Chapter One: Assignment
I pushed my way through the crowds of people, really just wanting to be out of there. I can normally handle crowds if I’m just a member of the group with nothing to single me out. But that doesn’t mean I like it. There was really only one person here I wanted to talk to anyways, and they would understand if I left now and talked later. Besides, I had to go half-way across town and back in about an hour. You can’t do that if you sit around wasting time.
Just as I was almost out of the crowd, I heard someone yelling behind me. “Hey, Eli wait up!” I turned around to see Gary pushing his way through the swarm of people behind me, and he paused to catch his breath for a moment before he spoke again. “So, aren’t you heading over to the lab with us?”
I sighed, and kept walking as he tried to match my pace. “Look, I already said I was going. I just have to stop by the dojo and take care of something before hand,” I replied.
He shrugged and kept on walking in silence for a minute or so. “Why couldn’t you do it after the meeting at the lab?”
I smiled a little, “Well, I have two reasons.” Gary nodded to signify I could go on, “The first is that the Professor will probably take a while to get out of the school and back to his lab. Wasting time sitting around isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. The second is that while wasting my time, sitting around watching you get on Bianca’s nerves can be entertaining, I don’t particularly want to deal with it today.”
“More like you don’t want to deal with testifying at the murder trial,” Gary responded.
I smiled. Leave it to Gary to joke about felonies. “That too,” I laughed. We walked on in silence, not talking for the mile-long trip. Talking slows me down, and I really didn’t want to be late to the meeting. Normally being late does nothing to improve the mood of a meeting. In Gary’s case, he was just trying to keep up. It’s not that he’s out of shape –he’s not- it’s just that I walk “fast enough to attract all the female Rapidash in Kanto,” as Gary put it. I just see no point in wasting time if I don’t have to. Today I’d already spent a few hours waiting for the tests to get done. I didn’t want to add anything more.
When we got to the dojo, Gary paused to catch his breath while I went ahead towards the doors. The building itself had a concrete exterior with as little to mark it as possible. All there was to signify the purpose of the building was a simple, wooden sign over the door that read “Pallet Blade Dojo: School of Fencing.” We honestly didn’t want every little kid in town coming over to try to stab something with a sword, so we didn’t make any efforts to advertise. If you cared enough about it, you would probably know someone who would tell you about the place.
Unfortunately, the door was locked. I hadn’t exactly realized that anyone with a key would’ve been at the graduation tests and would probably be walking slower than I was. As that sat in, I glanced down at my watch. It was already 5:15, and I didn’t have any time at all to wait around in front of the building while the Professor and my mom waited, so I would come back later tonight after my battle with Gary. Unfortunately, the trip had just been a waste of time. I jogged back over to Gary, who was leaning against the concrete walls of the building. “Come on, we’re going to the lab.”
Gary stood up, and began running to catch up. “Done already?” he asked. I just shook my head and kept walking. I really didn’t want to talk about it.
The walk back to the lab took a bit longer than the walk to the dojo, even though the distance was slightly shorter. The gradual release of people from the school was almost over by that time, and cars and pedestrians were everywhere. By the time we got to the lab, it was already 6:00. Despite the fact we were probably late, I couldn’t help but slow down and stare up at the building. Whenever I saw it, which is pretty much daily, I can’t help but feel impressed by it. The Professor’s lab was easily the largest structure in Pallet, and that’s just the main building. The compound behind it stretched out for miles and occupied pretty much the entire north-east corner of the town. If the size alone wasn’t impressive, it was simply the fact that every part of the building’s outside was meant to look impressive. The entire front side of the building was incredibly shiny stainless steel that reflected anyone who walked by it perfectly. In the very center was a large doorway with the words “Oak Laboratory” imprinted above it in large, black lettering. The entire display gave the effect that something important happened inside the building.
However, my attention soon found itself elsewhere. Bianca was outside the doors with a generally murderous look in her brown eyes. She was tapping her foot on the ground, arms crossed across her coat and a scowl on her face. I had a pretty good idea of what she was mad about as well. Gary and I exchanged nervous glances, and then walked towards her. It’s not like we could get in the building any other way. She glared at us as we approached, but didn’t speak until we were within a few feet.
