A/N: Yay, I got another chapter done, and so quickly too! Hopefully the next one won't take too long either. So, this one's for anyone who has trouble sleeping, because I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping recently. Luckily, Kris finds something better to do that sleeping tonight.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.
I felt my eyes once again open to see the dark room in the Pokemon Centre. Looking to the ends of the bed, I saw that Chikorita was still curled up on the pillow I'd given her. Since no one was using the top bunk, I'd taken the pillow from the top bunk and put it at the end of the bed so Chikorita could sleep near me.
I turned to face the other side. I tried to close my eyes. No good. I turned the other way. Nope, I turned back around. I could not get to sleep. I know bright light like a screen isn't good for you when you're trying to get to sleep, but I wanted to know the time, so I picked up my Pokegear and pushed a button to activate the backlight and see the time. It was a few minutes past midnight. I'd gone to bed after a nice conversation with Joey which ended at around 9:30. So why had I randomly woken up at midnight? Maybe I was just getting used to sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. I needed to go back to sleep. I was slightly tired, tired enough to sleep. At least, I thought I was tired enough to fall asleep. But try as I might, I just could not fall asleep. So, I gave up trying to get back to sleep for now.
I swung my legs off the bed and used the small light from my Pokegear to see the lamp on the bedside table, which I turned on. I felt movement on the bed and saw that Chikorita was actually awake. I realised when I'd looked at her before, I'd just seen her curled up and assumed she was asleep but wasn't actually able to see if she was asleep.
"Hey," I said quietly. You know that feeling when you're in a really quiet room, or it's really late at night, or both, and you end up speaking really quietly? Or is that just me? "Did I wake you?" She shook her head. "Can't sleep either, huh?" She nodded. "I don't know what to do. It's late. We should probably try to get some sleep. We'll want to be well-rested tomorrow. We'll re-challenge that gym, yeah?" Chikorita jumped off the bed, stretched, and then walked to the bedroom door. "You want to go out? Why? Do you need to go outside to go to the bathroom? I mean, not an actual bathroom, but… you know…" She shook her head. "You're saying you just want to go outside?" I asked, still whispering. She nodded.
"Chiko," she said, as if trying to match my quiet voice. She looked at the door, then at me, then back to the door.
"I don't know, Chiko. It's late. Shouldn't we stay in the room?" I took a moment to think before deciding. "Okay. Maybe we could get some fresh air. But just for a few minutes. And you have to stay close to me, okay?"
"Chiko," she nodded happily. Figuring it would be cold out, I quickly switched the pink shorts I'd been sleeping in with white pants. I didn't bother to change out of my comfy shirt I'd been wearing but grabbed my white jacket. Chikorita waiting by the door as I pulled on my shoes. And then I remembered that the purple-haired employee, when she showed me to my room, had showed me that the bedside table has a torch in its bottom drawer, in case of an emergency such as a power outage or something like that, so I grabbed the torch and put it in my bag for now. Remembering to grab my room key so I could get back in, I quietly closed the door behind me as I left the room. Chikorita followed me to the exit and we left the building.
It's a weird feeling, being out late at night. I wandered through the city, as if I had a destination, but didn't know where it is. Chikorita followed close behind me. I could tell from the way she bounded along that she wanted to go a bit faster but was staying close as she was told. As I walked around, I noticed a gap in the trees that lead out of Violet City. Checking my Pokegear, I confirmed that that direction led to Route 32. Maybe I can look around over there a little. Besides, that means I won't be completely lost when I go that way some other time. I'll probably go that way after I'm finished in Violet City.
Slightly unsure of what I was really doing, I shone the torch in front of me as I walked into a small clearing where I noticed a berry tree. When I looked closer, I could recognise the berries as Pecha Berries. I went over and picked one, before moving through to the other side of the clearing. I saw a path off to my right, but my Pokegear told me it lead to the Ruins of Alph, and I didn't think ruins would be a very fun place to go right now. This late at night, it would probably seem kind of creepy there. So, I continued along the straight path. I saw some tall grass and wondered for a moment if I should turn back, if I should really risk having to battle late at night when I was only planning on going for a quick walk. But then, before I could make that decision myself, Chikorita bounded ahead of me, and passed through the tall grass, without a sign of any Pokemon nearby. What if it's okay? What if they're all asleep? No, but aren't some Pokemon nocturnal?
