The Chronicles of Giselle Valentine

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: I said I was going to do it and here I am...posting a fan fic. I've wanted to do it for a while and I hope you like the fruits of my labor. CONSTRUCTIVE critism (that mean don't harshly shoot me down please) is very much welcomed. And now here is her story....

Giselle​

Giselle was, once again, back in my bedroom, the television going, in her hometown of Pallet. She had failed for the fourth or fifth time to win a gym badge so she was severely depressed. She was dazed, her dull brown eyes out of focus, only vaguely listening to the TV. She just played with her long white hair inattentively. Her depression wasn't helped by the continual praise that her friends received from the people around the town as she returned from the Pewter City after another fiasco.

"Did you hear about Elisabeth? Her Squirtle is already fully evolved!"

"Or what about Jean. He's on his, what, seventh badge?"

"Don't forget Marie. She collected over 100 different species of Pokemon and she's not that far into her journey!"

Giselle hated them all: for reminding them of her failure and for praising her friends in front of her. No one ever mentioned her name, except in gossip or in a joke. She felt like an embarrassment to her town. Pallet Town had a reputation for producing the greatest trainers around and Giselle didn't measure up. She couldn't catch a Pokemon to save her life; the fact that she even had two Pokemon was a bit of an accident. She had also never beaten a trainer. She often wondered why she even became a trainer in the first place…oh yeah, that's why.

Trainers were heroes: glamorous, strong, and respected…what Giselle wanted to be. They traveled all over the world and had powerful Pokemon. And in Pallet Town, strong trainers were next to God in the minds of the townspeople. They adored their hometown heroes. Giselle wanted desperately to be adored like that. She received her starter Pokemon, Charmander, and set out on the road, but she found out that being a trainer was much more difficult that she could have imagined.

There was no one to make you dinner on the road, no one to give you money, no one to remind you to be sure to pack a coat, no one to take care of your Pokemon when you didn't feel like it…Life on the road turned out to be very harsh and unforgiving. It required something that Giselle felt she didn't have.

And then there was the Pokemon training itself. It was nothing like Giselle saw on TV, where the trainers seem to know everything there is to know about battling and Pokemon, where everything always turned out perfectly. Pokemon battling took much more strategy than just calling out attacks. Then there was more to training Pokemon that just battling. It was like taking care of a child; they had their own personalities, too, but Giselle wasn't great with identifying with her Pokemon. They needed things like humans did, like food. And Giselle didn't always have it to give. Those were dark days... She never got much farther than Pewter City.

So it was with a heavy heart that she kept returning home after all her failures, the subject of all Pallet Town's gossip and the butt of many jokes. This time was no different and she was starting to reach her breaking point. A commercial for a cheap ship ride to Sinnoh flashed across the TV screen, catching Giselle's interest. She wanted out of Pallet Town and out of Kanto completely. The commercial said that all who wanted to go should go to Vermillion City three days from now and pay just $100 to board the ship. Giselle had heard enough and turned off the TV before the commercial had even finished.

This was her chance, she thought, to get out of this godforsaken town. She began making preparations immediately.


OOC: Was it good or dreadful? It wasn't too slow or contrived was it? ~Stops freaking out now~ Once again I did try and I hope it's met Pokecharm's standards. Smiley

(The server move ate most of this fic so I'm restoring it. I'm putting everything under the same format but I haven't changed any of the content yet.

 

[Michelle8936]

It sounds like an interesting story, I like the plot.
It doesn't seem like it'll be the usual journey fic either.
I think this one has some good potential, keep it up!

 

[leehage]

I like it. It makes training more believable thanks to the repeated failures. And I really want to see where this is headed. The only thing I could possibly nitpick would be to describe the setting more.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: I removed the other reply because even though I'm almost sure I can double post here, I'm just being safe. Thanks again for the replies.

Everything happened very quickly. She packed up just the basics for the journey: five outfits, her Pokedex, and some food for herself and her Pokemon. She also made the decision to take the money intended for college if she had opted not to be a trainer. Not that it was a lot of money; it was only about $5000—that wouldn't be enough for a semester at a college which was still years away. And of course she would take her two Pokemon, Charmander, her starter, and Caterpie, who hated her. All that was left was to tell her parents what she was about to do.

Giselle waited until dinner to tell her parents. Meal times where always subdued, the atmosphere tense when she was home. Though Monique and Claude Valentine never outright mentioned it in her presence, Giselle could tell that her parents were disappointed in her failure as a trainer. They had hoped that Giselle would be as great a trainer as they had been in their younger days. But it had never happened and Giselle resented their disappointment.

The family ate in silence. Giselle's beautiful mother had her usual "I have the world on my shoulder so don't bother me look" while her stoic father maintained his poker face. Giselle had inherited her white hair and plain face from her father. Dinner dragged on and on until Giselle could no longer stand it and broke the silence.

"Mother, Father, I'm leaving in three days for a trip to Sinnoh," she quickly said.

Neither one said anything for a moment, then Monique asked haughtily "What do you know about Sinnoh?"

Now it was Giselle's turn to be silent because she really didn't know anything about Sinnoh—but she wasn't about to admit that to her mother.

"It's her decision let her go," Claude said flatly as though her mother were fawning over her, "it doesn't matter one way or the other."

Giselle had expected this reaction. After all, they never were supportive of anything she did. She got up from the table and walked back to her room. This would be the longest three days of her life.

The next two days passed without incident. She didn't go outside of the house for the entire time. At about 2 a.m. on the third day Giselle couldn't sleep because she was so wound up about her trip. She didn't see the point of waiting until the sun came up so she got up to leave right then.

As Giselle stepped out into the cool darkness under the beautiful night sky, she thought about how much she preferred it to Pallet Town during the day. The houses were all dark; the roads were deserted because the people of Pallet Town were goody twoshoes and didn't walk the streets at night. She let out her Pokemon to check them before leaving. Charmander came out of his Pokeball and stretched a bit while Caterpie remained still, her demeanor icy. They looked all right to Giselle, so she reached out to pet them. Charmander allowed her to touch him, but Caterpie jerked away.

Giselle couldn't figure out why Caterpie hated her, why she looked at her with such contempt. She didn't know what else to do with her Pokemon so she recalled them and walked on. Pallet Town was on the ocean so Giselle could take a ferry to Vermillion City—something most trainers didn't do. They preferred to take the long way catching Pokemon and taking on gym challenges along the way. Giselle ached as she thought about what her friends might think of her now.

The small ferry had the color scheme of a Pikachu, the unofficial mascot of Pallet Town, so it almost glowed in the dark it was so bright. Giselle wasn't fond of Pikachu because of its connection to Pallet Town and as a result she thought the ferry looked ridiculous. But she was grateful that there was a ferry going at 2:30 in the morning. It never got any business but it was a Kanto-wide law that said that that public transportation must operate 24 hours a day.

Giselle boarded the ferry, surprising the captain who didn't expect riders. She walked to the very back of the ferry and sat down. She was relieved to be leaving Pallet Town. She had never been to Vermillion and for the first time in a very long time she was excited.

 

[leehage]

Better. The descriptions are more in depth and I love the hateful Caterpie! Continue your greatness!

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: I modified the previous entry because I forgot to add in that she took her Pokedex, too. Sorry

The ferry trip took about forty-five minutes so Giselle used the time to think about what she would do in Sinnoh. She had $5000 which she figured would be plenty of money. She was planning to buy everything else she needed for the road in Sinnoh. And on the off chance she needed money she would sell anything she found on the road. She had heard plenty of stories from trainers about the treasure they found while traveling.

After she was done contemplating, Giselle got up from her place in the back of the ferry to look at the ocean. Like the heavens above, the ocean was magnificent even by moonlight. It was calm and dark blue; red lights would emanate from the waters occasionally signaling that Staryu and Starmie were just beneath the surface. Giselle soaked in the salt air and in what seemed like no time they had arrived in Vermillion City.

Unlike Pallet Town, Vermillion City was bustling with people even in the early morning. Burly workmen and sailors were calling to each other in loud voices. Being a port city there were crates loaded with all kinds of cargo with Machoke and Machamp helping to move them around. There also were people from all over the world chatting with strange accents. The sights and sounds of the city overloaded Giselle's senses as she had never seen anything like it. She liked Vermillion—but it wasn't enough to change her mind about leaving.

A sign conveniently located a short distance away had the arrival and departure times and the origins and destinations of the ships entering and leaving Vermillion harbor. Giselle immediately knew which ship was hers as it was the only one leaving for Sinnoh. It left at 8:00 a.m.—just under six hours from that point.

Finally, Giselle had started to get sleepy so she headed to the Pokemon Center for a nap. The city was much larger than Pallet Town but the center wasn't difficult to find because signs told people in which direction to go. It took only ten minutes to find it; Giselle rushed in and collapsed into one of the chairs but not before setting the alarm on her Pokedex to 7:20. She was about to fall asleep when a harried looking man entered the Pokemon Center.

A woman, presumably a person waiting for him, called out, "Hey you're back! How was Sinnoh?"

At the word Sinnoh, Giselle perked up.

"Don't even get me started," the man grumbled, "it was terrible. For starters, everything was…"

Giselle stopped listening. She didn't want to hear anything that would deter her from her escape from Kanto. She was sure whatever Sinnoh held could not be worse than what she was leaving behind. But she began to feel uneasy anyway. She tried to block the self doubt out of her mind and fell into an uneasy sleep.

 

[Michelle8936]

Sounds good, keep it up.
I like the description, sad that her parents don't really give a heck about her though.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The alarm rang out and Giselle heard it loud and clear. Her body was stiff from the odd angle at which she had slept so she stretched a bit before running out of the Pokémon Center. She went back the way she came to reach the harbor. The sunrise casted golden light over Vermillion City and the ocean looked even more beautiful. Children now played joyfully in the streets. Giselle also saw a trio of friends who she thought were trainers. For a moment it made her feel a sense of longing, but for what she didn't know.

There were many ships moored in the harbor with signed indicated which ship was which. Giselle quickly found her ship and she stopped dead. It was a piece of junk, so beat up and so rusted she wondered how it was still floating. It was small wonder why it was so cheap. By then it was 7:50 so the ship would be leaving in ten minutes. Giselle ran on to the ship, paying $50 ($4950 left) as she went.

The inside of the ship was just as terrible as the outside and it smelled like dead fish. The only thing that kept Giselle going at this point was the fact that she was leaving Kanto behind—for how long she didn't know but she was going. The ship was already very crowded and suffocating. Just for something to do, she let out her Pokémon in the cramped quarters. Charmander came out and took a deep breath and nearly gagged on the smell. He looked a little reproachful about being out of his Pokeball. Caterpie on the other hand started to walk away.

"Hey!" Giselle hissed, "Come back here!"

But Caterpie wasn't listening and continued on her trek. Giselle told Charmander to stay there as she ran after Caterpie. Chasing after a Pokémon on a crowded ship was pretty difficult and Giselle kept bumping into people. Even with her trainer on her heels calling her, Caterpie never stopped and she moved pretty fast for a Caterpie. People all around were starting to point and stare. Embarrassed, Giselle recalled her and vowed not to let Caterpie out again until they reached Sinnoh.

However she would have to break that vow. It took forever to reach their destination; the ship moved so, so slowly. Occasionally the ship would have to stop at refueling points along they way. Giselle had to let out her Pokémon again because she thought it was probably bad to leave Pokémon in their Pokeballs too long. And while Caterpie didn't run away this time, she started to cry—loudly prompting Giselle to recall her once again. Giselle was half dead and close to tears by the time they reached Sinnoh. When they had stopped, she wanted to run off the ship in relief but something was happening--and it wasn't good whatever it was.

Uniformed officers were entering the ship and people mumbled among themselves as they took out their wallets. The officers walked around collecting checks from everyone. Giselle was thoroughly confused. She turned to the lady next to her.

"Can you tell me what on earth is happening?"

"They're collecting the charge to get off the ship."

"What?!" Giselle said, alarmed. What charge? How much?"

"The commercial advertising this said that there was a sort of charge to enter Sinnoh because of some loophole in a law. I didn't quite understand it," the lady explained. "Any way it costs $3500."

Giselle was floored. From the look on the lady's face Giselle guess that she was supposed to know about the charge. She tried not to convey her shock and horror. When the officers reached her, she counted out the money ($1450 left) and handed it to the officers who weren't happy with $3500 in cash money. She turned back to lady.

"How much would a return trip cost?" Giselle asked as nonchalantly as she could.

"$5000," the woman said before turning and walking away.

Giselle tried to calm herself down. She berated her own stupidity at not watching the whole commercial. She could hear her mother's haughty voice taunting her and she tried to push it away. She turned to walk off the ship with the other passengers.

 

[leehage]

Nice twist. Keep up the awesome work and I enjoy the chemistry so far. Should I keep commenting or just let you post your story?

 

[Carmen Lopez]

Commentaries are fine and as a matter of fact it really helps me to have feedback. So if you want to commentate you can. Thanks for the replies so far!

 

[Sem]

This story has potential, I like it. Only thing is that you may want to describe the settings just a little bit more. Another thing that would help is maybe describing actions more, particularly Giselle's. Like, describe her tiny little actions or mannerisms or physical reactions to things.

Also, you're allowed to double/triple/quadruple/whatever post, you don't have to wait for comments.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try to work on descriptions more in the coming parts. In my orginal drafts I thought I over did it with the description and it dragged the story down but I'll just have to find the happy medium.

The battered ship was anchored in a canal. Twilight had fallen as had the temperature and Giselle was shivering. Once again she had forgotten to bring a coat and warm clothing in case of emergencies. A sign told her that she was in Canalave City—a perfect name for a city that was cut in half by a large canal.

This new port city was similar to Vermillion in most respects. There were metal and wooden crates filled with all kinds of things everywhere and people from all over the world, but it also had a very distinct look. The streets of Canalave were made of cobblestone which gave the city an old world look. Modern buildings stood on contrast of the wooden buildings that were beside them and the delicious smell of food from all different cultures filled the air.

Giselle couldn’t believe that she was out of Pallet Town and out of Kanto. This was the furthest she had ever been away from home so for about 30 minutes she just wandered around the city. There were many people fashionably dressed for the nightlife and laughter filled the streets. Giselle had never been a party-person because she always felt so awkward in that setting. She recognized a group of Pokemon trainers talking with each other using words with which she was unfamiliar.

“Did you see that battle today? That supposed ‘expert’ was totally owned by some kid.

“Yeah I saw that and some arrogant noob get put in his place. You should’ve seen the way he got pwn’d!

She didn’t know what it meant to be ‘owned’ or ‘pwn’d’ or what a noob was but that wasn’t the only way they were different. The trainers were wearing elaborate, colorful clothing whereas in Kanto trainers Giselle knew of wore either jeans or khaki shorts and a T-shirt like Giselle herself was wearing. Most of them also had some kind of gadget such as a music player or phone but all of them had on the same high tech watch; blue ones for the boys and pink for the girls.

Giselle felt plain and oddly inferior in comparison to them. She looked down at her feet and rushed away. As she passed, she distinctly heard one of the girls in the group say, “Geez! What a foreigner! I wonder if she as stupid as she looks?” while the other laughed.

