A Journey
Summary: Ash's daughter has NO interest in Pokemon training. So, Ash, being the enterprising young Master that he is, puts her into the middle of the woods in the night while she's asleep with a pack, no map, a Pokedex, and a VERY angry Pichu.
A/N: A slightly longer one here, although not as enormous as some others have been. This is filler content, but I hope it is intelligent filler content. Call me crazy, but carnivorous and herbivorous Pokemon shouldn't eat the same thing. Especially different types would have different nutritional needs (water Pokemon need more water than others, grass Pokemon couldn't have meat because the testosterone in meat would unbalance their phytoestrogens, psychic Pokemon would need omega-3s to help their neural pathways run, etc.)
…
"I'm traveling with you!" Brett told Peter, the only one who hadn't been informed of the situation yet. Peter grinned conceitedly, and gave Brett a noogie. Brett pouted.
"Don't worry, little guy, I'll teach you everything I know!" Peter, of course, couldn't even comprehend that a ten-year-old would do something with their life other than train. I had to respect Brett for not caving to pressure, truth be told, although he had the maturity of a little kid.
"I'm NOT a little kid!" Cue the whiny boy screams.
"Chill, chill," Peter said. "Do you know what starter you want?" Peter stared at Brett, awaiting an answer, as he looked at me desperately.
"Peter, why don't you advise him on which one is best," I said smoothly.
"Well, I'd pick Torchic," he said with a happy grin. "It's fire, which is awesome, and fighting. Literally will kick ass," he said, laughing at his own pun.
"Yeah! Pick a Torchic, it's so cute!" I'll let you guess who said that.
Brett just looked at me and shrugged.
"You have some time to decide," I pointed out to Brett, hoping he understood the underlying message 'I'll decide later.' Brett nodded, understanding, and changed the topic.
"So I can't wait to get started!" Lavender said. "Hoenn's got a contest in every major city and town. I hope they've got one here soon!"
"And there are plenty of gyms," Peter said, starting to get excited as well. "Dewford here has got a gym I think!"
"More opponents to beat into a pulp, huh?"
"Yeah," he said slowly, turning towards me. "Exactly." My heart skipped a beat.
"It's too late for us to go to Littleroot tonight, so why don't you room with me in the Center? I get a trainer's pass."
"Sure?" Brett suggested timidly. He threw me a glance. I grinned at him indulgently. I wish I could be the one rooming with Peter, so frankly I was less than sympathetic. Brett didn't like the arrangements? Tough.
"I didn't get a trainer's pass," I said. My dad had apparently forgotten this when he dumped me in the woods.
"Room with me, then," Lavender offered excitedly. "Just like on the boat! Like one big sleepover party!"
"Okay, Lavender," I said, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
"But I'm hungry! Where do we eat?" Brett whined. I can't say I felt much differently.
"You can't just listen to your body, you have to let your mind-" Peter sternly began to lecture Brett, but then his stomach growled audibly.
"There's a soup place down the way! Tee hee hee!" Lavender laughed. "I love soup! It's so cute!"
"How is soup cute, honestly?" I asked. Lavender blushed.
"Umm, mildly disturbing," I said in response. Lavender probably thought that Charizard were cute. Of course, being from Sinnoh, she probably would mistake a Charizard for a rather large Salamance with indigestion.
"You girls are so weird," Peter said, shaking out that beautiful hair of his. "Soup is not adorable; you eat it."
I couldn't agree more, but why did he put me in a category with Lavender? Lavender gave a bad name to womankind. A cute, nauseatingly adorable name, but a bad name nonetheless.
"What do we feed our Pokemon? Can they even eat soup nicely?" I asked Peter.
"Maybe if they have breadsticks, we can feed them to the Pokemon?" Peter suggested, looking at me out from under his mussed hair.
"Eew, carbs!" Lavender said. So that's how she was so skinny? She was a serial dieter? Eww herself. I bet that she was so skinny naturally that she could eat anything she wanted and not gain an ounce. I thought of her scarfing down an entire pizza, and smiled to myself.
"Good point. Pokemon nutrition? Do they need certain kinds of foods?" I asked Peter. Peter wasn't the one who answered me, though.
"It depends on the Pokemon. People used to just give them Pokechow and Pokeblocks, like when our parents were our age," Brett said, sneaking a meaningful look at me on the words 'our parents.' "Now, people go natural with food. I mean, a fish Pokemon, a plant Pokemon, and a carnivore Pokemon can't eat the same things and be healthy for it!"
"But Pichu and Rattata both like fruit," I ventured.
"Pichu is a mouse Pokemon, and Rattata is a rat Pokemon. Very very similar. You're lucky. They're omnivorous."
"Chopin?"
"The bug?" Brett confirmed.
"Yeah."
