Story Notes:
Well, this is my first time delving into the world of Pokémon fanfiction so I hope the story is decent. I also would like to note that I wrote in 2nd person "you" style and that the character portrayed is female (even if you can't tell at first) so if you find that uncomfortable just replace the "you"s with "I"s or "she"s.Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.Spoilers: Possible spoilers for the game Pokémon Fire Red / Leaf Green version.
Prologue: The Calm Before The Storm
You grinned to yourself, laughing loudly in excitement as the wind blew wildly through your hair. "Faster!" you shouted over the roaring of the wind, receiving a snort from your charizard in response. "Please?" you added, patting the fire-dragon's back pleadingly. He snorted again but complied; his wings began to exert themselves twice as hard, forcing you to wrap your arms tightly around your charizard's neck to prevent yourself from falling off and plummeting to the ground. Of course, deep down you knew that even if you slipped he would catch you, though the information still did nothing to slacken your grip.
The winds made it a chore for you to keep your eyes open but you forced them wide anyway; you paid little mind to the tears that formed in the corners of your eyes. You carefully scanned the land below you, laughing cheerfully when you found what you were looking for.
"Land there, okay Charizard?" you called over the wind as you pointed downward. Your pokémon grunted loudly, nodding his head before diving down. You screamed in fear as the two of you spiraled towards the ground, your grip on the dragon pokémon tightened until your fingernails nearly managed to dig into his thick hide.
He stopped only seconds away from crashing the both of you into the ground and instead swerved upward at the last possible moment to land safely, his clawed feet touching the soft earth.
"You jerk!" you yelled as you slapped your pokémon's rump playfully. "You know how much I hate it when you do that!"
Charizard lifted his head up and blew a stream of fire in response, his eyes twinkling brightly in laughter.
"So you think you're funny, do you? Well, we'll see who's laughing when somebody gets hosed down in the backyard again. You're starting to get dirty anyway" you added thoughtfully.
Charizard narrowed his eyes and growled down at you; when that didn't seem to faze you he resorted to blowing a puff of smoke out of his left nostril to voice his distaste.
"Don't give me that; as long as I keep your tail wrapped in plastic then the flame will be protected from the hose's spray." He growled again but you ignored it and simply pat the pokémon's belly lovingly. "Settle down; you know I'm just kidding. You're such a spoiled brat" you teased.
The charizard grunted but seemed satisfied that you wouldn't be giving him an unpleasant hose-down anytime soon.
You smiled and gave your charizard's belly one more pat before focusing your attention on the cave entrance behind you. There it was, Cerulean Cave; your eyes sparkled in excitement at the thought of what challenges lay hidden within the cavern's shadows. To your surprise, the cave was left completely unguarded. Funny; there had always been a blue-haired man standing guard in front of the cave, telling you that only once you became the League Champion and completed a series of tasks on the Sevii Islands you could enter. Now that you had finally done all that was asked of you he was nowhere in sight.
Oh well. Maybe he was just on a lunch break. Jerks have to eat too, you know.
"Let's go" you called over your shoulder before heading towards the cave's entrance. You stopped once you realized you weren't being followed and turned around to give your charizard an expectant look.
He eyed you carefully as you placed your hands on your hips and tapped your foot against the ground in an impatient manner. You narrowed your eyes in warning and he simply tilted his head to the side in response. With an exasperated sigh, you stomped back towards your charizard, reached up to grab a hold of his head(which he had graciously lowered to allow you to do so), and sighed exasperatedly before placing a brief kiss on the dragon's muzzle.
"You're such a baby" you muttered under your breath before turning back towards the cave. You smiled fondly as you heard your charizard snort his response from behind you.
You still remember the first time you'd given your pokémon's muzzle a kiss. It had been at the entrance of Viridian Forest back when your charizard was still just a low level charmander. At the beginning of your journey he had been a timid creature, frightened of the bug monsters within the forest despite his type advantage. After much arguing and promises of belly rubs later, you had finally convinced the little fire pokémon to accompany you in the forest. He had still looked hesistant, so you had bent down to his level and given him a kiss, explaining to him that it was for good luck.
You'd done this before every adventure ever since.
You stared into the mouth of the cave, eyeing it warily to make sure a swarm of golbats weren't about to swoop down on you and get tangled in your hair. Once you were satisfied that there was nothing lurking in the darkness to ruin your 500 yen haircut, you took a deep breath and entered the cave, your charizard right behind you.
You didn't take five steps before a wild primeape leapt towards you, its fists swinging in rage; luckily you stepped to the side to avoid the attack while your charizard roasted the little sucker. The wild pokémon quickly scurried away, its tail between its legs.
