Pokémon Journey I: Violet's Trial

Chapter 8: Amber's Quarrel

Violet's Point of View:

The afternoon nearly passed in a blink of an eye as Amethyst, Amber and I headed around to most of the shops in Vermilion. In the short time that we shopped, we found a nice strapless royal blue dress made of a nice silk like material that covered everything that needed to be and came all the way down to just above my knees with midnight blue edging to the top and bottom of the dress. I picked up some opened toed heels, colored silver and black, for tonight that were only an inch or two tall (certainly nearly more then my comfort level could stand). I'd also picked up some long blue earrings made of dark blue sea glass to place in my ear lobes and a dark blue sea glass necklace to match.

When our shopping was complete, I took the girls out to lunch back at the pokemon center before we got in some last minute training to head over to Surge's gym. From the information that I gathered around town, he was an electric type user, so I didn't have any advantage, but no disadvantage either. However, to boost my possibility of winning, I planned to teach Amethyst how to use the move dig, which was actually fairly simple. When I had showed my charmeleon the move in the book with the illustrations, she simply nodded her head, saying she'd try.

Once we finished all that, I dropped my things off in the room I was staying in and I left the pokemon center with my two pokemon and I let them to the area to the east of town. I found us a spot where there was lots of open area where no one would mind if we practiced our new move. Amethyst easily learned it in less then a minute and soon enough I had her practicing against Amber to see how fast she could make her way into the ground and then back out to attack. Amethyst easily caught up speed in the ground and actually came to love digging around, so it made it hard to stop her once we finally thought it was about time to head over to the gym.

The girls and I filled in the holes we made and quickly made our way back to town. We were ready now and with Amethyst prepared for the battle, it should be too hard, but you never know what might happen with the gym leaders.

We approached the large gym building that was themed with army colors of camouflage and lighting bolts all within and around it. I pushed open the doors to the gym and I led the girls inside. Darkness over took the area as the doors slammed shut behind me and I felt my pokemon slightly tense around me. The lights suddenly came on and on the other side of the field was a large, well build man who had on a an army uniform colored camouflage and combat boots, fingerless gloves and spiked up sandy blond hair.

"Ah, fresh meat." He sneered on the other end of the ring.

"So I'm guessing your Surge Andrews? The gym leader here?" I questioned worriedly.

"Oh I'm him alright girly, but are you and you little pokemon prepared for our battle?" He grinned and pulled out a pokeball, which he threw to release a pokemon that was tall and looked quite similar to my pikachu. Though the pokemon before us was similar, it looked much larger and more powerful. The larger pokemon itself had a dark rust orange body with a white underbelly and had a bit of a mouse shape to it. Its ears were brown, long and swirled a bit on its head before they went strait back to a tip. Its tail was nearly three times longer then Amber's were and there a lightning bolt on the end attached to a thin dark brown long tail. Its cheek sacs were yellow and its paws were browns, as well as its feet.

I quickly pulled out my pokedex to look up the pokemon when I felt Amber tense on my shoulder. When it turned to look at her she had already jumped from my shoulder and jumped into the battle field. I was shocked in my place as I watched her growl at the pokemon before her.
"Amber! What're you doing?" I shouted over to her. "We have a plan to take him down! Now get back here s-"

"Pika! Pika pi pikachu chu pika!" She snapped back at me, effectively cutting me off for the moment.

"Why?" I shouted back at her. "Why do you have to face him? What possible reason could you have…" I trailed off as my mind wandered into the past about how I met Amber and her back story. She had told me a long time ago that she was abandoned by her family in the Viridian Forest, but beyond that, I didn't know much else. She never talked much about which or both of her parents that abandoned her, but to see so much hatred in her eyes and disgust and anger in her voice…

"Is he… is that pokemon…" I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth before I saw tears roll down Amber's cheeks in sadness.

"Pika… pi pikachu, pi pi pikachu pika chu." She nearly hissed the words out and I looked over at the pokemon at the other side of the field. A look of determination was on its face but it seemed to cave in a bit to my sobbing pokemon on the battle field.

