CHAPTER II: Road to Viridian City

"Come back Pidgey!" Arashi called as she watched the wild Pidgey fly away into the blue sky. She took off her beanie slamming it down onto the ground and stomping on it, "Why! Can't! I! Catch! A! Pokémon!" she cried with every new thump.

"Weeee…" Eevee looked up at her cutely as she placed a white paw on her immobile foot as she looked up to her friend's face, her ears flattening against her head.

"I'm sorry, Girly." Arashi sat in the tall grass as Eevee crawled into her lap, "I seem to not be able to do anything right… I mean, I can't even catch one lousy Pokémon." She picked up her beanie, brushed it off and placed it back onto her head as she looked around Route 22. The occasional trees at least provided a scenic view, and the tall grass gave many chances to catch Pokemon. To her west were the Mountains. She sighed, "Come on, Eevee. Let's get to Viridian City." She stood up knowing her Pokémon must be exhausted having been training for hours. She jumped to her feet and dusted off her black and purple horizontal striped shirt as well as her black skirt over her blue jean capris. She headed out of the tall grass and back onto the path. Eevee ran up her body and perched herself on Arashi's shoulder. Together, the two headed down the path.

Viridian City began to appear in the east. A smile spread on Arashi's face, "Look at that. Almost there." The sound of rustling grass caught Arashi's attention as she immediately became quiet and turned toward the rustle.

A Rattata came from the tall grass a bit disgruntled as if looking around for something; however the sight of Arashi and Eevee stopped her search. The Rattata lowered herself to the ground growling ferociously, "Rattata!" a battle cry came forth from the purple mouse's chest as it rushed at Arashi, fangs barred and claws erect.

With a quick scream, Arashi jumped sideways stumbling back having lost her footing. Eevee jumped from her shoulder and growled cutely, all her brown fur protruding upward in an angry fit. She was the same size as the angry Rattata. Rattata stopped puzzled at why this Eevee had jumped in front to protect the human. Rattata circled the Eevee as the Eevee circled Rattata both never braking eye contact teeth barred and ready.

"Oh Right! A battle!" Arashi called smacking herself on the head. She threw her hand forward, "Eevee tail whip."

Eevee immediately responded, whipping her tail around the Rattata who's defense fell as Rattata stumbled around the path for a bit. Quickly, the Rattata regained composure and hit Eevee with a quick attack.

Eevee staggered back a bit shaking off the speedy hit.

"Return with a Quick Attack!" Arashi called as Eevee delivered a strong and fast attack knocking over the Rattata. Arashi pulled a pokéball from her belt loop and held it behind her back as she remembered her lessons. Wait until the Pokémon has been weakened by battle and there is an exponentially higher chance of successfully catching the Pokémon. She called, "One more quick attack, but make it a little softer."

Eevee nodded jumping at the Rattata but missing as the Rattata leaped to the side tail rigid and straight in an aggressive shape. Rattata jumped at Eevee for a tackle, but Eevee moved and delivered a quick attack this time more gently as Arashi ordered. The Rattata stumbled a bit backwards, then left, the right growing weak and exhausted. Arashi fist pumped and pulled out the pokéball,

"Pokéball go!" she called eyes large and full of excitement. She watched as the ball opened and Rattata appeared into it. It closed shaking on the ground left and right for a good five seconds. The Rattata didn't want to go without a fight. Finally, the Rattata was caught.

Arashi stared at the ball for a while, unsure how to react to what had just happened. She let her body hang loose as she watched the still pokéball dumb struck. Finally, she spoke in a near whisper, "I did it…" she stared a large smile stretching across her face, "I did it!" she threw her fists into the air crying out loud to the sky, "WHOOO! I am a Pokémon Trainer!" she did a little dance pulling her arms and kicking her feet, she spun around gracefully in a circle before giving a few jumps of joy. Eevee too began to celebrate. Arashi picked her up spinning her around, "We did it! Together!" she snuggled Eevee to her check before letting her go. Eevee landed on the ground and pranced around as well.

Arashi ran to her new Pokémon and picked up Rattata nuzzled comfortably in the pokéball. She pulled out her Pokédex to see what it had to say about this Rattata:

"Rattata! The rat Pokémon. Its fangs are long and very sharp. They grow continuously, so it gnaws on hard things to whittle them down. Female."

"Huh… interesting." Arashi shut the Pokédex, "Another girl. I've got an all chick team!" Arashi laughed as she clipped the ball to her belt, "Come on, Eevee. Let's get the Viridian City and meet our new friend. What do you say?" she looked down to Eevee.

"Wee!" Eevee jumped around wagging her tail. As Arashi took off at a sprint toward Viridian City, Eevee followed, the wind blowing her fur.

