A/N:ok guys, new format for my story:
"italics speech"Pokémon talking (in poke-language of course)
"normal speech" human talking
Italics only:thinking (human and Pokémon), and time passing.
Bold:flashbacks (Won't be used in a while)
Okay… on with the story!
The next morning rose sunny with cloudless skies, almost as if the angry rain clouds from last night had never existed.
Shinx had snoozed comfortably in one of the examination tables at the Pokémon centre until a loud noise had woke him up. He shot a filthy look at the pink haired nurse in front of him, but she smiled sweetly at him and said "I'm sorry to wake you up shinx, but I thought that you should wake up your trainer soon, she's going to miss breakfast"
Shinx frowned at the kind nurse, his head cocked in a confused expression. As far as he could remember, he couldn't remember being 'caught in a poke ball', whatever that meant.
Then he realized she was talking about that girl with the huge bow on her head from last night. He muttered a quick goodbye to pink nurse and set off to find bow girl obediently.
He found her quickly and leapt on her to try and wake her up, it didn't work. Instead, she just mumbled something sleepily and turned around. Shinx rolled his eyes and decided to give her a little scratch, you know, just to make sure she awakened. Scratch
"OOOOW! What the…"
"Is there something wrong?"Nurse joy burst in the room looking concernedly at June. Shinx frowned, how on earth did she get here so quickly? You would have thought she had been eavesdropping or something.
"Oh! Um… don't worry, I'm ok, my shinx just scratched m-" she stopped talking and looked awkwardly at shinx. "Well…he's not really MY shinx, he's kinda my buddy, right?" shinx nodded. Nurse joy nodded and examined the scratch on her right cheek
"Hmm, it's only superficial, but I think we'll need to disinfect it " nurse joy picked a purple bottle from the rack and wiped the gooey gel from it on June's cheek, "you might want to go downstairs, breakfast is getting served" said nurse joy, sticking a band-aid on her cheek. June nodded, and followed the nurse downstairs.
The dining room was enormous, trainers of all shapes and sizes were packed inside chatting excitedly. Some had their Pokémon out, feeding them bits of their breakfast, other trainers were chatting proudly amongst themselves about an 'amazing' capture they had done the day before and in the whole, everyone was having a great time.
June grabbed a sandwich and some orange juice and set off to find a table where there weren't any fire types around. She found one and sat down, munching thoughtfully on her sandwich. Suddenly, she felt something furry touch her leg. She squeaked and prayed it wasn't a stray venonat or a houndour.
She looked down and saw a familiar smiling face peering at her from under the table. "Hey! You're that little shinx from yesterday! How are you? Those starly sure were scary, weren't they?" shinx nodded and leapt on her lap, looking hungrily at the sandwich on her hand. June nodded and ripped half of the sandwich and gave it to shinx, who munched on it gratefully.
June watched shinx devour his piece of sandwich and thought about what she would do once they had come out of the Pokémon centre, she would probably release him outside and then…
Then what?
She didn't want to release him, not really. She wantedhim as her first Pokémon, but she couldn't just shove a Poké ball in his face and make him hers, that sounded… mean…
Should she ask him if he wanted to be her Pokémon? She'd never heard of a trainer asking a Pokémon to be theirs, they usually battled and then the trainer would chuck a Poké ball and hey presto, you had a new Pokémon to battle with, that was how it usually went…
Well, not this time
"Hey shinx" she said, trying to give him a confident smile.
The shinx stopped eating and turned to look at her, a piece of ham still dangling from his mouth. "Uh…shinx, would you like to… to be my Pokémon?"Said June, feeling stupid all of a sudden.
Shinx let the piece of ham drop in surprise, not because he didn't like the prospect of being June's Pokémon, but because he'd never considered the prospect of having a trainer. He'd always been his own boss since he was born and he didn't know whether he would like someone telling him to do things he didn't want to do and obeying every command without question. He'd heard of cruel trainers who beat their own Pokémon if they lost battles or the ones that used their Pokémon to kill their own kind without any pity or remorse
He looked at June, who was still smiling stupidly at him. He knew she wasn't one of the badtrainers. Otherwise, why would she have saved him last night? She could have just walked away and left him to his own luck, she had to be one of the good trainers.
Shinx nodded, and placed his right paw on her hand to seal the deal.
"WOOHOO!" cheered June, picking shinx up and swinging him round and round in euphoria. "Oh my mew, my first Pokémon! This is so awesome! Oh, but you're gonna need a name right?" June stopped spinning and put shinx down, who started teetering back and forth like a drunken spinda. "Eh…how about Ukko? Do you like that?" she said, remembering the name from homework on history she once had done.
Ukko smiled, he was glad he had a name, he didn't want to remain as 'shinx' forever, that made him sound… ordinary…
June's grin stretched out further. "I'm glad you like it. Hey, but you're gonna need to get into this first!" June looked through her bag and picked out a Poké ball with stickers on the top.
She opened it and chucked a bunch of coins out of the inside of it. "here, I was using this one as a piggy bank, but you can be in it, here" Ukko peered curiously at the inside of the Poké ball, wondering how on earth was he going to fit in there.
