The Glass Half Full

[Light_Togetic]

Okay, let me just start off by saying that this will be the fourth fan fic I have written, the first one (as mr_pikachu knows ^^;; I didn't really finish; the second I did, it's on a fan fiction site; and the thrid one I didn't finish, also on a fan fiction site). I know I'll end up finishing this one, because I've already written out all of the chapters; I just need to proofread/add things in. However, all of my previous fics were all stories based on characters in the anime. This one is my first trainer fic (creepy music plays). It will occasionally have a few characters that have been seen in the anime, but all of the main characters are my own. You should be happy to know though that I've given an actual storyline to it besides wandering about and catching pokemon/battling gym leaders. However, since it is still a trainer fic, you will end up seeing those things sometimes; but when you do, I'll try to make them as unique as possible. ^-^ Anyway, enough blabbing on about nothing; here's Chapter 1:

Oh yeah, and I don't own Pokemon or any of the gadgets related to it...



The Glass Half Full

Ch.1 Prelude to A Journey

Every legend has a beginning. And every living being has a beginning as well. Life is such a precious thing; and yet it is so easy to change the course of one?s life. One moment is enough to change it. One decision, one move, can be detrimental or beneficial depending on the consequence.

It would be nice if all of the decisions of our lives were made by ourselves; however, at the very beginning of your life, you?re entire well-being is in the hands of your parents...

"Can you sense them?"

"No. I think we are safe for now."

"Good...."

A sigh of relief was breathed in the darkness around the two. The woman it had come from was bent over, clutching a small baby wrapped in a light red blanket. She looked exhausted, sweaty, and her breathing was raspy. Her hair was slightly dishelved, but in her eyes was the glimmer of hope and happiness that resided in her heart. For if there were any chance of her baby escaping; nothing else would matter to her.

The other voice had come from a large creature floating soundlessly next to the mother. It was a bird-like shape, and had glowing deep blue eyes. Most of the front of its body was a powdery white color, while the back end of it was a sea green color, though you could hardly tell in the dark. The bird looked over to the mother.

"Alright, we can move," he said, showing her the way out with his claw-like hand.

The two began to crawl out of a small hole. They had been hiding in a tiny cave-like den in the ground to escape their pursuers. Dirt brushed all over the two as they emerged into the twilight. Night was almost upon them, and they only had a little ways to go.

"Here, climb up on me and we can fly the rest of the way. I don't want our daughter to lose her mother to exhaustion...," said the bird.

The woman slowly climbed onto the bird's back; and with one arm on the bird, and one arm on the baby, breathed a quiet, "Ready...."

Together the two flew onward through the early evening's sky. Onward and onward, until a small town was visible on the horizon. The bird-like creature slowly descended onto the front lawn of a small farm. There were a few sleeping cow pokemon like Miltank and Tauros in the fields surrounding them; obviously belonging to the person who owned the farm. A blinding light came suddenly from the bird standing next to the mother, and after a few seconds, the light faded, showing a man standing where the bird once floated.

"Let's go in," he said, in the same tone as the bird's voice had been.

They walked up to the door and reached for the knob when suddenly another light shone on them. A helicopter had spotted the two fugitives flying in the area, yet it was unsure of their exact location. They knew that the searchlight would most certainly be accompanied by at least a handful of men and several powerful pokemon. The two parents looked to each other.

"What can we do...!" whispered the woman frightfully.

"Leave her here. I notified mother in advance, so when she finds her, then she will know what to do," the man said, his head suddenly turning to the helicopter above.

The mother's eyes were streaming with fresh tears, and yet she knew there was no other way. Gently she placed the baby inside a small shrub on the porch; the location they all had agreed upon. Blowing a kiss to the now hidden baby, she turned to the man.

Together, they both swiftly ran off into the growing darkness of the night, and when they had reached a safe distance away from the baby and the farm, a blinding light could be seen from a distance. And after it had subsided, two large bird-like creatures took to the air. Their mission; get everyone away from their baby.


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The warm sunlight filtered down through a dusty old window. The light seen coming through it had the appearance of a light rain; there was so much dust inside. A knocking noise suddenly sounded, and a small wooden slab popped up out of the floor.

"Ow...," said a girl's voice. It sounded soft and small; like a scared animal.

The girl blinked as her head rose above the hole she was now emerging from; the combination of dust and sunlight made her sneeze. Apparently she was in an attic. There were boxes and boxes of various sizes and conditions all around her. Covered in both dust and rat pokemon droppings, the boxes sat silently, looking as if they had been there for a thousand years. Spider webs that were no longer in use were hanging from every nook and cranny. Kayla spied a massive one that looked as if it could have been a suitable Ariados house at one time.

"Kayla? Are you okay?" inquired a voice from inside the house. It was a voice of an old woman, and yet it still sounded so vibrant and strong.

"Yes, I'm fine Grama," replied Kayla. She now stepped far into the sunlight in order to peer out of the dirty window and observe the street below. The rays of light shone on her face. It was clear that Kayla was in her early teens; her face still had that childish look to it. Her crimson hair seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, and her deep blue eyes reflected the clear, blue sky she was now looking at.

An old woman now poked her head out of the attic hole.

"Kayla! Hurry up and find those pictures child! It's so cold up here you could catch your death within five minutes!" she said sternly. The wrinkles on her face all contorting into a mixed look of concern and annoyance.

Kayla turned around swiftly, "Oh I'm sorry; I just got carried away with looking at the beautiful sky today. I won't be much longer."

Kayla's grandmother then creeped back down to the house, and Kayla began to search through the boxes. There were so many, and some weren't even marked on the sides. Kayla didn't really understand why her grandmother even wanted her to search for these pictures. She didn't even know what these pictures were supposed to be of. How was she to know which ones were the ones? However, since Kayla always did what she was told, she just kept blindly looking through box after box.

After about ten minutes, and countless boxes, she finally stumbled upon a particularly old box. It was sitting slightly away from the others, and looked especially dirty. The small ray of dusty sunlight shinning on it gave an almost ominous feel to it.

Kayla slowly approached the box, and carefully opened it. Inside were a lot of old items. A small sketchbook of some kind; an old notepad; and a golden seal that looked like a huge coin. Kayla picked it up for a moment, feeling the cold metal and looking at the embossed birds on the front. She then went to place it back in the box when she noticed that under the large coin were several packs of pictures!

"Grama! I think I found them!" she called out loudly. She picked up the packs of pictures, and stealing one more glance back at the coin, went down to the house to show her grandmother.

When she had finally arrived in the living room, her grandmother looked up at her and smiled. "So, did you find the pictures?" she asked.

"Yes, here they are. But, why did you need them?" Kayla asked curiously.

"I wanted to show you pictures of your parents," her grandmother said, the tone in her voice no different.

"What? My parents? But... but why now? I don't...."

The old woman smiled, "I needed to wait until you were older; until you could understand. Now sit down, and I'll tell you everything I know about your parents."

Kayla sat down, confused, and a bit concerned with what she might hear. Her grandmother had mentioned her parents only a few times before.

Once when she was five years old, she had asked her grandmother why she didn't have a mommy and daddy. Her grandmother's answer was always to brush it off somehow, and avoid the subject by telling Kayla that her parents had loved her very much, and that they saved Kayla's life by sacrificing themselves. Kayla never really understood it, and hardly ever thought of it now. What did it matter as long as her life was a happy one?

"Kayla, I don't know everything about your parents' death," said her grandmother truthfully, "I know that they are indeed dead, and that it may or may not have been an accident; but I know for sure that they were fugitives...."

"Fugitives?" repeated Kayla, this was very odd; who would her parents be running from?

"Yes, they were running from someone, but I'm not sure who. They never told me much, except for the fact that they were afraid for your life. There was some reason that they were especially afraid for you. I don't know why; perhaps it was just parenting instincts, but they wanted me to take care of you," she paused, watching Kayla's face carefully. She really wanted Kayla to take this well, and was sincerely hoping that Kayla wouldn't get too angry over all of this.

"My... parents wanted you to take care of me? But why couldn't they just stay here with us? I don't understand. If I could stay here safely, then why couldn't they do the same?" Kayla said, her mind growing more curious on the subject.

"I honestly don't know Kayla, but I think it's safe to assume that they would only do such a thing if they really had to. They probably thought that it would be easier for whomever was after them to spot you if they were always at your side...."

"But why would someone want... me?" asked Kayla, feeling a bit scared.

Her grandmother sighed a heavy sigh, "... I don't know. They never told me. However, since no one has come looking for you over all these years, I think it's safe to say that they've either given up, or aren't around anymore."

Kayla thought about this for a moment. Someone after her? Surely the people who had wanted her were long gone by now; or, like Grama had said, they would have already come looking for her. Kayla tried to control the small bit of fear she was now feeling in her stomach...

"Anyway Kayla, after a lot of letters and arguing over them, I had agreed to take you and raise you for them. So they dropped you off one night while I was asleep...," she paused, tears were now collecting in her eyes, "That was the last I heard of them...."

"Grama... I...," Kayla began, but soon realized she had no idea what to say.

"Your parents were very decent people; I could never imagine them breaking some sort of law... They were very bright, outgoing young people. Believe it or not I even loved your mother as if she were my daughter," she looked at the pile of old pictures that Kayla had brought, and slowly flipped open the flap of one of the covers. There she could see a picture of Kayla's father and mother, both right after they had gotten married, and the smiles on their faces. She smiled, "They were both just so full of love and life; and they told me to make sure that you turned out the same way."

Kayla blushed a bit. She was not a very outgoing person at all... Her whole life she had been the most shy of all the kids around her age. She had never played with the other children unless they went out of their way to want to play with her. When she spoke to strangers, it was politely and so quiet you could barely hear what she had said. When a problem or conflict would arise with someone else, she always immediately gave in. And by the look on her grandmother's face, she knew it too.

"Kayla, I don't want you to grow up and get used by other people," her grandmother said, her stern tone of voice gaining in pitch, "I love your kindhearted personality, but you need to get some backbone. I'm afraid that if you get mixed up with the wrong people, you might end up getting hurt. I know we've talked about this sort of thing before, and I know that this day has already been very stressful for you, but I'd like to suggest something."

Kayla stared at her wondering what it was her grandmother was about to suggest.

"You're father was your age when he left home to go on a pokemon journey, and when he came back, he was the most fun-loving person there ever was. It seemed as if his whole personality had changed. For the better of course, and I just know that it would be so beneficial for you if you left for a while too...."

"What?! But Grama... I... what if...?" Kayla stammered, that fear-like sensation starting up in her stomach again. It was just so much to handle at once. Her parent's death... and now her leaving?

The old woman stood up, "Now you listen up Kayla; I know you might not think it such a good idea, but I just know you'll be fine. Soon you'll gain some self-confidence, and maybe meet some friends you can relate to. Which is why I bought this for you...."

She held out a small laminated card. On the front it said in large, loopy letters, 'Pokemon License'. Kayla blinked at the card. She had always secretly wanted a pokemon friend to talk to, but this?

"You can pick your starter Pokemon tomorrow," said her grandmother, "I think Professor Oak is also giving pokemon to those three other boys that live down the street a ways. At least that's what they told me when I got it for you. Here, take it."

Kayla really felt scared now. She had always lived here in her grandmother's house, in this small town. Now she was being forced to go out into much bigger cities, all alone...

She stared back at the license and took it slowly from her grandmother's hand. "Okay...," she conceded, although she didn't look like it was 'okay'.

Her grandmother smiled. "That's why you need to go my child," she said, referring to Kayla's quick, but reluctant, response.

"I guess so...," said Kayla, feeling hopelessly stuck in this awful spot. She turned to the pictures on the couch cushions. "Can we look at some pictures of my parents?" asked Kayla, desperate to get her mind off of the task ahead of her.

"Sure, but in a little while, you must get ready," said her grandmother as she picked up the post-wedding pictures.

"Okay...," said Kayla.



A/N: Well, I tried to put in as much description as possible. I think the ending of this chapter was a little fast, but I couldn't think of another way to stretch it out to where it seems more fluid... Whatever the case, I'd love to hear thoughts, criticisms, questions; anything would do. ^^

[Chris 2.1]

Oh man! This was excellent! So far, I'm enthralled; I hope Kayla can turn out like her Parents wanted her to, maybe a Pokemon friend can help her become who she is supposed to be?

Although a Prof and a starter are unoriginal, (I hope it isnt a game starter!) This will thrive, because it's just so good description-wise!

[classy_cat18]

Ooh, I like it! I want to hear more about Kayla's parents. I would write more, but I'm not very good with replies.

[DannyBoy]

This is really good! The description was fine, don't stress about that. Kayla seems like a really cool girl. I really would like to find more out about her parents past. The stuff about them so far is amazing. This is a very creative idea for a trainer fic. Can't wait to read more! Keep it up!

[mistysakura]

Your description's good, don't worry. I really like the creativity here, what with Kayla's parents being able to turn into birds (well, I think I read the start wrong, as that seemed really weird (but original), so you can shoot me if they're normal humans and I'm making all this up...) and Kayla going on a journey not because of wanting to be a Pokemon Master.

Good length, and I'll be waiting for the next chapter. I have to go now, so I'll give you a better reply next time.

[Topaz]

Bird? Eeee! Love it already! I like its vague description, very mysterious! And also using the reference to the mission when you leave off the italic writing also adds to it.
I can really picture her grandmother, as my own, but warm and caring, but a bit of spunk to, like whens he tells Kayla to grow some backbone. That is a nice way to begin a journey, different, also with a bit of angst thrown in!

[Light_Togetic]

Thanks all for the replies! ^^

Brit_Chris: Thanks for the compliments. About the starters... um, well, just read the next chapter and let me know what you think. ^^;;

classy_cat: Hey don't worry, I'm not good with fan fic replies either. I never seem to have anything constructive to say. Just stuff like 'that's good!' or 'I like this!'.

IloveX-TINA: Thanks for your support! I hope the rest of it is to your liking.

mistysakura: No, don't worry, you read it right. It's really not too original as I've seen similar ideas before, but not done in quite the same way.

Topaz: Heh, yeah, she reminds me of my grandma too. Well, I think my grandma can get a little too spunky at times...


Well, this is the next chapter, and I ended up adding a ton of stuff to it, so it ended up kinda long... Oh well... I know that some of you might not like the unoriginality in this part, but I promise you that the rest of it (save for one more part in an upcoming chapter) will be totally original. So, just read with an open mind and try to enjoy. ^-^ Oh, and I decided to break this chapter up into two parts.



The Glass Half Full

Ch. 2 Almost the First Choice...

Part One: Leaving

Twilight was creeping across the grassy fields of a small farm. The shadows of a few Tauros laying in the grass slowly descending into sleep began to disappear as the night's darkness swallowed everything up. All of the windows of the small farm's house were darkened except for one. A tiny window up at the top of the house glowed; a window in the attic.

Kayla's hands moved over the pictures of her parents that she and her grandmother had looked through only hours ago. She had been up in the dusty, dirty attic for about two hours since her grandmother had gone to sleep, thinking of the unknown journey that now awaited her.

Would her parents have wanted her to do this?

She held back tears for a moment. Knots had been in both her stomach and her throat for multiple times in the day, and they didn't seem like they were going anywhere very soon.... Kayla was scared. Scared that she wouldn't live up to the standards that her grandmother expected her to. What if she was no good at pokemon training? What if she came home still her same, timid self? What if...?

"Stop it, Kayla!" she whispered to herself in anger, "You always do this to yourself, and end up making yourself miserable!"

But she couldn't stop. The fear of coming home a failure and the fear of what was to come tomorrow couldn't help but weigh in her mind.

Tears were beginning to form again, and Kayla glanced downward, into the small, dirty box that held things from her parents. She once again stared at the golden coin that she had held up earlier in the day. She hadn't asked her grandmother about it, but now she had wished she had. Putting down the pictures she was previously holding, she gingerly picked up the heavy coin.

"What is this thing?" she whispered to the darkness. On the front, or what she guessed to be the front, were the two bird-like creatures she had seen earlier on it, and at the bottom was some sort of symbol. It looked like a spiky loaf of bread, or a crown or something similar. On the back was some sort of message, or inscription; but time and use had worn them down. Kayla couldn't make out what it was saying.

Kayla didn't know what it was, but since it had belonged to her parents; she felt as if instead of holding a piece of metal, she was holding a piece of them.

After thinking silently for a few more minutes, she decided that there was no way morning was going to stop coming; that she should just resolve herself to her fate and go to bed.

And with those thoughts she closed up the old box, and crawled down the hole in the attic floor, a large golden coin slightly visible in her right jean pocket....


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"Kayla!! Wake up! Or you'll be late!"

Kayla practically jumped up in her bed. Her thick hair swayed around her shoulders as she quickly twisted her head to the clock on her cherry wood nightstand.

She frowned, her sapphire eyes still half closed. "But Grama... it's only six-thirty. I still have a whole hour before I'm supposed to be there." She looked over to the door to her room, but there was no one in the doorway. "Grama?" Kayla said, confused as to what just happened.

Footsteps were audible. Soon enough, the old woman herself had popped her head into the doorway, a spatula in hand, "Yes?"

"What're you doing?" asked Kayla, now concerned for her grandmother's mental health.

"I'm cooking breakfast, child! You'll need a hardy meal to survive out there!" she stated, giving Kayla a stern look. Her other hand was on her hip where her frilly white apron met her old, gray shirt. "Now hurry up! I want you to be ready for the professor when the time comes!"

Kayla rose from her bed, and pulled off her nightgown as quickly as she could; which, considering her eyes had not fully adjusted to the light in her room, was actually very slow. She staggered over to her dresser, and pulled out her favorite clothes: pair of navy blue overalls, and a light pink shirt. Even though her favorite color was actually aquamarine, she just loved the softness of her thick pink shirt. After slipping the shirt and overalls on, she took a glance at her crimson hair in the square mirror on the back of her door.

"Yikes!" she said to herself after witnessing the horrible state her hair was in. She tried her best to keep it down and straight, but every time she ran the brush through it, two tufts of hair would pop up on either side of the top of her head. In the end of the battle with her hair, she finally decided to just give in and put two small ponytails on both sides of her head. The rest of her hair hung down to a little below her shoulders.

"Kayla!" shouted her grandmother to her. The smell of eggs and so many other good things soon filled up the room.

"Coming Grama!" called Kayla as she walked briskly into the living room. Assuming her grandmother was in the kitchen, she leaned over to take a peek at what she was cooking. Kayla was amazed. Her grandmother was racing about the kitchen at a speed that could only have been surpassed by one hundred miles per hour! Normally this would have made Kayla smile and think warm thoughts of her grandmother; but now, knowing that her grandmother was counting on her, she found herself looking at the carpet instead of smiling.

She plopped herself down in an old wooden chair at the dining table, still covered in decorations from Thanksgiving, which had had been over for a few months now. The small cornucopia was still full of dried corn and tiny squashes. Kayla watched as her grandmother served her every breakfast meal under the sun, but she wasn't really taking it in. She ate fried eggs, scrambled eggs that looked a little too gooey, bacon, pancakes, sausage, the works; but her mind was something separate.

When the whole breakfast was over, and the dishes were clean, Kayla sat down on the couch with her grandmother. Kayla looked around at her living room, wanting to take a mental picture for herself; after all, this would no longer be her place to relax anymore.

There were two couches, a large and a small, though they were never full since Kayla and her grandmother were the only ones living there. An old-fashioned television sat in the corner of the room near the kitchen. Its knobs were covered in the thick layer of dirty dust that could only be found on objects that have been around for decades. Kayla amusedly remembered a time she had attempted to clean them off for a moment. There was a rather large grandfather clock sitting against one of the walls that had always been one of Kayla's favorite things in the whole house. Its numbers, its glass door, the sound of the gong when it was ringing; they all were so special to her. Then she looked to the walls. There were all sorts of knickknacks on the walls. Little shelves with tiny stuffed bear-type pokemon on them, and photographs of Kayla's grandfather and great aunts and uncles that had all passed away. The feel of the room to anyone that was an outsider would have probably been old and antique, but to Kayla... this was home. Nothing could ever resemble home any better. And no one person could ever replace her grandmother as her caretaker...

Kayla then turned her attention to her grandmother. The old woman rubbed her hands, and Kayla knew that they had probably been hurting from all of the cooking.

"Grama... you didn't have to go through all of that for m--."

"Oh nonsense! Of course I did. It's not everyday someone sets out on a journey in this family now is it?" the old woman said sweetly.

Kayla smiled, "No, I guess not," she paused, thinking of the large coin now with her.

"Um... Grama?"

"Yes dear?"

"When I was looking at the pictures of my parents yesterday, I came across... this...," she said slowly, pulling out the coin as she talked.

Her grandmother glanced at it and an odd expression crossed her face, "...I don't really know what that thing is. You see, these are items that were at your parents' house. A lot of things they owned I don't really know about. However, maybe you should take it along with you."

"Huh?" Kayla said in a high-pitched voice.

"Well, you seem to like it; and since it belonged to your parents, maybe it will be a good luck charm of sorts. Besides, perhaps someone out there will know what it is and be able to tell you a bit about it," she paused for a few moments, obviously thinking to herself, "I've been trying to think of a going-away present for you, and I think this just about fits the bill."

Kayla stared down at the golden birds, then back up at her grandmother's smiling face.

"Alright. Thank you Grama... I'll... I'll... miss," she said, starting to feel tears coming. This was the last time she'd be on the farm for a long time...

"Don't you worry a bit. I know you'll do just fine Kayla," the old woman looked completely sure of herself, and was positively beaming with pride. She gave Kayla a large hug, which practically engulfed the two of them.

"Now!" her more stern voice coming back, "No more of this mushy stuff! I want to see you leaving for that Lab. After all, it's already only fifteen minutes until thirty after...."

Kayla quickly checked the grandfather clock on the other side of the room, and noticed that her grandmother was right. They both stood up.

"... Bye...," said Kayla, wishing that this was all just one big dream.

"Get going you," said her grandmother, smiling as Kayla turned to go.

As Kayla left, she thought of something her grandmother had said to her the day before...

"... I just know that it would be so beneficial for you if you left for a while too..."

"I certainly hope so...," Kayla thought to herself as she waved back to her grandmother's smiling face in the doorway, "I certainly hope so...."

[Light_Togetic]

Oh, I also wanted to say something before this part. In order to have you guys as the readers to understand what the heck pokemon are talking about, after every pokemon talks, I will have the translation of what they're saying in <>. For example... "Char! Char mander!" <Off! Get him off!> said Charmander. If it's annoying or kinda hard to read, just let me know what would be a better way of doing it. ^-^

EDIT: I changed the pokemon-speak to just being in translated <>. As was suggested.

The Glass Half Full

Ch. 2 Almost the First Choice...

Part 2: Meeting

As Kayla approached the larger than life building, she stopped to get a good look at it.

She had often passed by the pokemon lab, without really noticing it. It was obvious that the building had at one time been a nice bright white color, but with age had faded into an old gray. Even though there were only two stories to it, in Pallet Town there were no other buildings that could even try to rival its size. The fields and rolling rocky hills behind the lab were all used for the exercise of the pokemon that trainers had sent Professor Oak. Speaking of Professor Oak, Kayla had never met him before. Her grandmother had told Kayla all about him, considering that she and him had both lived in Pallet for a few early years of their lives.

Kayla now walked up to the front door. It was a beautiful door, the stained glass of a Charizard and Blastoise battling in the window of it. Kayla reached to pull on the handle, but a sudden feeling of uncertainty gripped her. She tried to shake it off, but suddenly became aware of the fact that footsteps were nearing the door on the other side...

"H... Huh?" she said, looking up at the door.

It swung open quickly, and before Kayla knew it, she was thrown to the ground, her bottom hitting the hard sidewalk in front of the lab.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" called a man's voice.

Kayla tried to stand up, "Oh it's okay...," she said timidly. She looked up to meet a man in a white lab coat. His young face was filled with concern.

"Hi there, lemme help you up," the young man said thoughtfully. Once Kayla had gotten back on her feet, the man put out his hand. "How rude of me not to check and see if someone was on the other side of that door... Anyway, I'm one of Professor Oak's aides. The name's Quigley. I was just on my out to go touring the gyms of Kanto and Johto. Hey! You're probably one of the kids coming today to pick out a pokemon! Good luck... Hey, here's a word to the wise: don't pick the Squirtle. Just don't. Oh, and the Charmander has some issues... don't pick him either... The Bulbasaur has great potential, but his only motivation seems to be food... He's the best pick; but you'd better snatch him quick! Oh, and lucky for you that you're here on time, because the kid that's late gets a Pikachu that's so disobedient, I would absolutely hate to be it's trainer...."

He took a quick look at Kayla's expression, which had gone from timid to downright scared.

"And relax! If you and your pokemon don't get along, you can always catch a better one, and send the old nasty one to Professor Oak! ... Wait, never mind... If you do that, then I'll have to help take care of it...." And with those final words, he started walking away shaking his head, mumbling about various things having to do with disobedient pokemon, and having to hold down a Rhydon and such.

Kayla slowly shook her head. He hadn't even given her a second to talk about any concerns of her own. Granted though, she would have been too scared to speak; the answer she might have been given could've made her feel even worse.

She now turned to the door and reached for the handle, when she suddenly noticed that another shaking hand was already on it. Her eyes followed the arm up to the slightly nervous face of a light brown haired boy with light blue eyes. Judging by his looks, he must've been somewhere around Kayla's age, maybe younger. His hair was cut in what Kayla's grandmother would have called a 'bowl style', and his dark blue t-shirt shook over his body.

He smiled nervously at Kayla. "Uh, going in?"

Kayla blushed; she hadn't had much contact with the opposite sex by living on a small farm that grew its own food...

She gulped and tried to pluck up the courage to find her voice, "Um... yeah?" She paused, 'Um... yeah!?' Why did she phrase it as a question!? She hung her head as he opened the door for the two of them; already she was looking so stupid...

"Nervous too, huh?" said the boy. He snickered at himself, "I was so excited about today! I could hardly even sleep last night; but then I get here in the morning, and, well, look at me! A nervous wreck... Some pokemon trainer I'm gonna be...."

Kayla let out a small sigh of relief. At least she wasn't the only one scared... With that in mind, she became much less worried.

Then his head perked up. "Oh! I'm sorry, my name's Mike. I'm from the house up on that big hill in south Pallet. And you are...?" His soft blue eyes turned to her.

Kayla blushed again. "Um... I'm Kayla," she said in a barely audible voice, "And... I'm... from the, uh, farm up the road...."

"That's cool; living on a farm. Which starter are you gonna pick? I was thinkin' Squirtle or Charmander. They end up evolving into the really strong Charizard and Blastoise! Power; that's what I like about pokemon. That way my girlfriend Emily will finally be able to see that I can be just as tough as any other guy!" he finished, his voice getting higher in volume.

Obviously he was angry about the way his girlfriend thought of him.

Kayla just silently nodded. She was busy looking at all of the things in Oak's lab. He had countless charts and posters of pokemon anatomy, pokemon types, and pokemon starters. Some wood and glass frames held a few important-looking certificates, and of his Pokemon License too. Desks with computers and videophones were all over, and each of them was covered in countless stacks of paper. In a far corner of the room she noticed a large tank with some sort of water pokemon in it. The white seal poked its head out from over the side to watch the two go by. Kayla peered around. Where were they supposed to go in this huge place?

Mike paused in mid-step. "I don't suppose you know where we're supposed to go, do you?" he said, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

Kayla shook her head no.

"Oh... I thought not...," said Mike, now looking around quickly.

While Mike was busy looking for doors and such, Kayla listened for voices to follow. At first she didn't hear anything, but then she heard what sounded like two people arguing. It was coming from a room off to the left that was partially hidden from their view by groups of large pokemon feed bags.

She cleared her throat to try and get Mike's attention. "Ahem... um, I think I hear people that way...," she said quietly, pointing to the room she heard them in.

"Alright! Let's go check it out. And fast. I'm half-expecting to see Frankenstein in here...," said Mike, looking at the strange wiry and knobby equipment they were passing by.

They entered into the room, and before them stood an older man, obviously Professor Oak; and a young boy that looked about eleven with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. They were apparently arguing as Kayla had suspected....

"Come on Gramps! Why can't I have the Pidgeot?!" said the boy, his brow furrowed in anger.

Professor Oak, complete with his hands on his hips, did not look like he was about to let that happen. "Gary, we've been through this! You must pick a starter pokemon and raise it yourself! And furthermore I--," he paused, finally noticing Mike and Kayla standing in the entryway to the room, "Oh hello there. I apologize for the argument that my grandson and I were having."

He eyed Gary. "We'll discuss this later Gary...," he whispered to him.

"Come on over here you two, we should have started about ten minutes ago," he said, glancing at the clock on the wall as Mike and Kayla both entered the room.

In the center of the room were three pokeballs sitting in round grooves on the top of a waist-height machine. Kayla didn't know what the machine was for, but it certainly made the room feel cold and sterile. Each of the pokeballs was inscribed with the name of the pokemon inside it. Kayla looked them, trying to remember what Mr. Quigley had told her before.

Professor Oak cleared his throat as each of the kids stood near a pokeball, "Usually I just let the new trainers pick their pokemon and leave with it to start their journeys, but I thought I'd do something different this time...." He grabbed the pokeball with the name 'Bulbasaur' on it and tossed it gently to the ground near Mike. A blinding flash came and went, and soon a squatty, green dinosaur-looking pokemon was standing near Mike's shoes. It let out a long yawn, and blinked lazily up at Mike.

Then the professor grabbed the next pokeball labeled 'Charmander'. He tossed it like he had with Bulbasaur's, but this time, the blinding flash yielded a tiny orange lizard. The flame on its tail was glowing softly, and his bright green eyes looked curiously around the room. Lastly, he tossed the pokeball labeled 'Squirtle', and after a third blinding flash, a small, baby blue turtle stood next to the Charmander. Charmander eyed the Squirtle with a suspicious expression, but the Squirtle just gave it an innocent look of curiosity back.

Kayla looked at the three pokemon before her. They didn't seem so bad. What was the aide talking about?

Oak cleared his throat again. "Now, these are your three choices. What you're going to do is see which one is right for yo--."

"Oh come on Grandpa! Let's just pick one and be done with it!" yelled Gary impatiently.

"Gary! Will you be quiet already?" said Oak in a calm, but annoyed voice. He was trying to keep polite while in front of Kayla and Mike; but Kayla had a feeling that if she and Mike weren't here, Gary would be getting more than just yelled at....

Oak continued, "Now each of you will choose a pokemon to look over. If the two of you seem to fit well together, then you can leave and begin your journey. If one of you can't find one that likes you, then I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with having to train a bit more than the rest. Unfortunately, we all have those we have to get along with in this world. Oh, and if one pokemon appeals to more than one of you, then I'm sorry, but we'll have to settle it with a lots drawing or some such game. But for right now, go ahead and choose one to look at."

Gary raced forward. "Yeah! Fire types are the coolest! You're with me Charmander!" he said loudly, as he picked up Charmander and went back to his spot with him.

Kayla blinked. That young man sure was outgoing. Did her grandmother expect her to be like that?

"Yeah, you are so going to evolve into a Charmeleon when you get to the appropriate level," said Gary, regarding Charmander's cute physique.

Charmander raised an eyebrow. <Great...> he said in a monotone voice, not looking too fond of the idea.

Mike cleared his throat. "Well, I guess it's my turn."

He looked down at the Bulbasaur at his feet. "I think I'll take a look at you. I never really thought about it before, but Venasaur is pretty tough...."

Kayla watched as the Bulbasaur stared lazily up at Mike, yawned, and closed his eyes. Mike frowned. "Hey! I'm talkin' to you," he said, poking the Bulbasaur's side to try and wake him up.

Kayla remembered the aide saying that Bulbasaur had 'motivational problems' and smiled. Then she turned to the last choice to be had.

Oak looked at Kayla reassuringly. "Go ahead."

The tiny Squirtle looked up at Kayla with its big brown eyes. It let out a cute 'Squirtle!' and put its little finger in its mouth. Kayla smiled. What was wrong with this Squirtle? She could see it being nothing short of the cutest thing ever...

Oak nodded to the three of them, "Good. If you'll excuse me for a moment, I have to go find out what's keeping Ash. He should have been here about a half an hour ago. I'll be back in a few minutes."

With that he left the room, and the three of them with their new pokemon.

Squirtle watched closely as Professor Oak left the room, and then turned swiftly around to Kayla. Its cute babyish expression faded fast into a rambunctious little smirk.

"Huh?" said Kayla, a bit confused as to why it gave her such a look.

Gary was busy going on about how impressive his new Charizard would be. However, Charmander's expression seemed to be growing more and more annoyed. Its eyebrows kept twitching, and its tail's flame seemed to be growing more and more annoyed too....

Mike still wasn't having much luck with Bulbasaur. It seemed that Bulbasaur was now having a dream, and was proceeding to kick and wail loudly. It must have been battling something in its dream....

Squirtle smiled evilly at Kayla, and then put its right thumb to its mouth. It kept the thumb on its mouth while it wriggled the two other fingers and stuck out its tongue at Kayla.

"Hey... that's not very nice...," said Kayla, now realizing why the aide had said not to pick Squirtle....

Gary stopped and looked over in time to see Squirtle's gesture.

"Ha! That's funny! Ha ha ha!" laughed Gary, now ignoring Charmander.

Soon after it stopped the wiggling fingers, Squirtle's cheeks began to puff up a bit. Mike gasped.

"It's gonna use Water Gun! Get out of its way!"

Gary snickered, "You idiot, it's only at level 5. There's no way it could know Water Gun yet! Dummy."

Gary was right. Squirtle was too low of a level to know Water Gun, but it wasn't too low to know how to squirt water out of its mouth. All water pokemon instinctively know how to squirt water. It's a defense mechanism they all need to survive in the wild. So after a few tense moments of waiting for Squirtle's cheeks to puff up, it suddenly let out a small stream of water directed at Kayla.

Kayla jumped up, water hitting her stomach. "Ahh!" she screamed, running from the pokemon.

But Squirtle wouldn't let her get away that easily. It started to give chase around the room, and Kayla suddenly wished that she had picked something else. Now that Gary and Mike were bonding with Charmander and Bulbasaur, she would most likely get stuck with this horrible Squirtle...

Mike poked Bulbasaur, "Hey, can't you do anything?" But Bulbasaur was still enjoying its sleep. Mike sighed. This was going nowhere.

"Why'd I have to get the lazy onggggirrrrrbbbblleee!" he tried to yell, but was stopped halfway by Squirtle drenching him with water. He fell to the ground and spit out some of the water.

Kayla ended up in the corner of the room, trapped in there by a large machine labeled 'Pokemon Reviver' and a chair. She turned back in time to see Squirtle, walking slowly towards her, chuckling to itself, and readying another blast of water. This time, he was aiming for her face.

Kayla put her arms around her head. "Please don't do it!" she pleaded. Why wouldn't any of them help her? The least they could have done was to yell for Squirtle to stop.

Gary continued to laugh, his dark brown hair bouncing as he did so. He pointed to Charmander, "Why can't you be as funny as him?"

Squirtle looked over to Gary. At least one of them liked his kind of humor.

Charmander stood up. That was the last straw. It felt sorry for Kayla to have to put with that Squirtle, and was very tired of hearing Gary's stupid laughter....

<You're a selfish little brat and I hope you choke!> it yelled to Gary, an expression of sheer anger on its face. It ran away from him and leaped in front of Squirtle. Squirtle took a step back in surprise, but after realizing that Charmander had no chance at winning, went back to the same spot.

Kayla looked up from her hands. "Charmander?" she said quietly, wondering if it were there to help her out, or to help out Squirtle in 'playing around' with her.

<Cut it out!> the tiny lizard said to Squirtle, putting its orange arms out in a futile attempt to protect Kayla. His bright green eyes leered at the Squirtle.

Squirtle laughed, <Yeah? What're you gonna do?>

Charmander proceeded to run up to Squirtle in order to perform a Tackle attack, but Squirtle stopped him cold with a stream of water. And since, as they all knew, Charmander was a fire type pokemon, it fell to the ground after being hit. It used every last bit of energy it had to slowly move its head up to give a last glare at the Squirtle, and then fainted.

Kayla gasped, Gary continued his never-ending stream of chuckles and giggles interrupted by a "Cool!", and Mike stared pointedly at Bulbasaur. "Can't you do something? Anything!?"

It was at that point that Professor Oak came walking back in. To his surprise, one pokemon had fainted, one was running amok, and the third was sleeping.... Two of the new trainers were wet, and the third was laughing at them.... He put a hand to his mouth.

