Today is the first day of fall, so I have an entry for that. This is longer than normal, probably because I like the species so much.
@Zibdas:
Wasn't even aware of that, odd.
Chikorita, Bayleef and Meganium
The sun beat in through the window. The warm light hit the green Pokémon through the glass cage. His red eyes slowly opened up, blinking many times. He stood up and stretched out his legs. The Chikorita flicked out the leaf on his head. It let off a sweet scent that woke him up fully. He looked around. The pet shop was as empty as any store at seven o’clock in the morning. He wasn’t used to this place yet. He had just arrived yesterday, in a big wooden box with a bunch of other Pokémon he didn’t know yet.
Though he had arrived with many different kinds of Pokémon, they had all been taken to different parts of the store in the middle of the night. He had been neatly arranged with many other cages. He looked around at the other Grass Pokémon he was near. There were blue Tangela, yellow Bellsprout, and grey Ferroseed. He himself, though, was a crispy yellowish colour, like the leaves on the trees outside, but unlike anything in the pet shop.
There was a jingling sound as a middle-aged woman walked through the door. She was apparently the store owner, as the other Pokémon had told him. She came over to his cage and began examining him. “Hmm, this must be our new Pokémon. Not like the other Chikorita we’ve owned… Well, you’ll go fast. A lot of families would like to own a little cutie like you,” she said to him.
“Chi!” he responded.
She smiled. “I’m going to go set up shop.” She whistled, and a Gloom hopped out of its cage and to her side. “You make sure none of the new ones try to escape.”
It saluted. She smiled and walked into another room, putting out food and water. But the blue Gloom walked up to the young Chikorita’s cage. “<Now, you better not try anything funny. If you do, you’ll be put down,” it said.
“<Don’t worry, I won’t,” he replied timidly. He didn’t know what “put down" meant, but he was sure it wasn’t nice.
But he was bored. There was a food bowl that smelled tasty, and a water bottle to drink from. But he wasn’t hungry or thirsty right now. There was some newspaper in case he needed to go, but he didn’t. And there was a little red ball. He pawed at it, and it made a dingle sound as it rolled away and hit the side. He could occupy himself with this. He chased it around for a few minutes, ate some delicious food, drank some water, curled up, and fell asleep in the sunbeam.
-----
He woke up suddenly to the shrill tone of a human girl squealing. “Oh, he’s so adorable!” Some pounding on the glass startled him, where he looked into the face of a little girl no more than five years old. She was missing a front tooth, and had short brown hair. “Mama, mama! I want this one!” she cried. Her apparent mother walked over, dressed nicely in a blue floral print outfit. She had blonde hair, unlike her daughter. “Mama, it’s so cute and huggy and adorable and it’s so cute! Can we get it for our pet? Pretty please?”
“Hmm,” she examined the price tag on the top corner of his cage. “He’s quite expensive. Are you sure you don’t want a different one? I hear they have some lovely little Igglybuff or Cleffa.”
“No, no, no!” she said, adamant about her decision. “I want this one!”
“The price is high because Chikorita as a species are rare, and he happens to had an alternate coloration,” said the saleswoman, coming over. “But the rewards are really worth it. I’ve sold many Chikorita, and all the families or trainers that adopt them say they’re worth every penny. They’re a wonderful, harmless species, especially for a little girl like your daughter. So, how about it?”
She rubbed her chin, thinking. “Hmm, I suppose so. Are you sure you want this one, Susan?”
“Yes, yes! He’s so cute!”
“Well, okay then.”
And that was the start of his new life.
-----
Chiko the Chikorita was napping again, but this time on a windowsill. He was five years old now, and his owner was ten. And it was time to start a journey. He really couldn’t care less, as they had been practice battling with her dad for a while now. He was ready, but Susan wasn’t. So he was passing the time by sleeping and sunbathing.
