Pokemon: A New Journey

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The hospital was busy as different patients came in and out. Next to my bed was an elderly hiker who had broken his ankle while walking up a mountain, according to the nurse. He said that he was searching for new and rare pokémon.
One evening, after Stork had left for a local hotel he was staying at, I started to talk to the man.
"Hey," I started as I looked over at him, "have you ever found any rare pokémon before?"
He closed his eyes and did not reply for several minutes. The silence was eerie as I stared and the man and waited for an answer. Finally, he opened his eyes, looked at me and started with a sigh, "Once, while hiking in the Mystic Mountains. I was only about 30 years old then, still young and full of energy. I had just resonantly received a Ph.D. in Pokémon Research. After days of hiking in the frigid tops of the mountains, I was desperately out of food and needed to get medical attention."
He paused as he again closed his eyes and broke into a silence. Soon, he continued, "I was out of food, cold, as was on the brink of death. Until I saw something. Something so majestic, it can hardly be described. It flew over me as I stared at it and slowly fell unconscious because of the cold. In my dreams, I pictured an icy bird with a great wingspan, fly me to safety. When I woke, I found myself in a hospital bed, with a nurse tending to me. When I asked what had happened to me, she told me they found me on their doorsteps, frozen and stricken in frostbite."
He again paused, but quickly continued, "She said it was a miracle that I survived, and that it was probably some other hiker that saved me. I didn't believe her, so I looked through my research books that evening. I didn't leave a page unviewed, and I was up all night. Finally, as the sun rose outside, I found it. It was said to be a mirage, but the book said some hikers had seen it before. As I looked at the picture, my mind jumped from flashback to flashback, as I tried so hard to remember the blurred image that had saved me. It was called an Articuno, one of three legendary birds. After years of searching for this bird, I never once again saw it. Ever since then, I have continued to look harder for rare pokémon and maybe even new species."
I stared at the man and slowly recalled what he had said to me. All I could say was "Wow."
"I thought you might like that story," he said to me with a slight smile, "All the researchers and colleagues I told about my awesome experience laughed at me. Oh, by the way, my name is Richard. Richard Grayson."
"I'm Austin Ketchum, from Pallet town," I replied as we shook hands.
"So, how did you come across that unfortunate bump on your head?" Mr. Grayson asked me, now looking at my bandages.
"It's sorta a long story," I replied, "But, to make a long story short, it was form an incident with Team Rocket on the mountain."
"Oh yes, Team Rocket," he said, "I've had some run-ins with them before. But I think you've heard enough about Team Rocket if they've put you into a hospital. So, are you training pokémon?"
"Yep. I've been on the road for a couple weeks now, gathering pokémon with my friend Stork. He was the guy in here earlier today."
"Oh yes. He's a nice young lad. I talked to him and he told me he wanted to become a great pokémon collector."
"Yeah, that's Stork," I said, "He's always on the watch for new pokémon."
"Well, I believe that he might want to meat a friend of mine. His name is Bill, and he's currently manning a lighthouse on the coast. As a matter of fact, I believe that it's only about 30 miles from this hospital. He, like me, is looking for new pokémon and rare ones. I think he recently had an encounter with a giant one that he couldn't identify. Why don't you ask Stork tomorrow if he'd like to meet Bill?"
"Sure, it would be great if we could come with you," I said excitedly.
Soon, we both fell tired and went to sleep.
***
"It would be great!" Stork exclaimed.
It was the next morning and we were all eating our breakfast. Apparently, Stork really wanted to go and meet Bill.
"Splendid!" Richard exclaimed, "We'll leave tomorrow, when I can get this wretched cast off of my foot."
"Great!" I exclaimed as I finished the last of my toast. I then looked at Stork and asked, "Hey Stork, have you been looking after Togepi and everyone?"
"Yep," he replied as he pulled out a knapsack with my pokéballs, and then let out Togepi.
"Brreeeeeee!" the baby pokémon exclaimed as he hopped onto my lap.
"What the devil is that?" Mr. Grayson said wide-eyed, "I've never seen this pokémon before! This is a breakthrough!"
"What?" I asked, confused, "I didn't know he was rare or anything."
"Togepi, you call him. I heard that a professor in Pallet had found an uncharted egg, but I never knew-"
"Oh, Professor Oak?" I asked, "Yep, he gave me an egg to use as my starting pokémon because he didn't have any live pokémon anymore. So, this thing is rare?"
"It's a brand new specie!" he yelled in a enthusiastic voice, "I can't believe you have one! Why, I could spend a lifetime researching this one pokémon!"
"Brrreeeee!" Togepi yelled as he made a lung for some of my toast. He started to eat some as Mr. Grayson picked him up.
"Has he always been in this shell?" he asked me.
"Yep, ever since he first hatched." I replied.
"Amazing," the professor said under his breath. "Well, I suppose you want your pokémon back. Here you go," he said as he handed me back Togepi.
We ate lunch together that day and dinner at night, and Stork and I listened all day as Richard talked about his travels and encounters. He even told us how he caught his only pokémon, Pigeot. When he first encountered it, it was only a Pidgey, but he had worked it up until it evolved. Apparently, he was just a child when he found it, but he said that he had only a stick and a pokéball and caught it.