"Chikorita…" I was going to tell her to come back, but I stopped myself. I can go a little further. I can go through the tall grass. If there are Pokemon, I can just get Chikorita to battle them. I don't really want to be battling right now, but… Any reasons I had no to keep walking disappeared from my mind as I followed Chikorita through the tall grass. Slowly, I made it to the other side of the patch of the tall grass, where I was happy to see there was the beginning of a proper, white path.
I walked a bit further, along the path, until I saw a large pond. I saw a bridge and thought it would be nice to sit on the bridge for a moment before going back to my room in the Pokemon Centre. I went over to the bridge and then looked back behind me to make sure Chikorita was still following me. I sat down on the bridge, and Chikorita stood next to me. She looked at the water, before curiously reaching forward with her left-front leg. Her foot dipped into the water for a moment, and I wondered if I should hold onto her to make sure she doesn't fall in, but she retracted her foot, shook it dry, and sat down next to me. I watched as the small ripple she'd made when her foot touched the water expanded, circles getting bigger until there didn't really seem to be any of it left. But then, as I watched the ripples disappear, I noticed some bubbled forming in the water, as if someone was under the water, blowing bubbles. To my surprise, a small head popped out of the water. I watched as whatever it was (I couldn't quite make out much more than a small blur of a shape in the dark night) swan towards the bridge. Seeing it come closer, I stood up.
"Woo-pa!" It called, and jumped out of the water, landing in front of me on the bridge. I backed away two steps, before remembering I was on a bridge, and looked behind me to make sure I wasn't about to step off the edge.
"Chi-ko!" Chikorita now stood in front of the smaller Pokemon, ready to protect me. The small Pokemon was approximately half of Chikorita's height. I pulled out my Pokedex to find out what it was. I found out it was a Wooper, the Water Fish Pokemon. Quickly pulling up a page of brief info on water-types, I noticed that grass-type attacks were super-effective.
"Chiko, use razor leaf!" I said. She shot leaves at the Wooper, which knocked it stepping back and it fell back into the water. Chikorita stepped forward and peered down into the water, only to see the Wooper jump out and back onto the bridge. It shot a water gun, which landed a direct hit. It didn't seem to hurt Chikorita too much, but just knocked her, stepping back a few steps. Looking back to my Pokedex screen, I saw that Wooper was not just a water type, but also a ground type, and the ground type was also weak to grass-types. That explains why it seemed so scared of the razor leaf. It's double weak to grass-type moves! This should be easy then. I looked back at the Wooper to see it run towards Chikorita for a direct attack. "Vine whip!" Chikorita knocked it away with her vines. "Now razor leaf." Wooper had no arms, so getting back on its feet after being knocked down by a vine was not an easy task. With Wooper still trying to stand, this time it was hit by all the leaves, and stopped trying to stand up. This was my chance to leave, the battle could be over now. I looked into my bag, and an idea formed in my head. I reached in and grabbed one of the empty Pokeballs that Professor Elm's assistant had given me, the Pokeballs I'd been too nervous to try using. But now, on this midnight walk, for no real reason other than because I feel like it, I am going to catch a Pokemon. "Pokeball, go!" I shouted into the quiet night. I threw the ball, which hit Wooper and then landed onto the bridge. It shook one, twice, three times. Then I heard a click. I stepped over and picked it up. I'd done it. I'd caught a Pokemon. And in this moment, I didn't care about being quiet because it's late at night, I was so happy. "I caught a Wooper!" I cheered, holding up the Pokeball.
"Chik-chi-ko!" Chikorita cheered. I knelt down and gave her a pat on the head.