The feeling of inferiority increased tenfold. Her face burning, Giselle lost her will to explore the city any further. Giselle didn’t know how those trainers knew she wasn’t native. Maybe it was the clothes or the expression on her face. Or maybe they could sense her ineptness, her weakness… At this point Giselle was staring to lose the feeling in her fingers so she decided to find a clothing store. As it looked like she was already in the shopping district, she dashed to the nearest one, eager to get out of the cold.

Unfortunately for Giselle, the clothes in that store were expensive. Very expensive. So she had to find another store only to encounter the same thing. It wasn’t until the fifth store she visited did she find prices that weren’t cheap but not through the roof either. Giselle didn’t find the salespeople very helpful either. She had to find everything herself and they reminded Giselle of her mother with their snobbishness and silence. She willed herself not to cry in humiliation and didn’t dare lift her head to face them.

She tried to find clothes that resembled the ones those trainers were wearing. In all, the coat, hat, gloves, jeans, and shirts Giselle found amounted to $400. Giselle honestly wanted to put it all back but she didn’t want to give the salespeople anymore reason to look down on her. It pained her to take out the money to give to the cashier ($1050 left) who gave her a strange questioning look as she took the money.

Darkness and Giselle’s spirits had fallen by the time Giselle exited the store. She could barely feel the cold now. This definitely wasn’t the best way to start off in Sinnoh. She felt tired, hungry, and drained and wanted to find a place to sleep. The sights and sounds of the city seemed very far away now. She wondered what she was going to do next as she ran off into the night.

 

[Michelle8936]

Good chapters and description and the like as usual, keep it up!

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: Sorry for the wait. I was away from my laptop for five days and I was trying to focus on describing setting this time. Hope I did a good job

The first place Giselle thought to go was the Pokémon Center. There she could let her Pokémon out for a little while and change her clothes. As in Vermillion City, there were signs that pointed trainers in the right direction. Giselle had one of her hands balled into a fist while the other was curled tightly around her shopping bags. She could barely see straight in her frustration so it was a surprise that she had gotten herself to the Pokémon Center.

It was a two story building that looked like an odd combination of a hotel and modern looking hospital. She walked through the automatic doors but instead of walking straight into the Pokémon Center itself, she had entered into a sort of lounge area. It was very cozy, almost like a coffee shop but without the smell of coffee. All around there were oddly shaped chairs and giant pillows upon which trainers could rest. Brightly colored potted plants gave color to the place. There was also a map of what appeared to be the whole Sinnoh region and the floor plan of the Pokémon Center. She saw that the area was full of trainers and their Pokémon, but now was not the time to consider them. She wanted to find the bathroom quickly so she could change her clothes before anyone noticed her.

Giselle took a quick glance at the map to find the bathroom and set off for it, her head down once more. It was on the left side of the building in the Pokémon Center itself. Unlike the lounge area, the center looked like a conventional Pokémon Center with its white tiled floors, soft pink colored walls and generic plants. Nurses and Chansey tended to Pokémon while assuring worried trainers that their Pokémon would be fine. Some people were using the phones while others had let out their Pokémon for fresh air. Giselle made a quick note to have her own Pokémon checked out before leaving the center. The bathroom wasn't far away so she walked there quickly.

Surprisingly and mercifully, the bathroom was empty as Giselle entered. Everything in the bathroom was shades of blues and greens reminiscent of the ocean and surgically clean. She also found that there were even showers for traveling trainers. Giselle ran across the tiled floor into the large handicap stall. She changed out the clothes she had on and into the two brightly colored shirts, one blue and green striped and the other bright red, that were supposed to be worn as layers and the jeans (a preppy look) in the shopping bag.

The new clothes didn't suit her. Giselle felt very uncomfortable and self-conscious in them. She didn't like material of the shirts and the jean felt very stiff. She exited the stall to and realized the jeans felt even worse when she was walking and Giselle kept pulling at them. She looked at her reflection in the floor length mirror and found that that look was just not her and it showed in her face. Only her extreme longing to fit in kept Giselle from taking off her new clothes and throwing them away.

She tried to inject confidence into her demeanor as she walked out of the bathroom with the rest of her clothes in the shopping bag, but that was difficult to do while wearing irritating pants.The material was very itchy for some reason and Giselle continued to pull at them drawing many curious glances. She knew her face was turning red as she walked to a chair that was in the corner and sat down gratefully.

As she looked around the Pokémon Center, she finally took notice of the Pokémon. She had never seen many of them before so she took out her Pokédex to identify them. However, it only told her that information about these new Pokémon was unknown. Apparently her Pokédex was only for Pokémon known to be native to Kanto. In spite of her discomfort, Giselle found them interesting anyway.

She saw an adorable little Pokémon that closely resembled a penguin who kept chirping "Piplup, Piplup." She also noticed a particularly brutal looking blue Pokémon that looked like a cross between a dragon and a shark. Apparently it wasn't as menacing as it looked because it was letting a small Pokémon which kept calling out "Buneary" play with its tail.

The Pokémon Giselle found the most interesting was bipedal and wolfish in appearance. It was blue, black, and yellow and it looked as though it had a band of black across its face. The Pokémon was showing off its moves to its trainer, a teenage boy with two-toned purple and black hair. The Pokémon was manipulating water in the air using psychic power, its entire body glowing blue.

Giselle was captivated by the beautiful site and was gazing at the Pokémon mesmerized. She also found the trainer rather attractive as well. Time seemed to have stopped. The boy noticed Giselle staring at him and his Pokémon and narrowed his green eyes slightly. With one mysterious glance from its trainer, the Pokémon directed the water it was manipulating into a nearby potted plant.

"Time to go Megumi," the boy said quietly with a smirk. With one more look at Giselle, he and the mysterious Pokemon turned and walked away.

Giselle felt her face grow hot and shook her head to bring herself back to reality. Even though she couldn't tell if she had just gotten snubbed or not, she was still embarrassed. She had to get that incident out of her mind because she still had some plans to formulate. But first she still had to figure out if the Pokémon Center had any beds left.

OCC: My 500th Post...I'm a god(dess)

Edit: I tweaked a couple of details(what colors the shirts were and what she did with the rest of her clothes and the shopping bags) but it probably wasn't noticeable. But it annoyed me so I fixed it.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: If this is incoherent in anyway just tell me...

The return to reality brought back Giselleback Giselle's itchy jeans and her self-consciousness. In an attempt to take her mind off her frustration she decided to stop a passing nurse to see if there were any beds left.

"Miss, excuse me but are there any beds left here?" Giselle asked timidly.

"Sorry," replied the red headed nurse, "but all the rooms have been taken or reserved."

Giselle suddenly had a flash of annoyance and had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes.

"Fine then," she snapped with a little more force than warranted. Giselle couldn't blame the nurse for glaring at her before marching off.

Giselle could not believe it. Since when were rooms at a Pokémon Center reserved? Everything seemed to be going wrong. Her blood was boiling and tears of frustration threatened to spill over. But Giselle stopped them because she didn't cry in public.

Instead she contented herself with Plan B: buy some things a sporting good store and camp out. Though she didn't know her way around Canalave City, Giselle figured that there may be something in the shopping district where she had bought her clothes. She decided to head there right after she had her Pokémon checked out.

There was no line as Giselle walked over to the counter and handed her two Pokéballs to another red headed nurse.

"Do either of your Pokémon have any serious injuries or conditions that I should know about?" the nurse asked professionally.

"No," Giselle sighed.

Surprised by Giselle's lack of interest, the nurse took the Pokémon to the back where, Giselle knew, there was a healing machine. While she waited, Giselle looked around the Pokémon Center again at the trainers and their Pokémon. Everyone seemed to be at ease with their Pokémon. Even the weakest Pokémon in the room looked much stronger than hers. The jealousy Giselle felt nearly overcame her. As she turned her back on the room, Giselle saw that the nurse was already back and had sat the Pokéballs back on the counter.

"Your Pokémon seem to be okay," the nurse began, "but neither Pokémon looks as though it is getting enough exercise. Make sure they have adequate time out of their Pokéballs each day."

"All right," Giselle murmured. She collected her Pokémon and walked away.

Giselle used the clock on her Pokédex and discovered in was after 10:30 p.m. She didn't know if anything would even be open. She hurried quickly out of the center, back through the lounge, and out of the building.

Giselle retraced her steps back to the area where she had bought her clothes. She was grateful to have a coat, gloves, and a hat, but the jeans and shirts were still uncomfortable. It had gotten colder and the wind whipped at her white hair. The streets were filled with people dressed warmly against the cold but very vibrantly. Despite her new clothes, Giselle still felt as though people were staring at her. But this time no one insulted her. However, people kept bumping into her, making her lose balance a couple of times. They rushed off with saying a word, adding to her frustration.

She was relieved to find herself back in the shopping district. Now that Giselle looked properly she saw signs that revealed all of the stores within the district and their opening and closing times. There was one store that caught Giselle's interest at once: The Rugged Rhyhorn Camping Goods Store. Unfortunately for Giselle, it closed at ten.

She tried to suppress her rising panic by telling herself that this couldn't be the only place that sold camping supplies. She concluded that she would just have the wander around a bit until she found another place, but she also made sure to keep out of people's way. As she walked, Giselle kept dwelling on the way the people in Sinnoh were acting. Though Pallet Town was by no means friendly to her, generally the people of Kanto seemed nicer than their Sinnoh counterparts. They didn't use the word ‘foreigner' with such derisiveness as those trainers did. Giselle was feeling resentful toward every one she had encountered in Sinnoh, from those trainers to the boy in the Pokemon Center.

After about thirty minutes of walking, Giselle found a place called Ditto's Discount Department Store. They had these stores in certain cities Kanto, but Giselle had no idea they had expanded to Sinnoh. The best things about them were that they sold absolutely everything from paint to Pokémon goods and were open twenty-four hours a day. Finally, something had gone right for a change.

She went into the store and found aisles upon aisles of stuff. She grabbed a shopping cart and started dropping things in: a compact tent, sleeping bag, flashlight, blanket, a five bottles of water, a lighter, more food, and a bigger back pack to put it all in. Giselle made sure to get a few health supplies for her Pokemon such as Antidote, Paralyze Heals, and Potions. She also found an awesome electronic map of the entire Sinnoh region which included a compass for only twenty dollars.

Though it was a discount store, things still added up fast. The total price for everything was $300. This time Giselle couldn't put anything back even if she wanted to; everything was needed. She grudging gave the cashier her money. The cashier, Giselle was not pleased to see, had the same expression as the cashier at the other store ($750 left).

Before leaving, Giselle repacked everything in her new backpack and she threw the shopping bags in a nearby recycling bin. She put the rest of her money inside of her coat pocket.. To her surprise, she found the backpack was not that heavy. She had already decided she would head out of the city and set up camp.

Giselle took out the map and consulted it to find the best route out. The map projected a holographic image of Sinnoh. Giselle zoomed in on Canalave City and discovered a route that led to another bigger city called Jubilife. She wanted to camp out on that route and spend the next day walking to Jubilife City to try her luck there.

She repacked the map and start going east. The night sky grew more beautiful as the lights of the city faded away behind her. Though she hadn't looked at a clock, she knew it was long after midnight. Giselle walked for what seemed like forever before she found an area suitable to set up camp. She hadn't eaten hardly anything the entire day, but she didn't feel like feeding herself, though she felt weak.

Giselle set up the tent and crammed the sleeping bag in it. She was going to put the backpack in the tent as well but then it was too crowded. She decided to leave it right outside the tent, but she took the map, her Pokéballs, and her Pokédex with her. She was about to crawl into the tent and into the sleeping bag before realizing she hadn't fed her Pokémon either.

She had to force herself to feed them because she didn't want to and didn't feel like it. Charmander gratefully ate every bit of the food Giselle gave him, but Caterpie refused her food.

Giselle didn't even bother to force feed Caterpie. After Charmander had finished she returned them both to their Pokéballs and climbed into the sleeping bag and used her coat as a blanket.

For the first time as she was staring up at the ceiling, Giselle started to get second thoughts. She had no idea what she was going to do now that she was in Sinnoh. Giselle foolishly thought she would know immediately what she would do when she arrived. With a jolt, she realized that she only had $750 left out of the $5000 she had taken with her. And it was very hard to believe she had only been here for mere hours. Sinnoh seemed to be a cold place in more ways than one. It took a long time for Giselle to fall asleep.

 

[leehage]

Such a sad story...Introduce comic relief character! But seriously, it would be sort of interesting to have an outside perspective on Giselle's personality. Still, it is continuously awesome!

 

[Michelle8936]

Yeah, it would be interesting.
Anyway, looking forward to more updates! ^^

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: Ready for a two for one?

Giselle was awoken the next morning, not from the sun streaming into the tent, but by a very disgusting smell. She sat bolt upright because it smelled like something dead and her first horrible thought was that it was one of her Pokémon. She looked around the tent and saw Caterpie had let herself out of her Pokéball. It took a couple of seconds before Giselle realized that the smell was coming from Caterpie’s antennae. Giselle figured that this was her punishment for not feeding Caterpie.

Giselle groaned and put her fingers in her hair and felt that her long hair was tangled and knotted. She had, of course, forgot to bring a comb so her hair was going be stuck that way until she bought one. She still had on the same clothes from last night, but they weren’t as uncomfortable. Either Giselle’s tossing and turning during the night had broken them in, or she had simply gotten used to them.

She was a little annoyed with Caterpie as it wasn’t her fault she didn’t want to eat last night, but she unzipped the tent and crawled out to get some Pokémon food for Caterpie anyway. The leaves from the trees filtered the morning sun so that its light appeared greenish-yellow. The ground, including Giselle’s backpack, was covered in dew.

As she reached in her backpack to pull out the food, she felt like there was something missing. But she was so weak from hunger herself she didn’t take time to look. She fed Caterpie who surprisingly ate the food without giving Giselle problems, but the Pokémon still maintained her coldness. Giselle wondered a couple of times if Caterpie had come from Sinnoh. Since Caterpie was already eating, she let out Charmander for breakfast too. Charmander had already eaten the night before so it didn’t eat as much this time.

After returning both Pokémon to their Pokéballs, she decided to eat herself. Giselle pulled an Instameal and a bottle of water from her backpack. All she had to do was add water to the meal and her rice and vegetables were ready to eat. She sat outside the tent to eat her breakfast while observing the scenery.

All around Giselle, Pokémon were starting to become active. Giselle was slightly annoyed by the fact that her Pokédex couldn’t identify them as she wanted very much to know what they were.

On the other hand, capturing them was out of the question. On the TV shows, Pokémon would generally stay in one place so the capturing went smoothly. That wasn’t the case in real life; to Giselle, it seemed as though the Pokémon was testing the trainer. If that were indeed the case, Giselle failed miserably. She received Charmander from Professor Oak and when she subsequently used it to capture more Pokémon. It was a fiasco.

One occasion, she managed to hit herself in the head with her own Pokéball and another time she accidently hit Charmander and found out that you couldn’t capture a Pokémon that had already been captured—even if it was your own Pokémon. The only reason she had Caterpie was because she captured it after she inadvertently scared off the Pidgey that were annihilating it. But Caterpie had never taken to her.

