Pokemon is licensed to the Pokemon Corporation and to Nintendo Inc. I do not own pokemon.

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"Now remember that the new pups need to be introduced to the older ones slowly. Oh and don't forget that two of the older growlithes are close to evolution time. You'll find their fire stones in my upper left desk drawer. But don't evolve them too early. Oh, and don't forget about the Open House on Thursday. Only the older growlithe are for sale, to be evolved at extra expense. And get the money up front. Are you getting all of this?" Keena asked, her mouth running a mile a minute.

Poor Jake was simply nodding, a notebook in his hands and a pencil racing across the paper. He already had a full 3 pages of chores to be done while Keena was gone.

"Now the two arcanine that you'll evolve will be picked up by Blaine next week. Make sure he pays you, takes the arcanine, and leaves. Don't let him hang around, or he'll surely cause trouble. Oh, and the bills need to be paid. Where'd I leave them? And I think we need to order more jerky and food. Oh, maybe this isn't such a good idea…"Keena continued, shuffling papers on her desk.

Jake came over and stopped her.

"Key, relax. You have to go on this journey, and I'll do fine on my own. I've worked here for how long? Please, go and pack. I'll be fine." The assistant reassured her. Keena sighed.

"Yes, I suppose you're right." She agreed, leaving her mountain of paperwork behind her to go upstairs to her apartment. Behind her Jake sighed in relief and slumped into a chair, reading over his chicken-scratch notes with a frown. Keena packed quickly, taking only what she saw as essentials. She'd gone camping often enough to know what was needed and what was dead weight. Four hours later she finally came downstairs, huge pack balanced on her back. Keena sighed. Might as well head off now, since she had to do this. Curse the League and their incessant rules, though. Keena said good bye to Jake and issued several final instructions. It was time to get this over with.

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Keena stared at the thing in front of her. Her pokedex was calling it a Weedle, but Keena was sure they weren't supposed to be so…repulsive. The stinger on it's rump looked absolutely deadly, and it's skin was the oddest shade of orange Keena had ever seen. She nervously side-stepped it and hurried on. The ferry ride to Cinnabar Island had been uneventful, and perhaps even fun. Even the short flight on the rented Pidgeot had been alright. But now that Keena had arrived in Viridian Forest, the reality of her journey hit her. There were many pokemon around her that were definitely not growlithe or arcanine. Keena didn't like other pokemon, and had always insisted that strays be turned away from her facility in the event of their arrival.

It wasn't that she feared them, it was simply that other pokemon were unworthy of her attention. Only the mighty fire dogs could command her love. Keena especially hated bug pokemon and water pokemon. Water pokemon could defeat her precious arcanines, so she avoided them. Bug pokemon were just creepy. And now she was in a forest filled with them. She was walking as fast as she could, but her feet hurt. She was certain she had a blister on her right heel. As night fell, the young woman hurried ever onward, her goal of Pewter City coming even closer. In fact she stopped only once, to battle an annoying young boy of about 13 years. The kid had jumped out in front of her suddenly on the path through the woods.

"A trainer! Want to battle?" the kid asked. Keena backed up a step, unsure.

"Oh, well, I'm kind of in a hurry, and…"

"Ah, come on. I promise to beat you quickly." The boy whined.

It was more the suggestion of getting beaten by some annoying kid than anything else that convinced Keena. She frowned.

"Alright fine, one on one. Let's see how good you are." She replied coldly.

"Yeah! Go Needles!" he yelled, tossing a pokeball.

Keena was disgusted to see that a large weedle appeared. It gurgled something to its trainer before slinking towards Keena. She stepped back quickly and grabbed for her only pokeball.

"Brush!" she called, releasing the big arcanine. The kid whimpered a bit upon seeing the big fire dog, but he didn't back down.

"Poison Sting, Needles!"

"Flamethrower, Brush."

The little weedle charged forward in an amusing slinking fashion, but it never even got close to Brush. The big arcanine released a small jet of flame that quickly sent the weedle scurrying back, crying out and screeching in pain. It fainted. Keena hadn't even stuck around for her prize money. She simply recalled Brush and walked away. Pewter City came into view just as the sun dipped below the horizon. Keena went to the pokemon center and handed over Brush's pokeball. Ten minutes and 5 dollars later she had him back, healed and ready to go after Brock.

Keena had no intention of lingering around for too long. Her goal was to reach each city as quickly as possible, beat the gym leader, and move on. She was perfectly confident that this strategy would work.

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Keena stared in disbelief at the wall. She lost at the first gym. Not only had she lost in the first gym, but she'd lost to the junior trainer. Oh sure, Brush had beaten the geodude easily enough, but then the trainer had pulled out a larvitar. Brush had been beaten and here she was, waiting in the pokemon center for him to be healed. Pathetic. Now what could she do? If Brush couldn't even beat the first gym then there was no way they'd win against any of the others. Which meant Keena would have to do something she really didn't want to do. Keena would have to train non-growlithe pokemon. She shuddered a bit at the thought. She would not raise bug pokemon, she vowed. And she would raise the others only as long as she had to, and then she'd donate all of them to a children's home or something when she finished her journey. She wouldn't keep them or bond with them or do anything more than train them. Keena stood up and retrieved Brush. Time to go and find something to eat. Tomorrow she would hunt down her first wild pokemon.