"Good job, Chikorita. I'd return you to your Pokeball, but you should probably walk with me back to the Pokemon Centre, just in case." Luckily, nothing did jump out at us as we walked back through the tall grass. We walked back to the Pokemon Centre. It was then that it occurred to me that Chikorita and Wooper had just been battling, and probably be healed. I was slightly surprised to see that there was, in fact, someone at the counter when I went back into the Pokemon Centre. But then I thought about it. Of course, there would be someone here at all times of the day. The dining area may be closed, but they wouldn't close the healing services. Pokemon could need medical attention at any time of the day. I just hope they don't judge me for being out and battling so late at night.
"Hi, do your Pokemon need healing?" Asked the young woman at the counter, when she noticed me approach. But it wasn't the same woman from earlier. That made sense though, the other woman must have been working the day shift, and now this woman must be working the night shift. Although, there was something similar about this younger woman, other than her purple hair. I could tell that her purple hair hadn't been redone recently, since I could see the naturally blonde hair at the top of her head.
"Yes, I, uh, went for a bit of a midnight walk? And ended up catching a Pokemon, haha." I tried to laugh it off as I explained. I quickly returned Chikorita to her Pokeball and handed Chikorita and Wooper's Pokeballs over to her. I tried to change the subject. "Your hair looks really nice. You know, the woman who was working earlier had purple hair too."
"I know, she's my older sister. Pokemon Centres are usually run by a group of family or friends. We both decided to dye our hair together, for fun, a while ago. But when it ended up growing so that our natural colour was visible, I decided not to keep dying it and let it grow out, but she wanted to get hers redone so it would stay purple. I like your blue hair too, by the way."
"Thanks. I got it done just under a year ago, for my eleventh birthday, so my natural brown hair is starting to show. That's part of the reason I tend to wear a hat most of the time." I let out a yawn. Well, it may not have gone the way I'd expected it to, but that midnight walk had indeed made me tired like I hoped it would. "I'm going to go back to my room. I suppose I'll pick them up in the morning."
I went back to my room and took off my jacket and shoes and changed back into my pajamas. I laid down in the bed and fell asleep almost instantly, now thinking about how exciting tomorrow will be with my new friend Wooper, my rematch at the gym to look forward to, and new places I'll explore.
A/N: So, I don't think anyone predicted that! I think it kind of threw you off that in the games, you're not supposed to go down that way before beating the gym. But screw the rules, I wanted to give Kris a Wooper. Also, think about it. It's late at night. That guy who blocks you from going that way without the Violet City badge? Wouldn't he be sleeping? I know in games no one really sleeps, because even though the game tracks real time, you could play late at night and all the NPCs will still be in their usual places. But that's just game logic that doesn't make sense. Of course, that guy who blocks Route 32 can't always be there at every moment of every day, that's just stupid.
I recently realised that I haven't been very consistent with my capitalisation. I've been leaving words like 'potion' and 'paralyse heal,' lowercase, but capitalising names of berries like 'Oran Berry,' 'Pecha Berry,' and capitalising Pokemon and anything with 'Poke' in it like 'Pokeball,' 'Pokedex' and 'Pokegear.' I decided I should either capitalise all items or no items, so as per some advice from someone, I'm going to capitalise all items. I don't know if I'll bother going back to edit previous chapters to fix 'potion' and 'paralyse heal,' since it would be pretty annoying to search for every time I mention them. But yeah, that settles that. Please let me know if you notice any other inconsistencies.
So, you probably noticed my little reference to the anime: 'I caught a Wooper!" "Chik-chi-ko!" I kinda copied how Ash says, "I caught a (name of Pokemon)!" and Pikachu goes "Pi-pikachu!" Do you think Kris and Chikorita should make that their thing they say whenever she catches a Pokemon? Or should I just leave it as a one-time thing? On one hand, I think it would be fun for her to have a thing she always says, but on the other hand, I don't know if it suits her. I'll have to figure that out in time for next time Kris catches a Pokemon.
So, Kris has finally caught a Pokemon. How will things go tomorrow? Will she beat the gym with her team of two? Will she give Joey the rematch he probably asked for when they talked on the phone? Will she finally get out of Violet City and go to the next gym in Azalea Town? Will she catch another Pokemon anytime soon? Find out next time (or in future chapters)!
