Keep it in it's Pokeball

Suddenly the room was filled with Slowpokes, all looking at Kotone with the same stupid grin. She shuffled against the backboard of the Pokémon Center's bed, hugging her pillow to her chest. "B-be gone! Vile beasts!" She yelled, but the room was filling with more and more Slowpoke. The room was so filled, they began piling onto her bed, and she began screaming. She wouldn't admit it, but she had begun crying, too. One of them was getting too close to her foot, "Slow…. Poke?" It sounded off, and it turned around, its tail sliding over Kotone's foot…

Kotone woke up gasping, her pillow was to her chest, just as it was in the dream. Running a hand through her hair, she furrowed her eyebrows. "One Slowpoke I can handle… But a hundred of those stupid Pokémon…!" She whispered to herself in disbelief. Slowpoke's were the dumbest, and the most useless, Pokémon in Kotone's opinion. She heard rumors of an even dumber Pokémon in a far off region, but she found it hard to believe. She had met her fair share of Slowpokes, and each and every one of them was dumb as a post.

While Kotone was gathering herself, she heard a knock on the door. After quickly checking the mirror and patting her hair down, she went to open the door. One of the nurses from earlier (she wasn't sure which) smiled at her as soon as the door was opened. "Ah, Miss, your Chikorita is all fixed up!" She cooed, a Pokeball appearing from her pocket. "It's getting late into the evening, but you have until tomorrow afternoon in this room. I hope you two enjoy your stay in Cherrygrove!" She bowed and closed the door. When Kotone was sure she couldn't hear her footsteps anymore, she threw the Pokeball on the bed with a sigh.

What was she supposed to do with it? Walking over to the bed, Kotone picked up the Pokeball once more, regretting that she threw it, but only a little bit. "Uhm… Come on out, Chikorita? I guess…" She muttered as she threw the ball up a ways. With a flash, Chikorita was before her, and immediately ran up to her. Putting her knee up instinctively, Kotone reprimanded the Pokémon, "No! You… Stay over there or something." Pointing to the area rug near the desk, Kotone motioned it to go over.

The Chikorita's glee did not falter, and it seemed to skip over to the rug, laying down. "Chika!" It called, nuzzling the ground. Kotone understood right away, the thing wanted food. Walking over to her bag, she pulled out a bag of Pokémon food, and poured it before the Chikorita. It went to lick her hand, as a sort of 'thank you', but Kotone snatched her hand away. She wasn't sure was she was so… Twitchy around the thing, she wasn't afraid of it, now that she learned that it didn't know 'bite'. She just ignored the nagging feeling and laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

When she woke up, the first thing Kotone noticed was the fact she had left the lights on. She didn't really mind, though, since it didn't interrupt her sleep. From the small window, which she hadn't noticed earlier, she could see it was early morning. She wiggled her body, stretching out so she could get out of bed.

Kicking her legs over the edge of the bed, she was looking at her stockings and overalls. "Don't tell me…" she started, she has slept in her clothes, so the first thing she did was bring her bag to her lap, and pulled out her second set of clothes. It was just a simple, sporty, outfit. When she saw it, it reminded her of those outfits the basketball players wore, and she thought it was adorable in its own respects. She changed into that outfit, and decided to leave her hat out of the ensemble. Next, she figured she should brush her hair and teeth.

Walking over to the desk, she saw the Chikorita sitting on the, looking up at her expectantly. "What do you what?" She asked it, then just sat down and began brushing her hair, then putting it into two pigtails. When she was finished, it was still looking at her, so Kotone stuck out her tongue to mock it. It was watching her so intently, it was weird. Even while brushing her teeth the thing followed her into the bathroom and watched her. It had gotten to the point, that when Kotone went back to her bag, the first thing she did was put the Chikorita in its Pokeball.

After getting that out of the way, Kotone tied her shoes and was out the door. But not before checking herself out in the mirror first, of course. On her way to the beach, Kotone couldn't help but feel a bit smug, she loved looking sporty, for some reason it made her feel more upbeat than usual. Not only that, but in the early morning, the City looked beautiful, which also helped to improve her mood. Where there wasn't a quaint little house, there were fields of flowers, and where there weren't fields of flower, you could expect to find a store, or if you went far enough, the beach!

As Kotone's shoes began treading the sand, she let Chikorita out of its Pokeball, "C'mon out." She beckoned it, she wanted Chikorita to get powerful, and fast. If the thing couldn't get strong enough, she figured she could try trading it for a stronger Pokémon. After all, the Professor did say something about it being a rare Pokémon, so people would be willing to trade, right? Regardless, Kotone continued trudging through the sand to the shoreline, she could already see a dumb Magikarp too close to the shore, "Chikorita! Razor leaf!"

By the time it was noon, Kotone was instructing Chikorita to move on from the pile of Magikarp that had accumulated on the shore line. She wasn't too worried about the pile, though, since she figured that high tide would carry it away. Kotone had to admit, she was pretty proud of herself, her Chikorita had learned a move that restores it's health, which seemed pretty powerful. But, none of the moves seemed to be too helpful in non-battle situations, yet. If it could learn something that could help her in an occupation of some sort, that would be ideal.

As if by cue, at exactly 12:30, Hibiki's name was blaring on the caller ID of her Pokegear. He kept going on and on about how something was "perfect", but it took a lot of coaxing for Kotone to get what was so perfect out of him. "Kotone, you're going to love this! I was traveling back through Azalea Town, and guess what they had posters up for? A festival! You can make it out in three days, right? Of course you can! There's a shop in town, so don't worry about a yukata or anything! I've got the festival attire covered!"

She didn't want to say anything, but Kotone was rather excited. She hadn't been to a festival since her dad was still… Home… She shook the thought from her mind, after all, festivals had games and fun, right? Maybe there would even be fireworks. So, with a contented sigh, "That sounds great, Hibiki, I can't wait!" And hearing the excitement in her voice, Hibiki got pumped, himself, "R-really? You would really like that? I'll make sure everything's a-okay! Meet me in Azalea Town in three days, okay!" After agreeing to several things, including what colour she wanted her yukata to be, the two hung up.

Looking at to the shoreline, Kotone called Chikorita back, and returned it to its Pokeball. They would have to start walking right away if they were going to make it to Azalea Town in time.


Ohohoho, what could be in store at the festival~ Perhaps a fateful encounter? Find out in the next chapter (or two ;D ) Also, don't forget to review!