A/N: Yay, a new reviewer! Hello, shadowkat87. Remember, I am following the events of the games, and Bill does give the player an Eevee. That's all I'll say for now. As always, thanks for reviewing. And I think it's fair that I acknowledge Northstar Pokeshipper, who somehow reviewed mere minutes (if that) after I uploaded the previous chapter, and has been doing so for most chapters. Thank you. It shows me how much you enjoy reading my story. Anyway, I should probably shut up and let you read.

Something else that I wanted to mention. You may have noticed that the chapters usually pick up right where they left off. But from this point onward, I think they'll usually have a bit of a time skip between them. Nothing major will be skipped, of course. You'll see that this chapter skips a battle, but it's just a random trainer on Route 30. And, just in case you guys like knowing which battles Kris wins and loses, I will make sure that if I do skip a battle, I will find a way to show whether or not she won.

Also, I'm sorry. I know I said in the previous chapter's A/N, "Will she be able to do well in a flying type gym with Chikorita?" But unfortunately, that question won't be answered quite yet, because due to how I separated the chapters, the gym battle won't be in this chapter. But I promise you, it's finally happening next chapter. So, sorry to mislead you, but it is coming soon, I promise.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.


"Chiko!" With a final tackle from Chikorita, Don's Caterpie stayed down, defeated.

"Nice job, Chikorita!" I cheered. I felt like I was really getting used to this. And not just because I've been winning, (although winning does feel pretty good) but because I like having some sort of routine. I used to think trainers always woke up with absolutely no idea what their day would be like, with no plans, just travelling wherever the mood takes them. Even though I still haven't done much travelling yet, I see that trainers do have some sense of routine, which is provided by the battles. Now, even though I just won three battles in a row, I'm not going to think about that. I'm not going to let it get to my head. Some you win, some you lose. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose some soon too. Besides, I was starting to learn how to tell which Pokemon the weaker ones are. For example, Caterpie? Not so good. He probably just caught it. The battle was slightly challenging, I will admit, but only because Chikorita was getting tired from consecutive battles, and also because Caterpie ate an Oran Berry during the battle. At least now I know that items are allowed during battles. And food items like berries are allowed to be held by Pokemon and brought into the battle to be eaten during the battle. I'll have to remember that for later.

"Nice try, Caterpie." Don said, returning it to its Pokeball. "I should have picked my other Caterpie, I think I've trained that one a bit more." Before the battle he'd told me that, like Mikey, he had two Pokemon, so he had to choose one to battle me with. "Well, fair's fair. And I think 200P is the fair prize." He held out his Pokegear. I gave him my account number and he transferred 200P to me.

After returning Chikorita, I checked my balance on my Pokegear, 3600P, before switching to the map screen. I walked ahead and saw the white path below my feet end and checked the screen to see that I had now crossed into Route 31. My view was blocked by a cluster of trees, but I saw a way around by going right through some tall grass. But, as I went through the grass, I was met with a small Pokemon with a large yellow head and a stick-like body with a leaf on each side. I checked my Pokedex to see that it was Bellsprout, the Flower Pokemon. I suppose it looks a little like a flower. At least, the body does, a bit. The head, not so much. Chikorita ended up fighting it in a battle of mostly vine whip and razor leaf, which the Bellsprout also could use. But ultimately, Chikorita came out on top, literally, finishing the battle with a tackle, landing on the defeated Bellsprout.

After getting through the patch of tall grass, I looked around. To my left I could see a building that I recognised as a gate into a town, which my Pokegear confirmed to be the way to Violet City. The gate was up on a cliff, which I could see could be gotten to by going down a hill into through a field of tall grass. In the middle of the route was a pond, and just in front of me on the far right of the route was a cave. I walked towards it, feeling a sudden desire to explore everywhere I can, and went into the cave. But as soon as I got into the cave, I was surrounded by nothing but darkness. The opening of the cave was narrow, allowing almost no light into the cave. I looked around, or at least, turned my head in an attempt to see something, anything, but all I saw was darkness, it was pitch-black in there. Maybe I shouldn't try to go in here, I'll just get lost. Maybe I'll come back another time, but I don't want to be here now. I used the small amount of light generated by the Pokegear's screen to find the way out of the cave. As I did I noticed the cave's name on the Pokegear – Dark Cave. They sure named that place right.

I walked alongside the pond, watching a group of small blue Pokemon with swirls on their stomachs, one of them bigger and slightly different-looking from the small ones in the group. Maybe it's actually a different, but related Pokemon? I scanned them with my Pokedex, happy I was able to find out about Pokemon just by being close by, to find out that most of them were Poliwag, while the bigger one was a Poliwhirl. Both classified as the Tadpole Pokemon, Poliwhirl was actually an evolved form of Poliwag. I wonder how different Chikorita will look when she evolves? I looked at Chikorita's Pokedex page, but it didn't say anything about her evolved form, since I hadn't scanned one yet. As I walked along the pond, I noticed a man sitting by the pond, not far from a berry tree. Wait… is he sleeping? Yep. He's sleeping. Okay, let's just walk past him. So, I walked past him, and looked at the berry tree. I noticed it growing a pink berry, which I recognised as not a Pecha Berry, from it's not-as-bright pink colour and by the differently-shaped leaves at the top. However, I couldn't quite remember its name. But, I decided it could come in handy, and that I could try to find out its name and what it does in Violet City, so, following the unspoken rule of just pick one, I picked one and put it in my bag.

