Hello, everyone! Time to update!
Whew, this one sure took a long time to write. It's my longest chapter yet!
Today's topic was suggested by Stoll Your Gift.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or size!
Starter Excitement
(Summer before) Grade Five
May (10), Paul (10), Drew (10), Gary (10), Ash (10), Misty (10), Leaf (10), Dawn (10)
"I'm so excited!" Dawn bounced in her seat.
"I know, right!" Ash said enthusiastically. "I remember when I turned ten, I was so excited to get my first Pokemon that I couldn't sleep all night!"
"Wasn't that why you ended up waking up late that day and missed getting any of the three starter Pokemon?" Misty reminded him.
"Oh yeah..." Ash turned to the yellow Pokemon sitting in his lap. "But it all turned out okay, right? I mean, if I hadn't been late, then Pikachu probably wouldn't have been my first Pokemon, right, buddy?"
"Pika Pikachu!" Pikachu agreed.
Dawn, along with her seven friends, was on her way to Professor Rowan's lab in Drew's limousine, which was being driven by said friend's butler. Her mother had especially reserved a Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup for her there, and since she had recently turned ten, she could choose any one of those three. All of her friends had turned ten before her, so they already had their first Pokemon. And now she could finally have her own too!
"Hey, Leaf was telling me that you were already friends with Pikachu from before. Is that true?" Dawn asked curiously.
"Yep! It was just a Pichu back then! I don't remember the first day I met it, but we didn't really used to get along back then!"
"Pika, pika. Chu."
"But when did Pichu evolve into Pikachu?" May asked. "I don't think you told us how that happened."
"I didn't?" Ash rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I guess there is no time like the present, then! I remember it all as if it were yesterday..." He got a dreamy look in his eyes as he thought back to the memory.
"Pikaaaa..."
(Flashback)
Nine-year-old Ash was in Professor Oak's ranch. Gary and Leaf weren't with him, because they had decided to go to the park. Ash was planning on meeting them there, but he wanted to say hi to a Pichu friend he had made first.
"Hello, Pichu!" he called out as he spotted the tiny electric-type sitting up high on a tree branch, nibbling on an apple.
"Pichupi!" Pichu looked down at him. They had met a long time ago, though neither could really remember exactly when. They hadn't started out very well, since the black-haired boy only seemed like a nuisance to Pichu. But Ash was persistent. When he made up his mind about making friends with Pichu, he wasn't going to back out.
Slowly, Pichu started minding him less and less, and the both of them ended up forming a bond. Maybe they didn't hang out all the time, and Pichu didn't always listen, but they could have a little fun together sometimes without Ash getting zapped.
"Hey Pichu, come on down!" Ash waved at it. Pichu looked at him reluctantly, and then back at the apple. It decided it would fill its tummy first.
"Oh, come on!" Ash urged. "I'm gonna turn ten in a few months, so I thought maybe I could practice having a Pokemon with you. I know! Let's go around and we can practise battling! Like a real trainer and Pokemon!"
As Pichu continued to look disinterested, Ash frowned.
"Fine! I'll battle the Pokemon myself!" He observed the area around him, and located a few Pidgey sitting a short distance away.
Ash tried to think out a strategy. He didn't have his own Pokemon, and Pichu refused to help him, so he would have to try to battle them himself. Question was, how?
The answer came to him in the form of a rock. Grinning confidently, he picked it up and flung it it the direction of the three Pokemon. The stone, however, did not quite reach them, and they flew off, feeling threatened.
Ash frowned, but caught sight of another flying-type that was standing much closer than the three Pidgey had been. He was going to get it this time for sure!
Aiming carefully, he pulled his arm back and used all his might to throw it at the Pokemon.
"I got it!" he cheered. Unfortunately, when it turned to face him, he discovered that it was not a Pidgey, but instead a much more aggressive flying-type. It was a-
"Spearow!" the Pokemon let out a battle-cry as it dove towards him in full rage. Ash managed to duck just in time. When it missed its next, and third attacks, it glanced around and spotted Pichu, still in the tree, watching it curiously.
"Pichu! Pi!" Pichu quickly got out of the way as the Spearow redirected its attacks towards it.