As I went to bed that night, I dreamed about Grayson's journeys, and pictured myself being carried to safety by that Articuno, and myself trying to catch that Pidgey. They were all happy dreams.
***
Mr. Grayson hopped down the steps of the hospital with his bags with the help of the nurse. I carried his bags, and Stork was just finishing packing some bags away in Mr. Grayson's jeep. It was mid-morning, and I had had a great night of sleep and dreams.
We finally pulled out of the hospital and started down towards the base of Mt. Moon at around noon. It would take only an hour to get to the coast and the lighthouse. Grayson said he had called ahead and told us that Bill would be happy to see us. I could tell that Stork was restless because he kept shifting his position and looking for the coast.
Soon enough, the slight outline of the lighthouse could be seen on the horizon. When the jeep finally pulled up, a man with a slight British accent and a huge smile on his face happily confronted us.
"Welcome!" he exclaimed. "Good to see you again, Richard. It's been awhile."
"That it has," Mr. Grayson replied as the shook hands.
"So, boys," Bill started as he looked at us, "I've heard that you two are trainers."
Stork replied, "Yeah, we are. Except I want to own all of the pokémon and Austin here just wants to become the best trainer in the world."
"Oh, really?" Bill said with a slight grin, "Well, Stork. If you want to own all of the pokémon, then you have to know all of the pokémon. That's what I do. I research pokémon and try to find new species."
Stork was suddenly intrigued as he replied, "Wow. So I have to know about all of the pokémon? But being a researcher sounds pretty fun."
"Oh, yes, it is!" Bill replied enthusiastically, "Just the thrill of finding new pokémon specie is great! Why, Stork, why don't I show you the inside of the lighthouse? I have a research center where we can study different pokémon."
Stork then asked, now intent on Bill, "Have you ever found any rare pokémon before, Bill?"
"Why, yes! It was just last year that I met a giant pokémon…"
And so Bill continued on a story about his run-in with this rare pokémon. I sort of dazed off as we entered the lighthouse and I saw the vast array of pokémon pictures lining the walls. I stared in awe, along with Stork and Mr. Grayson, at the pictures. But after looking, I never once saw a picture of Togepi.
"Hey, Bill," I started, "Where's the picture of Togepi?"
"Togepi? Oh, yes. I believe Professor Oak told me that he gave you a rare pokémon egg. May I see this 'Togepi'?"
"Sure," I said as I pulled out the pokéball and sent Togepi out. When he appeared he was still sleeping.
Bill picked up the baby pokémon and started to examine it. "Astounding," he said, "So, you hatched this yourself, Austin?"
"Yep, all by myself."
"Do you mind if I study it in the lab for a couple minutes? Why, we could get some great info for the pokédex!"
"It's ok," I said as I followed Bill into the lab, along with Stork.
Mr. Grayson then said, "I'm going to go finish some work from awhile back. Have fun, boys!"
"Bye, Mr. Grayson! Thanks for all your great stories!" I said as I turned around and continued to follow Bill into the room.
The lab was extremely cool. There were posters with pictures of pokémon lining the walls, and there was even a sleeping pokémon in the corner. I pointed my pokédex at it:
<LICKITUNG: A tongue pokémon. Lickitung are known to have tongues as long as long as two feet>
"Oh, yes," Bill said as he noticed me looking at the pink pokémon, "that's a pokémon I just recently caught. He was in my garden so I decided to catch him. He's just tired after working for me today."
"Cool, I said, now directing myself back to Bill.
"Ok, Togepi," Bill started as he picked up my pokémon, "Why don't we get some measures?"
He then began to measure the width of Togepi's shell and his height, along with his weight. I could hear him slowly mutter numbers under his breath as he recorded them, "That's three point five pounds…"
My Togepi laughed as the measuring tape tickled his head and when Bill picked him up. Soon, Bill put Togepi in a small area with grass in it and began to take notes on his behavior. I watched silently for awhile, but soon began to find interest in looking in Bill's logbook, which also had pictures of pokémon he had encountered. All this while, Stork was looking at the Lickitung and softly stroking it.
Soon enough, Bill was finished as he said to me, "All done, Austin. Thank you for letting me borrow this wonderful little creature. I think the data I took will come in handy in the next pokédex upgrade."
"No Problem, Bill," I said as I replaced the log and took back Togepi. He was tired, so I returned him to his pokéball where he could sleep silently.
Bill then said that he had to go finish some other boring research, and that we were free to roam the area and the nearby beaches. Stork and I happily agreed as we grabbed our things and walked a small distance to the beach.
It was the middle of the afternoon by the time we reached the beach and set our bags down. Stork and I released all ten of our pokémon. My Poliwag headed straight for the water, but my Oddish and Growlithe began to play with each other. Togepi, on the other hand, hung out on my lap as I just sat and watched the playing pokémon. Stork's Pidgey enjoyed flying over the sea, along with his Butterfree, whose wings sparkled in the sunlight. His Eevee and Paras soon joined Growlithe and Oddish's small game of "tag" also.
