Author's Note: Yes, I know Amy's team is
unbalanced. It's not the team I use for battling, so don't chew me out
about it. It's just for storyline. :P I'm looking at you, Frosty XD.
Anyway, yeah, gimme reviews! Or else! Uh, or else I shall eat you... or
set a penguin on you. XD This is my first fanfic (if you don't count the
Digimon one, which was a script-fic purely for laughs). You can tell I'm
not used to the genre; the story kinda sucks, hey? Oh well. At least
it's not overwritten, as almost every fic I've seen on PC seems to be.
Sorry the chapter's so short (only 2000 words).
Chapter 1
Just an Idiot ~ A Touching Tail
"Call me Amy.
"Yeah, I know that sounds really clichéd, doesn't
it? But what else am I supposed to say? I mean, it's my name. Kind of.
Actually, my name is Ami, with an "i", but I just prefer plain
Amy. My parents pronounce it "aMI". I think Mom said it means
"friend" in some language, but I can't remember what. She
sometimes calls me "mon ami". I know what the "mon"
bit means, of course - it's short for Pokémon!* "Pokémon
friend" - now there's a good name to have. Pokémon? My best
friends! I'm ten years and seven months old, and I got my first Pokémon
- a Pikachu - for a tenth birthday present. Now I'm travelling around,
catching Pokémon and training them for battles and contests. Sure, I
miss my family sometimes, even my annoying little sister, but hey! I get
to meet the coolest people this way, and I wouldn't trade it for
anything."
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Pikachu chirped happily.
Amy smiled, putting a finger to her shoulder to stroke
the small Pokémon. A thought firmed in her mind: why was Riya chirping?
Riya, as far as she knew, had been known to say "pika". It had
said "chu". It had even said "pikachu". But chirp?
The young trainer felt a nip on her finger, and twisted her head to look
at her Pikachu.
"Wingull?" she said. "What are you
doing out of your Pokéball?"
The Pokémon flapped off her shoulder and glided,
angling so a wing pointed at the Pikachu behind her. It chirped again.
"Riya let you out? Uh, great."
Riya smirked at Amy and jumped into the spot vacated by
Wingull.
"Pika!" it said smugly. Amy sighed, looking
from one Pokémon to the other.
"Fine, we might as well stop and have lunch,"
she told them. "There's a tree over there." She gestured at a
large oak, a few hundred metres away. "I'll race you." Wingull
soared to catch a higher air current, while Riya took off from its perch
on her shoulder at full speed. Amy watched them, smiling for a moment as
she watched her playful partners, then broke into a trot.
Amy stood at the base of the tree and looked up at it.
It really was big - Amy doubted that six people with outstretched arms
could span it. She shrugged and spread a blanket on the grass in the
shade, pulling three Pokéballs from her belt.
"Vileplume, Kirlia, Quaggy - it's lunchtime,"
she called, throwing them into the air. Riya poked the Quagsire, which
giggled.
"Pikachu," chided Riya. Quaggy giggled again.
It loved teasing Riya, as it knew the little mouse's electric attacks
couldn't touch it.
"Quag!"
"Guess what?" Amy said brightly. "I
bought something special in Aleadell City." She pulled a sparkling
tin from her pack, along with a can opener. The Pokémon's eyes
brightened at the sight of the slightly sweet, scented Pokémon food,
which they had only rarely as a treat. Since it could only be bought in
Aleadell, Amy stocked up on a few tins every time she stopped by, but
that wasn't often and she couldn't carry much in her pack. Amy opened
the tin and poured it into dishes for the Pokémon, then unwrapped a
rice ball for herself. Chewing for a moment, she spat out her first bite
-
"Peanut butter! Who puts peanut butter and vinegar
on rice?" she yelped. "Next time, I'll check the filling
before I buy rice balls!" She carefully ate around the filling,
then rewrapped what was left of the ball. Just then, she noticed Riya
peering around the edge of the tree.
"Riya? Why aren't you eating?" She shook her
head, then saw Riya on her other side, happily munching away and
oblivious to the world around it.
"Uh... so who are you?" she said, scooting
closer to the new Pikachu for another look. Its ears went up.
"Pikachu!" it said, edging back around the
tree. Amy followed it.
"Pika pika pikachu," said the Pikachu, waving
its arms. A boy rolled over sleepily.
"Pi...kachu?," he yawned. "Is something
wrong?" Amy jumped back, startled.
"Who are you?" she said.
"I could ask the same question," replied the
boy, pushing black hair out of his eyes and jamming a cap onto his head.
"I was trying to sleep."
"Well, is that your Pikachu? It came sniffing
around when I was feeding my Pokémon," Amy told the boy.
"Uh, did you happen to have any ketchup
around?" he asked. Amy thought.
"Well, the Pokémon food I bought in Aleadell has
some mixed into it, I think," she said. The boy nodded.
"Yeah, Pikachu likes ketchup. That's your problem
solved." He lay back and closed his eyes again.
"Wait! You haven't told me who you are yet!"
Amy said, but the boy was already snoring quietly.
"That's Ash. He's an idiot sometimes," said a
smaller boy, bouncing up to Amy. He looked about nine. "I'm Max.
And that's Brock and my sister May." He pointed to a pair of
figures in the distance, walking towards the tree. "They're idiots
sometimes too." Amy blinked, slightly disconcerted.
"And I suppose you're an idiot sometimes too?"
she inquired sweetly. Max shook his head, blue-black hair flipping up
slightly, and pushed up his glasses.
"Of course I'm not! See, I have the PokéNav,"
he said vehemently, brandishing the object in question. "The keeper
of the PokéNav is never an idiot." He promptly overbalanced
and fell, right on top of the sleeping Ash.