I can't believe I'm doing this! I can't believe it! Arashi thought as her entire body lit up with excitement and determination, Mom, you'd be so proud of me. I am following my dreams… just as you did.

~~~x~~~x~~~

The tall beautiful buildings towered over Arashi as she walked down the clean and beautiful streets of Viridian City. Lovely deciduous trees decorated the town, making it a very lovely city. Afterall, they were right next to a forest. The building were tall and glass causing the city to look very clean and well kept. The sidewalks were large for travelers to walk down, shops on every side.

Arashi skipped down the sidewalk singing to herself. As she reached the center of the city, she stopped and spun around, opening her arms to the beautiful city, "Wow… this is amazing!" she called out as she stopped in front of a glass building, "Hey, Eevee! Check it out." She could see her own reflection perfectly in the glass building as if she was a mirror and found it rather entertaining. Bending forward, she stuck out her tongue at her own reflection and took one finger to pull her bottom eyelid down. "Nya! Nya!" she called out sounding like a Japanese cat. A giggle followed as Arashi entertained herself. She made another funny face pushing in her cheeks to look like fish lips.

Eevee followed, going cross eyed so that she could see her reflection. Eevee chuckled with little "wee's" and shook her head letting her tongue fall out, ears flopping side to side.

Arashi leaned against the glass laughing as well as she looked down to Eevee who was still making funny faces in the reflection from the glass building. A man walking by in a business suit holding a newspaper spoke without diverting his eyes away from his newspaper, "They can see you in there you know."

Immediately, Arashi and Eevee immediately stopped, their eyes popping open wide as they both backed away from the building nervously waving at it and to whomever was inside. Arashi grabbed Eevee and lifted her into her arms before hurrying off to the Pokémon center.

The door opened automatically and Arashi walked in with Eevee in her hands. The last and first time she had been to an actual Pokémon Center was in her 5th year when she was eleven. She wondered around for a bit noticing the many amenities that had been set up for Pokémon and trainers traveling including beds to sleep in and food to eat. She even saw a shower sign over the bathrooms, "That sounds nice." Arashi commented on the shower as she headed sheepishly toward the front desk, awe struck by all the sights to see. Eevee was just the same.

"Hello there! Welcome to Viridian City Pokémon Center! How may I help you?" the bubbly nurse asked standing behind the counter. She actually very much resembled Tora minus the different eye colors. And if Arashi's memory served correct, Tora wanted to be a Pokémon healer. Arashi giggled a bit at this before replying, "Yes, Ma'am. I was wondering if you could heal my Pokémon." She set Eevee on the counter and pulled out Bulbasaur and Rattata, "Here." She said nervously.

"You must be new. Did you just begin your journey?" she asked with a friendly chuckle.

"Is it that obvious?" Arashi asked hanging her head a bit and looking at the nurse through the tops of her eyes.

The nurse giggled, "Uh-huh. Name's Joy." She smiled brightly, "Are you from Pallet Town Miss…?"

"Just Arashi, Nurse Joy." Arashi nodded to the pink haired woman, a smile on her face, "No I'm from Westville. Just west of Pallet across the shore." She explained as she watched another nurse come up and take the pokemon away to a back room. Arashi reached out a bit nervously unsure of whether to let Eevee out of her sight like that.

"Oh don't worry, Ms. Arashi. They'll be just fine." The Nurse smiled brightly, "You can take a seat if you'd like." She gestured to the couches.

Arashi nodded and slowly walked away from the counter sucking in her lips awkwardly as she noticed the video telephones in the back. She made her way toward them suspecting they were there for the sole purpose of traveler's use. Picking up the phone, the TV turned on automatically in a static as Arashi dialed the number for the Lab. After pressing her phone to her ear, she looked over at the clock: 6pm. She didn't expect a whole day to be wasted just getting to Viridian City, but she did train a lot as well as search and document Pokémon with her Pokédex. Maybe Arashi was enjoying the sight seeing a bit too much.

The phone rang about five times before her father entered, his face appearing on the screen as he sat in front of the video telephone. He smiled as he saw his only child's face appear on the other side. Giving a sigh of relief to see Arashi safe at a Pokémon center, he spoke, "Arashi. I am so happy to see you."

"Hi, Daddy!" Arashi called cheerfully.

"I can't believe you're already on your way to becoming champion of the Elite Four… you're absolutely amazing. You're turning into such a beautiful, independent young woman."

"Oh Daaad." Arashi drew it out looking away and rolling her eyes slightly embarrassed at the sweetness, her cheeks turning pink.

"Strong… adventurous… you're just like your mother."

Arashi's eyebrows rose as her eyes widened. She looked back at the screen with an expression of surprise. Softly, the expression changed into a gentle smile, "Thank you, Daddy." She pushed her messy, windblown hair behind her ear.

"I love you, Whirlwind."

Arashi giggled, "I love you too, Dad."

"Promise you'll call me soon."

"I promise."

"Every day?" he asked.

"Don't push your luck." Arashi responded with a little smirk as she leaned back in her seat.

Her father gave a light hearted chuckle, "Okay. But seriously, every day."

"Got it." Arashi spoke blushing again.

He waved, "Good night. Don't travel when it gets dark. Sleep well."

"You, too. Say hi to Tora and Yasu for me."

