Road to the Indigo Plateau

[Sierraffinity]

"Hold on, Magby!" I said, as I jumped on a tree that wasn't smoldering and fell into the ring. I scooped up Magby and turned around- WHOOSH! -in time to see the tree I was just on go up in flames! "Crap! Magby, what the heck are we gonna do?" I started panicking. Just then, I saw a huge blast of water come and put out a section of fire! I ran towards the exit, but it was already closing up! Then, from behind, Magby and I were propelled by another blast of water right through the opening- SLAM! -and into a tree. Immediately, I blacked o-

"Ohh-" I moaned as I sat straight up in- a bed? This is weird, I thought, as I had last remembered being propelled straight into a tree by a powerful Water Gun- or was that a dream? Just then, a woman came into the room, carrying a tray with hot soup. "Oh? Diego? You're awake! Thank goodness!" she said, putting the tray down on a table. She came over and sat down in a chair next to the bed, and told me what had happened while I was K. O.'d.

Apparently, a Starmie had come to my rescue when I was knocked out (and probably before! I thought) and had brought me and Magby to the front doors of the Center, where it put me down and ran. Some trainer tripped over me as he was coming inside, and pointed me out to Nurse Joy (who this lady was, apparently). She took me to this room and checked on me every fifteen minutes, and took Magby and Spearow to the care center. And all that happened in a span of thirty minutes! Suddenly, I remembered the fire!

"Nurse Joy! What about the huge fire on Route 1?" I asked, practically screaming. "Calm down, Diego! The fire was contained by the combined efforts of the Viridian City Volunteer Firefighters, some trainers, and some wild Pokémon," she explained. I then realized something. "How come you know my name?" I asked, immediately regretting it and feeling a bit stupid. My Pokédex also acted as an ID.

Once I picked up Magby and Spearow from the care center, we went to this cool restaurant in the middle of town. It was called "EurAsia Takeout, Eat-in, and Delivery". I went to the Asian food line with Magby and bought some Chinese chicken, some soup, and a bottle of orange juice. For my Pokémon, they gave me some Poké food- Chinese chicken shaped like a Pikachu.

As I was getting some forks (I suck at chopsticks), I happened to glance over at the Europe line. There, ordering some food for her and her Squirtle, was a girl that I thought I recognized. She had wild orange hair which was held back by a red headband that had a bow on the right side. She was wearing a dark grayish jean skirt and a white blouse. As Magby and I left, I couldn't stop thinking about that girl. Did I see her on TV? Did I read about her in a magazine? Did she look like someone in a video game? No, none of those seemed right. After dinner, I still couldn't put my finger on her identity. Then, I fell asleep.

At about 2 in the morning, I woke up with a start. I started thinking about what could have woken me up. Eventually, as I tried to go to sleep, it clicked into place. I grabbed my Pokédex and got to a list of the trainers that had left Oak's lab yesterday. As I scrolled down, I saw her, exactly as I had in a recap of the previous day in a dream. Her name was Willow Marinier, and she was from Vermillion City. Once again, I fell asleep, satisfied that I had figured it out.

 

[{Swan}]

In the morning Willow found herself brutally awakened by Malik. "What? Am I not allowed some sleep?" Then she checked the clock. 11:34. Great, she really should not have stayed up late reading. Bad idea.

After getting dressed in the same clothing she wore yesterday after having a shower. Then after having a nice breakfast at a local fast food restaurant she was ready for a new day. Malik was rather eager to show off his stuff again, and Willow was quite eager to get away from the town she lived in. She wanted to avoid anyone recognizing her as much as possible. Curse her carroty hair.

It was really a gorgeous day. There were some clouds but it was mostly blue and not too warm. They decided to find someone to train with for Willow was a bit paranoid about staying in town. And since the road was still blocked due to the investigation, well there wasn't a whole lot else to do. So they entered the same route they had just come through in search of a trainer. At first there wasn't really anyone around, most people were either watching curiously as the investigation went on or simply in the city. Willow knew from experience that this was not such a busy road.

But in the end they found someone. A girl that introduced herself as Madeleine. She had very dark hair and she was wearing jeans with a tanktop. All in all she looked to be only a little younger than Willow was. She was also eager to battle, apparently a new trainer too.

The girl released her Pokémon.. A Numel. Willow released Malik. "Are you ready?" She asked Madeleine who nodded. The two Pokémon stood facing each other and both nodded as well. The girl started. "Num use tackle!" The Numel ran toward Malik a bit wobbly with its big heavy body. "Malik use tail whip!" Malik turned around and started shaking his tail hypnotically. Num fell for it and was following the tail with its eyes curiously.

Malik crept closer and closer until he was almost in Numel's face. "Okay Malik, now use tackle," Willow called. Malik quickly turned around and hit the Numel hard. The Pokémon fell over on the ground, and scrambled up again, looking angry. Madeleine also looked quite put off. She puffed her cheeks a bit as she started fussing over the whole thing. "Num! get up and tackle again!"

Numel hit Malik hard, there was no time to dodge because Malik was still so close to Num. Even though it had fallen to ground it hardly seemed fazed by the attack. Right, Willow thought, these had killer defense.. "Well Malik, we're gonna have to pound it a lot more to actually beat this thing! Let's get it with another tackle!" Malik ran on all fours toward Numel and hit it with his head. Numel didn't fell down this time because it had been waiting for the hit. This time the hit did show, but it wasn't as bad as Willow ha wanted it to be. They needed a new tactic.

"Hey, Malik? Do you remember what you did against the Poochyena?" Malik tensed a bit at the thought of that scary dog that had harassed him, but he nodded. "The bubble attack right? Do you think you can do it again?" Malik looked quizzically before seemingly blowing air. Nothing came out, not a single bubble. He was just blowing empty air. She assumed that was a no.

"Num, tackle!" It seemed Madeleine wasn't going to wait for them to get the bubble attack under control. The Numel crashed into the little turtle and sent him flying into a tree. Malik had retreated in his shell just before he had hit the tree, but he came out of it quite shaken. Apparently the Numel also had strength. Damn.

"Come on Malik! Try the bubble, you can do it!" Malik blew empty air around again, before jumped out of the way just in time for the Numel. Instead of hitting Malik, who had still been in front of the tree, it now slammed its head into it. Several Pidgey flew away with agitated caws as the entire tree shook from the impact. The Numel seem a bit dizzy from the impact also. Willow had to make use of this.

"Come on Malik, remember! Bubbles, you blew bubbles!" Malik blew so hard that he turned a bit purple. In the end one tiny bubble was floating slowly toward the Numel and hit it. The thing reacted as if it had been a thorn hitting him instead of a little bubble. "That's it! You did it, come on, you can do it again!" Malik looked a lot more confident this time. He blew out his chest as much as he could in the shell and blew as heard as he could. In the end there were four tiny bubbles that all hit the Numel. It cried out in pain again and collapsed. The tiny bubbles had done the trick.

"Num!" Madeleine recalled him sadly. "It's okay big guy. You!" She pointed at Willow. "Next time I see you, I will beat you!" She said it quite aggressively, definitely a sore loser. But Willow didn't mind, she had won and Malik had learned Bubble. Well a little bit at least.

They spend the rest of the day trying to get him to produce more bubbles, but it was really harder than it looked. No matter what Malik did he could never produce more than a few bubbles. Never really a full attack. But he was getting better. She just hoped he would be good enough for the gym battle…

When the sun was setting Willow hurried to the Center. She didn't want to linger in the dark, no way. They checked into the same room again hoping that tomorrow they would be able to get out of this place.