Day 11

Sunny
Current mood: joyful!
Current location: Vermillion Plains

Dear Diary:

We're resting on Vermillion Plains tonight, but what I think is better than the nice weather is the fact that we have a new party member--a laid back Bulbasaur. Right now, he's sunning himself by a tree, watching Brock practice his guitar. I mean, Brock playing a song is enjoyable, but listening to him play the same song again and again gets annoying after a while.

But I digress...we lost our way on Cerulean Pass this morning and entered the Vermillion Plains. After a while, we stopped by a pond to rest--and Ash spotted an Oddish! He wanted to catch it, but Misty beat him to it! She would have caught the Oddish had a Bulbasaur not sprung from the brush and whacked away Misty's Poke Ball with a Vine Whip. Ash forgot about the Oddish and decided to focus on the Bulbasaur, sending out Butterfree to do the job.

Butterfree tried to put Bulbasaur to sleep, but Bulbasaur blew the Sleep Powder back at him! Ash fruitlessly tried waking Butterfree, but Brock reached for a Pokeflute and played a rousing reel to wake Butterfree (I think Brock has a whole orchestra at his disposal...) No sooner had Brock finished his song, did we discover that both Pokemon had run off. We gave up on them and continued on our way.

Later, we came to a rickety old bridge, and despite our best efforts to cross safely, it snapped, sending Misty, Ash, and I slamming against the cliff, and Brock tumbling into the water below! As if that wasn't enough, we kept running into all sorts of traps while looking for Brock--nets, pits, claws...you name it, we ran into it. Before long, we were caught in our zillionth net, and Ash was worried that Brock had drifted out to sea and had been enslaved by pirates. (Misty just wondered how much One Piece Ash had been watching as of late)

Just when we were about to give up hope, I felt the net falling--Brock had used some garden shears to cut us free! Needless to say, we were all relieved he was all right.

Misty wanted to know the reason for all the traps...so Brock explained that while he was drifting down the river, a girl named Melanie fished him out. She took him to her private hideway--Riverside Hollow; a health spa for Pokemon. The traps were there to deter any trainers from catching the Pokemon relaxing there. While Brock was resting, he had promised Melanie he wouldn't catch the Pokemon. Misty jokingly asked if he had "sealed it with a kiss", but Brock just bonked her on the head with a stick and told us he DID sing her a song as payment for letting him rest. (but we were all laughing at the Starmies with wings spinning around Misty's head)

We followed Brock to the Riverside Grotto, where Melanie welcomed us. She let us help with the chores for a while. While we massaged the Pokemon, Misty spotted the Oddish and the Bulbasaur we met earler, and apologized to the two of them. Oddish was quick to forgive and forget, but Bulbasaur was still angry about trying to be caught! He Tackled Misty, sending her flying into some water! Melanie tried to convince Bulbasaur that we weren't going to catch the pokemon, but Bulbasaur didn't believe her.

Suddenly, I noticed a huge hovering stadium in the sky, and a hose came down, which tried to suck up the Pokemon! Sensing a Team Rocket trap, we shepherded the Pokemon inside Melanie's house, where Team Rocket couldn't get us.

Bulbasaur raced out of the house and whipped around the hose with his vines, damaging it! With Team Rocket distracted, Ash joined Bulbasaur outside, and summoned Pidgeotto. She whipped up a very strong whirlwind, strong enough to blow the whole stadium away!

Melanie was impressed by how well Bulbasaur and Ash worked together, and suggested Bulbasaur join our party. Ash wasn't too keen on this at first, because if Bulbasaur joined the party, who was joing to protect the hollow? After some convincing by Melanie, Bulbasaur decided to join us, provided that one of us beat him in a match. Although he was very strong, I managed to bring him down, securing him a place in the party!

We wanted to move on to the plains tonight, but Brock had to keep singing for Melanie for hours on end--Ash had to whistle for him before he finally said goodbye!

So here we are in camp--Ash says Bulbasaur's sleeping with me tonight, so I'd better clear him a spot.

Until tomorrow,
Pikachu