"Hey, leave it alone! It didn't throw the rock!" Ash yelled out. But the Spearow paid no attention. Just when it nearly knocked the electric-type off the branch, the tiny Pokemon let out a jolt of electricity, shocking the Spearow, and sending it falling to the ground.
"You go it!" Ash cheered as Pichu quickly made its way off the tree and beside its friend. But the Spearow wasn't done yet.
"Spearow!" it called out, and five more Spearow emerged from a nearby tree.
"Uh oh." Ash stared nervously as the small flock began making its way towards them. He turned to Pichu. "Should we run?"
"Pichu." Pichu nodded in full agreement.
Both began running off at full speed, the Spearow in hot pursuit. Eventually, they found they couldn't run anymore, because their path was cut off by the lake. Ash, having been at Professor Oak's ranch many other times before, knew that it was not a good idea to jump into the lake, where a certain territorial Gyarados, who did not particularly like humans, dwelled.
Pichu and Ash faced the Spearow that had cornered them.
"Don't worry, Pichu." Ash stood in between his friend and the flock, facing the Spearow. "No matter what, I'll save you!"
"Pichu..." Pichu watched him, as if suddenly understanding that he meant what he was saying. "Pichu!"
"What? Pichu...?" Ash turned around to see that the little Pokemon was suddenly glowing brightly. It transformed, taking the shape of another Pokemon, much larger than it previously was.
"Pikachu!" the new Pokemon's cheeks sparked.
"Pichu! You evolved into Pikachu!" Ash said, stunned.
Pikachu faced the flock, that had gotten bored of the scene before it, and was now charging at them, ready to attack.
"Pikachuuuuuuu!" Pikachu let out a strong bolt of electricity, blasting its foes away.
"Pikachu, that was awesome!"
(End of Flashback)
"So that's how it happened." May said. "So, after that, I'm guessing that when you became Pikachu's trainer, you two got along very well?"
"Nope, not at all!" Ash admitted. "See, when I came late to get either Charmander, Bulbasaur, or Squirtle, I asked Professor Oak if there was any Pokemon left. Any. And it turns out he had caught Pikachu, because he had thought that I might want to keep it since we were already such good friends. But Pikachu didn't really trust me like that. As a friend, definitely, but as the one who would take care of it? No way! I ended up getting shocked a good many times! Plus, it was sort of angry at me because it thought it was my fault it ended up in a pokeball. It really doesn't like being in its pokeball."
"Yeah, we know." Gary interjected.
"Kind of reminds me of the time Budew evolved." Drew said nostalgically.
"Oh yeah? How did that happen?" Misty asked.
"Well, Budew lived in my garden, so I met it when I was very little. Maybe even before kindergarten. It used to follow me around whenever I was outside, so I guess we sort of became friends that way.
"Then, about two years ago, some Beedrill came into the gardens. It was pretty normal, since they come all the time, but I think I might have gone too close to a tree that had their nest or something, because they suddenly began trying to attack me. Budew came to my rescue, and evolved into Roselia. Grass type moves aren't very effective against Beedrill, but Stun Spore was enough to slow them down while we got away."
"Wow, you guys have such exciting stories about how you got your starters!" May remarked. "For me, my dad is really good friends with Professor Birch, so I just got Torchic from him."
"I got Squirtle from Grandpa." Gary bragged. "Of course, he'd let me have the best one! It's great to have a grandpa in the Pokemon business, isn't it?"
"Squirtle was the best choice? Oh please! That's only a matter of opinions." Leaf said smugly. "Bulbasaur was the obvious choice for me, because I wanted it more than Squirtle."
"You only chose Bulbasaur because green's your favourite colour!" Gary accused.
"Maybe that's why I wanted it when I was little." Leaf admitted. "But when I grew a bit older, I wanted it because I like Bulbasaur itself."
"I got Staryu as my starter." Misty said. But then she frowned. "Actually, Daisy caught it for me the day I turned ten, because she forgot to get Professor Oak to reserve three starters with me. She caught a water-type, because she knew I'd love it, even if it weren't one of the actual starters. She was right though." Misty shrugged. "I love Staryu anyways, even if I only got it because my sisters are forgetful."
"Wasn't Psyduck your first Pokemon?" Ash pointed out. "You know, the one that followed you home from the picnic in grade two?"