She was lost in her thoughts and memories and didn’t notice the trainer, a teenaged girl, who had walked up. To Giselle’s surprise, the trainer was simply dressed in jeans, a pink shirt, and hiking boots with her shoulder brown hair pulled back in a ponytail—nothing like the trainers in Canalave except for the big pink watch on her left wrist. The girl had noticed Giselle’s Pokéballs.

“You’re trainer, right? Can I battle? My name’s Maya Santos by the way.”

Of course Giselle’s battling skills were nearly as bad as her capturing skills, but she decided to give it a shot anyway. After all, she needed the money.

“Sure why not. I’m Giselle Valentine,” she replied. “What are your rules?”

“How about a one on one. Nice and simple,” she said, clearly eager for a battle.

“All right then,” said Giselle, faking confidence she didn’t have. She picked up a Pokéball and released Charmander.

“Oh wow,” Maya said, eyeing Charmander. She pulled out her Pokédex, which was pink and opened like laptop, and pointed it at Charmander.

“Information unknown,” the Pokédex said in a feminine voice. Apparently her Pokédex was only programmed for Pokémon native to Sinnoh

Getting her head back in the battle, Maya picked one of her own Pokéballs from her waist and released one of her Pokémon.

“Are you ready to battle, Skorupi?” A look of hesitation flashed across her face for an instant before it was gone.

Giselle was leery about Skorupi’s fangs but proceeded anyway, but before she could even call out an attack—

“Skorupi use Sand Attack!” In an instant the air was filled with dust, choking Charmander. It was now impossible to see. But Maya wasn’t done yet.

“Now use Poison Sting in that dust cloud!” The Skorupi, unnoticed by Giselle, had climbed up a nearby tree and started launching its attack from above. Though unable to see anything, Giselle could tell Charmander was taking major damage.

Giselle was starting to freak and tried to calm herself down to think of a way out of this. “Charmander use Ember!” It was the first thing that popped into her head.

Inevitably the attack missed but it did help repulse the bug Pokémon so Giselle ran with it. “Charmander just keep using Ember!” Giselle shouted, though she could barely see her Pokémon.

Charmander repeatedly used its fire attack—so much so that Maya and Skorupi had memorized Charmander’s movements. Skorupi now had no problems dodging Charmander’s attacks, even using the very tree it had climbed as a shield.

Giselle was at a loss at what to do next. She closed her eyes briefly to clear her head; Maya took that chance

“Skorupi use Whirlwind and then use Poison Fang!”

Skorupi kicked up more wind that Giselle thought possible. Charmander and Giselle tried to protect themselves from the fierce wind by putting crouching low with there arms around them. Skorupi moved in for the kill. It leapt down from the tree and sunk its venomous fangs into Charmander’s back with brutal force and didn’t let go.

Giselle only looked on helplessly as Charmander tried valiantly to shake off Skorupi. It was no use because Skorupi was bigger and hadn’t taken hits in the battle and Charmander fainted, exhausted from the effort.

Maya recalled Skorupi as soon as the battle ended. She was a bit taken aback by how short the battle was and by the fact that she had won with her bug Pokémon. Giselle wasn’t even thinking of her loss—only of giving this girl her money and then healing Charmander, whom she had already recalled.

Giselle ducked inside the tent quickly to take her money out of her coat pocket. Then, she hastily shoved $50 ($700 left) into the hand that didn’t have the Pokédex which Maya had taken out again.

Maya has a slightly curious look on her face but Giselle didn’t ask questions. Maya didn’t either; she just bowed and said thanks.

“Good-bye for now. Maybe we’ll see each other again.” Without delay, Maya ran off with surprising speed and disappeared into the forest.

Giselle dropped to the ground by her bag and started digging frantically for some potion. Of course it would have to be at the bottom of the bag. When she finally came up with it, she released Charmander and sprayed the medicine onto his wounds.

She knew immediately there were was something wrong. Usually Pokémon jerk slightly when sprayed with medicine because it stings, but Charmander didn’t react at all. Charmander looked more than just exhausted. His eyes were screwed up in pain and his breathing was labored, as though it was taking a great deal of effort.

Terrified, Giselle picked up Charmander trying to figure out what was wrong. Then she saw them on Charmander’s back: the two puncture wounds with purplish liquid around them.

Charmander had been badly poisoned.

OOC: Sorry if the battle scene was bad.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

Antidote! It was the only thought in Giselle's head as she laid Charmander gently onto the ground and rummaged through her bag a second time. To Giselle horror, she couldn't find it. She was so sure she was just missing it that she emptied everything out onto the ground but to no avail.

Charmander was looking worse and worse so Giselle had to take action. She made sure she had Caterpie's Pokéball, picked up Charmander again and started running as fast she could.

"Help! Anybody! Please, my Pokémon needs help!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. She didn't know what direction the Pokémon Center was in and if Charmander would make it until then. As she was running, Giselle tripped over a fallen branch and she hit the forest floor hard, still shielding Charmander from harm.

She didn't care about the mud or the cuts or the scratches, she just kept running. Suddenly there was a clearing in the forest and even though the sun was blinding her she kept going for the sake of her Pokémon. There were two girls up ahead but Giselle didn't see them and promptly crashed into them, sending them all to the ground.

"Hey! What are you do--," began one of the girls.

"Help me!" Giselle cut her off, "Please, do you have Antidote?"

Both girls looked at Charmander and quickly took action. One of the girls searched through her bag while the other was instructing Giselle to lay Charmander down and to stay calm.

"Reina do we have that medicine we made from the Pecha Berries?" asked the one calming Giselle.

"Right here, Carmen," she replied, handing over a vial with some pink powder in it. Carmen raised Charmander's head up a little and poured the powder into his slightly open mouth. For one moment nothing happened, and then Charmander's breathing slowly began to stabilize.

Giselle breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome," Reina said brightly. My sister and I are always willing to help a Pokémon in need, right Carmen?" Reina had light brown skin, dark brown eyes, black hair that was cut short. She had on a hot pink sweater, black miniskirt with black leggings, and hot pink wavy soled boots to match the sweater. She accessorized the look with chunky pink and black jewelry. She wore a navy blue traveling bag around her waist and the same pink watch as Maya had.

"Sure," Carmen merely said in a quiet voice. Carmen also had light brown skin, but her black hair was long and wavy and she had piercing silver eyes. She was dressed more simply in a chocolate colored sweater, jeans, and brown boots. Carmen sported a black sports bag worn on her back. Giselle also noticed an elaborate ring on her middle finger. She too had a pink watch.

"I guess we should formally introduce ourselves," Reina said, "My name is Reina Lopez and this is my older sister Carmen. What's your name?'

"Giselle Valentine."

"Hmm, cool. So as you can see I'm more of a talker than Carmen who's more observant. Well to be fair, she talks more when she's explaining something"

Giselle could see that. All the while Reina was talking, Carmen was looking at Giselle intently. The she spoke.

"You're foreign." It wasn't a question.

However grateful Giselle was for her saviors, she couldn't help but feel yet another stab of annoyance at that statement. Rather than bother with pretenses, Giselle simply asked, "How did you know?"

"First off, your white hair isn't a common sight here in Sinnoh and your name is definitely foreign. You have a slight accent, and you also give off the air that you're a newbie, a beginning trainer," she added at the sight of Giselle's confusion. "Usually, beginning trainers don't leave their own region until they've challenged their own league. How did you get so far from Kanto?"

Giselle was impressed by her observations. "Um, how did you know it was Kanto specifically?"

"The Charmander of course. Only Kanto trainers are given the option of Charmander as a starter."

"Oh, right," Giselle said.

"See I told you she'll talk if she's explaining something," Reina said with a smirk. "But seriously, Carmen, leave the aura and emotion reading to Gardevoir and Lucario. You scare people sometimes"

"I still want to know how you got so far from home. Isn't that a little expensive for a newbie?" Carmen implored.

Giselle cracked a smile but not in amusement; the reality of her situation had returned in full force. If they wanted to know so badly why not tell them her story? After all, they saved Charmander. Besides she was jaded and didn't care anymore, but even she was surprised at how easy the words came from her lips.

"I'm from Pallet Town and there are high expectations for the trainers. Let's just say I didn't live up to those expectations and even my parents are ashamed. I only have two Pokémon and one hates me. To attempt to salvage the rest of my pride and dignity, I took the $5000 for college and caught a ship from Vermillion to this place. I lost over half my money in a fee just to get off the ship. Everything here seems to be expensive. The weather cold and the people are snobby and colder still. And I couldn't even heal my Charmander. I guess I'm just as pathetic here as I am at home, huh? But at least know one knows me here." And with that the tears welled up, but this time she couldn't stop them from falling.

The sisters stood there, watching Giselle fall apart. Reina was at a complete loss at what to do, but Carmen strode forward and grasped Giselle's shoulders. Surprised, Giselle lifted her head but the tears didn't stop.

"You want to know what I think. You've been alone for too long. You never once mentioned a specific person during your story. Meeting people is a big part of being a trainer. You can't be off by yourself all the time. Why don't we all walk back to get your things and talk some more? I assume you have other things, right?" Carmen added with a slight smile.

Giselle nodded, her face streaked with tears. Seeing that the situation was under control, Reina pulled tissue from her bag and gave it to Giselle who took it and began wiping her face.

"Let's head back, shall we?" Reina said. And they all walked back into the forest.

OOC: Leehage had mentioned about the outside source, but I didn't want to say too much. Smiley And I felt it was time for a new title.

 

[leehage]

Someone took my suggestions??? :'( I'm so emotional!!!

But I do like the sisters. A little personality varying is always fun and the fight scene was pretty good. Just watch the grammar as I noticed two very small mistakes in the last post. Other than that, great!

 

[Carmen Lopez]

Someone took my suggestions??? :'( I'm so emotional!!!

I have most of the story already written out, but I had to cut some things because it made the story drag to much. I technically did take your suggestion by making Carmen and Reina make their appearence sooner.

[quote author=leehage link=topic=3822.msg53827#msg53827 date=1206281126]
But I do like the sisters. A little personality varying is always fun and the fight scene was pretty good. Just watch the grammar as I noticed two very small mistakes in the last post. Other than that, great!
[/quote]

Crap...and I was hoping I caught (or a least the grammar check would've at least help catch) all the mistakes this time around. I'll just have to go back and fix them now.

It's actually pretty hard for a writer to catch her own minor mistakes. I guess that's why they had editors ;D

 

[Sem]

Yay. XD Looks good. Yeah, a few mistakes here and there, stuff that spell check wouldn't catch. Like 'know' instead of 'no'. xP And I was going to send you an angry PM because I didn't see your fic anymore, but I realize you just changed the title. ^^;

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: I was going to post another two for one but this part was begging to be posted. Here it is...the next part is coming soon. I just hope I caught the mistakes this time.

“Guys?” said Giselle timidly, “I don’t quite remember where I left my things exactly. I was in such a panic when I left.”

Giselle was in the middle of the two sisters as they walked. Charmander was put back in his Pokéball to rest a bit more.

“Oh, well,” said Reina. "I guess we’ll have to keep wandering around until we find it. I wish we had a Swinub since they have a good sense of smell. Do you at least remember the general direction, Giselle?”

“Somewhat, I guess. It seems like all I’ve been doing here is wandering around,” said Giselle with a sigh and a sniff.

“Now we start talking,” said Carmen, “explain all about how you got here.”

“Well I saw a commercial for a discounted trip to Sinnoh and I jumped at it,” Giselle began. Carmen was already looking suspicious but she didn’t interrupt. “I was so sick of Pallet Town, you wouldn’t understand. The people had nothing better to do with their lives than follow the lives of trainers. I went to Vermillion City to catch the ship to Sinnoh. It only cost $50 to board, but the ride took forever. Then when we arrived in Sinnoh, we all had to pay a $3500 charge to even set foot in Sinnoh because of some law—“

Both sisters reacted.

“What law?” asked Reina sharply. “And what is this charge?”

Carmen asked, “Was that ship a piece of junk?”

“As a matter of fact it was,” said Giselle, whose nostrils were filled with scent of dead fish at the thought of it.

“Of course,” said Carmen darkly. “It’s a scam. A while ago our government imposed a law to keep these junk ships from entering our harbors by imposing a huge fine on the ships’ captains. But they found a way around that by making the passengers pay. They lie to them saying that there is a fee to enter Sinnoh in fine print in those commercials.”

Giselle rolled her swollen and puffy eyes. That didn’t help much as she didn’t read the fine print. On the other hand she didn’t know why the other passengers on the ship were so willing to pay that charge if they knew about it. Maybe they were desperate too.

“Keep on with your story,” Reina said.

Giselle continued. “When I got off the ship, I explored Canalave for a while before coming across a group of trainers. They had on the “hottest fashions” and I felt like a loser. They knew I was a foreigner right off so I tried to fit in with the trainers here by getting new clothes. They cost $400 and they were uncomfortable. It seemed like every trainer was wearing the latest fashions. Even you, Reina.”

At this Reina smiled. “You wanted to fit in so badly you paid $400 for clothes!? Wow. You do realize we don’t dress like this when we’re on the road, right?

“I realized that after my battle with Maya Santos where my Charmander got poisoned.”

“Yeah, I’m dressed up because Carmen and I are going out tonight.”

“And you’ve already gotten dressed?” Giselle couldn’t help asking.

“Of course, why not?” said Reina as if getting ready for a night on the town in the morning was perfectly normal.

“She’s an odd one,” said Carmen, “she also made me get ready as well.”

“You call that getting ready?” said Reina gesturing at Carmen’s outfit. “You look so plain!”

“I look fine,” said Carmen stubbornly. “I look classy.”

“Whatever,” Reina said, “I’ll get you in something interesting by the end of this day.”

Carmen made noise of impatience. “Anyway, Giselle, please continue.”

“It seemed like everyone I met was as cold as the weather, from those trainers to the salespeople and everyone in between. People were just unhelpful. What is wrong with the people here—“ Giselle stopped short, afraid she had offended her saviors.

Reina shot her a look.

“Wait a second. I’m sorry! I was just frustrated! I mean Maya was decent. I just—“ Giselle stopped when she saw Reina was smiling again albeit in an accusatory way.

“Ok, ok, ok. I’ve heard that stereotype before. Just because we don’t trip over ourselves trying to offer help to foreigners does NOT mean we’re cold. You actually have to ASK for help for it to be given. Name one person besides Carmen and me that you asked for help.

Giselle naturally had nothing but at the word ‘foreigner’ she rallied back.

“What is with that word? I’ve never heard the word ‘foreigner’ used with such scorn.”

Reina was about to say something back, but Carmen, who had been simply listening the whole time, stopped her.

“Those are just cultural differences,” Carmen stated. “From what I’ve heard the people of Kanto are stereotyped as being suffocating. But we all know that it’s just that—a stereotype. So Giselle you should take heart that not everyone in Sinnoh is that mean. It’s a different culture. In Kanto, people will offer help. Here, you generally must ask for it, as my sister so kindly said.”

“But the word ‘foreigner,’” Giselle began again.

“Is just a word,” Reina finished. “You can make any word sound derisive by the way you say it.”

Giselle had to admit she had a point. “I’m sorry, guys.”

“Oh, that’s all right.” Reina said. “Oh look here must be your things!”

Giselle was so involved in the conversation she wasn’t even paying attention to where they were walking. Her campsite was the same as she'd left it—which was in a huge mess. After making a spot check that nothing had been stolen, Giselle rushed forward and hastily packed everything back in her bag. “Where were you guys going tonight anyway?” Giselle asked when she was finished.

