Chapter 8: Enter Ralts and Petalburg City

The next day early morning. I get up walking outside of my tent, stretching, and yawning. Elekid follows, and hops onto my shoulder.

"Morning bud!" I smile.

Elekid smiles, back.

{Natalie} 'Morning.' She walks up beside us, smiling,

"Morning, Natalie." I smile, back at her.

{Natalie} 'How're you Elekid?' She looks at him, smiling some more.

He nods, smiling.

"You must be in a good mood?" I smirk.

{Natalie} 'Yep, I'm still happy about yesterday when I found and caught my new pokemon.' She says with her smile growing.

I smile, back. "Why don't we let out all of our pokemon and let them get to know each other?"

{Natalie} 'Good idea!' She lets out her Slakoth, and Poochyena.

I let out Taillow and Torchic as well.

{Alex} 'Ah, good idea!' He lets out Treecko and Whismur.

Elekid hops off my shoulder.

{Alex} 'How about I make some breakfast?'

My stomach would rumble after he said that.

{Natalie} 'That answers that.'

We all laugh.

{Alex} 'I'll go get started then.' He chuckles some more as he goes and cooks.

{Natalie} 'Brady, want to explore this area with me?'

"Sure."

{Alex} 'Don't go too far!'

{Natalie} 'Don't worry, we won't.'

We start walking, side by side.

Elekid would run up to us, and he'd jump up on my shoulder.

"Miss me already?" I smirk.

Natalie would chuckle.

"What kind of pokemon do you think we'll see around here?"

{Natalie} 'I don't know, but not knowing kind of makes this exciting.' She smiles.

I smile, back.

She stops in her tracks eyeing something.

{Natalie} 'Brady, what kind of pokemon is that?'

"Huh?" I look where she was looking. We see a pokémon with a white body. It'd have thin arms and legs that widen toward the feet, it would have a pair of pinkish red eyes under its green bowl cut looking hair. It would be about 6.6kg, and about 0.4m. I grab my pokédex.

"Let's check."

{Pokédex} 'Ralts, Ralts senses the emotions of people using the horns on its head. This pokémon rarely appears before people. But when it does, it draws closer if it senses that the person has a positive disposition. Ralts has the ability to sense the emotions of people.'

{Natalie} 'A Ralts, looks cool.'

I'd notice a small, dim, purple spot on its head.

"It's been poisoned!"

{Natalie} 'What? How do you know?'

The Ralts would collapse before us.

"That's how."

We both run up to it.

"Let's get it to the pokémon center right away!"

She nods, picking the Ralts up, and holding it tightly in her arms. We then run to the nearest pokemon center, which since we were closer to Petalburg City, we run there.

{Natalie} 'What about Alex? We can't just leave him there.'

I reach down to my belt, then as I feel none of my poke balls attached to the belt, I remember I had left my pokémon back with Alex.

"Well, I'm not leaving your side, so better get use to it." I wink.

{Natalie} 'Good, I don't want you to.' She smiles, blushing at the same time.

I smile, back, We'd soon be in Petalburg city, and we rush to the pokémon center.

{Natalie} 'Nurse Joy!'

Nurse Joy turns to us.

"Please, help this Ralts."

She nods taking the Ralts out of Natalie's arms. She then goes into the back room to do her thing.

{Natalie} 'Do you think that Ralts will be ok?'

"I don't know..."

{Natalie} 'So, uh, what now?'

"I don't know."

I see a poster on the wall of the pokemon center.

"The Hoenn League.."

{Natalie} 'Do you wanna do it?'

"Do you think I should?"

She shrugs.

{Natalie} 'It's up to you Brady.' She smiles

"What do you want to do on this journey?"

{Natalie} 'Do you know what a Pokémon coordinator is?'

"Nope, sorry." I chuckle.

She'd chuckle, too.

{Natalie} 'Hey, don't say sorry. A Pokémon coordinator is a trainer who enters these pokémon contests where they show off the coolness and beautifulness of pokemon and their moves. When someone wins they receive these ribbons. They normally need five of them to compete in the Grand Festival.'

"Oh, so it's similar to getting badges and going to the pokémon league?"

{Natalie} 'Sort of, but instead of a badge it's a ribbon and instead of the pokemon league it's a grand festival for people who have won five ribbons.'

"Alright." I wink.

Nurse Joy would finish up, and the red light above the doors would shut off, before she comes out.

We get up, and we go up to Nurse Joy.

{Natalie} 'Nurse Joy, is Ralts ok?'