Stork and I laughed at our pokémon as they ran and jumped, and just took a well-deserved break. It was also relaxing for us, getting away from the busy cities and people. As I looked out onto the horizon, I noticed shapes going in and out of the water. They were like beautiful sea dragons, but I thought they might just be mirages. If they were pokémon, though, my pokédex wouldn't be able to identify them, for they were too far away.
We watched the sun eventually set as we headed in with our tired pokémon. When we finally reached the lighthouse, we found Bill's chef had prepared a delicious meal.
A few days passed as we went about our daily chores of helping Bill with research and just exploring the area. We learned a lot about Bill and what he did as a pokémon researcher, and Stork was always very intent on what he said. Mr. Grayson occasionally returned, coming from his local cottage only a few miles away. He and Bill would talk about their studies over dinner, while Stork and I just listened to them.
One night after dinner, we headed to bed into an extra bedroom and got ready to go to bed just like every other night. I started to talk to Stork as we climbed into bed, "Hey, Stork. We should probably leave tomorrow before noon, so we can reach the boat that will go to Cerulean in time."
Stork was mysteriously silent for a few seconds, and then replied, "Um, Austin? I don't think I'll be going with you to Cerulean."
"What?!" I yelled as I shot straight up from bed.
"Well, I feel that this is the place for me, Austin. I belong here. It's the perfect place for me to learn about pokémon, so I can become a great pokémon researcher."
I was almost angry as I talked back to him, "Since when have you wanted to become a pokémon researcher?"
He replied quickly, "In the past couple of days, Bill has taught me so much about pokémon. He has gotten me interested and now I want to follow in his footsteps and become a great pokémon researcher. Bill told me that I could be his student for a couple years. I'm sorry, Austin, but I think I have to do this."
"You don't have to do anything!" I yelled. I was furious that he would even consider leaving our friendship and me to study pokémon.
"Yes, I do," Stork said calmly, "Austin, this is a chance of a lifetime, and I want to take it. I've already called my parents and they said it would be fine. I think it's best for me."
That's when my anger quickly ceased. I then realized how stubborn I was being and that it would be best for him.
"I'm sorry, Stork. I've only known you for a couple weeks now, but we have been through so much together. I just don't want to go on without you. But it is your choice, and I hope you become a great researcher someday."
"Thanks for understanding, Austin. It means a lot to me. Plus you can always write to me and tell me what's going on. Anyway, it's time to get to sleep. You've got to catch that boat tomorrow and I have to start my training."
It was hard for me to sleep that night, knowing that it would probably be the last one I ever spent with Stork. We had only been together for about a month, but we had formed such a close relationship, that it would be hard for me tomorrow to have to say goodbye.
***
I woke up at 6:00 the next morning, and then quickly packed my bags and brought them downstairs. Stork was already eating breakfast and was petting Lickitung, now awake and happy.
"Good morning, Austin," Stork said cheerfully. I wondered why he wasn't as depressed as I was that we were separating. I assumed that it was because he just wanted to stay off of the topic.
I ate breakfast and fed my pokémon as well, and then went outside, where Bill and Stork were observing a pokémon in the distance. I followed their glances and found that they were looking at the same creatures I had seen a couple days ago.
"Astonishing," Bill gaped, as he looked through a pair of binoculars, "Simply amazing."
"What are they?" I asked curiously.
Stork proudly answered my question, "We think that they are a pair of Dragonairs, which are extremely rare."
I looked back out to see and saw their sleek bodies jumping in and out of the water. Soon, the water dragons disappeared and we continued about our business. Mr. Grayson came by after a couple of minutes, to wish me farewell on the boat. He offered to drive us all to the dock, and we gladly accepted.
On the way to the boat docks (located in a small village called Harborville), it was completely silent. I think the fact that Stork and I might never see each other again was finally taking effect on him as he blankly stared out his window at the sea. I was also silent, but knew that I would have to go on alone and wihtout him.
After an eternity, we reached the docks and I began to unload my bags, with the help of the other two. We loaded them onto the small ferry, and then I looked back at Stork. He was looking down at the ground, but then looked back up at me, and held out his hand. He dropped a pokéball into my ball into my palm.
"Stork, I-" I tried to say, but he interrupted me.
"That's my Butterfree. Please take care of it, Austin, because I know you will."
"But Stork. This was the first pokémon you ever caught! Plus, it's really rare because it's blue!"
"Please take it, Austin. It would mean so much to me if I knew that you were taking care of it for me, training it to become strong."
"Thanks, Stork," I said as I quickly hugged him and then put the pokéball away.
"Goodbye, Austin," Stork said, trying to hide a tear, "Make sure to write and tell me how many trainers you've beaten!"
I softly laughed, but also tried to hide back a tear. "Goodbye, Stork." With that, I turned around and boarded the boat. I looked back and saw Stork lower his head as Bill put his hand on his shoulder. Stork was gently shaking as the boat left and his figure became smaller and smaller. Finally, he was no more than a speck as the boat exited the harbor and headed for Cerulean City.

TO BE CONTINUED
Coming Up in PART VIII:
Without Stork, Austin must face his journey alone. Will he get the Cascade Badge?