“Where have you been?” she hissed out, even though it was pretty obvious there wasn’t an answer she would tolerate.
“We were running an errand at the dojo, but got delayed by the crowds on the way back,” I replied.
“You do realize that I’ve been waiting here for half an hour, right?” she went on, disregarding my answer.
At that point, I just walked past her and went inside. Given free reign, we probably would’ve been out there for another hour. Besides, it wasn’t like anyone had died from the incident. And I really didn’t want to go through the rather tiresome process of getting yelled at. Within a few seconds, Gary had followed me through the glass doors, and Bianca reluctantly followed soon after, but made it clear she didn’t want to. At the entrance to the lab, the receptionist nodded at us as we came through, probably aware of where we were going and used to seeing us here anyways. The inside of the lab wasn’t quite as impressive as the inside, and the dominant move was actually chaos. Aides ran through the hallways to and from the various departments, each of them rushing something critical to somewhere else. It wasn’t easy keeping the lab operating, and these people knew that fact all too well.
The professor’s office wasn’t particularly far from the entrance to the building, and it took us less than a minute to get there. We paused at the doorway, unsure of what the proper way to ask permission to enter the professor’s office was. Being late, we really didn’t want to start this off on a bad note. “We,” referring to Bianca and I. Gary just went up and opened the door, leaving us to follow him in.
The professor’s office was a smaller room, just large enough to hold a medium-sized bookshelf, the Professor’s desk, and a few chairs on the other side of it. The truly remarkable part was the view behind it. The office was on the rear edge of the building, and a large window was built in place of a wall at the back of the office. On the other side of the glass was the meadow area, where one of the largest herds of plain’s animals in Kanto lived. The only other place in the region where one could see Rhyhorn and Girafarig living just like they used to in the wild was the Safari Zone on the other side of the country.
The Professor glanced up from the report on his desk, and waved his hand to tell us to sit down, which we did. The Professor very rarely called us to his office for a meeting, and when he did it was generally important. He sat staring at his report for another minute or so, and then typed something into his computer before he finally turned back to us, and folded his hands in front of him to signify his attention was on us.
“First off, I want to congratulate you on your success today, but you probably know that is not why I called you here,” he stated. “I called you here for two things. The first you were probably expecting, the second you probably were not.” He paused for a moment as he cleared his throats. “The first item is that I would like to give you these.” He put three Pokéballs on the desk in front of him, making sure to place them in front of the right aide. “These contain the Pokémon you have been taking care of for the past few years that have now become your starters.”
We each tried to thank him, but he held up his hand to signal that he wasn’t done yet. “As you are receiving these tonight, you will not be receiving them with the rest of the graduating students tomorrow. In order to avoid the uproar from the group that you received your starter a day early, I have an assignment for you for the next day or two to get you out of Pallet and help get your Pokémon training careers started.”
He shut his eyes and paused for a moment before continuing. “I am expecting a very, very important package to arrive from the Plateau tomorrow in Viridian. While some of my senior aides have volunteered to retrieve it, I have left the job open to you. Along the way you may catch more Pokémon to add to your team, and bond further with your starters, this time as their trainer. Are there any questions this far?” We all shook our heads no. I did have quite a few questions, but I didn’t expect to get a brief answer to any of them, and I’d probably figure it out later. “Good, I expect you all to be here at six o’clock tomorrow morning with supplies for the day in order to make it Viridian before nightfall. I have already notified your guardians about this, and all legal issues have been cleared up. I look forwards to seeing you tomorrow, and I’m sorry about the short notice, but the League isn’t particularly good with informing leaders when supplies will arrive.”