About five minutes later, she called out, “Come on, Chiko!” He perked up immediately. Hopping from the sill onto a couch, and then onto the floor, he ran up to the doorway. “<Are you sure you’re not forgetting something?>” he asked, nudging her backpack. He had learned that it could hold many useful items for traveling, so he didn’t want her to forget it.
She smiled, patted his head, and picked up her bag, taking in some of his sweet fragrance. She picked him up and hugged him. She was nice and warm, so he hugged back. “Now come on, we have to get going if we want to get to Pewter City by sundown.” She placed him back on the ground as her parents came up. They all embraced for a while. Chiko nudged her leg, getting them to separate.
“Oh, we’re going to miss you,” her mom said, a hint of a tear on her cheek. “And remember, whatever happens, you have Chiko by your side. But don’t work the little guy too hard. And Chiko,” she said, turning to him, “take good care of her.”
He could tell her mom was sad, so when she bent down to pet him, he flicked his leaf and made a nice smell. “<Don’t worry. We’ll come back,>” he said.
She hugged her dad, and waved. From his time around humans, he knew that that usually meant hello or good-bye. In this case, it was the latter. “I’m going to miss you to, mom and dad. I’ll visit you again, promise!”
“Don’t forget, your aunt’s opening a gym here in two months. You can earn a badge, and visit us,” her dad reminded her.
“Yeah, I know. Bye!” she exclaimed as she ran out the door. Chiko followed along happily.
-----
“Chiko, use Razor Leaf!”
The quiet of the forest was disturbed as a squealing Rattata was knocked out by a flurry of sharp leaves. The second Rattata tried to bite the threat, but a yellow blur slammed into her and knocked her out. The blur soon revealed itself to be a little Pokémon; specifically, Chiko. “<Hooray!>” he cheered.
She smiled, and whistled. “Tress, Ven, come here.”
A purple moth fluttered through the woods, landing on her shoulder; her Venomoth. Soon after, a greyish-violet Pokémon with two big eyes rolled up to her; her Forretress. “Chiko’s all trained up, and you two are already prepared. Think we’re ready to challenge aunt Erika and earn our seventh badge?”
The Chikorita, Venomoth, and Forretress all gave affirmative responses.
“Let’s go, then!”
They entered the gym, which was decorated with plants and flowers. Chiko loved it; it reminded him of where he had been hatched, in a forest. They faced and defeated many trainers, Tress and Ven doing most of the work, but he managed to defeat some Pokémon too. They cleaned up quickly, and after some introductions, they faced off against aunt Erika.
But the gym battle was proving harder than they thought. Chiko stayed on the sidelines, watching with rapt attention as she battled the Grass-types. Ven did a good job, managing to launch an onslaught of Sludge Bombs on her Tangrowth and poisoning it, but unfortunately he couldn’t take a hit from SolarBeam and fainted. Tress did better, managing to take many hits and downing the blue Pokémon with Bug Bite. She also managed to take out Victreebel with Gyro Ball while Susan used a Revive and Hyper Potion on Ven.
But her final Pokémon was what managed to beat them. It was a tall, green Pokémon, with a ring of pink petals around its neck and four thick legs like tree trunks. It was a Meganium, Chiko’s final form. He watched at what he’d someday be able to do. Tress was swapped for Ven, who launched another round of Sludge Bombs and followed up with a Bug Buzz. Both hit super-effectively, but Meganium didn’t mind much. She curled her petals in, and shook them out. A light-yellow pollen sprayed out from it, and when Ven breathed it in, he seemed sleepy. He half-closed his eyes, and laid down on the ground. He quickly slipped into dreamland.
Meganium spread her petals again, this time absorbing sunlight to heal her wounds. Finally, she lifted her front feet, and slammed them on the battlefield, unleashing an Earthquake that instantly took out the sleeping Venomoth. When Tress was sent out again, though she inflicted some damage with Bug Bite, Meganium stopped her from using Gyro Ball by holding her down, and then making another Earthquake. Though Tress took it better than Ven, she remained shaken and Meganium defeated her with a SolarBeam.