"Raichu rai." The other pokemon called out. "Chu rai raichu rai? Raichu chu rai rai?"

"Pika pi! Pikachu pi pika pikachu pika?" My pokemon bitterly spat at the other and its eyes widened.

"Hey kid, you know what's going on?" Surge had made his way over to my side of the field while the two mouse pokemon, father and daughter, argued, shouted and cried in the middle of the battlefield.

"I'm getting pieces of the information, I got Amber a couple weeks back when I first started my journey in Viridian Forest. When I caught her, she was abandoned by her family, and from what I'm gathering from this conversation, that raichu of yours is her father," I told him.

"So that explains it." Surge sighed and looked back over to the pokemon on the field. "I caught myself a pikachu in that forest a long time ago and evolved it into a raichu. It tended to go back to that forest though every now and then for a few years, but it stopped after a few weeks ago, and it was pretty upset and much more aggressive in battle. I didn't understand why, but it must've had to do with your pikachu and the pikachu's mother."

"Pika pi!" I suddenly jumped at Amber's shout to her father. "Pikachu, pi pika pi? Pi pikachu pika pikachu chu pika?" Tears were running like a river down her face and I'd never heard her sound so angry.

"Rai? Raichu rai rai? Chu rai raichu rai raichu rai!" The raichu desperately tried to get closer to Amber, but she wouldn't have anything to do with him. She jumped back and raced away from him, the raichu tried to chase after her, but she was far too fast and evaded him easily every time.

She came over to me next and jumped onto my body, climbing up onto my shoulder and still continued to shot painful and horrible words to her father. I finally had enough of it and clamped my hand down on her back, startling her enough to get her to stop.

"That's enough Amber; now tell me what's going on with you and your dad," I demanded of my pikachu. She sobbed and I released my arm around her and pulled her into my arms.

She then began in on her story of how her life had been before her parents had been gone, her mother, a pikachu, and her father, the raichu that was before us, took care of her in the Viridian Forest when she was little. Her father would only visit every now and then due to the fact that he had a partner, a trainer that he had to get back too, but he always came back. But after one day, he was late and didn't come. Her mother got worried and went out to look for him, telling Amber to stay where she was, and she never came back.

Apparently after that the raichu chimed in a few details from his side of the story before she could blame him any further and what not. He said that he had come back to the spot, slightly later then normal due to a battle that he and Surge were facing here in Vermilion, but when he got there, both his mate and child were gone from where their nest was. He panicked and looked all over the woods for them, but couldn't find any trace of them. With a heavy heart he had returned to Vermilion and grieved for his family here, and that's what clouded his judgment when Amber and I walked through those doors for a battle. Not only did he think she was taken, but he also never would have thought his daughter would be such a fiery character that could bad talk her own father so badly (I saw Amber smile slightly at this).

All in all, the conversation took up most of the afternoon, it was soon coming to a close on this day and once the story was over, Raichu and Amber got to talking, explaining, though Amber was still a little bitter, she got over what had happened and felt much better. Surge and I were left to the side lines while the two caught up on things and set aside their bitter feelings (Amber more then her father).

"So, you still want that battle kid?" Surge questioned as he looked at the Pokemon before us and not at me.

"Yes, but can it wait until tomorrow morning?" I didn't look at him as I gave him my answer. "Amber's probably worn down due to that family reunion and I don't know if she or I am okay for a battle right now after what's happened."

"That's fine kid; just show up here bright an early. I open the place at six, so be there then, that's the only time I have open before I got other stuff planned."

"I'll be there, we'd better head out now then so we don't end up being tired tomorrow and letting you win tomorrow's battle." I sighed and called my pokemon over. Amethyst was already at my side to avoid the family reunion and getting involved while Amber quickly rushed back to me after a quick farewell until tomorrow to her father.

Our walk back was quiet and uneventful and there was no sign of Vince and Alex, though I shouldn't hold my tongue on that, it wouldn't surprise me if they ended up here tomorrow, so it's a good thing I'm finishing up here after the cruise.