"Oh dear... I suppose this 'getting to know each other' idea was a little premature... Perhaps next time I should not leave the room," he said, picking up Charmander.

Gary laughed. "Come on, it was just havin' some fun Grandpa! And I've decided I want Squirtle! That Charmander was weak anyway. It couldn't even withstand one little burst of water that wasn't even an official Water Gun attack," he said, picking up the Squirtle. Squirtle smiled.

Kayla stared at Charmander's now limp body. How could Gary be so heartless? That Charmander was very brave and considerate, and all he could say about it was that it was weak. She looked up at Professor Oak.

"Will it be okay?" she asked, her voice not as quiet as before.

Oak smiled. "Yes, I'll just put him back in his pokeball and revive it in this machine," he said, referring to the huge machine that had trapped Kayla in the corner. He placed the small, white dot on the pokeball to Charmander's nose, and soon a swirling red light had sucked the pokemon back into the tiny ball. He then placed the ball into one of the six designated grooves on the machine and pressed a button. In a few seconds, the machine let out some beeping sounds, and Oak grabbed up the pokeball. He tossed it to the ground, and after the flash of white light, Chamrander stood as good as new.

Charmander took a few seconds to get its bearings, and then noticed that Squirtle had become Gary's choice instead of him. It glared up at both Gary and Squirtle; glad that the two imbeciles were now stuck together. Gary stepped forward, he and Squirtle now between Kayla and Charmander.

"Well, now that I've got my pokemon, I think I'll be going Grandpa," he said, returning Squirtle to its ball as he talked.

He kept on talking, "You know, pokemon trainers these days just don't know how to handle their pokemon the way that I do. It requires a level of understanding and knowledge..."

Charmander rolled his eyes as Gary went on. Kayla was watching it, and smiling from the pokemon's reactions to Gary's 'speech'. Charmander noticed Kayla watching him, and began to make faces behind Gary's back as he talked on. First it stuck its tongue out at him, and then it waved its behind in the air at him. Then it moved its mouth to the time Gary's mouth moved and made funny faces at the same time.

Kayla stifled laughter.

Gary raised an eyebrow. "What?" he asked. Kayla stopped and shrugged her shoulders. Gary went on.

When his giant speech was over, Professor Oak sighed. "Yes, well, Gary, you first must finish packing; then you can go."

Gary's smug expression quickly faded. "Huh? But I thought that? Oh fine!" he yelled, stomping off to another room in the lab.

Oak turned to Kayla and Mike. "Well, have you two decided?" he asked, ignoring Gary's stormy disappearance.

Kayla waited for Mike to talk first.

"I know I came in here wanting a 'power pokemon', but since Gary took Squirtle, if I take a grass pokemon as a starter, I can beat him!" said Mike, a look of determination in his eyes that Kayla had seen before when he had mentioned impressing his girlfriend.

Kayla gave a puzzled look to Mike. Why would he want to beat Gary? He never showed any signs of wanting to beat him before. She then figured it must be something personal, and that maybe someday she would find out...

"So, I guess I'll take this Bulbasaur," finished Mike, still attempting to get Bulbasaur to wake up, "On one condition."

Professor Oak nodded for him to continue.

"Can you tell me how I can get him to wake up?!" he yelled loudly as he yanked the bulb on the dinosaur's back.

Professor Oak laughed, "Oh just wave some food in front of his face and he'll wake up fine. Once you two get to be good friends, I'm sure he'll wake up much easier."

Mike looked skeptical, but nodded just the same.

Oak looked at Kayla. "I suppose that leaves you with Charmander. Is that alright with you Kayla?"

Kayla felt herself turn red. She always felt so nervous when people of high authority addressed her. But she stared down at the little fiery lizard that smiled back at her, and found her voice again, "Yes, I think it will be alright...."


A/N: Ahh! X.X See? Both combined is really long. That's why I broke it into two parts. Eh, I don't know... In this chapter, I wanted to end on a happier note, as Kayla's now 'broken the ice' so to say with her first pokemon. Well, let me know what'cha think. Suggestions, ideas, comments, questions?

[DannyBoy]

Well since you promise the rest will be original, I will not say much bit I though you did good with this. I like they story of how she gets Charmander. I thought it was really cool to have a Charmander be as sweet and nice as it is. You put a lot of different emotions into this and that is great. You have sad, happy, excitment, angry, protective, and others that are good. You make it clear how they all feel and act. I like that! Keep it up!

[mistysakura]

Charmander's so nice. It'll be a good match for Kayla. I see some character development there too, mainly with Kayla and Gary, but the Pokemon were also pretty good.

Just watch the description. I think that the fist half went a bit too long, and some of the details weren't really needed. Description's good, but sometimes too much of it can bore the reader.

I'll continue reading this.

[Topaz]

Nice to see her nervous and uncertain I have to agree a wonderful range of emotions is displayed. I'm so curious about those bird pokemon. Please tell me, are they a new species? I like the desciption of the clothes, I've never seen any trainer wear overalls before, they're funny! Oh my gawd, I'm hungry just looking at her breakfast! I don't think it was nessissary to describe the room in such detail, because she's only going to be there for a short time. You really put heart into the relationship between Kayla and Grama, its very sweet. Two chapters one after another. I think you may be posting a whole lot at one time, gotta pace yourself or otherwise I'll probably get a headache. Hehe! Quigly, love that name its so funny! Okay, we now have a crush, or maybe a travelling partner. I'm not to into the crush thing so for now I'll think of Ol'mate as a travelling partner. Boy, I really like the portrayle of bratty Gary! I could swear he was my cousin Jeremy! It is something like Ash's Pikachu, but more detailed, I like this better mostly because there are more people aorund to react to it. What an energetic scene. I don't think it was nessisary for the "Char charmander bit" You could just use <> and we would know its speech. ANother long and brilliant chapter!

[Light_Togetic]

IloveX-TINA: Yeah, I try very hard to make things in my fics very emotional-based; after all, it's a big part of our lives!

mistysakura: I was thinking about that as I re-read the last chapter. When I first started writing fan fics, I always left out important parts to describe, and I wanted to get better, so now I always get a bit worried about if I have enough or too little... I'll try to cut back a bit in this chapter. Tell me if it's enough, or too little, etc. Although I'm sure you would anyway! ^^

Topaz: Oh, well, I'll tell you this much; Mike won't be her 'love interest'. If she'll have one, it won't be like with kissing or anything else (I don't think I could write kissing and other things very well anyway...), it'll be more liking than loving. About the 'bird pokemon'. We'll find that out bit-by-bit, and she'll even meet someone that knew her parents in the next chapter.


The Glass Half Full

Ch.3 Traveling Buddies Anyone?

“Beep! I am Dextra; the female PokeDex. Please enter your name using the keypad below….”

Kayla’s fingers moved across the white keys until the five letters of her name were all lying upon the screen of the small, red device.

Mike leaned over. “Aww… how come you got the girl PokeDex?” he said, looking disappointed in the fact that his was only the usual, boring male one.

Kayla smiled, “Professor Oak said that it was a new invention of his….”

Mike still looked jealous.

The two of them were just about to enter the small wooded area north of Pallet Town. The trees still were nicely spaced out, and there was a clear road to walk on. The sun was now shinning high in the sky, and large white, cottony clouds were floating above. A noise could be heard coming up the road from Pallet…

“Do you hear that? Sounds like a car…” Mike trailed off, turning his head back to see if his assumption was right.

Which he was. A large apple red car was now coming up the road speeding up to where Kayla and Mike were walking. Its brand-new wheels came skidding to a stop as it neared the two pedestrians.

“Gary?” they both said in surprise as they looked to see who was in the car.

Gary sat in the passenger seat at the front of the car, while a woman in sunglasses and a hat drove. It looked like a huge lobster holding people on its back. In the back of the car, were a great number of… girls. They were dressed like cheerleaders, and looked as if they were ready for a big game to cheer on. One of the younger girls, who had auburn hair, sat up and smiled.

“Hi Mike! Look at me! I was chosen by Gary to be on his cheer squad! Can you believe it!” she said, tossing her pom-poms as she talked.

“Cheer Squad…?” said Kayla in quiet disbelief.

“Emily?! What? But why…? How did?” stammered Mike, not really knowing how to approach the subject. His expression was a mix of anger and surprise; which made him look a little odd.

Emily smiled. “Oh silly, I only did it so that I could be nearby on your journey!” she said, winking to him.

Kayla raised an eyebrow; she wasn’t too sure that Emily meant it…

“How would that be with me? You’re driving a car. There’s no way I can keep up with it. You guys’ll be in Saffron before I even get to Cerulean!” scoffed Mike, apparently thinking the same thing Kayla was.

Emily’s face saddened, “Mike. How could you even think that I was going just to be with Gary!”

“But I—.”

“But nothing!” yelled Emily, “For your information, Gary wants to walk by himself when we get to places he can catch pokemon at. SO, we won’t be driving all the time!”

Mike’s expression softened. Kayla could tell that Emily had really hurt his feelings…

Gary took this short moment of silence to lean out over the side of the lobster.

“Heh, don’t take it so hard Mikey! Besides, looks like you’ve got yourself a traveling buddy,” he said smugly, pointing to Kayla.

Kayla blushed. She hadn’t really thought about the idea of traveling with someone. That would make her journey much less lonely; and she already considered Mike as somewhat of a friend…

“Anyway,” Gary said, his smug look continuing, “I’ll get out here ladies. See you all in Viridian!” He waved to them and blew kisses, which the girls in the back returned. Even Emily. Then the lobster began to drive off, a plume of exhaust rising in its wake.

The three trainers all looked at each other for a moment. Mike wasn’t even glaring at Gary this time. They just stood there, each waiting for the others to say something. Blushing still, Kayla raised up her hand timidly.

“Uh… may I… say something?” she asked quietly.

Gary let out one ‘ha!’ and then smiled, “No.”

“Gary!” said Mike looking annoyed, “Go on Kayla; he’s just being a jerk.”

Kayla felt even more of her already low self-esteem trickle away; but knew she would never get another chance like this again, so she continued, “Well…” she started, her hand now clutching her sleeve nervously, “I was thinking that maybe we… uh, the three of us could… well, maybe um, t… travel um, together?”

Gary had that smug smile on his face again. “Oh,” he said in a fake superior voice, “You two could travel together. But, well, I have a very different idea about pokemon training….”

There was a long pause while nobody spoke a word; then Mike rolled his eyes. “Okay Gary you’ve got us, what is your ‘different idea’?” he sighed, his voice sounding very tired of Gary Oak.

The smug expression on Gary’s face was quickly replaced by a business-like sternness, “You two really are new at this, aren’t you? How do you ever expect to become great trainers if you’re always relying on someone else?”

He looked at the two of them, knowing he would get no answer.

“I work alone. I may get driven around in a car; but I always walk the forests and mountains by myself. That way I learn about the wild pokemon and catch them without any support from anyone else. I don’t depend on anyone but my pokemon and me. And it’s always going to be that way. If you two were really serious about training, you’d do it the hard way… alone.”

He stared at Kayla for a moment. Then continued.

“With people around you all the time for support, you’ll never grow up; never be able to experience things by yourself. You won’t know how to get out of any problem situations without help. That’s why I go alone. And if you two losers want to be anything nearly as good as me… you’ll do the same. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment with destiny….”

He turned on his heel, brown hair bouncing as he did so, and walked briskly away.

Kayla half-expected Gary to say something to that effect. She had an idea that he was not exactly fond of her and Mike. However, Mike was still here; what was his answer going to be to all this…?

Mike took a moment to think about what Gary had said. After a long pause, he cleared his throat and looked at Kayla.

“Kayla, I was thinking about what Gary had said… And I think I’ll travel alone too. Don’t get me wrong; I think you’re a really nice person. But I think Gary’s right. If I’m really going to win Emily back…” he waved his arms as Kayla opened her mouth, “I know I know, but she might still have some feeling for me. Anyway, if I’m going to get her back, I’m going to need to be as strong as Gary. And to do that; I’ll need some serious training.” He paused as Kayla soaked in his words.

“We’ll still see each other some times. We just won’t be traveling together all the time. In fact, I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other at the gyms and cities. They’re not that big.”

Kayla nodded silently. Then, attempting to look happy, said her goodbye, “Yeah… I guess you’re right. Um, well, bye.”

“Catch ya’ later! See, you’re smiling already!” said Mike, happily darting off into the forest, looking determined to capture some tough pokemon.

Kayla watched as he left. ‘He couldn’t even tell that I was really very sad to be alone…’ she thought to herself, ‘Well, since we just met, I guess he didn’t know me well enough to tell…’

Now she was all alone for sure though. The woods that had looked warm and friendly a few minutes ago, now looked cold and uninviting. She stared around the underbrush of the woods as she slowly crept through them. Constantly looking behind her shoulder, and listening to every crack and whistle she heard she passed by a big oak tree. The tree looked old enough to have been around when the planet was made. Its leafless branches twirled and twisted into knobs and points.

Kayla gaped at it. “What a creepy tree…” she said quietly, as if afraid to startle it.

She shook her head; she didn’t want to be alone… But no one was around to be a comforting sight anymore… She clutched her parents’ large coin in her pocket…

Then it hit her. Charmander!

She grabbed her light blue backpack off her back and dug around for anything spherical. She pulled out Charmander’s pokeball and tossed it as Professor Oak had before. The small, fiery lizard came out after the blast of white light.

His tail stood up erect, his eyes narrowed, and his arms were tensed. He leered around the area, scanning for his opponent. But the only things around him were Kayla and the huge tree…

<Huh?> he said, turning to Kayla. <I see no opponent… so what am I doing out?> he asked, staring up at her in a confused state.

Kayla smiled nervously. “Um, I thought maybe you could walk with me?”

<What?! Walk with you? …I thought that I was just supposed to battle, not be out with you doing… well doing… whatever it is trainers do besides catch pokemon,> he looked around helplessly, <I don’t even know what to do… just…walk with you?>

Kayla nodded, “Well yes, uh, don’t you think walking will be much better than being confined to your pokeball…? Now let’s go this way and get away from this creepy tree.”

Charmander began to follow her. <All right I guess so. I would like to walk a bit… and that tree was creep-- Wait a minute! Did you just understand what I said?!> he asked, leaping forward so that he could get Kayla’s attention.

“What? What’s wrong Charmander? Do you not want to go that way?” Kayla asked, confused and a bit scared of why Charmander was blocking her path.

Charmander sighed and scratched his head as he let Kayla pass, <…must be losing my mind…>

He looked back at the old oak tree as they both walked away. There was something about it that made him feel as if someone were watching them… and he didn’t like it.

[mr_pikachu]

Sorry about not getting to this sooner, LT! This looks good so far... I think I know about the birds... and about Kayla's ability to talk to Pokemon... but I won't spill the beans! This seems similar to classy_cat18's A Doolittle of Pokemon and , but you've made it pretty clear that this will be a completely different fic. I have to wonder if we'll be seeing Gary - or Ash - any time soon. That's just how I am; always wondering about the anime characters. :rolleyes: I'm curious to know what'll happen next, and if Charmander will discover more of Kayla's gift with "Poke-tongue", as I call it...

I understand your dilemma with description, as pretty much every writer struggles with that to some degree. Basically, try to describe things that are important, or will eventually be important. Don't dwell too much on things that don't matter much, even though too much description is usually better than too little. It's all about finding a balance. Don't worry, it'll come to you. Give it time. :yes: Good job, and I'll look forward to chapter four! :wave:


P.S. What was going to end up happening to our heroes in your other fic, anyway? It's still bugging me! And please, [I]don't drop this one!!!

[mistysakura]

Hey, this had better description. I think you're working out where the line is between too much and too little. Cool.

And about the Pokespeech, I think it's the tree. Don't ask me why, it's just a feeling. Especially since the tree was described, in your own words, 'creepily". But maybe it's the coin or something.

Emily seems to care for Mike, since she yelled at him for thinking that they wouldn't see each other, but that's just a guess. the main character's usually right about things, though, and if Kayla doesn't think so, well... yeah.

[Charles Legend]

This is turning out to be really good keep it up

Oh and I bet Kayla has some sort of Psychic powerthat She got from her parants who apere to be *Gets hit in the face by a by a wet fish.*

~Ryu

[Topaz]

Oh, a female Pokedex. I've seen it before but I like this better, it moves things along. And you're even playing along to the anime! How cool! Cheerleaders and car and everything! I like the personal touch with the trainers especially. There's good conflict between characters so this is gonna be interesting!

[Light_Togetic]

mr_pikachu: First off, lemme say that I feel so bad about not sticking with your fic! I had some things to take care of back then, and before I knew it, I was like ten chpaters behind! XD So, I think what I'll do is set aside a huge chunk of time, and just spend it all reading your fic! ^^ And thank you for the nice reply. Yes, poke-tongue seems to be a very popular thing! And I promise you I won't drop this fic, seeing as I've already written it. Right now all I am doing is adding things/correcting stuff. So, unless my computer dies, I can't give up on it!

mistysakura: Yeah, I hope my description gets better throughout the story. That's what's supposed to happen with practice. Thanks again for reading!

Ryu Slayer X 2.0: Heh, yeah, I'm sure some of you must have figured out what exactly her parents were. And I'm glad ya' like it so far, thanks for the reply!

Topaz: I originally was just going to have a male PokeDex, but I thought it would be cooler if Prof. Oak had come out with a counterpart for girls. And thanks for reading!




The Glass Half Full

Ch.4 A Faithful Follower

As Kayla and Charmander passed tree after tree, they saw absolutely no pokemon. There were plenty of bushes, trees, and underbrush for pokemon to inhabit; it just made no sense that none were to be seen...

Kayla started feeling a bit concerned. Not because she wouldn't get the chance to catch a new pokemon, but more because it was just so strange. The air had a quiet tenseness, like a silence before something terrible would happen.

"I guess the pokemon are all... um... sleeping?" whispered Kayla, afraid to break the long silence.

Charmander turned swiftly around to face the way they had come from. <There's someone there! I can just tell!> he said, glaring and trying as hard as he could to see past leaves and bushes. His emerald eyes narrowed and quickly scanned the area.

"What's wrong?" asked Kayla; now starting to get those knots in her stomach again... She compulsively grasped her right arm.

<Come out! I know you're there! It's not nice to scare people just starting on a journey!> called Charmander, sincerely hoping that whatever pokemon came out was nothing higher than level five. He tried to make his voice sound intimidating, but being a tiny lizard with a high voice wasn't doing anything close to that.

Kayla looked all around her, but could not see anything. The large trees with their long branches seemed so ominous without any sound in them, and with all of the silence, the smallest noise sounded as if a bomb had gone off... She could hear the ground moving under her when shifted her weight.

She couldn't take being in this woody area any longer... Fear began to well up from inside her and her mind was now entering survival mode. "Charmander..." she said, her legs wobbling from fear, "L... Let's get out... outta here...."

Charmander turned around to look at her, and saw how scared she was. <Alright,> he said, <We can go. But I would still like to know what's watching us....>

With Charmander leading the way, the two of them began to walk briskly towards what they hoped was the end of the woody area, and to Viridian City. After a few hundred steps or so, and what seemed like an eternity to Kayla, they finally reached a break in the trees. The two partners stepped out into the hot sun again to meet Viridian City.

It was bigger than Pallet, and the buildings had a nice new look to them. Kayla had only been in this town once before, and the one thing she remembered was a small ice cream shoppe that her grandmother had taken her to. But she had no idea where it would be in all these tall buildings; she was only about five when she had come here previously...

Charmander peered back into the woods. He still had this nagging feeling that someone was on their tails... Something strong.

As the pair walked around town, Kayla began to notice how many people a city could really hold. They just seemed to pour out of the doorways of buildings and cars; and many of them walked the streets too. Kayla eyed an old woman walking a few yards ahead of her and had sudden thoughts of her grandmother...

She looked toward the ground. "I miss her... She would probably know where the Ice Cream Shoppe was..." she said aloud, her voice clearly reflecting her melancholy feelings.

<I know... ugh... how you feel,> huffed Charmander, dodging in and out of passerbys' feet, <Right now I wish I were back in Pallet too... hey, watch it! Ouch!!> A man's foot booted him onto the hard sidewalk.

Kayla turned around. "Charmander? Where did you go...?" she asked loudly, the little lizard gone from her sight. Her eyes scanned the sidewalk, but there were so many people, the only things she could see were handbags and pants.

She pushed through a small line of girls. One of them turned around and pushed Kayla back.

"Hey! Watch it you stupid hick-girl!" she yelled, her heavily fake-colored red hair flipping around as she turned to go back to her group.

Kayla stood in mild confusion. "Hick-girl?" she said quietly, "What's that?"

Suddenly she felt a small tug at her pant leg. Charmander had finally found his way back to her. She smiled, "Oh Charmander! I thought you were gone...."

<I wouldn't leave you; you're my trainer!> he said, smiling back up at her. Then he turned toward the opposite side of the street and pointed.

<And look what I found!> he said happily.

Kayla's eyes followed the invisible path traced by Charmander?s finger over to a small, but slightly familiar, shop on the other side of the street. It looked old and run-down, but was still open for business. Obviously it was one of those mom and pop stores that have trouble in the bigger cities. On the front window were large, blue, painted letters spelling out, "Papa's Ice Cream Shoppe". Kayla's eyes lit up.

"Charmander, you found the Ice Cream Shoppe! Oh you don't know what this means to me! And it's still the same way it was when Grama and I went to it all those years ago," she said, a bit of excitement stirring in her.

<Shall we?> said Charmander, tugging Kayla's pant leg toward the street.

Kayla nodded happily. The two walked across the street quickly, so as not to disturb traffic, and stopped shortly in front of the old shop. Kayla could see that no one was inside, except an old man at the counter. He looked up as Kayla and Charmander entered the store.

<That must be Papa...> whispered Charmander while raising an eyebrow at the dusty man.

"W... what? Customers? Why I'll be... " he said softly, a look of amazement on his face, "Why, it's been two days since someone's come in here! Darn newfangled ice cream store francheeses and such are murderin' our business... Thought I was gonna have ta' eat the ice cream all by my lonesome," he paused for a moment, his light blue eyes looking into Kayla's, "Say, you're not just here fer the bathroom are ya'?"

Kayla blushed, "No! Not at all! We came in here for some ice cream, uh, sir."

The old man smiled, his many wrinkles becoming more pronounced, "Good. What would ya' like?"

He moved his hand across the glass countertop to showcase many ice creams and sorbets that the small metal containers held. Kayla chose her favorite, Rocky Road; and Charmander, being new to ice cream, chose Sherbet, but only because it was orange like him.

The two sat at a tiny, two-seat table and began to eat their ice cream. They were silently licking their scoops for a few moments, until Charmander let out a cry.

<Ahh!! Something?s wrong with my ice cream!!> he yelled, pointing to a mound of melting Sherbet. Kayla looked up.

"What's wrong?" she asked, puzzled as to why Charmander was so freaked out, "Do you not like the taste?"

Charmander pointed to the drooling orange mess that was his ice cream.

"Oh, it's just melting kinda fast... that's weird, it's not very hot in here..." she said, grabbing a napkin from a grubby old dispenser.

The ice cream man looked up from his newspaper, "Too hot? Seems cold in here to me...."

<Well of course it's cold to him! He's an old man!> said Charmander, futilely attempting to lick up the orange blob.

"Maybe it's because you're a fire pokemon?" offered Kayla, thinking in terms of pokemon.

<What?! That can't be; or I'd be melting it more if I breathed on it, right?> he said, eyeing his remaining scoop below that was still fairly solid.

He breathed in deeply, and then exhaled onto his last scoop. They both watched as the scoop went from solid to liquid in a time range of ten seconds... Charmander rubbed the back of his head.

<Oh...>


------------------------------------------

As Kayla and Charmander left the small shop, they noticed that there were much fewer people around than before. The sun was over near the horizon now, and it was obvious that the people must've been going home from work- the 5 o'clock rush.

Kayla looked around, and noticed a small park with a beautiful fountain in it a few yards away from them.

"Look at that fountain!" she exclaimed to Charmander. She began to walk up to it. It had five layers that the water inhabited. Kayla's eyes glimmered as she watched the water spout out the top of the structure, and trickle down each level.

Charmander was watching her happily; when he suddenly felt a chill go up his spine. He quickly turned around.

<So, you're back!> he said menacingly as he realized that their 'stalker' was back. The flame on his tail grew larger again, and he readied his scratch attack...

<Come on! What're you afraid of coward?! Show yourself!> he yelled to the small group of trees he was facing.

Kayla turned around; she could feel it too... The feeling of something watching her... She looked as hard as she could through the trees. But, like before, nothing. Whoever was watching them, sure did do it well. She took a step towards the trees.

"Please come out... um... we don't want to hurt you; we just want to know why you're following us," she pleaded, motioning to Charmander to put his arms down so that he wouldn't look threatening.

A few leaves rustled in the bushes below a large tree in the center of the group they were facing, and made Kayla take a timid step back. She wasn't that brave...

What finally emerged from behind the great tree was not a huge, powerful pokemon, but a small, brown dinosaur-like creature wearing a skull on its head and carrying a bone on its back.

"A... Cubone?" gasped Kayla. She took a good look at it. The powder-white skull on its head was cracked in several spots; one large crack on its forehead made it seem as if it had one eyebrow. It was fairly larger than a regular Cubone would be, and the bone it carried was old and cracked too. It's eyes were half-closed, but not in a threatening way. It just stood there, watching her and Charmander.

<Well, what'dya want Pops?> said Charmander, feeling annoyed that this old Cubone had been following him for so long without reason.

The Cubone walked toward the two of them slowly. Charmander brushed up his battling skills again and stood ready to take him on. But the old-timer walked past him, and instead stopped in front of Kayla.

<Huh?!> piped Charmander, his expression one of confusion and fear as he watched the unknown pokemon approach Kayla, <Wait, what're you doing with her?!> He ran up to stop abruptly behind the Cubone and stay ready in case it tried anything sneaky...

Cubone lowered his head and closed his eyes. <I have been following you ever since you passed by my tree. I live in the 'Feared Oak' of the Pallet Forest. When you passed by me, I sensed something that I had not sensed for almost fourteen years...> he paused, <I had to follow you to find out if what I sensed was really true.>

Charmander blinked. <What?!> he leaned over to Kayla and covered part of his mouth with his hand so that Cubone couldn't hear, <I think Pops here is a loony...>

Kayla smiled nervously. She had no idea what the two pokemon were saying. Charmander didn't seem threatened anymore, so the initial fear was pretty much gone, but how would she ever know why this pokemon was following her? She blushed a bit from embarrassment, and her voice grew quieter.

"Uh... I'm really sorry, Mr. Cubone, but I honestly don't know what you're saying..." she said, hoping the little pokemon wouldn't get angry at her or anything.

The Cubone raised an eyebrow under his secondary skull. <Hm... I suppose I was premature on my assumption. If you were who I thought you were; then you would have understood me.>

He turned around quietly and began to walk away.

<Wait a minute!> cried Charmander, <You're just leaving like that? But...>

"Uh... I'm really sorry if I said something to, um, offend you Mr. Cubone..." Kayla said timidly. She wished more than anything right now that she somehow had the power to understand him, but nothing would come to her...

<Cheez... what a rude old man. Oh well,> Charmander said, turning around to face Kayla again, <Try not to feel so bad Kayla; he was just a weird old pokemon.>

"Hm... " said Kayla, unsure of what to do now. The Cubone had left her a bit depressed. She felt inside her pocket, and remembered that she had never shown her parents' coin to Charmander.

"Hey Charmander! Um, do you want to see something of my parents'?" she asked, bringing out the golden piece.

The Cubone a hundred feet away or so turned his head to look back as he walked away.

Charmander's eyes lit up, <Ooh... shiny.... But what are these birds on the front?>

"I thought you'd like it," Kayla said, smiling.

<Where did you get that?> said the Cubone, now back next to the two partners.

Kayla looked up, "Oh... um, you like it too?"

<Look Pops,> said Charmander, now getting really annoyed at this pokemon, <If you wanna say something, just say it already and leave. You like asking questions, but you still haven't really even answered our first question to you!>

The Cubone raised an eyebrow at Charmander, <Do not make me hurt you boy. I may be old, but I am at a much higher level than you. And please; do not call me 'Pops'.> He paused, <Now, tell me. Did your master really obtain this from her parents?>

<Yes, if she says so, I'd believe her,> said Charmander, unsure of where this odd conversation was leading them.

Kayla watched their conversation silently. She couldn't tell what they were saying, but she had a feeling that the appearance of the coin was what made Mr. Cubone come back. She broke the brief moment of silence.

"Uh... Mr. Cubone? If you want to know about this, well, I really don't know much about it myself. My Grama told me that it belonged to my parents... See, here's a picture of them... " she said, pulling out her wallet from her pack and opening it to family pictures. Most of her pictures were of her grandmother and her, but one spot was saved especially for her mother and father.

Cubone's eyes widened. <So it is true... You are the one I thought you were... But then why didn't you-- Oh yes, I understand now. In fact, they probably wanted it this way. Yes... I see now, they wouldn't have wanted you spotted, or detected by them...>

<What are you talking about?! This is just getting weirder!> said Charmander, now more confused than ever.

The Cubone nodded, <If you would like for me to explain the best I can, I'll need you to come with me somewhere. I'll have to be somewhat creative to explain things to... what was her name...? Kayla? Well, I'm sure I could do it, I just need you two to come with me for a moment.>

He walked away a few feet, and then motioned them to follow. Kayla, still holding out her wallet, looked down at Charmander. He just stared back up at her.

"Um... well, it couldn't hurt to follow him, I guess..." she said, quickly pushing her wallet and coin back where they belonged.


A/N: Was this chapter a bit too long? I don't want to give anyone a headache. At first I tried to break it into two parts, but I didn't think it flowed well... How many pages in MS Word does a good-sized (but not too long) chapter have?

[mistysakura]

Cool! No, it's not too long. And it was the tree, as I'd expected; but I was thinking more aof a tree that had weird powers, not someone with powers inside the tree, heh.

I love little fun bits like going to eat ice-cream; that bit also let Kayla and Charmander grow closer, which was nice.

Well, nice cliffhanger you've gotten yourself there. Umm... I can't think of anything to say... </weirdness>

[Topaz]

Oh, nice beginning to the chapter, anxious and intruiging. I like the idea of Viridian actually being a city, rather than just something trainers walk through, and the memories of the icecreamshop, and Charmander trying to eat the icecream! Charmander already has his own little personality and opinions! Legend. I like this chapter, it has such a casual air to it, taking the time to really just let the reader get to know the characters. Cubone! I love cunbone but he's rarely in fictions, and its old! That is original. How many stories actually have Pokemon aging? Hehe, the bantering between Charmander and Mr Cubone is cute. I think this chapter was the perfect length, not to short and not to long, *chuckles* I have a short attention span!

[mr_pikachu]

Nice work. The description and actions throughout this chapter were great for character development. Though I have to say, I feel very sorry for Charmander. Who could live without eating ice cream? :( It's a pity.

Gotta love the Cubone! I was heartbroken at first when I thought he would be disappointed about being mistaken, but now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside... ;)

That rude girl was certainly... um... rude? I don't know what else to say about her, except that she seemed very bratty. Almost bratty enough to be seen again later in this fic... I wonder... nah...

And about the length; no, it wasn't too long. It's actually kinda irritating when you read a chapter that's too short, and I know I've written a few of them. If you read any fics like WDC, LtL, Full Moon, or Rhapsody in Red, you'll see that they all have very long chapters, but the emotions, dialogue, description, and actions throughout keep them interesting. That's the key, really. It's a lot tougher to make a chapter too long than it is to make one too short. (If you've ever read Louis Sachar's There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom!, you can see that those chapters are far too short, and yet many beginning writers think that sort of length is appropriate.) Believe me, this is not too long. If anything, worry about making chapters too short. That's my advice.

Again, great work! I'll look forward to Chapter 5! :wave:

[Light_Togetic]

mistysakura: Thanks! At first I wasn't going to have that part in, but I added the ice cream melting thing, and I liked it a lot more then, so I kept it.

Topaz: Yeah age is something that few people address in pokemon. Cubone is one of my favorite Kanto pokemon, so I decided to use it in this fic. Plus I think the face being hidden thing adds to the mystery of him. ^^

mr_pikachu: Well I'm glad it's the right length. Usually I get to writing, and to me it looks just long enough, but to others... well, sometimes that's a bit different. Thanks for the reply!




The Glass Half Full

Ch.5 Decisions, Decisions…

<This is where you wanted to take us? An old abandoned house?> said Charmander in disbelief. He stared up at the rickety old shell that had once been a house.

It was hard to imagine that anyone had ever inhabited it. The windows, if not broken, had all been layered with dirt and residue over the years, and there wasn’t a single shingle on the roof that didn’t look as if someone had loosened it, or pulled it up, to make it look tattered. Kayla walked up to the ragged door, which was half open, and wondered too why Cubone had brought them here.

The brown pokemon lazily walked over to where Kayla was standing; his gaze following the edges of the doorway. <This is a very important place for the both of us,> said Cubone, his gruff voice now softer, deeper.

Kayla gave a nod, even though she had no idea what he was saying to her.

The pokemon looked up at her for a moment; then blinked. <Oh yes. I forget, you are unable to understand me… Come this way,> he said, leading them to the interior of the house.

Kayla hesitated. But when Charmander walked past her shrugging, and went in; she decided it was alright.

Inside the house were… things. People’s things, like magazines, books, a pencil, and what appeared to be an old plant that had gone wild. They were all dirty and looked as if they had been uncovered from some sort of archeological dig. Kayla had never seen an abandoned house before, but she thought it was the saddest thing ever…

She picked up the old magazine. “How sad… these things from people’s lives, just lying around. Forgotten….”

Cubone blew on a picture frame that he had picked up. He took a moment to stare at it, and then walked over to Kayla, who was still looking at the magazine. He offered the picture to Kayla so she could look at it.

Kayla blinked, “Y… you want me to look at it?” she asked to make sure.

Cubone nodded, waving the picture to show that she could take it.

Kayla grabbed onto the picture and wiped away some of the residue on it. In the picture was a couple. And in an instant she recognized the young man with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes; and the woman next to him with fluffy red hair that was not unlike Kayla’s…

“M… my… my parents…?” she said, looking down at Cubone.

<Yes…> said Cubone, nodding.

Charmander jumped up a little. <What’s that? Is that a picture of her parents? What’s going on?!> he said anxiously. He couldn’t sit still without knowing what was going on; and all of this was so confusing to him.

Kayla stood silently for a few moments, looking around the house, “So… this was my parents’… house? But I thought that Grama took every… well, now that I think about it, she did say that some things accidentally got left behind. She must have dropped this in the process of getting their things….” She looked back at the picture of them. But then she noticed there were others in the picture besides just her parents…

Four pokemon; a Pidgey, a fiery weasel-looking pokemon she had never seen before, an Ivysaur, and a short brown pokemon with a crack on its forehead that looked like one eyebrow…

“Mr. Cubone? Is this… you?” she asked timidly, secretly knowing the answer already.

Cubone nodded quietly.

“So you were one of my… my father’s pokemon?” she asked, drawing the conclusion from the positions of the pokemon in the picture.

Cubone nodded again.

It was then that Kayla remembered looking through the pictures of her parents with her grandmother, and seeing these same four pokemon throughout them. Cubone was one of them. She hadn’t realized it before; she had been so preoccupied with looking at her parents, that she hadn’t given the pokemon a second glance.

Charmander blinked. <How did you meet Kayla’s Dad?>

<That, is a long story… but because Kayla cannot understand me… I will have to make it brief,> said Cubone, looking at the ground. He walked up to the old pencil on the ground and picked it up. He turned it over so that the eraser was facing down, and the dusty tip was facing up. Then he bent over and began to draw lines in the dusty dirt on the floor.

Kayla leaned over to see what he was doing.

<From the time I spent with my Master, I learned a great deal of things about human beings… You see, from the very beginning of my life, I had only known cruelty. However, my Master showed a different side to the world around me, and also a different side to humans. After a time with him, I began to want to communicate with him more, so he taught me some words of the written human language… I have not used them in years, but I think today is the day to remember,> Cubone paused, and took a step back from his spot to admire his handiwork.

What Kayla saw in the dust of the floor were the outlines of something large and pointy with a thick bottom and arms that twisted and turned… much like the creepy Oak tree in the woods… Below it were some scribbles that remotely resembled a word.

“H… ho… home? That old oak tree was your home?” asked Kayla, a bit surprised that her father’s pokemon could live in such a place.

Cubone nodded.