With that, we all stood, thanked the Professor, and left the room as he went back to his computer. Once we were all outside, Gary shut the door and we stood there in the hallway. I was still holding the Pokéball in my hand; still in disbelief I was holding it. Gary was tossing his up in the air, staring down the hallway, his mind elsewhere. Bianca had already put hers on her belt and was looking at the two of us. “So, we’re the lucky ones who get to run off and fetch something for the Professor, right?” she asked, her voice half-way between serious and sarcastic. I couldn’t honestly tell what she meant by that, whether she was expressing displeasure or gratitude, so I just nodded my head. Gary caught his Pokéball and stared over at her.
“I have no idea if that was sarcasm or not, but if it was the universe is in serious trouble,” he stated. Bianca glanced at him with an incredulous look that would have shut me up instantly, but Gary continued, “What? I mean it says in the Book of Endings that when the unpleasant one mocks the world, the heavens will open and the trumpets will-“
“Alright, I think we get the picture,” Bianca was making an expression that surprised me more than anything else that day. She was almost smiling. Her lip was slightly upturned and wasn’t necessarily a sign of happiness, but it was an actual emotion. “Good night. I’ll see you guys up here in a few hours.” With that, she walked down the hallway towards the door. She certainly wasn’t skipping, but there was some sort of renewed energy in her step.
As Gary and I stared down the hall, Gary voiced our thoughts perfectly. “Now, I’m scared.”
It took me a few minutes to get home, but I think I can safely skip over that. I wasn’t particularly worried about my mom freaking out over my absence. I now that makes her sound like a horrible person, but it’s not like neither of us had ever stayed later than intended at the lab. Although to be fair, it was normally her. Right before I opened the door, I remembered someone. I reached down to my belt, and unclipped the Pokéball that held Marine, my new Squirtle. I hit the button in the middle, causing the red and white orb to swell a little. I tossed the ball in the air, catching it as it came down. At about the top of the balls ascent, it burst open, with a beam of red light coming from the opening between the halves. As it neared the ground, the light began to take the shape of a Squirtle, and when the light faded the Pokémon was left in its place. I must admit, Squirtle isn’t exactly a common Pokémon outside of the seas between Pallet Town –itself a sleepy supply center for Viridian- and the mostly abandoned Cinnabar Island. In other words, it wasn’t common anywhere.
Anyways, the blue, upright turtle only came up to my knees, and the curly tail and happy expression on his face just screamed cuteness. I normally don’t care about that kind of stuff, but I smiled. The fact that I was now his trainer and he was my Pokémon was only starting to sink in. I’d only been used to handling the personality-filled reptile as a friend, although I was fairly sure he viewed himself as the boss in the relationship. I had no idea what to do now that I technically owned him? Was I supposed to be his boss or something? Marine settled the issue for now by thumping his tail against the door to signal that he wanted in, and my mom opened it less than a minute later.
At age 35, my mom was fairly young to have a fifteen-year-old child, but this wasn’t ever discussed. In fact, I’m still not sure of many of the details concerning my birth at all, aside from the accident. That aside, she always wore the same outfit almost every day; a white shirt that doubled as a lab coat and a pair of dark jeans. There wasn’t much need to be formal at the lab. Other than that, the only thing really worth mentioning would be the eyes. They were silver, and almost seemed to shine abnormally bright in the moonlight. She brushed her black hair over her shoulder shortly after opening the door, and let Marine and I in. Marine immediately rushed forwards, wanting to greet some of my mom’s Pokémon he’d gotten to know from his occasional trips home with me. I’m not entirely sure if he realized it yet, but this was his home now, too.
As Squirtle began to eagerly talk with Lucario, who seemed much less in the conversation than the water-type, my mom and I sat down at the table. There was some food set out that we ate, but forgive me if I can’t exactly remember what after however long it’s been. Regardless, I remember the conversation fairly well.
“Good job on the exam,” my mom began.
“Thanks, but it wasn’t too-“
“No, that was an extremely hard challenge. The professor himself selected possibly the most difficult exam in the system to give to you, and he wanted more than anyone to see you pass. Believe me, I’m serious about the praise,” she interrupted. I just sat back trying to think over that. The professor himself had given me what he considered to be the hardest challenge? I couldn’t think of why he would give it to me, and not someone he had more confidence in. Perhaps he’d wanted me to fail, or maybe he was doing it for other reasons. I decided I would have to ask him later.