"It can eat anything with a high starch content."
"He likes croutons."
"Ah."
"What?"
"You might want to limit that. Too many empty carbs. You might want to try him on brown rice. Lower glycemic index, you see."
"Speaking of index, why is the little trainer a friggin encyclopedia?" Peter cut in, clearly sore that Brett knew more than he did. Brett, unaware of the dangerous territory he was treading, asked,
"What do you feed your Pokemon? I can make recommendations!" He meant nothing by it, poor little guy.
"How about you stop criticizing me until you've proved your worth in a battle?" Peter snapped. Brett, about to apologize, saw his glare and said nothing.
"Look, we're here!" Lavender squealed excitedly with a clap, gesturing to a rickety shack called Bliss In a Bowl.
"I bet the health inspectors don't find it blissful," Peter remarked, yawning and stretching. How were his teeth so white if he lived in the wilderness. I really did have to ask him sometime…
Lavender pushed open the door and ran inside. The proprieter, a small, sad-looking man with a long red braid and only one arm, showed us inside to a table.
We ordered immediately (me, squash, Peter, beef bullion, Lavender, squash as well, most likely because she couldn't think of anything herself, and Brett, peanut butter chocolate desert soup).
I ordered blueberry raspberry swirl desert soup for Maestro, who licked me appreciatively, French onion croutons covered with Gruyere cheese for Chopin, and after Pichu blackened the menu to the crisp, it expressed an interest in squash soup, so I asked for my soup in two bowls.
In the meanwhile we just chatted. Not about anything particularly interesting or important, but just pleasantries. Until, of course, Peter decided to enlighten me on the ideal battle strategy.
"So you have a Pichu." He said. "You need to train it in Special attacks."
"It won't listen to me," I reminded him.
"Oh, really? Well, my Pokemon have always listened to me, so I can't help you there."
"You didn't have problems with Infernape ever?"
"Of course not? Why would I? Infernape loves to battle, I love to battle!" This was true. Never had I seen such a battle-happy trainer and such a battle-happy Pokemon; they were perfect for each other.
"Well," I prodded him, "any advice for dealing with Pichu?" I glanced over and found Pichu's seat empty.
"Did you see Pichu just leave?" I asked Maestro. Maestro shook his head.
"God, I could grow to be a hundred with that creature, and it would still hate me." I said with a sigh.
The back of my chair made some shredding noises, and I found myself shocked by the Pichu, firmly anchored to the chair with its claws.
"Just kidding. That furry little stealth bomb will kill me before I turn eighteen." I muttered darkly. Chopin crooned sympathetically.
Brett stretched comfortably and yawned. Peter, looking up, feeling a bit nicer, said, "You'd better get some sleep tonight! You have a big day ahead of you!"
"Yeah, how are we going to get to Littleroot?" I asked.
"We just have to cross the ocean, go through a tunnel, and walk a lot," Peter said.
"How did you know that?" Lavender said admiringly.
"I can't be like that Ash Ketchum; I'm going to research places before I go!" Peter isn't always impulsive and battle-happy? Peter totally just dissed my dad?
"Wow, you're smart!" Lavender giggled. Peter blushed a bit. Blushed? Honestly, is he a were-girl or something? Well, constant admiration from Stupid over there couldn't be helping his ego, I thought to myself.
"It's good that you know where we're going. I have no idea," Brett said, obviously relieved. Peter actually sat up a bit straighter. Having gotten his manly mojo back or whatever, all was well, basically. Well, I still had a beady-eyed Pichu glaring at me from across the table, but other than that, it was fine.
"Here are your soups!" The owner said, somehow balancing all of our soups on a tray on his one arm.
Lavender smiled, accepted her squash, and squeaked, "Thank you, sir!" Peter nodded sharply with a curt "Thanks," and Brett inconsiderately said nothing. I managed a weak smile, handed half of the soup in another bowl to Pichu, and inhaled the warm, rich, velvety broth.
"This is very good," I said in between mouthfuls. "You picked a very nice shack, Lavender," I said, amazed that she had such a nose for quality.
Lavender blushed, and Peter turned to her. "Yeah, thanks, this is awesome." Is it natural that just five words could leave my breath caught in my throat, clench my jaw, and narrow my eyes?
"I think we should stay in Dewford for a little while," I finally said, just to say something that might be as good as the appropriately named Bliss in a Bowl.
"Why would we do that?" Peter asked dismissively.
"You can battle, Lavender can do the Contest, and Brett can figure out what he wants to start with."
"And gamble! If you battle, Peter, I can make money!" Brett said with all his youthful aplomb.
"I would love to compete!" Lavender said, actually putting her hands up in that cheesy 'V for Victory' pose. I nearly gagged.
"Sure, why not?" Peter said casually.