<I… I could write human words too if I had enough time!> said Charmander in a whiny voice from behind Kayla, folding his arms.

Cubone went back to draw more. With the pencil and the dust on the floor, he showed Kayla many things about his past. He drew himself by the tree, and a blobby stick figure labeled “Master” walking to the tree. Then he wrote “caught” after that, and drew a long arrow for the distance he had traveled with Kayla’s father. When he was done, Kayla was satisfied, but still had one more question…

“How did you get here though, and not hurt or captured by the people after my parents?” she said curiously.

Cubone then wrote the word “escapes” on the ground.

Kayla assumed he meant ‘escaped’, and nodded. She paused for a moment and glanced at the picture. “But… what about the other poke--.”

Cubone bowed his head and shook it slowly.

“Oh…” said Kayla feeling sorry for the other pokemon, even though she had only known about them for a very short time.

There was a long silence for a few minutes. Kayla kept staring at the picture Cubone had shown her. Her parents looked so happy in the picture… and they were together, with their pokemon, like a family… Kayla felt tears start to form in the corners of her eyes. She swallowed.

Why was it so easy to miss someone you’ve never known…?

Cubone watched Kayla wipe her eyes quickly. Then thought for a moment. He began to write again in the dust.

<What are you doing now?> asked Charmander, feeling left out again.

<I am attempting to ask the lady a question,> he said, eyeing Charmander dangerously.

The orange lizard took a step back. <Okay Pops! You don’t have to get all bent out of shape abou-->

Cubone glared at him.

<Uh… I think I’m gonna wait over here behind Kayla!> he said nervously, his small voice cracking a bit.

Kayla managed to look down at what Cubone had asked her in the dust. The word was one he had written before, but this one had a question mark after it...

“Capture?” it said in the dust.

Kayla blinked. “Y… you want me to… capture you? You want to come with us?”

<What?!> said Charmander, not expecting this old Cubone to actually want to pokemon train.

<Yes,> Cubone nodded, <It is the least I could do for my Master’s daughter…>

“I was kinda, um, hoping you would want to come with us Mr. Cubone. It would be like if my father were here with me in some way…,” said Kayla, smiling. She thought to herself for a moment. “But, I don’t have a pokeball….”

<The Pokemon Mart should have some!> suggested Charmander, glad that he could actually add something to the conversation. He pointed to the way out.

Kayla nodded, “You know where I can get some Charmander?”

Charmander nodded back, <Yep, this way!>

Cubone followed close behind the lizard, as Kayla paused in the doorway. She was still holding the dusty picture of her parents. Giving a weak smile, she grabbed her pack and pushed the old picture into one of the many pockets, being extra careful not to bend or break it. Then, giving the empty house one last look, she walked out into the sunlight, and closed the front door behind her.


---------------------------------------------------

Charmander had spotted the Pokemon Mart a while back when Cubone had been leading them to Kayla’s parents’ house, and so he knew where it was. The small shop was only a block away, and in the early evening its shadow extended longer than it was tall. As the trio entered the large Pokemon Mart through the glass doors, a small grumbling noise was heard.

<Heh, uh, I guess I’m hungry!> said Charmander, rubbing his head.

Cubone ignored him, and kept walking with Kayla.

Kayla approached the front desk, and the man at it.

“Um, excuse me sir, but how much is it for one pokeball?” she asked timidly.

The man pulled off his blue hat with the pokeball insignia on it, “Just… one?” he said, looking extremely skeptical.

“Well, uh, yes. You see, I need it for this Cubone…” she answered, feeling herself getting more embarrassed. Why did he act like she had asked him to give her a pet Aerodactyl?

“Oh, well, you see usually I get beginner trainers that ask for six, ten, some even twenty pokeballs. But hardly ever just one. Come to think of it, I don’t think any trainer has even asked for just one… Don’t you plan on catchin’ more than that one there?” he explained, still giving Kayla an odd look.

“Well… I don’t kno--.”

“Hey Kayla!” said a voice. Kayla turned around.

It was Mike. “Hey! Remember me?” he said, waving with one arm, and cradling a large amount of pokeballs in the other.

“Uh… Mike?” said Kayla, a little surprised to see him.

Mike walked up to the man and Kayla and dropped a bunch of pokeballs on the counter. There must have been at least twenty of them there.

“Wow…” said Kayla quietly. The man wasn’t really exaggerating when he had told Kayla about the new trainers.

Mike looked at the man. “Hey, can I get these quickly. I need to get to the Viridian Forest before dark. I’m going to camp out tonight like Gary!” he said in his usual determined voice.

“Yeah sure,” said the man in a bored voice. He went on to mumble about ‘good for nothing kids’.

Mike turned to Kayla as the man counted the pokeballs. “So, you going to camp out in the woods too?” he asked, looking excited about the whole idea of camping.

Kayla blinked. “Well, I never really… um… thought about it. I just assumed that I would stay at the Pokemon Cent-.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too. But then Gary and I saw each other at the Pokemon Center, and he was saying that he was going to stay in the forest tonight and catch a Pokemon considering there were none really between here and Pallet,” said Mike very quickly. Kayla could easily tell that he was really energized by all of this. He was obviously ready for some action.

Charmander leaned over to Cubone, <Someone put extra sugar in that kid’s Poke Berry juice…>

Cubone gave an annoyed look to Charmander, and moved a few inches away from him.

<What?> said Charmander, a little offended, <I was just trying to lighten the mood…>

“Oh… well, I guess… maybe we could too… maybe even the three of us could end up together,” said Kayla hopefully. She still wanted another human to travel with even though she had two interesting pokemon to be with.

Mike shrugged, “I guess it’s possible. The Viridian Forest isn’t really that big. Well, you do what you want. Me, I’ve got someone to compete against. Oh yeah, and don’t bother with the gym in this place. The gym leader is gone on some sort of vacation or something, so they’re not letting anyone battle anyway. Some weirdo guy was there though wanting to check out the gym. I think he was an aide of Professor Oak’s…”

“Mr. Quigley?” said Kayla, picturing his white lab coat.

“Hey kid! You gonna hurry up and pay or what? I thought you were in a hurry!” growled the mart man. Mike jumped.

“Oh yeah! Sorry. Well Kayla, gotta go!” he said, stuffing some bills into the man’s hand. The man quickly counted them, and when everything was in order, Mike ran out the door, a strong wind in his wake.

<So are we going to camp out?> asked Charmander, hoping not. He had been looking forward to sleeping with human comforts.

“Well… I guess I’ll buy that pokeball now, and then decide what to do…” she said, turning once again to the man at the counter.

Kayla purchased the lone pokeball, and Cubone willingly retreated into it in a surge of red light. But since Kayla wanted both her pokemon out with her to keep her company, she tossed Cubone’s pokeball to release him again. However, the flash of light that came from the pokeball when Cubone was released was not the typical white color. Instead, a dark black light flashed, and Cubone was soon standing on the ground.

Kayla and Charmander stared.

“Um… why was the light black? Are you okay Cubone?” Kayla asked, feeling a bit creeped out.

Cubone nodded in his usual fashion, and seemed to just brush it off. He acted as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

Charmander raised an eyebrow. <That guy sold us a defective pokeball!>

<No,> said Cubone in a very grave tone, <I always appear in this way no matter what pokeball I am in…>

Charmander blinked. <Huh…?>

Kayla tried to ignore it. If Cubone thought there was nothing wrong, then she wouldn’t worry about it. Besides, she had a big decision to make. “Hey you guys… do you think we should camp out?” asked Kayla, unsure of what to do.

Charmander thought for a moment. <But that means no soft pillows…>

<I think we should. You can never hope to understand how pokemon think until you have lived where they live,> said Cubone, nodding his head.

Charmander looked worried, <Well… I guess so… But let’s spend a night in the next town please! I already think like a pokemon, so I don’t need too much time in the woods…>

With Charmander’s confirming nod, Kayla nodded too. “Alright… Good thing Grama dusted out that old sleeping bag for me. Looks like I’m going to need it.”

Charmander’s stomach growled angrily again. Charmander blushed.

Kayla laughed. “Maybe once we get a little ways into the woods, we can stop for some dinner. I’ve got some really tasty canned food.”

Charmander licked his lips. <Are there Raviolis?> Things were looking up for him.



A/N: Well, just in case you're wondering, 'When is she ever going to battle?!' I'll tell you now, that the next few chapters will actually have some battling in them! And the trio from Pallet's first encounter with Team Rocket (no, not Jessie and James... there are other members...). Anyway, new readers are always welcome to reply! ^-^

[DannyBoy]

I been catching up with this and all I can say is dang this is good. The length is great. Chapter 5 is my favorite, the beginning was sad and you could feel the emotion she was feeling. All the confusion and wondering. I love Charmander, it's full of positive engery. But then it was sad about what happened to the other pokemon. Poor Cuebone. Keep it up!

[mr_pikachu]

Well, that was interesting! And not just the plot; the composition was amazing! I've never seen somber and lighthearted moods combined like that. Good work! I'm glad "Mr." Cubone's joined the group, and I wonder if we'll be seeing Gary and Mike in the forest... or maybe the other beginning trainer! Yes, the wielder of lightning, the boy of thunder, Ash Ketchum himself! ;)

Anyway, this was great. There's not much else I can say about that. I enjoyed the idea of Cubone being able to write (and I loved Charmander's comment), and the black light was... weird... I wonder if that'll have any significance! Oh, and the PokeMart guy was great, too! :D

Excellent work! I'll look forward to Chapter 6! :wave:

[mistysakura]

Sweet... You know a weird thought I had... can you catch dead Pokemon? I really don't know why I thought that. I think I'm going insane.

Anyway, I really like the pokemons' contrasting personalities; your characters are really good. And I agree with mr_pikachu about the mood. It flowed from sombre to light-hearted (just to steal his words) so naturally, you barely noticed the change.

Keep it up!

[Topaz]

Keeping up the realism, or as realistic as a Pokemon fic can be. A nice angsty part without being tense, very talented! Hehe, I like Charmander's childish whine! Very realistic I can picture him as one of the eight year olds I babysit. Oh that's wonderful, I great way to do it, so simple and flowing. Normally I'd be cynical of simply getting a pokemon, that this just flows into it! And it means a mature character to play with! Bravo!
New scene, hehe, Mike prooving a point! Whoot, adding a bit of drama to the well used Return Pokemon scene! I look forward to the next chapter, you really are a wonderful writer!

[Light_Togetic]

IloveX-TINA: *blushes* Thanks! I wasn't really sure what to do with Charmander in this chapter when I first wrote it, but it was so full of sadness or confusion, that I thought that he would make a good thing to lighten it up at certain parts. Glad ya' like it!

mr_pikachu: *gasps as she realizes what Clash of the Entities is a crossover with* Must read!!! I used to really HATE Yu-Gi-Oh... but after watching a few episodes... I kinda like it now... *dodges fruit being thrown by her brother who still HATES it* Anyway, Cubone's black appearance does have a significance, but that won't be talked about until a chapter or two after this one. And thanks for your compliments!

mistysakura: Thanks. I try and work hard at making everyone a little different. Otherwise it would be hard to differentiate between them all. XD Hopefully I can do the same with other characters I introduce. ^^;

Topaz: Yeah, I was reluctant to have him just ‘join up’, in fact, I was even gonna have him follow Kayla at first, but I thought that would be too Jigglypuff/Delibirdish. Besides, this way you get more interaction between the others and him. Oh, and thanks for the compliments!




The Glass Half Full

Ch.6 Together Again!

Now with the addition of Cubone to her group, Kayla was actually starting to feel a bit of confidence growing in her. She no longer felt timid about talking to Charmander, and although there were still a few things she didn't understand or know about Cubone; she felt comfortable with him because of the fact that he was her father’s pokemon. The three of them walked side-by-side into the wooded area that was the Viridian Forest. Even though it was still quite light out, the sun was starting to get nearer to the horizon and Kayla knew that it must be getting close to night. But as they entered the dense forest, it quickly became as dark as nighttime, and Kayla checked the small clock she had in her pack.

“It’s about 6,” she said, putting it away in the pocket she had gotten it from.

Charmander’s stomach growled, <Oh… can we eat now? My stomach’s getting grumpy….> The bright flame on the tip of his tail weakening a bit.

Kayla chuckled, “Your stomach sounds like a Charizard!” She smiled; somehow, Charmander always made her laugh….

Charmander gave a fake laugh, <Eh heh heh heh…. Charizard… that’s a good one…> Then he went silent.

Cubone raised an eyebrow, <Something wrong?>

Charmander ignored him.

As the three entered a small clearing in the heavily wooded area, Kayla looked around. They were in a field of tall and short grass. It reminded her a bit of the farm back home… Tufts of tall grass waved to her in the wind, and Kayla smelled the air as it blew by. She could see more of the sky in the field, and could now see that the sun was about to dip into the horizon. Soon night would be upon them even out in the open.

“We can stop here and eat I guess,” she said, suddenly becoming aware of how hungry she was.

Charmander perked up, <Yay! I'm starved!>

The three of them sat down around a dry dirt spot in the clearing, and Cubone gathered some wood for a fire. Charmander dipped his glowing flame tail into the small mound of sticks, and soon enough, a small fire was going. Kayla heated up the Raviolis that Charmander was so hoping for in a small pot that she had packed for her journey. She passed out forks to both of her pokemon, and the three began to eat. Kayla brought out her PokeDex to look over, while Charmander and Cubone talked to each other.

<Hey Pops, there’s something I don’t get about that weird Oak tree you lived in,> mumbled Charmander, his mouth full of Raviolis.

<And that is…?> said Cubone, watching Charmander.

<Well, why were there no pokemon around it? I mean, why were they all so afraid? When Kayla and I walked by it, we both felt really scared, like there was something there… something evil…>

Cubone paused for a moment, silence filled the air; that same feeling that Charmander had just been describing….

<The pokemon of that area know to stay clear from my tree… in the past, I was merciless to those that entered my territory…> he trailed off, leaving Charmander shivering.

<Uh… uh… yeah…> said Charmander, trying to smile; although what he really wanted to do was grab Kayla and run far away. Cubone was starting to scare him.

Cubone closed his eyes for a moment, <I am sorry; I did not mean to scare you. My past has not been a very nice one. Perhaps someday I will tell you the story, but not tonight…>

Charmander looked unconvinced.

Cubone grabbed a piece of ravioli with the fork Kayla had given him. <Trust me, I would never hurt anyone close to my Master…>

Beep! Cubone, the Lonely Pokemon. It is said that Cubone wear the skull from their deceased mothers…. No human has ever seen their true faces. Compassion seems to be something that most wild Cubone lack. They tend to want to be alone for a great deal of the time, and generally do not care about others’ feelings. However, with much training and taming, Cubone can become excellent companions. Cubone evolve into Marowak at level 36. This Cubone is at level 42. Its attacks are: Skull Bash, Focus Energy, Thrash, and Seismic Toss. This Cubone is unreadable by this PokeDex in the area of stats.

“Hmm… that’s weird…” said Kayla, giving a puzzled look to Dextra. She shrugged, “I guess there are still a lot of things I need to learn about you Mr. Cubone.”

Cubone sat silently.

<Level 42!? Oh... that makes me look real powerful…> whined Charmander; he was only still at the skill level that he started with.

Cubone waved his hand as if to dismiss Charmander’s comment, <I have been on many journeys in my lifetime. Yours has just begun. It is understandable that I am at such a high level.>

Kayla fiddled with the PokeDex some more and then pointed it at Charmander...

Beep! Charmander, the Lizard Pokemon. If a Charmander's tail flame ever goes out, it will perish. They typically enjoy spicy and bitter food, and can be very loyal to their trainers. They evolve into the very popular Charizard. *Push the green button for more on this pokemon's evolution* This Charmander is at level 5. Its attacks are: Scratch and Growl. This Charmander’s stats are as follows: High Attack, Low Defense, High Special, and Medium Speed.

“Push the green button? Okay sure, I'd love to see what Charmander evolves into,” said Kayla, recalling the Charizard window on the door to Professor Oak's lab.

Charmander evolve into Charmeleon at level 16, and then into Charizard at level 36. However, as with certain types of pokemon, the Charmander evolutionary line gets more and more difficult to handle as they evolve. Caution for those who evolve their Charmander; they can become very uncooperative and even mean-spirited when they evolve into Charmeleon. Some trainers have even reported their Charmander as completely changing in every aspect of their personality when they evolved.

“Wow…” said Kayla, trying to imagine Charmander as mean-spirited. She just couldn’t do it. How can someone end up being a horrible mean-spirited person when they started out so nice?

Charmander stared off into space, his mind clearly thinking deeply.

Cubone watched him carefully. There was something Charmander was obviously hiding on this subject…

Kayla could sense Charmander’s tenseness too, so she decided to put away the PokeDex, and talk to Charmander. “Like your Raviolis?” she asked with a smile.

Charmander looked up, <Yeah!> he said happily, stuffing another spoonful in his mouth.

Kayla laughed, “I’m glad.”

The sun was now setting on the horizon, painting beautiful pink and gold colors dancing across the sky. Some Butterfree were visible flying across the other side of the field.

“Well…” said Kayla, surveying the land around them, “I guess this looks like a good spot to camp out, it’s a nice flat field; it’ll be perfect. I’m glad we decided to camp out like Gary and Mike. I forgot how fun it is….”

Charmander nodded, although he still wanted pillows…

<May I return to my pokeball to sleep,> asked Cubone, preferring some time alone to think. He had a lot on his mind right this minute, and some silence and seclusion was just what he needed. He walked up to Kayla so that he could motion that he wanted to be returned; but he paused, unsure of where she kept her pokeballs.

Kayla yawned. Even if it were only early in the evening, she still was very tired. So much had happened in one day that she was completely done in. She nodded to Cubone and pulled out his pokeball from the front pocket of her pack.

“Sure you can… return Cubone,” she said sleepily.

Cubone’s eyes widened in mild surprise, then disappeared as the red light engulfed him.

“Well, looks like it’s just the two of us again Charmander,” said Kayla, smiling at her tiny pokemon. She reached over to grab something out of her pack. As she did do she heard an odd noise… like the soft flapping of wings…

Charmander smiled back, <Yep. Hey! Since we have a fire, let’s roast some weenie--!> He stopped abruptly.

“What’s wrong?” asked Kayla, her hand digging in her pack to find her lantern.

<Look out!!> yelled Charmander, pointing to behind Kayla, his eyes widening in fear.

Kayla turned around, her hand still in her pack, “Huh?”

What met Kayla’s eyes as she turned around to see what was spooking Charmander was a small group of three Butterfree! There was one Butterfree in the front that appeared to be the leader. Its eyes narrowed in a malicious stare at Kayla and Charmander.

Kayla was stunned into silence. Butterfree had always looked so cute and harmless to her, but now they hovered before her looking ready to attack! She searched her mind frantically to figure out what she had done to anger them, but could come up with nothing.

“What did I do wrong?” she asked the Butterfree leader quickly.

<Yeah man! Don’t hurt us!> squeaked Charmander, his voice beginning to crack again.

The leader began to talk, but to Kayla’s mind, it just sounded like Butterfree noises. She could feel panic beginning to rise in her; how was she supposed to answer back?!

<You have trespassed on our land and you dare to ask what it is you have done?!> yelled the angry leader, his wings beating rapidly to match his anger.

<Mister…> quaked Charmander, knowing it was he who had to answer, since Kayla couldn’t understand him, <Whatever we did, we didn’t mean to…! All we did was build a fire to--!>

The three Butterfree all gasped in horror, mumbling angrily amongst themselves.

The leader turned to Kayla and Charmander again, <You fools! Building a fire in a forest and in a field full of grass and flammable material?! Imbeciles! You could have burned up the entire forest! This is why we’re here. We dispose of ignorant fools like yourselves, which is not always easy, nor do we catch everyone… But now that you’ve further proven your ignorance, and rudeness, we shall do what we must!> he turned to the other two Butterfree behind him, <Company, attack!>

Charmander shook violently, <Oh great…! Kayla, I don’t think they’re going to listen, so let’s just RUN!!> He leaped up and grabbed at Kayla to pull her up.

Kayla, feeling very in the dark about what was going on, leapt up when Charmander pulled up on her and began to run with him further into the field. Her heart began to beat quickly, and she realized how fast she could actually run when needing to. Charmander, despite his small stature, was actually keeping up with her quite well.

The Butterfree continued to pursue them for quite some ways, and every time Kayla turned her head to look back, it seemed as if they had gotten closer; and they looked twice as intimidating with the now deep red and orange colors of the late sunset shinning all over their faces and wings. Kayla kept running and running, now into the forest again, branches hitting her legs and arms as she sprinted past trees and bushes. She stepped hard on a spot that was particularly muddy, and dirt and mud splashed up the side of her overalls.

“When will… they… give… up?” Kayla panted as they ran along.

Charmander jumped a bit as he ran to keep up, <I don’t know… but I hope it’s soon!>

After a few more seconds, the Butterfree stopped, and watched as Kayla and Charmander continued to run, even though they had stopped chasing them. The two had been running so fast, that the Butterfree were actually getting quite tired…

Kayla slowed a bit, and when she noticed that the Butterfree were gone, she stopped and caught her breath. Charmander collapsed on the ground, muttering something about water. The darkness of the dense forest around them would have been very uninviting under normal conditions, but after being chased by angry Butterfree, anything was better.

Kayla sat in silence for a moment, trying to figure out what had just happened, when she noticed that she could hear voices…

“Hey…” she said to Charmander, who was still lying on the ground, “Do you hear that? It sounds kinda like Mike…”

Which it did. Kayla got up slowly, and began to walk over to where the voices were coming from; the mud in her now brown shoe squishing as she stepped.

“Ha!” said Gary, snatching a pokeball from the ground, “Capture number five! This Pidgey feels like a winner too!”

Mike pouted, his arms folded tightly, “Well, I saw a lot of cool pokemon too, including a Pikachu, but I, uh, decided to let them go.”

Gary’s dark brown eyes narrowed, “Right.”

“But I did! I saw them right--,” he paused, “Oh, hi Kayla!” He smiled, anything to get him out of explaining his capture failures to Gary.

Kayla stepped out from behind the prickly berry bushes to see Mike standing next to a triumphantly smiling Gary, and a small campfire between them. Kayla blushed as she suddenly realized that these were other human beings she was about to talk to, people that she wanted to be friends with, and she began attempting to dust the dirt and mud off of her overalls in a nonchalant way…

“Oh, uh, hi you guys…” said Kayla, her usual timid demeanor returning.

She was about to ask what kinds of pokemon they had caught so far, when suddenly a soft flapping noise was audible.

Charmander jumped out from the bushes, <They came back!! They say that they can see and smell a fire over here too! And boy do they look angry!>

He stopped cold in front of Gary and Mike’s fire.

<Waah! Put that thing out you crazies! You’re going to get us all killed!> he yelled, frantically kicking dirt all over the small flames.

Gary started, “Hey! What’s your Charmander doin’ to my fire!”

Kayla shook her head slowly, “Uh… I don’t…,” and suddenly turned around, hearing the flapping noise get louder, “Ahh!!”

Gary and Mike both gave a confused look, “Huh?”

Kayla jumped up, “R… run!” She started running again, further into the forest, Charmander at her heels.

At first Gary and Mike didn’t follow them, unsure of what was going on. Soon enough though, they joined the chase. Kayla looked behind her.

“Keep running!” yelled Gary to them all, “I think we’ve got ‘em on the run!”

The leader Butterfree noticed this too and he started to fly faster to cut them off ahead so that they couldn’t escape.

Kayla stopped abruptly, the leader blocking her path; and his expression one of exhaustion and rage.

<You will pay for your inconsiderate actions humans! One fire is excusable, but you have gone too far by adding another!> he said, readying an attack. A small, rainbow-colored glowing ball of energy began to form in front of his mandibles. It twisted and spun, making itself larger as the seconds went by.

“It’s a Psybeam attack!” yelled Gary in awe. Kayla whimpered.

<Yes, and you’ll be first little human girl,> said the leader in a dangerous tone.

Gary and Mike were frozen with both awe and fear. Despite what they had seen in movies and on television, they had never been in a dangerous situation like this before…

<I don’t think so!> cried Charmander, taking a large leap straight up in the air so that his eyes were level to the leader’s. He curled his tiny sharp claws, and swiped as hard as he could, his nails ripping the top layer of the Butterfree’s exoskeleton.

As the leader cried in pain and surprise, Gary shook his head and came out of his temporary freeze, “Let’s get outta here! Follow me!” He ran off into an even darker part of the forest, and Mike and Kayla followed without hesitation.

When the four of them were far enough away, they sat down on the ground to take a break. By now it was well into the darkness of night, and the only reason Kayla could see five feet in front of her was because of Charmander’s flame tail. All of the moonlight was being blocked by the trees of the forest.

Kayla heaved a sigh. Would she ever get some sleep?

“Do you think they’re gone?” asked Mike, as he peered around the small area they were all sitting in.

Gary looked up, “Are you kidding? They’d better be gone! I don’t feel like running anymore….”

Kayla raised her head. “Do you guys hear something?” she asked them, looking towards Mike.

The sound of crunching leaves came from a bush behind Mike. He jumped up. “Oh man! Please, don’t Psybeam my head off!!” he pleaded, closing his eyes and covering his head with his hands.

But there were no Butterfree stepping out from behind the bush; just a boy. He wore what closely resembled an ancient Japanese Samurai suit. The detailed armor was hard to see in the diminished light, but Kayla could still tell that it was very beautiful craftsmanship.

A quick and sharp voice came from below the three-pointed helmet, “I am the Samurai of the Forest. I have come to challenge the four trainers from Pallet. I wish to learn more about the ways of pokemon battling… On my own I can only learn so much, but with others I can learn so much more. Now… which of you is the strongest?”

The three trainers all looked at each other; stunned once again into a moment of silence...

[DannyBoy]

Another good chapter. I love that Charmander, there is just something about it! The Butterfree thing was really good and strange. Plus the end, perfect. Creepy guy at end of a chapter can mean hes a bug freak or a really big wack job. Again, good chapter! Keep it up!

[mr_pikachu]

Heh, I loved how you changed the part from the anime to include Kayla! I don't know why, but I like fics that include anime characters AND keep the past (or in this case, the present) relatively close to the same. Good work; I'm sure the Kanto fans will love the next chapter!

*sighs* Man, I just can't get enough of your description! It's really well done, honestly. You don't see enough of that indirect criticism on the forums. DO YOU HEAR THAT, EVERYBODY? THIS IS HOW DESCRIPTION IS DONE![/yelling]

Gotta love that Charmander! And Kayla's gift is becoming more evident... but why does it only come up at times? As Beast Boy from Teen Titans would say, "Weirdness." But anyway, excellent job. I can't wait for the next chapter! :D


P.S. Thanks for taking an interest in my fic! I need all the help I can get; especially with that one! :yes:

[mistysakura]

Cool. Was that from the anime? I totally didn't know. But I found this chapter good, partly because Kayla's in contact with Mike and Gary again. Can't leave the protagonist isolated for too long... (I really must take my own advice.) I mean, she interacts with the Pokemon, but most of the time it's pretty one-sided stuff, so it's good that she meets up with them again.

Still love the Pokemon; and I like it how they're not one-sided. Charmander's deeper side is already showing, and that's cool.

[Light_Togetic]

ImmortalDreams: Ahh! I almost didn't realize the name change! But I did in the end. ^^ Anyway, I thought it would be nice to have cute pokemon chase people around for a change. Usually its like Beedrill or Spearow or Ursaring or something... Anyway, thanks for the reply!

mr_pikachu: I'm glad you like my description. It has greatly improved over the years, and I hope to get even better. And I hope to keep with the anime as well. Since that's how I got into pokemon, and it's my favorite part about the pokemon franchise, it seems right to have a piece of it in my fanfics. ^^ Kayla's 'gift' will only come in at certain times, and why it only comes at certain times will be explained sometime... ^-^

mistysakura: Yeah, happy-go-lucky Charmander does have a few issues. Like Mr. Quigley warned at the beginning. And Kayla will meet up with Mike and Gary throughout the story. There are also others she hasn't met yet that will also be recurring characters. And sometimes she will be alone with her pokemon. I'm going to try and balance out those times so that it's even.

Okay, this is my first battle for the story. I'll need your best critiques on how it's written. You can be harsh, or not, or whatever. Just tell me in what areas I'm lacking, or if I need more description of the attacks, or whatnot. It's not too complicated, seeing as the lower level pokemon don't have many attacks; but I tried to make it enjoyable. :D Also, I know in the anime that Samurai flashes back to a Charmander using Ember against a Metapod; but Kayla's Charmander doesn't know Ember yet, and I thought Metapod battling would be too Ash-like. So I took some dramatic license there. ^^; You'll see. Anyway, here we go...



The Glass Half Full

Ch.7 Charmander’s First Battle

Gary practically leaped forward, “I am!”

Mike suddenly stepped forward, his eyebrows frowning, “What?! I think I’m the best suited to accept, you’ve already got plenty of ‘prestige’ from capturing all those pokemon! I wanna do something!”

Gary chuckled, “Heh, I don’t think so! I’m not passing up this opportunity to battle! It will be my first real challenge!”

Samurai walked past them as they argued, and stopped shortly in front of Kayla, who was silently watching Gary and Mike’s argument. He wasn’t impressed in the least at their display of emotions. “I will challenge you first. Although they may claim to be the strongest, I believe that people who talk very little, are sometimes the wisest, most powerful opponents…”

“Uh… okay… I guess,” said Kayla, her voice tiny and slightly fearful. The armor that the boy wore was very intimidating, and Kayla had no idea what she might be up against…

“HUH?!” yelled Mike and Gary in unison.

“Yes,” replied Samurai, pulling out a small lantern from a large gray pack he was carrying with him. After turning it on and up to its full strength, he walked a few feet away and placed the lantern on the ground.

Kayla sighed with a small bit of relief; she wouldn’t have been too keen about having to battle in the darkness…

“We will use one pokemon each. Choose your pokemon now. I shall use my newest capture… Caterpie!” he called, tossing his pokeball to the ground after stepping back a few paces. A bright flash of white light lit up the surrounding area, and then in its wake a small, green caterpillar stood, sporting a relatively tough look for something so cute. It’s eyes had an eager, determined look to them, and it swayed the pink antenna on its head back and forth, readying itself for some battling.

Kayla suddenly realized that she was now in her first pokemon battle. She had seen countless battles on television, in real life, and even dreamed them up before; but this would be her first time of actually doing it… She needed some sort of strategy, and she needed it fast. She searched her mind for anything about Caterpie that would help her; but the only thing she could think of were the wild Caterpie that lived around her grandmother’s farm… and the trouble they always gave the cattle…

“Well…?” called Samurai, looking annoyed by Kayla’s hesitation.

She nervously looked down at her pack, where Cubone’s pokeball resided, but then she saw Charmander standing by her side. Fire always has the advantage over bug type pokemon, and besides, Charmander hadn’t battled before; this would be good experience for him.

“I choose, um, Charmander,” she said, trying to feel confident, and failing. Charmander’s head perked up.

<What?! I get to battle?! Well then, I’ll be sure and do my best!> he said happily, jumping out into the space in front of Kayla. It gave a friendly wave to the squishy bug across the way, <First battle too?> he called happily. It would be nice to know that he was not the only beginner.

The Caterpie narrowed its eyes, <Don’t talk to me. I must concentrate on the battle ahead…>

Charmander blinked. <Well… just bein’ friendly…> it said, feeling slightly put out. He then wondered to himself; was it against the rules to talk during a battle?

Samurai was looking a bit worried, knowing what a Charmander can do to a Caterpie with just one blast of an Ember attack; but after a few moments of thought, his frown quickly dissolved into a smile.

“Heh, your Charmander is at what level?” he asked.

“What? Oh… um, level 5…” replied Kayla, blushing a bit, and hoping she wouldn’t get laughed at.

Gary snickered, Mike stifled laughter. Even his Bulbasaur had leveled up a bit since he had walked in the forest.

“Novice! This will be easy! Your Charmander is a fire type pokemon, but without a fire attack, you’ll be hard-pressed to defeat me!” laughed Samurai, his confidence overflowing, “Caterpie! String shot!”

<Right my Master,> piped Caterpie, sounding very obedient. Caterpie threw back its tiny green head, and tensed up its body; then threw itself forward and released a steady stream of white string from its stubbly mouth. The sticky web attached itself all over Charmander’s stomach, arms, and legs. He looked as if he had been attacked by silly string wielding teenagers… Kayla’s eyes widened with recognition.

<Ewww…! This is so gross!> yelled Charmander, bending down to grab the stuff off.

Kayla called urgently to Charmander, “No! Wait don’t pick it off! If you do, your hands will get all sticky too, and then you’ll be so busy trying to get it off that you won’t see its next attack!”

Charmander did as he was told and resisted touching the sticky web. Though it was quite annoying.

Gary blinked, “What? You mean you can tell your pokemon to do that kind of stuff? I always just figured an attack like that could never be stopped…” He was a bit impressed; though he didn’t show it. Mike brought out a pad and pencil from the dark blue backpack on his back.

“What are you doing?” asked Gary, giving Mike a look of utmost disbelief.

“Huh? Oh, I’m taking notes,” he replied, scribbling down words about String Shot.

Gary rolled his eyes. “Whatever… That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. What trainer takes notes? I just keep everything in my head.”

It was now Mike’s turn to roll his eyes. “Well let me just bow to your genius!” he said sarcastically, continuing to write his notes.

“Um… could you do a Scratch attack…?” asked Kayla, feeling a bit less confident than when she had said her warning to Charmander a few seconds earlier.

Charmander nodded and curled his claws as he had before with the Butterfree leader. He darted up to Caterpie, hoping that he would get there before Caterpie could use another attack.

Samurai called to his pokemon, “Caterpie! That String Shot should have slowed it down, attack with a Tackle!”

Caterpie nodded in agreement, but Charmander was too quick for it. Soon enough his nails had sunk into the Caterpie’s soft skin, and Caterpie let out a cry.

“What?! How did String Shot not effect its speed?!” Samurai said in surprise.

Kayla looked up at Samurai, “I used to live on a farm. The wild Caterpie around my grandmother’s Miltank and Tauros used to spray String Shot as a defense mechanism. So I was always seeing them get hit with it. They would want to try to attack the Caterpie back, but since the sticky web on them was so annoying, they became obsessed with trying to get it off; the Caterpie would then have time to run away, and then my grandmother and I would have to wash it off of the livestock. So when Charmander got hit with the string, I figured that if he didn’t bother with it, it wouldn’t effect his speed as much.”

“I see…” said Samurai, smiling at Kayla, “Very wise. As I had predicted.”

Kayla blushed a bit. She had hoped her first battle would be a good one, and not full of blunders and failure. She ordered another Scratch, as Samurai ordered a Tackle.

Charmander charged at the small green pokemon, but the little worm seemed determined to at least get one good attack in.

It came racing up to Charmander. <Out of my way! My Master wishes to win this battle, and I’m not about to let him down! I underestimated you before, and it won’t happen again!> the little bug whispered dangerously.

Charmander hesitated for a moment, the Caterpie’s determination had caught him off guard, and he soon paid for it in a painful way… The ball-shaped head of the small pokemon rammed into Charmander’s mid-section. Charmander staggered backwards, clutching his stomach.

<Oh… those Raviolis… if I’d have known I was gonna battle… I wouldn’t have eaten so much…> he wailed, wobbling as he tried to regain his lost footing.

Kayla frowned. If she was going to win this battle, she would have to act fast… The tiny Caterpie couldn’t be much higher than Charmander, so maybe one more Scratch… but winning didn’t mean anything to her if Charmander was feeling so bad…

“Charmander? Are you okay?” she asked him, feeling a bit concerned about how nauseous he was looking.

Charmander nodded his head slowly and took a deep breath. He didn’t want to fumble his first battle either…

Kayla searched her mind quickly of what she could possibly do to stop Caterpie’s advances… Charmander really didn’t look like he could take much more, and she just knew that Samurai would order another Tackle… She thought of Charmander’s other attack; Growl. If she used Growl, then maybe Caterpie’s attack power would be weakened enough to not take Charmander out.

“Charmander?” Kayla asked softly, “Do you think you’re up for a Growl attack…?”

Charmander nodded again, attempting to quell his sloshing stomach.

Samurai had heard Kayla’s conversation and began to chuckle loudly, “You novices never surprise me! My Caterpie has your Charmander on the run; no mere defensive attack would help you! Caterpie! A final Tackle attack!”

Kayla looked a bit worried; but she had already made up her mind.