{Nurse Joy} 'Ralts is fine, it just needs some rest and it should be good to go in the morning.'

{Natalie} 'Phew, I was worried there. Wait a minute, Nurse Joy..how did you get here from all the way in Oldale Town..?'

"That's good."

{Nurse Joy} 'Oldale Town? Oh, you're thinking of my younger sister. You see my cousins and siblings are all pokemon doctors and we all look a lot like each other.'

"That's confusing.." I whisper to Natalie.

She nods.

Alex would walk into the Pokemon center.

{Alex} 'There you two are, I was worried sick!'

We turn and look at him.

{Alex} 'I told you two not to wonder off..'

{Natalie} 'We found a Ralts that was poisoned in the wild, and we brought it here. How did you even know we were here by the way?'

{Alex} 'I didn't, I was just gonna come here and see if you guys were here and if you were I'd go to Officer Jenny.'

"You're such a mom, Alex.." I smirk.

Natalie chuckles.

{Alex} 'Am not!' He tries to deny it.

Torchic, Taillow, and Poochyena would come up towards us.

Elekid hops off my shoulder, greeting his pokémon friends.

{Natalie} 'We all figured out what we're going to do. Is there anything you'd like to do Alex?'

{Alex} 'What do you mean?'

{Natalie} 'Brady wants to challenge gyms, and work towards the Hoenn league, and I want to do pokémon contests. So, is there anything you'd like to do?'

{Alex} 'Oh, I'm going to train and participate in the Hoenn league as well.' He smiles.

I smirk.

{Alex} 'What?'

"Better watch out then, I'm not holding anything back!" I'd be fired up.

{Alex} 'Good, I don't want you to!'

"You're going to lose, Alex."

{Alex} 'Oh, we'll see about that!'

We all laugh.

Nurse Joy rushes back over to us.

{Nurse Joy} 'I went back to check on Ralts, and when I did the Ralts had disappeared!'

{Natalie} 'What?!'

{Nurse Joy} 'Wait..could it be..'

{Natalie} 'Could it be what..?'

{Nurse Joy} 'That Ralts I remember it.'

{Natalie} 'You do?'

{Nurse Joy} 'I do, a few trainers have tried catching that exact Ralts but failed, if they do the Ralts ends up running away.'

{Natalie} 'Do you know why?'

Nurse Joy nods.

{Nurse Joy} 'The Ralts was abandoned by its original trainer, it doesn't know that and still decides to stick around this one rock in the woods. It might there now.'

{Natalie} 'Come on, lets check!'

Alex and I nod, and we rush to that spot.

We soon get to the spot, and see Ralts laying on a rock that Nurse Joy had told us about.

{Natalie} 'So, why's it stay there?'

{Alex} 'My guess the trainer told it to stay here, and said they'll be back for it.'

"And Ralts listened, and it continues to stay today."

{Natalie} 'Who would do something like that?!'

"Someone who doesn't care about their pokemon I'm guessing."

{Alex} 'Right, I'm guessing those type of trainers are too lazy to raise their own pokemon.'

Natalie steps forward, towards the Ralts.

The Ralts gets up, its eyes glowing white underneath its green bowl cut hair.

{Natalie} 'Please..' She'd be worried.

The Ralts tilts its head.

{Natalie} 'Please..I'm sorry to tell you this but your trainer isn't coming for you..but I know I'd love to have a pokémon like you. I think it'd be fun to have a Ralts to take care of and raise, and I want that Ralts to be you..if you'd like to travel with us at least..?'

The Ralts examines her for a moment.

{Natalie} 'Please..' She grabs a poke ball, and she sets it in front of the Ralts.

It slaps the button on the poke ball. A red light emits from it, pulling Ralts inside of it.

Natalie smiles.

The poke ball shakes a couple times, then stops.

She grabs Ralts' poke ball.

{Natalie} 'Thank you..for giving me a chance Ralts..'

I look at Elekid and smile.

He'd smile, back.

Somewhere in a rocky area, with two familiar members of Team Solar. They'd somehow be hanging around on some tree.

{Valarie} 'Now what, Oren?'

{Oren} 'I don't know, Val.' He spots a wild Ralts eating some of their food. 'Interesting..' He grabs a poke ball and throws it at the wild Ralts.

The ball shakes a couple times, then stops.

{Valarie} 'What is that?' She questions, kind of pissed off.

{Oren} 'A Ralts..' He smirks. 'This'll be interesting..'