"HEY!" complained Ash. "Max, watch
it!"
"Sorry," said Max contritely, picking himself
up and brushing off the dirt on his knees. "You make a great throw
pillow." Ash bristled.
"I'll throw you in a moment, you
idiot."
Max glared at Ash.
"I'm not an idiot," he scowled. Amy
couldn't help giggling.
"Maaaaaaxxxxxxxxxx." The girl Max had pointed
out as his sister had neared them, and was standing with her hands on
her hips, glaring at her brother. "Stop that." The effect was
slightly lessened by the fact that she had a Torchic dancing happily on
her head. May turned to Amy and smiled.
"Hi, I'm May."
"I'm Amy, and I was hanging out on the other side
of the tree."
"Hey, our names are almost the same!" May exclaimed. Amy
nodded.
"Uh, why do you have a Torchic on your head?"
May looked surprised. "What Torchic?** Oh, you mean
this Torchic." She held out her arm and the orange chick Pokémon
jumped down on it. She tickled it under the chin before her Pokémon
scampered off to play with Ash's Pikachu.
"Have you had lunch yet? You could eat with
us."
"Yeah, Brock cooks the best food ever!" added
Ash enthusiastically. Amy grinned.
"Sure, I'd love to. The rice balls I bought in
Aleadell had... peanut butter and vinegar fillings." Ash's eyes lit
up.
"Hey, I love that! Can I try one?"
"Uh, okay," said a very surprised Amy. She
returned to her side of the tree, where she noted that all her Pokémon
had fallen asleep after their meal, and dug the rogue balls out of her
pack.
"Here, you can have them all." Ash grabbed
them from her hand and stuffed one into his mouth without removing the
plastic wrapping. Amy goggled at him.
Brock sighed. "Ash eats anything, and he's always
hungry," he told Amy softly, while setting up a pot. "We'll
have a stew."
"Hey, I want some too!" said Ash, his mouth
full of peanut butter and vinegar.
***
"I'd better go check on my Pokémon," Amy told
her new-found friends, as she drank the last of the stew from a wooden
bowl. "Brock, that was fantastic."
"I had to cook for my ten brothers and sisters back
home in Pewter City," Brock explained, taking the bowl from her to
start the washing-up. "My dad went away for a while, so I took care
of them and the Gym there. I started travelling with Ash after he won
the Boulder Badge from me, because Dad came home then." A shadow
crossed his eyes. "I went home a little while ago to check up on
things... it's all fine, but I miss the kids sometimes, you know. It's
fun travelling with Ash, though. Gives me a chance to study breeding
techniques in different regions."
Amy looked at Brock carefully. "You were a Gym
Leader? You don't look old enough."
Brock grinned. "I'm sixteen. Misty, another friend
of ours who travelled with us in Kanto and Johto, is the Cerulean City
Gym Leader, and she's only fourteen - twelve when Ash battled her. Age
doesn't mean anything, you know! She's back at the gym now. Hey, didn't
you say you had to check on your friends?"
"Oh, yeah," said Amy, trekking around the
tree. Most of her Pokémon were still snoring happily, but Riya was
stirring. She picked it up.
"Hey Riya, nice sleep?" Riya poked out its
tongue.
"Chu!"
Amy put the Pokémon down and let it follow her back to
the others. It spotted Ash's Pikachu and immediately made a beeline for
it.
"Pika pika chu?"
"Chu! Pikachu!"
Ash smiled at Amy. "It's been a while since Pikachu
saw any others. I don't think it's been around one since we split with
Richie a while ago. I take it this one's yours?"
Amy nodded. "That's Riya. But who's Richie?"
"He's a friend of ours," Brock explained.
"Ash battled him in the Indigo League a while back, and we've seen
him a few times since then. He's got a Pikachu called Sparky."
"Tuft of hair sticking out the front, like a
punk?"
Brock looked startled. "Uh - yeah, if you're
talking about Sparky, not Richie! You know him?"
"Yeah - he's from my home town, couple of years
older than me. He and my brother were best friends - don't know if
Bran's still in touch with him though. But he was called Dickie when he
was a kid."
"Guess he figured that name was too young for
him," sniggered Max. May whacked her brother on the head.
"Watch it, bro," she warned.
Amy watched the two Pikachu. They were touching tails.
"That's how they shake hands," said Ash.
"A couple of years back we found this island that was full of
Pikachu - they all did that."
"Ash figured Pikachu might want to stay with the
others, but it liked him too much," Brock added.
"I think it likes your Pikachu too," Ash told
Amy. "Hey, where are you heading?"
"Uh... I thought I'd go to Kassorine City next. My
fourth badge."
Brock grinned. "Hey, we're heading that way too.
Wanna travel with us?"
"Pikachu'd enjoy it," said Ash. "And it
would be nice for Riya to have another Pikachu around too, wouldn't
it?"
Amy nodded. "Sure, I'll have to ask my Pokémon how
they feel first but I don't see any problems. Why not?"
May giggled. "Be careful if you're coming with us.
Ash always gets us lost."
"I do not!" Ash grumped. The others
laughed and sighed at the same time.
"He's always like this," said May.
"Pika!" added Pikachu.
"He's just an idiot," finished Max.
-------------------
*Yeah, Amy isn't the most multilingual 10-year-old ever.
If you're wondering, "mon ami" is "my friend" in
French. No, I don't speak French either. If you review in French I
will... get back to you on that.
**See Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels for
information about the Duck Man. He's one of a group of beggars who live
under a bridge, and unusually for this particular group he's completely
sane except that a duck lives on his head. He doesn't know it's there.