Wait... Primeapes don't have tails, despite the fact that they have them as mankeys. ...Odd. Well, whatever. It was irrelevant anyway.
"Good job" you complimented as you turned towards your charizard with a grin. The fire pokémon snorted in self-satisfaction, small spurts of flames flickering out his nostrils. "But make sure you save your strength for later. Supposedly there's some super powerful pokémon living somewhere in these caves and I want you to be at your best when we fight it, okay?"
Charizard snorted smugly, causing you to roll your eyes.
"Don't get too cocky" you warned. "You may be strong but we have no idea what we're up against. For all we know it could be a water type. As strong as you are, even you couldn't stand up against Lorelei's lapras; I had to use Raichu for that particular fight, remember?"
You laughed as Charizard rolled his eyes. Sometimes it was hard to believe that this overconfident powerhouse of a pokémon had once been that shy, cowardly little charmander you had received from Professor Oak so many years before. You smiled fondly at the memory before shaking your head to dismiss those thoughts; as nice as it was to take a trip down memory lane, you currently had more pressing matters at hand.
"Let's go" you said softly, speaking more to yourself than to Charizard. "Who knows how long this will take us."
Charizard nodded his head before setting foot to venture deeper within the cave, using the large flame at the end of his tail to light his path. You followed close behind, your eyes squinting as you tried to adjust to the scarce amount of light. The cave was so dark... You were starting to regret not bringing a pokémon that knew the move Flash.
You were brought out of your thoughts abruptly when you bumped into Charizard's back, his sudden stop causing you to fall back and land on your tender derriere. You got up quickly, brushing off the dirt from your pants and rubbing your now-sore buttocks in an attempt to soothe the pain.
You turned towards Charizard, prepared to smack him upside the head for making you make a fool out of yourself when you actually noticed why he had stopped in the first place. You laughed at the annoyed expression of your pokémon as he glared daggers at the flowing body of water by his feet.
Your laughter only grew louder then stopped abruptly when you saw the wide-eyed look of your charizard as he spotted the pokéball in your hand.
You ignored him, as you often did when he acted like a ridiculous child, and threw the ball in the air. The sudden brightness nearly blinded your eyes and you opted for covering them up. Seconds later, you lowered your arm and blinked your eyes as they once again had to adjust themselves to the darkness. Still, the soft purring roar and the slight splash of water was enough to tell you that your gyrados was indeed out of his pokéball and currently in the water.
You lifted your hand above your head and smiled when Gyrados immediately nuzzled against your palm, the force so strong you nearly fell over backwards.
"You think you could give us a ride?" you asked, your hands running across slick scales as you pet the water dragon's neck lovingly. He nodded his head and released a roar of agreement; you laughed and rewarded him with a few more rough rubs before climbing onto his back, inwardly cursing at your now-wet sneakers.
You always found it odd how gyrados were always perceived as violent, out of control pokémon. They must've gotten their reputation from the ones seen in the wild that reacted violently when disturbed by humans because you never once had any problems with your own gyrados. Then again, you'd had him since he was a low-level magikarp. While most trainers thought of magikarps as weak, nearly useless pokémon, you had been excited when you caught yours and treated him with as much love and respect as you treated the rest of the pokémon on your team. It was hard considering the only move he knew for a while was splash, but after much training he grew stronger and eventually evolved.
And despite how dangerous he looked, the naughtiest thing he had ever done was nip at your fingers when you were feeding him.
You were brought out of your reverie by Charizard's displeasured snort. You stared down at him with raised eyebrows and corners of your lips curling up devilishly.
"So... are you coming too or are you just gonna wait here while we go fight that powerful pokémon?" Your charizard was so cute when he was stubborn and you simply loved antagonizing him. In fact, it was your favorite hobby right next to training your pokémon and stamp-collecting.
He crossed his clawed arms over his chest and let out another snort.
"No, I'm not going to return Gyrados to his pokéball and I most certainly am not going to ride on your back instead. Flying is never a smart idea in a cave and you know it." He rolled his eyes but you continued. "Especially around water. One surprise water gun and you could slip up and fall in the river. Do you want to get wet?!" Of course, if Charizard fell in the water, getting wet would be the least of his worries. You preferred denial over acknowledging this.
A low growl was his response.
"You know, you're lucky I'm even offering to let you ride on Gyrados with me. A responsible trainer would make you go right back in your pokéball" you answered dully, your hands on your hips. "Besides, this is no time to be jealous" you say coyly, emphasizing your statement with a wink for good measure.