"No!" Misty protested. "That dumb duck just wouldn't stop following me, and it only stayed at my house because it didn't want to leave for some reason! I didn't even catch it; it got itself caught in a pokeball lying around in my room, and that was after I got Staryu. I still can't believe it followed our bus all the way back from that park way back then."
"You got Turtwig, right Paul?" Ash directed his statement at his purple-haired friend.
"Hn." was the response.
"I don't know why, though." Gary said thoughtfully. "I was sure you were going to pick Piplup! When you were comparing Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup the week before you turned ten, you decided Piplup would be the best choice, since it can learn water and ice type moves, and even some flying ones like peck. Plus it evolved into Empoleon, which was part steel, and can learn lots of different moves too."
"Hn."
"We're here!" Dawn exclaimed as a building came into sight. And not just any building; it was Professor Rowan's lab!
Dawn excitedly hopped out of the car first, ready to pick her Pokemon, even though she hadn't decided which one she was going to pick yet. But there was no need to worry! All of her friends had such great experiences with their starters; she couldn't wait to meet hers!
The moment the eight friends stepped into the lab, Dawn discovered that maybe there was some need to worry.
"Piplup, calm down!"
"Chimchar, please!"
Professor Rowan's assistants were yelling at the water-type and fire-type starters, who were apparently causing chaos all over. A Staraptor and Starly, startled by all the commotion, were flying frantically around, causing even more damage.
"Chim chim char!" Chimchar taunted, as Piplup got angrier, and unleashed Bubblebeam. A window was hit, and it shattered, creating Chimchar's escape-door. Piplup jumped out the hole after the fire-type, wanting to make it pay for... well, whatever it had done to get it angry. The two flying-types felt obliged to go out too.
"Whoa!" Gary observed the mess around him.
Dawn blinked. "What just happened?"
"I was thinking the exact same thing." a gruff voice sounded from behind the group of friends. They turned around to face a man with white hair and a white mustache who looked like he had just entered through the doors.
"He's back!" one of the assistants cried out anxiously.
"Well, yes, because this is my lab." the professor said irritatedly.
"I'm so sorry!" one of the assistants apologized. "We had some trouble with the Chimchar and the Piplup, and now they've escaped."
"We've only have Turtwig left." the first assistant looked over at the grass-type, who was peacefully finishing up the last bits of the food in front of it. It smiled sweetly at everyone, thinking that it would probably end up being picked as a starter since the other two weren't around.
Professor Rowan sighed. "We'll have to send someone to go find the other two. In the meantime, you guys should start cleaning up this mess."
"Right away, sir!" The assistants began picking up fallen papers and tidying up. Professor Rowan turned to the group of ten-year-olds.
"I am guessing that one of you is Dawn?" he inquired.
"Yeah, she is." Ash pointed to Dawn.
"Well, Dawn, I apologize for this. You will have to wait a while longer while we get those two back, so you can pick your starter properly."
"Sir, I'd like to go look for them!" Dawn declared unexpectedly.
"Hm?"
"We're talking about one of my future Pokemon! I want to do what I can to help get them back!"
"Well, it is very good of you to offer, but those two might have gone into the forest. There are many wild Pokemon there, and I just cannot allow you to go in there without the protection of your own Pokemon."
"We can go too!" Ash offered. "All of us have Pokemon, so we can all go together!" He glanced enthusiastically around at everyone else, clearly looking for their support.
"Count me in!" Misty boldly stepped up beside him. "If my friend needs help, I'll give to her, no problem!"
"It shouldn't be too hard!" Drew flipped his hair, agreeing as well.
"Sure, I guess." May said, although she was still a bit nervous about the fact that she might end up in a battle with a wild Pokemon.
"Do I have to even say it? Of course I'm coming!" Leaf chimed in.
"Yeah!" Ash turned to Paul expectantly. The purple-haired boy noticed his gaze.
"What?"
"Aren't you coming too?"
"I wasn't planning to."
"Aw, come on, Paul! Please? For Dawn?"
"Not interested."
"But Paul...!"
"Leave it, Ash. I think we have enough people." Dawn interrupted. She turned to everyone. "Thanks, everybody! You guys are such great friends!"
"Wait! Where's Gary?" Leaf reminded everyone. They searched the room, and found him seated at a table, mesmerized by a thick book.