“Charmander, if you would please, a Growl attack!” she called, hoping she had done so in time.

Charmander nodded; still holding his stomach with one hand, and took in a deep breath.

Caterpie was the one to pause now; the little pokemon was easily intimidated by evil growls, and was unsure of what Charmander’s would sound like.

“Rraaaahhhhrrrr!!” growled Charmander, using all his strength. But his growl did not sound menacing, nor was it very deep. Charmander’s tiny voice had created a squeaky, high-pitched squeal that more resembled a baby pig’s growl rather than a vicious lizard’s.

But it had done its job. Caterpie’s attack force had been lowered; in fact, it had been lowered so much that it had stopped attacking completely. Instead it had started laughing!

Mike and Gary were also laughing, tears of joy forming at the corners of their eyes.

Samurai just stood there emotionless. His pokemon had stopped in mid-attack, and this was not what he wanted.

<What?!> squeaked Charmander, feeling himself blush, <I growled didn’t I?!>

“Charmander,” called Kayla, for she was not laughing either; she didn’t want to make Charmander feel embarrassed more than he already was, “Can you please use a Scratch attack?”

Charmander shook off his embarrassment, nodded, and gave another swipe at Caterpie. Caterpie didn’t even see the lizard coming, for it was still laughing so hard about the ‘growl’ that it’s eyes were closed all the way. It opened them just as Charmander’s tiny nails began to graze its skin. It tried to wriggle away, but Charmander had it. And with a final cry of both pain and laughter, the small worm was down for the count.

<We did it! We did it!> cried Charmander, forgetting his embarrassment for a few moments. He jumped up and down happily.

“Wow…” said Kayla, feeling the tension that had been building release her from its hold, “That was a little intense wasn’t it…?” She smiled down at Charmander. She would have to remember to give him a special treat of some kind for being so brave…

Samurai returned his injured Caterpie. “Very well. I see I still have a lot to learn. You used a defensive attack when I could have easily used one as well. But I didn’t. I had no idea that defensive attacks could be used in that manner. Perhaps when I battle again, I shall use more defense, and less offense; and my defense at the appropriate time. You may go now, and please, take this as a prize for defeating me.”

He handed her a small bottle. It was a light blue color with a small window that showcased the liquid contents of the inside. The round nozzle on the front looked like it could spray like a squirt bottle.

Samurai nodded as Kayla looked the object over. “This is a Potion. It will heal any pokemon’s lost energy,” he paused, “I hope to battle you someday once again,” he said, then extended his hand.

Kayla timidly, but happily, shook his hand, and then watched Samurai turn to Mike and Gary.

“Who is to be next?” he asked, making it seem as if he had been the victor and was now free to be challenged.

Gary and Mike began to fight over who was to go next, and Samurai told them to draw straws.

Kayla looked down at Charmander again, who appeared to be exhausted from running and battling, and decided to go find somewhere to sleep. Charmander was sitting on the ground holding his stomach, his eyelids beginning to slowly creep down…

“Come on Charmander, let’s go to bed,” she said, patting him on the head.

As much as she wanted to see Gary and Mike’s battle skills, she knew that getting some sleep and giving Charmander some peace and quiet was the top priority. They started to walk away from the battle scene; Gary and Mike’s arguing still audible…

[mistysakura]

Nice. I liked how Kayla's personality shows through her battling. In most fics, however nice or whatever the battler is, it doesn't show through the battle; they all just go, "Charmander, use scratch!" or whatever. No one ever says "Charmander, would you please use a Scratch attack?" Cool stuff. The farm reference was a nice touch too.

But the most amazing thing about the battle is definitely that it's solely comprised of low-level attacks. And you actually pulled it off! Most fics have to rely on impressive attacks to make a battle interesting. Amazing how Scratch and String Shot can actually make a good battle...

Good job!

[mr_pikachu]

I've gotta agree with mistysakura; that was pretty darn impressive. I've never really seen a good low-level battle like that, so reading this was rather refreshing. I'm still laughing at the "Please use a scratch attack," and the infamous baby pig growl. Heh, I've got a feeling I'd be struggling to contain myself, too, if I were there. Good stuff!

And mistysakura, the Samurai was from the forest between Viridian and Pewter. It was shown in the episode where Ash's Metapod evolved into Butterfree. You may recall the ridiculous "Metapod vs. Metapod" battle... boy, they made Metapod a lot stronger for Bugsy in Johto! :P

Well, again, good job. It was a good experience, reading a battle that consisted entirely of Scratches, Tackles, a String Shot and a Growl. Good stuff! Keep it up, I'm loving this! :wave:

[DannyBoy]

That was a good chapter! The battle was great and shows how long a low level battle cna go...and it went a while which is great. I felt bad for Charmander, that Caterpie was mean when Char only tried to talk to it. Good chap, keep it up!

[Light_Togetic]

I would reply to each of you, but this chapter's a long one, and I don't want to make your eyes too strained! ;)

Thanks for all the compliments on the battle. I took a good long time to come up with little things like the growl and the string shot reference to make it unique. That way it wouldn't be just people yelling commands and pokemon performing them flawlessly, which would be pretty boring with such low-level attacks! ^^

Well, hope ya' like this chapter!




The Glass Half Full

Ch.8 Zephyr and Marilu

“Well guys… do you think maybe I should catch a pokemon?” asked Kayla, surveying the land around them. It was early morning, and the trio was still in the dense Viridian Forest. Tress surrounded them, and the few light rays that were making it down to the forest floor were dim and gave the appearance of a cloudy day.

Kayla remembered Gary capturing his fifth pokemon… She hadn’t caught any yet. There was Cubone, but he wasn’t caught, he willingly joined her. She shook her head slowly as she thought about it. She didn’t really want to force any pokemon to join up with her if it didn’t want to…

<I think you should catch at least one!> squeaked Charmander, his energy had obviously improved since the night before.

<I agree. Pokemon training is not just about battling, but about catching as well…> spoke Cubone, nodding his head as he did so.

Kayla nodded reluctantly, “So you guys think I should? I can’t really understand you….”

Cubone and Charmander both nodded.

As they finished nodding, a flapping sound was heard. Kayla and the others turned to where the sound was coming from, just in time to see a small and feisty Pidgey crash through a few tree branches, land onto Charmander’s head…

<Ahhh!!! Get her off! Get her off!!> panicked Charmander.

<Stop jumping around you fool…> warned Cubone, as he put down his bony weapon on top of a clump of grass.

<Easy for you to say!> yelled Charmander, the Pidgey still flapping wildly on his head.

Cubone gingerly placed his thick, brown arms around the Pidgey’s body, careful to mind her wings, and removed her from the top of Charmander’s head. Kayla kneeled down to see the three pokemon.

“Are you okay Charmander?” she asked the tiny lizard, who had collapsed onto the ground and was now panting from the excitement.

Charmander nodded, then looked over to the Pidgey that Cubone had removed. She had calmed down a lot, and was now sitting peacefully, looking up at Cubone with giant blue eyes.

Kayla had always been amazed at how smoothly on Pidgey the light brown feathers blended into the dark brown feathers. Most trainers considered them ‘beginning’ pokemon, but Kayla thought that they were beautiful, potentially powerful pokemon.

Obviously this one was a young Pidgey that had just begun to learn how to fly, and had experienced an unexpected fall.

“Hi there,” said Kayla, addressing the Pidgey.

<Hi!> she responded, turning her head to look at Kayla; but as soon as she had answered, her head turned back to Cubone.

<Thank you so much for saving me from that big, scary Charmander!> she chirped loudly to the brown pokemon.

<Your welcome…> said Cubone, picking up his bone. He turned away from the Pidgey, becoming uninterested.

The Pidgey hopped over to face Cubone again. <You know, I’m all alone out here, and it’s been a long time since I’ve had a friend… Hey I know! Guess what I’m thinking?!>

Cubone blinked, he didn’t like interacting with new people, and he didn’t like interacting with children….

<What…?> he said gruffly, hoping that once the Pidgey told him, she would go away…

<Maybe your trainer could catch me, and that way I wouldn’t be alone anymore! I could be with… you… I mean. You’re so strong, and maybe you could protect me and stuff…> she finished, her cheeks turning red slightly.

<Ewww…> said Charmander, looking disgusted.

<I… you’re too young for me little one…> said Cubone, caught off guard a bit. The concept of love was something he had always tried to stay far away from…

The Pidgey ignored his response, and hopped up to Kayla. She threw a determined look at the human, and flapped her wings to show she wanted to battle. Kayla blinked.

"Well… I guess this is the pokemon I’m going to try and catch… um…" she thought quickly of whom to use… Cubone was at such a high level; he would probably knock out the thing after one attack…

“Charmander, would you like to battle the Pidgey?” she asked the lizard, smiling a bit.

Charmander jumped, <Sure! Um… as long as she doesn’t fly on my head again. That kinda freaked me out….>

Cubone sat down nearby and looked at the soft ground below him… <Love…?> he mumbled, thinking deeply, his old memories playing back to him like a movie……


A bright-faced Pidgey sat beside him nervously and peered at him out of the corner of her eye nervously.

<Yes…?> he asked, turning to look at her.

<Oh! Um… well… I… I was just kinda wondering if maybe I could ask you a… a… question?> she responded, her voice going quickly and shakily.

<What?> he said plainly. He had little desire to be bothered with answering trivial questions.

<Why… why did you save me from the Kadabra…?> she asked, her shaky voice now mixing with curiosity.

His eyes widened. Why did she care to know? And what business of hers was it anyway? She should just be grateful and leave him alone… <Because my Master would have been… how you say… ‘ saddened’ if you had died…> he lied.

He trailed off into silence, beginning to think to himself again. The truth was, he didn’t really know why he had saved her. Before, he would have let any pokemon die… and wouldn’t have cared either. Why was it that this Pidgey would be any different?

She smiled at him. <Well… thank you. I'll tell you the truth… When I first met you, I thought you were… evil. But now; now I see that there’s a side to you I didn’t see before… Again… uh… thank you, Cubone…>

She gave one last look, then flapped her beautifully graceful wings, and took off to go over to her master that sat a few feet away, eating lunch with Cubone’s master. Cubone watched as she left. <Another side…?>


“Okay Charmander, could you please use a Scratch attack?” Kayla’s voice rang out, “Oh, and could you try and be extra careful? She’s probably not at as high a level as you.”

Cubone looked up to see Charmander nod. Why was it that he was spending time focusing on the past when he should be thinking of the future…?

Charmander curled his tiny claws and leaped over to the Pidgey.

<I don’t wanna hurt you too much, so I’ll hold back a bit!> he called as he prepared to swipe at the Pidgey.

Pidgey just stood there, letting the attack come at her. Charmander stopped abruptly before he could swipe her. Why didn’t she move?

<Hey! What’s up? Are you okay?> he asked, stopping his attack and feeling confused.

<Yes. Now hurry! I want you to give it all you’ve got!> the Pidgey said to him, glancing quickly at Cubone.

Charmander shrugged, <Okay… weird…> and leaped at the defenseless bird. He still didn’t want to give it his all; he was afraid to knock her out. As his nails grazed the top feathers of the Pidgey, she flew up with a velocity that was unexpected of a young Pidgey.

She landed back on top of the fiery lizard’s head, and perched herself there calmly as if waiting for someone to bring her some food. Charmander didn’t like this, and began flailing his arms in a panicked attempt to get her down. She flew off a second later.

<That’s for holding back!> she said, winking at him with a smile. Charmander ignored his previous orders of going easy on her, and curled his claws to swipe. He ran up to her with all his speed, and this time took a harder swipe at her. But she jumped back at the last second, and all Charmander’s claws scratched were a few feathers…

He’s never going to weaken me with that kind of speed… the Pidgey thought to herself, I’ll have to help him along a bit….

Charmander shook his head. <Oh… I missed!> he cried, hitting himself on the head. But then he heard a cry…

<Ahhh!!!> the Pidgey cried loudly. She twirled around after with her wings spread out, and cried in agony.

Charmander blinked. <I barely hit you…> he said softly, wondering if he had gotten stronger than he thought.

The Pidgey threw herself to the ground, crying out as she did so and covering her head with her right wing. <Oh the agony!> she yelled out, <I… can’t go on…!> And with that, she heaved one last deep breath, and then went unconscious.

“Oh my…” gasped Kayla. She didn’t know that capturing pokemon would be so horribly dramatic…. She reached into her pack for a pokeball to catch the Pidgey with, but suddenly to her horror she realized that she had no pokeball!

“Ah! I don’t have anything to catch her in!” she said, her face growing worried.

The Pidgey opened an eye halfway. <What’s taking so long?! Catch me already!> she whispered, awaiting the feeling of going into a pokeball for the first time.

“Here, take one of mine!” a voice said from behind Kayla. She turned around to see a familiar face. Mike stood behind her, apparently watching the whole battle take place. Kayla blushed. Great, now she looked both inexperienced and unprepared…

“T… Thank you…” she said nervously, taking the pokeball that Mike had extended out to her.

She tossed the shiny red and white ball toward the Pidgey; then magically it corrected its course so that it would come in contact with the bird pokemon. The ball didn’t shake once, and immediately the small white dot stopped glowing a red color. The Pidgey had been caught. Kayla walked over to pick up her new pokemon.

She raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know I could… throw that good,” she said, looking surprised.

Mike laughed a bit, “Heh, it wasn’t you. Pokeballs automatically know where to go. Cool, huh? I guess technology has come a long way. Well, congrats on catching the Pidgey. I just got through catching a Pikachu over there myself,” he finished, dusting off his shirt trying to look impressive.

Kayla congratulated him for catching his Pikachu, and asked him how his battle with Samurai went.

“Oh that. Well, I won him. But it wasn’t easy. Lucky you got his Caterpie, because I got stuck with his Pinsir. Man was that hard! Bulbasaur almost didn’t make it. But after he woke up, things got a lot better… Gary went up against him last and had to deal with the same Caterpie you did. The guy used a revive on it so that it could battle, and the little bug ended up evolving halfway through the battle with Gary’s Squirtle. Too bad you didn’t see it. Anyway, Gary didn’t seem to care that it was a Metapod, and almost underestimated it… It’s too bad he didn’t! Then I would have looked better…."

Kayla nodded, not really listening. She was thinking of Gary’s horrible Squirtle. She shook her head, hoping to never have to deal with a pokemon like that again.

“Well, I’d better get going. I promised Bulbasaur that I’d give him some training today for sure. Besides, I wanted to find Gary and show him my Pikachu. He hasn’t caught one yet!” he said with a childish ring to his voice.

He waved to Kayla, and she watched as he walked off onto a small dirt path back into the eastern part of the woods.

<Hello…? Earth to Pops, Earth to Pops!> said Charmander, waving a claw in front of Cubone.

<I am fine. Please remove your hand from my face,> replied Cubone, giving Charmander a threatening look. Charmander stopped.

Cubone walked up to Kayla, and gave her a look that said he wanted to retire to his pokeball for a while.

“What is it Mr. Cubo-- oh! You want back in your ball?” she asked, getting the picture.

Cubone nodded, and soon enough was engulfed by the bright red light and sent back into his ball. Kayla looked at Pidgey’s ball.

“We’ll have to get her to a Pokemon Center before I let her back out. I don’t want to make her any more tired than she already is… I think…” she said to Charmander. She smiled as she put away the two pokeballs. “Well, looks like it’s just us two again,” she said, looking down at her starter pokemon.

<Yep,> said Charmander, looking back up at her, <Shall we?> He pointed his arm to the path they had been following.

“Let’s go,” said Kayla happily. She sighed. Things were really going quite well. And here she thought that her journey would be failure after failure. The sun was shinning brightly through the trees now, and Kayla was feeling truly happy for the first time since leaving home….


--------------------------------------------

“Let’s steal their pokemon!” whispered a girl’s voice. It sounded almost like a snooty, excited hiss.

“What?! But Marilu… that’s not our job,” said a boy’s voice. He sounded astonished that she would even suggest such a thing.

The two teenagers stared each other down for a moment in silence, then Marilu shook her head.

“So what if it’s not our job!” she yelled, standing up, “I’m tired of doing this grunt-work and kiddy stuff! I want to show them all that we are ready to be an essential part of Team Rocket! Just because we’re not sixteen, or whatever, doesn’t mean we can’t handle it!”

She was dressed in a black skirt that went down to her knees. She wore small ankle-high black boots on her feet, and short black gloves on her hands to match. The long-sleeved black shirt she wore came to an arrow shape at the bottom that seemed to point to her legs. The deep auburn “R” on the front of her shirt looked a much browner shade of red than the usual Team Rocket uniforms. But the dark clothing seemed to match her icy blue eyes and sharp, spiky, forest green ponytail centered on the middle of the back of her head. Her eyes glowed with a malicious stare.

“If we screw up though, and they find out… we’ll be in big trouble!” said the boy dangerously, now standing up too.

His clothes were also black, but he wore pants and a short-sleeve shirt. No gloves were on his hands, but he did wear the short black boots. The auburn “R” on his shirt was a match to the “R” on Marilu’s. His eyes were a cold and unforgiving lavender color, and he brushed his fluffy, spiked, dark purple hair back with his hand as he faced Marilu.

“No, I think we could take ‘em! They’re only beginning trainers! What’re they going to attack us with? A Weedle? Come on Zephyr! After all, we got that rare Butterfree!” Marilu said, rolling her eyes in defiance.

“I don’t know…. And the Butterfree was from an unconscious trainer! That doesn’t count…. Especially since we weren’t the cause of her unconscious state…” replied Zephyr. He was not convinced.

“Well, I say we do it. Giovanni will be very pleased when we bring him all three Kanto starter pokemon. He loves it when he gets a complete set all at once!” exclaimed Marilu excitedly; she gave a sideways glance at Zephyr, “And think of how our families will react when they see how the youngest of their offspring can already carry on the family business.” She was not about to let him ruin her chances at success…

Zephyr sighed. She had a point. “Alright…” he said reluctantly, “But how shall we do it?”

“Well, from the looks of things, the two boys will be together shortly… and the girl is all alone. We’ll split up and lure them back to the base. Then, we’ll paralyze them with Jolteon, tie ‘em up with your ‘little brat’, and nab their pokemon! It’ll be a cinch!” she said, licking her lips excitedly.

“Okay… but there’s one problem… Chikorita is not a little brat. Stop calling her that!” he said dangerously, glaring at Marilu. He paused for a moment, and then nodded, “Right. So who will you be manipulating?”

“I’ll take the boys. It’s easy to manipulate them! I’ll just cry all ‘wimpyish’, and they’ll be like putty when I get through with ‘em! And I’m sure you could deal with that wimpy girl. Just make up some sob story or something and get her to follow you,” Marilu said, waving her hand to show how simple it would be.

“Right,” answered Zephyr. He didn’t really care, as long as it would work. He would not fail his family again…


----------------------------------------------

Kayla hummed quietly to herself as she walked along the diminishing dirt road in the forest. The trees were starting to get thinner; so they were probably almost out of the woods. She watched Charmander waddle along beside her and smiled to herself.

Charmander looked up and realized that he could see more of the sky. <Wow… pretty clouds!> he said happily, pointing up to the sky.

Kayla looked up too. “Oh look at the clouds Charmander!” she said as she noticed the large, fluffy cumulus clouds.

The two continued to look up as their pace slowed a bit from their attention shift. Kayla wasn’t watching where she was going, nor did she notice the large rock in the road.

“What a nice da-- aaayyyy!!” she yelled, tripping on the rock in the road. She began to fall down when something caught her arms. She looked up from the two arms that had caught hers and saw a young teenage boy with cold lavender eyes looking at her. He looked around her age, maybe a little older, but she couldn’t really tell for sure without asking.

Charmander walked over to her quickly and eyed the boy in black pants and a dark purple jacket suspiciously.

“Ah!” she mumbled, blushing with embarrassment, “I… I’m sorry… I didn’t….”

“Oh that’s okay,” said the boy, pulling her up, “I would’ve done the same thing. I’m always so clumsy….” He was still holding her arms.

“Uh… oh…” she said, still unsure of what to say, and feeling nervous that he was still holding her…

“But I’m glad I ran into you. You see, I’ve lost my pokemon Chikorita around here… She got spooked by some Spearow and ran off somewhere. I’d try looking myself, but I just can’t beat two pairs of eyes. Please help me; she’s all I’ve got…” his eyes warmed a bit, “If anything ever happened to her, I don’t know what I’d do….”

Kayla felt so sorry for him. She would probably be just the same if her Charmander or Mr. Cubone, or even her newly caught Pidgey, were missing. She nodded.

“Sure, I’ll help you. Um… my name’s K… Kayla,” she said timidly. She gave a weak smile to the boy.

“My name’s Bryant,” he said, smiling back, “And thanks for helping me. I just know we’ll find her.”

Bryant led them in the direction of where he claimed Chikorita had run off in. The three of them stepped into a more secluded area of the forest. Bryant looked around, listening softly.

“Okay, I think she’d probably be somewhere over here…” he said, peering around.

“Charmander, you’ll help too?” Kayla asked the orange pokemon, who had said little since Bryant had come.

<Sure. Chikorita are supposed to be very friendly,> he replied, trying to shake off a sudden feeling of unease.

“W... wait! I don’t think that’s such a good idea. My Chikorita doesn’t take to kindly to fire pokemon. She’s had an… um… bad experience…” he said, waving his hand not wanting to explain it.

“Well… uh… okay…” said Kayla, though she didn’t really want to be alone with someone she barely knew…

<I don’t like this Kayla! At least bring out ol’ Pops!> said Charmander, but his request fell on deaf ears.

Kayla was too worried about being alone to think of Mr. Cubone. And she wouldn’t have wanted to bother him when he so clearly wanted time alone. She brought out Charmander’s pokeball.

“Sorry Charmander… um, return!” she said, holding out the red and white ball. Charmander shook his head with a worried look, but soon enough the red light had engulfed him and he was gone.

Bryant watched as Kayla returned Charmander with an odd expression on his face. It was a mix of confusion and curiosity. Kayla stared back for a moment.

“Y… yes?” she said shakily.

“N… nothing…” replied Bryant. He looked away, and then his head jerked up.

“Hey! I think I heard her!” he said, holding his hand up to his ear.

“Really?” asked Kayla, hoping that they would find the little pokemon soon.

“Quick! This way!” said Bryant urgently. He began to run towards an even more remote and wild part of the forest, Kayla at his heels….


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“What do you want Mikey?” said Gary, wondering why on Earth losers always managed to find him.

“I came ta’ show you my Pika--,” he began, but was cut off by some sort of wailing noise.

They both turned around to see a girl in a skirt running up to them.

“Help me! Oh someone help me!!” she wailed, tears streaming down her face. Her black knee-high skirt shook with her shaking legs, and she shook the green ponytail on her head as she yelled.

“Woah… hold on girl! What’s wrong?!” said Mike, looking concerned.

Gary scoffed, “Huh… she’s probably overreacting.”

“Gary!” yelled Mike, shooting an angry glance at him. He patted the girl on the shoulder. “It’s okay, now, tell us what’s wrong.”

“M… my Jolteon. She was over there, and then we saw it. An Articuno! It flew over us and then doubled back and landed right in front of us! I battled it with my Jolteon, but it was too strong. I was so close to beating it, but it got angry and flew off a short distance. I know it hasn’t flown away because I saw it fall somewhere over there; which means it must be hurt somewhere. I need help finding it!”

Gary quaked with laughter, “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard! Ah ha ha! An Articuno! Oh yeah! Right!” He continued to laugh.

“Oh Gary! Really, could ya’ be any more insensitive?!” yelled Mike, giving Gary another glare, “I believe her!”

Gary looked up, his laughter stopping, “Oh yeah? Well if you believe her then you’re a fool! And besides, what’s in it for me? I spend all of my time helping some girl catch a legendary pokemon, that may or may not exist, and I get what?”

The girl looked like she was thinking quickly. Apparently, she wasn’t planning on there being a question to her problem.

“Look, I don’t want the stupid pokemon; you could catch it for all I care! I just want to make sure that it’s not tramping around all hurt! Are you going to help me or what?!” she said, her voice becoming a bit more impatient.

Gary raised an eyebrow in suspicion; but he just couldn’t pass up this chance to catch such a rare pokemon if she really was telling the truth…

“I’ll do it!” he said.

“I’ll come too. Gary might not be able to catch it after all!” said Mike, grabbing the girl’s hand; “Let’s go!”

The girl gave an evil smirk that went unnoticed by the two boys. “Thanks you guys…”


----------------------------------------------

As Kayla and Bryant walked into what appeared to be a small campsite; Gary, Mike and the girl also came from the other side.

Kayla perked up when she saw Mike and Gary. “It’s Mike and Gary!” said Kayla. The two groups met by the remnants of a small fire, and Bryant and the girl turned to stand side-by-side. The three trainers all stood in a line, facing the two.

“Hey! What’s goin’ on here?!” yelled Gary, feeling uneasy. These two acted as if they knew each other.

“Sorry to burst your bubble boys, but there’s no Articuno!” the girl said, a dark grin on her face.

“Bryant…?” said Kayla, feeling a little scared.

Bryant was about to answer, when the girl cut him off, “Heh, Bryant?!” she gave a side glance to the boy, “That’s not his name! His name’s Zephyr, and mine’s Marilu little girl; and we’re members of Team Rocket!”

“What?!” yelled the three trainers, shocked from the revelation.

“Jolteon go!” yelled Marilu, her voice commanding and angry sounding.

Kayla watched as a flash of black light appeared from the pokeball. The black light formed the shape of a spiny mammal as it disappeared, a yellow and white spiny dog-like creature standing in its wake. Its eyes were small and lifeless, and it growled at the three trainers as it stepped forward.

Kayla gasped as she suddenly remembered Cubone's first appearance out of a pokeball…

Mike’s shaking hand managed to pull out his PokeDex.

Beep! Jolteon, the Lightning pokemon. Jolteon are known to be fearless. However, if something does scare or anger them, they will release the spikes on their bodies in a round of electrified projectiles known as a Pin Missile attack. Jolteon is the evolved form of Eevee. This can be accomplished from using a Thunder Stone. This Jolteon is at level 38. Its attacks are: Thunder, Pin Missile, Thunder Wave, and Double Kick. This Jolteon is unreadable by this PokeDex in the area of stats.

Zephyr tossed down a pokeball too, and it opened with the usual white light. As the white light faded away, a small green pokemon was left in its place. She shook the green leaf on her head, and gave a happy look up to her trainer. Her bright red eyes looked soft and pleasant.

Mike moved his PokeDex to point to the green pokemon.

Beep! There is no data on this pokemon. It is from the Johto region.

“T… that’s a Chikorita?” asked Kayla, looking at Zephyr.

He nodded, and Marilu stepped forward. “Very good! Now, time to give us all your pokemon!” she yelled at them, smiling still.

“No way!” yelled Gary and Mike at the same time.

Kayla started to feel tears form. Why was this happening when everything had been going so well…?

“Oh… you don’t want to? Well, I’m sure Jolteon here can change your minds! Jolteon! Thunder Wave!” Marilu called, pointing to the trio.

“What?! You’re insane! You can’t use an attack on a human! It’s against the rules!” yelled Gary angrily. He reached for one of his pokeballs…

But Jolteon was too fast for him. It growled deeply and tiny sparks of electricity sprung up all over its body. Soon Jolteon was a glowing ball of sparks, and when it let out a loud cry, the many sparks shot out towards the three trainers.

Mike tried to run away, but five or so sparks caught him in the back, and he fell with a thud on the hard ground. Gary was about to throw his ball, but when the sparks caught him, he doubled over onto the forest floor; and dropped the ball onto the ground. It didn’t open. Kayla gasped in horror, but she knew there was nothing she could do… She was frozen with fear as a good deal of the sparks hit her in the mid-section. She screamed and fell to the ground.

Kayla had never felt an electric attack before, and now she knew what people meant when they said it felt like your skin was moving. She tried to move her legs, but they wouldn’t move. She couldn’t get up…

The three looked on through blurred vision as Zephyr stepped up. He pointed to the trio also, and spoke softly to his pokemon, “Chikorita, use your Vine Whip to tie them up…!”

Chikorita looked absolutely stunned that her trainer had been part of such a terrible thing. She looked up at him with wide eyes, <Bryant? I don’t want to hurt people…>

Kayla and the others twitched on the ground, helpless.

Marilu rolled her eyes. “Oh my gosh… just whip the insolent little bi--!”

“Shut up!” cried Zephyr. He looked back to Chikorita. “I’m sorry Chikorita, but I was going to have to do this sooner or later. You knew that. Now please, tie them up.”

Chikorita nodded reluctantly, and light green vines extended from the round green bumps on her neck. They wrapped up around the three and tightly grouped them together. Then she made her vines wrap around a few more times, and tightened them. Kayla’s arm was pinched a bit.

“Ow…!” she squealed, feeling some tears run down her right cheek.

Chikorita blinked and looked sorry for Kayla. She loosened her vine in that spot a bit.

Kayla looked over to the small, green pokemon. “Thank you…” she breathed, feeling her energy leaving her.

“Jolteon! Another Thunder Wave to knock ‘em out!” commanded Marilu. Jolteon did as it was told with an evil smile to match it’s trainer’s, Chikorita resisted being paralyzed, and once again Kayla felt the skin-crawling effect of the electric sparks. Unfortunately, that was the last thing she felt, for her body couldn’t take any more, and she slipped off into darkness…

Marilu sighed. “Wow, that was so much fun!” she cheered, practically glowing with excitement. She paused and gave another side glance to Zephyr, “So what’s the deal with using your real name as an alias?”

“What?” said Zephyr, giving an uncaring look to Marilu, “Who cares? I’ll never even see her again. Besides, I couldn’t think of anything else.”

Chikorita looked at the three trainers that were tied in its vines.

<I’m sorry… I had hoped that Bryant wouldn’t have wanted to be like the rest of his… family… when the time came. I tried my best… but… I guess I failed….>

[DannyBoy]

That was pretty darn good. I love that Pidgey! Its personality is great and funny! Very dramtoc at things brings good humor. Also the end was dark and good. Poor Kayla...can't wait for more! Keep it up!

[mr_pikachu]

:o Their Pokemon are about to be stolen...? And they're unconscious... do their Pokemon know they're in trouble? If not... it'll all be up to Chikorita...

Anyway, Marilu and Zephyr = evilness! Vile scum! But what's the deal with yet ANOTHER black Pokeball light? And from a Rocket's ball, too? What does... *gasps* No way... I didn't want to believe it at first, but after 4Ever, I guess I should have known... shocking! :D Great job!

Well, I'm looking forward to the next chapter! See you then! :wave:


P.S. Loved the "battle" between Pidgey and Charmander! Where do you get this stuff? It's great! :yes:

[mistysakura]

Chikorita's nice. Reminds me a bit of Damon's Menace. I like it when Pokemon think for themselves. After all, they are living creatures; they're not mindless. And since Pokemon play quite a large part in this fic, it was appropriate. It was also in character for Kayla to ask Charmander to go easy on Pidgey; I know it was partially to prevent it from fainting, but good anyway.

I have no idea what mr_pikachu's getting at, but I'm shocked too...

[Topaz]

I'm back I'm back! *Shakes fist* Damn you university!
But lets see how much I've missed.
I love the way you really build personality with your Pokemon, especially Charmander. You also don't forget the little details of a journey, such as eating, which most do. Cubone is fast becoming my favourite Pokemon, he's just so different to the usual Journey.
Oh the detailed Pokedex entries are really cool!
Whoa! An evil butterfree! That's a new one! Full points for originality! You also have an eye for biological references, also rarely done! *Once again whistles at the Pokemon Tower Library* Really! You'd be a great addition! I agree, her nervous inexpiriance comes out really well in battle, and the obnoxiousness of Gary. Even Mike is a bit nasty, though I reckon it would be funny to see him take notes. And Charmander's greedy little stomach holds him back! Brilliant! The links to the original Anime is fantastic, but doesn't Professor Oak say at one time or another that Gary and Ash are the only ones left? Aww, the Pidgey is so sweet, but you seem to be 'getting' a lot of Pokemon. Hehe "Please use scratch attack." Such a polite girl!
Uh-oh, a rocket Duo that screws up. I hope they're different from Jess or James or you could loose your imaginative streak you have running. But it is nice to have it from their POV. UH! I've been proven wrong, that is an original way of planning and luring!
Voila! I'm caught up!

[Light_Togetic]

Ah, my four faithful readers!

ImmortalDreams: Yes, I tried to make Pidgey a bit goofy and hyper. I also wanted it to show that she was more serious about battling. Thanks for the reply!

mr_pikachu: Heh, I was wondering if anyone would remember the fourth pokemon movie. The ‘Dark Ball’ idea was my favorite about that movie, I wish they would have explored that more in the show... But, the black light from the pokeball is a bit different than that. You’ll see. Oh, and yes, Kayla and the others are in a tight spot, but they’ll be getting some help from a few ‘friends’.

mistysakura: Yeah, Chikorita’s no dummy. She’s been through a lot, and she knows when to draw the line. And Kayla going easy on Pidgey was for both of those reasons, nice of you to notice!

Topaz: Don’t worry about the two Rockets in my fic becoming Jessie and James. The only reason they screw up at all is because they're too young and inexperienced to be handling this sort of ‘job’. Jessie and James have no excuse. They’re just... well, stupid. ^^ And I’ll tell you now, the two of them won’t be popping up every chapter trying to steal Kayla’s pokemon or something. And I was also wondering if someone would remember that part in the anime with Prof. Oak and Ash. Yes, he did say that the other two trainers from Pallet just didn’t have the skills to compete with Ash and Gary. And we shall find out why. That’s why I wanted to write it so that Kayla was one of the four Pallet trainers. I thought it would be nice to write about someone on a pokemon journey that doesn’t dream every night of becoming a Pokemon Master. Both Kayla and Mike are in this for reasons other than simply ‘being a Master’. In the end it won’t matter so much if they make it as trainers, but if they accomplish what they really set out to achieve (or maybe getting something along the way they didn’t expect).

Okay, I typed a LOT. I think I got off on a weird tangent… Oh well!

BTW Topaz, your post was cracking me up! It reminded me of the narrative-style of writing in your fic! ^^

Anyway, now on to the next chapter…

Just a warning, there’s no actual violence in this, but there is mention of it. It’s not graphic or anything; I just thought I should mention it in case anyone has a problem. I doubt you guys will, but it’s just a precautionary thing.



The Glass Half Full

Ch.9 Cubone's Dark Side


“Grama…?”

“Yes dear? Speak up what is it child?”

“Why… why do the other kids laugh at me?”

The old woman’s face wrinkled in a frown. “What have they been saying?”

“I don’t know… that my Mommy and Daddy abandoned me because I they didn’t want me…” the little red-haired girl said, holding back small tears.

“Well that’s just a load of nonsense and poppycock! Your parents didn’t abandon you at all! They loved you very much Kayla! They sacrificed themselves so that you could live. They wanted so much to see you grow up into a beautiful and smart young woman… If only they hadn’t taken that--,” she became aware that Kayla was still listening to her, “Oh! Well, you don’t need to be troubled with that… Kayla, don’t listen to those dumb kids. They just don’t understand what it’s like to not have parents, so they don’t know how to act around you…"



Kayla slowly realized that she was not still a little girl, and that she was indeed in the middle of the Viridian Forest… on her pokemon journey… Her pokemon journey that was not going so well right now…

She didn’t want to open her eyes… she didn’t want to face her problems… maybe if she just sat there staring at the blackness of the back of her eyelids, everything would just go away…?

Something kicked her leg hard.

“Ow!” she squeaked, opening her eyes abruptly. It was nighttime, but the sky still appeared rather blue, so the night must’ve only just begun. Her body ached all over, and it felt as if she had run a marathon, though she had just been sitting in the same spot for who knew how long… She turned her aching neck slowly to where the kick had come from and saw a slightly charred Gary.

“Hey… you awake?” he said, looking just as tired and aching as Kayla felt.

“Yeah… I was just… thinking…” she answered, not wanting to admit the intense feeling of hopelessness that resided within her. It was then she realized that Mike had not woken up yet, and that the three of them were still bound together. Not by the Chikorita though, but by some thick rope. Kayla looked over to a small smoldering campfire.

“Are they… still here?” she asked, knowing that they probably had gone with all of their pokemon by now.

“Yes,” said Gary, looking at the tiny fire, “They’re either the most confident crooks I’ve ever seen, or they’re the dumbest… But at least this means that we can try and formulate a plan to get out of here!”

“Hmm…” said Kayla, not sure about how they could get out of this…

“If Mike there would wake up already! We might be able to get going!” said Gary, whipping his head in the direction of Mike.