Charizard snorts again but doesn't argue with you. Instead, he settles for reluctantly climbing on the Gyrados' back, keeping his tail held high in the air to prevent any stray splashes of water from extinguishing the flame.
You didn't even bother trying to resist the urge to smirk.
Sometimes you wondered if you were at fault for spoiling your charmander so rotten when he was young. You noticed that he acted a little needier than your other pokémon, not to mention he also seemed more prone to jealousy when you gave another member of your team more attention than you gave him. You shrugged your shoulders; so what if he was a little spoiled? None of it would matter much in the long run, right?
Gyrados flinched, shaking his head and letting out a brief roar, causing you to suddenly jump out of your thoughts. It didn't take you very long to figure out what the problem was.
"Charizard, Gyrados' hide isn't a scratching post and I'd appreciate it if you didn't treat it as such."
You received a throaty chortle in response.
~~~~~~*~~~~~~
"I swear, if we run into one more wobuffet, I'll scream."
And you had the lungs to back up that threat too. The mere thought made Charizard wince but you paid him little mind. You were too busy seething to notice.
"Stupid punching bag look-alikes, the lot of them!" You threw your arms in the air to emphasize your all-encompassing hate for the lowly creatures. "They don't even attack directly; just wait for you to make a move and BAM! They knock you out even if they have to sacrifice themselves doing it! Blue, squinty-eyed bastards..."
Too caught up in your rant, you failed to notice the small boulder in your path. You tripped over it, stubbing your toe in the process, and fell face first in the dirt. Super. Now you were angry, in pain, and dirty too. You curled your hands into fists and pounded them against the ground in your frustration. All the while your charizard simply stared at you with a look that said 'Now who's the baby, hmm?'
"I'm starting to get sick of this cave" you muttered under your breath as you wiped some dirt away from your chin. "We've been traveling for what feels like hours," though in all probability it had probably been less than fifteen minutes, "And I'm sick and tired of all these wild pokémon popping up and challenging us! You'd think that after you knocked out the first twenty pokémon that the others would start to realize that there's no point in fighting, but no. Instead, twice as many monsters decide they want to fight."
Charizard ignored you in favor of continuing through the cave. After all, he was the one who had to fight so you weren't the one who should be complaining. Besides, the faster the two of you traveled, the faster he'd be able to fight that super powerful pokémon. The sheer thought made adrenaline pump through his veins. Charizard had been itching for a good battle ever since defeating the Elite Four.
"And they smell really bad when they're wet, too" you continued, going off on a tangent as you ranted and raved about why you disliked wild pokémon who weren't considerate enough to realize that you didn't want to battle them and had more important things to do.
A thwump behind you caused you to stop your tirade, your body tensing up instinctually. You slowly turned around, hesitant to meet the face of the unknown creature, only to stop and twitch when you immediately recognized the blue, constipated-looking face; the creature's arm was held up by his head in some form of a mock salute.
You growled. "Son of a-"
"Waaaaaw buuh-fet!"
Charizard just barely covered his ears in time to save himself from your shrill scream. For a human, you had a pretty decent Screech attack.
~~~~~~*~~~~~~
One knocked out wobuffet later (courtesy of a Flamethrower attack once Charizard grew sick of your screaming), you found yourself once again wandering aimlessly through Cerulean Cave. Everywhere you turned to looked the same; dirt, boulders, the occasional river, and even more wild pokémon that you were not in the mood to deal with. And, hey, was it just you or had you already passed that rock before?
Great. Now you were angry, in pain, dirty, and lost too. Could things possibly get any worse?
"Waaaaaw-baaaah!"
You just had to ask.
Letting out a long string of curses, you quickly pulled Gyrados' pokéball off of your belt and released him once again. Sensing your anger, Charizard didn't even bother to argue as the two of you climbed on the water dragon and held on tight as he sped away from the blue menace.
You leaned your head against the gyrados, closing your eyes with a smile. Who would've thought that a gyrados would make such a comfy pillow? "Just stop by the first patch of land you see; we'll rest there for a bit" you muttered drowsily. Gyrados had to strain his ears just to hear it but he nodded his head in confirmation and obeyed without question.
You smacked away the claw that gently shook your shoulder, snuggling against scales once you believed the threat was gone. The claw was quite persistent, however, as it simply shook you even harder; hard enough for you to feel the sting of its nails digging into your skin. Not one to be outdone, you simply pushed the claw away even harder than last time, throwing in a kick or two for good measure.
You smirked to yourself once you were sure the claw wouldn't return and placed your arms under your head to use as a makeshift pillow. Ah, peace at last. It was almost enough to make you forget that you were still inside a dark, damp cave. Almost.