"Gary!" Leaf called out.
"Mmhmm..." Gary responded absentmindedly
"What are you doing?"
"Reading." He tore his eyes from the pages to face Professor Rowan. "You study Pokemon evolution, right?"
"Why, yes, I do, in fact."
"So, how exactly do Pokemon evolve? Why is different for every Pokemon? I mean, some need certain items, while some only evolve during a specific time of the day. And some take a much longer time, and some much shorter, and how is it that some Pokemon, like Magikarp, evolve into something completely different, like Gyarados?" Gary bombarded the elderly professor with question after question. Professor Rowan blinked.
"Well, I have been studying evolution for many years, and I still don't know many of the answers. However, I do have some theories, though I doubt you'd be interested to hear them, since they are pretty long, and I'm sure someone your age will find them too complex and boring."
"No, I'm interested!" Gary said earnestly. Professor Rowan studied him for a moment before replying.
"Well, if you say so..."
"AAAHHH!" A loud shriek filled the air.
"Misty, what's wrong?" Ash and the others quickly turned to see whether their friend was in trouble or not.
"It's a BUG!" The orange-haired girl pointed to a tree, where there was a large Ariados. They had barely been a few minutes in the forest, and Misty already looked as if she were ready to leave any minute. "They're everywhere!"
It was true. At nearly every tree, an Ariados was settled. But they didn't look particularly threatening.
"Come on, Mist, they're not doing anything!" Ash tried to reassure her.
Misty shook her head. "No way! I can't stay here any longer; I'm going back!"
"But Mistyyyyy!" Ash whined.
"I'm going back!" Misty announced. "I'll meet you guys outside the forest."
"No need to worry, Misty!" Dawn called after her. "We'll meet you when we get back!"
Now, only Dawn, Ash, May, Drew, and Leaf were left. The five walked deeper and deeper in, but with no sign of neither Chimchar nor Piplup.
Dawn sighed. "I don't see them anywhere."
"Maybe they got lost." Drew said logically.
"What if we get lost?" May realized, sounding terrified.
"No need to worry, May!" Leaf said, stealing Dawn's catchphrase. "Drew and I have grass type Pokemon, and grass-types are pretty good at finding their way through forests. Besides, we couldn't have gone far. We've only been here for about ten minutes!"
"Feels like much longer to me..."
"Look!" Ash pointed out in front of him. An Ariados was standing in the path. The minute it saw them, it unleashed Poison Sting at them.
The group got out the way, screaming. But the bug-type was persistent.
"Why is it attacking us?!" May screamed over all that ruckus. Drew looked back, and saw the possible reason.
"I think we went too close to its nest!" he yelled. And sure enough, there was a large web close to where they were standing.
"Pikachu, use Thundershock!" Ash ordered, and the electric move hit the bug-type accurately. However, it decided to call its friends for back-up.
"Ariados!" Another Ariados appeared to assist the first one's attack. And then another.
Poison Sting attack was being aimed everywhere, and the friends ran in all directions to run get away. Finally, Dawn managed to end up in a small area amongst the trees, where she was not being attacked. She was saved!
"Whew! That was a close one! Are you guys-?" She abruptly stopped when she turned around to face the others. Except they weren't there.
"Hello?"
"Ash? Drew? Dawn? Where are you guys?" May called out. She had escaped the attackers along with Leaf, but the problem was, the group had gotten separated.
"Don't worry, May. We'll find them, especially with Bulbasaur helping us out!" Leaf had her Pokemon out. Although it did seem to be pretty comfortable in the forest, truth was, it was an unfamiliar place to it, and it wasn't completely sure about the way out.
"Do you think they're all right?" May asked anxiously. "Do you think they got away from the Ariados?"
"Of course they did!" Leaf said reassuringly, but mostly to stay positive, since worrying wouldn't do them any good right now. "Besides, Drew and Ash have Pikachu and Roselia. They can always help out if they need to battle."
"What about Dawn?"
"She's probably with them." Leaf said, which would have sounded very unconvincing to anyone, but seemed like a satisfactory answer for May. After all, her friend wouldn't lie, right?
"Hey Dawn! May! Leaf!" Ash yelled out.
"Pikapika!"
"Guys! Where are you?" Drew shouted out.
There was no answer.
"You think they're in trouble?" Ash asked.