"Huh? What's wrong, don't you like it?" said June with a little tone of resentment in her voice. "those stickers there cost a fortune… well, I didn't buythem, I sort of nicked them from a boy at summer camp, but mum found out and stopped my pocket money for a whole mo- well that doesn't matter, you sure you don't want a Poké ball?" Ukko shook his head; he didn't feel like being crammed into a ball smaller than his head. "ok, but I'm going to need to difference you from other shinx… hold on, I've got an idea" June rummaged through her bag and pulled out a long piece of red fabric and tied it around ukko's neck like a neck scarf. "There! Ok, I think we should catch some Pokémon before heading towards oreburgh, budew are common around these parts, maybe we should catch one!"
A few minutes later...
"I just don't get it, budew are supposed to be extremely common around these parts…" muttered June, flicking her hair angrily. After 5 minutes of walking they hadn't found a single budew and June was getting sick of looking at empty patches of grass.
"…this is stupid, were not going to find any bu- Ukko! Shush!" she whispered frantically, even though Ukko had kept quiet the whole time. June parted some grass that was blocking her view and pointed at a puddle near some rocks, in the puddle a budew sat, dipping her stubby feet into the water. June smirked "right, on the count of three, jump and tackle her, ok? One. Two. Three!" Ukko jumped as high as his legs would allow him and headed for the budew, but the budew noticed and jumped to one side. Ukko landed head first in the puddle and became caked in mud. He got up and growled at the budew, who giggled and set off in the opposite direction. "NO! Ukko, tackle it until it's down, DON'T LET IT GET AWAY!" June shouldn't have bothered to say that, as Ukko had already ran off in pursue of the budew.
He aimed and tackled, but the budew jumped to one side and smiled teasingly at Ukko. Ukko tried to tackle her once, twice, three times, but every time Ukko darted in to get the budew she hopped to one side and smiled. They looked like they were doing some strange dance, with Ukko trying to tackle the budew and the budew hopping around to dodge his attacks.
"Stop...-Gasp-…jumping around like…-gasp- that! How am I supposed to tackle you? Panted Ukko, glaring at the budew
Budew frowned "Why would you want to tackle me? Couldn't you train on a log or a rock?"
"I'm not training; I'm trying to capture you"
"Capture me?"said budew, frowning. "How are you supposed to capture me with tackles?"
Ukko shook his head "no, stupid. I'm supposed to tackle you until you're weak, then my trainer will catch you"
"You're a liar" said budew, pouting at being called stupid.
"What do you mean? I'm not a liar! Why else would I tackle you for? Tackling budew isn't one of my favourite hobb-"
"No…stupid-I mean, you're not a trainer Pokémon" Ukko frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"You don't smell like a trainer Pokémon. You don't have a Poké ball, do you?"
"No…I suppose not, but still. I do have a trainer, she's …er…coming… she must have gotten lost or something"
If budew had eyebrows they would have shot off straight of her face.
"Oh yeah? Well, how's she like, then?"
"Um…she's very nice… and she likes to dance"said Ukko, remembering how June had swung him round and round in the dining hall.
"Ooh, does she? Do you think she could teach me how to dance?" said budew excitedly, the vines on her head clapping together.
"Oh sure, but you've got to be her Pokémon, y'know. She doesn't just wander around giving random Pokémon dancing lessons" said Ukko coolly, smiling at budew's euphoric mood.
"Okay then, but what do I have to do to become hers?"
"Easy, just pretend to have fainted then when she comes, she'll catch you. And you'll be dancing like a professional in no time!" budew giggled excitedly and dropped to the ground, her eyes tightly shut. Too easy, thought Ukko with a huge grin on his face. He strained his ears to see if he could hear June's footsteps and sure enough, he could hear she was only a few yards away. He puffed his chest out proudly and sat right next to the 'fainted' budew.
June burst through the thick grass and gasped in happiness when she caught sight of Ukko and the budew. "Oh WOW! You caught up with the budew, well done" she bent down and scratched Ukko behind his ear, who started to purr happily. June smiled and looked towards the budew, who was still stretched out in the grass. "I got lost when you bolted off; you were going so fast I didn't have time t-"
"Whoa, look keegan, a budew! And he's already fainted! How lucky"
a boy walked out of the tall grass with a chimchar on his shoulder. He wore a navy blue coat with a white poke ball outline on the neck, black jeans and red trainers. He had brown messy hair and light blue eyes.
He pointed a Poké ball at the budew and a red beam of light engulfed budew and pulled her into the Poké ball. He smirked and called her out. She did a little pirouette happily but when she saw that her trainer wasn't the dancing girl trainer Ukko had talked about her face fell in disappointment.
"Right! I'm gonna call you… grasspunch!"
"Whoa! Hold on there, that's mybudew"
The boy lifted his gaze and glared at June defiantly. "Well, I don't see your name on it, I found him, so he's mine"
"How do you even know he's a boy? She might be a girl you know"
The boy pouted. "So what? He's mine, not yours" June frowned, there was something about this boy that seemed familiar, he must have been the boy she sat next to in the cafeteria.