You allowed yourself to relax further, finally convinced you wouldn't be disturbed from your nap. But of course, the moment didn't last long, as most pleasant things that happen to you never do. A heavy breath blew hot air into your face, causing your eyes to widen and your nostrils to flare.
"Ewwwwww!" you squealed obnoxiously loud as your hands rushed to cover up your nose. "I know you never learned the move Dragon Breath, but it sure smells like it!" Charizard simply chortled to himself as you continued to gag from the lingering stench of his breath. "Ugh! As soon as we get out of this cave, the first thing I'm gonna do is brush your teeth!"
Gyrados rolled his eyes; honestly, sometimes you and Charizard could be so immature.
Recovering from the awful smell and now wide awake, you collected yourself and finally slid yourself off of Gyrados' back; you lightly punch Charizard in the arm on your way down, only causing him to pause his laughter for a moment then increase its intensity twofold. Jerk. Next time you ought to punch him harder. ...Or shank him, depending on your mood.
For the moment, you settled for watching your Gyrados buck the charizard off his back, causing the fire dragon to let out a startled growl and land face-first in the dirt by your feet. You turned back toward Gryados with a grin and the two of you exchanged playful winks. Now in a vastly better mood, you plopped yourself down on the ground next to your still-dazed charizard, whistling the tune of Mambo #5 as you pulled the two remaining pokéballs off your belt and released the pokémon inside. After all, your team deserved to rest too, as well as a chance to stretch their limbs. Just the thought of being cramped up inside one of those tiny red and white balls made you shiver.
Immediately you were assaulted by a flying ball of fur, the force so strong you nearly fell backwards. You giggled as Raichu licked and nuzzled your cheek, the electric mouse laughing with you as the two of you hugged and cuddled.
Not one to take too kindly to being ignored, your gengar floated over towards you, his expression set grimly in a firm frown. The moment you made eye contact with him, however, his expression changed to a wicked smirk; the tip of his tongue peeked out from his mouth before he allowed the whole muscle to hang limply. You eyed the ghost pokémon suspiciously, causing his grin to widen further. Before you could do anything to prevent the attack, he charged you, his large, pink tongue sweeping across your face before you could say "sexual harassment".
Your body was still, save for a slight shiver, mildly paralyzed from the assault, before you finally gathered the strength to lift your hand and wipe away the excess spittle from your face. You kept a straight face as you shook the saliva from your hand though you mentally chuckled when a few drops splashed against Charizard's back. Gengar and Raichu, however, felt no need to hold back their own laughter, one's voice a deep and raspy chuckle while the other's was a muffled giggle hidden behind fuzzy paws.
"That's it" you spoke quietly, though still loud enough that you could be heard. The seriousness of your tone was what gained the attention of your pokémon and the two watched you with wide eyes. You clenched your fists until your knuckles turned white, your top and bottom row of teeth grinded together to make an unpleasant sound, and a dark aura seemed to emanate from your body. You stared the two down, your eyes narrow and harsh-looking. "I'ma get'chu!" you shouted as you lunged towards them, laughing loudly as they both shrieked and scurried away. "You can run but you can't hide!" you called after them, chasing them in circles around the cave while the three of you shrieked and panted and laughed.
Charizard and Gyrados watched the scene from a safe distance. The two dragon pokémon turned to face each other, eyes meeting in a rare moment of understanding between the two as they came to the conclusion that they were the only sane ones in the group and were surrounded by idiots; fun idiots, but still idiots nonetheless.
"Got'cha!" you squealed loudly as you pounced towards Raichu, grabbing the electric rodent by his tail and pulling him towards you until he was trapped in your arms.
One down, one to go.
Seeing his comrade captured, Gengar's eyes widened a bit but it didn't stop him from pulling his left eyelid down and blowing a raspberry at you in a taunting gesture. If he was going to lose, Gengar decided, he was at least going to go down fighting.
You grinned mischievously at the ghost, raising your free hand by your face and wiggling your fingers in a mock threatening manner. Raichu raised his own paws and shook them with a great amount of enthusiasm; you were sure that if he actually had fingers that he'd be perfectly imitating you. You definitely gave him an A for effort.
Just as you were about to lunge out at Gengar, you felt a chill run down your spine. You couldn't place your finger on it, but something just didn't feel right. The feeling was sort of akin to being watched in the shower, but not quite; it was more serious, more dangerous, and much more terrifying.
"Anyone there?" you called out, ears straining to hear an answer. Other than the distant shriek of golbats, you were given no response. You sighed deeply and forced yourself to relax. Still, you couldn't shake away the unnerving feeling that something was wrong. You liked to call that feeling your sixth sense, your mother called it woman's intuition, and everyone else just called it paranoia.
