Pokemon: A New Journey

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My new Growlithe was great. When Stork and I returned to his house, Growlithe played with all of the kids and kept them busy while their parents cooked. Stork's mother listened intently to my story as I told it to everybody and then told me of the man.
"Why, the man you're talking about just might be Mr. Botz. In his younger years, Botz was a great pokémon trainer and a wonderful explorer. But as he got older, his pokémon grew old also and, eventually, died. Mr. Botz became sad and angry that some of his lifelong pets would die, so he lashed out at his new pokémon. I'm guessing this Growlithe is one of those unfortunate pokémon."
"Wow," I said in awe, "So it wasn't Growlithe that was the problem, it was Botz himself."
After dinner, Stork and I brought our new pokémon (Weedle and Growlithe) to the pokécenter to heal. As it turns out, Growlithe had a sprained leg that would be set overnight.
***
The next morning, we woke again at a late hour (around 10 am). We walked over to the market first to get some fresh fruit for breakfast and then went and picked up our pokémon. My Growlithe would have to remain of the leg for about 2 days, so until then, we were going to hang out in Viridian. My plans were to head to Pewter to fight the owner of the local gym for the Boulder Badge and then rest there overnight. Stork, on the other hand, was still undecided on whether to come with me or stay in Viridian. He commented to me that morning, "All I really want to do is try to collect all the pokémon in the world. I don't care about fighting other people or anything."
We spent the day watching pokémon battles on the TV because it started to rain outside and we were still worn from the previous days. Stork and I made small bets on the battles and, to my surprise, Stork won most of the bets.
"One dollar on Ponyta," he would say and then Ponyta would win. In one instance, he said Grimer would win against Pigeot, but then Grimer evolved into a Muk, so we didn't know how to rule it.
"Hey, Grimer and Muk are totally different pokémon. You said Grimer would win, but it was Muk who came out in the end!" I would argue.
"But it was still the same creature that one, it just had a different body!" he would then say.
We went on like this for days, arguing over stupid thing like pokémon battles. Finally, Growlithe's leg brace was ready to be taken off after 3 days of waiting.
At dinner that night, we talked about what Stork was going to do the next day. His parents didn't think he was ready to go, but Stork argued that he had been waiting a long time for this, and now it was his chance. Finally, after 2 hours of debating, Stork was allowed to go, only if he checked back home every other day.
"Yes!" Stork exclaimed as we got ready to sleep that night. It had been customary for Growlithe to sleep with us at night so he curled up on my sleeping bag and easily fell asleep. As for my Togepy, he was growing by the day, getting a little bit bigger every time he was fed.
***
We woke up the next morning bright and early so we would arrive in Pewter before day broke. After Stork and I said our good-byes, we headed over to the pokémart to stock up on supplies because people said prices were more expensive in Pewter City because it was larger and had more people. I only bought a couple pokéballs and some potions, but Stork bought 25 pokéballs saying, "I know I'll go through these fast."
There was a main road that headed straight to Pewter, but Stork refused to go on it stating that "there aren't any pokémon on the road. We've got to take the back-roads to find pokémon!" I complied, only because he was such a good whiner.
On the way, my Togepy insisted on sitting on my shoulder and my Growlithe refused to be cooped up in a pokéball all day, so he was allowed to walk with us.
"Y'know, Austin," Stork said with a grin, "if you keep letting your pokémon walk around like that, you won't even need pokéballs."
"Shut up," I replied. At the same time, Growlithe was onto the trail of some pokémon, so we had to follow him so I wouldn't lose him. All of the sudden, a fierce bird flew out of the sky and dove at us. Having earlier learned Growlithe's moves, I told him to use roar. The Spearow (as I identified it) was edging closer, but Growlithe let out a huge roar (sorry about the repeat of words)- "GROWLITHE!". Both Stork and I were shaken from the loud sound and the Spearow immediately flew away scared stiff.
"Wow," Stork exclaimed, "if your Growlithe's bark is as vicious as it's bite, you'll have a very powerful pokémon!"
"Yeah. I didn't even know a sound that loud could come from a creature that small," I said looking down proudly at my pet. But then, I realized Togepy had disappeared. I found his pokéball and told him to come out. When he appeared, he had tucked his head, legs, and arms into is shell.
"It's OK, buddy. It was only Growlithe," I said trying to comfort him. His shell was shaking nervously and he was crying. Growlithe walked over to him and they started talking again. Eventually, Togepy popped his head out of his shell and looked up into the sky. He and Growlithe began laughing together.
"I bet Growlithe told him how he scared away that Spearow," Stork said. Togepy was still sniffling away tears with laughter as we continued.
Stork soon heard a sound in the woods, so he went to investigate to see if it was a pokémon. I, on the other hand, was forced to wait for him.
It was really quiet and my Togepy fell asleep again. I returned him to his pokéball, but then heard a rustling in some nearby shrubs. Growlithe began barking, but I commanded him to stop, and then walked over to investigate. Out of nowhere, a walking fern start running away. What is that?
My pokédex spoke out of my pocket: <ODDISH: A plant pokémon. Oddish are known to be easily spooked and are hard to catch>
"Well, we'll see about that. Growlithe, bite!"
Growlithe ran at the Oddish, ready to attack, but the Oddish had great speed and quickly jumped out of the way, causing Growlithe to run into a tree. The Oddish then went over to the temporarily stunned pokémon and stood on top of him. Growlithe began glowing. "What's going on?" I asked my pokédex:
<Oddish is using the move ABSORB. He is absorbing energy from your Growlithe>
"No! Growlithe, get up!" I yelled. Growlithe got up, but was very weak.
"Growlithe, ember attack!" I yelled. He began spitting flames out of its mouth. This got the Oddish good.
"Pokéball, go!" I yelled as I threw the ball at the roasted Oddish.
The ball began to shake back and forth, the light glowing. Finally, the ball stopped shaking and the light stopped glowing.
"YES!" I exclaimed loudly. I picked up the pokéball and sent Oddish out.
"Oddish," it said in a weary voice.
"Here you go, drink this," I said to him as I gave him a potion. He drank it and then stuck his tongue out in disgust and made a funny face.
"Oddish," he said with the weird look.
"I know it tastes bad, but it'll help. Trust me. Now come back into your pokéball so you can rest."
He returned, just as Stork appeared from the woods.
"It was only a stupid branch that fell," he said in a depressed voice. He then sniffed the air, "Hey, what's cooking? Something smells burned."
"Oh, well…um, you see…I sorta…" I mumbled, afraid to tell him that I caught another pokémon.
"What?!" he exasperated in a annoyed voice.
"I caught another pokémon- an Oddish."
"Oh, good for you," he said, calming down.
"WHAT?" I asked loudly, "Aren't you mad I caught a pokémon that you didn't have?"
"Why should I be? You were in the right place at the right time. Listen, Austin, I'm not going to get mad if you catch a pokémon that I don't own. I'll just try to catch one later."
"Oh, that's a relief. I was beginning to fear that I could only catch pokémon when you weren't around.
"Of course not. Now lets get going, we've got to get to Pewter before sundown and we still have a few hours to go."
We continued on our journey, both determined to be the best at what we wanted to do. Stork, to become the best, um, pokémon catcher, and me to become the best pokémon trainer. I now had three pokémon, and I knew that both Stork and I would own more in the future.

TO BE CONTINUED
Coming Up in PART V:
The boys enter Pewter City. Will Austin win the Boulder Badge?