Kayla suddenly thought of her pokemon that were soon to belong to Team Rocket… what would happen to them?

“Hey Gary…?” she asked, knowing that there was nothing else to talk about.

“Yeah?” he replied, looking curious.

“What happens to pokemon that are captured by Team Rocket?” she wondered, hoping that he would know something about it.

“I’m not really sure…” said Gary, enjoying that someone thought him smart enough to ask him a pokemon question, “All I’ve ever heard about it is what my Grandfather has told me. And he just goes on about how Team Rocket abuses their pokemon.”

Kayla became quiet, remembering the way that the Jolteon they had seen had looked at them… It seemed so happy to get a chance to shock them with an attack… What could possibly make a creature think that way?

“Oh come on Mike! What’dya need? An engraved invitation! Geez, this guy sleeps more than his Bulbasaur!” said Gary angrily, while kicking Mike in the leg as he had done to Kayla.

Kayla was trying to hold back tears again, when suddenly she heard a soft flapping noise… a familiar soft flapping noise…

She looked up in the direction she had heard it. “Um… Gary?” she said quietly.

Gary stopped his onslaught of kicks for a moment. “What?” he said, hoping that maybe it was some idea of how to get the idiot next to him to wake up.

“I think I hear… the Butterfree!” she said, moving her head in the direction she had heard them.

Gary sighed, “Oh great… now they can come and blow us up! This is a fine way to begin a journey!”

A loud grunt of pain was heard from Mike’s side of the tied-up trainers.

“Finally!” yelled Gary, turning his angry face to look at Mike.

“Oh… sorry I took so long waking up… Ow… I am so sore… especially my leg… weird…” whined Mike, his head hanging in pain.

Gary started to scold Mike on his oversleeping, while Kayla continued to watch for the Butterfree. If maybe somehow they could talk to them, convince them to help them escape; then maybe they could really pull it off…

A few more seconds of darkness in the direction Kayla was looking, and then a small group of Butterfree could be seen flapping towards them slowly. The three looked tired, and were probably looking for somewhere to rest. Kayla tried to think of a way to get the trio of pokemon’s attention, but there was no way she could just get up and wave her arms; and she wasn’t about to go yelling for them… She looked down at the smoldering fire that Zephyr and Marilu had left.

“Hey!” she said to Gary and Mike, “Maybe we can re-start the fire!”

Gary and Mike both looked stunned. “What for?” said Mike.

Kayla explained her idea about the Butterfree.

"Why would they help us after all that mess we were in?” said Mike, still unconvinced.

Gary looked skeptical too, “Yeah, unfortunately, I’m gonna have to go with Mikey on this one…”

They went back to arguing and brainstorming other ideas about how to get out, and Kayla felt shot down again…

She could think of nothing they could do to get out on their own… And worse of all, Kayla had let her pokemon down… what kind of trainer was she? The fear of failure and the fear of what would happen to her sweet pokemon welled up inside her… Tears were now beginning to give Kayla problems again; but when she slowly began to look up, her eyes met with three large Butterfree!

“Ah!” she squeaked, surprised and a bit confused as to why they had suddenly appeared next to them.

<Why are you all tied up? We heard a ruckus from this part of the forest a while ago, and thought that we should check up on it… Never thought that you three imbeciles would be at the center of it, again…> said the leader Butterfree, his eyes narrowing a bit.

Kayla blinked. “Uh… well, you see, Team Rocket tricked us, and they stole our pokemon and--.”

<What?! Team Rocket?! In our part of the forest?! Never!> yelled the leader, the other two Butterfree with him nodding in appalled agreement.

Gary and Mike were silently watching Kayla; unsure of what to make of it.

Kayla pleaded with the Butterfree, “Please, please help us! If you could just get these ropes off we would be so grateful!”

The leader cocked an eye, <Hmm… well, we shall help you three. On one condition; you must promise never to start or own a campfire in an open wooded area or field again,> he paused, shooting a glance at the two boys, <And only when all three of you promise, will we help you obtain your pokemon.>

Kayla nodded, and turned to Gary and Mike; who were staring at Kayla strangely.

“You guys… we need to promise not to start fires again… that way the Butterfree can help us out like they said they would!” she pleaded, hoping they would agree.

Gary shook his head in disbelief, “What are you talking about? ‘They said’? Kayla, pokemon just mumble their names in their own language… You can’t possibly know what that Butterfree is promising; if he’s promising anything at all!”

Kayla was about to explain how the Butterfree had just told her that he would help them, when she stopped, and her eyes widened. How did she know what it was they had said…? When the leader Butterfree had spoken, what she had heard was not the pleasant sound of Butterfree garble, but instead a strong and deep male voice speaking in what she assumed was English…

She tried to talk, to explain to the two boys why she had understood the Butterfree, but she just couldn’t. Gary and Mike sat there for a few moments staring at her, but then Mike shook his head.

“I don’t care what’s going on! I want to get my pokemon back, and I want to teach those two idiots a lesson! I’ll promise not to start a campfire ever again!” he said, looking to the Butterfree.

The Butterfree all nodded, and looked to Gary.

Gary stared up in disbelief, but nodded just the same; “Alright… this is crazy, but I’ll promise not to start fires too….”

Kayla was still trying to think on what had just happened, when the Butterfree leader tapped her with his foot.

“Oh! Um… I promise…” she said timidly, looking at the Butterfree with a confused expression. How was any of this happening? Was it all really a dream of hers perhaps?

The Butterfree nodded to one another, and began to talk to each other. Kayla tried to listen to them, but all she could hear was regular pokemon speech… gone was the deep male voice she had heard when previously talking with the Butterfree…

The three pokemon then made a small huddle, where they portioned off who would do what work, and after a few seconds, the threesome split up. Two of the Butterfree, including the leader, flew silently over to the side of the tent that the two Rocket members presumably had been sleeping; while the third flew up to the three trainers, and took a few moments to regard the ropes binding them together.

“Do you know what they’re doing?” asked Mike, looking at Kayla.

“N… no… I, um, can’t seem to understand them anymore…” she said, still very much confused by this.

Gary rolled his eyes, but still even wondered to himself how it was she seemed to know what the Butterfree wanted. For they were seemingly helping them out right now; so Kayla’s suggestion was right…

<I know! I’ll just chew the ropes away. That’ll get you guys out!> said the Butterfree before them cheerfully. He was obviously proud of his genius idea.

He flew down between Gary and Kayla, and began to gnaw away at the ropes with his small mandibles. The mandibles weren’t very sharp, but with a lot of practice from gnawing at tree branches and such throughout the forest, the Butterfree was well prepared to take on a bit of rope.

As soon as the three trainers were free of the rope, they stood up, each of them rubbing some part on their aching bodies… Then, voices were heard coming from the tent of the sleeping Rockets. The two Butterfree came bounding out, one with a small group of pokeballs in it’s arms, and the leader looking frantic. They flew over to the three trainers, and dropped the pokeballs in Kayla’s arms. Gary and Mike struggled to find their own pokemon.

<We didn’t have enough time to grab them all. They woke up too quickly! I'm hoping though, that the ones we grabbed are all of your pokemon…> said the leader, looking sorry.

The two Rockets sprinted outside of the tent in time to see the three Butterfree give the pokeballs back, and they both didn’t look too happy.

“Ahh! Marilu, I told you we should have gone after stealing them! Now look!” yelled Zephyr, glaring at his partner. He blushed a bit from embarrassment, for now they both looked even more inexperienced than the three trainers before them.

Marilu smiled evilly, “Don’t worry. They’re just novice trainers. There’s nothing they can dish out that we can’t take.”

She tossed her pokeball onto the ground hard, and the unusual black colored light spouted from the ball, releasing the yellow-haired dog once again; it’s eyes still containing that lifeless feel to them.

Kayla stared at the yellow dog, an odd feeling coming from it. It was the same intense fear she had felt while being next to Cubone’s tree… She blinked. Obviously, there was a reason that both Cubone and Jolteon came out of their pokeballs with black light… but why?

The three Butterfree all gasped upon seeing the Jolteon, and the leader turned to Kayla, his voice shaking as he spoke, <I… I'm afraid that this kind of pokemon is too tough for us three to handle…> He motioned to his two friends, and the three began to fly off.

"W… wait! Why are you leaving?" asked Kayla, now feeling even more scared.

Gary stepped forward. “This time we fight back! Go!” he shouted, tossing his pokeball to the ground. A flash of white light, and soon a squatty Bulbasaur yawned as he sat on the dark forest floor. Gary paused.

“Mike! Get your stupid Bulbasaur away from me!!” he yelled, pointing to the grass pokemon.

“Whatever! Gary, just look at the side! Remember, our starters all had symbols on the balls!” said Mike as he ran up and grabbed his Bulbasaur’s pokeball. Gary tossed out one of his other pokeballs, and after the flash of light, his Squirtle stood ready for action.

Kayla looked down at her three pokeballs. She tossed out Charmander’s ball, and soon enough her starter was now standing in the fray too.

He looked around to see people and pokemon he didn’t know… <What the? Oh I told you not to trust that kid! I can sense these things you know!>

Marilu elbowed Zephyr and told him to help her out. He tossed his ball and in the flash of white light’s wake, his small Chikorita stood.

“Kayla!” called Gary, “You take on the freak with the Chikorita! We’ll handle that chick’s Jolteon!”

Kayla nodded, but wasn’t sure if she could take on such a higher-level pokemon all by herself… She looked down to Charmander.

“Charmander, um… I guess maybe could you try a Scratch attack?” asked Kayla, feeling very intimidated by the teenage boy in front of her.

“Nice try,” said Zephyr, trying to regain some sense of self-confidence, “But I’m afraid that my Chikorita won’t be beaten by simple attacks like that.”

Kayla blushed and looked down a bit. He had a point.

“Chikorita! Use your Vine Whip again to tie up that girl!” cried Zephyr, pointing to Kayla.

“No…!” whispered Kayla, once again feeling hopeless…

Chikorita looked up at her trainer. She had been with him for so long, and been with him through so much; but this was just too much for her… She had never refused him before, but those were all things that she had approved of. She wondered to herself… what would he do if she refused…?

<No,> she said, giving Zephyr a look of sheer defiance; although you could see the hurt in her eyes for having to do this to him…

"What…?" said Zephyr quietly, not believing his eyes…

Marilu was, again, paying attention to the two of them; she need not pay attention to her battle. Jolteon seemed to be making short work of Bulbasaur and Squirtle. "Now you see Zephyr why pokemon must be shown who the master is! I told you, everyone told you, a long time ago that if you didn't discipline them correctly from the start, that they would always disobey in the end!"

"You're sick!" yelled Gary, throwing a disgusted look at Marilu.

Zephyr just stood there for a few seconds, thinking; but then he brandished what looked like a whip that had been hooked to the side of his belt, and raised it up slightly. Chikorita just stood staring up at him with the same hurtfully defiant look, and Kayla turned away not wanting to witness any of it… Charmander gasped, and was rooted to his spot with sheer amazement. But no sound of a cracking whip came. Kayla slowly looked over in time to see Zephyr put back his whip.

"Fine. If you won't go restrain her, then I will…" he said, looking over to Kayla.

<Hey! Don’t touch her!> yelled Charmander finding his courage again. He leapt over to stand in front of Kayla, and suddenly felt kind of weird… His stomach felt all rumbly, and he peered down at it as Zephyr approached them. <What’s wrong with me…?> he mumbled, feeling something coming up his throat. Those Raviolis from yesterday? He looked over to the approaching Zephyr, and felt whatever had been coming up spout out of his mouth! He blinked. It was fire! He had let out occasional fire spouts before, but not this much at one time!

<Look out Bryant!> called Chikorita, now losing her defiant stare.

“Charmander? What’s wrong?” asked Kayla, a little unsure if she should rush into the fray and go help him, or stay where she was…

<Ahhh!> screamed Charmander, freaking out from the fire still coming from his mouth, and he began to run towards Zephyr and Chikorita.

“What the? Ah! Get away you crazy Charmander!” yelled Zephyr, waving his arm as Charmander approached him. However, Charmander couldn’t see the waving arm with all of the fire in front of his face, and ran into the boy knocking him over.

“You’re burning my arm! Get off!” yelled Zephyr. Chikorita ran up to his side, and Charmander suddenly stopped himself, regaining control of his flames.

Chikorita glared at Charmander. <Watch out! Can't you control your own Ember attack!> she said, tears in her eyes. Charmander shrugged, not knowing what to say.

<I’m… sor--> he started, but was interrupted by a deep, scratchy voice.

<Trying to be the gentleman I see?> said the voice. Charmander looked up to see a large, yellow-haired dog staring down at him with evil eyes and a smirk on his face. Obviously, the yellow pokemon was too much for the combined efforts of Bulbasaur and Squirtle…

<Don’t waste your precious time on her… she’s nothing but trash…> said the Jolteon, knocking the little Chikorita aside with his front paw.

<Hey!> said Charmander, wanting to tell off the rude pokemon, but when he looked up to face him, a shiver ran down his spine, and he suddenly felt very afraid of the spiny dog… <Um… uh, hey! How's it goin'? Nice night to go stargazing, eh?> said Charmander nervously as he began to back slowly away from the Jolteon. He sincerely hoped that the yellow pokemon was not about to kill him.

Kayla looked down at the Jolteon. How could Charmander ever beat something that strong? Then it hit her... Mr. Cubone! He was a ground pokemon and at a high level! She looked down at the two remaining pokeballs with her, and hoped she would toss the right one.

The ball landed in-between Jolteon and Charmander, and soon all of the trainers and pokemon gasped, as the dark black light came forth from the round projectile.

<What is this?> cried the Jolteon, clearly surprised by another black light pokemon coming from a novice trainer.

Cubone soon stood in the light’s wake, and looked around silently. Then he saw Jolteon.

<Interesting…> he said, his eyes widening.

The other trainers all stood watching. Marilu and Zephyr seemed to be just as surprised as Jolteon about Cubone's appearance.

<Step back Charmander. This could get very dangerous…> warned Cubone. Charmander stepped back. All of the trainers continued to stand silently and watch.

<What is a Dark Pokemon like you doing with a little girl?> asked the Jolteon, it’s eyes narrowing.

<I refuse to call myself a ‘Dark Pokemon’. I am and always shall be a Cubone,> said the brown pokemon, giving a warning look to Jolteon.

Jolteon raised an eyebrow. <Why so polite? Huh, Gramps? How is it you are even able to stand being with this girl? Don’t you feel the urge to hurt and destroy like all Dark Pokemon do?> he asked, now starting to circle around Cubone.

<I have no such urge. However, I used to be like you. Alone, hurt, angry… Those days are long gone though. I now know what it means to be someone’s pokemon,> Cubone spoke softly, watching the Jolteon carefully.

Kayla and the other trainers all watched, fascinated by the two dark pokemon.

<Heh. So you met this girl and she ‘changed’ you? Is that it?> the yellow dog said, chuckling to himself.

<No. I met her father, and he taught me what friendship was about. What love was about…> said Cubone, still eyeing Jolteon.

Jolteon was about to answer back to Cubone’s comment; when suddenly his eyes widened in recognition. He smirked evilly. <I remember you! You were the one who escaped the Team Rocket lab quite a few years ago! I was so young back then, but already so eager to help out with ‘special’ projects of Team Rocket. There were four pokemon that I was sent to help kill. A Quilava, an Ivysaur, a Cubone, and… oh, what else… oh yes! And a Pidgey….>

Cubone’s eyes were now the ones to widen, but as soon as they had expanded, they contracted into an angry glare. He raised his bone weapon up a bit.

<Hm…> said Jolteon, a fake lightness in his voice, <Yes, they were very fun to hurt… It was such a pity that you ran off like a… coward. I was saving you for last. Oh well, I got my kicks with the other three. Especially,> he paused, giving Cubone another smirk, <that girl Pidgey. Oh yes, she was the easiest of the three; wasn’t even a challenge... What a wimpy pokemon…>

Cubone’s grip tightened on his bone club, and his eyes now had the same look to them as Jolteon’s; small and lifeless. He shook slightly with suppressed rage, and took a step towards the yellow pokemon.

<Wait! What’re you doing Pops?!> cried Charmander, running up to the brown pokemon’s side.

Cubone glanced behind him and knocked Charmander away with a blow of his bony weapon. Charmander skidded to a stop by Kayla and looked up, a confused and hurt expression on his face.

<Get away from me!> yelled Cubone to Charmander, his voice a bit gruffer than usual. He then turned around, lowered his head, took a few steps back; and with incredible speed, darted up to Jolteon. The yellow pokemon was caught off guard by the old pokemon’s speed, and had no time to avoid the attack. Soon enough Cubone’s secondary skull smashed into Jolteon’s front, making the pokemon fly back several feet before hitting a tree.

Marilu gasped. “No one’s ever beaten my Jolteon! Jolteon you weakling! Get up and fight back! NOW!”

Zephyr and Chikorita were still on the ground, Chikorita looking over the bad burn on his arm. However, Zephyr had seen the intense attack that Cubone had just performed. “Marilu!” he called, “We should just leave! There’s no point in battling like this! Your Jolteon could get seriously hurt!”

“I DON’T CARE!” Marilu cried, brandishing a black whip that looked very much like Zephyr’s, “Jolteon! Either you get up, or my whip will make you!”

Kayla put a hand to her mouth, and gasped a bit. How could anyone treat their own pokemon so cruelly, and with no remorse like that? She helped Charmander up on his feet.

“Are you okay?” she asked the lizard, who was rubbing his tail.

<Yeah… but… Pops…> he said, looking to Cubone.

Kayla watched as Cubone began to stomp up to the injured Jolteon, readying to use his bone club against it.

“Mr. Cubone! What’re you doing?” called Kayla, feeling a bit scared of Cubone. She had never seen him this way before.

Cubone turned around at the sound of Kayla’s voice, and paused for a moment. He called to her in the same overly gruff voice as Charmander had heard.

<Leave this place! I will meet with you two in the city's Pokemon Center after I have dealt with some things…> he said, and then turned to face the yellow pokemon that was now beginning to get up on its feet.

Charmander pulled at Kayla’s overall pant leg. <Come on! Let’s go! If that’s what Pops wants then I won’t be the one to say no to him right now!> he quickly peered to the Cubone, <Especially now…>

Kayla hesitated; she didn’t want to leave him here alone… Gary and Mike took their chances and began to run away. Mike was already gone in a flash, and Gary looked back at Kayla.

“Hurry up Kayla! Do you have a death wish?!” he yelled, then continued on his way.

Cubone looked back, seeing Kayla still there, and frowned. Why won’t she leave? He closed his eyes, this is for your own good… he thought to himself. He then raised his thick bony weapon, and hurled it toward Kayla and Charmander. The two had to dart away quickly to avoid it hitting them.

Charmander pulled again at Kayla. <Now do you see how serious he is about us going!> said Charmander, looking tired, <Come on!>

Kayla nodded, reluctantly turned around and, with Charmander keeping up as best he could, began to run towards the exit of the Viridian Forest.




A/N: Um, if you guys ever see question marks in innapropriate spots, like where apostrophes and quotation marks should be, just try and ignore 'em. You see, at home I work on an Apple iBook, but at school I work on a Dell in the computer lab, and the Word program I have at home is kinda weird about the Internet. It changes all of my apostrophes and quotations into question marks (I think it's a Machintosh/Internet thing...), and I have to go through it and re-check them all. Sometimes I might miss one, so if you see it, just tell me in a post, and I'll try and fix it. Thanks for reading!

[DannyBoy]

That was good! I love that Charmander! It helped and it is just so amazing! I hope when you evolve it ( if ya do, some people dont like to) keep its personality, it is just perfect. But the chapter as a whole was good! Keep it up!

[mistysakura]

Ah... Cubone's mystery is finally coming out bit by bit... I thought it had something to do with Team Rocket. Evil Team Rocket... His personality's coming out more too, like when he threw the boomerang at Kayla and Charmander. This chapter was good, as usual. It's cool how you can keep up the characterisation even when there's action; some fics have characters that are one-dimensional in battle, and that's not the point of having an interesting character. I think that if Zephyr and Marilu are recurring characters, maybe they could start learning more about skill and stuff, because if they stayed the same while the trio grew more powerful, they'd eventually be a bit of a joke. I liked Gary and Mike's reaction when Kayla told them what the Butterfree said, heh. I think that maybe Cubone could have delivered a couple more attacks to Jolteon before Marilu threatened it, though; that bit seems a bit short, and I don't think the impact of Cubone's power was shown enough.

Good job... you know, I actually have to purposely find things to criticise.

[Aurora]

New Reader... finally caught up... I love the story! The charmander and Cubone have really deep personalities, and you did them so well... Really looking forward to the next installment!

[Light_Togetic]

ImmortalDreams: Well, we'll see what ends up happening with Charmander and evolving... But I'm glad you like him!

mistysakura: Happy to give you a challenge! And don't worry; I have no intention of making my two Rockets a joke. That would be a waste of perfectly good bad guys! ^^

Aurora: Good to have ya' on board! I always like new readers. I'm glad you like it so far, and I hope you continue to like it! I try very hard to give the pokemon good personalities; after all, they are what makes Pokemon pokemon!


And now to get to the next chapter...



The Glass Half Full

Ch.10 Pokemon Switch!


Kayla and Charmander had been running quite an awful lot. Kayla had never imagined that she would be spending so much of the time on her journey going at such a fast pace. As the trees thinned out and disappeared behind them, and the glowing lights of Pewter City came into view, Kayla couldn’t help but wonder if she had done the right thing…

She and Charmander slowed their pace quite a bit, attempting to catch their breaths.

“Do you… think we did the… right thing Charmander?” breathed Kayla, too tired to think of anything else.

<Honestly I don’t know. He said he wanted us to go, so we did. I guess what we should be asking is if Pops did the right thing…> said Charmander, shaking his head slowly, <You know, he was really creepin’ me out! Talk about getting angry…>

Kayla’s mind wasn’t listening to anything Charmander was saying; she was so drained over the whole event, that all she could hear was the innocent sound of soft pokemon-speak coming from the little orange pokemon.

A few minutes later they had entered Pewter City, and had absolutely no idea where they were going. Kayla and Charmander wandered the streets, keeping alert to any buildings that were red and white, as Pokemon Centers usually were…

Suddenly Charmander let out a cry, and Kayla looked down to see him pointing to a Pokemon Center building! She smiled weakly, and the two dragged themselves over to it, wanting nothing but this whole day to end.

As they entered, Kayla remembered about Pidgey. She looked down at the remaining pokeball as she brought it out of her pack, and spied Cubone’s pokeball as well…

“I hope he’s alright…” she whispered, fearing the worst.

The two approached the front desk of the cream-colored lobby, and Kayla glanced at a girl who was bent over trying to pick something up behind the counter.

“Um… hello?” asked Kayla timidly.

The girl stood up abruptly, her eyes wide. “Eeek! What?! Who’s ther--,” she paused, “Oh… I thought you were going to like kidnap me or steal my pokemon or something. Man, don’t sneak up on someone like that!”

Kayla stared for a moment at her. She looked a bit like a Nurse Joy, but clearly was not. Her eyes were a green color, very atypical of Joy’s; and instead of her bright red hair being put in two loops that come down from her head, hers were in two small poufs. She chomped her gum as she looked over Kayla.

“Oh… uh, I’m sorry, it’s just, could you heal my Pidgey please?” asked Kayla, feeling a bit intimidated by the girl’s forwardness.

The girl snatched the pokeball out of Kayla’s hand, and gave her a puzzled look, “Why would you want to battle at this time of night?!”

“I… well, you see, these two Team Rocket members tried to steal my pokemon and two other kids’--.”

The nurse grabbed onto Kayla’s shoulders. “OH MY GOSH! That is SO HORRIBLE! Are you okay?! Are your pokemon stolen?! How’d you escape?! Oh my gosh…” the nurse shouted frantically. She seemed more upset about it than Kayla.

<Who is this chick?> mumbled Charmander, eyeing the girl curiously.

“Uh…” mumbled Kayla, not sure really what to say. She had never met a person as hyper as this before…

“Oh I’m so sorry, your pokemon should get healed. You can tell me all about your adventure when I get back with it. And don’t skimp on anything, kay? I love hearing trainer stories! Oh… What about that one? The Charmander?” she asked, pointing to the lizard standing next to Kayla.

Charmander waved his arms nervously, and backed away a few feet, <Oh no no no, I’m perfectly okay!>

Kayla assumed he meant no, and shook her head. She was glad that Charmander didn’t want to go away. She didn’t want to be alone right now.

The girl nodded briefly, and then turned around to go into a small room behind her. She paused in mid-step as she reached the doorway between the rooms.

“Oh! And by the way, my name’s Julie. I’m the little sister of the Nurse Joy that usually works here! She had to go tend to an emergency in Saffron City, so now I’m watching the center! I know, know, I’m not a Pokemon Nurse, but from being around my sister all the time I’ve learned just as much as she has! Oh, and your name was…?” she said quickly, trailing off waiting for Kayla to reply.

“Huh? Oh! My name is Kayla,” she answered, her mind still thinking of the little brown pokemon that was missing…

Julie nodded, then disappeared into the other room.

Kayla looked over to a marble bench at the side of the room. She walked over there slowly and sat down with a whimper, her body still recovering from the Thunder Wave she had received earlier in the day…

Charmander walked up to her and looked at his trainer’s face. <Are you okay?> he asked, feeling sorry for all they had been through.

Kayla ignored him. She peered to the glass doors of the center. Where was Cubone? Was he alright? Kayla tried not to think of him, but the more she tried not to, the harder it became… He had sacrificed his safety for them to escape… and what had she done? Nothing…

She wanted, now, more than anything in the world to just see him walk through the doors…

Charmander was worried too. He had grown quite fond of ‘Pops’, and didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. He looked up at Kayla, who was now about to cry and frowned.

Well, at least he could do some good for Kayla.

He walked up to the marble bench, and clumsily climbed up onto it and sat next to Kayla. She looked over to him, but then looked back to the sliding glass doors that blocked the entrance to the building. He moved a bit closer to her, and before Kayla even saw what he was doing, climbed onto her lap and gave her a big hug. Kayla was a bit surprised, but it seemed to be just what she needed.

She returned the hug, taking note as to how warm his skin felt. Charmander’s skin was a bit odd feeling. It was scaly like a lizard’s, but was not rough in any way. It was actually quite the opposite, and felt more smooth and almost silky.

Kayla tried not to cry, but she couldn’t help it; the hug had milked it out of her…

However, their warm-hearted embrace was cut short by the swishing sound of sliding automatic glass doors…

The two immediately looked to the entrance, and beheld what they had so hoped for.

There in the doorway stood a badly bruised, but still standing Cubone with a few additional cracks in his outer skull. He staggered through the entrance, and stopped when he got to the middle of the center’s floor.

<Pops!> yelled Charmander, both he and Kayla letting go of each other.

“Mr. Cubone! I’m so glad you made it safely…” cried Kayla softly, as she ran over to the brown pokemon and kneeled down to see him closer.

Cubone hung his head a bit, and looked to Charmander, <I… I am sorry for how I acted. I have not been that angry since… well, since my Master parted from this world. That… that animal was asking for his death sentence. Pity I didn’t get to carry it out…>

<That’s okay! No hurt feelings in this happy Charmander! I think we’re both just relieved to have you back! I can’t believe you took on that really scary Jolteon!> said Charmander, a wide grin on his face.

<Yes well…> Cubone said, now looking to Kayla, <I am also sorry to have worried you. I just did not want any more harm to come to you Kayla. You are my responsibility. It is my job to make sure that you are safe, and are protected from horrible people like that. It is my duty as your father’s pokemon, and as your pokemon…>

Kayla nodded slowly, her eyes wide again. She had just understood the whole conversation… The part where Cubone explained that he was sorry, the part with Charmander saying that it was okay, and the part with Cubone apologizing again… She tried to find her voice, but all she could think about was the two English-speaking voices she had just heard from her pokemon. Cubone’s had been a deep, rough male voice, not unlike his pokemon voice, and surprisingly, he didn’t really sound as old as he was… Charmander’s had been a squeaky boyish voice that strongly reminded her of a teenage boy’s voice that was just about to change into a man’s.

The two pokemon stared up at Kayla’s surprised and almost scared expression.

<Something wrong, Kayla?> asked Charmander, cocking his head to one side.

Cubone blinked. <If you can understand me, try not to think about why you can; it will only make you lose the connection you already have gained. And do not worry or be afraid about your ability. You are supposed to have it,> he said quickly, watching Kayla carefully.

Charmander raised an eyebrow, <Huh? That’s like what you said when we first met you. Why do you think that Kayla can understand us? And how do you know what to tell her to do?>

“This… this is weird… I could understand… you. But, now I can’t seem to anymore… Why…?” pondered Kayla, feeling a little scared about it.

Charmander rubbed the tiny hole on the side of his head that was his ear, and shook, <What?! Did I just hear Kayla say that she could understand us?! What the heck’s going on?! Can’t I just get an explanation? Is that so much to ask?!>

Cubone didn’t answer, and Kayla was about to ask another question, when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

“Huh?” jumped Kayla, looking around to see Julie.

“Hey, um, can I talk to you for a moment about your pokemon?” asked the nurse’s sister. She did not look happy.

Charmander pouted, <Great… now my questions will go unanswered… again….>

Kayla began to feel a bit worried. “Y… yes, what is it?” she asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

“Well… I thought you said that your pokemon I was to heal was a Pidgey,” Julie said, looking confused.

“It is…,” answered Kayla, becoming curious as to what this was about.

“There was no Pidgey in that pokeball,” whispered Julie, as if saying it quietly would make the problem less than what it was.

Cubone and Charmander looked at each other.

“Huh?! Then… then what was in it?” asked Kayla, feeling scared once again.

“This Butterfree…” she said, pointing to a small Butterfree across the room that Kayla had not yet noticed. It was an unusual color for a Butterfree; its body was a bright red color, and its mandibles, hands, and feet were an orange color. Its eyes were a sparkling sapphire, and its wings were a cream color. Around its neck was a brown collar that had a small golden tag on it. It floated around curiously, looking at objects in the room, and seemed unfazed by the fact that it was now in a very different place than before.

“But how did…? Why…?” stammered Kayla, trying to reason how her Pidgey had gotten switched. Then she remembered the trio of Butterfree that had helped them in the forest; and how they said that they had only enough time to grab some of the pokeballs…

“Team Rocket must have gotten my Pidgey…” said Kayla, finally realizing what had happened.

“Oh that’s horrible!” yelled Julie, looking angry about it, “You have GOT to file a report to Officer Jenny! She’ll track down those crooks!”

Kayla sat down again on the bench, unsure of what to do or how to feel. So many things had happened to her… She just wanted to be home again…

Charmander looked up at Kayla. <It’s okay, I’m sure Pidgey will probably sit on their heads so much, that they’ll just let her go!>

Cubone turned to the orange lizard, <That joke was not funny.>

Charmander shrugged, looking confused, <What joke?>

Julie bent down to look Kayla face-to-face. “Hey! Don’t just sit there feeling sorry for yourself! You’ve got to take action! I know what happened is horrible, which it totally is, but you can’t let that stop you from getting back at those evil people! If they get away, then they’ll just do what they did to you to someone else!” she paused, “Wait. Did that last part make sense?”

Kayla nodded weakly, “Yes… I suppose you’re right. Could you tell me where the police station is?”

“Oh yeah!” the nurse answered with a smile, “Right down the street. You’ll see a large building with a sign shaped like a Police badge. You can’t miss it!”

The Butterfree from across the room was now near the two girls, hovering in timid curiosity.

Julie gave a glance to it. “And while you’re doing that, I’m going to try and find out where this little one belongs. Luckily since it’s a pet pokemon, it has a collar and tag on; it shouldn’t be too hard to find out who the owner is… And in the meantime, I’ll heal this Cubone for ya’ too, kay?”

Kayla gave another weak nod, and began to walk out of the center with Charmander, still feeling sorry for herself, regardless of what Julie had said. She hadn’t seen much of Pidgey, or gotten to know her that well; but she still missed the little bird. She had so much spirit it seemed; and Kayla would hate for any pokemon to end up like that Jolteon…

The two of them talked very little as they walked up to the police station, and as Kayla walked in, she noticed that there were many people all talking to Officer Jenny. Two of them were people she happened to know; Gary and Mike. Three others were trainers whom she didn’t know. And the last was someone Kayla recognized, but didn’t know personally; the leader of the Pewter Gym, Brock.

“Hey Charmander,” said Kayla, looking to her two pokemon, “Maybe you should get into your pokeball… I wouldn’t want anyone to knock you or step on you…”

<Fair enough. I definitely wouldn’t want some kid’s shoe stomping on my back…> said Charmander, trying not to imagine the feeling of being crushed, and willingly returned to his pokeball in a flash of red light.

All of the people surrounding Jenny were shouting for attention, and she had to hush them all several times before they would all quiet. She cleared her throat and pushed her blue hair back behind her shoulder.

“Listen people; I know you all have something to report. But I can’t get anyone’s complaint if all of you are talking at once! Please, we are all reasonable human beings. You will now form a single file line, and either me, or one of my associates, will see you. And Brock,” she said, turning to the spiky-haired gym leader, “This better be an actual complaint….” And with that she turned on her heel, and headed into a room, beckoning the first person in line to come in.

Kayla walked up to Mike and Gary, the only people she felt comfortable with, and gave a timid wave.

Mike started to talk to her, “Hey! What’re you doing here? Did one of your pokemon get stolen too?”

Kayla looked surprised, “What? Y… you guys got your pokemon stolen also?”

Gary rolled his eyes, “Well duh! What do you think we’re doin’ here?!”

It was now Mike’s turn to roll his eyes, “Gary! Sorry Kayla he jus--.”

“Will you stop saying that every time I talk to someone?! Who are you, my mother?!”

Mike shot an angry glance at Gary, and continued to talk to Kayla, “Anyway, Gary’s just in a bad mood. After all, we didn’t really help in the Viridian Forest against that Jolteon, and now my Pikachu and Gary’s Spearow are missing. I thought I had my Pikachu’s pokeball, but it turned out to be Gary’s Caterpie… And then Gary thought he had his Spearow, but it ended up being an empty pokeball… So we decided to come here.”

“Stupid Team Rocket idiots…” mumbled Gary, looking angry.

Kayla nodded, “Yeah… my Pidgey ended up being a Red Butterfree…”

Gary looked up. “A Red Butterfree? My grandpa once treated one of those for a Wingrot problem. Those are really rare in Kanto; although they’re becoming more common though in other places like Hoenn or Johto. And they’re already common in the Orange Islands; which is where they originated. The Orange Islands’ pokemon are known to sometimes take on different shades, and the Red Butterfree is a very popular variation there,” he finished, sounding almost as smart as the PokeDex.

Mike scowled. “Let us all bow to Gary’s genius!” he said sarcastically. Gary didn’t look like he liked the joke too much, and was about to retaliate when he was cut off.

Officer Jenny’s voice called to the next person, Gary, and the three decided to enter together seeing as their complaints were all of the same people.

The policewoman sat at a small desk, covered in papers and pictures of her family. Kayla and the others sat down in three of the five seats all around her room.

Jenny scribbled something down on a paper in front of her, and then looked up at the three, “Alright now; what is it that you two need help with?”

Gary was the first, as usual, to speak up, “Well you see Officer, my frie--, I mean, my colleagues and I here had some of our pokemon stolen in the Viridian Forest by two Team Rocket members!”

Kayla and Mike both glanced at each other with expressions of mild surprise. Did Gary just almost call them ‘friends’?

“Oh my… Well, I’ll tell you right now; it’s not that uncommon for people to get their pokemon stolen nowadays… When my mother was a little girl, you never even heard about stolen pokemon! Back then Team Rocket was an organization that performed pokemon research. They never even thought of stealing pokemon! However, their practices were questioned at times…” she paused, Gary sighed in boredom, “But then about the time I was born, three families took over the team, and made one man the ‘Boss’ or leader of the group. Ever since then, their police file has been getting bigger and bigger… So big in fact that we needed to get two file cabinets for them!” she motioned toward two black file cabinets outside of her office.

“That was a great history lesson, but when can you get our pokemon back!” yelled Gary, not caring about things that didn’t pertain to him.

Jenny stood up looking angry, “Excuse me? And just who are you anyway? What makes you so special that you can just rudely yell at me like that?! Little man, I would watch your tongue….”

Gary gulped after seeing how much taller Jenny was than him, and slowly and silently sat back down in his seat.

“Ha!” said Mike, giving Gary a smirk.