"Who dares disturb my slumber?" A powerful voice echoed, not within the cave walls, but within your mind. It had to be a psychic; definitely the work of a psychic; and by the sounds of it, a headstrong and powerful one to boot.
"...Shit."Chapter End Notes:Well, if you enjoyed it so far, please review. There's little point to continue posting a story that no one wants to read
The winds made it a chore for you to keep your eyes open but you forced them wide anyway; you paid little mind to the tears that formed in the corners of your eyes. You carefully scanned the land below you, laughing cheerfully when you found what you were looking for.
"Land there, okay Charizard?" you called over the wind as you pointed downward. Your pokémon grunted loudly, nodding his head before diving down. You screamed in fear as the two of you spiraled towards the ground, your grip on the dragon pokémon tightened until your fingernails nearly managed to dig into his thick hide.
He stopped only seconds away from crashing the both of you into the ground and instead swerved upward at the last possible moment to land safely, his clawed feet touching the soft earth.
"You jerk!" you yelled as you slapped your pokémon's rump playfully. "You know how much I hate it when you do that!"
Charizard lifted his head up and blew a stream of fire in response, his eyes twinkling brightly in laughter.
"So you think you're funny, do you? Well, we'll see who's laughing when somebody gets hosed down in the backyard again. You're starting to get dirty anyway" you added thoughtfully.
Charizard narrowed his eyes and growled down at you; when that didn't seem to faze you he resorted to blowing a puff of smoke out of his left nostril to voice his distaste.
"Don't give me that; as long as I keep your tail wrapped in plastic then the flame will be protected from the hose's spray." He growled again but you ignored it and simply pat the pokémon's belly lovingly. "Settle down; you know I'm just kidding. You're such a spoiled brat" you teased.
The charizard grunted but seemed satisfied that you wouldn't be giving him an unpleasant hose-down anytime soon.
You smiled and gave your charizard's belly one more pat before focusing your attention on the cave entrance behind you. There it was, Cerulean Cave; your eyes sparkled in excitement at the thought of what challenges lay hidden within the cavern's shadows. To your surprise, the cave was left completely unguarded. Funny; there had always been a blue-haired man standing guard in front of the cave, telling you that only once you became the League Champion and completed a series of tasks on the Sevii Islands you could enter. Now that you had finally done all that was asked of you he was nowhere in sight.
Oh well. Maybe he was just on a lunch break. Jerks have to eat too, you know.
"Let's go" you called over your shoulder before heading towards the cave's entrance. You stopped once you realized you weren't being followed and turned around to give your charizard an expectant look.
He eyed you carefully as you placed your hands on your hips and tapped your foot against the ground in an impatient manner. You narrowed your eyes in warning and he simply tilted his head to the side in response. With an exasperated sigh, you stomped back towards your charizard, reached up to grab a hold of his head(which he had graciously lowered to allow you to do so), and sighed exasperatedly before placing a brief kiss on the dragon's muzzle.
"You're such a baby" you muttered under your breath before turning back towards the cave. You smiled fondly as you heard your charizard snort his response from behind you.
You still remember the first time you'd given your pokémon's muzzle a kiss. It had been at the entrance of Viridian Forest back when your charizard was still just a low level charmander. At the beginning of your journey he had been a timid creature, frightened of the bug monsters within the forest despite his type advantage. After much arguing and promises of belly rubs later, you had finally convinced the little fire pokémon to accompany you in the forest. He had still looked hesistant, so you had bent down to his level and given him a kiss, explaining to him that it was for good luck.
You'd done this before every adventure ever since.
You stared into the mouth of the cave, eyeing it warily to make sure a swarm of golbats weren't about to swoop down on you and get tangled in your hair. Once you were satisfied that there was nothing lurking in the darkness to ruin your 500 yen haircut, you took a deep breath and entered the cave, your charizard right behind you.
You didn't take five steps before a wild primeape leapt towards you, its fists swinging in rage; luckily you stepped to the side to avoid the attack while your charizard roasted the little sucker. The wild pokémon quickly scurried away, its tail between its legs.
Wait... Primeapes don't have tails, despite the fact that they have them as mankeys. ...Odd. Well, whatever. It was irrelevant anyway.
"Good job" you complimented as you turned towards your charizard with a grin. The fire pokémon snorted in self-satisfaction, small spurts of flames flickering out his nostrils. "But make sure you save your strength for later. Supposedly there's some super powerful pokémon living somewhere in these caves and I want you to be at your best when we fight it, okay?"
