[Pokémon] Always

Due to certain reasons, I couldn't complete the previous two fics I've posted here, but here is one I am determined to finish and not leave hanging. I don't believe anybody will have a problem with anything contained in the story, so don't be scared to give it a try. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, as well as pointing out spelling/grammar/etc mistakes as I like my text being easy to read. That's pretty much it so here's chapter one.

Chapter One​

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Azalea Town. The green, insect infested small town. What a great place to live, Joshua thought. He was fifteen years old and had never thought much about his hometown. As he sat on his bed bored out of his mind though, he'd been thinking about ways to make his life more interesting. You couldn't really do anything in Azalea; it was a small town with no unique landmarks to see or activities to do. Joshua normally watched Kurt make Pokeballs to pass the time, or sometimes he went to the gym and watched some young kid challenge Bugsy and normally lose miserably. After a while though, it got boring.

A few years ago, the Johto Elite Four made a law where a trainer could start his or her official Pokemon journey as soon as they became a teenager, or at thirteen years of age. They changed it from ten years old to thirteen so that there was more maturity and to make parents less worried. The law was actually changed due to protest from adults. A child could get their first Pokemon at ten years old however while under adult supervision and then learn the basics of Pokemon until they turned thirteen.

Joshua had went with his dad into Ilex Forest and had chosen a Spinarak as his starter Pokemon. It was a pretty intense battle in his opinion, or at least that's what he thought when he was ten. He had thrown a rock at it but the Spinarak had used String Shot to catch it in mid air and then had waved the string around and hit Joshua in the head with the rock. The Spinarak started to scurry off but his dad threw another small rock at it and it flinched, so Joshua threw a Pokeball at it and caught it quite easily.

He had trained with Spinarak in the Azalea gym until he was twelve. At twelve years old, he got bored of going to the gym every day and treated it like a pet afterwards. He and his Spinarak had a pretty tight bond and were normally everywhere together. Right now, as he sat on his bed, his Spinarak rested in his lap. Technically, he could have started a journey two years ago, but he liked knowing his Spinarak was safe and away from harm.

Deciding to go for a walk, Joshua gently shook his Spinarak awake. "Come on Spinney," he said, "let's go for a walk together." Spinney was a nickname his parents sometimes called his Spinarak when it did something good, like caught a moth with its String Shot. He had memorized his mother praising his Spinarak in a tone you would spoil a baby with: "Oh, who's a good little Spinney, huh? Oh yes, that's you, isn't it you good little Spinney, Spinney." Spinney most definitely enjoyed the praise and closed his eyes in comfort as she tickled his head with her index and middle fingers.

Spinney somewhat reluctantly got up but eagerly crawled up Joshua's left arm and rested on his shoulder. Joshua got up off his bed and headed out of his room, through the hallway and into the living room where his mother was laying down on the couch with her head in his dad's lap. They were watching TV on the flat screen. "Where are you going?" his dad asked.

"Gonna go take a walk," Joshua replied. Seeing the expectant looks on his parents' faces, he added, "Not far, just to the well or something." He left through the door next to the TV and stepped into heated weather. "Hot day," he said to Spinney. He wiped his hand down his jet black, shiny-looking hair, careful not to ruin the part sticking up at the front.

His house was next to the Pokemon Mart, so he only had to walk a short distance south until he came to the eastern city exit which led to the well. He continued, seeing various Pokemon during his trek even though the well was in eyesight even from the city. When he got to the well, he sat down on its brown, stone structure with his Spinarak. "Do you ever wish you lived somewhere more exciting?" he asked his Pokemon.

It climbed down and sat next to him on the well, and Joshua looked at the face on its back. It had changed into an expression where the mouth was slanted like a slash. He took that as an agreement and sighed heavily. "Do you want to go on a journey?" He watched the face remain the same and concluded that was a 'not really.' He figured the statement that Pokemon tending to take after their owner's personality was true enough.