“Well, I guess I lost,” Susan said, disheartened. She made to walk out, but Erika stopped her.
“Wait. You still have that darling Chikorita, don’t you?”
She widened her eyes as she remembered she had the little Grass Pokémon. But… Meganium was so strong. “I guess… But, only if he wants to.” She walked over to Chiko, who was still sitting on the bench, sunning himself. “Chiko, do you want to battle Meganium?” she asked.
He looked at her, and then at Meganium. Back at her, then at Meganium. On one hand, Meganium was definitely stronger than he was. And if she had managed to defeat Tress and Ven, she was definitely too strong for him. But on the other hand, he had to defend his trainer’s honour. And, since he was her unevolved kin, maybe Meganium would take it easy on him. So, he nodded.
He hopped onto the grassy field, and attempted to stare down the taller Pokémon. It didn’t work very well. She lowered her neck to see eye-to-eye with the smaller Chikorita. “<Aw, how cute,>” she commented, smiling.
“<I’m not cute, I’m strong!>” he yelled, and hit her head with his leaf. She winced, but seemed otherwise unconcerned.
“<Very well, then,>” she responded, raising back to her full height. Then she turned back to Erika. “<Do you want me to go easy on this little guy?>”
Chiko was angry now. When the battle began, he rammed himself into Meganium’s leg. She simply shook him off and tried to spray the powder, and he countered it with his own. He launched Razor Leaf, but Meganium took it extremely well and used Body Slam. She easily crushed Chiko, but he managed to take the hit and retaliate with a Headbutt. She was barely affected, and the last thing he remembered was seeing a great flash of white as Meganium unleashed SolarBeam before everything went dark.
-----
He was released inside Susan’s bedroom, with Tress and Ven. The girl was lying on the bed, staring at a light fixture. Tress was investigating a candy wrapper in a corner of the room, while Ven was clinging to a wall. Chiko, feeling bad for her, jumped on the bed and cuddled up next to her. “<I’m sorry,>” he said sadly.
“<Kiss-up,>” Ven commented, proving that he was just pretending to be asleep.
“<Oh, hush up, you,>” Tress said, attempting up pick up the wrapper.
She put an arm around the green Pokémon. “Man, aunt Erika’s Pokémon are so high-leveled. We need to do some serious training to beat her… and if we lose again, we won’t be able to re-battle her until next month.” She sighed. “At least we got to see mom and dad again. That was nice.”
It was nice, he considered. But still, he was a complete failure in that battle. He had never been very strong in battle. A lot of people said that he was too cute to be strong, but Ven had been cute before he evolved and he was powerful even then…
Evolution.
That was it! He needed to evolve himself! He stood up straight on the pink bed, getting his trainer’s attention. “What’s up, Chiko?”
“<I’m going to get stronger, that’s what’s up,>” he said, even though she couldn’t understand him.
The next day, she focused mainly on training Ven and Tress, as they had advantages over the gym Pokémon. Good. That let him sneak off to find somewhere to train himself. He dashed through the forest, battling anything that happened to get in his way. He knocked out Rattata, Ditto, Elekid, and everything else. He left a trail of fainted Pokémon in his wake.
He got so absorbed, he didn’t notice when he crashed into a large Pokémon.
He looked up and she looked down. It was Erika’s Meganium. She smiled when she noticed him. “<Hello again.>”
He took a few steps back. “<Um, hi.>”
“<What are you doing so far away from your trainer?>”
“<I’m trying to train myself so I can evolve and beat the snot out of you.>”
She chuckled. “<So, you’re looking to evolve yourself? Well, you won’t evolve into a Meganium like myself right away. First, you’ll evolve into a Bayleef.>”
He scoffed. “<I knew that,>” he said, even though he didn’t.