Charizard snorted smugly, causing you to roll your eyes.
"Don't get too cocky" you warned. "You may be strong but we have no idea what we're up against. For all we know it could be a water type. As strong as you are, even you couldn't stand up against Lorelei's lapras; I had to use Raichu for that particular fight, remember?"
You laughed as Charizard rolled his eyes. Sometimes it was hard to believe that this overconfident powerhouse of a pokémon had once been that shy, cowardly little charmander you had received from Professor Oak so many years before. You smiled fondly at the memory before shaking your head to dismiss those thoughts; as nice as it was to take a trip down memory lane, you currently had more pressing matters at hand.
"Let's go" you said softly, speaking more to yourself than to Charizard. "Who knows how long this will take us."
Charizard nodded his head before setting foot to venture deeper within the cave, using the large flame at the end of his tail to light his path. You followed close behind, your eyes squinting as you tried to adjust to the scarce amount of light. The cave was so dark... You were starting to regret not bringing a pokémon that knew the move Flash.
You were brought out of your thoughts abruptly when you bumped into Charizard's back, his sudden stop causing you to fall back and land on your tender derriere. You got up quickly, brushing off the dirt from your pants and rubbing your now-sore buttocks in an attempt to soothe the pain.
You turned towards Charizard, prepared to smack him upside the head for making you make a fool out of yourself when you actually noticed why he had stopped in the first place. You laughed at the annoyed expression of your pokémon as he glared daggers at the flowing body of water by his feet.
Your laughter only grew louder then stopped abruptly when you saw the wide-eyed look of your charizard as he spotted the pokéball in your hand.
You ignored him, as you often did when he acted like a ridiculous child, and threw the ball in the air. The sudden brightness nearly blinded your eyes and you opted for covering them up. Seconds later, you lowered your arm and blinked your eyes as they once again had to adjust themselves to the darkness. Still, the soft purring roar and the slight splash of water was enough to tell you that your gyrados was indeed out of his pokéball and currently in the water.
You lifted your hand above your head and smiled when Gyrados immediately nuzzled against your palm, the force so strong you nearly fell over backwards.
"You think you could give us a ride?" you asked, your hands running across slick scales as you pet the water dragon's neck lovingly. He nodded his head and released a roar of agreement; you laughed and rewarded him with a few more rough rubs before climbing onto his back, inwardly cursing at your now-wet sneakers.
You always found it odd how gyrados were always perceived as violent, out of control pokémon. They must've gotten their reputation from the ones seen in the wild that reacted violently when disturbed by humans because you never once had any problems with your own gyrados. Then again, you'd had him since he was a low-level magikarp. While most trainers thought of magikarps as weak, nearly useless pokémon, you had been excited when you caught yours and treated him with as much love and respect as you treated the rest of the pokémon on your team. It was hard considering the only move he knew for a while was splash, but after much training he grew stronger and eventually evolved.
And despite how dangerous he looked, the naughtiest thing he had ever done was nip at your fingers when you were feeding him.
You were brought out of your reverie by Charizard's displeasured snort. You stared down at him with raised eyebrows and corners of your lips curling up devilishly.
"So... are you coming too or are you just gonna wait here while we go fight that powerful pokémon?" Your charizard was so cute when he was stubborn and you simply loved antagonizing him. In fact, it was your favorite hobby right next to training your pokémon and stamp-collecting.
He crossed his clawed arms over his chest and let out another snort.
"No, I'm not going to return Gyrados to his pokéball and I most certainly am not going to ride on your back instead. Flying is never a smart idea in a cave and you know it." He rolled his eyes but you continued. "Especially around water. One surprise water gun and you could slip up and fall in the river. Do you want to get wet?!" Of course, if Charizard fell in the water, getting wet would be the least of his worries. You preferred denial over acknowledging this.
A low growl was his response.
"You know, you're lucky I'm even offering to let you ride on Gyrados with me. A responsible trainer would make you go right back in your pokéball" you answered dully, your hands on your hips. "Besides, this is no time to be jealous" you say coyly, emphasizing your statement with a wink for good measure.
Charizard snorts again but doesn't argue with you. Instead, he settles for reluctantly climbing on the Gyrados' back, keeping his tail held high in the air to prevent any stray splashes of water from extinguishing the flame.
You didn't even bother trying to resist the urge to smirk.
Sometimes you wondered if you were at fault for spoiling your charmander so rotten when he was young. You noticed that he acted a little needier than your other pokémon, not to mention he also seemed more prone to jealousy when you gave another member of your team more attention than you gave him. You shrugged your shoulders; so what if he was a little spoiled? None of it would matter much in the long run, right?