"Hey Josh," a female voice called from the direction of the town's entrance. Looking over, he saw that it was his best friend Jordan. She had brown hair that went a little past her shoulders and dark green eyes like his. Her bangs were swept over one eye and she had a tan that was just slightly lighter than his own. She always wore pants as well but sometimes, like right now, she would fold the ends up to below her knees. Wearing a purple hoodie that was halfway zipped up and that covered a white shirt, some blue pants and green Canvas shoes, there was pretty much nothing more to say about her appearance.

"Sup," he replied. "What are you doing out here?"

She walked over, her Pineco bouncing alongside her, and sat next to him on the well. "Just a walk," she answered. "What are you doing out here?"

As his Spinarak went to play with her Pineco, Joshua said, "I'm out for a walk too. There's not much to do in Azalea."

"Yeah, you're right." She looked towards the two bug-type Pokemon chasing each other around and gently using their attacks against each other. She had decided not to go on a journey as well, even though she could have two years ago like Joshua. "Let's go inside the well. Maybe we'll find something interesting."

"Alright," he said, getting up. "Come on Spinney, let's go." His spider Pokemon scurried away from Pineco who bounced after him as Jordan called for her Pokemon too. They walked around the well to the other side and descended the stairs that led into darkness lit only by torches hanging from the walls inside.

As they touched the stone floor of the bottom of the well, Joshua whispered under his breath, "Whoa." He hadn't been under the well for years and he forgot how many Slowpoke lived under here. The pink Pokemon were scattered everywhere, some even flopped over another.

"Haven't been here for a while have you," Jordan said, more of a statement than a question. "Yeah, lots of Slowpoke. I'd probably catch one but it'd just be another dopey Pokemon to take care of." She looked down at her Pineco who was glaring at her. Smiling, she said, "I'm just kidding and you know that." Her Pineco stopped staring at her and hopped off towards Spinarak.

"You know, it's quite a sight, but this is kind of boring, don't you think," Joshua said. It was true; he wasn't really having any fun being down here.

"Okay fine, let's go." She started to call out for her Pineco but caught herself. "Wait, your Spinarak is trying to get something. Come on." She grabbed his arm and dragged him with her to his Spinarak. They looked down and saw it playing with a brown stone.

"It's just a stone," Joshua said bluntly.

"It has a marking on it," Jordan disagreed. Picking it up, much to Spinarak's disapproval, she held it to her face and studied the unique feature. "It's like a spiral is sticking out of it. Let's ask your parents if you can bring it to Professor Elm."

Jordan was an only child like Joshua and her parents hadn't ever really cared for her. She had gone with Joshua's mother to get her Pineco. She only went home to sleep; the rest of her day was normally occupied with helping out at the gym or helping Kurt with making Pokeballs. Kurt payed her for her services, fifteen dollars a day. Joshua was considering becoming Kurt's assistant too since he needed a job. He was planning on moving out to an active city like Goldenrod as soon as he could.

Whenever Jordan wasn't busy, she was with Joshua. Sometimes, she even stayed the night at his place since she knew her parents wouldn't care and his parents were always delighted to have her over.

"Okay," Joshua said with little emotion. "If this is a fossil, we will go on a little journey to New Bark. You're coming with me though because my parents won't let me go alone. They don't think any child or teenager should travel alone."

Jordan looked at him with an expression that stated his explanation was unnecessary. She was going to go with him anyway and she had about five hundred dollars saved up in her account. She didn't really have anything to spend her money on. That was more than enough to get to New Bark and back to Azalea in any case.

Sure enough, about an hour later, he and Jordan were wearing backpacks filled with clothes, toothbrushes and other materials, some canned food and the stone and they were walking out of the eastern city exit towards Union Cave.

The next chapter, still just cropping up the current storyline and characters. Please point out any mistakes and give your advice.

Chapter Two​

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"You know, it feels nice knowing I'm going to be away from Azalea for a while," Jordan said. They had just passed the well and were continuing on to Union Cave. "I'm finally going to have some freedom and I'm going to get to see new things."

Joshua just nodded his head, letting her talk. He had to agree, however. Being away from Azalea to see new things sure felt good, even though they weren't even close to far from it.