"No it isn't, he or she is mine, Ukko weakened it, so he's mine!" the boy scowled at June, but suddenly his face changed, as if he had just realized something
"… June? Wait, June Fletcher? From summer camp?"
June blinked when she heard her name, then she finally understood. "What? Markus? What the hell are you doing here?"
"Huh, you're not the only trainer in the universe, you know" said Markus, crossing his arms.
"No idiot. What I mean is, weren't your parents moving to Johto? "
"They were" said Markus, pouting. "Mum didn't get the job, so we had to stay here"
"Oh, great…" muttered June.
"Well, I wasn't exactly looking forward to meet you either" said Markus, sounding slightly hurt "but I was hoping that we'd make up after what happened at the summ-"
"NO! Don't mention that! God, you don't know how embarrassing that was" snapped June.
Markus rolled his eyes "Sheesh, I can't believe you haven't gotten over that already. Besides, who'd be dumb enough to enrage a herd of bidoof into rampaging through the whole camp, remember that little girl whose-"
"SHUT UP! That was your fault, why'd you dared me to do it? And on top of all, I had to be marched out in front of everyone, and you just stood there, laughing while I suffered the most …Markus! Are you listening?"
"Huh? What?" said Markus, who had just yawned.
"UGH! And you still want to make up, but besides, that's not the point, that's my budew. End of story"
"Well, you're not taking MY budew without a fight-"
"RIGHT!" shouted June, clenching her fists.
Markus' eyebrows arched "What? No! I mean a Pokémon fight"
"Oh…yeah right..." said June, feeling like a total idiot
June and Markus found a small clearing fit for battling, without any tall grass or rocks to get in the way. They stood on the opposite side of the clearing, giving each other sharp looks.
"Right, Ukko. You ready?" said June encouragingly. Ukko nodded and fluffed up his fur, glaring at Markus's chimchar, Keegan.
"Ok keegan, you gotta win this battle, we can't let a girl win our budew, right?" Keegan growled in agreement.
"Right! Ukko, use tackle!" Ukko ran forward, heading for Keegan, but Keegan was too quick, stepping to one side before Ukko could make contact.
"Scratch, keegan!" keegan jumped behind Ukko and swung his arms up, Ukko turned around to try and figure out what was he planning to do
Bad choice
Ukko gasped as keegan's arms swung down, his fingers making contact with his face and sending long, thin cuts on the sides of his face, Ukko backed away drunkenly, the pain making him feel dizzy. He rubbed the sides of his face and waited for June to give a command.
"Tackle! You can do it!" Ukko nodded, and tackled the chimchar, who was busy gloating about scratching Ukko. The chimchar skidded to a halt and growled at Ukko, who was laughing a little too loudly.
"Come on, Keegan! Defend yourself!" shouted Markus, thrusting his fists in the air.
Keegan looked at Ukko, who had stopped laughing but still looked pretty cocky, grinning and puffing his chest up at his trainer who was dancing around like a sugar-high jynx.
"Hey shinx" called out keegan.
"My name is Ukko"said Ukko, giving a proud flick of his tail.
"Yeah, whatever.Anyway, just wanted to congratulate you on that tackle"said keegan, smiling oddly.
"Oh yeah? Um… thanks" said Ukko, a little puzzled that the chimchar was complimenting him.
Keegan's smile widened. "Yeah, you sure caught me off guard. Oh, and I like your ribbon, can I see it?"Ukko nodded innocently and walked over Keegan. Keegan smirked and as soon as the shinx was close enough. He took in some air and blew embers fiercely onto Ukko. The fiery blast caught Ukko full on, and set his scarf on fire. Ukko screamed, and tried to rip off the flaming neck scarf. But when he did, he could only watch in dismay as June's gift burned to ashes. He whimpered, picking up a piece of fabric that had survived the embers.
"Why'd you do that?"whined Ukko, looking at keegan with saddened eyes.
Keegan cackled cruelly. "Oopsie! Sorry about that, guess I should cover my mouth when I sneeze!"he said, his voice brimming with sarcasm.
Ukko stopped whimpering and glared at Keegan. "You did it on purpose…"he growled, angry tears forming in his eyes. "You burnt June's present… YOU BURNT IT!"
"Gee man, calm down. It was just a stupid ribbon, no need to get so worked up about it" said Keegan worriedly, he could sense ukko's anger rising, and he had never sensed a Pokémon so angry before.
"Stupid? STUPID? I'll show you stupid…"Ukko darted forward and tackled keegan in the stomach, knocking all his breath out. He got up, wheezing and panting but Ukko tackled him from behind, sending him crashing to the ground. Keegan turned around and shot embers at Ukko, but he just swatted them away like flies. Ukko charged up his tackle and ran forward, Keegan screamed and tried to run back to his trainer but it was too late. Ukko's tackle was so devastating that when ukko's body made contact with keegan's, a dust cloud erupted from the impact and clouded them both.
Markus and June exchanged worried looks, they couldn't see anything because of the smoke cloud and they had to wait impatiently until the dust had settled. When it did, they were surprised at who had won, it was…
A/N: Ha! I left a cliffhanger! See you guys next time.
Love. Dana