“We were trying to pick between Jubilife City and Veilstone City,” Reina replied.

“I think we should go to Veilstone. We need to do some shopping,” Carmen said seriously.

“Oh please,” Reina said exasperated, “the only reason you want to go to Veilstone is because of the game corner and the casinos. She’s a compulsive gambler,” Reina added in a whisper to Giselle.

Carmen flushed in outrage. “I am most certainly not a compulsive gambler! Even you said I win more than I lose. And you weren’t complaining about that $500 gift certificate I won you!”

“Then why did you lie and say you needed to go shopping?” Reina asked slyly.

“I didn’t lie! We really do have to go!” said Carmen who was trying to regain her lost composure. “I mean it’s okay if we make a stop by the game corner. And besides the reason YOU want to go to Jubilife is because you want to be on TV.”

“And I have no shame in admitting that,” said Reina. “Everyone wants their five minutes of fame…”

Giselle was busy trying not to laugh. It was a wonderful feeling; she didn’t remember the last time she had wanted to laugh. These sisters certainly had cheered her up. But it was time for it to end.

“I guess I should be going,” said Giselle. “It was very nice to meet you both.”

The sisters looked at each other. Then Reina turned backed to Giselle.

“Are you joking? Didn’t Carmen say you had been alone for too long? You’re coming with us for awhile.”

“What?” said Giselle blankly. She had never contemplated traveling mates and didn’t know what it would be like. All her friends in Pallet Town had struck out alone. Giselle had always been independent and a loner and she had never really connected with her friends now that she thought about it. They were just people to talk to and occupy time. But that way hadn’t been working for her.

“Of course you’re coming with us,” Carmen said gently. “We still haven’t talked enough.”

Giselle felt a feeling she couldn’t then describe. All she knew was that there was something good in store for her.

“Of course I’m coming with you,” Giselle repeated.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: Here's the next part. I'm trying a diffrent format as well. As always I welcome any constructive feedback.

The sun was higher in the sky as noon approached. The girls were headed through the forest toward the road. Giselle had just refused to get dressed at that moment, despite Reina's insistence. She had no desire to put back on any more uncomfortable clothes, though Reina said that heat might remove the itchiness.

"Why not get dressed now."

"Because it's pointless. I can do it later."

"You don't know what may happen later," said Reina as though stating the obvious. "You said you bought some clothes in Canalave. Well, wear those."

"But they're itchy and uncomfortable!" Giselle complained.

"I already told you heat may remove the discomfort. Let me see the clothes."

"You want me to dig through all that stuff?"

"Sure."

They all stopped as Giselle groaned and started digging through her bag. She didn't know how heat would remove the itchiness, but she kept searching. Finally she pulled out a pair of jeans and a funky blue shirt with geometric cutouts and a light pink shirt to go underneath.

"I don't know why I bought these. This isn't even my style—" but Reina interrupted.

"Those look awesome! You have to wear that tonight. But you don't have the right shoes for the job. We'll just have to buy some when we get Carmen something interesting then!" Reina looked positively excited about it, while Carmen merely groaned.

"So I don't have to put those clothes on now."

"No, not without the shoes."

Giselle was in disbelief as she stuffed the clothes back in her bag. "Are you even a Pokémon trainer? You seem to care a whole lot about your looks."

"I'll have you know that I am a trainer," said Reina as she started walking again with Giselle and Carmen following. "I recently reached the Elite Four. And even though I lost to Lucian, it was still a great battle because my Pokémon fought their hardest. My dream is to become the greatest Steel type Pokémon trainer in the world. I'm not quite there yet but hey, I'm trying."

Giselle was amazed. She didn't know who Lucian was but the fact that Reina made it to a region's Elite Four was amazing. "What about you, Carmen? You're a trainer, right?" Giselle asked.

"Yeah I'm a trainer, too," was all she said.

"Oh, don't be so modest, Carmen," said Reina sternly. "She's actually league champion; that's what the ring is for," she told Giselle.

If Giselle was amazed before, she was floored now. League champion! She was talking with an actual league champion! Although she felt a weird kind of honor, she couldn't help but feel slightly jealous.

"It's not that I'm trying to be modest," said Carmen, slightly annoyed. "I just don't know how to say that without sounding conceited. Pokémon training and battling is just something I love and enjoy doing. And don't you start treating me any differently!" She snapped at Giselle.

"Yes ma'am," said Giselle in a small voice and Carmen looked ashamed of herself, but quickly regained her poise.

"Sorry I snapped; that was totally uncalled for. I just don't like people to make a huge deal of it."

Reina looked like she wanted to say something more, but a look from her sister stopped her.

"Now for a change of subject," said Carmen. "Since we can't decide where we want to go, Giselle you should decide for us. Will it be Veilstone or Jubilife?"

"But I don't know anything about either place."

"Well, Jubilife is Sinnoh's most modernized city and is a high tech paradise. And it is home to the biggest TV station in Sinnoh," Reina explained. "Think about Giselle! We could be on TV! And since the Porygon line is Jubilife's mascot we could get discounts in certain places because of Carmen's Porygon-Z."

"And Veilstone is Sinnoh's entertainment capital full of arcades, shopping, restaurants, and game corners," Carmen countered back. "It's also a good place to see Pokémon battles. And we could get discounts there as well. Lucario represents the city and Reina has a Lucario."

"So which one will it be, Giselle?" Reina inquired eagerly.

Both sisters were looking at Giselle in anticipation. Giselle wasn't sure; both cities sounded amazing. But which one: the high tech paradise or the entertainment capital? She wanted to see both.

"Uhhhh…This is so hard. I pick….Veilstone!"

"Fine, Veilstone it is," said Reina, a little gloomily. "May I ask why you picked it?"

"I wanted to see how Sinnoh trainers battle. Maybe I'll learn something"

"Cool," Reina said. "And speaking of Pokémon why don't we stop walking for a little while and introduce ours to you."

"Okay," Giselle said. She was interested to see what kind of Pokémon they had.

"You don't mind Carmen?"

"Not a bit," Carmen responded brushing her hair from her eyes.

Each girl took six Pokéballs from her waist and threw them into the air. In a dazzling display of light, twelve Pokémon appeared.

"All right," said Reina happily. "These are my Pokémon: my starter Empoleon, Lucario, Magneton, Salamence, Beldum, and Onix." She gestured toward each one as she called their names. "I also have a few other Pokémon not in my party right now. All of these, except Salamence are from Sinnoh. I picked up Salamence from the GTS when it was a Bagon.

"And these are mine: my starter Blaziken, Milotic, Porygon-Z, Drapion, Gardevoir, and Dragonite. To make s long story short, Sinnoh trainers don't get the option of Torchic as a starter but there was mix-up and I ended up with it. By the way, this is the team that I used to beat the champion. I also have a few more Pokémon in storage."

Giselle recognized Onix, Magneton, and Dragonite, while Porgon-Z was obviously Porygon's final evolution. The others she didn't recognize. Empoleon, Blaziken, and Salamence looked fierce and powerful; Milotic and Gardevoir were two of the most beautiful Pokémon Giselle had ever seen. Drapion had to be Skorupi's evolution with those impressing fangs and claws. Beldum was the strangest of the group, simple looking like a ball attacked to some sort of handle.

Giselle looked thoughtful as she said, "It's ironic that you assumed I was from Kanto because of Charmander and you have a starter you're technically not supposed to have."

"Well to be fair a person's starter is usually an indicator of where he or she is from. I'm just an exception," Carmen said and she, of course, had a point.

Reina turned to all of the Pokémon. "All right guys why don't you just chill for a while," she said and the twelve agreed and went off to do their own thing.

Giselle's gaze fell on Lucario. So that's what Megumi was... Reina's Lucario looked very bit as amazing as Megumi had been. Then the sisters turned to Giselle, which turned her attention away from the other Pokemon.

"Now it's your turn for introductions," said Carmen.

Giselle didn't want to; her Pokémon were nothing next to theirs and she hated to show them Caterpie. But Carmen seemed to read her mind.

"We're not going to laugh or anything like that. Besides we want to help you become better trainer so we need to see what you have right now. And we need to see if Charmander has recovered"

Giselle sighed and picked her two Pokéballs from her waist and released Charmander and Caterpie. Charmander looked much better and was happy to be out of its ball. Caterpie, as usual, was annoyed.

Before Giselle could stop her, Reina reached out to touch Caterpie. Caterpie wasn't happy with being touched and promptly used String Shot, covering Reina's whole arm in sticky string.

"Caterpie!" Giselle cried in shock and embarrassment.

"Don't," said Carmen. "She was asking for that. Reina you can't just go touching people's Pokémon. Remember that Stunky incident?"

"Don't remind me," Reina said darkly trying to pull the string off her arm. "That smell lasted the whole day."

"Giselle, could my sister use Charmander's tail flame to burn the string away?" Carmen asked.

"Sure," Giselle replied.

Reina walked over to Charmander and knelt down, putting her arm over the tail flame. In seconds all of the string was gone.

Just then there was a commotion coming from the other Pokémon. Empoleon and Lucario were facing each other with their game faces on ready to fight.

Giselle looked concerned but Reina said, "Here we go again."

"Um, aren't you going to stop them?" Giselle asked Reina.

"Nope. Paris and Meilene—those are Empoleon's and Lucario's nicknames— are always at each other. Or as I should say, Paris is always at Meilene. They've had a rivalry ever since I added Meilene to the team when she was a Riolu and Paris was a Piplup. You see, Meilene is a thinker and more of a loner and Paris always wants to play so inevitably they clash with Paris always being the instigator. Boys aren't supposed to pick on girls but try telling that to Paris. This has been going on for so long that I don't even bother stopping them anymore. Besides it's good practice for them both.

Giselle, Carmen, and Reina, along with the rest of the Pokémon had stopped what they were doing to watch the fight. Paris charged at Meilene who used Iron Defense to shield herself. There was a grating sound of steel against steel as Paris collided with Meilene, with neither one being harmed. The force of the collision repelled the two steel types away from each other, but they both landing gracefully on their feet. Then Paris used Metal Claw which Meilene countered with Flash Cannon. The light from Meilene's attack temporarily blinded everyone so no one could see what was going on. When they regained sight, they saw again that the two Pokémon were unharmed.

Paris and Meilene were staring each other down wondering what the other would do. Suddenly Paris used Water Pulse which Meilene countered with her own Water Pulse with amazing speed. The jets of water met in midair with neither one yielding. Then both Pokémon stopped their attacks to size each other up. Just when Giselle thought there would be more, Meilene and Paris walked away from each other. This random battle was over as quickly as it began.

"That's all?" asked Giselle."

"Yep. That's how it always is. They spar with each other for a little bit then they walk away."

Everything settled back to normal once more. Charmander didn't leave Giselle's side while Caterpie went off by itself and did nothing. Salamence and Dragonite took to the skies; Lucario went to sit with Gardevoir and Milotic; Empoleon joined Drapion and Onix; and Beldum idly floated after Magneton, attracted by Magneton's magnetism. Porygon-Z however floated over to Carmen.

"Oh all right," she said. "But make sure to come back when I call you." Carmen then pulled out what looked like phone and computer combined; Porygon-Z digitized itself and entered the phone/computer device through an infrared port.

Giselle didn't know what had just happened so Carmen explained.

"Porygon and its two evolutions are artificially made Pokémon who can travel in cyber space. As a result they can enter computers and many electronic devices and if there is an internet connection they can travel all over the world using the internet. They're amazing and rare Pokémon and I'm so grateful I have one as my friend."

"But how do you call it back?" Giselle wanted to know.

"Through an e-mail. I don't bother to pretend to be an expert in how it works. However, I believe each Porygon, Porygon2, and Porygon-Z acts as its own computer with an e-mail address in some way. And just like you can send an e-mail from one computer to another no matter how far away it may be, you can send one to the Pokémon. They can somehow receive and understand the message."

Giselle was thoroughly confused but didn't inquire further. She looked at Carmen's and Reina's Pokémon and wondered what it took to raise strong Pokémon. Giselle marveled at how the two sisters seemed to be in tune with their Pokémon. She looked back to her own Pokémon and as usual she didn't know what to do and suddenly the feelings of inadequacy threatened to return again in full measure.

Carmen looked at Giselle and saw the uncertainty in her eyes. It then dawned on her that Giselle simply may not know how to relate to her Pokémon; she remembered her mother saying she had been the same way when she was a young trainer and what had helped her to overcome that. Carmen wanted to see if the same thing would help Giselle as it did her mother.

OOC: Once again I hope I caught all the mistakes. I keep trying to tie up loose ends. BTW: Is this getting too long?

Edit: I didn't catch the mistakes the first time around...

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: I originally wanted to do another two for one but I feels like I haven't posted in forever. So here goes. I hope you like it!

The three girls were still watching the Pokémon. Paris and Meilene kept well away from each other in their respective groups. Dragonite and Salamence were now breathing fire as they were flying. Magneton was drifting around lazily with Beldum close behind. Charmander still refused to leave Giselle’s side and Caterpie had climbed up a tree and onto a high branch. Giselle was feeling slightly uncomfortable and was on the verge of recalling both of her Pokémon when she started talking just for the sake of talking.

“Hey Reina,” said Giselle.

“What is it?” asked Reina who was now busy with her pink watch.

“Do your other Pokémon have nicknames?”

“Two of the others do,” said Reina. Onix is called Acero and Salamence is called Clair after the famous Dragon trainer. Magneton and Beldum don’t because I like their species names.”

“What about Carmen?”

“She only named one of her Pokémon and that’s Milotic whom she named Nerissa. She never said why she didn’t name the others.”

Giselle was interested because she had never thought about giving her Pokémon names. She always felt awkward calling Pokémon by human names or little pet names. But hearing Reina talk about it made it seem cooler somehow. As they were talking, Carmen had walked over to Gardevoir, Meilene, and Nerissa. Though none of the Pokémon could talk, it seemed as though they had a deep connection with Carmen, even Meilene. Giselle sighed and was about to simply start watching the Pokémon again, when Carmen came back over to her and Reina.

“Giselle,” she began. “Tell me something. I want to hear in your words what your relationship with your Pokémon is like.”

“Erm,” Giselle really didn’t know where to began. “I already told you that Caterpie hates me. And with Charmander, it’s just I don’t, I mean can’t.” She struggled with the words to explain her predicament.

Carmen helped her out. “You just don’t know how to relate to your Pokémon or how to get to know them. How often do you just let them out of their Pokéballs and spend time with them?”

Now that she thought about it, she only let her Pokémon out for air and for food, and the (very) occasional battle. Giselle could feel her face grow hot with embarrassment and shame. She felt very stupid.

Giselle’s facial expression explained everything to Carmen, but Reina was slightly less keen.

“Are you going to answer the question, Giselle?” Reina asked, unintentionally tactless.

Carmen looked at her in disbelief but that was an issue for another day. Instead she turned back to Giselle.

“I noticed a slight change in Charmander when Reina used its tail flame to burn off that string. It was almost has if it was happy. That’s why I consulted with Meilene and Gardevoir to see if they noticed it too and they did. I believe that means that Charmander likes to feel useful and is more at peace when it is busy doing something.”