"Will do."

"Good night." She hung up and leaned back in her chair giving a slight sigh of exhaustion as she made her way to the couch. She sat down kicking her feet up lazily on the coffee table covered in pokemon magazines, Why am I taking so long? N.V. is probably all the way through the forest by now. Darn… She sighed as she leaned forward and picked up a magazine.

"So you're from Westville?" a smooth and gentle boy voice asked from the corner.

Arashi turned to the boy, setting the magazine in her lap. He had short, black hair contained by a backwards cap, but spikes could be seen protruding from the front and back. He had large green eyes looking curious and friendly. He couldn't be any older than Arashi. She replied to him, "Yeah. How'd you know?" she put her hands on her hips, "You're not following me are you?"

"No. I heard you talking to the Nurse." He leaned forward.

"Oh…"

"My name's Quinton. I just started, too." He pointed to himself with his thumb, "But uh… I'm not doing so well." He said nervously scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Have you caught any pokemon yet?" Arashi asked.

"No…" Quinton sighed, "Apparently that's normal though."

Arashi cheered inside as she thought about Rattata, "I'm sorry." She spoke sympathetically.

"Not an issue. I actually have a question to ask you." He leaned forward to look at her, "I noticed you had an Eevee. I was wondering where you got it. Eevee is an extremely rare Pokémon."

Arashi looked down for a bit smiling to herself; she knew how rare finding an Eevee is, but she had knew she had been lucky, "I actually found her in the wild. I don't know how she got there, but she was a hatchling." She explained.

"Where did you find her?" Quinton was surprised. He loved rare Pokémon and Eevee was one he had never seen before in real life, only pictures and videos.

Arashi looked at the ceiling and leaned back into the cushioned couch. She never liked sharing, but this trainer looked her age and he too was new and curious about the world just like her. She explained, "Well… I was taking a walk through the woods four years ago. I heard kids yelling and hollering, and when I got closer, I saw that a group of boys kept pushing Eevee underwater trying to get her to evolve into a Vaporeon. They were drowning her. I jumped in and chased the boys away. I saved her and she saved me." Arashi closed her eyes lightly smiling at the bittersweet event. Arashi had gone into those woods for a painful reason, and had been in a painful place before Eevee came into her life. It was a blessing.

Quinton smiled as he listened to Arashi. The relationship between her and Eevee reminded him of him and his Pokémon. Quinton never got along well with other kids. He was constantly bullied and with his parents always working… well, he was often alone. However, his Pokémon, his best friend helped him through that and taught him how to be more outgoing and meet new friends. It was amazing the ability Pokémon had to heal hurt souls. He looked into Arashi's face watching her expressions. He replied, "That's nice how close you are to your Pokémon. I wish everyone got to feel that. I know I did with mine."

Arashi smiled as she opened her eyes and looked over to the green eyed, black haired boy, "What is your companion?" she asked curiously about the Pokémon of which he spoke.

Quinton placed his hand on the back of his bare neck, "He's… oh! Here he comes now." Quinton looked up and watched as Nurse Joy came in the waiting room with not only Quinton, but Arashi's pokemon all healthy and ready to go.

Arashi grinned brightly as she saw Eevee on the tray nibbling on a peach. They were absolutely Eevee's favorite snack. She watched her with a smile, that was until she noticed the bazaar Pokémon next to her. It was shaped in odd ways and pointy. The Pokémon had edges seeming like a digital origami crane. The Pokémon was familiar. Where had she seen it? Finally she remembered, "That's Porygon!" she called pointing, "There's only a few of them made. They're a computer generated Pokémon… now how did YOU get THAT?" Arashi asked eyes wide.

"Him? Oh…" Quinton placed his hand on Porygon's head as Porygon floated toward him, "My parents were some of the people working on the project. As my starter, I got Porygon." He stroked him.

"Kreenkeee!" the Porygon cried happily.

Eevee dashed over to the Porygon and lifted her paw happily up to the Porygon as he began to chase her in an adorable game of tag.

"Looks like Eevee and Porygon are already friends." Arashi chuckled a bit watching the Pokémon play. She got quiet as an idea came to mind. She turned to Quinton, "I know we just met, Quint, but… I was wondering, maybe we should travel together."

"Uh… what?" Quinton blushed in embarrassment. He couldn't help but still be a little shy around others, especially peers.

Arashi held up her hands, "You don't have to. It's completely up to you. I just thought… it'd be a good idea. Part of the experience of the journey is making friends and I know traveling together has to be more fun than alone." She shrugged a bit before placing her hands shyly in her lap.

Quinton watched her as he listened to her reason. It seemed good to him. This girl already had three Pokémon, maybe he could learn something? He glanced at Porygon, Porygon really seems to like, Eevee, too. Quinton held out his hand, "Sounds good, Arashi."

Arashi shook his hand with a large smile as the two made their way to the food bar for travelers and Pokémon. They had the whole night to chat before they finally drifted to sleep around 10:00pm. Tomorrow they'd begin their journey as a team and make their way through the Viridian Forest. What ventures lie ahead for the group? Arashi wasn't sure, but she knew that what would happen this year would change her life forever.