Drew thought for a second. "Well, May has Torchic, a fire-type, so she should be okay if she runs into anymore Ariados, since fire type moves are super effective against bug-types. Leaf, she has Bulbasaur. It might not be very good against Ariados, but Leaf's pretty clever. She'll figure something out. And Dawn, let's just hope she's with one of the others."
The two stayed quiet for a minute, before Ash spoke up. "So, um, where exactly are we?"
Drew looked around. "Well, we're in the forest." he answered lamely.
"Any other clue as to where we should head?"
Leaf's words suddenly made their way into Drew's mind. "Maybe Roselia can help. Roselia, go!"
"Roselia." Roselia emerged from its pokeball and stood elegantly beside its partner.
"Roselia, can you help us out by telling us which way we should go?"
"Rose..." The grass-type observed the surrounding area. It wasn't familiar with the forest, since it lived in Drew's mansion's gardens all its life. But it could sort of sense which way might be the safest.
"Ariados!" Before any of them could decide of a path, an Ariados located them, probably still thinking of them as intruders.
"Aria! Ariados!" A few more of its friends joined it, and Ash and Drew found themselves in trouble with no escape.
"Great. What do we do now?" Drew mumbled.
Ash stared determinedly at his opponents. "We have to battle our way out. Pikachu, I choose you!"
"Uh oh..."
"What is it Leaf?"
"Looks like we have company!" The green-eyed girl pointed up ahead, where some angry-looking Ariados looked like they were getting ready to attack.
"What do we do?!" May said frantically.
"My advice would be... RUN!" The two girls began running as fast as they could in the opposite direction from where the Ariados were. But the bug-types weren't giving up! They managed to surround the two, with no way to escape.
"We're doomed!" May shrieked.
"No, we're not! We're going to have to battle them! Bulbasaur, get ready!"
"W-what?! How are we going to do that?!"
"Use Torchic! It should have the advantage!"
"R-right!" May fumbled with her pokeball, and finally let out her little fire-type. "Now what?"
"Attack! Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf to push them back!"
Bulbasaur obeyed, and unleashed Razor Leaf. Some of the Ariados countered with Poison Sting. Since there were more than one attacks at once, Bulbasaur ended up having to be the one to back up to dodge.
"May, tell Torchic to use a fire type move!"
"O-okay!" May squeaked hesitantly. "Torchic, use a fire type move!" Her Pokemon confusedly stared back at it.
"Come on, May! Tell it to use Ember!"
"Torchic, Ember!"
"Torrrr!" Torchic's Ember attack had a much greater effect than Razor Leaf.
"Bulbasaur, Sleep Powder!"
Bulbasaur let out a blast of white powder, which hit some of their opponents, who slowly fell asleep. However, some other Ariados made huge web-walls to prevent the powder from getting on them.
"Ugh, what do we do now?" Leaf said, frowning. The Ariados were climbing their webs to prevent some of the attacks from reaching them. It was hard to get an attack to make contact.
"Ariados!" Multiple Poison Stings were launched in their direction. Neither May nor Leaf had time to react. They were going to get hit...
"Turtwig, Razor Leaf!"
"Staryu, Water Gun attack!"
The oncoming attack was intercepted. May and Leaf turned to see who their rescuers were, it it turned out to be two of their friends.
"Misty! Paul!"
"Turtwig, tackle!" Paul ordered, getting his Pokemon to knock away an oncoming Ariados.
"Staryu, Swift!" Misty's Staryu's Swift attack knocked back multiple Ariados at once.
"Withdraw!" Turtwig raised its defense to endure a Poison Sting attack.
"Bubblebeam, Staryu!" Staryu's attack hit its targets.
Leaf and May joined in the fight, and together, even though their Pokemon ended up being a bit exhausted, they managed to ward off the Ariados.
"Whew! It was sure lucky you guys came along!" Leaf sighed in relief.
"Why did you guys come?" May inquired. "You were saying you didn't want to come, Paul. And Misty, you didn't want to come along because of all the bugs."
"I was outside the forest, waiting for you guys to come back, when I thought I heard you guys screaming. I thought maybe you guys were in trouble, and came running! I couldn't find you, but I did run into Paul." Misty explained.
"What about you, Paul?"