“You watch yourself too…” said Jenny, now eyeing both boys. She picked up a piece of paper, and began to scrawl things down on it.

“Excuse me,” asked Kayla, raising her hand slowly, “B… but how is it you know all of this about such an elusive organization?”

Jenny smiled, “Good question. You boys should really pay attention to women a lot more!” Gary made a fake gag, and Mike sat silently. “Well Kayla, you see, every family has its black sheep, and the same goes for the Rockets. People unknowingly join, and then decide that they’re too brutal for them to handle. Some of them are revolted so much that they even report everything they learn to the authorities. That’s why we know what we know.”

Kayla nodded, glad her question could be answered. Gary began to look bored.

“Can we get on with this?” asked Gary, looking tired, “It’s just a little late….”

Jenny cocked an eye at the boy, but continued with her talking. “Yes well, I’ll need all of you names, and the pokemon you’re missing. And a description of the Rockets that stole them from you wouldn’t hurt either. I’ll tell you this though; there is no guarantee that we can even find the people who stole your pokemon. Team Rocket members have an amazing way of disappearing from places very quickly. And not to mention, shipping off stolen pokemon quickly too. So even if we find them, which I doubt kids, we probably wouldn’t find your pokemon.”

“So you’re saying it’s h… hopeless?” Kayla asked, already knowing the answer.

Jenny looked up from her paper, “Yes. I’m truly sorry… I wish there were more I could do. The law enforcement of today just doesn’t have the manpower or the ability to track down all of the cases we get in here. But at least you can file a report.”

Kayla sighed with defeat, but all the same told Jenny her name and what pokemon was stolen. Gary and Mike did the same, and soon all they were left with were the descriptions. The boys described Marilu, and Kayla described Zephyr.

Jenny sighed. “Such young people… well, if what you told me was true, I think I know who we’re dealing with….”

Gary blinked. “Who?”

Jenny stood up and walked over to the Rocket’s file cabinet and placed the papers she had been scrawling on into it carefully. “There is only one kind of Team Rocket member that wears that kind of uniform. Those two must have belonged to one or two of the three Rocket families. Remember those three families I mentioned earlier?”

The three trainers nodded.

“Yes, well, those kinds of uniforms are only worn by them. They tend to be the evilest of the members, seeing as their whole family is tied into the organization. As children they are taught that pokemon are tools and objects that must be taught to be obedient and tortured into submission…”

Kayla thought about the two Rockets she had seen… The whips they had, the way Marilu had threatened her Jolteon…

“I would not want to grow up in that family,” said Mike, looking shocked.

“No you wouldn’t,” said Jenny, shaking her head, “And you’re expected to follow in your parents’ footsteps too.”

“You’re making it sound like you feel sorry for those two creeps!” yelled Gary, staring hard at Mike, “I don’t care what family they grew up in; they’re still low-life Mankey turds to me!”

Mike rolled his eyes, “Look Gary, that’s not what I meant! I hate ‘em too, but I can at least understand why they act the way they do.”

Gary grew quiet, and sat back down in his seat. Kayla thought silently to herself. What would it be like to grow up in a family of criminals? To be taught since day one to disrespect living things, and not to care about anyone’s feelings? Horrible… It certainly seemed to work though; Marilu didn’t seem to care about much besides herself… But what of Zephyr? Kayla remembered how he had acted to his Chikorita. It was very different from the way Marilu treated her Jolteon; he actually seemed to care about its well-being… Then she remembered how he had warned Marilu not to battle with Cubone, because her Jolteon would get hurt. Although, he could have just wanted to get out of their situation before one of their strongest fighters was down… Kayla shook her head.

She couldn’t really tell if they were good or not… But she wasn’t sure if she could think of them as devoid of anything good…

“You know,” she suddenly found herself saying, “I’m sure that they can’t be all bad…”

Gary and Mike gaped at her.

“Whatever,” snapped Gary, unconvinced, “You two and your bleeding hearts….”

“Well geez Gary,” said Mike, looking offended, “Maybe it’s a little hard for us to believe that someone can truly be evil.”

Jenny looked bored of this argument between them, and cleared her throat to get them to quiet down. “Listen up you three. I agree that those two teens probably have their redeeming aspects, but as far as the law’s concerned, they’re not too good to hang around. And don’t go thinking that you can take the law into your own hands or anything. Especially with those Rocket members… Kids in the past have tried to steal back their old pokemon, and most of them who have tried ended up with more than just their pokemon hurt….”

And with that, she dismissed the three of them, and they were left to ponder how badly those kids that Jenny was talking about were hurt. Gary and Mike began to argue about how they would get their pokemon back from Marilu and Zephyr if they could. Kayla was busy trying to imagine what it would be like to be a pokemon like Jolteon and suddenly found herself thinking of Cubone again… He and Jolteon didn’t seem so different when they were going head-to-head.

It was then that Kayla finally realized the connection.

Cubone and Jolteon were the same… She didn’t understand all of it right then, nor did she realize how much she really didn’t know yet; but she at least knew that Cubone, at one time, must’ve belonged to a Team Rocket member. She shook her head as she imagined a time when he would have been just as evil and twisted as that Jolteon…

Then she pondered the black light that the two pokemon emerged from; was that what Rocket pokemon do? But Zephyr’s Chikorita came out with the typical white light… Kayla shook her head; this was all too confusing… She just wished that she could simply ask Cubone about it; but her ‘ability’ never seemed to work when she wanted it to…

The three trainers slowly parted ways without really knowing it. They were too tired to even care to say goodbye. Kayla closed her eyes as she neared the Pokemon Center. It was late in the night, and all Kayla wanted to do was curl up in a warm bed without the worry of Team Rocket or stolen pokemon, and go to sleep…

[mistysakura]

Filler, but nice. Liked Jenny and Julie's personalities... lol. Marilu and Zephyr's background information was surpriising. Nice to see Kayla's made the connectionwith the Pokeballs, but I never ealised about Chikorita's white light before. Strange. Cubone returning was a great moment too. Umm... no criticism this time. :D

[Aurora]

Hey... Love this! Not as action packed, but all stories need a break and some thinking time. Food for thought... won't put in theories, but i've got a feeling we'll be seeing more of Marilu and Zephyr... :D A Great Story!!!

[Light_Togetic]

Okay then! Um, yeah, it's been lemme see... FOREVER since I updated this last... I was about to update it about a week after the last chapter, when suddenly my disk with the next three chapters on it decided to die... Let this be a lesson to all: listen to people who say "Back up your stuff on a Hard Drive!" So through Spring Break I worked on it a little, but I just couldn't get back into it... Anyway, I had mid-terms to study for, and so my mind was just so distracted. However, after midterms, and listening to some awesome Japanese pokemon music, I have found the desire within myself to continue! ^^ Lucky you. Anyway, thanks to anyone who wants to still read my fic, and any newcomers! Here's the next chapter:

The Glass Half Full

Ch. 11 The Battle of Flaming Boulders

Kayla's mouth opened in a gaping yawn as she walked through the glass sliding doors of the Pewter City Pokemon Center. She absentmindedly brushed her crimson hair back as she curiously watched the nurse's sister, Julie talk to a woman over videophone.

"I sure will!" said Julie's cheerful voice. She turned around noticing that Kayla had returned, "In fact, here she is now! Do you wanna talk to her?"

Kayla blinked. Who was this woman?

Julie handed her the phone, and Kayla sat down and looked at a middle-aged woman who appeared to have just finished gardening. Her rolled up sleeves had dirt and grass stains all over them, and she held the phone on the other end with worn in gardening gloves. "Hello?" said Kayla nervously.

"Hello there! Oh, my name is Elizabeth. And I sure am grateful that you found my sweet little Berri," she said in a sappy voice, smiling at Kayla.

"Excuse me ma'am, but who is Berri...?" asked Kayla, having no idea what she was talking about.

"Why Berri is my Red Butterfree you silly goose! I was told you rescued her from two evil Team Rocket members!" answered Elizabeth, laughing at Kayla.

Kayla blushed a bit; she didn't really 'rescue' them, it was sort of on accident...

"Say," said Elizabeth, looking hopeful, "I was wondering, considering you're a trainer that'll be coming to Cerulean City soon, which is where I live, if you could maybe just take Berri with you, and deliver her personally. After all, Berri loves nothing more than to travel around Kanto with me! That's really how I lost her. You see, she and I were walking in Viridian Forest, and suddenly I was knocked out...! When I woke up, Berri had been stolen, and I couldn't even report much, because the cowards attacked me from behind! Can you imagine?"

Kayla nodded. She certainly could.

"Well anyway, Berri was looking forward to walking home with me, because the Moony Mountains are her favorite place in all of Kanto. And you'll have to pass them if you want to get to Cerulean. So what'dya say? Would you mind bringing her yourself?" she asked, smiling.

"You won't miss her?" asked Kayla, curious as to why the woman was so eager to let a perfect stranger take her Butterfree for a while after it had just been stolen.

"Oh no! I just got through saying hi to her! It's fine, she'll love it! And I'm so grateful to you for doing this for me! Won't you do an adult a nice favor dear?" she said quickly, making Kayla more suspicious...

"Sure I gue--."

"Perfect! Alright then, I'll see you whenever you get here! I had Julie over there write down my address and everything! I'll see you then honey! Bye!" and with that, she hung up the phone, and the only thing Kayla was left staring at was the black screen of the videophone...

"That was... weird... she didn't even ask my name...," said Kayla, putting down the receiver.

Julie shrugged her shoulders. "She seemed kinda weird to me too... But what could she be up to?"

"I don't know... maybe we're just over-reacting...," said Kayla, yawning again, "Oh! How is Mr. Cubone?"

"Your Cubone, well, he'll be okay, but he's totally gotta stay off battling for a day or two, and should probably stay in the Pokemon Center until tomorrow night," Julie said, looking serious.

"Oh... I guess I won't be using him in my first gym match then...," Kayla yawned, wondering if there was any night left to sleep...

"You look tired. Maybe you should get to bed?" asked Julie, holding up a small golden key.

"Hm?" said Kayla in mild confusion.

"This is a key to one of the ten rooms each Pokemon Center has. This one's your room. Totally free of charge since you've been through so much!" said Julie, winking.

"Thanks...," said Kayla, yawning more.

"How about I go with you to your gym match tomorrow?" asked Julie as they walked to Kayla's room.

"What about the Pokemon Center?" asked Kayla, looking confused.

"Oh don't worry; my sister should be back by then. This is after all, her center...," said Julie looking more serious.

Kayla decided not to mention anything else, and was about to close the door when Julie stuck out a pokeball.

"What's that?" asked Kayla.

"It's a pokeball silly! No, seriously, it's the Red Butterfree you're supposed to take care of. Have fun with it!" said Julie, waving goodnight, and turning to walk back down to the main lobby.

Kayla lay down and decided to go straight to sleep. She wanted to just get away from everything that had happened so far, and think of nothing. Unfortunately for a certain little orange lizard though, she had forgotten about Charmander's love of pillows, and didn't let him out...


---------------------------------------

It was early afternoon time, and Kayla and Julie had finally reached the front of the massive Pewter Gym. Kayla paused to look at the individual rocks that lined the outer walls of the building like chicken pox. She looked nervously at Julie, wanting some words of comfort, some kind of authority figure to tell her that she would win for sure.

Julie smiled, "Don't worry, it's only like your first gym battle. Don't expect it to be a final test of your pokemon training skills or something."

"I guess so...," mumbled Kayla, still feeling unsure. She hadn't really trained too much; and with Cubone out of commission for a few days, she didn't have his high-level skills to depend on as a backup.

The two of them opened the large doors to go in, and noticed that it was rather dark inside the gym. Kayla entered the main fighting ring, and noticed that the gym leader, Brock, was on the opposite side of the field talking to a young boy. Once she noticed this, she didn't want to seem rude, and pretended to be admiring the many large boulders that littered the floor of the gym. Julie had silently left Kayla's side, and walked up to the balcony which overlooked the field.

"I'm sorry, it'll have to wait. I have a challenger that I must take care of all right?" said Brock, his voice truly sounding sorry about cutting whatever topic the two boys had been discussing short. Brock brushed his spiky brown hair lightly with his hand, and the boy he had been talking to walked out the front doors, giving Kayla an annoyed look as he passed by her.

"Don't worry about him, little brothers can get a bit jealous when attention is taken away from them sometimes. So, you've come to obtain a Boulder Badge; am I correct?" asked Brock, now turning his full attention to Kayla.

Kayla nodded timidly. This was a different Brock than what she had seen in the Police Office last night. The Brock before her had a different way of carrying himself, and seemed much more serious and uptight. It was obvious that he did not take pokemon battling lightly. This only made Kayla more nervous.

"Yes," she nodded, not feeling up to talking about anything else.

"You're from Pallet I assume?" asked Brock, nodding as he spoke.

Kayla nodded again, her mind suddenly bringing up images of Mike and Gary.

"I had two others come in here this morning from Pallet. They had very... unique styles of pokemon battling. One didn't seem to care at all about his pokemon's feelings, or mine; and the other took half an hour to get his Bulbasaur to wake up. Anyway, does a one on one battle sound okay to you?" the leader asked, looking a bit curious to see how the third trainer from Pallet would do.

Kayla wondered for a moment whether or not Gary and Mike had won their battles, but didn't feel like asking. She nodded in agreement to Brock's terms, and brought out Charmander's pokeball. Respectively, Brock brought out a pokeball of his own.

"The pokemon I will be using is Geodude," he said, tossing his newly polished pokeball onto the playing field. A flash of white light ensued, and soon enough a small, rocky pokemon floated in its wake.

Kayla's PokeDex made a small beeping sound. She brought it out quickly, and pointed it at Geodude.

Beep! Geodude, the Rock Pokemon. Geodude are often mistaken as real rocks, and are sometimes hazardous to mountain climbers. All climbers are warned to tap the rock they plan to step on or grab onto before doing so in order to check to see if it is really a rock. Geodude are nearly impervious to any normal attack. This Geodude is at level 12. It's attacks are: Tackle, Defense Curl, and Rock Throw. This Geodude's stats are as follows: High Defense, High Attack, Low Special, and Medium Speed.

Kayla knew that these pokemon were especially susceptible to water attacks, but she just didn't have any... She put away her PokeDex, feeling even more nervous, and lightly tossed Charmander's pokeball.

"I choose... Charmander, as long as he wants to battle?" she ended with a question, as Charmander looked over to her after the flash of light.

<Of course I would!> he answered, looking ready to take on anything. He turned around to face his opponent.

<Hi!> he said cheerfully, waving his orange arm in the air. He could at least attempt to make friends with the guy before pummeling him...

<I am pleased to meet you,> replied the Geodude. He bowed his head slightly in respect, and Charmander blinked.

<Wow, I was starting to forget that polite pokemon existed for a while there...,> said Charmander, looking slightly surprised.

<I shall take that as a compliment. So, have you had much experience battling?> asked the Geodude, as Brock signaled the start of the battle.

<Um. No, not really... but I did beat this really mean Butterfree!> said Charmander, puffing up his chest slightly.

<I see... Well, may the best pokemon win,> said Geodude, extending his hand.

Charmander smiled and gratefully took it. <Sure thing,> he said, shaking it.

"Geodude, start out with a Tackle," suggested Brock, looking calm and collected.

Kayla tried to think of what attack to use. She knew that Scratch wouldn't do much, considering Geodude's hard body, so she couldn't use that...

"Charmander, can you use a Growl attack please?" she asked her orange pokemon.

<What?! A Growl attack...?> squeaked Charmander, looking embarrassed, <Oh please Kayla... can't I do something else?>

Kayla hesitated. She knew that Charmander had gotten pretty embarrassed when he had previously used this attack, but Geodude was coming at him.

Geodude was racing through the air and coming straight for Charmander, and the little lizard wasn't sure of what he could do... So he braced himself, and a second later the rock's hardened body slammed into the pokemon with great force behind it. Charmander fell to the ground helplessly. Not only had the tackle itself hurt him, but the sandpaper-like texture of the Geodude had scraped up the area on Charmander's body where the impact had been felt.

"Charmander! Can you move?" yelled Kayla, angry with herself for hesitating when she should have commanded a dodge or another attack....

Charmander got up, painfully touching the rough, raw skin than was now on his chest. <Okay... that really hurt...> he mumbled, shaking a little.

Brock called to Geodude. "Geodude, not so hard! It's only a young Charmander," he said, noticing how hurt the little lizard was.

Now Kayla really felt bad... not only was Charmander injured; now the gym leader was beginning to go easy on her.

Julie watched from above, and grimaced when seeing Charmander's wounds. "Come on Kayla... think of something or you're gonna lose this battle...," she whispered to herself, hoping her new friend would come up with a plan of some kind.

Brock tried to wait for Kayla to make the next move, considering her pokemon hadn't even attacked Geodude yet, but Kayla wasn't making her move. She just stood there, frozen with indecision...

"Charmander, maybe try a Scratch attack?" she said in nervous desperation. Even if it was a normal attack, it had to at least do something... then maybe she could use an Ember attack and do more damage to it because Charmander would be closer to it from using the scratch.

Charmander looked a bit skeptical, but nodded and hoped Kayla knew what she was doing. He turned around and began to run up to Geodude, who looked to Brock for instructions.

"Let him come," said Brock, folding his arms.

The orange lizard was caught off guard by this, but still curled his tiny claws and swiped as hard as he could at the rocky pokemon. Kayla blinked.

Geodude was completely unfazed! Kayla couldn't believe it; she had wasted a whole attack for nothing...

Meanwhile, Charmander was not having such a good time. The hard and rough surface of Geodude's body had completely torn off a few of his nails!

<OOWWWW!!!> he screamed, jumping around the field and clutching his now declawed hands.

Kayla felt even worse now... and the only other attack that Charmander had was Ember... And if she didn't do something soon, this battle was going to be over... "Charmander! Are you alright? Do you want to keep battling? Maybe... wait--!"

The potion from Samurai! Suddenly Kayla remembered the potion that the boy had given her as a prize. She reached down in her pack quickly, and pulled out the small spraybottle. Charmander noticed this, and painfully hopped over to Kayla, knowing that after the initial pain of the spray, he would feel much better.

Kayla looked at the bottle. "Um... how do I...?" she began, looking at both Brock and Julie for help.

Brock spoke up, "Just spray it on the areas that hurt the pokemon. I'll give you a couple of minutes to let it work. Many trainers don't realize that to let the full healing effect take place, you need to give it a couple minutes or so."

"Thank you...," replied Kayla, spraying the bottle onto Charmander's chest and hands.

<OOWWWW!!!> he screamed again, as the stinging effect of the serum began to heal him.

Kayla looked at her tiny pokemon. "Charmander... I'm sorry... I just don't know how you can beat that Geodude... Maybe Ember would be more effective, but I don't want it to backfire the way Scratch did... You don't deserve to get hurt anymore. I... I don't know what to do...," said Kayla, feeling helpless.

Charmander smiled, <Who cares?>

"W-what?" asked Kayla, surprised by her pokemon's response.

<Who cares? So what if I don't win this battle! It just means that we weren't ready for it. It happens to trainers all the time Kayla! We can always come back later and re-challenge him to a match; it's not like this one battle is it. The only way the both of us are ever going to learn is if we make mistakes. So far, I'd say we've been pretty good with those Butterfree, Team Rocket, and that Samurai kid, and I think that those experiences far outweigh this little gym match,> said Charmander seriously, giving Kayla a determined look.

Kayla blinked. "But I don't want you to get hurt...," she said, not noticing the fact that she had understood what her pokemon had said.

<Don't worry Kayla, I'm a pokemon; I make it my job to get hurt!> he said happily, giving Kayla a wink.

Brock and Geodude stood silently watching the two of them.

Kayla smiled a little, "Alright... but I think you're crazy."

Charmander walked back into the field, and faced Geodude once again. Geodude blinked in curiosity.

<Pardon me, but did she just understand you?> he asked, glancing at Kayla.

<Probably. It happens,> replied Charmander, shrugging his shoulders.

"Okay Charmander, can you perform a nice, hot Ember attack?" asked Kayla, hoping that this would do at least a little amount of damage.

"Geodude, use another Tackle!" commanded Brock, pointing at Charmander.

Charmander stood for a moment, trying to bring up some fire, and suddenly realized that he had no idea how to do it! He thought quickly; and realized that before, the fire had decided to come out of him... He tried to think about how he had felt when he had wanted to protect Kayla from Team Rocket...

That was it! As soon as he remembered that feeling of urgency and anger, he felt a rush of warmth coming up from inside him; and before he knew it, spouts of fire were coming from his mouth and shooting at the oncoming Geodude.

The flames hit Geodude square in the face, and he fell to the ground from the surprise and pain.

"Geodude?!" yelled Brock, startled at Kayla's pokemon actually doing some damage.

Geodude got up slowly, and seemed to be all right, but his lower jaw had a small burn on it. Kayla could tell, she had seen burns many times on the Tauros on her farm back home from wild Charmeleon that had been feeling rambunctious.

Charmander stopped the flames. <Finally! Now I'm getting somewhere!> he said, putting his hands on his hips.

Kayla was about to cheer on Charmander, when a flash of white light appeared in the center of the field.

<Stop it!! Stop this barbaric ritual! How can you let this go on! How can you two decent pokemon disrespect your bodies in such a way!> yelled a whinny high-pitched voice.

Berri had popped out to say her piece.

<Huh?!> said Charmander, looking confused, <What're you talking about?>

<Battling! UGH! I hate it! SO immature, so stupid!> yelled Berri rudely.

<Well excuse us...> said Charmander folding his arms.

"Berri?!" yelled Kayla, unsure as to what to do.

Brock stepped back, "Hey, this is a one-on-one pokemon match! Bringing another one out is against the rules!"

"I'm sorry," said Kayla as she brought out Berri's pokeball frantically, "I'm supposed to be taking this pokemon back to a woman in Cerulean City... It's really not my pokemon, and I have no idea what it's doing...!"

Brock turned around and quickly dug out a small stick from a cabinet on the wall of the other side of the field. The minute he stepped back over to the edge of the field, Berri stopped yelling and began to calmly fly over to Brock and the stick.

"There you go, you need to calm down there Butterfree...," he said in a calm voice as Berri hovered near the stick.

"Huh?" said Kayla, a little confused.

"Butterfree like the smell of this plant, the Butterberry Tree; it seems to have a calming effect on them. I always keep a small branch of one on hand for trainers whose Butterfree are injured; that way the stick can calm them in case the resist medical care," answered Brock smartly, "You can probably return the Butterfree now."

"Oh!" said Kayla, now holding up Berri's pokeball, "Return Berri."

After a second of red light, Berri was gone, and Kayla bowed her head.

"I'm so sorry... I have no idea what was bothering her so much... I suppose I'm disqualified now...?" she said sadly, feeling embarrassed.

"No, I know how hard it is to take care of someone else's pokemon. I'll let it slide this time; after all, your Charmander was starting to gain the upper hand; it would be a shame to stop now," he said, smiling.

"Thank you again...," said Kayla, still slightly embarrassed.

Charmander sighed. <Wow... that girl has problems...,> he said about Berri, shaking his head.

<Shall we continue?> asked Geodude, rubbing his burn a little.

Charmander nodded, and Kayla called out for another Ember attack. However, this time Brock was ready for it. He knew that she would probably use another one, considering it was the only attack that had worked for her. Brock ordered his next attack.

"Geodude," called Brock, "Wait for Charmander's Ember, then use Rock Throw at an angle!"

Kayla raised an eyebrow. Wait...? Was Geodude just going to take an attack from Charmander and then pummel him with rocks? Whatever the case, Kayla didn't like the idea of Rock Throw being used at all...

Charmander summoned up the warmth within him and began to spout fire directed at Geodude.

Geodude waited for it to get close, and then bent down to the rocky floor below him. With powerful arms, he lifted up a small pile of loose rocks, and hurled them up into the spray of fire now in front of him.

Some of the rocks caught the fire that had been racing towards Geodude and became superheated. They flew with all of their power at Charmander, who looked utterly frozen to the ground with surprise and fear. Geodude braced himself as the rest of Charmander's Ember hit him, and swiped painfully at his burn afterwards.

Kayla saw the rocks going toward Charmander and gasped. She called out for Charmander to move, but the lizard was just too frozen... Sure enough, the flaming hot rocks began to pound his body, and Charmander was thrown back three feet or so facedown onto the ground.

"Charmander!" screamed Kayla for the third time. This time she raced up to her friend, knowing that he would probably not get up after that. And she was right. Charmander laid on the ground, moved his head a tiny bit to look up at Kayla, and then went unconscious.

Brock didn't look like someone who had just won a battle. He turned to his Geodude looking slightly angry.

"Geodude! That attack was far too powerful for a low-level pokemon! I explicitly told you to perform the Rock Throw at an angle, that way it wouldn't hit him, but it would still deflect his attack! He could be seriously injured right now. You have got to make sure that you listen to me on these things...," he turned to look at Kayla who was now petting Charmander's head, "We'll discuss this later."

He walked up to Kayla and Charmander, who were now joined by Julie, "I'm sorry about that. My Geodude still has to learn about being in a battle rather than a fight to the death... I think your Charmander will be okay, just take it to the Pokemon Center, and he should be well taken care of."

"Can I pick him up without hurting him?" asked Kayla, still a little shocked. She had never had a pokemon faint before...

"I'll pick him up for ya...!" said Julie happily, and with that she slowly and gently picked up Charmander's limp body.

Brock tapped Kayla on the shoulder. "Here," he said holding out the Butterberry stick, "Take this as an apology for injuring your pokemon. It'll never lose its smell, so you can use it for as long as you'll like. I think with a spirited pokemon like that Butterfree traveling with you for a while, you're going to need it."

Kayla took the stick silently. She was still upset with herself. She had let down her grandmother... What would she think if she knew that her granddaughter had lost at one of the easiest gyms in the entire Kanto league?

Noticing Kayla's disappointment, Brock spoke up again, "Don't worry, lots of beginning trainers lose to me; it's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, you were probably the nicest of trainers from Pallet I've seen this time around so far. The other two didn't even seem to care about their pokemon's feelings. You though, almost let those feelings get in the way of battling... Are you really even sure you want to be a pokemon trainer? I think you really would be better suited for something more toward the care of pokemon rather than battling with them."

Kayla stood silently. She really didn't want to make pokemon battle each other... At first she thought it would be fine, but after becoming friends with Charmander and Cubone, she didn't feel like watching them get pummeled by a tough opponent.

"I suppose you're right... but I just can't let my grandmother down... I promised her that I would do my best on this pokemon journey, and that's what I have to do," said Kayla, trying not to get too upset.

Brock shrugged, "Okay, but just remember that there are always other things to do than battling. Well, good luck on your journey. I hope someday to be beaten by you."

"Good bye, and thank you again for the Butterberry stick...," said Kayla. She turned away and began to follow Julie to the Pokemon Center to make sure that Charmander would be okay.




Um, okay, I have a question. Are the computers at my college retarded, or do all of my quotation marks look like question marks? I see it on other people's fics too... Meh... oh well, I'll just ignore it unless someone else sees it too...

[mr_pikachu]

Regarding your comment; actually, I'm sure you DID see it. For a while after the forum change, the text code was accidentally switched to Unicode (a text programming language that, while featuring many different cultural languages, seems to be deficient in punctuation marks). As far as I can tell, though, the problem's been solved for everyone.

This was a nice chapter, and an interesting battle. I agree with Brock, I don't know if Kayla's cut out to be a trainer! This could lead to an extraordinary twist in the story, or a puzzling dilemma, depending on how you want this to go. Nice job with setting up a sort of cliffhanger for the next chapter! :D Can't wait for the next one! See you then! :wave:

[mistysakura]

Yay, new chapter! I was hoping this fic hadn't died... Anyway, I agree with mr_pikachu and Brock. Kayla's personalit goes more with caring for Pokemon than with training them. Although I think that good trainers should be able to care for their Pokemon well... It's occurred to me that in the game, you treat Pokemon so badly, yet you can become a "pokemon Master". I think that's unrealistic and inhumane, and it's cool that Kayla cares for her Pokemon so much.

Anyway, back on the topic. In such little time, Brock's character was done really well. I like having some insight as to the gym leaders' personalities. Good job. Losing your work sucks, and I hope you make it up soon.

[Aurora]

Heya... Glad this is still going. Bad Luck about the disk...

Love this chapter... Kayla doesn't just magically become confident and win, her character is really deep, and, I think, more interesting than trainers who are overconfident. Losing the battle was a twist compared to most plots, but i think it worked really well.

Good luck with the next chapters!

[Light_Togetic]

Yay! People still wanna read this! ^^

mr_pikachu: I thought that since Brock himself has a more 'comapssionate' view about pokemon training, I could allow him to recognize that aspect in Kayla's personality. We'll see where it leads her.

mistysakura: I agree! That was why I didn't like Pokemon when it first came out. I thought it was horrible and stupid, and I couldn't understand why no one else could see that. However, my brother got me hooked on the show, and well, here I am! ^^

Aurora: Tell me about it! I was soooooo frustrated when my disk didn't work... I thought at first that it was just the computer I was at, but then after several failed attempts, I just gave up. But that's okay, because I think they actually turned out better than I originally had them.

Anyway, now on to the next chapter! BTW, for some names, I used Spanish terms. For future reference: El Fuego means 'The Fire', Caliente means 'Hot', Cuidado means 'Danger', and the others are explained in the chapter. I don't really know why I chose Spanish terms; I just thought it sounded cool. ^-^;


The Glass Half Full

Ch. 12 Charmander's Secret

Kayla entered the now familiar well-lit lobby of the Pokemon Center. She looked around for instructions on where to go or what to do, but soon realized that both Julie and her sister were gone. She wasn't sure if she should wait in the lobby, or go looking for Charmander and Julie. She peered at the door next to the front desk, a large, red medical cross on it.

"Should I go in?" Kayla asked herself.

However, before she could even decide, Julie came walking out. Upon noticing Kayla, she ran up to her.

"Hey! About time you got here! Come on back and see your pokemon girl!" she said with a smile. Kayla relaxed. At least Julie didn't seem to have any more bad news; Kayla was afraid she couldn't take much more of that...

As Julie led her past the big door with the cross on it, Kayla noticed all of the other pokemon in the intensive care. There were other children with various pokemon like Oddish and Pidgey all sitting next to them in the small chairs provided, looking saddened. Kayla suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow and guilt as she walked up to her two pokemon.

Charmander lay in his small bed, a white cream covering a good portion of his body. He was next to another small bed in which Cubone had been staying. Cubone however, appeared completely healed, and was now looking more concerned about Charmander than anything else.

Nurse Joy was just finishing putting the cream on Charmander. "There, now take it easy will you?" she said in her soft, gentle voice. She turned around to face Kayla, who had sat down in one of the two chairs near her pokemon.

"Brock called me after you left the gym and told me what happened, so I'm not going to blame you for your pokemon's condition. I'm just going to say this; pokemon have their limits. Oh sure, you can measure a pokemon by its level and evolutionary status, but they all have a point where they just can't battle anymore in a match. It is your responsibility as a trainer to care of your pokemon, and if you can't handle it, then there are steps that can be taken to make sure you never handle pokemon again. Is that clear?" she said sternly, keeping her eyes locked onto Kayla's the whole time.

Kayla looked down. "Yes... I'm truly sor--."

"Yes, well they all say that. I'm afraid the words, 'I'm sorry' just don't mean anything to me anymore," she turned to leave the intensive care, "Good day."

Julie stuck out her tongue as Joy left. "She's such a downer! Can't she ever just accept that sometimes things happen!"

Cubone walked up to Charmander, as Julie continued to talk to Kayla. <So,> he said softly, <What're you in for?>

Charmander looked over to him with a puzzled expression, <Was that supposed to be a joke?>

Cubone rolled his eyes, <Well, I suppose it was not very good considering your reaction....>

<No, it wasn't; but the thought was greatly appreciated,> said Charmander with an affectionate smile.

"I mean come on! It's not like it was all your fault that stupid Geodude didn't listen to Brock!" growled Julie, still going on about her sister's speech.

Kayla interrupted. "No... It was my fault. I mean, if I were a better trainer, I would have noticed that Geodude was just too strong for Charmander to handle... But I didn't, and now because of me... Charmander could have...," Kayla ended, feeling as if she were about to cry.

Julie sat down next to Kayla. "Oh no Kayla," she said, sounding concerned, "It doesn't matter whose fault it was; it was a combination of things... What matters is that Charmander is okay, and that soon he'll be ready to take on new opponents and travel to new places with you!"

"But because of me he almost...," Kayla trailed off, not feeling any better.

"No! You can't go thinking that way!" said Julie, now looking frustrated, "When you're learning something new and you screw up majorly, what do you think about?"

"How much you messed up...," answered Kayla, still looking dejected.

"Wrong! Kayla, you think about how you can avoid doing it again! How you can make yourself better. Look, bad things happen everyday in everyone's lives; and if you only concentrate on how bad things are, you can never make a better tomorrow. You have to make yourself see the glass half full instead of half empty," said Julie, her voice now sounding softer again.

Kayla looked up at Julie, and silently though about it for a moment. A lot of bad things had happened to her... The Butterfree chasing them through the forest, Team Rocket stealing Pidgey and the other pokemon, losing at Brock's gym... but all through it, they had come out okay. Except for Pidgey, nothing lasting had happened. They had escaped Team Rocket, and even befriended the Butterfree that had been chasing them. Kayla had won Samurai's match, and Charmander had learned Ember. In fact, Charmander had been more optimistic than Kayla about many things... Kayla suddenly remembered what Charmander had said during the gym match...

<The only way the both of us are ever going to learn is if we make mistakes. So far, I'd say we've been pretty good with those Butterfree, Team Rocket, and that Samurai kid, and I think that those experiences far outweigh this little gym match...

... Kayla looked over at her orange pokemon lying in the small white bed. Charmander had tried to explain exactly what Julie was saying to her.

"You're righ...," said Kayla, feeling a little better, "Maybe I have been looking at it in the wrong way...."

"Yeah, I mean, you took on two Team Rocket members with only a little help from those other two from Pallet, and came out alright!" said Julie, nodding.

"There was Pidgey... but other than that, we did do pretty good," said Kayla, trying to ignore the one real bad thing that had happened.

Cubone walked up to Kayla and looked up at her, <It's normal to feel that way when you start out on your journey. Especially when very few tragic things have happened in your life. But I think that as time goes on, and you become stronger from experience, things will look better.>

Kayla nodded. "Yeah, you're right Cubone. I guess I just need to accept the things that have happened and go on... It's just a little hard to do," Kayla spoke softly.

Julie blinked. "Um... yeah. Well, I'll leave you three alone now. I think my sister might need some help with her next patient...," said Julie, trailing off as she walked over to a struggling Joy. Apparently a trainer had an injured Charizard that was not cooperating.

Charmander jerked his head up after Joy left. <What in the world was up with that Butterfree?! That was so rude of her to interrupt our battle...> he grumbled, looking frustrated.

Cubone blinked. <She interrupted your battle? Is that why you got so badly beaten? Hm... and all this time I though it was Geodude...> he said in a sarcastic tone.

Charmander gave a fake laugh, <Heh, that's funny; you're feeling funny today, aren't you Cubone?>

<I try my best,> he said with a smirk.

Kayla smiled as she watched her two pokemon playfully argue. She nodded to herself. If they could find the strength within themselves to laugh and play, then so could she...

Julie came walking back in. "Hey! My sister says she's got everything under control here, so I though maybe we could go for a walk. You know, to get your mind off of pokemon for a while? What'dya say?" she suggested, looking excited.

"Um... I guess; my pokemon will be okay here?" Kayla asked looking at the two.

"Of course, my sister'll take good care of them. Now come on, you need a break!" Julie said stubbornly.

"Alright... you guys will be okay?" asked Kayla.

<Sure, as long as old Pops here stops making his lame jokes,> Charmander commented with a sideways glance.

<I will watch over him,> said Cubone bowing his head.

"Okay then, see you guys in a little bit," said Kayla, as Julie tugged at her shirt to get her to leave. Within a few seconds the two of them had left the room.

Charmander sighed. <Oh... pokemon training sure does make you sleepy...> he said, closing his eyes.

"Put him over here!" yelled Joy, as she brought in the injured Charizard. He still wasn't cooperating very well, and two Chansey had to help Joy get the dragon up on the bed.

"Boy, you sure are a tough Charizard...!" she grunted, pushing him down on the bed that Cubone used to be on.