“<I can help, if you like.>”
“<Why would you do that? You were teasing me yesterday in the gym.>”
“<Oh, was I hurting your feelings? Sorry about that. Anyway, that was in a battle. You’re supposed to win; I really didn’t want to do that to you, but I had to. Trainer’s orders.>”
He closed his eyes, thinking. “<I guess it would help…>”
“<Alright, come with me.>” He followed the larger Pokémon through the woods. The leaves were turning red and orange and yellow, and were falling off the branches. They crunched and crackled as they made their way through the trees. He nipped at a few of them, but they tasted bad, so he didn’t bother with them. Eventually, they came to a clearing like something you’d see out of a fairy tale.
There was clear blue water running through a creek. Small trees dotted the green grass. It seemed untouched by humans and Pokémon. Meganium moved aside, letting him walk through in awe. “<Whoa… Where are we?>” he asked.
“<This is a spot I usually come to to meditate. It seems almost magical to me. Follow me.>” She walked over to the creek. “<This water has healing properties, so you can fight many battles without fainting.> She walked up to a tree. “<And these leaves seem to have an odd power to them, as they give you extra power. It’s how I got this strong, by eating these leaves and fighting many battles. Unfortunately, I’ve heard that these trees are almost extinct because of humans stripping them of their leaves and making candies that can make you stronger without even fighting. That’s why I’ve been protecting this area from both humans and power-hungry Pokémon.>”
Chiko walked around uncertainly, until Meganium offered him one of the leaves. He ate it. It was sweet, and crunchy, like a fruit. He finished up the snack quickly, but he heard a hiss. He turned, and saw a huge Raticate facing him. He widened his eyes, and attempted to back off, but Meganium nudged him forward. “<Go on, battle it.>”
“<Um…>” He turned to the angry rodent. “<I’m going to battle you now?>” he asked nervously.
In response, the Raticate bared its fangs and leapt at him, trying to bite him. He squealed and dodged, and fired off Razor Leaf. But they didn’t affect it much, and it charged at him. “<Use your powder!>” Meganium called.
He wasn’t sure that would work, but seeing nothing else to do, he sprayed some powder over its face. Though it succeeded in putting the Raticate to sleep and letting him defeat it, he was bleeding on his head from a bite mark. “<Owie…>”
“<Drink some water,>” Meganium advised.
He headed to the creek, and sipped some water. It was sweet like honey, and did heal the bite mark. “<Wow, this stuff’s amazing.>”
“<Don’t drink too much, or it will reverse its properties and harm you instead.>”
“<’Kay.>” He wiped his mouth, but then collapsed. “<Ugh… I feel weird.>”
She smiled. “<Don’t worry, that’s normal.>”
He felt power coursing through his veins. Was it from the water, or the leaf? He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t like it. But he felt himself expanding, growing taller. The buds around his neck opened up into broad yellow leaves. His head leaf stiffened, and grew out longer. His feet turned from small and pointy to large and flat, like Meganium’s. Finally, he felt the surge stop. He lifted himself up, and peered into the lake. He wasn't a yellow Chikorita anymore. Now, his skin was orange, but his leaves were yellow. Was he evolved?
“<Nice job,>” Meganium said, sounding pleased. “<You’ve evolved into a Bayleef.>”
So he had evolved. “<Thanks, I guess.>”
“<You’re welcome. I look forward to seeing you in the gym.>” She then galloped off into the forest. He ran back the way he came, excited to show Susan his new form.
As he charged through the woods, he heard his name being called. Suddenly, he burst into the area where he found Susan, Tress and Ven. “Huh?” asked Susan. “Who’re you?”
He trilled happily, and she realized that he was- or rather, used to be- Chiko. “Chiko? Is that really you? Man, you’ve gotten a lot bigger. Where’d you run off to?” She got a whiff of the scent from his leaves, and she seemed to stand up straighter. “Wow, you smell different. Anyway, I think we’re ready to rechallenge Erika. You guys ready too?”
They all agreed.
