Chapter 143:  A Rocky Start (Part A) by Michael Keens/Exodus  

The boat had docked into Slateport City, a landmark with tall buildings and a 
beautiful clean beach in front of it.  
Several trainers stepped off the boat immediately after arriving, and Ellie 
tiredly left her room some time afterwards to do so herself, she hadn’t felt 
too good about abandoning Calvin but had considered at least talking to him 
today if not make things right between them.  

Ellie briefly saw him leaving the boat from her room but by the time she’d 
made her way out, he’d seemingly disappeared, along with everyone else Ellie 
knew.  
“Guess I really am going to do this on my own...” she sighed, before stepping 
off slowly and making her way into town...  

She didn’t know her way, and hurried around looking for an exit, she passed a 
busy marketplace and decided to crawl behind the stalls to avoid any trainers 
who happened to recognise her, but this made her look suspicious.  
“Hey!...  You tryin’ to steal from me?! You tryin’ to steal from the Guru?! NO 
ONE STEALS FROM THE ENERGY GURU!!!” yelled a round scary moustached man 
wearing red clothing plus a puffy hat and apron.  
“Yikes!” squealed Ellie, scrambling up and running on all fours until she 
could regain some balance and lift herself up.  
Ellie threw herself over a fence and stayed still until she could catch her 
breath, “Well I guess not being recognised by trainers is completely out.”  
She stood up but took an immediate slip down a hill, she brushed herself off 
at the bottom, “And now I’ve got sand in my pants!”  
Ellie’s escape had ended up placing her on the beach, ahead of her and 
covering most of the horizon was all ocean.  
“I just want to get out of this town and start my journey before anyone 
recognises me!” complained Ellie.  
She crossed the beach until she could find another pathway that didn’t link up 
to the marketplace.  
She saw a second stairway which led to a large fountain after travelling along 
the sands for a good ten minutes, so it was about as far away from the scary 
man in red as she could get without leaving Slateport City on a path she knew 
nothing of.  
“Okay, if I can just head in a northward direction away from the ocean, I 
should find my way to Route 110 and then onward to Mauville.”  
“Hey!...  Hey you!” shouted someone.  
“Yipe!” squealed Ellie, fearing she’d been followed from the market and 
running a few steps up the stairs.  
“Please don’t go!” said the voice again in a lighter tone.  
Ellie turned around to the source and saw a young boy with dark turquoise 
hair, well, his head actually.  
“I’m stuck, and the tide’s coming in.” he grinned nervously.  
“Um, what am I supposed to do? If the sand’s hardened then it’s going to be 
hard, and my Pokémon won’t listen to me.” panicked Ellie.  
“My Pokémon, on that yellow beach towel, all you have to do is release it.  
I’ll instruct it from there.”  
“This one?” hesitated Ellie, picking up the first one she saw.  
“That’s it.”  
“Um, go, whoever you are, and rescue your trainer.” Ellie said with 
uncertainty.  
“Nin-Cada!” squealed a white spider-like Pokémon.  
A wave crashed down sooner than Ellie had expected, and the boy coughed as 
water entered his mouth.  
Ellie gasped, “I’ve got to instruct it myself...  But I don’t know what this 
Pokémon is let alone what it does!”  
She quickly activated her Pokédex and scanned it:  

“Nincada, the Trainee Pokémon.  This Bug/Ground Pokémon’s sharp claws help it 
absorb nutrients from trees; it usually dislikes sunlight and lives 
underground awaiting its unique evolution.”  

“Nincada...” it moaned, rising a claw in front of its eyes to block out the 
sunlight.  
“It can’t see the danger its trainer is in, no time to look up its moves.” 
groaned Ellie in thought, “Nincada, you have to take two steps forward and 
use... Dig?”  
Surprisingly it complied; it was obviously a more compassionate Pokémon than 
her Kecleon.  
It started digging and Ellie smiled in relief, “I figured a Ground Pokémon 
could use Dig...  Oh, Nincada, be careful not to dig too strongly, you don’t 
want to accidentally cut your trainer.”  
It seemed to know what it was doing as soon as its face was buried in the 
sand, away from the sunlight.  
Before long, the sand caved in and the boy was able to be pulled out, but he 
was motionless.  
“Step aside Nincada; guess this is something only I can do.”  
Ellie laid him down carefully, pressing on his chest and locking lips with his 
to give the kiss of life.  
It wasn’t long before he started coughing; luckily he hadn’t swallowed too 
much water.  
“Didn’t know you cared so much...” he smiled weakly.  
Ellie frowned, “Don’t read anything into it; I was just saving your life.”  
“And I’m eternally grateful Miss...  My name’s Eric.  What’s yours?”  
Ellie closed her eyes, nice as it was for someone to befriend her she 
currently couldn’t afford to leave a trail for her father to follow.  
“I’m sorry, I have to leave.”  
She hurried away, as Eric seemed okay enough to get by on his own now.  