This only made Giselle feel worse. How did Carmen know more about Charmander, whom she had only known for hours, than his own trainer?

“That wasn’t to discourage you, you know,” said Carmen reading Giselle face.

“Before you say anything else, let me ask you something,” said Giselle wryly. “Is my face really that easy for people to read?”

“Sure is,” replied Carmen, smiling.

“Wait a second,” Reina cut in. “I can’t read her face. I mean it’s probably not that easy to read. It’s probably because you’re just incredibly perceptive about those things.

“No, you’re just incredibly dense about those things,” said Carmen flatly. “But let’s get back on the subject here.” Reina looked mutinous, but Carmen ignored her. “To put it simply, you just have to do things with your Charmander to find what it likes best. Here’s a start: remember, it seems to like helping out.”

Even before Carmen said that, Giselle was racking her brains as to what she should do with Charmander, who still hadn’t left her side. She was determined to make good use of Carmen’s findings. Carmen went back to watching her Pokémon and didn’t interrupt Giselle’s thoughts, for which she was glad. Reina had started to pace around absentmindedly. What, thought Giselle, could she do. She was sure that this was a no brainer for anyone else, but she had to work a little harder to find a deceptively simple answer.

Just then, Reina had accidently stepped into a hole no doubt left by a Pokémon. Her foot sunk deep into the hole and was sent face first into the dirt. There was about two seconds of complete silence before both Giselle and Carmen started to laugh. There was a metallic rasping sound coming from somewhere. As they looked around they realized that even Beldum was laughing at Reina. The rest of her Pokémon, including Magneton with a still laughing Beldum in tow, rushed over to form a semicircle around the three girls out of concern for their trainer.

“That’s not funny, you three,” Reina said indignantly, still face down on the ground. “Bleaah, now I got dirt in my mouth!”

That only made Giselle laugh harder and when Reina finally stood up, her outfit ruined Giselle began crying from laugher. Both sisters looked at Giselle in amazement. But at the sight of Giselle laughing so hard, they began to laugh, too.

“Was it really that funny, Giselle?” Carmen asked through her laugher.

“Yes,” choked Giselle. She didn’t know why it was so funny but it just was.

“Giselle, this is an emergency! My outfit is totally messed up! What are we going to do!?” She said as seriously as she could while laughing.

“You can just wash them,” Giselle shouted. “After all, mine are itchy, and, and…” Giselle suddenly stopped laughing and trailed off, her thoughts going into overdrive.

“Erm, Giselle? What happened there?” Reina asked.

“You told me my clothes needed heat, right? How do we do that? Could Charmander help?”

Reina’s jaw dropped slightly. “Ok, that totally came out of nowhere. Are you bipolar or something like that?”

Carmen, however, smiled. “Sometimes inspiration hits you in odd moments.”

“Well, Reina, can Charmander help,” Giselle repeated more urgently.

“As a matter a fact it could,” said Reina reaching into her backpack. “All we need is this.” And she pulled out what looked like a plastic bag and handed to Giselle.

“What am I going to do with this?” Giselle asked puzzled.

“I forgot to mention it earlier, but I’m almost sure your clothes are made of Sinnoh cotton. It’s cotton that is native to this region, of course. It’s a strange material; when it’s harvested, processed, and made into clothes, the clothes are very itchy and uncomfortable. But if you apply enough heat to them, the itchiness disappears and you have to most comfortable material you’ve every felt.”

“And this bag?”

“The bag itself is heat and flame resistant. See the lining on the inside of it? Put the clothes inside of the bag and put it in a dryer or hold it over a fire or anything like that. The bag won’t be ruined but anything inside will heat to a high temperature. I don’t think I even need to explain the rest.”

“No, you don’t,” said Giselle. She pulled the clothes out of her backpack once more and shoved them in the bag.

Carmen, who had been once again only been listening, called over her Gardevoir.

“Gardevoir, please lift this bag into the air.”

“Gardevoir,” breathed the Pokémon. She glowed with a blue light as she levitated the bag psychically. As with the boy’s Lucario, she found the sight beautiful. She knelt down beside Charmander.

“All right, Charmander,” Giselle said, feeling slightly awkward. “I need your help; I need you to use Ember on that bag, ok?”

Charmander looked very surprised to receive an order outside of battle, but he looked very pleased nonetheless. He opened his jaws wide and breathed fire as hard as it could at the bag. Giselle was amazed; that Ember attack was even stronger than it was in battle but she had no idea why.

After a few moments, Reina spoke up. “That should be enough.”

“Ok,” said Giselle. “Charmander, you can stop now.”

Charmander obeyed immediately and looked extremely happy and proud of himself. Giselle couldn’t help but feel as though she had a ball of fire in her as well.

Gardevoir lowered the bag into Giselle’s hands. She winced, expecting the bag to be hot before remembering that Reina said the bag was flame resistant. First, she merely peeked in the bag and saw that the clothes looked the same. Then she reached into the bag and touched the clothing with her hands. She was shocked to discover that the very texture of the clothes had changed. The shirts were snuggly soft, and the jean already had a comfortable, broken in feel.

“You did great!” she said as she picked Charmander up and raised him over her head, laughing. The only other time Giselle had held Charmander was when he was poisoned and she was screaming for help. She didn’t realize how warm the fire type was.

Then Giselle and Charmander looked into each other’s eyes. Charmander’s eyes seem to shine with delight. Almost instantly a strange feeling bubbled inside of her. Giselle couldn’t describe with words what the feeling was. It was as though she had had a breakthrough, a moment of clarity. For the first time, Giselle felt like she related to her Pokémon, felt like her Pokémon was more than just a pet, felt like she had finally gotten it. Was this what it felt like? Was this really the connection that trainers felt with their Pokémon?

Neither Carmen nor Reina nor any of their Pokémon said or did anything. All of them knew the significance of that moment. It was amazing how just a simple action could make a world of difference. The sun overhead seemed to shine the brightest it ever had.

OOC: I hope it was coherent...

 

[Chibi]

Awwww...I find it so amazingly happy and adorable how giselle and Charmander are now understanding each other. *wants to hug that cute Charmander*

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: Here we go again!

What Giselle was feeling at the moment wasn't exactly happiness; it was something like she was viewing the world differently. So when she finally put Charmander back on the ground, she felt like a massive obstacle to her Pokémon training had been removed. However, even with her and Charmander on the same level, she still had her other Pokémon to deal with. Though she couldn't figure out what to do, she knew exactly who might.

"Carmen, do you think you could help out with Caterpie? The situation with her is a little different than with Charmander."

"Tell me about it," Reina muttered under her breath.

"Hmm," Carmen looked thoughtful. "You know I'm going to need back story, right?"

"Figures," said Giselle. "Okay, it was at the end of the day and I had just spent the whole day trying and failing to capture Pokémon. So of course I was frustrated and I was desperate. Everyone had caught Pokémon except me! I ended up coming across this Caterpie being annihilated by some Pidgey. I was going to just walk away but I tripped and fell, scaring away the Pidgey. Then there was only the Caterpie left and I just through a Pokéball at it and caught it."

"Say no more," said Carmen. "I can already see what the problem is. Trainers earn the respect of their Pokémon in the battle in which they were captured. Of course your starter is an exception and there are others but this is the general rule. You hurt Caterpie's pride by capturing it even though you didn't battle it."

That certainly explained a lot, Giselle thought. Now what was she going to do about it. "But do I have to release it? I really don't want to…"

"I think you already know what to do," said Carmen.

After a few moments, Giselle came to a conclusion. "Now I just have to get it out of that tree," she said.

All three girls turned to the tree in question and looked up. Caterpie was still on her branch doing nothing.

"Hey, Caterpie," Giselle called. "Come down here please."

But Caterpie didn't obey; it merely looked at Giselle with a "why are you bothering me look." For one brief second, Giselle thought of Monique.

Giselle turned to Carmen. "What do I have to do?" she asked.

Carmen shrugged. "You'll just have to talk it down."

Giselle knew that was the only way deep down, but it still felt like she was trying to talk a desperate person out of committing suicide.

"Caterpie, I know why you're acting like this," Giselle said with as much sincerity as she could muster while shouting. "I'm sorry that I was so stupid, that I didn't think about your feelings. I can make it up to you if you want. We'll do it honest this time and have a proper battle."

Reina was stunned, but Carmen was pleased.

"A re-capture?" said Reina. "This will be interesting."

"If you want to give me a second chance, will you come down from that tree?" Giselle asked.

At first, Caterpie did nothing. But after a few moments, miraculously, Caterpie turned on its branch and crawled down the tree.

Giselle was astonished by the fact that Caterpie was willing to give her a second chance, but now she didn't know what to do. She had never captured a Pokémon honestly before; she had no idea what to do, but Carmen did what she does best.

"We can help, you know," Carmen said as though reading Giselle's mind.

Caterpie had crawled right in front of Giselle, but she still looked suspicious. She was still wandering if Giselle had only said that her down from the tree.

To Giselle's very great surprise, she herself sensed that. She had never been able to even slightly sense her Pokémon's feelings before. Maybe Carmen's influence was rubbing off on her.

"Watch this, Caterpie," said Giselle. She took Caterpie's Pokéball from her waist and smashed it against a tree, shattering it into a million pieces, surprising everyone. "Now do you believe me?"

Caterpie took a long calculated look at her trainer, sizing her up. Here was the girl who humiliated her by capturing her when she was down. Now she wanted a second chance. But she did really seem sincerely sorry…

Giselle beckoned the two sisters over to her. "Uh guys, do you happen to have an extra Pokéball? I don't have anymore."

Carmen and Reina groaned playfully.

"Honestly, Giselle, what kind of trainer are you?" Reina said, handing a somewhat different pinkish Pokéball to Giselle.

"What kind of ball is this?" Giselle asked.

"It's a Heal Ball," Carmen explained, "You know how you have to nurse a Pokémon back to health after you capture it? Well, this ball heals the Pokémon for you as long as you have less than six Pokémon with you."

"Nice," said Giselle. "Are you ready, Caterpie?"

Caterpie got into its battle pose signaling that it was ready to brawl. Giselle turned to Charmander.

"Charmander, you know what I need to do but I can't do it without your help."

At the word ‘help' Charmander puffed himself up importantly and his eyes sparkled.

"All right, let's begin!"

As soon as the words were out of Giselle's mouth, Caterpie used String Shot on Charmander with surprising speed. Neither Giselle nor Charmander saw it coming, so Charmander was covered in sticky string. While his movements were restricted, Caterpie took the opportunity to repeatedly tackle Charmander in the chest and stomach. Giselle froze, paralyzed by not being able to come up with a strategy and disbelief that Caterpie's attack were so strong. She closed her eyes to concentrate—a bad move.

"Giselle, you can't close your eyes in the middle of batt-," Carmen was saying, but Reina interrupted.

"GISELLE, IS CHARMANDER A FIRE TYPE OR NOT?!!? COME ON NOW! THINK ON YOUR FEET!"

"Oh, right," said Giselle, clearing her head. She took one hard look at the battling Pokémon and made her move. "Charmander hang in there and use Ember straight ahead!"

Charmander grimaced in pain but managed to execute its attack. The Ember burned away the string but it also hit Caterpie, doing major damage. Caterpie screeched in pain and was writhing on the ground from the attack.

Giselle was thrilled; this was the first time she had landed an attack on a Pokémon in battle, but she was determined not to let that go to her head.

"Charmander, use Scratch while it's down! Quickly!" Giselle said urgently.

With amazing strength, Charmander lunged himself at Caterpie and began to brutally scratch her with his claws over and over to prevent her from attacking back.

"All right, Charmander I think that's enough," said Carmen, seeing Caterpie on the ground singed and covered in scratches.

But Caterpie wasn't done. When Charmander and Giselle had their guard down, Caterpie attacked once again, tackling Charmander to the ground.

Giselle was both stunned and horrified, but something was happening. Charmander begin to glow with a faint, but noticeable orange glow that Giselle had never seen before.

"Giselle, that's Charmander's Blaze ability!" Carmen called out. "Here's your chance to use a fire move!"

Giselle didn't ask questions. "Charmander use Ember now."

The flames were hotter and burned brighter than before and Caterpie took a direct hit. This time Caterpie didn't get up.

"Heal Ball, go!" Giselle said gleefully as she threw the ball at Caterpie.

"'Heal Ball, go'? Kinda corny don't you think?" Reina said. "Well maybe that's how they do it in Kanto."

The ball twitched once, twice, three times, then moved no more. Giselle had done it; she just made her first legit capture.

"I can't believe it," Giselle whispered.

"I can," said Carmen. "All you have to do is focus—without closing your eyes."

"Yeah, Giselle, you're not a Lucario or something," Reina said.

"And never let your guard down until it's over," Carmen added.

"Heh, heh, you have a point. Touché," said Giselle, noting how Caterpie almost defeated Charmander.

"What does ‘touché' mean anyway," said Reina. "Is that another Kanto phrase, or something?"

"Yeah, something like that," Giselle explained. "It just means that the person had a point that can't be refuted or argued."

She walked over and picked up the pokéball off the ground. Had that battle really done the trick?

"Well, Giselle, take a look," said Carmen.

Giselle excitedly pressed the button on the Heal Ball and released Caterpie. The ball had done its job perfectly; Caterpie was fully healed and looked like it had never even been in a battle. For one moment, Giselle and Caterpie just looked at each other in silence.

"Caterpie?" Giselle said. There was no point in beating around the bush, and she said aloud the question she was thinking, "Are we friends now?"

Caterpie just stood still, then amazingly it smiled, or whatever it was Pokémon did when they were happy. And when Giselle looked into Caterpie's eyes, she knew she had finally earned its respect. There was no longer the cold, uncaring look in her eyes. Giselle was, of course, ecstatic.

"Come here, Caterpie." Giselle called out joyfully.

Caterpie crawled over to Giselle and promptly tackled her in a playful way.

"Oomph," went Giselle as she fell, caught off guard, to the ground for the second time that day. Giselle gave Caterpie a hug, something the Pokémon would never had let happen before. "I had no idea you were that much of a brawler."

Both Carmen and Reina laughed, while Giselle smiled faintly to herself, obviously lost in thought. It didn't go unnoticed.

"What are you thinking about, Giselle?" Carmen asked.

"Well," began Giselle, picking herself off the ground. "I had months and months of misery and failure back home, yet I've already made major progress the mere two days I've been here. I'm not sure if that's pathetic or not."

Giselle wasn't used to being this open with people, saying aloud what was on her mind. But she was pleased and content. Her two Pokémon respected her and her whole outlook on this thing called Pokémon training had totally changed. Carmen and Reina amazed her with their help and support. She pinched herself just to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

Carmen smiled more broadly. "That's the power of friendship."

Friendship?

"Arg," Reina groaned. "We've been in once place to long! I vote we start moving again."

"I have an idea," Carmen spoke up. "I say we postpone our Veilstone trip and help Giselle capture more Pokémon."

"Wait, what? Now!?" Giselle sputtered, totally knocked for six.

"Yes"

"But I wanted to spend more time with Charmander and Caterpie!"

"And you will. They'll be helping you capture more Pokémon. I'd called that bonding."

"I totally second that motion," Reina said, clearly excited.