"I got bored waiting in the lab. I decided to come out here and train Turtwig a bit. And then Misty appeared out of nowhere."
"Hm, but isn't training Turtwig against poison type Ariados a bad idea?" Misty reasoned.
"No. Why?"
"Turtwig can end up getting really hurt! Poison type moves do a lot of damage against it." May chimed in.
"If Turtwig can't stand a small Poison Sting attack, then that means I'm not training it hard enough."
May looked shocked at Paul's uncaring, while Misty looked furious.
"But Paul...!"
"May, Misty, we can criticize Paul's training methods later." Leaf interjected seriously. "Right now, we need to search for the others."
"Where are they, anyways?" Misty wondered.
"We got attacked by some Ariados, and then we all got separated!" May moaned. "We can't find them!"
"Come on!" Leaf led the way. "They might be in trouble!"
"Pikachu, Thundershock again!"
"Piiiiikaaaa!"
"Roselia, another Petal Dance!"
"Rooooselia!"
Ash, Drew, and their Pokemon were exhausted. They had been battling for a while, but it wasn't enough. They needed help!
"Ash! Drew!" The two boys turned around to find Leaf, May, Misty, and Paul running up to them. "We finally found you!"
"Yeah, we really need some back-up right now!" Ash said, grateful that they now had more help.
After some more intense battling from all six of them, the Ariados finally left.
"It's great you guys came when you did." Drew said.
"Yeah, we were at our limit!" Ash added.
"So, is that everyone?" Leaf counted everyone in the group. "No, wait, we're missing someone."
"Where's Dawn?" May asked.
Everyone looked at one another, and then headed out to locate their last, missing, Pokemon-less friend.
Okay, she was in a bit of a bind. Her friends were nowhere to be seen, and running off in a random direction hadn't helped either. Dawn was now completely and utterly lost.
"Pip! Piplup pip!" A cry of distress caught her attention. She ran to find the source, and came across a huge Ariados web, on which some Pokemon like Weedle were caught. But the most noticeable captive was a blue Pokemon, stuck right in the middle.
"Piplup!" Dawn cried out. "Don't worry, I'll get you out!"
"Aria-ariados!" An Ariados appeared, no doubt to protect its web.
"Ariados, you let Piplup go!" Dawn commanded.
The only response to this was a Poison Sting attack, which Dawn avoided.
"Wait!" Dawn suddenly got an idea. "Come on Ariados! Come and get me!"
Her taunts got the bug-type to follow her, launching poorly aimed Poison Sting attacks after her. Dawn managed to evade the attacks, and Ariados followed her, going in a circle. They ended up with Dawn standing in front of the web, with Ariados facing her.
"Pip-piplup!"
"No need to worry Piplup!" Dawn winked at the Pokemon stuck on the web behind her. "I'm gonna get you out of there!"
"Pip?"
"Ariados!" The frustrated bug-type unleashed Poison Sting one more time. Dawn got out of the way, causing the attack to hit the Ariados's own web.
"Pip-pip-pip!" Piplup fell as the web was torn to shreds.
"Gotcha!" Dawn succeeded in catching it in her arms.
Unfortunately, all of this made the Ariados extremely angry, and it came after them, fully enraged.
"Pip-lup-lup-lup!" Piplup hit with a Bubblebeam, and while it was distracted, Dawn and the little blue Pokemon ran off.
They stopped after a while to catch their breath.
"I think we lost it." Dawn gasped, straightening out. She looked around. They were hopelessly lost now. Oh well, it wasn't like she was any better before.
"We need to find the others." Dawn said, although she had no idea how. "Come on, let's go this way."
"Pip!" Piplup refused, too stubborn to follow directions.
"Come on Piplup! You're the reason we got into this mess in the first place! This is all your fault, you know."
"Piplup!"
"Fine, Mister Stubborn, how about I just-" She stopped her sentence suddenly when some rustling in a nearby bush caught their attention.
"Pip?" Piplup sounded nervously.
"I think we should go now." Dawn suggested, eying the bush warily.
"Pip Piplup!" Piplup agreed for once.
The two walked together for a bit, when they ran into trouble yet again. This time, it didn't look like it would be as easy to get out of it.
The Ariados, whose web had been destroyed earlier, had returned, and this time with many others.