“Yeah, I didn’t really see the Hypnosis and Dream Eater coming,” I confessed. “Not to mention the crowds.”
My mother nodded, understanding exactly what I was referring to. “Well, it’s been a while since I was a novice trainer, but I don’t think I was thrilled the first time I battled in front of an audience. I still get a little nervous whenever I speak to a crowd. I think I can safely say that no one enjoys the crowds. In fact, some of the greatest men and women in the world will do everything they can to avoid public appearances. Trust me; stage fright is nothing to be ashamed of.”
Her pep talk reassured me a bit, but at the same time it made things worse. There was a problem with words. They took on the power of what they described, and that was often. There had to be some sort of value behind the letters to make it worth something.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said. I tried to make it sound convincing, but I’m not entirely sure she fell for it. She was abnormally keen at seeing through things, and I wasn’t the best liar to be honest. Whether she noticed it or not, the concern left her face and she went back to eating. By this time, Marine had already woken up Gloom, and the two were arguing about something. I hoped Marine learned his lesson last time and wouldn’t push it too far with the grass type. It wasn’t fun taking a poisoned Squirtle to the Pokémon Center.
I wanted to talk to my mom about so many things, but unfortunately time was running out. Gary had wanted to meet me at eight, and it was already seven-thirty. It took me about thirty minutes to get where he would be waiting, so I had to leave soon. When I finally got the food cleared off of my plate, I stood up and thanked my mom for dinner. When she asked where I was going, I told her Gary and I wanted to meet up. She hesitated before approving as if there was something more she wanted to say, but eventually let me walk out the door, Squirtle in tow.
It was still chilly in the evenings. May isn’t exactly summer yet in the Pallet area, and temperatures did tend to drop as the sun went down. I didn’t notice very much, but Marine certainly did. Squirtle were native to warmer waters, and their bodies took on the temperature of the air or water around them. Marine ran on ahead of me, occasionally trying to run on two legs, but frequently tripping and falling back down to two. I was walking slower than normal, which was still fast, thinking about things. Mostly I thought about the upcoming battle. Gary’s Bulbasaur had a natural type advantage, not to mention a more skilled trainer. However, Squirtle was a naturally faster Pokémon and better at taking hits. But that wouldn’t save me if I didn’t have a strategy. The problem was, I couldn’t exactly be sure it would work. This wasn’t a simulation where the opponent would always operate by a certain method. This was much more real and unpredictable.
However, as the walk went on, my thoughts began to drift to the next day. Over the next few days I would be given the chance to encounter and catch some of the first Pokémon on my journey. What would they be? I mentally made a note of every common Pokémon in the Viridian City and Route One areas, and began to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of all of them. I was almost done by the time we reached the hill.
“The hill” was an elevated area outside of the Professor’s lab. From the top, most of the valley that Pallet Town was in could be seen stretching out. It wasn’t exactly a big city, with a population barely reaching into the thousands, but it was fairly important. The Professor’s lab was arguably the most important in the Republic, only rivaled by the Safari Zone in Fuchsia and Silph Co. in Saffron. Most of the town was connected in one way or another to the massive complex that stretched out just in front of the hill. It was an amazing view of my life; it was unlikely there would be many, if any, major events in the life of anyone born in Pallet that would occur outside of the city. Of course, tonight wasn’t exactly a time to reminisce. I glanced up at the top of the hill, and saw the silhouette of Gary waiting for me.
“Nice night for a battle isn’t it?” he called down. I nodded, although he probably couldn’t see it in the dark, and ran up to meet him. He had a black jacket on over his normal white shirt, and was tossing his Pokéball up in the air repeatedly. I knew him well enough to know that meant he was nervous, excited, or both. Probably both in this case. “Well, let’s get this started. You lose if you withdraw your Pokémon or it faints. We shouldn’t need a ref.”