"Well, let's go, why don't we," Carmen said. She then turned to her Pokémon. "Guys did you have a nice resting time?"

The answer from the Pokémon was clearly yes.

"Good. It's time for us to go now." And she recalled all of her Pokémon except Dragonite.

She then pulled out her computer/phone no doubt to call back PorygonZ. About thirty seconds later, in a flash of red light, zeros, and ones, PorygonZ reappeared. Carmen recalled it as well.

Excluding Clair, Reina also recalled all of her Pokémon, including Paris and Meilene who looked like they were going to have another fight.

"Ready to go?" both sisters asked together.

Giselle's head was beginning to spin. Everything was happening so fast! Charmander and Caterpie, who were now both at Giselle's side, looked at her encouragingly. Giselle sighed.

"Do I really have a choice?"

"No," the both simply said.

OOC: OMG! Sorry its so long. Maybe I should've broken it up...Once again let me know if there are errors--grammatical, continuity or anything else.

 

[Pheonix]

This story is wonderful! Nice continuity and the grammar is just fine. And your chapter length looks just right, covering one major event from start to finish. Can't wait to read more. ;D

 

[mike16]

kool

 

[Sem]

And THAT is what we call spam. =D Warned. For the love of gods read the rules and follow them.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: I took a few liberties with some Pokemon sizes. I hope no one minds.

Giselle felt as though everything was surreal. It was a brisk afternoon. Reina and Carmen had informed Giselle that Sinnoh was indeed colder than the other regions. However while the it was slightly chilly, it wasn’t cold enough for the heavy coat that Giselle had bought the night before, so she decided her red long sleeve shirt would do. Giselle wondered what they would do next, but she didn’t have to wonder for long.

“All right, Giselle,” Reina began. “We’re going to take you out Pokémon capturing, but there are some rules.”

“Rules?” asked Giselle questioningly.

“Yes, rules,” said Carmen, smiling. “And here they are. First off, you can’t ask where we are. Second off, you can’t ask what the Pokémon is. Capture first, ask questions later. Got it?”

“I guess so,” said Giselle.

A slight breeze played with Giselle’s hair, which was now free of knots thanks to a comb that Reina gave her.

“Come on, Giselle, pick a dragon,” said Reina.

“What?” Giselle asked, confused.

“Pick a dragon,” she repeated. “We’re going to Fly to our destinations. Who would you rather ride with? Me or Carmen?”

Giselle looked at the two dragon Pokémon, Dragonite and Clair, the Salamence. She decided to base her choice on which she thought was more comfortable to ride—Salamence.

Salamence was slightly taller than Reina, but she hopped on the dragon’s back gracefully. “Come aboard, Giselle,” Reina called out.

Giselle kneeled down to her Pokémon’s level to get to the attention of Caterpie who was enjoying the breeze and Charmander who was looking at the Dragonite and Salamence with admiring eyes. “It’s time to return to your Pokéballs now. I promise you’ll be out shortly though.” And with that Giselle returned the two content Pokémon to their Pokéballs.

Giselle had never flown on a Pokémon before so she was nervous about climbing on Clair’s back. Reina held out her arm to help Giselle get on.

“Come on now, Giselle, you’ll have to get used to this,” Reina said with a mischievous smile.

“Yeah, yeah,” grunted Giselle as she pulled herself up.

It was strange feeling sitting on Salamence’s back. Reina sat in front of Clair’s wings while Giselle was sitting almost in the middle of her wings. After actually getting on the creature’s back, Giselle thought she was going to be in for an uncomfortable ride. Reina looked back and saw the Carmen too had climbed onto her Pokémon.

“All set?” asked Reina happily. “Then let’s use Fly!”

Dragonite and Salamence rose into the air and took off with amazing speed. Giselle was surprised that the ride wasn’t uncomfortable like she thought it would be. In fact it was very smooth. She enjoyed the wind in her face and hair. But there was one thing she didn’t understand.

“Hey, Reina!” Giselle called out. “What did you mean by “use Fly”?

“Oh, that. Well Fly is the name of move that has a different effect in battle and outside of battle. In battle it is an attacking move; outside of battle it’s a transport move. The Pokémon using Fly can fly at an abnormally high speed to get itself and its rider to different areas fast.”

“But aren’t we too heavy?”

“For Salamence? No. How much weight a Pokémon can carry depends on the Pokémon itself. The two of us together don’t weigh that much and Clair can easily carry us. Dragonite can carry heavier trainers because it is heavier and stronger.”

“Oh,” said Giselle. And with that she didn’t say anymore and just enjoyed the ride. The scenery blurred as it soared beneath them. It seemed as though Reina and Carmen and their Pokémon had flown around these parts many, many times.

Too soon they we’re descending. This time they were on a grassy route. She could see the skyline of a big city on the horizon. Giselle was about to ask where they were until she remembered that she wasn’t allowed to.

“Come on, Giselle,” Reina whispered as she jumped down.

Giselle jumped to the ground into grass that came up to her knees and looked around. Trees dotted the landscape here and there and there were pretty flowers on the ground. Giselle could hear a stream in the distance.

As Giselle was enjoying the scenery, Carmen walked over and nudged her.

“Look at that,” she whispered, pointing.

Giselle followed the direction of Carmen’s pointing and saw what she thought was a very cute Pokémon. From its head to about the middle of its body it was blue while the rest of it was black. It had bright yellow eyes and its tail had a yellow star on its tip.

Reina clapped a hand on Giselle’s shoulder. “I think you know what comes next.”

“What? Capture it?” Giselle said in a forced whisper. “I don’t even know what it is!”

“So what? Capture first, ask questions later, remember?”

Giselle sighed and resigned herself. “What do I do now?” she asked.

“Confidently walk up to it with your Pokéball out. If it doesn’t run away, the battle is on,” Carmen explained, handing Giselle more Heal Balls.

“All right,” said Giselle, taking the Pokéballs. Nervousness and now excitement together flowed through her.

The grass curiously seemed to muffle her steps as Giselle walked over to the mystery Pokémon, Charmander’s Pokéball in hand. As Giselle grew close, the Pokémon finally noticed her. It turned its yellow eyes on Giselle and finally to the Pokéball in her hand. It growled softly. The game was on.

Giselle released Charmander and the two Pokémon stared each other down. Giselle wasn’t exactly sure what to do so she attacked first.

“Charmander, use Ember!”

The Pokémon dodged the attack and began charging toward Charmander, its body electrified—a Spark attack. Charmander tried to run from it but the Pokémon charged faster. And when Charmander tried to throw it off by changing directions, the Pokémon changed directions faster. But something was starting to come out of Charmander’s mouth: thick black smoke—Smokescreen.

Giselle gasped. “Charmander use Smokescreen to throw it off!”

This time Charmander turned to face the Pokémon and blasted black smoke directly at the Pokémon, totally engulfing it; it couldn’t see anything. Giselle was suddenly reminded of her battle with Maya.

“Now Charmander, use Ember in that smoke until you hit it!”

Charmander used Ember repeatly in the cloud, reminiscent of Skorupi launching Poison Sting in the dust cloud. From the shrieks of the Pokémon, Charmander had landed multiple hits.

When the wind blew the smoke away, the Pokémon was down, hurt by the Ember attacks. Giselle took the chance.

“Don’t say it,” Reina said under her breath.

But she did.

“Heal Ball, go!” Giselle cried as she threw the Heal Ball.

The Pokémon went in the Pokéball. It twitched once, twice, and then no more. The Pokémon was caught. Giselle walked over to pick up the Pokéball and then turned to Reina and Carmen.

“Ok, I caught it, now I can ask questions. What is this?”

“That’s a Shinx,” said Reina brightly. “It’s an electric type that evolves twice—first into Luxio, then into Luxray. And yours is a male!”

Giselle released Shinx from his Pokéball fully healed. He blinked his big eyes a couple of times, and looked around finally turning to Giselle with a gentle curiosity. Giselle knelt down and scratched Shinx on the tuft of hair on its head and he purred. He had a sunny disposition. Charmander came over to see his new friend and teammate and began to converse with each other. Though Giselle couldn’t tell what they were saying, it sounded like everything was good. They looked happy at any rate.

“That’s an adorable scene,” said Giselle. “But it’s time to go now, right?”

“You bet,” said Reina. “But the next time you go to catch a Pokémon, don’t say Pokéball go, all right? It’s corny.”

Giselle laughed. “All right. I won’t, I won’t.”

They flew to one more unknown place: to a forest. There, Giselle use Caterpie to add a female Budew to the team. Budew and Caterpie got along rather well together, but they did regard each other with some reservation, as two Sassy Pokémon would.

Soon night had fallen and Reina, Carmen, and Giselle, and all of Giselle’s Pokémon, were all sitting around a camp fire started by Charmander. They had decided to camp out outside of the forest where Giselle captured Budew.

“So how was your day?” Carmen asked Giselle.

“This was one of my best days ever!” said Giselle, happily.

“I have something for you, Giselle. It’s a gift. We’ll have to go into town tomorrow.” Carmen said.

Giselle’s day kept getting better and better.

After that, the girls just talked around the fire while the Pokémon ate their food. From their conversations, Giselle learned more about the relationship between Reina and Carmen.

“I already told you I wanted to be the best steel type trainer in the world, right?” Reina said enthusiastically. “Well I also hope to capture the Steel type legendaries Heatran and Dialga.”

Carmen made a disparaging noise.

“And just what was that supposed to mean?” Reina said indignantly.

Carmen turned to Giselle. “You see those Pokémon don’t exist.”

“WHAT!” shouted Reina in outrage, “they do too exist!”

“There is no definitive evidence,” Carmen countered.

“There are ancient writings and stories about all of those Pokémon. You’ve heard of them. You’ve been to Canalave and Celestic Town and other places. And older people talk about them all the time.”

“Those stories are just myths and if you believe them then there must be about 13 or 14 legendaries running around Sinnoh!” Carmen said exasperated.

“One day you’ll see, Carmen.” Reina replied rather sagely. She then turned to Giselle. “We’re from a village on the shores of Lake Verity and there’s a story about a Pokémon that resides in a cavern in the lake called Mespit. When I was about five, I saw it!”

“You were sick at the time; are you sure you weren’t imagining things,” asked Carmen sincerely, without an ounce of sarcasm.

“No, I wasn’t. And Ramón saw it, too. Ramón is our older brother,” Reina added. “Do you doubt him, too, Carmen?”

“You know I do. The two of you believe some weird things.”

“Cynthia believes it, too.”

“What Cynthia believes is her business.”

At this point, Giselle was just enjoying the sisters’ conversation as they continued to argue back and forth. So Carmen is a skeptic of legendary Pokémon and Reina is believer in them. Giselle was sure it would have been the other way around. And they also had an older brother. She wanted to ask them if they had any other siblings but her eyes were heavy…she didn’t realize just how sleepy she was.

“Giselle, are you still awake.”

“Huh,” mumbled Giselle sleepily.

“I think it’s time for us to turn in,” said Carmen.

“Right,” said Reina.

It was a good thing that the tent was easy to put together because Giselle was half asleep putting it up. Carmen and Nerissa put out the fire and both sisters set up their own tents. After returning all of her Pokémon to their Pokéballs, Giselle took her sleeping bag into her tent. She put all her Pokéballs, the ones with Pokémon and the other empty ones that Carmen had given her, beside the sleeping bag. She thought the day had come to a close. She crawled in her sleeping bag and fell asleep almost instantly, but the night had more adventures in store.

Giselle stirred from her deep sleep and drowsily sat up right. It was still very dark outside, but she had a creepy feeling that someone was watching her. She looked toward the wall of her tent and gasped. There was an outline of a man outside her tent! Her first thought was that there was a robber outside. Giselle picked up Charmander’s Pokéball and stuck her head out of the tent to scare the man off, but there was no one there. Thoroughly creeped out, Giselle retracted back into the tent and zipped it up tight.

Suddenly the hairs on the back of Giselle’s neck stood up. She looked around the tent and noticed a sinister red light. Giselle let out a scream. The thing emitting the light also screamed with a ghostly wail. Giselle thrashed around the tent in total darkness trying to get out. She threw aside a Pokéball that was in her way and to her horror the Pokéball hit something solid.
The unknown creature was turned into red energy and captured in the Pokéball. Giselle screamed her loudest yet.

The noise had awakened both Carmen and Reina who came rushing over. Mercifully, one of them had a flashlight. Carmen was the one who opened the tent and Reina shined the flashlight in. The Pokéball twitched on the floor once and remained still.

“What happened?” asked Reina anxiously.

“I don’t know. I saw something outside and then there was creepy, something inside,” gasped Giselle incoherently.

“Wow, it had to be bad,” implored Reina. “You can barely put two words together.”

Carmen, however, looked at the Pokéball on the floor.

“Did you just catch a Pokémon?”

“What, I don’t know,” said Giselle. Then a horrible thought hit her. “Wait, I didn’t battle it,” said Giselle frantically, not even caring what she had even caught. “What if it hates me like Caterpie did!?”

“Calm down, Giselle,” said Reina. “Carmen said that was the general rule and that there are exceptions. Let’s see what you have before jumping to conclusions.”

“Ok,” said Giselle, steeling herself. She picked up the Pokéball with trembling hands and pressed the button.

Out of the dazzling light came the most bizarre Pokémon Giselle had ever seen. It appeared to be a gray blob with a single glowing red eye and a skull over its face.

“Wha- what in the world?” said a bewildered Giselle.

“That’s a Duskull,” Reina said smiling. “They’re Ghost Pokémon. I’d heard a rumor that there was a colony of them around here but I didn’t believe it. Anyway Duskull evolve twice, first into Dusclops, then into Dusknoir with the help of a Reaper Cloth. According to my Pokédex,” she whipped it out, “it’s a male!”

Once Giselle got over the shock of it all, she felt that warm feeling again. As unusual as the circumstances were, she had caught yet another Pokémon. It seemed to have a playful and rather cuddly nature for a Ghost type from the way it nuzzled Giselle. She couldn’t be afraid of it now.

“Duskull?” said Giselle uncertainly. Duskull turned, knowing she was talking to him. “You’ve just scared me to death, but I’m still really tired. Can we talk some more in the morning? And you can meet some new friends.”

“Dusk…,” he agreed and went back into the Pokéball without complaint.

The three girls looked at each other. “What a night, huh,” said Reina yawning. “But really we do need to get back to sleep.”

“Yeah,” said Giselle.

The girls returned to their tents. Giselle pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. What a whirlwind day. In Kanto, she never dreamed she would have caught three Pokémon or make two friends in one day. She was looking forward to getting to know her Pokémon even more when morning came. She vaguely wondered what surprise Carmen had in store for her. For the first time, she was looking forward to the next day. Maybe that really was the power of friendship.

OCC: As you can see, in my world believing in legendary Pokemon in the Pokemon world is akin to believing in Bigfoot, Ghosts, UFOs, and the Loch Ness Monster in our world.

Hope you liked it! Smiley

Also: I guess I should've put this up at the first appearence of each character but I forgot. Giselle is 5'3, 118 pounds petite, Reina is 5'5, 125 pounds with a sporty, muscular frame, and Carmen is 5'8, 139 pounds she not fat but she's no waif either.

