As we walked along the bridge, I wondered what Bill could tell about me. I didn't think that there were many other Charmanders like me. I mean, I think I'm like a Squirtle who can't get hurt by electricity, ot a Bulbasaur who's immune to fire. There can't be too many pok‚mon like that.
My thoughts were interrupted by JJ singing happily. "2 B A Master, Pok‚mon Master. I will be writing the greatest chapter..." Oh boy. He just bought the 2 B A Master CD at the pok‚mart, and he hasn't stopped singing along since. It doesn't help that he sings like a wounded Spearow.
I tried my best to tune him out, looking around at the scenery. There were a bunch of defeated trainers along the bridge, and a grassy strip off to the side. Hey that had potential! I wandered off... after all, JJ was too busy pretending that the world was his shower. I spotted a few Caterpie, a Weedle... those were all boring. Wait! Something interesting! I caught a glimpse of something yellowish-gold, but it shimmered out of view. That was interesting. I trundled over to investigate. "Charmander!" (Hi!) I called.
The figure shimmered back into view. "Aaabraaa?" (What do you want?)
"Char charmander char." (I was wondering if you wanted to talk with me.)
"Aabraaa abra?" (Who is your trainer?)
I winced. She certainly had a way of getting to the point. "Char char mander..." (He's the one singing over there...)
She looked interested. "Abra abraa. Abra?" (He has a nice voice. Is he nice?)
I almost did a double-take. She thought he had a nice voice? "Charmander char. Mander? Char?" (Yeah, he's nice. Do you want to go with him? I mean, us?)
She considered for a moment, then relented. "Abraa! Abra abra!" (Sure! It sounds great!)
I walked back over to JJ, cringing. (He still hadn't stopped singing.) Abra was listening to him raptly. How could she do that? "Char. Char! CHAR!" Well, calling JJ's name repeatedly wasn't working. I looked at Abra helplessly. She smiled, and JJ began to float in the air. He was a good 3 feet up before he noticed. "Hey! What's going on? What's that?"
"Charmander char, char. Char char, mander char." (This is Abra, she would like to join us. I couldn't get your attention, so she tried.)
"OK! Welcome to the team, Abra! Um... can I catch you?" When Abra nodded, he took an extra pok‚ball out of his pocket. Abra changed into energy and leapt inside the ball. She sat still for long enough to be effectively captured, then she popped back out again.
"Hey Abra, do you know the way to Bill's house from here? We need to go, but we don't know where it is." Abra nodded in response, and she glowed blue for a moment. The scenery melted away, and when it reappeared, we were at the front door of a quaint little cottage. "That was cool! Can you do it again?"
"Abra abraa." (I thought we were here for a reason.) JJ snapped back to reality and walked in the tiny door. Abra and I followed curiously.
The inside of the house was completely different from the pristine, organized outside. There were papers everywhere, as well as test tubes and beakers. My attention was drawn towards two big tubes at the far end of the room. They looked big enough to hold people, maybe even Charizards! I couldn't spot Bill, though. Maybe he was out.
A huge stack of papers shifted, revealing a small desk, and a man sitting behind it. "Hello there! Are you interested in looking at my rare pok‚mon collection?"
"Actually, I was here to ask about my Charmander. There's something different about it."
"Oh, really? It looks perfectly normal to me. Here, let me take a closer look." He hopped over his desk and inspected me closely from all possible angles. "Well, it still looks normal to me. Let's see if the machines can figure it out."
"You don't need to test it, I know what's weird about it." I shot him a look, but since Bill had picked me up by the tail and I was currently upside down, it wasn't too effective.
"Really? What is it?" Bill set me down and I went back over to stand beside JJ. I pretty well knew the routine, and I barely flinched when my tail flame was dunked in a glass of water. In fact, I think I flinched more when Bill yelled about it. "Hey! Are you nuts? What do you think you're doing? You'll kill it!" He was really loud! Once he figured out what was going on, he switched back to scientific mode. "That's interesting. When did you find out about this? Do you know who its parents were? Did they have any sort of immunity like this? I think this is the first Charmander ever to be like this. I've never seen anything like it before. Sorry, but this is completely new to me. Do you mind if I take a DNA sample to find out more?"
"Um... yeah, no problem. The DNA sample will be fine, I think." Bill led me ober to a smaller gadget, and had me stick my tail inside. I felt a sharp prickling sensation, then it was done, and we left.
When we got back into town, we bought some potions and other necessities, and continued on our way to Viridian City vis the Underground Tunnel.