Well, another long chapter ^_^

The next day was uneventful if you exclude the encounter with a paras. I won. No big deal. I did all I could to resist prancing around the limp Pokemon in glee. Sam didn't catch the paras. I thought maybe he wanted another day with just me, or maybe its cold, dead-looking eyes creeped him out. That night, we camped on a hill and we could see the end of the Viridian forest, the first step in our journey. I still had to get stronger. And he had to catch a Pokemon.

I was trotting along, pushing my tired muscles to move just a little better when I saw something a faded yellow trying to bury itself in the ground. I changed my direction towards it and cautiously batted my paw at it. The creature was underground arms and up (down?) Its tail wiggled in the air trying to push itself further, but I had other plans. I set my paws on its back and pushed with all my might. Pop! Its head and arms came out of the hole. It curled itself into a ball and rolled a couple feet away, then opened up facing me. Sam's Pokedex beeped and told us that it was a ground type, sandshrew. The pokemon had a little blush on its cheeks probably from the lack of oxygen in the dirt.

"You're not very good at digging," I informed him mildly. The sandshrew's brick-like body prickled and he pushed his head forward slightly.

"Yeah well, it's really not my thing, okay?"

I looked at Sam in confusion, I hadn't expected to elicit such a response from the pokemon. He also seemed to want to know why a sandshrew was yelling at his eevee. I glanced at the hot-headed pokemon, then did a double take. It had curled up and was headed straight toward me in a very fast roll. No way I could dodge. Sam's breath hitched a little in anticipation. However, sandshrew's roll went a little off course and hit a tree next to me instead. I knew this was my chance so I rammed against the yellow opening blur as soon as his head separated from his torso.

And I painfully bounced right off. He was as hard as rock. He spun around and tightened his paw into a tiny fist. And he hurled it towards me. I dodged the first one, then the second, but the third one nailed me in the face. The fourth and fifth made contact. I was getting dizzy and closer to being cornered against a tree. Not good.

"Nova-Sand Attack!" came Sam's voice. I didn't really know what I was doing but I grabbed a pawful of dirt and pushed it from the clearing to his eyes in a thick spray. It gave me an opening to tackle his stomach which was-as I had hoped-much softer than his back. As the dust he had kicked up cleared, he lay sprawled on his back. Sam ran over to us, throwing a Pokeball at the dazed creature. Right before Sam reached me, I fell into a furry lump on the ground panting quietly, I was a bit worse for wear and my tired muscles didn't seem to want to listen for the moment.

Sam ran over to me and enveloped me in a big hug I nuzzled his arm.

"I can't believe it! We caught a Pokemon!"

I gave him a half-hearted glare. But really, 'I can't believe it?' I could believe it!

Sam pulled out the spray and I braced myself against the bark of the tree I had been cornered against anticipating the sting of the painful bruises after being hit with the freezing liquid. Sam, taking note of my nervousness pressed his lips together into a flat line and ruffled my tuft of fur on the top of my head.

"I'm sorry," he said, completely apologetic. However, when he sprayed it at me, it stung, but not as badly as it had the time before. Soon, the spray stopped and Sam placed it in his bag again. I bounced my tail against the ground to show Sam I felt fine now. After that, he seemed to loosen up. He took the new Pokéball off his belt and eyed it warily. "How do we know it's not gonna attack again or something?" I had wondered the same thing a minute earlier, but when I thought about my Pokéball, a calm feeling seemed to sweep over me, despite my distaste for any enclosed space. I strongly believed the effect would be close to the same for the haughty sandshrew. I nudged Sam encouragingly and batted the ball farther into his loose grip. "Okay, Nova, it's our funeral." His eyes narrowed and he tossed the Pokéball so it spun in the air (I was impressed). A hollow noise came from the pokeball as it hit the ground and opened up in a flash of red light.

Out of the Pokéball emerged the Sandshrew, looking very irritated. "What the hell is your problem? One second I was givin' you my Gold Triple Punch and the next I lost to someone without fists!"

"You don't need fists to beat someone if you have teeth, claws, and some sense." I told him wryly. The dissed (and pissed) sandshrew ran at me, however he was still exhausted and winded and I had been returned to nearly top condition and I stopped him by placing my front paws on his head and firmly placing my back paws into the dirt. I arched my back slightly so that his madly swinging punches couldn't reach my stomach. "No need to be upset." I told him, vaguely realizing that I might not be helping the situation very much.

"You just caught me on a bad day! That's what happened! Come 'ere so I can beat the snot outta you!" He almost wailed. I stepped to the side as quickly as I could manage and he fell sprawled onto the dirt. After a second I told him, "Ow, you fell on my foot."

"It's your own damn fault." He growled, jaw against the dirt. I shoved him off my squished foot and waited until he got up.

"I'm Nova, nice to meet you (I guess...) you were just defeated by me and Sam, my-our new trainer. So... welcome to the team." I told him, as sincerely as I could. His eyes widened slightly. Then he turned his head with a small tilt to examine Sam with a careful eye. Looked slightly nervous under his gaze until finally, the odd sandshrew turned back to Dune with his report. 'Well, I hoped that if I ever got caught, it would be by someone a little more athletic, preferably with a Hitmonchan is his party, but whatever, I guess. My name's Gold."

So... what do you think? Reviews...? Anyone? 'Kay well anyways s'all good. If anyone has any ideas for other teammates (have to be Kanto pokemon with evolutions) or if you just have a personality idea, I'd be happy to know, cause honestly, this stories flying off the seat of my pants (but I'll have its fair share of excitement.) Expect an update late January. Bye!