Spinney was sitting on his left shoulder, his back legs falling behind it. Jordan was holding her Pineco in her arms instead of making it have to hop the whole time.

While Jordan continued talking, Joshua started thinking of the negative things of doing this. Pokemon could be very dangerous so they could easily get hurt. The one that kept popping in his head was Gyarados, the one Pokemon he was scared of most. If they ran into a Gyarados, they were surely going to have troubles. He knew they were very violent and often attacked for whatever reason. Of course, there weren't many strong Pokemon around Azalea, or in the direction they were going, so that calmed his worries a little.

Coming back into the real world, he heard Jordan finish a question. "ﾅ think Joshua?"

She turned around after he didn't respond for a few moments. Hesitantly, he asked, "Um, what?"

"It's not nice to zone out when someone's talking to you," she said, turning back around. "I said do you think we should catch some Pokemon while we do this?"

Joshua paused in walking, thinking how typical that was. As soon as you start a journey, catch a Pokemon. "You know this journey is only to New Bark and back right? What's the point of catching more Pokemon?"

"Well for one, it's another Pokemon for protection. You never know what's going to happen." She turned to look at him once again. Joshua suddenly knew he was going to be told and stood there idly, letting her explain. "Plus, once we get back home, I'm sure our Pokemon would like to have friends to play with when they can't be with us."

"Okay fine. What do you plan on capturing?"

Walking closer to him, she whispered, "That right there." She pointed in front of her, where the cave entrance was in sight to the left and some greenery to the opposite of it. A pink, upright dog was walking out of the bushes and sniffing for something, it's small black nose wiggling. It had pink ears draping to its jaw, which was fierce and had two white teeth jutting out naturally. The tip of the ears were outlined by a black color similar to moonlight. A light blue wreath was wrapped around its neck and same colored dots were spread across its body.

"A Snubbull," Joshua said dully. Mentally, he was laughing. He couldn't imagine Jordan having a Snubbull. It just didn't work with her personality. It was fun unless angered, but naturally looked scary while Jordan was normally a happy type of person.

Covering a slipped-out cough from holding laughter, he said, "Okay, Jordan, okay." He knew she could see him silently chuckling.

Turning to the Snubbull, she dramatically swished her hair. "Watch me catch it. If something does happen, you'll thank me when I save our butts. Even if we get back safely, you'll be jealous my Pineco has another Pokemon to play with." Walking up towards the Snubbull, catching its attention, she told her Pineco to get ready for a battle. When it hesitated to go forwards, she comforted it by saying, "Don't worry, you're stronger than any Pokemon around here. You were a great battler a couple of years ago too, why would that have changed now?"

Joshua watched as the hesitant Pineco seemed to get braver and hopped out in between Jordan and the wild Snubbull. He walked over to a nearby tree and called out, "I'll be right here, watching you." He smiled even though Jordan didn't turn around, a sign that she was starting to get annoyed.

Joshua had seen her train before, a few years back, and knew her Pineco was a pretty good battler. It had some decent moves, like Protect and Take Down, and also a last resort move: Selfdestruct. He knew its Tackle and Rapin Spin would be able to easily weaken any wild Pokemon around Azalea though. Leaning against the tree, he watched the Snubbull make the first attack.

At first, all it did was stick its tongue out, revealing it to be pink. A few moments later though, its tongue started extending further, and once it was about six inches out of its mouth, Joshua started thinking he was dreaming, or maybe even delusional. As it continued to reach towards Pineco, Jordan told her Pineco to dodge its Lick attack. Her Pineco hopped out of the way just in time, and Joshua felt himself slightly go red.

"Rapid Spin," she commanded her Pineco. At first, it did nothing as the Snubbull's tongue started to withdraw back into its mouth. Joshua realized it probably needed to remember how to perform some of its attacks. A moment later though, its body was spinning rapidly to where it was just a green sphere with sand spiraling upwards around it. Another second later, it was speeding through the air towards the Snubbull, which turned around and tried to run away. Jordan's Pineco was too fast for it, however, and zoomed through the air, quickly catching up to the Snubbull and ramming it in the back. As the pink dog Pokemon flew through the air, it curved to the left slightly and landed on its stomach, facing Jordan and her Pineco, who was already sitting before her, again.