Gyrados flinched, shaking his head and letting out a brief roar, causing you to suddenly jump out of your thoughts. It didn't take you very long to figure out what the problem was.
"Charizard, Gyrados' hide isn't a scratching post and I'd appreciate it if you didn't treat it as such."
You received a throaty chortle in response.
~~~~~~*~~~~~~
"I swear, if we run into one more wobuffet, I'll scream."
And you had the lungs to back up that threat too. The mere thought made Charizard wince but you paid him little mind. You were too busy seething to notice.
"Stupid punching bag look-alikes, the lot of them!" You threw your arms in the air to emphasize your all-encompassing hate for the lowly creatures. "They don't even attack directly; just wait for you to make a move and BAM! They knock you out even if they have to sacrifice themselves doing it! Blue, squinty-eyed bastards..."
Too caught up in your rant, you failed to notice the small boulder in your path. You tripped over it, stubbing your toe in the process, and fell face first in the dirt. Super. Now you were angry, in pain, and dirty too. You curled your hands into fists and pounded them against the ground in your frustration. All the while your charizard simply stared at you with a look that said 'Now who's the baby, hmm?'
"I'm starting to get sick of this cave" you muttered under your breath as you wiped some dirt away from your chin. "We've been traveling for what feels like hours," though in all probability it had probably been less than fifteen minutes, "And I'm sick and tired of all these wild pokémon popping up and challenging us! You'd think that after you knocked out the first twenty pokémon that the others would start to realize that there's no point in fighting, but no. Instead, twice as many monsters decide they want to fight."
Charizard ignored you in favor of continuing through the cave. After all, he was the one who had to fight so you weren't the one who should be complaining. Besides, the faster the two of you traveled, the faster he'd be able to fight that super powerful pokémon. The sheer thought made adrenaline pump through his veins. Charizard had been itching for a good battle ever since defeating the Elite Four.
"And they smell really bad when they're wet, too" you continued, going off on a tangent as you ranted and raved about why you disliked wild pokémon who weren't considerate enough to realize that you didn't want to battle them and had more important things to do.
A thwump behind you caused you to stop your tirade, your body tensing up instinctually. You slowly turned around, hesitant to meet the face of the unknown creature, only to stop and twitch when you immediately recognized the blue, constipated-looking face; the creature's arm was held up by his head in some form of a mock salute.
You growled. "Son of a-"
"Waaaaaw buuh-fet!"
Charizard just barely covered his ears in time to save himself from your shrill scream. For a human, you had a pretty decent Screech attack.
~~~~~~*~~~~~~
One knocked out wobuffet later (courtesy of a Flamethrower attack once Charizard grew sick of your screaming), you found yourself once again wandering aimlessly through Cerulean Cave. Everywhere you turned to looked the same; dirt, boulders, the occasional river, and even more wild pokémon that you were not in the mood to deal with. And, hey, was it just you or had you already passed that rock before?
Great. Now you were angry, in pain, dirty, and lost too. Could things possibly get any worse?
"Waaaaaw-baaaah!"
You just had to ask.
Letting out a long string of curses, you quickly pulled Gyrados' pokéball off of your belt and released him once again. Sensing your anger, Charizard didn't even bother to argue as the two of you climbed on the water dragon and held on tight as he sped away from the blue menace.
You leaned your head against the gyrados, closing your eyes with a smile. Who would've thought that a gyrados would make such a comfy pillow? "Just stop by the first patch of land you see; we'll rest there for a bit" you muttered drowsily. Gyrados had to strain his ears just to hear it but he nodded his head in confirmation and obeyed without question.
You smacked away the claw that gently shook your shoulder, snuggling against scales once you believed the threat was gone. The claw was quite persistent, however, as it simply shook you even harder; hard enough for you to feel the sting of its nails digging into your skin. Not one to be outdone, you simply pushed the claw away even harder than last time, throwing in a kick or two for good measure.
You smirked to yourself once you were sure the claw wouldn't return and placed your arms under your head to use as a makeshift pillow. Ah, peace at last. It was almost enough to make you forget that you were still inside a dark, damp cave. Almost.
You allowed yourself to relax further, finally convinced you wouldn't be disturbed from your nap. But of course, the moment didn't last long, as most pleasant things that happen to you never do. A heavy breath blew hot air into your face, causing your eyes to widen and your nostrils to flare.
"Ewwwwww!" you squealed obnoxiously loud as your hands rushed to cover up your nose. "I know you never learned the move Dragon Breath, but it sure smells like it!" Charizard simply chortled to himself as you continued to gag from the lingering stench of his breath. "Ugh! As soon as we get out of this cave, the first thing I'm gonna do is brush your teeth!"