Ellie hurried through the alleys of Slateport, trying to avoid as many people 
as she could, if her father followed her, which he undoubtedly would as soon 
as the ships were running again, he’d ask around the town for her.  
Bad enough her unique choice in colourful clothing might jog some memories of 
anyone who saw her; she didn’t want to get into a conversation with anyone 
that might make her have to give out her name.  
A middle aged man with pale hair and a long black coat walked out of a house 
ahead of her before she knew it and crashed into him, knocking over several 
scrolls of paper.  
“What’s the rush Kid?” the man asked.  
“I’m sorry...” Ellie apologised, gathering as many as she could.  
“Ah, Pokémon Trainer, eh?” the man smiled as he noticed Ellie’s Pokéball, “I 
used to be a trainer, the best in all the land.”  
“That’s nice Sir.” Ellie replied.  
“So what Pokémon is it that you have? I love to see what the latest generation 
is using.”  
“I’d rather not say, nor release it, it’s quite unruly right now.”  
Ellie finished passing over the scrolls to the man, and hurried away.  
“Um, nice talking to you.” said the man with uncertainty...  

Ellie cautiously avoided the Pokémon Centre just in case her father had 
informed the police of her destination and they were waiting here, and soon 
enough, ended up outside of the town where she headed out into the forest.  

Ellie’s stomach was growling, by skipping the Pokémon Centre’s free food for 
trainers, and by sleeping through the complimentary breakfast on the ship, she 
was feeling a little starved.  
After a sigh, she held her only Pokéball, “Sneak, appear.”  
“Leeeon...” it groaned, before a slight rumbling was heard and it held its 
stomach.  
“I forgot.  You haven’t eaten in a while either.”  
“Leon!” it moaned, looking cross-eyed at Ellie.  
“Well it’s not my fault! We’re in this mess because of you, if you’d just 
listen to me instead of disappearing all the time I’d have remembered to feed 
you, and more to the point if you’d listened to me I wouldn’t have to hide 
since you’re the reason Dad didn’t want me to go on this journey...”  
“...”  
Ellie started thinking about how little help her Kecleon had been, the latest 
incident being on the boat during the battle.  
“So those crazy guys with the complicated names are from Team Rocket, I doubt 
they’re the same ones that Dad used to face though since they’re so young, but 
if their performance is anything to go by, I don’t think my family should have 
any reason to worry about my welfare...” Ellie pondered.  
“Leon.” nodded the Kecleon, bending down on all four legs and scrambling 
away.  
“Hey wait!” shouted Ellie, chasing after the Pokémon.  

It ran for about five minutes straight before showing any signs of slowing, 
Ellie felt like she might faint for running so hard without any food in her 
body to give her the energy needed, and had to stop for fear of collapsing, 
and until she regained her sight, which had just gone a little fuzzy.  
Ellie panted and dropped to the floor until she could stand up straight, she 
scanned the area for her Pokémon.  
She couldn’t find it, but she could hear it clearly.  
Ellie closed her eyes, and suddenly her eyes looked upwards to see a berry on 
one of the branches disappear.  
Ellie quietly picked up a selection of berry pieces from the floor and hurled 
them upwards, all splattered and dripped juice over the Kecleon to reveal it.  
“Kecleon...” it moaned, returning itself to sight and cleaning itself off.  
“You gonna share any of that with me?” ordered Ellie.  
“Leon.” it said decisively, cruelly holding a berry over its mouth and popping 
it in its mouth, taking as much time as possible to do so and emphasising 
every motion of eating and swallowing it.  
“You’re so mean!” screamed Ellie, dropping to the floor and sulking.  
Within moments, a slapping sound occurred; Ellie tilted her head to one side 
to peep around a tree.  
A small green lizard Pokémon with yellow eyes and a strangely shaped tail that 
looked as if made of two spiralling vines was leaping forward, somersaulting, 
and bringing its large tail down to slam against a tree, several times, until 
lots of berries dropped down, the Grass-type Pokémon caught several in its 
hands, and more in its tail.  
“Hey, a Treecko...  I bet that Pokémon’s a strong battler, and it’ll listen to 
what I have to say, I just have to catch it.  Pokéball! Go!”  
She hurled the sphere forward with a lot of force, and hit it dead on.  
“Yes!” screamed Ellie as the Treecko was transformed into energy and dragged 
inside, with a snap, the Pokéball slammed shut and fell to the floor, where it 
started to shake.  
“Now you’re going to see how Pokémon and Trainers should be together Sneak, 
but maybe if you apologise after seeing me and this Treecko get on, you can 
help me out as well.” boasted Ellie.  
“Leon.” it shrugged, waving a hand to signify it didn’t care.  
Ellie turned back to her prize, which she was about to lose, the Pokéball was 
shaking a lot.  
“Oh no.  Oh nonononono...” groaned Ellie, running forward and diving to the 
floor to hold the Pokéball shut.  
“I don’t know if this is against the rules, but I Can’t lose this-”  
The Pokéball exploded open despite Ellie’s efforts and the Treecko reappeared, 
it shook its head, looked at Ellie crossly and scrambled away.  
“No! Sneak! Use Astonish!”  
It shrugged, and smiled slyly at the situation.  
“This is for that making you apologise crack isn’t it?” she sighed, to which 
Sneak nodded.  
“Figures things would go wrong, but I’m going to make it all right.  Return.  
I’ll catch that Treecko yet...”  
Forcefully drawing the Kecleon back into the Pokéball, Ellie grabbed her 
belongings and chased after her prey...  

End of Chapter 143A  

Back to Chapter 142B
Chapter 143B
Back to Story List #141 - #160
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