"Cool, it's settled then," I said with a smile.
Presumably eager to get us out of the restaurant, the one-armed owner came over and stared at us pointedly, especially Lavender, to ate her soup agonizingly slowly. She'd delicately sip one spoonful, never letting her pinkie touch the spoon, and then would joke a bit, talk a bit, and spend a long time staring at Peter. The proprietor cleared his throat.
"We're closing soon. So what brings you here?"
"We're traveling." Peter said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. The proprietor rolled his eyes and frowned.
"Yes, but where from?"
"I'm from Sinnoh, Lavender's from Sinnoh, the kid is from Sinnoh, and…"
"…and I'm from Kanto!" I cut in quickly, before Peter realized that he did not, in fact, know my name. Honestly, that put him on the Lavender level. Didn't he realize that he wasn't calling me anything in his head when he thought about me? Did he think about me enough to realize it? My rather depressing train of thought was interrupted by Peter.
"You're from Kanto?" He asked incredulously.
"Yeah," I said slowly, wondering if I said too much.
"What's it like?"
"Usually warm?" I ventured, not sure what he was looking for.
"The most primitive Pokemon came from Kanto! Even a lot of Sinnoh species are direct evolutions of Kanto Pokemon!"
"Primitive? Are you kidding me?" I asked, annoyed. Maestro looked up, his snout covered in purple desert soup, and gnashed his teeth.
"Yeah! It was the beginning of all life!" Peter said dreamily, track 2 of his two-track-mind lit up and in full fantasyland; Pokemon would be the only thing he'd think about for several hours afterwards, if I knew him at all.
"Kanto's a lovely place," the proprietor said. "You going back there?"
"Eventually. I loved traveling through Sinnoh," I lied, "but there's really no place like home. Sinnoh creatures are so bizarre…" I said this staring right at Peter.
"Would you like to tell that to INFERNAPE?" Peter asked, snickering at the suggestion.
"Done!" Lavender said, holding out her empty soup bowl as if she just won a prize and felt the need to display it to. The proprietor breathed an audible sigh of relief, and I signaled to Chopin and Maestro that we were leaving. Pichu, meanwhile, sprang onto the top of my head and dug its claws into my hair.
"Is this really necessary?" I asked through gritted teeth.
Lavender giggled. "It's just playing, try playing back!" I rolled my eyes at the idiocy of this.
"Will you try the gym tomorrow? I'll probably come watch you." I asked Peter, wincing at the pain. I tried to gauge if he looked happier at my second comment, but having my hair ripped out made it difficult to pay attention.
Brett reached up, and plucked Pichu off of my head. Pichu shrieked in anger, and shocked Brett, but Brett just held onto it tightly, shielding us from the shocks.
"How do you DO that?" Peter asked. Brett smiled happily, and repeated his spiel about his immunizations as an infant.
"That'll help you train," Peter said, smiling indulgently at Brett. Brett rolled his eyes at me, and I couldn't help but laugh.
Finally outside, Brett continued to hold Pichu, whose angry electric shocks sent flashes of light around the darkened streets. Maestro hopped from a bike rack up onto my shoulder, and we started walking to the Pokemon Center, following the well-lit signs.
"In response to your question, yes, I will try the gym leader," Peter said, remembering what I had asked him before the monster tried to pull off my hair.
"It's a fighting type gym," Brett offered hesitantly, still gripping the Pichu as hard as he could (his knuckles were going white around the edges.)
Peter, thankful for the information this time, nodded.
"That'll make Infernape's job a bit harder, but I'll figure out a strategy. I'm good at that." Peter proclaimed confidently.
Lavender was staring at a streetlamp pole, and she clapped her hands together.
"There's a contest tomorrow all day!" She beamed adorably at me.
"Do you want to watch me?" She asked, turning to me, her hands together.
"Sorry, I just said I'd watch Peter's match. You're going in the morning, right?" I directed to Peter, hoping that he would say 'yes.' I didn't really have any interest in watching.
"Yeah. Fire Pokemon are strongest in the morning." He said.
"Afterwards, I'll come and watch you, though," I said to her. She shrugged.
"Sure!" She said with a smile.
"What Pokemon are you going to use?"
"Ecru! I'm trying to evolve him for you, remember?" I nodded in response; a Milotic would be cool, but I would miss Chopin. Besides, I hadn't taught him the Beatle's country-inspired acoustic period.
"What other Pokemon do you have?" Brett said, looking at her, clearly trying to make that elusive, difficult judgment about how she battled.
Lavender laughed. It occurred to me that no, I actually didn't know. Did she even know?
Lavender looked around, distracted. "Do you hear something?" I wondered if she was jokingly pretending that she didn't hear Brett, until one moment later, I heard a rustle and a splash.