I was a bit more worried. Pokémon battling was a dangerous sport to begin with, and doing it without a ref just increased the risks, I wanted to point that out, but didn’t see a point in doing it. “Yeah, let’s-“
“Are you two really going to battle without anyone watching?” a familiar voice interrupted. We turned down the hill to see someone walking up, faintly illuminated by a fire beside them.
“Well, men don’t exactly need all of the sissy rules you do, but if you insist you can watch,” Gary called out, and Bianca frowned as she reached the top of the hill. Whatever had gotten into her earlier had clearly passed.
“I, personally, wouldn’t want to start my journey by killing my Pokémon, but I guess that’s your choice,” she replied.
“Gary, just let her ref,” I pleaded. I agreed with Bianca on this one. Battling new Pokémon without anyone reffing it was just an accident waiting to happen.
Gary shrugged, and Bianca walked over to the halfway point between Gary and I. “Alright, this will be a one on one battle between Gary’s Bulbasaur and Eli’s Squirtle. A Pokémon is considered unable to battle if it doesn’t move for ten seconds or faints. Additionally, if a Pokémon is withdrawn it is considered unable to battle. Are there any questions? If not, you may begin,” Bianca stated.
“Alright, Ivy let’s go for a Vine whip!” Gary commanded. Bulbasaur raised one of her vines and slammed it into the ground directly in front of Marine, who was barely out of range. As Marine jumped back, I began to think. The chances of Bulbasaur having an attack with much range were low, and that could definitely be used to my advantage.
“Jump back and use Bubble,” I shouted. Marine immediately jumped back even further and shot out a steady stream of bubbles from his mouth, which was beginning to foam up with air and water. As the bubbles were released, they began to drift towards the grass-type on the other side of the field, but they weren’t racing there by any means.
Gary glanced across the battlefield, “Destroy the bubbles with Vine Whip.” Bulbasaur lashed out again, this time striking through the bubbles floating over the field and causing most of them to pop. The ones that did reach the dinosaur did pathetically little. Ranged attacks weren’t going to do much either. “Sorry, Eli but you’re going to have to do better than that. Avoiding my attacks is just wasting my valuable time.”
I realized he was probably right. I wasn’t going to end this from a distance, so Squirtle was going to have to go into direct fire. “Rapid Spin forwards,” I ordered. Marine looked up at me strangely, not entirely trusting my authority yet. I’m not sure I would either if someone ordered me to rush into a super effective attack. I nodded to signify I was serious, and Marine withdrew into his shell and spun forwards just as I began to wonder if this was really a good idea.
Gary looked up curiously, trying to figure out what I was trying to do. “I have no idea what you’re trying to do here, but it was a mistake. Ivy, grab him with Vine Whip to show him how it’s done,” he called. Bulbasaur extended her vines out towards Squirtle, but they were unable to hold the spinning water type, and were partially shredded in the process. Bulbasaur immediately withdrew her vines and held them up to survey the damage. I almost gagged. There were large tears and scrapes on them from trying to hold the spinning Pokémon; some leaking a strange green substance that I suspected was blood. While it probably wouldn’t be fatal, it definitely was painful and would probably require serious medical attention quickly.
Bianca stood there staring at the carnage, her face momentarily drained of color. She was biting her lip, and seemed completely shocked by the events. Gary almost immediately unclipped his Pokéball from his belt and withdrew the Bulbasaur. Ironically, he was the one who had almost succeeded at keeping his composure. “Alright, Eli I guess you took this one. I’ll see you both tomorrow,” he blurted out before running towards the lab as fast as he could go. I looked back up at Bianca, who still seemed rattled by the incident.
“Are you going to be alright?” I asked.
She was still staring at the drops of greenish liquid on the ground. “I-I’m fine. J-just leave me alone, OK?” she stammered out. For some reason, the injury had rattled her even worse than Gary, but I didn’t want to push the issue.
“Alright, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then,” I said uneasily. I turned around and started for home, motioning for Marine to follow.