Walking down the small hill into the field of tall grass, I noticed a boy near the hill that led up and out of the tall grass, up to where the gate to Violet City was. I smiled a little as I realised what he was doing. If anyone tried to walk up that hill to get to the gate, they would be in his line of sight, so by the rules trainers follow, he can challenge that person to a battle, and they're not supposed to refuse a challenge for no good reason. Well, I guess this means I'm going to battle him, I thought excitedly. I took a moment to shake off any lingering pre-battle nerves before walking over to him with some confidence.

"Hey, I see you," he started to say happily.

"And now you're challenging me to a battle." I finished for him. "I've only got one Pokemon though, so if you have more than one, just pick one." I was a lot more confident now than I was before my other battles. I'd done this a few times, and I knew exactly how all of this worked now.

"Gotcha. Well, it could be a bit of a risk, but I'll go with my newest little buddy." He sent out a small orange Pokemon with a similar body shape to a Caterpie. I checked the Pokedex to find out that it is a Weedle, the Hairy Bug Pokemon. While Caterpie was a bug type, Weedle is both a bug type and a poison type, and checking the general information on poison types I saw that poison-type attacks were super effective against grass-type Pokemon. After I sent out Chikorita, I noticed she seemed kind of tired, so, hoping to win this battle, I grabbed an Oran Berry from my bag and threw it to her, and she ate it quickly before continuing to battle. Despite the Oran Berry healing her a bit, the poison stings became a bit too much for her to handle, and Weedle had gotten used to dodging the same attack over and over after I realised that her grass-type attacks weren't doing much damage on the bug-and-poison-type and used mostly tackle. Chikorita was getting exhausted from poison, and it looked like the battle could end for her really soon. But then I realised that even if the grass-type attacks weren't doing much damage, they could still be useful. I had Chikorita wrap Weedle in vines, holding it still so that she could hit it with one strong tackle. Just as I thought, Weedle wasn't very strong, and so it stayed down after that tackle. I felt a wave of excitement rush over me as I ran over to congratulate the winner. I, of course, mean Chikorita, not me, since she did all the hard work.

"Nice job, Chikorita," I congratulated her.

"That was a close one, nice going." He said.

"I never got your name, by the way," I said, fading out of the excitement of having just one another battle.

"Wade,"

"Kris," He handed me his Pokegear to type in my account number. Thinking about how close and how fun that battle had been, I had an idea. "Hey, why don't we register each other's phone numbers? I'll call you sometime, we should have a rematch."

"Cool, I'd love to." We registered each other, and I checked my balance to see that the usual 200P had sent through.

"See you around," I said before walking off to the gate to Violet City. I wandered through and stopped just outside the gate to take in my surroundings.

I saw the Pokemon Centre just ahead of me, with a light purple roof. The town was surrounded by trees, and I noticed a tower visible above them. I wandered past the Pokemon Centre and up a small incline to see the rest of the city. A large building labelled as the 'gym' was situated in the middle of the town. I walked over to the gym. This is it. I can challenge a gym now. Let's do this. Luckily, I stopped myself before I went in. Heal Chikorita, that's what I need to do. I can't believe I almost did something so stupid as to go into a gym without healing Chikorita, she'd be at a disadvantage because she was just battling before. I ran back to the Pokemon Centre and to the counter.

As I handed over Chikorita's Pokeball, I noticed the long, purple hair the woman who worked at this Pokemon Centre had. I liked it, it looked nice. She seemed pleasant enough. She must have been able to tell that I was new to this because she suggested I look around in the trainers' lounge, a room in the Pokemon Centre where trainers hang out and discuss their training. She did also mention that battling would not be allowed inside the Pokemon Centre, so no one could challenge me there. She mentioned that there are bookshelves with some basic Pokemon information which could help. She mentioned that the books were donated to Pokemon Centres by trainers, and they usually were related to the town. "For example," she had said. "Ecruteak City is a city with a lot of history, especially surrounding Tin Tower and Burned Tower, so people donate books on the history of Ecruteak and the history of the Johto region." That was something I planned to remember. I want to visit every Pokemon Centre in Johto so that I can learn different things from each Pokemon Centre. She also mentioned that there is a school nearby, so if I wanted to learn anything specific, I should check their library.

