Chapter 3: Tensions Rise

"Wow. These stars are amazing. They're so clear. I haven't seen anything like this since━well, since forever. Goldenrod had too much light pollution," I said to Espeon. We were sitting on a hilltop, out in the wilderness on our way to Violet City, long having left Cherrygrove behind. We sat for a little longer, just gazing up at the stars. Espeon, having been given to me as a newborn Eevee, hadn't experienced this ever either. Even though we'd been on our journey for well over a week now, we'd never really taken the opportunity to just sit out and look at the stars like this.

I turned to look down at Espeon. "This is exactly why going on a journey is so amazing, and so alluring to so many," I told him. "It's the little things, like this. Sure, it's great to defeat Gym Leaders and other trainers, or win competitions. It's great to achieve fame and glory. But it's also the people that you meet, the memories that you make, and the moments like this, where everything━everything is just so beautiful."

I actually began to tear up a bit. "I mean, look at this. Vivid stars above us. A gentle breeze blowing across the hill. And the sounds of nature in the background. This━this is what's so great about going on a journey."

Sadly, the beauty and harmony of nature that I had witnessed the night before didn't last very long. After letting my Pokémon out of their Poké Balls in the morning and giving them breakfast, I had gone to lie down in my sleeping bag, hoping to catch a few more minutes of rest before finally starting the day. Of course, it didn't work out that way. After only a couple of minutes, I began to hear yelling and shouting from my Pokémon. I opened my eyes, sitting up and quickly looking in the direction of the commotion for a cause.

The ruckus was coming from Cyndaquil, who was sprinting towards his food, yelling along the way. As I stood up, I looked over in the direction of where he was yelling and saw Chikorita at his food bowl, quickly shoving as much of Cyndaquil's food into her mouth as she could. I noticed her bowl was empty. As Cyndaquil got closer, Chikorita bolted in the opposite direction. Before I could even process what was happening, Cyndaquil was chasing Chikorita around our little campsite, yelling at her the entire time. Chikorita finally realized she wasn't going to outrun Cyndaquil and ran over to me, hiding behind my legs. Cyndaquil tried in vain to get to her.

Finally, I stepped to play mediator. "Break it up, you two!" I yelled out at both of them. They stopped. "Cyndaquil, why don't you go with Espeon and Pidgey and take a walk to that rock over there," I said as I pointed to a large boulder about 50 yards away. "Just, take some time to cool down, and then we'll talk." With that last phrase, I gave him a you're not off the hook yet kind of look. He started to protest, but begrudgingly walked off towards the boulder, with Espeon and Pidgey joining him.

I turned just in time to see Chikorita trying to slink away. "And you!" I yelled to her. She froze, slowly turning around her head hung low. "Get over here." Slowly she walked over to me, her head still down.

I sighed. I didn't want to chew her out and make her feel isolated and alienated. After all, she was our newest team member. But on the other hand, I couldn't let her think that doing what she had done was OK.

After some deliberation, I began my lecture. "I don't like to do this, Chikorita. Play the bad cop, I mean. But I saw you take Cyndaquil's food," She still had her head down. "And that's not OK. Do you understand? Everyone has their own food. You can't just go around stealing everyone else's, OK?" Chikorita began to sniffle. "Come on now, Chikorita. Don't cry. You understand that what you did was wrong, don't you?" Still, Chikorita wouldn't lift her head.

"Chikorita, don't act like this," I told her, trying to get any kind of response at this point. "You're part of a team now; part of a family. You need to start acting like it." I tried to make myself sound as sincere as possible. After all, ever since I had brought her onto the team, she had been acting standoffish and had been isolating herself from the rest of the group. Up until this point, I had been trying to break down her emotional wall and get her to be friendlier with me and the other Pokémon. None of it made any sense to me; she had been the complete opposite the day I caught her.

My frustration with Chikorita finally boiled into anger and I found myself unable to control my actions. "Look!" I yelled, unable to control my tone. "I've been nothing but good to you! I took you off the streets, fed you, cared for you. I gave you a team, a home, a family. That's something you didn't have before! You were living alone, on the streets, because you were too weak for some trainer. I could've done the same thing she did. I could've said 'Oh, this Chikorita's too weak, it doesn't have a place on my team. But no, I didn't. What did I do? I took you in. And this is how you treat me and everyone else? By isolating yourself, becoming withdrawn, and now stealing other Pokémon's food?"

At that last line, I stopped, closing my eyes. A wave of guilt rolled over me. 'Stealing other Pokémon's food'. I had just said that like it was a capital offense. But it's one of the most trivial things that Chikorita could've done. Oh my goodness, I thought. What am I doing? Why am I yelling at Chikorita like this? She doesn't deserve any of this. I took a deep breath, ready to apologize to Chikorita. But when I opened my eyes, she was gone.

Frantically, I searched around for her. She wasn't anywhere in the campsite. "Chikorita?"I yelled out. "Chikorita, where are you?"

I walked to the forests' edge, calling Chikorita's name for several minutes. She never came. I sat down, trying to think of a proper course of action here. I figured that Chikorita had run off; I had been pretty harsh on her. Again, I felt guilty. I had never really tried to make her feel that welcome. I hadn't taken the necessary steps to make her feel at home with us. Sure, I hadn't had my other Pokémon very long, but they had all joined at relatively the same time, and had gotten along just fine anyways. Chikorita, on the other hand...she was like an outsider. I mentally chided myself for not working harder with her.

However, I didn't get very long to sit there with my thoughts, because a loud "Cheeka!" rang through the woods. I instantly knew it was Chikorita━and that she was in trouble. I sprang to my feet, sprinting off into the woods. After running a couple hundred yards, I came to a short cliff wall, about 40 feet tall, and a clearing. In the clearing I saw a Nidoking glaring at Chikorita. Chikorita looked pretty beat up, as if she had been fighting with this Nidoking. The Nidoking himself looked fine except for the fact that he looked like he had just been woken up from a very good dream, and was about to smash whatever got in his way as revenge.

Chikorita cried out, searching for any kind of help. The Nidoking covered its ears from her shrill cry, then took one of his fists, punching the ground. A shock wave was sent through the ground towards Chikorita, launching her into the air. She slammed into the cliff face, falling to the ground, unconscious.

Once again, my instincts took over. "Chikorita!" I yelled out as I ran towards her. The Nidoking noticed me, turning and firing a Hyper Beam. I dove out of the way. Still in a half-panicked state, I got up and continued sprinting to Chikorita. After what felt like an eternity, I reached Chikorita, expecting another Hyper Beam to be on its way. When I looked back at the Nidoking, however, he was merely standing there watching us, as if he realized that we had no escape━which we didn't. I reached for a Poké Ball━and realized that all of my Pokémon were still at the campsite; and apparently hadn't heard Chikorita's cries. The Nidoking finally started to charge up another Hyper Beam. This one was to finish us. With no choice left, I covered Chikorita, who was still unconscious, with my body. My only hope was that I'd be able to protect her from the attack. I watched in horror, helpless, as the Nidoking fired.