A Time of Relaxation {Joey}

Joey patrolled along the pleasantly sunny streets of Violet City and had a rather happy smile across his face. Violet City has fond memories for Joey as it was the first city in Johto he visited that had a Gym. That arduous battle he fought wasn't going to be one he forgot about soon. As he walked along the long winding streets he decided that a small walk out over by the open fresh grass was in order. He traversed the grassy plains for a short while before he came across a small hill with a tree at the centre of it. He raised an eyebrow and let out a small laugh at how perfect it looked. "S'ppose I could use that to sit by for a little while." He leisurely walked along but paused in his tracks as he noticed someone was sitting by the tree roots. Someone familiar."

Joey moved behind the tree he was next too and thought things over. "Can't be... Looks like that girl I faced off with in Cherrygrove. What was her name...?" He thought for a moment but it wasn't too long before her name came to his mind. "Amalia! That's it." He leaned against the tree and looked over to where she was sitting. "She had some tough Pokemon too." He chuckled to himself and shrugged. "I don't think i'll be fighting her this time around though." He noticed that her Pokemon was different from the one she was walking around with before. "Hey... Did her Charmander evolve?" A small glint appeared in Joey's eyes and picked a Pokeball from his belt. "Looks like her Zero's catching up fast with mine." He tossed his Pokeball to the floor and unleashed his own Charmeleon. "Hey bud, remember that girl over there in the distance? Why don't you waltz over there and say hi. Be interesting if she remembered us." Chameleon nodded and slowly plodded over to Amalia and her Zero. It stopped a few steps away from then when it arrived and waved happily. "Char, Char!" It cried out to them happy to see them. Joey remained by the tree nearby and listened out to the conversation.

Joey punched his right fist into the palm of his left hand and shook his head. "Damn! How the hell did she figure out that Charmeleon was mine..." He cracked his knuckles and murmured. "She's good!" He looked around from the side of his tree and noticed that she was looking around for him. He grinned as Charmeleon played along and pretended to have no idea where he was. "Thatta boy..." He looked to the tree and decided to climb it quickly in case she decided to look over in this direction. As his foot began climbing, the sharp snapping sound of a twig shot out into the distance and alerted people within the vicinity. Charmeleon looked to the side and titled his head. "Oro?"

Joey's head grimaced slightly at the fact he was spotted so easily by this girl. "Damn, what gives?" He let out a small sigh and shrugged off his unfortunate spotting by Amalia. He was about to swing his way down from the branch but nearly fell out of surprise as her Zero quickly scaled the tree to greet him personally. "Woahwoahwoah!" He lost balance slightly and fell from his hiding spot on the branch. Although rapidly falling, he was agile enough to grab a spare branch with his right arm and hung on for dear life. "Phew...! I know I like to sneak up but that was something else." He let go of the branch and landed on his feet with a heavy thud and stood up from his crouched position. "Nice to see you too, Amalia!" He smiled at her pleasantly. "It has been a while, seems like you have gotten stronger." He raised his hands to his chest and gestured he wasn't in the mood for battling. "No friendly battles this time ok?" He laughed and tilted his head to one side. "I think we both deserve a change of pace." He slinked against the tree trunk and slowly lowered himself to the floor. "So how's things?" He asked as the sun reflected brightly enough on Joey's Zephyr Badge to get Amalia's attention.

As Joey laid back peacefully against the tree he quickly sorted out his bandanna which had become a bit out of place from the disruption of falling from the tree awkwardly. After a small tightening of it and adjusting how it seated on his head he finally sorted it out perfectly. "Sorry about that." He let out a small reminiscent laugh and patted his bandanna. "I've had this bandanna for a long, long, long time." He gazed off into the distance almost as if he was recalling fond memories. "I came across it when i was running with the Kanto Federation Biker gang. We all had our own motorbikes and generally caused a ruckus. My ma got kinda annoyed with me being in it though."