Taking the purple haired woman's advice, I hung out in the trainers' lounge while I waited for Chikorita. I was happy to see that the bookshelves in this trainers' lounge did have a history book, though it was just the one book with some history on Violet City, and I read a few pages about Sprout Tower, the tower I had noticed earlier. While the ground floor is usually occupied by tourists, the upper levels are dedicated to Pokemon training. The tower is run by monks who train their Pokemon there, but apparently, they also allow trainers to challenge them, and a trainer who defeats all the others is allowed to challenge their leader, Sage Li. I smiled, reading about an opportunity for a challenging battle, and decided that I should probably try challenging them. But not now. That can wait until after I beat the gym. As soon as Chikorita's ready, I'm going to challenge that gym and win my first badge!

Putting down the history book, I looked around the room to see that there were a few other trainers around having various discussions. For a moment, I wondered if I should join in, or ask someone if they've challenged the gym yet and what it was like.

"Chiko!" I heard the familiar voice and turned around to see her bounding towards me. She jumped up and I caught her, hugging her close for a moment before putting her down.

"Ready to get our first gym badge, Chikorita?" I asked, bending down and patting her head.

"Chiko!" She was more excited than I was.

"Let's go to the gym!" We both started to run, not too fast as we were still inside the Pokemon Centre, and I remembered to quickly swing past the front counter to grab Chikorita's Pokeball, which she must have ditched to come and find me. Once we got outside, we sprinted towards the gym and went in.

I looked down to see if Chikorita was okay after all that running, and then stood still for a moment to give us a minute to calm down. I looked around and noticed two pillar-like statues with large Pokeballs on top of them at the beginning of a narrow path, which I could see a trainer in. I'm guessing before I can get to the gym leader, I'll have to battle the people on this path. That will be annoying. I don't want to battle anyone else right now, I just want to try battling a gym leader. Standing beside the right statue was a man, who noticed me and smiled.

"First time at a gym?" He asked. Why did he have to assume that? That's just as bad as when the Cherrygrove Pokemon Centre worker assumed I was a 'first time trainer' when I wasn't even a trainer at all yet. I decided to put up a confident act.

"What makes you say that?" He shrugged.

"I can tell. I see a lot of trainers come through this gym, as well as the other gyms. The other gym guides and I rotate between the gyms, so I go to work at all of the others in Johto. I've seen a lot of trainers, and I think I can tell when it's someone's first time."

"I'm not nervous." I say defensively.

"I didn't say you looked nervous. You don't look nervous. In fact, you're doing a really good job at hiding it." Hiding it? Who does he think he is, claiming I'm nervous and I'm hiding it?

"Why do you say that? You don't know me."

"I think I know how this is going to go. I'm guessing you want to battle Falkner, the gym leader, right away, don't you?" I didn't even know the gym leader's name before he said that, but of course I didn't show him that I'd just learned this.

"Yes, I do. I'm looking forward to earning my fir- the Violet City gym badge." I hoped he didn't hear what I'd corrected myself on, because I didn't want him to really know how new I was at this.

"Well, you're in luck. Just in case this is your first time in a gym, I'll explain to you that while there are trainers along the way to the gym leader, and yes, we do recommend you battle them before the leader for some additional training, they are not compulsory. Instead, they won't stop you from walking past them. They will battle you if you challenge them, but you can go straight to the gym leader if you want. If you think that's a good idea. Which I don't, if you want my opinion."

"Well, I didn't ask for your opinion. Like I said, I'm looking forward to earning the Violet City gym badge. I'm going to go challenge the gym leader." And with that I walked away from the gym guide and onto the path in front of me, Chikorita, following me.

Looking back at that moment, I realise I should have been a bit more polite to the gym guide, and maybe asked for some tips, because despite what my temporary confidence might have led him to believe, I really could have used some advice.


A/N: I know Chikorita would be at a disadvantage against the poison-type Weedle, and I actually considered making Kris lose, but then decided against it. First, because Weedle is a fairly weak Pokemon and poison sting, which is actually the only poison-type attack it can even learn, doesn't do much damage anyway. And second because I wanted to have Kris on a winning streak here. Don't worry, she's not going to win all the time, and I have my reasons for having her win these battles. As you can see here, she's still learning about being a trainer, and so she's not thinking things through enough. While this hasn't stopped her from winning yet, as we saw in her conversation with the gym guide, she's getting kind of overconfident here.

And yes, I know in the games all Pokemon Center workers look the same, all having pink hair. But that's because they're sprites and it would be annoying to give them all unique sprites. I described the Cherrygrove nurse as looking like the ones in the games, but then here I decided to have them look different. So, they will each have different coloured hair, and I think I'll try to match them to the name of the town/city if I can, such as: Cherrygrove - cherry blossoms - pink, Violet - violet is a purple colour - purple.

So, will Kris be able to use her new confidence to beat Falkner? Will Chikorita be just as confident as she is? And will she be able to do well in a flying type gym with Chikorita? This time you definitely will find out these answers next time!