With the streets vacant, it was easy enough to get back to the pokemon center. From there I headed back up to my room and quickly crawled into bed, setting a clock in the room for five in the morning so I wouldn't be late.

"Get some sleep girls; we have one hell of a battle tomorrow." I told them as they crawled into bed with me.

"Pika pi, pikachu pika pi chu pika?" Amber questioned as we were wrapped up in the warm sheets of the bed.

"I don't see why not, but are you sure you can face off against your dad?"

"Pika! Pikachu pika pi pi pikachu pika."

"You do make a good point, you are faster then him." I looked over at my fire type. "Does this arrangement bother you at all Amethyst?" My charmeleon shook her head and let Amber have at it. "Then I guess you'll be battling in the morning Amber, get lots of rest, you'll need it." My pikachu nodded and we crawled in, the warm easily over took me from my pokemon (mostly from Amethyst because of her fire type abilities) and we were out like a light.

HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch

Bright and early the next morning I ended up being woken up by an alarm. I reached up and slapped the machine when it went off and wouldn't shut up. I groaned and suddenly a fist shattered the alarm into pieces, I woke entirely with a start and jumped in my bed, Amber did as well and jumped onto my shoulder to see what had happened. Apparently Amethyst was still a little tired and didn't like the alarm waking her up so she smashed it with her large claws. I sighed, knowing I'd have to pay for a new one, and prepared myself for the day.

I quickly scrubbed up and put on my clothes from yesterday and left my dress I'd gotten then on the bed along with all my other things. Amber kept moving around to make sure she was ready to jump out of the way of her father's attacks and run in circles around him and take him out.

When I was done I saw the Amethyst was still in bed and sleeping heavily, this must have been what the professor was telling me about, pokemon often tend to take the personality of their trainer, mostly the first pokemon rather than the rest of the pokemon you obtain (with the exceptions of baby pokemon). Amethyst used to be energetic and up early, now she's more tired and lazy, I don't blame her for it though. Times since we started our journey have been pretty taxing; I'm surprised she hasn't been like this earlier.

Once I was ready, I made my way over to the bed and shook Amethyst to get her attention, she looked up at me tiredly and I almost regretted waking her up. "Amethyst, I'm taking Amber over to the gym now so we can win our next gym badge, I'm leaving some berries here in case you get hungry, but don't leave the room okay? We'll be back here in a few hours." She nodded before a yawn escaped her mouth and she curled back up into the sheets and turned her back to me. I kissed her forehead. "Sweet dreams, my precious gem."

I hurried out of the room while handing a few berries to Amber to give her some energy and shoving a few in my own mouth before locking the door and sneaking out of the pokemon center. Once outside, I took off for the gym. The streets were surprisingly silent and calm, with the rare exception of the S.S. Anne preparing for her departure tonight and the many sailors that were preparing her.

Surge's gym was strangely quiet when I arrived. The lights were still off and nothing was lit up. I walked up to the door to see if it was unlocked and felt my hand couldn't push the door open, it was still locked. I sighed and sat down on the ground before the door and looked off in the distance to the edge of the coast. I saw that the sun was just starting to rise in the distance; it must have been about five-thirty or so. It was quite beautiful to watch the edge of sky and the clouds change color as the night turned to day. Since I was always sleeping and never got to really leave town, either I was a sleep or the tree line would prevent me from watching such a beautiful sight.

I suddenly felt something shoved against the side of my leg and I hissed in pain. The front door to the gym had opened and out came the raichu, Amber's father. He looked out around the door when it didn't open fully and saw us there waiting for us. He rushed back into the building and quickly came back a few moments later. I could hear the heavy foot steps trailing behind him and the large shadow of Surge in the morning light cast over me.

"You sure got here early kid." Surge laughed and held out his hand and I grasped it. He yanked me gently to my feet and I brushed the dirt off my legs.