Gyrados rolled his eyes; honestly, sometimes you and Charizard could be so immature.
Recovering from the awful smell and now wide awake, you collected yourself and finally slid yourself off of Gyrados' back; you lightly punch Charizard in the arm on your way down, only causing him to pause his laughter for a moment then increase its intensity twofold. Jerk. Next time you ought to punch him harder. ...Or shank him, depending on your mood.
For the moment, you settled for watching your Gyrados buck the charizard off his back, causing the fire dragon to let out a startled growl and land face-first in the dirt by your feet. You turned back toward Gryados with a grin and the two of you exchanged playful winks. Now in a vastly better mood, you plopped yourself down on the ground next to your still-dazed charizard, whistling the tune of Mambo #5 as you pulled the two remaining pokéballs off your belt and released the pokémon inside. After all, your team deserved to rest too, as well as a chance to stretch their limbs. Just the thought of being cramped up inside one of those tiny red and white balls made you shiver.
Immediately you were assaulted by a flying ball of fur, the force so strong you nearly fell backwards. You giggled as Raichu licked and nuzzled your cheek, the electric mouse laughing with you as the two of you hugged and cuddled.
Not one to take too kindly to being ignored, your gengar floated over towards you, his expression set grimly in a firm frown. The moment you made eye contact with him, however, his expression changed to a wicked smirk; the tip of his tongue peeked out from his mouth before he allowed the whole muscle to hang limply. You eyed the ghost pokémon suspiciously, causing his grin to widen further. Before you could do anything to prevent the attack, he charged you, his large, pink tongue sweeping across your face before you could say "sexual harassment".
Your body was still, save for a slight shiver, mildly paralyzed from the assault, before you finally gathered the strength to lift your hand and wipe away the excess spittle from your face. You kept a straight face as you shook the saliva from your hand though you mentally chuckled when a few drops splashed against Charizard's back. Gengar and Raichu, however, felt no need to hold back their own laughter, one's voice a deep and raspy chuckle while the other's was a muffled giggle hidden behind fuzzy paws.
"That's it" you spoke quietly, though still loud enough that you could be heard. The seriousness of your tone was what gained the attention of your pokémon and the two watched you with wide eyes. You clenched your fists until your knuckles turned white, your top and bottom row of teeth grinded together to make an unpleasant sound, and a dark aura seemed to emanate from your body. You stared the two down, your eyes narrow and harsh-looking. "I'ma get'chu!" you shouted as you lunged towards them, laughing loudly as they both shrieked and scurried away. "You can run but you can't hide!" you called after them, chasing them in circles around the cave while the three of you shrieked and panted and laughed.
Charizard and Gyrados watched the scene from a safe distance. The two dragon pokémon turned to face each other, eyes meeting in a rare moment of understanding between the two as they came to the conclusion that they were the only sane ones in the group and were surrounded by idiots; fun idiots, but still idiots nonetheless.
"Got'cha!" you squealed loudly as you pounced towards Raichu, grabbing the electric rodent by his tail and pulling him towards you until he was trapped in your arms.
One down, one to go.
Seeing his comrade captured, Gengar's eyes widened a bit but it didn't stop him from pulling his left eyelid down and blowing a raspberry at you in a taunting gesture. If he was going to lose, Gengar decided, he was at least going to go down fighting.
You grinned mischievously at the ghost, raising your free hand by your face and wiggling your fingers in a mock threatening manner. Raichu raised his own paws and shook them with a great amount of enthusiasm; you were sure that if he actually had fingers that he'd be perfectly imitating you. You definitely gave him an A for effort.
Just as you were about to lunge out at Gengar, you felt a chill run down your spine. You couldn't place your finger on it, but something just didn't feel right. The feeling was sort of akin to being watched in the shower, but not quite; it was more serious, more dangerous, and much more terrifying.
"Anyone there?" you called out, ears straining to hear an answer. Other than the distant shriek of golbats, you were given no response. You sighed deeply and forced yourself to relax. Still, you couldn't shake away the unnerving feeling that something was wrong. You liked to call that feeling your sixth sense, your mother called it woman's intuition, and everyone else just called it paranoia.
"Who dares disturb my slumber?" A powerful voice echoed, not within the cave walls, but within your mind. It had to be a psychic; definitely the work of a psychic; and by the sounds of it, a headstrong and powerful one to boot.
"...Shit."Chapter End Notes:Well, if you enjoyed it so far, please review. There's little point to continue posting a story that no one wants to read