He let out a small sigh and continued his story. "Too bad they got disbanded huh?" A wry smile spread over his face. "'Spect i'll form my own gang one day." As Lunar mentioned his first gym badge he turned to her and smiled enthusiastically. "I see you noticed!" He pushed it out as he pulled forward his leather jacket's lapel. "The battle I had with that bird brained Falkner was pretty intense. Who would'a thought a Pidgey could give a guy so much hassle?!" He patted down his lapel and nodded to Lunar. "You ought to give it a challenge. Bet you'd give Falkner the run over pretty easy judging from the last time we had a face off."

Seeing someone else had conquered Falkner's gym made a cocky grin spread over his face. He was glad to see that other trainers were ruffling his feathers. "Haha, that is NICE." He looked at both their badges and let out a small laugh. "Pretty tricky customer though, huh? His Pidgeotto stood up to some blows from Elekid... Which is saying something." As Amalia showed off her newly evolved Pokemon, Joey thought over how far she was progressing. "They best keep an eye on you, kiddo. Next thing i'll know is you'll be telling me that you're Pokemon League Champion." Thinking about his own adventures he let out a small sigh. "Things could be a little better my end though. I've got tangled up in some kidnap plot. Those damned Rockets are threatening to kill this granny's grandson. Not to mention they ran off with my Ditto." He looked sadly at his feet but a small sigh broke his concentration. "I'm hanging around here in Violet to try and build up a small militia to fight off the Rockets." He looked around, hoping not to cause any alarm but quietly whispered something to her. "I hear there's news of them tinkering around in Azalea... Whatever for, I ain't got a clue." His head leaned back with another sigh and he looked at the tall grass surrounding them. "I've caught a few so far to take on Team Rocket but I think i'll need a lot more to even match their numbers."

He grinned at the thought of Amalia becoming champion. "You know, you with a trophy and being set up in the Hall of Fame... I can just see that." Of course, being Champion also netted a fair amount of news coverage. "You'd be everywhere, TV, newspapers, internet... Be pretty amazing huh? Well you keep at it. It's good to see you've got some good aspirations ahead of ya." Thinking back to the Rockets fiendish little plot he almost spat on the floor in disgust. "Ah, no worries. I'm just really sickened they'd stoop so far. But hey, we're talking about criminals here, right? 'Sides, i'm just glad I got away from the gran... She was bit of a handful." His face soured, remembering her foul stench and spittle. Noticing Amalia's smile, he raised an eyebrow and smile and pondered what she was up to.

As she got up and told him to wait, he stood up slightly and tried to stop her from running off but he was too late. He chuckled to himself once before leaning back up against the tree. "That girl... Heh, she must have something in mind." Before long, she returned and as she came up to him, he gave her a courteous nod of his head. "Wait so... You're giving me your support?" Her kindness bought a warm grin on Joey's own face. He was glad that despite the looming shadow of the Rockets, he wasn't all alone in his struggle to thwart them. Any help he could get was needed, even if he tried to make himself seem more than capable. As she released the Pokemon she had just grabbed from the P.C., Joey watched with great intrigue as to what it was. His jaw dropped as she revealed a rather mischievous looking Gastly. "Oh man... You're kiddin' me?! A GASTLY?! Those things are rarer than..." He fell silent, speechless by this bombshell. "You mean to say you're lending me his strength?" A look of great excitement appeared on Joey as he happily moved around on the spot. "You have no idea how much this would help. If I have a Ghost type Pokemon why... They wouldn't be able to touch it!"

Realising that her handing him this Pokemon as support was incredibly generous of her, he thought of an ideal solution that would also see Amalia get something in return so that she wasn't left empty handed. "Hey, tell ya what... Why don't you come with me and you can have a look at some of the Pokemon I caught on my little capture spurt? We'll have to head into Violet's Pokemon Centre but that's cool with you right?" Joe's mind wondered onto the Pokemon he had caught. There was actually one Pokemon in mind that stood out as a suitable choice for Amalia. After all, having two Budews himself was slightly problematic due to his first Budew, Narcissa, being so narcissistic of herself. Perhaps if he offered Rosalie to Amalia, then Rosalie would have a happy, caring trainer to look after her. Amalia, after all, was probably one of the kindest trainers to her Pokemon he had come across.