As soon as Joy left, the Charizard calmed down a bit, and looked over at Cubone. Cubone had been watching him, and noticed how large in size the Charizard was. On his left eye he had a scar that looked as if he had gotten in a bad fight, and his tail flame looked familiar to Cubone...

<What're you lookin' at?> asked the Charizard, glaring at Cubone.

<I was looking at you,> answered Cubone sincerely. He had nothing to hide.

Charmander opened his eyes, frowning, <Who're you talking to?> He looked over as he spoke, and noticed the Charizard lying in the bed next to him. Charmander's eyes went back and forth between the scar and the tail flame and widened slightly with surprised recognition. And apparently, the Charizard was having the same reaction too...

<Hey!> the large orange dragon said loudly, <If it isn't my old buddy Poco!>

Cubone raised an eyebrow, <Poco?>

Charmander frowned and turned on his side so that he was no longer facing the Charizard. <I don't know who you're talking about. I think you have me confused with someone else....>

Cubone continued to watch silently.

<Oh come on; I'd recognize that tail flame anywhere, and your voice, Poco! It's you, and you know it. So, how's life as a puny, little Charmander?> asked the Charizard, smirking.

<I tell you, I'm not Poco!> squeaked Charmander, closing his eyes tightly.

Cubone stepped in. <Excuse me, but you are upsetting my friend here. So if you would be so kind as to-->

<Hey! Stay out of this gramps! Or you'll have El Fuego to deal with!> said the Charizard, puffing out his chest to look bigger.

Cubone's eyes contracted into a dangerous glare aimed at El Fuego, <You listen to me boy; I am not a mere pushover like the others you have fought around here. Don't take me lightly. Now, if I were you, I'd learn to respect your elders....>

El Fuego decided to respect his elders, and became quiet suddenly. He turned in his bed, and after a few minutes of tense waiting on Charmander's part, fell asleep. Cubone approached Charmander.

<Now are you going to tell me what that was about; or am I going to have to wait longer,> asked Cubone, looking seriously at his orange friend.

Charmander tried to fold his arms, but after wincing in pain decided to just puff his cheeks in annoyance, <Better pull up a chair, because you'll be waiting a very long time....>

Cubone raised an eyebrow, <Is it something to do with... evolution?>

Charmander's eyes glanced at his curious friend. <Maybe....>

<Don't be afraid to tell me about it,> said Cubone, <I promise you that anything you and your friends have done in the past is probably pale in comparison to what I have done.>

<I suppose... well, alright, but no telling anyone else, okay?> Charmander stammered reluctantly. Cubone was now even more curious. Light-hearted Charmander; what could he have done wrong?

Charmander sat up in his bed, peered over to El Fuego, and then heaved a squeaky sigh. <Well, I guess the only way to tell you is to tell you...> he paused; then began his story...

<Before Professor Oak caught me, I lived in the woods to the southeast of Pallet Town. A lot of pokemon live there, along with a large group of Charizard. My egg was laid about the same time as many other eggs, but I hatched late. And for a good reason; you see, I was a runt. You know, one of those babies that are really small and scrawny. And my mother and father didn't want anything to do with me. In my group of Charizard, all of the young Charmander form little alliances of friends and battle together to gain experience and evolve; but my parents thought that nobody would want a runt. So they ignored me and hoped that I would just die off...>

Cubone shook his head. <Unfortunately, that is how a lot of pokemon clans are. They never want to endanger the group by keeping runts,> he said, feeling sorry for Charmander.

Charmander nodded, <Yeah, but that was okay, because there were three other Charmander around my age that decided to accept me into the circle of friends. We even called ourselves 'Los Lagartos Terribles', or 'The Terrible Lizards'! Heh, those were some fun times. Although our name sounded mean, we were actually quite nice and polite; always made sure our opponents never got severely injured, and always helped them back to full health using berries and other plants. I wasn't a very good battler back then, so I only had a few matches that got me up to about level 4, and was nicknamed 'Poco' meaning 'small'. That was okay with me though, because I knew I would one day evolve....> Charmander paused.

<So what happened? I am of course assuming that they evolved and you did not?> suggested Cubone, hurrying the story along.

<I'm getting there!> snapped Charmander, <Man! You're the one who wanted to hear this whole thing...> He put his hand on his chin, <Now let's see, where was I? Oh yeah, okay, so then this one day...>

<Oh man! I am totally stuffed!> groaned El Fuego as he leaned back on a fallen log. The trees around the four Charmander rustled slightly, but none of them noticed.

<Who do you think we should challenge next?> asked an excited squeaky Poco.

<Whoever! And hey, Poco, I think you should have the next battle,> replied El Fuego, smiling.

<R... really?> said Poco in amazement. He didn't think that they would have let him after his mistake... <Even after yesterday?> he asked curiously.

<Of course! Everyone makes mistakes, right boys? Besides, Poco can't be your name forever! We want you to evolve with us someday, right?> said El Fuego, looking around.

The other two Charmander nodded. One, named Cuidado stood up, <Yeah Poco! Maybe you can just-->

Everyone paused. A huge roar sounded from nearby.

<What was that?!> squeaked Poco in fear.

El Fuego stood up quickly. <Hey! It sounds like a Rhydon! Let's check it out!> he yelled, beginning to run in the direction of the noise.

Poco looked a bit reluctant, but followed his three friends anyway. After running a few yards, they found a huge Rhydon that had been injured from something. It was flailing its arms around, and firing a super-charged Hyper Beam attack in any direction it felt like.

<It has to be stopped! Before it hurts a bunch of pokemon!> yelled El Fuego, looking angry.

<Dude, Fuego, what can we do? We're just a couple of Charmander! We don't stand a chance against that thing!> yelled one of the Charmander.

<Caliente, we must try!> yelled El Fuego, racing up to the oversized gray dinosaur. He stopped, and began to belch out fire aimed at the top of the Rhydon's head. When the other Charmander saw what El Fuego was doing, they raced up to his side, and began to do the same. Poco, however, hadn't learned any fire attacks yet, and stood nearby, feeling helpless. Rhydon growled in agony, and swatted unsuccessfully at the three Charmander below him. He then began to walk away from the flames, and over toward Poco.

<Ahhh!!! Help me you guys!> yelled Poco, attempting to run away. He turned abruptly, and tripped on a raised tree root, falling onto a large rock. He took one last look at the giant Rhydon coming at him, and then fell unconscious....

When he was awoken, Poco looked around slowly. A group of three Charmeleon looked down upon him chuckling to themselves. Poco stood up.

<Hey! Why are you all laughing? Where's Los Lagartos Terribles?> he squeaked, feeling a little scared.

<We are them Poco!> growled the largest Charmeleon. Poco looked at his flame tail, and recognized him.

<El Fuego?! You evolved?!> he squeaked even louder, his eyes widening.

<That's right. Hey, are we glad we found you! You know, we're still wired from evolving, so do you mind if we have a little fun?> said El Fuego, a smirk on his face.

Poco raised an eyebrow. A sinking feeling suddenly appeared in his stomach, yet he couldn't figure out why... <Uh I guess so...> said Poco slowly.

<Come on fellas,> said El Fuego, <He said he wants us to have fun, so let's show him a good time!>

The three Charmeleon closed in upon a frightened Poco, and began to pummel him. Poco screamed out for them to stop, but they just kept beating on him, until he fainted...

Cubone blinked. <Why would they hurt you, their friend?> he asked, still a bit confused.

<Don't you see?> said Charmander, shaking his head sadly, <They weren't my friends anymore. They were Charmeleon. When they evolved, their whole personalities changed! They became horrible, rude, defiant little boogers...! They didn't see me as their little buddy to help protect anymore; they saw me as a wimpy runt Charmander to beat up on....>

<That's nothing to be ashamed of telling people Charmander. Why were you so afraid to tell me?> asked Cubone, looking concerned.

<Well, because after they changed, I still hung out with them. They were my only friends, even if they did beat on me. The things they did to wild pokemon... Humiliated them, tormented them... Especially the Mr. Mime that lived around there. I could never figure out what they had against them,> he frowned, <That's why I'm ashamed. Because I wasn't strong enough to break away from them.>

The two of them were silent for a few minutes, and then Cubone looked up at Charmander.

<I have one last question. You might not like it, but you must realize that I was bound to ask it,> said Cubone, looking grave.

<Go ahead...,> said Charmander, looking ready.

<Will you act as those Charmeleon did when you evolve?> asked Cubone, staring at Charmander.

<That; I don't know the answer to. Which is why I don't ever want to evolve,> replied Charmander, his expression hardening.

<But if Kayla-->

<No! I won't do it! I won't become like them... I can't do that to myself, and I certainly can't do that to you or Kayla,> yelled Charmander, his voice squeaking more than usual, his eyes filling up with tears.

<Heh, still a little crybaby, eh Poco?> smirked El Fuego, apparently now awake. He sat up in his bed and swayed his tail back and forth.

Charmander glared at El Fuego with malice in his eyes, <You...,> he growled, anger rising up in him, <I'm tired of being your punching bag! No more. This relationship ends. Now.>

<Oooohh! I'm shaking like a leaf!> cried El Fuego in a fake girly voice as he waved his claws in the air.

The other trainers in the room began to look over. One ran up to the front lobby to tell Nurse Joy.

Charmander just sat glaring at him. It was obvious he was trying his hardest not to cry.

<Yeah, cry you puny little nobody! You could never EVER defeat me! So I don't think you have the right to tell me when our 'relationship' is over. In fact, why don't we have a heart-felt reunion right... now!> he said, the smirk on his face re-appearing. He curved his claws, and was about to strike Charmander when Cubone jumped in-between them.

El Fuego paused. <Move it gramps!>

<I don't think so,> growled Cubone, <How dare you say that Charmander could never beat you. You do not have magical powers to see into the future!> He paused, <Someday, Charmander will be as strong and powerful as you, maybe even stronger.>

<Psh! Yeah right! That little runt?> scoffed El Fuego, still smirking.

Cubone's eyes narrowed, <You've overstepped your bounds by a mile young man, and I cannot allow you to go any further.>

<What?! What're you gonna do? Throw your fake teeth at me?> replied El Fuego, looking un-impressed.

Cubone said nothing in response to that, and closed his eyes slowly. After a few seconds, a glowing blue aura surrounded his body in a Focus Energy attack. El Fuego still looked un-impressed, and folded his arms to let this frail Cubone take the first shot.

Cubone opened his eyes quickly, the blue aura subsided, and he ran up to the Charizard, and began to punch and push him as hard as he could. This was obviously a Thrash attack, and Charmander's mouth hung open in mild shock.

<Never... pick on my friends again!> growled Cubone as he punched hard on El Fuego's chest.

<Aahh!! Help me! Get him off!> yelled El Fuego between punches.

The Charizard backed away as soon as he could, and Cubone had to use all of the restrain he had within him to make the Thrash attack stop.

<Now,> said Cubone calmly, <Say you are sorry.>

El Fuego rubbed his now bruising chest and bleeding cheek and turned to Charmander looking very embarrassed.

<Fine... I'm sorry,> he said flatly, not meaning any of it.

Charmander smiled a bit.

Nurse Joy came running into the room with the boy that had gotten her. She took a look at Charizard's new wounds, and was beside herself with anger.

"Who did this?!" she yelled to the pokemon in the room.

All of the trainers pointed at Cubone and Charmander.

Nurse Joy glared at the two of them. "Oh! Well, your trainer will be getting a lovely talk about her pokemon's behavior when she comes back!" she yelled, then began to shoo El Fuego to the healing room so that she could tend to his wounds.

Cubone looked up at Charmander, <Do you think I did the right thing?>

Charmander grinned widely. He had felt so happy when Cubone had stood up for him and told El Fuego that someday he would be powerful and strong. Ever since his old friends had evolved he had wished that he could find some real friends, friends that would treat him not as a weakling but as an equal. Friends that would believe in him...

<Are you alright?> asked Cubone, a little perplexed.

Charmander closed his eyes and laid back down on his bed.

<Never better Pops, never better...>

[mr_pikachu]

Yahoo! New chapter! :D

Nice background on Charmander; I'm surprised you were able to keep it from us for so long. "Poco", huh? Interesting. El Fuego was a sh-- an idiot, and now Kayla's going to take the blame again! Poor Kayla... can't anything happen right for her? Still though, good for Charmander and Cubone. Beat the stuffing out of that Charizard, Cubone! :yes:


"You have to make yourself see the glass half full instead of half empty," said Julie, her voice now sounding softer again.

Ah, so THAT'S why you picked the title! The plot's really starting to develop... but I can't help but wonder when anything more will happen along the lines of Kayla's parents? I'm sure that when something does come up, it will change the story drastically. But enough speculation for now. Good work, good chapter, let's have another one! ;)

[mistysakura]

And in a flash of inspiration, the meaning of the title becomes crystal clear -- sort of. I'm sure you still have a lot of surprises in store! I sure wasn't expecting that for Charmander's secret. Poco... i should have realised what it ment, being a musician. Those names are really fitting. Poor Kayla, being blamed for everything. I guess Joy had her reasons, ut it seems a bit too harsh for a beginning trainer. Poor girl.

Good stuff.

[Aurora]

heheheh... Poor Kayla

Good plotline... :rotfl: Keep on with it...

*huge grin*

That's all I'm saying...

:D :rotfl: :heh: :rotfl: :D

[Light_Togetic]

Okay! Going with what BritChris said, I'm gonna keep posting in this thread rather than starting a new thread with the same story. It's been so long I didn't really know which to do... ^^;

Anyway, my intrest has once again been sparked to write. This is good. Because I get the chance to show people a story, and to entertain myself when I'm bored!

Now, hopefully you guys remember some things from before like who people are and stuff. If not I suppose you could always go back and look at the previous chapters. But, meh, I'm sure you'll be fine. SO, without further ado, enjoy the next chapter:


The Glass Half Full

Ch. 13 Setting Off Alone… Again

As Kayla and Julie walked through the streets of Pewter City, Kayla couldn’t help but feel as if she and Julie were becoming good friends. Kayla thought back to when she had first left her home, and how she had asked Mike and Gary to travel with her.

Even if their response was no, it didn’t mean that everyone would say that.

Kayla spent the next five minutes trying to pluck up enough courage to ask Julie if she would join her little group…

They paused in front of a small uniform shop, and Julie looked in the window at the Nurse Joy outfit that was settled between an Officer Jenny uniform, and a Pokemon Fire-Fighter Squad t-shirt.

“Um, you know Julie, you and I have gotten to be pretty good friends wouldn’t you say?” started Kayla, her voice wavering.

Julie continued to stare at the Nurse Joy outfit.

“Well, um… I was thinking, since you’re just an assistant nurse, maybe you could come with me on my journey, and we could learn about pokemon and stuff…” finished Kayla, awaiting Julie’s response.

“Kayla,” said Julie, turning around, “Can you keep a secret?”

“Huh…?!” said Kayla, a bit confused.

“Well?” prompted Julie, waiting.

Kayla raised an eyebrow, and felt a little hurt that Julie hadn’t answered her question yet, “Yes, I can. But why didn’t you—.”

“Okay then, come over here,” she said, pointing to the window she was in front of.

Kayla walked over, and the two sat on a small bench just below the display. Julie looked almost upset about what she was going to tell Kayla, her expression a mixture of both anger and sadness.

“I want to be a Pokemon Nurse,” she said, looking at Kayla.

“Well I know that,” said Kayla, still a bit confused, “I think it’s great!”

“No,” Julie said sadly, “You don’t understand… I just… Oh! I wish I weren’t so dumb and clumsy! It’s because of my mistakes that my sisters don’t think I’ll ever become a good nurse.”

“Wha…?! But that’s not very supportive!” said Kayla, a small bit of anger showing through. How could such nice nurses be so mean to one of their sisters?

“I know,” nodded Julie, “But, I just know that if I totally work my hardest and prove to them that I can be a great nurse; that they will eventually let me have my own Pokemon Center!” Her expression was resolute, and Kayla found herself nodding and agreeing with her. Someone that determined is just bound to come out on top.

“I’m sure you will someday, Julie. Now I just wish that I could be that confident…,” said Kayla, feeling sorry for herself.

“Confidence isn’t given to you Kayla, you have to work at it. Don’t worry, I think you’re the kind of person that just needs something to happen before they find themselves… And you know what…? That’s also the same reason why I can’t travel with you,” said Julie, looking truly sorry about her decision.

“Huh?!” said Kayla, surprised to hear that Julie had heard her question after all.

“I need time to work on my skills as a Pokemon Nurse. And I think you’ll learn confidence better if you go alone. So, I’m sorry… Maybe sometime you’ll find someone to travel with you; maybe someone that you have something in common with. Who knows?” said Julie, smiling.

Kayla nodded. “I guess so….”


-----------------------------------------------

Charmander pointed to the large Charizard at the other side of the room. <No way! It was all that big lug’s fault! He was just asking to be pummeled!>

Kayla shook her head, not having understood what her pokemon had said, and turned to Nurse Joy. “I’m really, really sorry about my pokemon’s behavior. I didn’t know that they would--.”

“NO YOU DIDN’T! NOW I WANT YOU OUT OF MY CENTER THIS MINUTE!” yelled an irate Nurse Joy. Julie opened her mouth to protest, but Nurse Joy gave her the most evil eye that Kayla had ever seen.

Kayla tried to talk, she wanted to stick up for her pokemon’s actions, but when she opened her mouth, she felt more like crying that talking. Some of the other trainers in the room all glared at Kayla, blaming her for causing the whole upset while their pokemon were trying to heal. Others simply looked as if they felt sorry for her.

“I… I… all right… I’ll go…,” she said, her voice wavering. She felt that tightened feeling in her throat and turned to Cubone and Charmander.

“Come on guys,” she said, putting on a fake smile that faltered when she spoke, “Let’s go head up to Mt. Moon….”

Julie stepped forward angrily, “This is so unfa--!”

“Enough!” yelled Joy, staring hard at her sister, “This is my center and what I say goes!”

Julie huffed a little in disagreement, but knew she had no power here. Yet Kayla did hear her mutter something like, “Glad I’ll be leaving for Saffron soon…” under her breath.

Cubone helped Charmander out of his bed, and the three of them turned to leave.

“Kayla!” called Julie, looking sad, “We’ll see each other again some day! You wait and see! Maybe I’ll still be in Saffron when you get there on your journey! ‘Kay?”

Kayla smiled a little, “Kay….” And with those last words, Kayla, Cubone, and a limping Charmander walked off in the direction of the ominous Moony Mountains.


--------------------------------------

“Look, I know it’s here somewhere! Just give me some time!” yelled a young Rocket member with spiky, pony-tailed forest green hair. The light shone down on the two Rockets trudging side-by-side.

“Hopefully Marilu… Man, I am really starting to get hot… I can feel the sweat dripping down from my hair!” the other said, wiping his dark violet hair back to reveal a damp forehead.

“Can it Zephyr!” she paused, “Or should I call you… Bryant?” Marilu said with a snigger.

“Shut up! I only told that girl my real name because Zephyr sounds so fake!” he snapped, glaring at his partner.

“Whatever… hey! I think that’s it on top of that cliff up there!” cried Marilu, pointing up to the pinnacle of a high cliff above them. On the top and barely visible was the tip of a small, log cabin. The chimney of it was readily visible, and Marilu jumped with excitement.

“Yes I told you I knew where it was!” she said, clapping her hands.

“But it’s way up there! Now we have to climb up that thing?!” shouted Zephyr, clearly not pleased by this revelation.

“Alright, we can take a rest then,” Marilu commanded reluctantly.

The two of them sat down with their backs against a large pine tree. All around them the sounds of various insect and bird pokemon were audible, and the hot air made everything seem slow. Zephyr looked down at his belt.

“Come on out Chikorita,” he said lazily, and tossed his pokeball a few feet away. It opened with a pitch white flash, and soon the small, mint colored pokemon was curled up by her trainer’s side.

“Why do you do that?” asked Marilu, making a disgusted face as she watched Chikorita nudge Zephyr’s leg.

“Do what?” asked Zephyr with a tone of caution.

“Let out your little brat when there’s nothing to battle?” she clarified, looking as if Zephyr should have known what it was she was talking about.

“Because, unlike you, I actually like my pokemon. And I’d like to think that she likes me. Weird, huh?” he finished, throwing Marilu an annoyed look and then leaning back against the tree with his eyes closed.

“Don’t fall asleep dummy!” warned Marilu, but the heat of the day was getting to Zephyr, and soon he found himself daydreaming about a time long ago for him…


A little boy with fluffy dark violet hair peered over the edge of a large table. He noticed the other children doing the same thing, and continued to stare at the large box in the middle of the table. The room they were all in was dark and barely lit; and it had the scent of a sterilized doctor’s office. A tall man walked up to the table and the group of small children, flanked by a young boy that looked about fifteen.

The others all fell silent at the appearance of the man and boy, but Bryant had recognized them.

“Hi Tom! …Hi… Dad,” said Bryant, waving to them shyly.

“Bryant, this isn’t the time!” whispered Tom, pushing his brother roughly back to his spot around the table.

Bryant stared up at his father for a moment, but when his father looked back at Bryant, his expression did nothing to acknowledge that he even recognized his own son. Bryant though, seemed to act as if this were normal, and went back to staring at the huge box on the table.

Bryant’s father finally spoke, “This is an important day for all of you. Not only is this your fifth birthday, but this is the day you all receive your first pokemon, and begin your life as a Team Rocket member,” he paused, allowing for the excited whispers to subside, “Giovanni has personally requested to come down here to hand each of you your pokemon,” he said, motioning to a large man sitting in a chair about ten feet away, “Now this is how it works. I will call one of you up here. I will instruct you to pull out a piece of paper from the box, and it will be your code Team Rocket name. In other words, it will be your name from now on. You are not to use your real name except for when a Team Rocket executive requests it. The strip of paper will also have the name of a species of pokemon on it. This will be your first pokemon. If you get your pokemon, and don’t like it, then you will have the option of either re-training it, or receiving another pokemon.”

Bryant wondered for a moment what his first pokemon would be…

“Now, I will call you up in alphabetical order… Betty,” said Bryant’s father, looking to a pale girl on the right of Bryant. She hopped up and pulled out a paper with “Katelyn” and “Growlithe” on it. She was then directed over to Giovanni, who handed her a shiny, new pokeball.

After a few more minutes of other children going, Bryant’s name was called. He hopped up quickly, not wanting to look lazy in front of his father, and tried to contain his excitement. Digging deeply, he grabbed out a paper that felt good, and looked at what was written on it… “Zephyr” and “Chikorita”.

He then turned around to show his father what he had gotten, but his father was already calling the next child up. So Bryant raced over to Giovanni, who looked down at the pokemon on the slip.

“A fine choice boy. Chikorita can be trained to be very nasty pokemon indeed,” he said, smiling coldly. Bryant said nothing, and received the pokeball with very restrained excitement.

Outside the cold, dark room, on the sunny grass, were the other children, letting out their pokemon for the first time. Bryant tossed his down gently a few feet away, which issued a flash of bright, white light. Soon a small, shaking Chikorita stood in its wake, crimson eyes widened with fear as it looked up at Bryant.

Bryant, who had never had a pokemon before, was a bit unsure about how to proceed, until he got an idea.

“Uh… hi!” he said, waving to the minty pokemon.

Chikorita just stood shaking silently.

“Are you scared?” asked Bryant, trying to communicate again.

Again, the Chikorita did nothing. Bryant’s brother, Tom, came over to the two of them.

“Having trouble brother?” he asked, smiling.

“Yeah… I think it’s scared,” he said, pointing to Chikorita.

“Oh yeah, most of them are like that when you first get ‘em. Old Raichu here was too,” he said, nodding toward the Raichu now at his side.

Raichu chuckled at Chikorita’s fear and then at Bryant’s naivety.

“But how do I get it to like me?” asked Bryant, looking curious.

“You mean get them to do what you say? Oh that’s easy, you just gotta teach her to obey. Everytime she doesn’t do something or answer when you speak to her, you hurt her,” he said, “Here, you can use my whip for right now,” he said, handing Bryant the whip from his side.

Bryant looked at the large whip, a little unsure, but if his brother said so…

Chikorita blinked nervously, staring at the whip in her new trainer’s hands.

“Um… what should I do?” asked Bryant, still unsure.

“Tell her to show you her attacks or something,” suggested Tom.

“Okay…” said Bryant, turning to look at Chikorita, “Um, Chikorita, show me your attacks.”

Chikorita sat there, motionless. She couldn’t move she was so afraid.

“Now you take the whip, like this,” Tom said grabbing the whip from Bryant, “And throw it like this!” He tossed the whip’s end and let it hit Chikorita on her forehead.

<Ahhh!> she screamed, tears coming out of her eyes.

Raichu stared blankly for a moment, thinking of the time when he was in that position. He knew better now though…

“Doesn’t that hurt her though?” asked Bryant, looking worried.

“Nah, pokemon ain’t got any feelings, they’re just dumb animals. Tools for us Team Rocket members to use,” answered Tom, as he gave the whip back to Bryant.

Bryant stared at the pain and fear still visible in Chikorita’s eyes.

“But it just looks more scared than before,” observed Bryant, pointing at the shaking Chikorita.

“Disciplining takes time,” said Tom, looking down at Bryant, “First they’re scared of you, which is good. Then, they learn to hate you, which is better; and then they learn to hate everyone else. That’s what you want. And you’ll know when they’ve gotten that far because the light from their pokeball will turn black instead of white. Those pokemon are called ‘Dark Pokemon’, and they’re what Team Rocket is famous for. They’re super-powerful, and obey their masters no matter what.”

Bryant looked at Raichu, its emotionless expression, and almost soulless eyes.

“Well, I’ve gotta go Bryant… er, I mean, ‘Zephyr’, see ya around!” said Tom as he turned to leave Bryant with Chikorita, “Good luck with that disciplining!”

Bryant turned to Chikorita, still holding the whip, and felt a bit confused. Tom said that pokemon didn’t have feelings, but Chikorita had screamed as he whipped her… why would something scream if it didn’t have feelings? But he shouldn’t be thinking about that… he should be disciplining his pokemon…

“Okay Chikorita, now show me your attacks!” he said, staring at his tiny pokemon.

Chikorita just shook even more violently, and remained silent.

Bryant sighed for a moment, and then held up the whip in his hand. He hesitated for a moment, but then threw back his hand and tossed the whip at Chikorita.

<Mommy!> the little Chikorita cried as the whip hit her front left leg and left a small, reddening welt. She began to cry.

Bryant stood silently. He stared at the tears streaming down Chikorita’s minty face, and then looked around to all of the other pokemon with their new trainers. The Growlithe from earlier, now doubled over in pain, an Ekans curling itself up to hide in fear, and one boy’s pokemon, a Squirtle, threw a look of sheer hatred at his trainer. Bryant shook his head for a moment staring at the Squirtle; something just didn’t seem right about all this….

Then he looked back over to Chikorita. But there was no Chikorita!

“Chikorita?! Chikorita where’d you go?” called Bryant, dropping his brother’s whip and walking forward. It was his fault that it had run off… he had whipped it…

Bryant called and called and soon found himself over by a small stream just on the outskirts of the building’s grounds. He peered over to the bank’s edge and saw a small, flighty Chikorita looking down into the water.

<Mommy… where are you? Why’d you go away?> mumbled Chikorita, tears still streaming.

“Chikorita? What are you doing over here?” called Bryant, running over to her.

<Huh?!> started Chikorita, turning quickly and beginning to shake in fear again. She looked around for the fastest way out of the area.

“Please wait! Don’t go again!” said Bryant, noticing Chikorita’s fear, “I just wanted a pokemon to be my friend. You know, my friend?”

Chikorita wasn’t listening; she was busy watching for the whip to pop out again. When she didn’t see it, she began to run off.

“No please! I promise I won’t use that awful whip! I don’t like to whip anything anyway… Please!” he cried, leaping over to where she was headed and grabbing her around the waist.

At first Chikorita struggled against Bryant’s hold, then when he started to pet her lightly, she stopped a bit and looked up at him.

<No… hurting?> she said, her eyes shiny with new tears.

“Man… There’s gotta be an easier way to get you to listen to me besides whipping you all the time!” said Bryant, letting go of her. Chikorita stared up at him, puzzled.

“I mean, I don’t understand why I can’t just be nice to you. Wouldn’t that make you listen to me too? And then you wouldn’t have to get hurt and stuff,” he pondered, looking down at the tiny pokemon.

<Nice…?> repeated Chikorita, shifting her leaf around.

“I like being nice to people,” said Bryant, now thinking of his family, “Ever since I was really little, I’ve just had my brothers and my Mommy. My brothers weren’t very nice to me, and my Mommy was always gone doing Team Rocket stuff. And my Dad, he never even talks to me… I wish that I had a friend like that time I kept a little roly-poly as a pet. He was my friend, and he never pushed me or called me names and stuff,” he paused, thinking about his old pet, “I thought that a pokemon would be like that too… but now everyone wants me to make them hate me! I just want a friend…,” he finished, now finding himself starting to tear up.

Chikorita looked up at her trainer, and suddenly found that she wasn’t afraid of him anymore. The two of them weren’t really that different right then; they were both lonely, and both wanted a friend, someone whom they could love and be loved by.

“Will you be my friend, Chikorita? And I promise to make sure that nobody hurts you and that I don’t hurt you either! Is that okay?” Bryant suggested, holding out his hand for a handshake.

Chikorita looked a bit unsure at first, but then she had no way to get home, and she really did feel as if Bryant was being sincere with her.

<Okay,> she said with a small smile, and moved her leaf to the top of Bryant’s hand, sealing the handshake.

Bryant smiled back; and for the second time in his life, felt as if he had one person in the world that he could really trust…


“HEY!” yelled Marilu’s voice loudly. Several Pidgey flew out of the tree above them.

“Ahh!” jumped Zephyr, his mind coming back into the present. He glared at his partner. Did she always have to be so loud?

“Let’s go already! What’re you doing anyway? It looked as if you were spacing out completely!” huffed Marilu, folding her arms.

“I was thinking of a long time ago… And you didn’t have to be so darn rude about it!” yelled, Zephyr, still glaring at Marilu.

“Whatever; can we just go now,” she answered, not looking sorry one bit. She stood up and stretched.

“Fine…,” said Zephyr looking down at Chikorita, who was now awake and staring hard at Marilu. Zephyr shook his head at her as if it were a silent warning not to attack the girl, then held out his pokeball.

“Return!” he said, watching the glowing red light of Chikorita zoom back into his pokeball. Marilu sniggered.

“Oh, I thought that the little brat was going to be out with us for the rest of the day! You know, like just any old beginning trainer would allow,” said Marilu smugly. She eyed Zephyr cautiously.

“Stop it,” he warned, “There’s nothing in the Team Rocket Rulebook saying that I can’t let out my pokemon every once in a while. That rule is just in yours.”

And as Marilu rolled her eyes again and huffed loudly, Zephyr walked off with her towards the cliff that they needed to find out how to get on top of.

[mr_pikachu]

I get to be the first to say....

YES!!

I've been hoping that this fic would continue for a long time, and I had just about lost hope... until now. It's good to see that you're back writing again. Don't worry, I forgive you! ;)

This was pretty good. The tension between Kayla and Joy is mounting... let's just hope she doesn't tell her relatives about this! It's a shame that Julie can't travel with Kayla, but I suppose it makes sense. She will become a stronger person from this... maybe...

And nice work with Marilu and Zephyr. Your characterization of the latter is coming along quite nicely. It doesn't seem like being a Rocket is right for him. I mean, just look at the premise of everything they do! It's good that he was smart enough that Chikorita could be a true friend, rather than a servant. Smart kid. :yes:

That part with Chikorita and the whip... I literally teared up when I saw that. Really. Excellent, excellent work with that part of it. You did a superb job of showing Chikorita's helpnessness, Zephyr's hesitation with the whip, and finally the bond forming between them. That's one of the best segments of writing I've seen in quite awhile. You should be proud of that.

The chapter was not without flaws, though. You reverted to past tense once or twice, and you left out some punctuation, mainly in quotations. Remember, just because the character may not talk properly or use proper words doesn't mean that you shouldn't make the punctuation as close to grammatically correct as possible.

One final really, really small critique is that you may want to cut back on your use of the "..." punctuation. I have problems with that myself. The key is to use a healthy balance of the various types so that the reader doesn't become distracted by the abnormal punctuation being used repeatedly. Choose your moments to use tricks like that carefully.

Otherwise, this was very nice. I'm glad you're writing this again. I'll see you next chapter! Let's just hope it's not a four-and-a-half month wait this time around! ;)

[Light_Togetic]

*four and a half months later* I'm back!! Just kidding. =)

Thanks for the compliments mr_pikachu. It took me a while to write that chapter because I had no idea what to put in it. It was just supposed to be a transition into Kayla going to the mountains, and I had no idea how to liven it up. But then I decided to take a peek on the bad guys and see how they were doing.

Yes, I happen to like "..." too much. I think I talk with "..." too much myself, so it just happens to come into my writing... AH! There it is again!!! I'll have to watch myself.

Anyway, you get ta' read another chapter! And I already have the next three writen, so you'll at least get those in an orderly fashion too. =P


The Glass Half Full

Ch. 14 The Moony Mountains

<Oww! Darn it! Whoever made the mountains sure did a cruddy job of it!> complained a little orange lizard as a group of four headed up a small incline.

Kayla had let out Berri the Butterfree so that she could enjoy her favorite place, as per her trainer’s request. Unfortunately, Charmander was still a bit angry at her for interrupting his gym battle, and had fallen into a grumpy mood from it. Although, Berri’s constant stream of talking about how battling was wrong wasn’t helping his mood any…

<Well no wonder!> said Berri, <I mean, just look at the horrible shape those feet of yours are in! From battling probably… I mean, how could you ever expect them to be healthy if you’re always fighting like a cave animal.>

Charmander glared backward to the red, flying insect floating peacefully behind him. <Yeah,> he said sarcastically turning around again and continuing to walk, <Gee, I wonder how they got so messed up in that battle? Could it be that they’re still healing from the gym battle that YOU INTERRUPTED!> He stopped abruptly and turned around expecting to face Berri, but instead met with Cubone.

<Simmer down, Kid,> said Cubone, lightly knocking Charmander’s head with his bone.

Charmander paused for a minute, unsure as to how to respond, and then raised an eyebrow.

<Kid…?> he repeated, looking confused.

<Well, you always call me the nickname ‘Pops’, so I will call you a name based on your age,> replied Cubone, without looking at him.

Charmander suddenly looked offended, <What?! I’m not a little kid!>

Cubone shrugged, <You’re a teenager, right? Well, I consider that a child. At least, in respect to my age.>

Kayla smiled as they walked on. Well, at least Cubone was making Charmander lighten up a bit. He may have looked angry about his new nickname, but Kayla knew that Charmander probably liked the fact that Cubone had given him one. She looked over to Berri, not realizing that she had just understood the small conversation between her two pokemon; and watched the red butterfly silently fly around, sometimes darting up to a tree to see what was going on at it.

“Don’t go too far away from us Berri. You don’t want to wait longer than you have to, to see your trainer, right?” Kayla said loudly, hoping Berri would listen to her.

<What?> said Berri, turning to listen, <Oh, I won’t get lost. Besides, all of these trees and smells remind me of home and my Master, and I don’t want to miss a second of it.>

Kayla nodded, hoping that what Berri had just said was ‘okay!’. She then looked at her feet walking on the now grassy ground. Was it that she just had to clear her mind in order to hear what pokemon said? Whenever she would understand them, it was almost like she wouldn’t realize it; kind of like eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation on accident. It was all so strange, and a little scary; that she almost wished it didn’t happen… She looked down at Cubone now, and wondered to herself; did he know all about why she could do this? He seemed to know exactly what to do when it happened before at the Pokemon Center in Pewter, and he wasn’t surprised at all.

The scenery of the Moony Mountains was very pretty. At times, the scenery was rocky and unfinished looking, like a child’s partially completed drawing. Above them all was the bright sun making things feel a little hot. The rocks had little vegetation around them, and really the only trees were tall, lanky pines and cedars.

Although a great deal of the mountain was rocky like that, there were also patches of grassy fields, bushes, and areas that resembled forests rather than mountains. Kayla was glad that the pokemon trainers that had come through this area in the past had used the same route, because their traveling had worn away the growth on the ground, and left a thin path to follow. This way Kayla was sure to not get lost, and if she did get lost, she would know if she was back on track by finding the path again.

Along the path there were various items all strewn about. Most of it was trash, but once in a while, Kayla would find a half-full potion bottle, or small hunk of Rare Candy. As they passed a large cedar tree, Kayla stopped to look at something shinning on the ground.