 

[Sem]

Riiighto. Very nice ^^ Three captures in one day, one being an adorable duskull. Sounds like a good day. So, did caterpie just all the sudden start listening to Giselle? I assume so because it managed to help her get a Budew... Nevermind, Sem is blind. =D

Also, the hights and weights at the end. I think its better if they're integrated into the actual story somehow... But that's just me. Anyways, I await the next chapter.

 

[leehage]

Nice. I can't really judge if you are moving too fast with the capturing because I don't know if you are going to capture a bunch of them. Still, its nice. I'm looking forward to seeing how the new pokemon flesh out.

 

[Pheonix]

Wow, I am still loving this tale even more! Keep up the good work, can't wait to read more!

 

[Merata]

This stuff really is good, fun to read.

A really good job so far, cant wait for the rest

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: Once more!

When Giselle awoke the next morning, it took a few seconds to realize what she was so happy about. She had five Pokémon now; one of which she still had to introduce to her other Pokémon. After she changed clothes, and combed her hair, she grabbed her Pokéballs dashed out of the tent into the bright sunshine of the crisp. She was very surprised to find that Carmen and Reina were already up. Carmen was helping her Gardevoir practice fine control over her psychic powers by having it make origami figures using only her powers. Reina was sitting on the log from the night before, playing with her pink Pokédex. She was dressed more simply than before, in a sweater and jeans.

“Why didn’t you guys wake me up?” Giselle asked.

Reina looked up. “I wanted to, but Carmen told me not to do it. She said she had had a long day yesterday.”

“Well, I guess she was right,” said Giselle.

Carmen caught one of the origami cranes that Gardevoir had made as it floated toward the earth.

“Good job, Gardevoir. These cranes are awesome. You’re getting even better control over your powers.” Carmen turned to Giselle and Reina. “I believe it’s important to train a Psychic Pokémon not only to practice using their powers in battle, but to practice fine control. It makes its attacks more powerful overall as well. And Giselle I have your surprise,” she added nonchalantly.

“What?” said Giselle. Was this the start of another whirlwind day, one full of surprises? “What is it?”

“This,” said Carmen, reaching into her backpack. She pulled out a Pokémon egg in a clear protective container. “It’s for you.”

“Are you serious? This is mine? What’s going to hatch?” asked Giselle rapidly.

“You ask many questions, young one,” said Reina teasingly.

“And I will answer them,” Carmen began. “Yes, I’m serious, that is yours, and I’m not telling or it wouldn’t be surprise.”

“Just one little hint?”

“Ok, here’s one,” said Carmen, while Giselle got excited. “The father is one of my Pokémon and the mother is one of Reina’s.”

“Ok, let me see. You have Porygon-Z, Drapion—“ but Carmen cut her off.

“Who says that the parents are currently in our party?”

“Good point,” groaned Giselle. “That wasn’t much of a hint. But can you tell me when it hatches?”

“It could be an hour from now, a day from now, or a week from now,” said Carmen. “I was carrying it around for a while, but I had to store it because I was competing in a tournament and they count the egg as a Pokémon in your party. So I don’t exactly know when it is supposed to hatch.”

“But when did you pick it up?” Giselle asked.

“This early this morning,” Carmen replied “Gardevoir teleported me to the Pokémon Center and I stored Porygon-Z to get the egg out.”

“Wow,” said Giselle, excited. “I can’t wait to see what hatches!” The fact that, when the egg hatches, she would have a full team of six made her jubilant. However, she was still a little nervous about the prospect. Would she get along with all of them? She happily looked at the egg inside the container again.

“And so you can keep the egg on you at all times, I also brought this,” said Carmen holding up what looked like a black fabric wrap one would carry a baby in.

“Are you serious?” Giselle asked again as she took the wrap from Carmen, uncertain.

“Of course. This is the best way to carry an egg. You don’t have to put it in your backpack and your body heat will help the egg hatch faster. The egg is safe and secure and won’t ever fall out. Plus, you’ll be able to feel even the slightest movements from the egg. And best of all, the Pokémon will be more attached to you because of the closeness. Now this wrap can be worn in the front or the back.” You can wear in the back when you’re not carrying around your backpack…”

It only took one look into Carmen’s silver eyes to see that she was serious. Carmen instructed Giselle to take the egg out of its container and put it in the wrap.

She felt a little awkward as she put the wrap on. Giselle decided to wear it on her back for the time being. She couldn’t help feeling like a mother with her baby, but then again, that is what she was—if one considered Pokémon as children. Once she was sure the egg wasn’t going anywhere, Giselle said “Now I think I’ll let everyone else out to play.”

Giselle was in awe as she released all five (FIVE) of her Pokémon. Charmander, Caterpie, Shinx, Budew, and finally Duskull appeared. For a split second, Giselle had forgotten that her other Pokémon had never met Duskull before. Then, she decided to introduce Duskull to the rest of her Pokémon.

“Guys, this is the newest member of our team, Duskull!” Giselle said cheerily.

But her other Pokémon looked very apprehensive and Duskull didn’t look at all abashed by their apprehension.

“Oh, come on now. Duskull doesn’t bite! Go on, and introduce yourselves.”

At Giselle’s nudging, each Pokémon came forward and talked to Duskull. Giselle thought the situation had been smoothed over since they began playing together with a ball that Reina had given them. As Giselle watched, she tried to notice all of her Pokémon personality traits and perks. It really was rather like watching a group of children play.

Charmander took the leadership role and the other Pokémon acknowledged it. He was the one who lead whatever game they wanted to play. Giselle guessed she shouldn’t be surprised that her little helper would be the leader. His enthusiastic personality kept things running smoothly for the most part.

What was a surprise was that Shinx’s personality changed when he played a game. He had a competitive side in spite of his sunny personality. He loved to play hard. This put him at odds with Caterpie who liked to play just as hard. But whenever a fight was about to break out, Charmander was always able to quell it and Shinx and Caterpie did work well together if they put in the effort.

While she was sassy like Caterpie, Budew was a bit of a crybaby, and worse yet, a sore loser—completely unlike Caterpie. She cried every time the game didn’t go her way. She annoyed everyone else, especially Caterpie who would give her looks of contempt every time she threw a tantrum. Giselle could already see that Caterpie and Budew would have an interesting and complicated relationship. Despite all of Budew’s outbursts, the other Pokémon, including Caterpie, always forgave her because she did have a nice side.

It turned out that the other Pokémon had every right to be apprehensive of Duskull because he was an odd one. There would be times when he remained completely immobile even letting the ball bounce off his head and onto the ground. Then he would remain in one place and spin around in circles, completely weirding out the others. But the creepiest thing he did involved sneaking up on someone and using Astonish, effectively scaring the living daylights out of the victim. While all the other Pokémon got used to Duskull’s little joke after awhile, Budew fell for it every time. She would then run crying to Giselle.

Giselle found Duskull’s antics hilarious but she didn’t let it show. She had to be firm and tell Duskull to knock it off. Duskull liked Giselle pretty well, but he never listened for long, and he would go back to his ways. Giselle sighed. Maybe that old saying “the most difficult Pokémon were the most rewarding” would be true in this case. Giselle certainly hoped so.

Carmen and Reina were merely watching from the sidelines, remembering their own beginnings. Carmen recalled how difficult it was for Gardevoir, then a Ralts, to control and wield her psychic powers and the self-esteem issues Nerissa had when she was a Feebas. Reina vividly recalled that first fight between Meilene and Paris. They and Reina were in the Pokémon Center at the time and were subsequently thrown out by the nurse as a result of the fight. Reina didn’t know how that fight started even to this day.

Giselle would have loved to have just simply watched her Pokémon, but Carmen had other ideas.

“We need to see what kind of attacks they have,” Carmen suggested as she and Reina walked over to Giselle.

“What, you mean have a battle?” asked Giselle.

“Or you could use your Pokédex.”

“Mine doesn’t work on any Pokémon that is not native to Kanto,” said Giselle. “I guess I forgot to say that.”

“Well, then we’ll have to use mine,” said Carmen as she pulled her own pink Pokédex out of her bag. First she pointed it at Budew who was cowering behind Giselle’s legs after being Astonished by Duskull yet again.

“Known attacks,” said the Pokédex in a feminine voice, “Water Sport, Absorb, Growth. Also has the Poison Point Ability.”

“Have you heard of those moves before?” Carmen asked.

“Sure,” said Giselle. She knew about most Pokémon moves from her early school days. “But what does it mean by Poison Point ability? Is that a kind of move? ”

“No, abilities are something that Pokémon can use involuntarily, unlike moves.” Carmen explained. “It’s complicated. Abilities can have many different effects—sometimes in battle, other times outside of battle, and sometimes both. Every Pokémon has one. Remember Charmander’s Blaze ability? That’s an ability that amplifies the power of fire attacks when a Pokémon is in a pinch. All of the fire type starters have the Blaze ability. It’s an example of an in-battle ability. On the other hand, Reina’s Magneton has the Magnet Pull which works both in and out of battle. In battle, it prevents Magneton’s Steel type opponents from being recalled. Out of battle, it makes Steel types easier to find in the wild, hence why Reina always has it with her.”

“And what does Poison Point do?” Reina asked eagerly.

“When an opponent hits a Pokémon with the ability with a physical attack, the opponent could get poisoned.”

“So wait, Budew could poison her opponents, just from physical contact? That’s really cool. Let’s see everyone else.”

At the present, Shinx knew Spark, Bite, Charge, and Tackle and had the Intimidate Ability. She even checked Charmander and Caterpie. Charmander knew Ember, Scratch, Smokescreen, and Growl, an attack Giselle had never used in battle before, and the Blaze ability. Caterpie only knew Tackle and String Shot but Giselle knew she could be dangerous with just those moves alone. She also had the Shield Dust ability. Duskull knew Astonish, Foresight, Disable, Night Shade, and Leer along with its Levitate ability.

The next thing Carmen wanted to do was test everyone’s attacks. All of Giselle’s Pokémon performed their attacks with just a few hiccups. For example, Shinx’s Spark attack was hit and miss. One time it would be perfect, another time it would seem like it was lacking in power. Budew’s Water Sport was a little weak but her Absorb was really good. Despite the fact that Duskull knew more attacks than any of the other Pokémon, it refused to use any of them except Astonish. Giselle didn’t know why she even expected Duskull to normally perform attacks. Reina found the whole situation with Duskull funny, but Giselle was just a little exasperated.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Giselle said through her teeth.

“Well,” said Carmen, “no one ever said it would be easy, Giselle.”

At those words, Giselle remembered the trouble she when she was back home. Again she thought of her mother and haughtiness and Giselle resolved not to give up and prove her mother right.

“You’re right,” said Giselle. “I relish the day that I look back on this and laugh.”

“That’s the spirit,” Reina said as she clapped a hand on Giselle’s shoulder. “By the way, could we go to Veilstone today? You know, to reward ourselves and so Giselle can experience the sights and sounds of the city.”

“If Giselle wants to,” said Carmen.

“Sure,” Giselle said. As she did, she felt the egg move. “Ah! That must mean the egg will hatch soon!”

“What, did it move?” Reina asked.

“Yes it did.”

“Hmm. Then it should hatch in less than two days now. I didn’t realize it was that close,” said Carmen.

Giselle was excited—both about the egg and going to a big city.

“When do you want to leave for Veilstone, Reina?” Giselle inquired.

“Now.”

“I should’ve known.” Giselle was still trying to get used to Reina spur of the moment decisions. She wondered vaguely if her battle style was the same way.

“We can do some shopping during the day and then hit the casinos and restaurants at night.”

At the word ‘casino’ Carmen’s silver eyes flashed.

“All we have to do is feed our Pokémon and we can leave,” said Giselle.

I think you mean you have to feed YOUR Pokémon and we can leave. Carmen and I have already taken care of our Pokémon. We’ll pack while you feed.”

“Fine, fine,” Giselle grumbled. She took out some Pokémon food out of her back pack and called her Pokémon over. Tired by all their playing, they ate ravenously. Duskull promptly finished all his food in one bite and attempted to steal the rest of Budew’s food. Giselle had to break up the ensuing fight but Budew ended up in tears anyway.

After Giselle managed to calm Budew down, she recalled all her Pokémon and packed her things. She shifted the egg around to the front to put on her backpack. Giselle made a mental note to get a bag that could be worn around the waist like Reina’s in Veilstone. Carmen and Reina had already released Clair and Dragonite. Giselle noted that they were wearing their coats. Carmen had a brown Mareep wool coat while Reina had an orange bubble coat.

“We forgot to tell you that you’ll need a coat. We’re flying over Mt. Coronet and it’ll be cold. But there is a cave that goes through the mountain if you would rather walk through it.”

“No, flying is fine,” said Giselle, getting her coat from her bag and putting it on. “It won’t hurt the egg will it?”

“Nah,” said Reina.

“Great!”

Once again, Giselle chose to ride with Reina, and they took to the sky. The scenery flew beneath them. Looking down, Giselle could see a city.

“That’s Eterna City!” Reina called out, pointing at the city below. A few minutes afterward she pointed ahead. “Now we’re going to come upon Mt. Coronet soon so we’re going to have to fly through a pass in the mountains.”

“Mt. Coronet?”

“Yeah, it’s the mountain the cuts Sinnoh in half. It’s a sacred mountain. The legendary Pokémon Arceus lives above the mountain.”

“Oh,” said Giselle, remembering Carmen who didn’t believe in legendary Pokémon.

They were flying in a southeastern direction according to Reina. As they gained altitude, it got colder and colder and Giselle’s ears popped. The bitter cold seemed to bite Giselle’s face and her hands were getting numb as she had forgotten to wear gloves. She was starting to wonder if walking would have been a better idea. Reina and Clair seemed to be used to this. The mountain looked like the snowcapped backbone of Sinnoh. They had to bear the cold for what seemed like an eternity before they finally began to descend a hold steady at a lower altitude.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Reina called out. Giselle couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not. “At least the wind wasn’t high. Then there would have been a blizzard.”

Giselle kept looking down as they flew and saw houses and other buildings. She could tell it had recently rained from the huge puddles on the ground. Suddenly, Carmen and Dragonite flew level with Reina, Giselle, and Salamence. The two sisters gave each other a mysterious looked and before Giselle could think, started going fast, very fast—they were racing each other.

Giselle nearly lost her stomach as they Salamence flew at breakneck speed. Dragonite and Salamence were even with each other, with every dive, with every hair pen turn, but Carmen had something up her sleeve.

“Dragonite, it’s time to take it to the next level!”

A red aura and what looked like electrical energy began to surround Dragonite. Unbelievably, Dragonite flew even faster until he and his rider were a blur. This was the power of Dragon Dance. Giselle had no idea how Carmen was able to stay on or avoid getting sick.

Not to be out done, Reina had her own tricks.

“Time to flatten out, Clair!”

The Salamence stretched out her neck as far as she could. This cut down on the resistance and they flew faster, but Reina wasn’t done. “We’re going upside down, hold on Giselle!”

“Wait, WHAT! WHY!” Giselle yelled, totally off guard.

Salamence turned over. Giselle’s hands were still numb from the cold and she couldn’t hold on. She fell off Clair’s back.

Giselle screamed as she fell toward the earth. She held onto the egg for dear life, but it was still securely close to her body. She though she was going to die. Reina, on the other hand wasn’t so concerned. She had Clair pull into a sharp dive and hover under Giselle. Giselle landed on Clair’s back and they flew off again.