"Run, Piplup!" The two tried to escape, but failed when the Ariados created a large web-cage around them.
"Pip-lup-lup-lup!" Piplup's Bubblebeam made an opening through the web, but just as they were about to pass through it, Dawn tripped. An Ariados's String Shot had caught her boot and was holding her back.
"Go on, Piplup! I'll be fine!" Dawn urged. She tried to take off her boot, but some of the String Shot had hit her leg too. "Go on!"
Piplup looked back at her, unsure of what it should do, since it was clear that she was not going to be fine. As the Ariados aimed their attacks at Dawn, she braced herself. But the attacks didn't reach her.
When she opened her eyes, she saw that Piplup was standing between her and their enemies, and was glowing brightly as it endured the attacks. It suddenly unleashed a powerful blast against the Ariados, blasting them all away.
"Wow." Dawn whispered. "That was Bide, one of the coolest moves I know...
"Dawn, there you are!" The blue-haired girl found herself a prisoner to her friend May's hug. "I was so worried! We couldn't find you, and then we saw that explosion, and then-!"
"Calm down, May, I'm fine!" Dawn insisted.
"We were looking all over for you." said Ash. "You had us all worried!"
"Well, at least you didn't get caught by those Ariados." Drew pointed out.
"Actually, I did." Dawn admitted. She knelt down to Piplup's level. "But Piplup saved me. You're my hero, Piplup!"
"Piplup!" Piplup proudly stuck up its chest.
"So, how do we get back to the lab?" Drew wondered.
"We go that way." Paul pointed in a direction.
"What makes you so sure that's the way?" Leaf asked with a raised eyebrow.
Paul said nothing, but he pointed towards the sky. Everyone looked up, and saw the Staraptor and Starly from Professor Rowan's lab, heading in the direction Paul had pointed to. Chimchar was being held by Staraptor.
"Let's just go back now." Misty said tiredly. "It's been a long day, and I don't want to have to see a single more icky bug-type!"
"So, Dawn, here are the three Pokemon you get to choose from."
It was later now, and everyone was back at the lab. Professor Rowan now had Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup on a table, and was presenting the three of them to Dawn.
"Come on!" Ash urged Gary, who was focused on some Pokemon evolution charts that the professor had given him. "Dawn's about to choose!" The spiky-haired boy begrudgingly got up and got to where his friends were standing.
"The grass-type, Turtwig." Professor Rowan gestured to Turtwig, who smiled sweetly.
"Tur!"
"The fire-type, Chimchar."
"Chim-chimchar!"
"And finally, the water-type, Piplup."
"Piplup!"
"I already know who I'm going to choose! Piplup!"
"Piplup!" Piplup proudly stuck out its chest.
"Chim?!" Chimchar seemed surprised at her choice.
"Piplup and I have already been through a lot together, haven't we?"
"Pip-pip!"
"Okay, then. Here is its pokeball." Professor Rowan handed her the red and white ball.
"Thanks so very much, sir!" Dawn thanked happily.
"Congratulations, Dawn." Drew congratulated.
"Yeah!" Ash chimed in. "Now you have a Pokemon too!"
"Thanks everyone!" Dawn exclaimed, beaming.
Now she too had her very first Pokemon. And she definitely had an interesting story behind it, too!
And done! You have now reached the end of the chapter! (obviously)
Okay, I have a little thing I want to say. School's getting busier and busier for me, and because of that, I'm not getting as much writing done. Even my weekends are busy! Sometimes, I only get a chance to start writing on Friday, and then I finish up on Saturday mornings. So, what I'm saying is, sometimes I might update late.
Well, technically, if I update on Sunday, it won't be late, since for my schedule, I say I'll update on the weekends, and Sunday is part of the weekend. I am going to continue trying to update as soon as possible, but if an update is late (might be after the weekend as well), it's because I'm busy. Just wanted to give a heads up!
Okay, you might be wondering how I managed to finish this chapter and make it my longest yet when I said I'm not getting enough writing time. My answer is, I'm not sure. Maybe it was because I knew exactly what I wanted to write, so I could write non-stop. Maybe it was because I woke up early today, so I got to start writing early. Again, I'm not sure. I surprise myself sometimes too!
Please review, and thanks for reading!
Bye bye for now! And have a smiling day! :)