"Well, I didn't want to miss my match, and the name's Violet Vilmos," I told him before I heard him burst out laughing.

"You're Violet?" He quickly controlled himself and led me inside. "Misty sent me a message that I'd be seeing you soon. Never did I think that it would turn into all this drama with a challenger though."

"You and I both Surge, you and I both."

"So how about we get this battle started… huh? Where's your charmeleon?" Surge questioned with the rub on his hand on the back of his head. Raichu did the same thing with its tail.

"She's sleeping back at the pokemon center; she's taken on my personality of being lazy and sleeping in." I couldn't help the snicker escape my mouth from that and Surge and Raichu chuckled on the other side of the field. "So I left her back there and told her not to leave and left her a few packets of berries to keep her filled up while we won our third gym badge."

"You sure you can win it kid?" Surge teased me. "Raichu and I ain't about to let you walk out of here with that badge without a fight."

"Well it's a good thing we came expecting one then!" I turned to my pikachu who looked determinedly back at me, waiting for the order. "Let's go Amber!" With the words out of my mouth, she leapt from my shoulder and landed just before her father on the battlefield. We were ready.

"I hope you're ready for a quick defeat kid, cuz you ain't walking out of here with my badge! Raichu, mega punch!" His raichu jumped forward and landed only a few inches from Amber's face and charged up his fist in white light before swinging at her.

"Dodge it Amber!" In an instant, she wasn't in front of him; she was behind the poor raichu she knew as her father. When her father saw she wasn't there anymore, he looked around for her in wonder. Without my command, my pikachu jumped upwards and its tail turned metallic before she hit her father square on the head. I recognized the attack as 'iron tail', reading it once before in the book the older man had given me after defeating the Team Rocket member that stole it.

"Amber! How did you learn that move?" I called out to her. She looked up from where she was watching her father and waiting for him to get up and continue the battle.

"Pika! Pikachu pika pi chu pi pika!' She called to me quickly before she jumped out of the way of her father's tail nearly slamming down on top of her with nearly double the power she currently had.

So she found out from reading and looking at my book, eh? That's my girl. I felt myself grin at her sneaky achievement and I was glad for it. Another move under her belt would really help her a lot in the world of battling, and a steel type move is really affective to ice type pokemon and those kinds of attacks really hold a lot of power. Amethyst is a real example of that with her metal claw.

I was suddenly thrusted back into the battle as I watched Surge's raichu, or Amber's father (whatever you want to call the raichu) kept falling in a heap of limbs as his daughter ran in circles around him, practically play a game of meowth and rattata with him, and the rattata was winning big time. He and his trainer didn't look quite pleased with the situation and Raichu kept getting back to his feet after every fall, he had yet to tire much at all. This was going to be one long battle…

"Damn you little pest, stay still!" Surge roared and Raichu picked up on the fact from his emotions being sent out and he became slightly faster that Amber had to move a bit faster to keep out of his reach.

"Keep dodging Amber! You're doing great!" I cheered her on and I saw her grin as she ran around her faster then before.

"Alright, we need a new tactic!" Surge called out to his raichu. "Smash the ground with your mega punch!" Raichu obeyed quickly and before Amber could stop the speed she was going at, Raichu smashed at the ground and it collapsed into pieces. Amber's paw got stuck between two of the cracked pieces of solid ground and she was thrown over, hitting her back harshly on a pile of rocks.

"Are you alright Amber?" I called out to my pokemon and she quickly got to her feet, shaking off the dirt and looking around for her father. Smoke from the dirt shifting in the air covered the area where her father had been, we had no visual. "Amber get away from the dust! He's using it to hide!" I called and my pokemon jumped out of the way.

"It ain't gonna matter kid, Raichu's already found her." I saw the smoke clear and on the other side was Surge, grinning like a mad fool. When I looked to where Raichu had been, there was a large hole in the dirt, much like what Amethyst had made yesterday morning when I showed her how to use 'dig'. I felt my body had frozen over in fear when I looked at my pokemon.