Bayleef sat on the sidelines again, wanting to sunbathe. He watched closely. Ven faced Tangrowth again, but seemed to be doing a lot better. Instead of launching all the Sludge Bombs at once, he launched one glob, flew to a different angle, launched, flew, and so on. Tangrowth, because of this, couldn’t zero in on where to fire and ended up missing every time, leading to its defeat. Then he was swapped out as Erika sent out Victreebel, and Tress was put in. Victreebel tried biting onto Tress, but she spun the Poison Pokémon off and easily knocked it out with Gyro Ball. And, once again, Meganium entered the battle. Susan was about to send out Ven, but the renamed Leef hopped up to her. “<No, no! I want to battle!>”
She blinked. “You want to battle? Are you sure?”
“<Yeah, yeah!>”
At his affirmative response, she allowed him in. “<Hello again, Leef,>” Meganium said politely.
“<You’re going down!>” was his response.
She chuckled, and the battle began. He launched Razor leaf, but she dodged and attempted to use her pollen again. But he countered it with his own spicy scent, and he stayed awake. He used Razor Leaf again. It didn’t damage her much, but she flinched, which was what he was going for. He Headbutted her side, knocking her over. She began charging up SolarBeam, but he launched many rounds of Razor Leaf that tore up her petals and stopped the attack. She leapt and prepared to use Body Slam, but he dodged and Headbutted her in the neck. He apparently hit a weak spot, as she fainted after the attack.
After healing her Pokémon, Erika admitted, “Your Bayleef has gotten much stronger from evolution. Even so, I didn’t think it would be able to beat my Meganium. Here you go, Susan. The Rainbow Badge.”
“<Nice job,>” complimented Meganium after being healed.
“<Thanks!>” he said happily.
By the time they got out of the gym, it was dark out. Figuring it wouldn’t be worth it setting up camp on a route, she went back to her house and, after a wonderful dinner made by her parents, she fell asleep in her room, with Leef, Ven and Tress out of their Poké Balls. Leef didn’t fall asleep, though. He watched her, looking out for… anything.
After a half hour, she began stirring. He tensed, but she sat straight up and sighed. “Ugh, I can’t sleep. I’m so tired, but something’s keeping me up.”
Opening her eyes, Tress hopped over to her. “<Same with me.>”
Ven flew off the wall. “<Same here. What about you, Leef?>”
“<Well, I’m choosing to stay up. To make sure nothing happens.>”
She got out of bed, and patted his leaf. “Don’t worry, you guys. Go back to sleep.” She took a big whiff of his spicy aroma, and coughed. Then it clicked. “Wait… Leef, I think you’re keeping me up.”
“<What?>” he half-asked, half-yelled.
Tress hopped over, and sniffed. “<Actually… I think she’s right. You’re keeping us up with your smell.>”
“<No, no…>” he muttered, not wanting to admit to that.
But his fears were only confirmed when Ven came over and plainly stated, “<Dude, you stink.>”
“Leef, I’m sorry, but… I think you have to sleep outside for tonight.”
He whined, but obeyed. He went out the back door, and curled up beneath a tree. The night was clouded over, blocking the moon. No rain yet, thankfully, but it may come. He put his neck on the ground sadly.
He thought about how badly he had wanted to become strong. But now that he was, he couldn’t sleep with the rest of the team. In his hurry to become powerful, he hadn’t once considered the consequences. He wondered if Meganium ever had this problem.
Meganium… He dreamed about evolving again. As a Meganium, he’d be strong and would help the team sleep better. Sure, he’d be too big to fit through most doorways, but he could just be returned to his Poké Ball for that. There was nothing he could do about his scent, and worse, he couldn’t tell if he was releasing it or not, because he couldn’t smell it. He pawed at the ground, then settled and tried to fall asleep.
Was strength really worth this?
-----
Chikorita: The gentle fragrance it emits from its leaf calms people and Pokémon. This makes it popular as a pet.
Bayleef: The spicy aroma its leaves make work as a great pick-me-up. However, it makes it difficult to sleep around.
Meganium: The pollen that comes from its petals make opponents sleepy and calms their battling spirit.
