterfree, and Pidgeotto yawned and stretched as they woke up, too.

Then, Tristan noticed that Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle hadn't returned with the ball yet. "That's weird," he said.

"What's weird?" asked Hillary.

"Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle haven't come back yet," answered Tristan.

"You're right," agreed Hillary. "They all should have been back by now."

"I'm starting to get worried," said Tristan. "Do you think we should go find them?"

"It's not a bad idea," replied Hillary. "Maybe they got lost or something."

Just then, Tristan and Hillary heard three happy voices. They belonged to Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle.

The three Pokémon dashed to their Trainer, who was very happy to see them safe and sound. They jumped into his arms, causing him to fall on his back.

"It's good to see you guys," said Tristan happily.

They all hugged each other for a long time.

"They're obviously happy," said Hillary.

Just then, they saw two more people. They were Roger and his mother.

"Are you two friends with these three Pokémon?" asked Roger.

"It looks like they know that boy, is that right?" said Roger's mother.

"Yes, Tristan is their Trainer," replied Hillary.

"And look what we found!" said Roger, tossing them the beach ball to Hillary.

Hillary was amazed. "It's our beach ball!" she said. "Did you get a chance to play with the Pokémon?"

"Yes, we did!" replied Roger. He turned to his mother. "May I play with the Pokémon and his friends?"

"If it's okay with them," replied her mother.

He ran over to Tristan, Hillary, and the Pokémon. "My name's Roger. May I play with you?"

"Sure, Roger!" replied Tristan happily. "My name's Tristan. The more, the merrier."

"And my name's Hillary," said Hillary. "It's nice to meet you. Now let's play ball!"

(Music Cue: To Be Continued (sample)

Everyone cheered for the idea and got into a circle and hit the beach ball back and forth for the rest of the day.


Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle have sorted out their differences and found out that they have one thing in common: the friendship and trust they have in their friends, Tristan and Hillary. And after a fun day at the beach, it will be back to adventure as they make their way to the next Gym.

► TO BE CONTINUED