"Amber move!" I shouted to my pokemon in fear and she was about to leap when a paw burst from the ground and hit her square in the stomach. She screeched and was thrown to the other side of the gym. She slammed into the wall and fell onto her feet. She hissed in pain but she stood firm and strong.

I sighed in relief. It's a good thing that moves that aren't the same type as the pokemon's aren't as powerful or else I don't know if Amber would have been able to go on. I'd have to teach her that move as well in the future to help her out.

"Let's go Amber! Be careful of the ground! Quick attack!" My pikachu jumped from her spot and sprinted at her father. She quickly hit him in the stomach with her attack and then jumped to another section of the gym and raced back at him, repeating the process over and over again while the raichu continued to endure the attacks.

"We're not giving up that easily kid!" Surge snapped. "Raichu, thunder!" The raichu's cheeks suddenly lit up with color and light and soon enough, lighting fired at Amber, an attack that actually happened to be really quick, so she just barely missed it. Raichu continued to fire at her repeatedly with the attack which took her to nearly six times around the edge of the battle field before the attacks finally started to waver. I looked directly at the raichu and watched as it was fading fast, with all his electricity gone; all we had to do now was knock him out.

"Let's finish this up Amber! Iron tail!" My pokemon stopped running around in circles around her father and suddenly leapt at him with a suddenly new found energy and swung her tail at her dad's face as she landed. He was thrown back into the wall behind Surge and then collapsed to the ground. Large swirls were in place of his eyes, and I knew that we'd won it.

"Amber we won!" I jumped up into the air filled with joy and pounded my fist upward in the process. Amber cheered as well and rushed over to me and into my arms. I held her as we cheered and in that time, Surge had gone to check on his riachu, which seemed to be fine for the most part, before he and Surge made their way over to us.

"No bad ki-I mean, Violet, not bad Violet. You did well out there, and I know you're certainly worthy of this." He held out his hand for me and I took the small object from his hand, it was a small bursting eight pointed star with an orange octagon in the center of it. "That's the thunder badge Violet, and you deserve it."

"Thank you Surge," I grinned at him. "I told you I'd get my third badge."

"Yeah, you won't be so lucky next time kid." He ruffled my hair. "Now you'd best be on your way, I'll send the next gym leader, Erika, a message that you'll be heading her way."

"Uh Surge?" I pulled out my map and showed it to him. "Exactly what path do I take to get to Erika's gym in Celadon City?"

"Oh yeah, that might help you out." He pointed to a few things on the map to remind himself before he started pointing things out to me. "Okay, so here on route six and route eleven there have been reports of snorlaxs that have been blocking the roads, so those areas are blocked off until someone can do something about them. And to make matters worse, Saffron is blocked off due to the threat of Team Rocket, so the only option left for you to take is to head back up to Cerulean City and head east onto route nine and head through the Rock Tunnel. It should lead you all the way to just outside of Lavender Town and from there, you head west through another underground tunnel that will lead you to Celadon City." He handed me back the map and I put it away. "Be careful Violet, Team Rocket is all over the place now and they tend to hide out a lot in the more populated cites like Saffron and Celadon."

"I will Surge, thanks for your help and the badge. We'll stop by if we're in town again! Amber, say good-bye to your dad! We gotta go get ready for the S.S. Anne!" My pikachu said a quick good-bye to her father with a hug and she hurried back onto my shoulder. "Bye!" We waved to the both of them and I took off light a bolt of lightning from the gym. The morning was still early; our battle hadn't taken much more then a couple hours, by now hopefully Amethyst's more ready to tackle the day since she got some more sleep. But she could also sleep some more while I got ready.

Witch's Note:

Okay, so that was quite the chapter with Surge and what not, so lets soon get to work on the ship! Oh I'm gonna enjoy that chapter, and I think you will too once you see the drama that takes place!

Question of the Chapter: What do you think happened to Amber's mother?

Well I gotta go now and work on some other stuff and the next chapter so I'll see you guys later! Remember to Review and send in Questions for me! Love you all!

Halloween Witch