“I thought I told you to hold on!”

“Ugh.”

They had fallen far behind Carmen and Dragonite, so Reina decided to have Clair use Dragon Dance as well. Since she was riding Clair, Giselle could feel the energy that the Salamence generated inside her own body. To, Giselle, the intensity was frightening, but Reina seemed to love it. Maybe she liked the power but Giselle was truly scared. If Clair was fast before, it was nothing compared to now. Giselle thought she was going to be sick. They eventually caught up with Dragonite and they were even once more.

After a few more minutes of madness they landed. Carmen hopped off Dragonite to the ground clearly thrilled by the race. Reina jumped down too, but Giselle practically fell off.

“Oh…” Giselle moaned as she staggered to her feet. “Never…again.”

“Come on, Giselle!” Reina said in wild excitement. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“Obviously, it’s not where yours is.” Giselle groaned. And then she promptly passed out.

OOC: Disclaimer: I have never flown over a snowcapped mountain so sorry if that part, or any other part for that matter, had any inaccuracies. And I hope you liked it. Smiley

 

[Merata]

Like the other chapters it is great, but on question though. When did giselle caught that budew?

 

[Carmen Lopez]

It was in the chapter before.

[quote author=Reina Carmen link=topic=3822.msg57233#msg57233 date=1208817059]
They flew to one more unknown place: to a forest. There, Giselle use Caterpie to add a female Budew to the team. Budew and Caterpie got along rather well together, but they did regard each other with some reservation, as two Sassy Pok

 

[Carmen Lopez]

OOC: Sorry this took so long.

“Giselle?”

Giselle groaned as she regained consciousness. Her head was still spinning but otherwise she was fine.

“Great, you’re awake,” Reina said brightly.

“How long was I out?” Giselle asked

“About ten minutes. I caught you as you collapsed.”

Her backpack was laying a short ways away but she was still wearing the egg. She sat up and walked over to get her backpack. As she did, she felt the egg move. She realized with a slight shock that they had reached the boundaries of a huge city.

“So this is Veilstone City?” Giselle asked in wonder.

“You got it,” said Carmen. This is the entertainment capital of Sinnoh, and also the gamer’s and shopper’s paradise.”

Taking a closer look, Giselle saw that Veilstone was very appropriately named. The city was looked as though it was gouged out from the rocks and mountains.

“It’s really cool,” said Reina eagerly. “If there’s a movie premier, or a debut of to new videogame or anything of that nature, it’s probably happening here. Come on, let’s go!”

They decided to go in through the main gate to the city. Though the city was quite large, at this time of day there weren’t a lot of people who went though the gate. The girls were greeted by a life-sized statue of a Lucario. Giselle believed that the statue was made from the stone from which Veilstone was hewn.

“There are about ten statues of Lucario around the city because, as I said before, it’s the mascot,” Carmen explained as they walked. “The biggest one is the one on the highest point of the city. It’s called ‘The Protector.’”

“Fighting types in general are popular here,” said Reina. “But Lucario reigns supreme. From what I’ve heard, every Veilstone gym leader has had a Lucario. It’s one of my favorite Pokémon. Their ability to sense emotion comes from their ability to read auras. They can also learn many different kinds of attacks. Meilene is especially good with her Dragon Pulse. Lucario are cool, calm, collected—the complete opposite of me. They’re strong too.”

“So what? Even you can’t deny that Lucario is the best of all fighting types.”

“You only think that because its part steel,” Carmen mused.

Reina’s brown eyes widened in would-be innocence. “Maybe I do, but so what? Hm. Come to think of it, Meilene and I haven’t had that quality battle time together lately. I’ve been so focused on Beldum training wise. I’ll battle using Meilene tonight. Would you like to see a Lucario in action, Giselle?”

“Wow, sure,” said Giselle in awe. She thought back to the boy and his Lucario back at the Canalave Pokémon Center, and then of Meilene when she was battling Paris. “One day I would like a Lucario.”

“Good luck with that,” said Reina, smiling. “They’re incredibly rare and very, very hard to find in the wild. I got mine as an egg from a traveler in Canalave who was impressed that I wanted to be Steel type trainer. There’s no telling where he got it.”

“Oh,” sighed Giselle. Maybe she just wasn’t meant to have such a cool Pokémon. Giselle remembered that not too long ago, she’d said she wanted an Arcanine just like her father had. Monique had told Giselle that some Pokémon were out of her league and Arcanine was one of them.

“How could you even hope to have a Pokémon like Arcanine at the rate you’re going,” her mother sneered.

Monique was a bitter one all right, but that was her own fault. Giselle couldn’t deny how much it hurt, but she wouldn’t and didn’t let her mother see. And she wasn’t about to let it get to her now, not when there was so much to see around the city. Carmen noticed the look on Giselle’s face but this time she didn’t say anything immediately. Giselle looked around in wonder at the city around her.

True to its name there were stone walls everywhere. The modern skyscrapers looked powerful and impressive. Some of the buildings were built on top of small plateaus and there were a few buildings that seemed to be nothing more that hollowed out boulders and more that seemed to be caves carved into the rock walls. There were stores everywhere; some stood alone, while others occupied the lower floors of the larger skyscrapers. A mixture of people walked the streets. Businessmen and women in suits carrying briefcases dashed about importantly. Students still in their uniforms called out to one another as they looked for a place to go after school. Suddenly, Reina stopped them.

“This is the place,” she said brightly. “The famous Veilstone Department Store!”

Giselle didn’t even know they we’re heading to a specific place and her jaw dropped when she saw the store. It was about seven stories and each floor was very large. The building was very sleek with a large display on the ground floor.

“This place has everything you’d ever want for Pokémon and for people,” Reina said. “The first couple of floors are for Pokémon merchandise and outdoors supplies, the next two floors are the clothing area, then the fifth and sixth floors are something like a novelty shop, and the seventh floor is a restaurant.”

“All that is in one building?” Giselle was mystified by the randomness.

“Yep,” said Reina. “That’s why it’s unique and famous. Are you ready to go in?”

“Sure!” Giselle was excited and couldn’t wait to go shopping.

As they entered, Giselle once again had sensory overload. The place was filled with all kinds of colorful things. The shelves and counters were all unusually shaped and brightly colored. All of the stuff on this floor was for Pokémon.

“We need to load up on supplies,” said Carmen as they walked. “I realized I was almost out of Hyper Potion and other stuff this morning.”

The girls separated and went to different parts of the store, but remained on the same floor. The only thing Giselle needed on this floor was Antidote. She quickly found it. Giselle still had no idea what happened to the Antidote she had bought back in Canalave. Perhaps it had been stolen during the night. As she continued to walk around, she remembered that she only had $750 left and she had no idea how long she would remain in Sinnoh. This effectively curbed her desire to shop. She wondered vaguely what she would do for money. To push the thought of money out of her head, Giselle observed the other shoppers. Most of the people on this floor were trainers and many of them had on the same watch as Carmen and Reina. Giselle also noticed that she wasn’t getting unkind stares from people anymore. Maybe she was finally starting to look like she fit in.

She eventually found Carmen and Reina again. They each had a shopping basket full of stuff.

“That’s all you got?” Reina asked incredulously.

“Don’t be rude, Reina,” her sister said sternly.

“I wasn’t being rude—“ But Carmen held up her free hand to stop her sister.

“Ready to check out?” Carmen asked Giselle politely. Once again Reina looked mutinous and started to mutter under her breath.

“Yeah,” said Giselle and suddenly she had a flashback to the rude cashiers in Canalave.

“Is there something wrong,” Carmen asked, noticing the look on Giselle’s face.

“No, it’s fine,” Giselle replied. Hopefully she would encounter the rudeness now that she was with Carmen and Reina.

The check out counter wasn’t far from their current place. There were only two people at this counter and both were being served by the two cashiers. Giselle decided to let Reina and Carmen in front of her to see how native Sinnoh trainers did it. When they got to the register, the sisters loaded their goods onto the counter. The cashiers didn’t seem as haughty and rude this time around. When it was time to pay, however, neither Carmen nor Reina pulled out money; instead they pulled out their Pokédexes. Utterly bewildered, Giselle watched as the cashiers took the Pokédex and waved them in front of something she couldn’t see. Was this how Sinnoh natives paid for things?

After Reina and Carmen were done paying for their things, Giselle pulled them aside. “Uh, what was that?”

“What was what?” both sisters asked in unison.

“The Pokédex thing!”

Realization dawned on Carmen. “Of course,” she said. “Here in Sinnoh, trainers with a Pokédex have the option of storing money on it. And if you don’t have a Pokédex, you put money onto a card with a computer chip. Hard money rarely changes hands here. We or a cashier just point it a special device like you would point it at a Pokémon and money is exchanged for purchases and sales. After a Pokémon battle, for example, the losing trainer would swipe their Pokédex or card in front of the winner’s to award prize money. And this way is safer than carrying around hard money.”

“Well that certainly explains a lot,” said Giselle gloomily. “No wonder those cashiers looked at me like I was an idiot.”

Reina just shook her head. “Hey, you didn’t know. Don’t look so down. Tell you what: Why I pay for the antidote and then we’ll go and get you a card to put your money on.”

“All right,” said Giselle. She watched again as Reina paid with her Pokédex. Giselle was now grateful that she had traveling mates to show her around. She looked around at Carmen who was apparently lost in her own thoughts. Giselle was about to ask her what she was thinking about when Reina returned.

“Time to get the card!”

Reina led the way over to what looked like an ATM in a corner. It was colored blue and entirely touch screen. There were only three options upon the screen: “Deposit Money” “Withdraw Money” and “Purchase New Card.” Reina pressed the final option.

“The card itself is free. How much money do you want to put on it?” Reina asked Giselle.

Giselle decided to keep $100 in cash and have the $650 to Reina.

“Wow,” said Carmen. “That was a lot of money you were carrying around. You were lucky that you weren’t robbed.”

“I think I would have gone crazy if that had happened.” Giselle said, thinking of her nightmarish first day in Sinnoh.

“Be Grateful that you weren’t,” said Reina as she inserted the money into the machine. “Oh, you’ll need to put in a PIN for the card.”

Giselle walked up to the machine and put in a PIN—her birthday. A card popped out and Giselle collected it. The card was blue in color with an outline of the Sinnoh region on it.

“Thanks,” said Giselle.

“Any time,” said Reina easily.

The rest of there time in the store was fun. On the third floor, they found Pokémon clothes as well as human clothes, including Pokémon costumes. They release some of their Pokémon on this floor as well. Reina tried on an Empoleon costume much to the bewilderment of Paris. Meanwhile, Carmen’s Gardevoir levitated a crown onto her head. Still wearing the Empoleon costume, Reina playfully annoyed Meilene by putting neon pink bows on her ears which Meilene promptly removed as soon as Reina’s back was turned.

Giselle had finally found some shoes to go with her outfit. They were blue with a low wedge heel. Budew had found a pink scarf from somewhere that she refused to take off when the group decided to leave. Giselle had to admit that the scarf was cute on Budew, even after she read the price tag. ($50!!? For a scarf!?) The scarf was supposed to be 100% battle proof, explaining the price. Giselle sighed and paid for it, besides, Budew wasn’t leaving without it anyway.

They were exhausted after all their shopping and other adventures which included Reina having to recall Meilene and Paris before they got into another fight (“Oh no you don’t. You’re not getting us kicked out of here.”). They found themselves in the restaurant on the top floor. Unlike the lower floors, the restaurant was painted in soothing colors: blues, greens, and browns for weary and tired shoppers. The chairs were ergonomically designed for comfort. The conversation turned to their families as Reina and Carmen compare the stationary they had bought for their mother.

“So was your mother a trainer?” Giselle asked.

“When she first started out she was going to be a trainer, but that didn’t work out,” Carmen explained. “She never really had her heart in battling and that was one reason why she had a difficult time relating to her Pokémon. She thought the only thing you had to do was battle with them instead of spending quality time together with them and getting to know them as well.”

So that was how Carmen knew how to help me, Giselle thought. Her mother had had the same problems.

“But after a while she discovered that battling wasn’t the only thing she could do with her Pokémon,” Reina continued. She’s a Johto native and her starter was Chikorita. Mom found that she liked homemaking and gardening much more. One day she accidently broke Chikorita’s Pokéball and ended up having to spend the day with it. She discovered that Chikorita liked flowers a lot and it had a gift with them and that’s what they bonded over.”

“So she decided to have her Pokémon help her with domestic things,” Carmen went on. “She has a Blissey, Shuckle, Miltank, and the Chikorita has since evolved into Meganium. We grew up on eggs and milk from Blissey and Miltank. Shuckle makes the best berry juice and Meganium has such a calming influence. She’s a really good cook and great for advice.”

Giselle didn’t know any of those Pokémon except for Blissey, but it sounded like the Lopez household was pleasant—at least more so than her own.

“Now enough about our mom. What about yours?” Reina asked.

At that question, Giselle regretted bringing up the subject of family as Giselle had never had a great relationship with her mother. But on the other hand she relished telling the story. She was silent for a little while before she spoke.

“Heh, my mother was this beautiful girl from Goldenrod City. She earned a lot of fame from being a model and she was an excellent trainer,” Giselle began sardonically. Reina had looked as though she wanted to interrupt but thought better of it. Giselle continued in the same wry tone. “She thought she had it all—money, looks, respect and she did for a while. But then she got complacent for a few years; she didn’t take her training or career so seriously. It cost her big time. She was overtaken in both her modeling career and her training by younger models and younger more powerful trainers.”

Something seem to flash in Carmen’s silver eyes as thought she had had an epiphany of some kind, but Giselle merely continued her story.

“So my mother “retired” from modeling and training and decided to settle down. She married a person she thought was as great as she was. Now she just sits around watching soaps and criticizing me all day.” Of course, Monique never told Giselle anything besides her being an excellent model and trainer. However, Giselle put the details together over the years.

Reina and Carmen were completely silent at this rant as was half the restaurant. At this point, Reina was looking as though she regretted asking about Giselle’s mother. Carmen just shook her head.

“It sounds like your mom is taking out her anger and disappointment on you,” Carmen said sagely.

Giselle considered that for a second. She had always known that her mother was bitter but it still didn’t stop her cruel words from hurting. Before she could start to dwell on the subject, Reina interrupted.

“Can we talk about this later?” Reina asked eagerly. “It’s magic hour and Veilstone is starting to come to life!”

Giselle got up to look out of one of the windows of the restaurant. It was beautiful; everything was dyed red and orange in the sunset and the streets lights and the lights of the skyscrapers were coming on.

“Well, let’s go,” said Reina. “There are arcades, casinos, and battles to be had and other interesting things.”

“Do those interesting things include Deoxys transforming at those meteor rocks,” asked Carmen sarcastically.

“Can it, Carmen.”

OOC:Sorry if this wasn't very good. I was fighting through the worst writer's block ever, but I had to advance the story. Don't be surprised if you come back to find the section either heavily edited or gone when I post the next section. Hopefully the next part will be better and come sooner. Cool Thanks for reading. Smiley

 

[Pheonix]

Once again, another wonderful chapter. Can't wait to see Giselle in a battling environment. And that egg is gonna be interesting when it hatches. ;D