“Hey! It’s a pokeball!” she cried, lifting it up. The pokemon watched as she threw it to see if there was anything inside. But when it just hit the ground and nothing came out, Kayla concluded that it was just an empty pokeball. However, she was still glad she found it. It might come in handy sometime in the future.

Kayla was about to suggest that the group take a break, when a large crash erupted from the side of a nearby cliff. The group all looked toward the small cliff immediately, and noticed that it seemed to have… collapsed.

“What’s going on there!” cried Kayla, suddenly feeling frightened.

Cubone squinted in order to see, but once he focused on the cliff, his suspicions were confirmed.

<Diglett,> he said calmly, <Just some Diglett moving the Earth. They do that all the time in mountains like this.>

Kayla, not having a clue what Cubone just said, was still a bit afraid, but felt a little calmer after seeing that Cubone thought there was no immediate alarm.

Charmander, however, was still a little weary. <H-Hey! What do Diglett look like? I mean, I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen one before…. Are they big…?> he asked Cubone nervously. As he did so Berri settled herself in a tree behind them all and observed the Diglett.

<No. They’re very small. Kayla should use her PokeDex on them,> he suggested, walking up to Kayla and touching the pocket of her overalls which contained her PokeDex.

“Mr. Cubone? Do you want me to use my PokeDex?” asked Kayla, making sure that what she suspected was true.

Cubone nodded.

Kayla took out her PokeDex, and scanned the crumpled cliff. After a second of searching, the PokeDex settled on a particularly plump Diglett.

Beep! Diglett, the Mole Pokemon. These pokemon are essential parts of forests because of their natural tendency to both churn and fertilize the soil. They are extremely difficult to catch when they don’t want to be caught because they are so fast. However, in highly populated areas, some Diglett have become more sluggish because of depending on people for food. This Diglett is at level 15. It’s attacks are: Scratch, Sand Attack, ???, and ???. This Diglett’s stats are as follows: High Defense, High Attack, Medium Special, and Low Speed.

“Huh?” said Kayla, looking at her PokeDex, “Why won’t it say all of its attacks?”

<Hmm… perhaps it is from another region? Like that Chikorita from before?> suggested Cubone.

“Oh well…,” said Kayla, folding back her PokeDex. She was about to turn away and continue down the path when suddenly she heard a rather loud female voice shouting.

<Darn it you idiots! Can’t ya’ do anything right?!>

“What?!” Kayla jumped and turned around, expecting to see a person standing there, but all she saw was a small group of angry-looking Diglett.

The plump Diglett from the PokeDex’s picture was in front of them all, and she appeared as mad as they looked. Not only that, but she was yelling at them too. Obviously whatever the Diglett had been trying to do, they had messed something up.

<Don’t yell at us!> cried on of the other Diglett, <You didn’t even help!>

<What?!> shouted the plump Diglett, <What’dya mean?! I was right there with you crazy bunch through the whole thing! How dare you!>

The other Diglett all looked reassuringly at each other. Apparently they didn’t like her help and they were trying to gather their courage to tell her.

<Listen you! We didn’t want your ‘help’. We never needed your ‘help’! And quite frankly, we don’t like you one bit!> said the other Diglett bluntly. The others shuddered a bit waiting for the plump one to realize it.

<W-Wait just a second here! Everyone might not share your stupid view!> said the plump Diglett frantically. She looked around at the others.

<We do,> said another Diglett, <We all feel that way! You’re just too annoying and loud to be in this clan!>

<B-But, you can’t do this! I’ve already been to every clan in Johto! And I already got kicked out of the Diglett Cave! Please! You can’t be serious!> pleaded the plump Diglett. Kayla was sure if she had arms, they would be in a begging position.

<That’s your problem! Maybe you should have thought of that before you began to use those sarcastic comments of yours!> he paused, then looked to his fellow Diglett, <Let’s get out of here men!>

The others nodded, a few told the plump Diglett not to follow them, and then they retracted into their holes within what seemed like nanoseconds.

Charmander turned back to the road, <Oh… that’s a shame… Well, let’s go! I mean, we don’t want a loud, obnoxious Diglett, right?>

Kayla continued to stare at the poor Diglett.

<Aww! No…,> whined Charmander, already predicting what was to come.

“Um… excuse me,” said Kayla softly as she approached the Diglett, “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

<No,> said the plump Diglett dejectedly, <Not unless you’re hiding a large pack of Diglett for me to be with in those overly-large overalls….>

<Why don’t you wander into the city and find yourself a trainer? I’m sure there are lots of them that would be happy to have a Diglett! Anyone but Kayla!> said Charmander nervously.

The Diglett looked at him with a frown, <Don’t you think I’ve tried that you dinky dino! I’ve been caught and released more times than I can remember… I’ve had so many trainers that I don’t even remember their names! One girl almost kept me, but when I didn’t listen to her once, she tossed me like an old sandwich!>

<Oh…,> said Charmander, backing away a bit.

“I’d like to train you,” suggested Kayla, looking hopeful, “I know it might be hard sometimes, but I really do like your spirit. And I think you might have some ideas for me so that I can be more outgoing to others.”

<You seem outgoing right now,> replied the Diglett, but she seemed a bit calmer now.

“Yeah,” admitted Kayla, “But that’s because you’re not human. For some reason, I’ve always thought it easier to talk to pokemon rather than humans.” It was then she realized it had happened again… she froze for a second thinking about what she did to understand the pokemon.

<Well that’s stupid. But anyway, I’ll take your challenge. However, you have to be able to beat me in a battle to get me in a pokeball. I’m not one of those pokemon that come easy; no sir! Prepare to be shaken up!> said the Diglett, looking ready to go. She went down into the ground and popped up a few feet away to give them space enough to battle.

Kayla shook her head. The last part had just sounded like someone saying ‘Diglett’ and ‘Dig!’. Apparently, she had lost it again. “A battle? Is that what you want? Okay… here goes…,” said Kayla, thinking about who she should use. Charmander was still healing, she couldn’t send him out; and Berri wasn’t supposed to battle. There was only one choice.

“Mr. Cubone. Would you mind battling to catch this Diglett? It would be the first time I actually use you in a battle,” added Kayla, looking at Cubone hopefully.

Cubone nodded, <Alright. However, I might be too strong for her.>

The plump Diglett shook her head, <Um, ‘fraid not sweetie; I fight to win! And I’ll have you know that I once defeated a level 70 Machoke!>

Charmander raised an eyebrow, <Level 70?>

The Diglett straightened, <Well, would you believe a level 30…?>

<Maybe,> replied Charmander, still looking skeptical that they should even be having this battle.

Cubone took his place opposite of the Diglett, and readied himself.

“Okay Mr. Cubone… would you please use your Skull Bash attack?” asked Kayla. She was now hoping that he wouldn’t be too tough for her.

<Very well,> said Cubone, and with that he began to race up to Diglett, gathering energy all the way.

Kayla took out the pokeball she had found earlier, and then turned her attention back to Cubone.

<Not so fast!> said Diglett, retracting quickly into the ground. Cubone stopped short of her hole, and stood looking into it. As long as she was in there, there was really nothing he could do…

A voice suddenly came from the hole after a few seconds. <Hun, I think you’re afraid to battle me, I mean, it feels like you’re shakin’!> Diglett said from below.

Cubone stiffened, <What?>

Suddenly the ground began to quake, and Cubone was knocked off of his feet into the dirt. However, he got back up again, and didn’t look too badly injured.

“What was that?” cried Kayla, trying to think. It didn’t look like a Dig attack to her… Perhaps it was an attack from another area.

<That was my Magnitude attack,> explained Diglett, coming back from her hole, <And it was a doozy! An 8.5!>

<Enough of this play,> said Cubone, looking a little annoyed; he did not like being shown up by a low-level Diglett, <It’s time to get serious.>

Kayla thought hard to herself. What would be the best strategy to use against a Diglett? They were so fast; how could Cubone ever be that quick?

Diglett went back down for another attack.

<Kayla! I need to know what to do here!> shouted Cubone. If Kayla didn’t come up with something soon, he was going to do this battle himself…

“Sorry! I’m thinking!” said Kayla, a chill going up her back. Sometimes Cubone scared her a little. He was always so silent and untouchable; yet when he got angry in the Viridian Forest, he was very frightening. Kayla went back to thinking about Cubone’s attacks, and how they could help them. Then it came to her; Focus Energy! By using Focus Energy, Cubone would be able to harness all of his power at once, and that might make him faster and more accurate!

“Mr. Cubone…?” she said timidly, hoping he wasn’t angry with her, “I think maybe we should use a Focus Energy attack…?” She waited for his response.

<Good,> replied Cubone, nodding, <That’s what I was about to do.>

While Diglett prepared another Magnitude, Cubone put his bone club down and closed his eyes. He concentrated hard on the thing that always gave him strength, and then began to glow a light blue.

<Hey,> said Charmander in a light voice, <At least he’s not glowing black.>

Diglett let out a laugh and soon the ground began to shake; however, this time, Cubone’s harnessed power had allowed for his senses to heighten, and he knew that the blast from the ground was about to knock him off his feet. He jumped into the air, and looked to Kayla to give him his next attack.

<Whaa?!> yelled Diglett in surprise. She hadn’t expected anything but a flying type to dodge her Magnitude.

“Okay,” said Kayla a little more confidently, “Now can you try a Seismic Toss?” She was hoping that this would do in Diglett because she wouldn’t like being thrown around in the air, and Kayla was sure that this Diglett wouldn’t hesitate to express her anger.

<Seismic— Now wait!> cried Diglett, seeing Cubone coming at her. She tried to go down into the hole quickly, but even using all of her energy, she just wasn’t fast enough. Cubone grabbed onto Diglett’s body, and pulled her up out of the ground like a potato.

<Ahhh!> cried Diglett, feeling sick from being turned in circles as Cubone jumped and flipped in the air to perform his attack.

Charmander watched with interest, <Wow, look at Pops go through the air! He’s like the circus! Now I feel like I want some popcorn!>

Cubone then threw Diglett at the ground to finish the attack, and Kayla ran over nervously; hoping Diglett hadn’t fainted yet.

When the dust from the impact had cleared, Diglett laid there, her eyes still open, looking up at them all. She looked pretty beaten, and tried her best to lean up.

<Ack! You… want some… more… eh, tough… guy--> she breathed, glaring at Cubone.

Kayla smiled, “Yep, I do like her spirit,” she said, even though she had no idea what Diglett had just said. Kayla looked at her pokeball, and decided not to throw it at Diglett, but rather bump her with the ball instead.

Kayla bumped, and Diglett went into the pokeball willingly.

<Oh… well, at least we have someone new so that I don’t have to keep battling. I guess,> said Charmander, attempting to look excited.

Kayla smiled again, and placed the pokeball in her pocket. There wasn’t a nearby Pokemon Center, so Diglett was just going to have to sit tight until they got to Cerulean.

“Will she be okay until we get to the next Pokemon Center?” asked Kayla, making sure this was alright.

Berri came down from the tree. <Of course she will, but heaven’s knows why you put her through it! I mean, that was just about the most horrible battle ever! Oh, well, besides the defeat of Charmander over there,> said Berri, motioning to Charmander with her antenna.

<Why does everyone have to pick on me!> whined Charmander, folding his arms.

Cubone said nothing and looked up at Kayla.

Kayla noticed Cubone looking at her, and she suddenly bent down to him, “I-I’m so sorry Cubone… I know I took too long giving you orders, but I am still kinda new at this, and I didn’t even know what attack she was using… I’m sorry….”

<That’s alright,> replied Cubone, nodding, <But I would like to go in my pokeball for a while to sleep. Is that okay with you?>

Kayla wished that she could have understood what he had said to her. He had probably said that it was alright, but she wasn’t entirely sure. However, Cubone had motioned to her pocket, where his pokeball was, and Kayla assumed he wanted to go in.

“Your pokeball? You want to rest?” she asked. Cubone nodded. So Kayla brought out his pokeball, and returned him to his ball.

Berri fluttered around a bit, and then began to look around at the trees some more.

Charmander looked up at Kayla, <Well, now it’s just us three,> he eyed Berri, <Maybe she’ll just keep looking at trees and not bother me.>

“We should probably get going don’t you think?” asked Kayla, looking at Charmander.

Charmander nodded, and Kayla called to Berri to follow them again.

As they walked some more, Kayla began to feel a bit chilly. She rubbed her arms.

“Wow, it sure is cool, and the sun is out and everything,” she said, looking up at the sun.

Charmander raised an eyebrow, “It did get cold really fast… That’s weird.”

Berri continued to fly around the trees and foliage. She seemed to be oblivious to the changes in the weather. Kayla watched her for a moment, then became confused when she noticed the area Berri was flying in darkening; as if a cloud had covered them from the sun’s rays. She looked upward. Sure enough, a large group of dark gray clouds had obscured the sun. Kayla shook her head.

“What? Where did all those clouds come from?” asked Kayla, feeling a little scared.

<Weather is supposed to be kinda unpredictable in the mountains, isn’t it?> suggested Charmander; he looked around, <Where the heck’s Berri? Isn’t this place her specialty?!>

But as soon as Charmander finished his question, a huge downpour of water came from the sky and began to drench them all. Not just little drops either; these were large, heavy drops, drops that could hurt a Charmander that was weak…

<AHHH!! HELP!> screamed Charmander, as he ran under the nearest cedar tree for protection. Kayla raced up to him and fumbled as she grabbed out his pokeball.

“Here Charmander, come back in!” she said, and Charmander returned to his pokeball, hoping Kayla would be okay with just herself and Berri…

“Berri!” called Kayla, looking around. Her crimson hair was getting soaked even standing under the tree. She looked hard around the trees to see if she could spot Berri anywhere.

<Over here!> called Berri, flying back to Kayla through the rain. Kayla smiled when she saw her. She didn’t know what she would do if she had lost someone else’s pokemon…

Just as Berri was about to reach Kayla’s cedar tree, a sudden swoop of gusty wind came up.

<Wahh!> cried Berri, being blown sideways. Kayla called out to her.

“Oh no! Berri, Berri hold on, you’re almost there!” Kayla called, hoping Berri would make it. She brought out Berri’s pokeball, and held it up to return her.

The air chilled again, but this time the rain completely stopped. The wind stopped too, and Kayla and Berri just froze for a second, trying to comprehend what was happening. It became silent; so silent that the two of them didn’t speak because it seemed so unbreakable. But as they stood there waiting, Kayla felt a chill again, and noticed that there was something falling through the air…

“Snow…?” whispered Kayla, not wanting to break the silence.

And with that word it seemed, the wind began to start up again. It blew the snow sideways with such a force, that Kayla felt as if the right half of her body was about to freeze off. She quickly looked up for Berri again, but when her eyes met the place Berri was at before, there was only white, blinding snow being shoved around by the extreme winds. Kayla’s eyes scanned the area frantically, but she soon realized that she couldn’t see more than two feet in front of her.

‘No,’ she thought, ‘this can’t be happening… How am I supposed to find Berri in all of this?! I didn’t think the weather would be this severe! And also… how am I going to get through this? How am I supposed to find Berri and keep myself from not becoming frozen?!’

For a few minutes, Kayla just stood, freezing cold, confused, and alone. She contemplated bringing out Cubone; but what help could he be? He was so small, he had no protection on for cold weather… If she brought him out, he might get lost too… And she couldn’t bring Charmander out in this… his tail flame would be out in a second. Diglett was no good. She was too weak to do anything… What was she to do? There was no one to turn to. There was only one thing that Kayla could think about; and that was Berri. She had to find her; she just had to! Berri was her responsibility; she had promised that lady that she was going to bring back Berri.

Kayla took off her pack, trying to shield her face from the icy wind, and brought out a light red jacket of hers. It wouldn’t do much against these conditions, but it was better than nothing. She then stepped out from under the tree, onto what seemed like already a few inches of snow and sleet.

“Berri!” she called out, looking wherever she could. No good. But that didn’t deter her, she kept on walking, treading onward. She called out Berri’s name continuously, only to hear the howling wind and snow crunching below her answer back. Her feet were getting wet and cold, and she was wondering if the blizzard would stop anytime soon. Her face was throbbing with cold, and her eyelashes were collecting snow on them. But she continued to call for Berri. The wind would at times, seem as if it were about to subside, and then at other times, it would pick up with an even greater force. Kayla didn’t like this; things were not looking good for her. Would the Moony Mountains be the last place she ever saw? She shook her head. Thinking that way was thinking negative again. Julie had told her to look at the positive side of things. But what was positive about this…? Kayla’s footing was slipping a bit because of the numbness now spreading through her legs.

“Berri please… help… someone help me!” she called out desperately, knowing no one would answer her. She was alone, all alone, and she had no idea what she was doing. She took another step, and faltered, tripping on the snow, and fell downward…

But something caught her. She looked at what had caught her arms, and was suddenly reminded of a previous time that this had happened in Viridian Forest. It when she had met that boy, that Team Rocket boy… She looked up the black, clothed arms that had caught her and into the face of someone familiar.



A/N: Okay, lemme just say something about the battle with Diglett. Especially to anyone who has second thoughts about such a weak pokemon not being immediately KO'd by a much stronger pokemon. Diglett my be weak in level, but she has a TON of spirit. Much like the pokemon anime example of Ash catching Taillow with Pikachu. Taillow couldn't have been that high, and yet Pikachu could barely beat him even though Pikachu was an electric type. So, I just felt like I should mention that fact. ^-^

Also, I always imagine Diglett as having a southern accent, but I'm not quite sure how to write it. It's kinda hard to make something sound southern, and still keep it correct. =P So any ideas on that would be most helpful. Anyway, see ya' next chapter!

[mistysakura]

Yay, it's back! Love this fic. The part with Zephyr and Chikorita's bonding, in the last chapter, was done so well; you really showed the emotions of both Chikorita and Zephyr. The five-year-old boy came out in Zephyr too, and everything just worked together so well. Anyway, it was good that the dark Pokemon were explained, and I reckon that Diglett's going to be another interesting character.

Regular updates? Cool.

[mr_pikachu]

Pretty good. Charmander's personality seems to get better with every chapter.

Charmander turned back to the road, <Oh… that’s a shame… Well, let’s go! I mean, we don’t want a loud, obnoxious Diglett, right?>

Kayla continued to stare at the poor Diglett.

<Aww! No…,> whined Charmander, already predicting what was to come.

Priceless! You've really done an excellent job of developing the Pokemon characters in this fic. Cubone is serious with an occasional twinge of sarcasm, Charmander says what he feels almost all the time (which helps to bring out his character), Berri feels that battling is cruel, and (it seems like she thinks) that she doesn't really need Kayla. And Diglett was yet another good addition to the team. Nice background, too.

There was a typo or two in this, though. And I think the conversations could be improved on a little bit. For instance, take this quote from Charmander:


<Gee, I wonder how they got so messed up in that battle? Could it be that they’re still healing from the gym battle that YOU INTERRUPTED!>


You mentioned the battle twice here. I really think a second use of the reference is a bit much, especially for a character like Charmander. If you take out the "in that battle" in the first sentence, it sounds more natural. Unless you're specifically trying to make some point about your characters and/or the situation they're in, you typically want to make the conversations sound natural. It's true that sometimes in real life we make errors and have to state things twice, as in Charmander's case. But for works of literature, you usually want it to be natural. Again, though, if you're trying to make some sort of point, that's more than excuseable. *imagines Porky Pig talking in a fanfic*

Other than that, there really aren't any big problems with this. (My criticism wasn't exactly a "big problem" either, but meh.) I like the direction this is going in. I'm looking forward to the next chapter, where we'll see the person who caught Kayla... is it one of the two Rockets, or someone else? *stares intently at the screen*

[Light_Togetic]

mistysakura: Thanks for coming back! And thanks for the compliments, it seems I'm pretty good at writing angsty parts. Which is odd, because my life has not had very many at all. And yep, regular updates *hopefully*.

mr_pikachu: *looks at part where Charmander said 'battle' twice* What?! Ack! I can't believe I did something that stupid! >_< Well, I guess this is why people have proofreaders... I would have a family member do it, but I happen to have the best grammar/spelling skills in my family. XD And Microsoft Word's no help at all. I swear that program was created to confuse people. Anyway, thanks for the comments. I think I've said it before, but I think that the pokemon in my story are more developed than my humans. ^^; I think it's because I actually let you know what they're saying. A lot of pokemon fics (not the really good ones of course) just have pokemon-speak, and hardly ever even give the pokemon personalities. When I decided to write this fic, I told myself that I would have to give the pokemon good, strong personalities, because so many times I have seen beginning writers forget to do that.

Well, enough of my ranting! ^^;; Onto the next Chapter!!!


The Glass Half Full

Ch. 15 A Reluctant Alliance

“You…!” gasped Zephyr. He was utterly surprised to see her.

Kayla didn’t care; she was desperate.

“Please!” she cried, “Please help me find Berri! Help… me….”

Zephyr looked down at Kayla in confusion. “You’re delirious!” he said, the wind howling away. Kayla continued to say things to him about helping her find Berri, but her voice had gotten so soft that he couldn’t hear her through all of the wind. Kayla’s eyes closed. They were so cold and numb… if only she could rest a bit…….


“Class, this is Kayla Catherwood!”

The class looked with curious eyes upon their new classmate. A few clapped; the others just sat wondering when playtime was coming. Kayla was shaking with fear… this was after all her first time being in school. Grandma had said that everyone went to school until they were ten in Pallet Town, but to Kayla, five years was a long ways…

“Okay Kayla, you can go sit over there by Mike!” said the teacher in her soft, sappy voice. Kayla began to walk in the direction that the teacher pointed, but had no idea which kid was Mike.

She stood, waiting for someone to help her. The teacher began to talk to the class, assuming that Kayla would find her way.

She could have asked the teacher again, but then she would look stupid, and it would be embarrassing, and all of the kids would laugh at her.

“Today we’re going to focus on our shapes! Now, who can tell me…”

Why didn’t she just say something? Or ask the kid at the table she was by? Why couldn’t she just find the strength within to ask a simple question?

“…this is?”

There was a pause. Everyone looked at Kayla.

“Kayla, honey, what is it? Is something wrong?”

Kayla now realized that had she asked, she would have been spared this moment, but now she had to go through with it.

“I-- I don’t know where my-- my seat is…,” she said in a whisper.

“Oh. Mike, raise up your hand so that Kayla knows where to sit!” the teacher commanded.

Mike did so.

Kayla walked over to the seat and began to sit down. This was not going to be fun, this school…


Kayla was being shaken up by something. She opened her eyes and with it realized the intense cold she had been feeling all over her body. She once again remembered that she had lost Berri, and that she was in the middle of a huge blizzard. Then she realized that where she was, there was no cold air blasting at her; no snow on the rocky, dirty ground. She looked around.

She was in a cave of some kind. This still didn’t explain why there was no cold air blowing in, but Kayla didn’t care about that right now; she was more concerned with the boy that had just stopped shaking her awake.

Apparently he had built some sort of small fire. It was situated between them, and his things were on one side and hers where on the other. It was then that Kayla realized she had been unconscious with someone she didn’t know; someone who was a Team Rocket member. Kayla tried not to think about that.

At first they sat opposite each other, not saying anything. Zephyr stared off into the fire, while Kayla watched him closely and thought about Berri.

After about ten minutes of silence, Kayla thought that it was time to make at least one thing clear…

“Are-Are you going to hurt me?” she asked timidly, hoping that she would like the answer.

Zephyr, much to Kayla’s surprise, actually looked quite shocked at her question.

“What? No,” he said, giving her a look of astonishment, “Why would I do that?”

“Well, you are part of Team Rocket… right?” said Kayla, so quietly that Zephyr could barely hear her. She did not want to make him mad.

“Um, yeah, but Team Rocket’s not notorious for hurting little girls… Besides, it’s not my job. Neither is stealing pokemon if that’s something else you’re worried about. Before when I did that it was because my partner, who is crazy, wanted me to,” he answered, avoiding Kayla’s eyes.

Kayla suddenly found herself thinking of Pidgey.

“Um… Mr…. W-what happened to Pidgey anyway…? I mean, what did you guys… um…,” Kayla stopped; she really probably shouldn’t talk about stolen pokemon…

Zephyr looked away a bit, and his expression was one of pity, “I-I’m sorry, but Marilu took a sort of liking to your Pidgey, and well, she… she trained it herself.”

“What?” said Kayla, her voice becoming more loud, “You mean Pidgey now listens to her?! The person who stole her from me?!”

“Yeah,” said Zephyr, his voice wavering a bit, “Marilu has a very… effective… system of training. Or at least that’s what she likes to call it.”

Kayla paused. She didn’t want to think of what Marilu did to Pidgey as training.

The fire between them started to die out, and Zephyr brought out a pokeball.

“Uh-oh, looks like we need more leaves Chikorita!” he said, tossing the ball. In a few seconds of white light, Chikorita had come out and was facing the fire, which had now turned into mere embers.

<Ha!> she called, and swung about a dozen leaves off of the big one on her head. However, instead of continuing the blaze, the leaves merely smothered them.

<Oh… sorry Bryant…,> said Chikorita, her leaf dropping with disappointment.

“That’s okay… you tried,” said Bryant, nodding.

“How did you start it the first time?” asked Kayla timidly.

“With a match. I had some in a box in my pocket, and all of them were soaked. I finally got one to work, but that’s the only one I had. So…,” he trailed off, not sure what to say.

Kayla jumped up, “I know!” She brought out Charmander’s pokeball, and tossed it to the ground by Chikorita. With a flash of white light, Charmander’s freezing form came into view.

<Gosh it’s cold!> shuddered Charmander, his flame tail shaking along with him.

Chikorita glared at the lizard. <You’re the one who gave Bryant that horrible burn aren’t you!> she said, staring hard at him.

Charmander looked over to her, <Huh?> he rolled his eyes, <Hey, aren’t you the one’s who tried to steal me?>

“Charmander, can you catch those leaves on fire for us?” asked Kayla, shivering with cold.

<Oh yeah! That’s easy!> he said, dipping his tail into the small pile of leaves. They immediately caught fire, and let off a decent amount of warmth.

<Okay Kayla,> said Charmander, still looking at Chikorita, <Why is it that we’re in a weird cave, trapped with a Team Rocket member and his cute, but evil, Chikorita?>

Chikorita started, <Wha? I am not evil! And who’re you calling ‘cute’?!>

Charmander gave a goofy smile, <Kidding, just a joke! Come on, lighten up Chik!>

<‘CHIK’?!> yelled Chikorita, clearly very bothered by this nickname.

“Chikorita, stop it. I don’t care what he’s called you,” said Zephyr, giving Chikorita a reproachful look. Kayla stared at him.

“How do you know what they said?” she asked, thinking for one wild moment that he could understand pokemon too…

“What? Oh, I have no idea what they just said exactly; it’s just, I’ve been with Chikorita since I was five years old. I’ve learned to sort of read the tone of her voice when she’s talking. Obviously, your Charmander just said something that offended her. He probably called her a name,” explained Zephyr smartly.

“Oh,” said Kayla, feeling foolish. Why would she think that he was like her? She eyed him curiously.

“So why were you out in the storm?” she asked.

“Well, Marilu wanted me to gather some more firewood. She’s always making me do the dumbest things. I really wish I had another person as my partner,” he said, staring again at the fire.

“You know,” said Kayla, feeling a little more relaxed, “You’re not acting like you did before… you know… when you stole my pokemon….”

Zephyr raised an eyebrow. This was sort of bad. He was not supposed to be easy to like. He was supposed to be hated and feared; like all Team Rocket members. He thought for a moment about this, and then came to his decision.

“After this storm is over, you and I will be like it was before,” he said coldly.

“Huh--?!” said Kayla, suddenly not feeling so relaxed.

“I’m only being nice because I’m not the kind of person to let someone die in a blizzard. But after that, we go our separate ways. You go with your kind of people, and I’ll go with my kind,” he answered, looking back at the now raging fire.

<Bryant…,> mumbled Chikorita, clearly disappointed in her trainer’s decision.

Kayla became silent again after that, and listened to the crackling fire and the heavy winds outside the cave. She now realized that the reason that only a small fraction of the wind was reaching them was because the cave’s tunnel was almost completely blocked by a pile of rocks a little ways away from them. The crack was just enough so that a person or two could fit through it.

<What’s your trainer’s problem, anyway?> asked Charmander, sitting down next to Chikorita.

<Why are you sitting next to me? I don’t like you,> said Chikorita, eyeing the orange lizard, <But I will answer your question because there is nothing else to do.>

<Gee, how kind,> said Charmander sarcastically.

<Hey! You want me to answer your question or what?> snarled Chikorita.

<I’m sorry,> Charmander said sincerely, <Don’t take me so seriously. I was only kidding….>

Chikorita closed her eyes, <Well I’m not laughing. Anyway, Bryant, my trainer, he really is a nice person; one of the few nice members of Team Rocket. Yes,> she added, seeing the skeptical look on Charmander’s face, <There are good members of Team Rocket. You see, sometimes people don’t join because they want to. Sometimes they join to get easy money for their family; or sometimes because they think that a life of crime is the only thing they can do… Bryant’s family is one of Team Rocket’s founding families. He really had no choice but to join up by the age of five. Right now he’s about to finish his training and then he’ll automatically be boosted up to the rank of Executive.>

<Why doesn’t he just quit? I mean if he’s so nice,> asked Charmander, looking confused.

<Well you see, he would; only he thinks it’s the only way to win his family’s approval. Bryant was the youngest of his brothers, and he’s always been picked on as being the runt. Because of that, he wants so much for his brothers to like him. And his father has never even spoken to him but one time. And what he said that one time was, ‘You’ll never really be a man until you make it in Team Rocket, and I don’t talk to little boys…’.> Chikorita looked over at her trainer with sympathy.

Charmander folded his arms, <Who cares? If I were him, I’d leave ‘em all and go live my own life.>

<Oh how I wish he would… But that’s not my decision to make. Besides, the only life and people he’s ever known is Team Rocket. He’s lived such a sheltered life… I don’t even think he knows what else is out there…,> said Chikorita giving a quick glance to Kayla.

<What about your trainer? Does she just want to become a Pokemon Master or something?> asked Chikorita, still looking between the two humans.

<Nah, Kayla’s just on a journey because her Grandmother made her go. I don’t think she really even wants to battle pokemon,> said Charmander, leaning back against a rock and then springing back up again when he felt how cold it was.

Chikorita blinked. <Well, then our trainers really aren’t that different from each other, are they? Each of them wants to impress their families by doing something that they were simply not meant to do…,> she trailed off, turning her head to look at Charmander.

<Yep,> he replied, <I guess you’re right. So, Team Rocket pokemon can be smart!> He winked.

Chikorita raised an eyebrow. <That’s it, I’m moving…,> she said coolly, getting up and walking over to Zephyr. However, when she sat down, Charmander could have sworn that he saw a small smile flicker across the minty pokemon’s face.

Kayla yawned after a half an hour passed, and was about to nod off when suddenly her head perked up. She listened hard, and quickly realized that there was no more sound from the wind!

“Hey!” she paused, looking cautiously at Zephyr, “Um… I think maybe the wind’s died down….”

Zephyr got up, and peered through the crevice into the mouth of the cave. He let out a gasp.

“W-What is it?” asked Kayla nervously.

“It’s sunny out! I mean, there’s no sign that there even was a storm here besides the fact that snow’s on the ground! It even feels warm,” he said, his voice sounding as shocked as when Kayla had first talked to him in the cave.

<That’s great…,> said Charmander, sounding a little worn out. The flame on his tail was getting smaller, and he seemed really tired…

“Are you okay Charmander?” asked Kayla, looking concerned. She bent down to the little pokemon.

<I just… need to rest… after this cold weather and getting rained on, and still healing… I need to go in my pokeball…,> he said, pointing to Kayla’s pocket.

“R-Right,” said Kayla bringing out the ball, “Return….”

<Bye…,> said Charmander, waving to Chikorita.

Chikorita just stared at a rock near her foot. And soon Charmander had gone into his pokeball.

Kayla, knowing that she was out of immediate danger with the storm gone, thought once again of Berri. Was she alright? Had she been injured during the storm? Or was she so used to being up here that she knew how to survive? Kayla shook her head. It was all too much to handle.

Zephyr called to Chikorita, and the two of them with Kayla crept out of the large cave. When they finally got out to really get a good look at the landscape before them, they awed in the fact that everything looked as if it had been covered in a blanket of snow…

Suddenly Kayla realized that with this snow on the ground, it would be nearly impossible to find the route again.

“H-How am I supposed to find my way again…?” she asked aloud nervously.

“Good luck,” said Zephyr, and he began to walk off away from Kayla with Chikorita hesitating behind him.

Kayla stood frozen for a second, not knowing what to do…

<Bryant… we just can’t leave her can we?> asked Chikorita, looking back at Kayla.

“I know what you’re thinking. And the answer is no. My job is to capture rare wild pokemon for Team Rocket. My duties do not include helping girls, finding beginner trainer’s pokemon--,” he hesitated, “—or being nice.”

Chikorita stopped in her tracks. <No!> she shouted, <Your duty is always to be nice! It always has been! How can you even suggest such a thing?!>

Zephyr turned around, a little surprised by his Chikorita’s angry tone. “What’s with you lately Chikorita? Every day it seems there’s something that you get angry about…,” he said, looking confused.

Kayla, not knowing what to do presently, watched their argument from where she was, and listened closely.

<I can’t help but get angry when the very person who as a child was ridiculed and teased for his niceness towards others ends up becoming one of the people he hated!> she shouted, holding back tears.

Zephyr stood silently; even though he couldn’t understand the words, he knew deep down what Chikorita meant.

<If that’s the kind of person you’re going to become, then I don’t want to be a part of it…,> said Chikorita, turning away. She looked over to Kayla, and began to walk slowly over to her.

“H-Hey! What’re you doing?!” called Zephyr, taking a step forward.

<You have two choices, Bryant. You can choose to be the person you were always meant to be, or you can choose to truly become ‘Zephyr’…,> she said, stopping and turning around to face him near Kayla’s feet.

At first the two just stared at each other. Chikorita was sure that he would want to help, but after a few more seconds of silence, she felt just a twinge of doubt rise in her.

“I…,” Zephyr started, trying to think, “I… guess I could help you find your way a bit…,” he said grudgingly, “And maybe on the way you’ll find your lost pokemon; but then we split up.”

Kayla looked down at the now happily beaming Chikorita below her.

“Thank you,” she said.

<No,> she said, looking back up at Kayla, and Kayla understood, <Thank you.>



A/N: Hm... you know what? I think I like flashbacks. I seem to have a lot of them in my fic. I never really realized how many I had! And now that I think about it, flashbacks are usually some of my favorite parts of movies/shows. Just thought I'd share that...

[mr_pikachu]

A lot of pokemon fics (not the really good ones of course) just have pokemon-speak, and hardly ever even give the pokemon personalities.

*looks at statement*

*looks at own fic*

*cries*

Anyway... :sweat2: This was a pretty good chapter. In all honesty, I'm not too fond of flashbacks myself. I understand that sometimes they're necessary to explain something important, but other times they just seem to break up the natural flow of the story. I suppose in this point it was a natural break in the story anyway, but I'd still be cautious about overusing them if I were you.

As with every fic I've ever read (seriously), you may want to edit this a bit more. I noticed one occasion where the word "where" was substituted where "were" should have been. ...That was confusing, wasn't it? Uh... "where" was in a spot that "were" should have filled. Yeah. ^_^;;

This is getting interesting, though. I love Bryant's (or Zephyr's) inner conflict; that is very realistic, and adds some great intensity to the fic. I disagree with your earlier comment, though. You underestimate the characterization you've done with the people. I honestly think that the characters, human and Pokemon, are the best part of this fic. (Part of this is because we still don't really know where the story's heading, but nevertheless, the characterization is still great.) That's something that I really admire about your work, and something that quite a few of the other fics on this board lack. Good work.

Well, this was another fine chapter. I'll be waiting for the next one! :wave:

[mistysakura]

You sure did a good job of describing Bryant's conflict; it must be so hard for him. To be so nice to a stranger girl while being in Team Rocket... I wonder if we'll ever meet any of the other "nice team Rocket members" that he talked about. It seems to be an oxymoron. It's great that Bulbasaur wants to help Bryant; it shows that Bryant is by nature so nice that his Pokemon will try so hard to save him from the dark side.

As mr_pikachu said, great characterization, but I reckon a fic needs more than just good characters; some idea where this fic might be heading would be good. But for now, see ya next chapter!

[dragonmage]

hi i just finished reading this story and I like it. I hope that Light Togetic will continue to update this story some time in the future