I plan on making this story episodic, so if you have any ideas for a story, I might take them. I still plan on making my own plots, however.

Chapter 9: Day at the Park

The Pineco Café was closed on the weekends, so Jenny spent the day on the computer finding as much about Ralts as she could. I figured out she kept the window open so Ember could come and go as he pleased.

We were spending the time watching TV when Jenny came in. "Hello Ember, hello Ralts!" she never was creative with names, "It's a sunny day outside, so I thought I'd take you two to the park today! I already called Mark, he'll meet us outside."

Meh, nothing but reruns anyways.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark had the stereotypical trainer look. He wore jeans, some form of a jacket, had black hair, and a hat. You can't forget the hat. His leg was in a cast so he used crutches to get around. "Hello, Mark."

"Hey, Jennifer. My mom wants me home by 5:00. Don't see why, since I plan on traveling miles in the wild," He pulled out a poke ball and aimed it at Ember, "Ember, get into you're poke ball. I'll let you out when we get to the park." A red beam shot out of the poke ball, hitting Ember and turning him into some sort of light and pulling him into the ball. Seeing that kinda made me wonder what the process felt like.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When we got there, Mark let Ember out of his poke ball fully rested. I was rested enough too, seeing as I was carried the whole way by Jenny. "Hey, Ember, how's it like inside the poke ball?" I asked.

"It's a bit like you're inside a big domed building that was made just for you! If you like some sort of food, it will be there! You like climbing, you get a mountain! I prefer staying outside though. The poke ball isn't perfect."

We decided to go to a jungle gym of sorts designed for pokemon. I had the mind of a sixteen year old, but I decided to go ahead and act my body's age. It was fun once I kept telling myself I was a little kid, and I only fell off four times!

On my fifth time on the floor, I noticed that someone nearby was feeling aggressive. I turned in the direction the feeling was coming from and saw a Poochyena, an Oddish, and a Shroomish. They didn't look to happy. "Can I help you?"

The Poochyena, who apparently was the leader of the group, spoke up, "Yeah, we want to play, so we want you to get off!"

Ember came down to see what was going on. "Who are these guys?" he asked.

"My name's Howler, the Oddish is Leaf, and the Shroomish is Powder. We want you off the jungle gym!" Sigh, the stereotypical playground bullies.

"There's enough room on the jungle gym for all of us to play on," I hadn't said that sentence in, like, ten years.

"Who cares?! It's still our jungle gym!" said Powder. I figured they would say that.

"Listen, kids, it is best that you don't bicker about problems as insignificant as who plays on the jungle gym when there is more than enough space for us all."

"…What do some of those words mean?" asked a confused Leaf.

"And what do you mean kid?! I'm older than you!" yelled Howler.

"Physically. Mentally, on the other hand…"

"Grrrrrrrr!" Howler had a short temper, it seemed, as he immediately tackled me off the jungle gym. My horns felt he was mad and that he felt I had called him dumb. He had assumed wrong, seeing as he knew what my words meant despite probably being only a year old. He was still going to attack, though.

I got up, shaken from the attack, "Ow, that hurt."

"Ha! Regret your words, kid?! I'm not sure if you know this, but I am a dark type! Your fancy psychic attacks won't hurt me in the least!" He then charged at me at full speed, opening his mouth in an attempt to bite me. As a Ralts, the attack would really hurt me, and none of my natural attacks would hurt him, and he knew it!

Which is why he was so surprised when he got hit in the head with a stick.

"Argh! Did you just hit me with a stick?!"

"Yeah."

"But you're a Ralts! Your kind panics when you're attacked like that! You were supposed to use confusion!!"

"I tend to not panic in situations. As for my attacks, I don't know any, so I improvised.

Howler's friends, seeing him in trouble, decided to step in. Ember, however, wouldn't allow it. "Move it, lizard!" yelled the Shroomish.

"Think about this. I'm a fire type, you're both grass. I'm a trainer's pokemon, so I can fight. Can you?"

Meanwhile, back to my fight, I was holding my own pretty well. Howler didn't seem to think before he attacked, making his attack easily dodgable. As for me, I was just randomly swinging a stick back and forth. The fight could go either way.

The fight tipped in his favor when he used sand to attack my eyes. Temporarily blinded, he howled before biting my arm that held the stick. It hurt like hell! But I handled it well. "AAAARGH!!! YOU BIT MY FREAKING ARM!!!" Ok, maybe not so well. Hey, it was my first time being attacked directly!

I could sense Howler's smugness. He knew how much it hurt. To get him back, I punched him with my free arm. I sensed his surprise. My guess is that most psychic types were so caught up with their powers that they never thought to just use their fist, so Howler didn't think they could.

That seemed to have hurt Howler more than I thought, because he staggered back in a bit of a daze. "Grrrrrrrrr, don't think I'm going to leave you alone! We will meet again!" he said as he turned around and ran away.

"What movie did you take that line out of, Howler?!" I called as he left.

Once the other two bullies left, I regrouped with Ember. "The guys chickened out from fighting me. They didn't know that I haven't fought yet, and I don't have fire attacks yet," he said, "I saw your fight, you did great! What was that attack called?"

"I dunno. I just picked up some stick and swung it around. It technically wasn't an attack in the traditional sense, just something that hurt."

"But you still beat him good!"

"Heh, I know," I said. Letting my ego get to me, I did a little victory pose. Nothing could've broken my good mood!

At least until the Pidgey dropping fell on my head. "Oh, for the love of… oh, well. At least the day is still ni-" a drop fell on my horn, shortly followed by a downpour.

Jenny and Mark arrived shortly. "Ember, back into your poke ball," the same red light surrounded him and he was out of the rain. Ember you lucky little…

Jenny removed the jacket she was wearing and wrapped me in it before carrying me. "Uh, thank you." My face was a little red, considering the way she was carrying me.

After a while, Jenny noticed the bite mark on my arm. "(Gasp) What happened to your arm!" I really wished I could say an excuse.