Joshua had to admit that looked pretty devastating to the Snubbull, as it was already panting as it got up to stand. Its head remained drooped however, and its mouth open, breathing heavily. A few seconds later as Jordan mentally argued with herself about whether to catch it now or not, it started running towards Pineco. It wasn't a very fast pace, but it quickly encountered Pineco and opened its mouth wide. Tilting its head, it grabbed the green pinecone's body in its mouth and raised it into the air.

"Pineco!" Jordan yelled, her eyes wide. Contemplating on what to do, she finally said, "Try Protect! Hurry!" Almost immediately after she voiced it, a green orb surrounded Pineco and Joshua figured it still knew that attack pretty well. Instead of anything happening though, the Snubbull's mouth just proceeded to open further than Joshua could possibly have imagined. Its mouth was like a balloon and Pineco was the air being blown inside of it.

Realizing it had an advantage now, the Snubbull continued bringing its teeth down into Pineco. Pineco yelped in pain and Jordan yelled, not knowing what to do. Moments later, she looked back at her Pineco enduring the pink dog's Bite. Realization struck her face and she yelled, "Quick, use Rapid Spin again!"

A little quicker than previously, her bagworm Pokemon started spinning, gaining speed quite fast. Seconds after it started spinning, Snubbull let go of it and Pineco soared through the air. "Tackle it as you come back down!" Jordan yelled into the sky. She saw the green blur come into focus as it fell and stopped spinning. Pointing the spike on its head directly at Snubbull, the opposing Pokemon looked up at its doom. It stood there, too tired to move; pretty much giving in. The spherical Pokemon smashed into it and it fell backwards, landing on its back and not moving. It seemed to enjoy laying down so Jordan figured she should catch it now.

Joshua pushed himself up from leaning against the tree with his shoulder blades, Spinney's legs scurrying up out of the way from being crushed. It immediately went to its former position as Joshua walked to and stood next to Jordan. She was fumbling in her backpack as the Snubbull still lay peacefully on the ground. Pineco stood opposite it, still ready to attack if it got back up.

As she finally stood up with the well known red-and-white sphere in her hand, she said, "You know, I feel kind of awkward throwing a Pokeball. I hope I don't miss it." Joshua laughed, knowing how embarrassed trainers got when they missed a Pokemon while throwing a Pokeball.

"You'll do fine. You throw rocks at acorns every day for Kurt, don't you?"

She turned to him, smiling. "Thanks," she said, and Joshua could hear the true happiness in her voice. Turning to the resting pink dog, she threw the Pokeball and hit it spot-on. Without any resistance, the red light shooting from the Pokeball consumed the wild Snubbull and sucked it into itself. Hardly shaking at all, both of them knew she had caught it no matter what. The noise that emanated from the Pokeball only made it official.

Joshua followed her as she walked over to the Pokeball and picked it up. "Well, you're still as good a battler as you were two years ago." He looked at her Pineco that was standing next to her. "He is too. You might wanna practice relearning the moves it knew if you plan to battle from now on though."

"Yeah, I know," she agreed. "I bet your Spinarak only remembers its String Shot though. It takes a lot of skill to do any real damage with that move and we both know neither of us have that talent."

Joshua knew she was right. It only used String Shot to catch pests but that was it these days. "Okay," he said. "I'll practice with Spinarak too. Might need it." Feeling himself heat up a little, he added, "I might even catch another Pokemon. That battle looked fun." Having looked down at the ground, he looked back up at her and grinned.

Turning towards the cave's entrance, she started walking in that direction and ran a hand through her light brown hair, laughing. "I knew you wouldn't just travel to New Bark and back without doing anything exciting."

Joshua grinned even more and started walking, catching up to her side. He had to admit, she was a good persuader, even if it wasn't with words.