Johto / League Circuit

  Topic: Getting Started

  Original Poster: Usedtobeayoungster (Verified Trainer)

  (Showing page 12/12)

  ?MasterofPokemon1937 (Verified Trainer)

  I JUST got my trainer card and Pokédex These things can do anything oh my god they’re cool.

  ?JustaGuy

  They are pretty useful, remember you can use them to connect to computers and other technology.

  ?Genesis

  I can’t wait until I get one. They have so many features, I finally managed to get my trainers’ test booked. It's only a week away.

  ?ThornBender (Verified Trainer)

  I’ve already got a badge you and guys are obsessing over measly trainer cards. Git gud

  ?JustaGuy

  This forum’s topic is about getting started, if you’re not gonna talk about that, then leave.

  ?ThornBender (Verified Trainer)

  Looking at your profile, you have no badges and I have one hell you don’t even HAVE a trainer card, you’re not even a trainer. Butt out

  ?SamanthaCross (Verified Trainer)

  Hey, nobody likes people like you.

  Does anyone have any advice on what to pack for traveling? I don’t really have anyone to help me with this.

  ?ThornBender (Verified Trainer)

  Whatever

  ?JustaGuy

  Sure, what have you got so far?

  ?SamanthaCross (Verified Trainer)

  I’ve got a foldable camping tent, a few tools… and that’s it lol. I don’t really know what else I need. You can see why I need help, right?

  One person is typing…

  “Gen!”

  Oh shoot. Someone was calling me right now? Not just someone… that’s almost definitely my sister. If it wasn’t, it would be kinda weird…-

  “Gen! Come down here! Hurry the hell up!”

  “I’m coming!” I replied, but not making an actual effort to move. I was comfy right now, and I didn’t really want to ruin what I had going right now. I had a large bean bag—best investment ever—with two pillows and my blanket smooshed all around memory, my laptop hanging in a very delicate position in front of me.

  “Oh. My. God. Genesis, get your a-… butt down here right now! Or I’m coming up to get you!” My sister yelled again, her voice raising.

  Oh well. No more lazing around I guess.

  I picked myself up, unwrapping my fort of comfiness and carefully setting my laptop on the floor. I looked over my room again, mostly clean. There were two shirts on the bed though. I was deliberating on what to wear since it was my birthday today.

  In the end, I chose a purple t-shirt with a white pokeball logo on it. It wasn’t that special, but it’s not like I would be going out today. While scrolling through the forums, I had been tempted to put the misplaced shirts back, but I couldn’t be bothered. Besides, today is my birthday.

  Really, I was just lazy. But what’s wrong with that? It’s not like my birthday could be really great, I thought as I exited my room and headed down the hall. Can’t I be a little lazy just this once—

  “Surprise!”

  Three voices suddenly said at once, one could be easily recognized as my sister. The other is familiar, but not one that I saw everyday. It was my parents… That explained why Melissa—my sister—didn’t swear at me.

  …

  “I didn't think you were gonna be able to make it,” I said once we finally got all seated. Despite looking like they had just arrived—though I wouldn’t know, considering I’d been up in my room for the past few hours—my parents had done a lot. The table was decorated, there were balloons, and banners were strung in the air. And… there was a cake! This was a proper party.

  My parents themselves were the real miracle though, they were actually here! My Dad smiled, “I wouldn’t miss this one for anything. The last birthday before you start your journey.” He was a pretty thin guy, his skin pale and his hair jet black and short, any ruffles or imperfections not showing. His face was pretty good-looking though, and his smiles were contagious… despite how little I see them.

  My Mother’s hair was longer, but only went down a little past her shoulders. It was a darker brown, and pretty wavy. Her face held a tired smile, and she nodded in agreement with Dad. Her skin was less fair too, and that carried over with my sister too apparently.

  My sister also had my mother’s facial features, but her hair was black, with the tips showing a dark shade of brown. It was longer than her mother’s, but wavy like hers. I had pale skin like my father, and despite everyone’s eyes being black, mine were gray, like a storm, a lot of people said. Whatever that meant.

  Anyways, I had black hair too. Though mine actually went past down to my ear and it was pretty messy too. My sister didn’t care enough to pressure me about it, and my parents weren’t there to pressure me about it. Speaking of, they were dressed casually, not in work clothes for once.

  After I was done being shocked, we actually had dinner together. It was pleasant, and nice to talk with my parents in person. They were often out for business trips, or just business. I wasn’t really interested in what they did. Almost since the age of 8, it’s been just my sister raising me.

  I didn’t let that get me down, though. This birthday was quickly elevated from a meh, to a pretty darn good one in my book. But after dinner it was where things really started to get good.

  “Oh! We got you a gift too,” my mother suddenly chimed in. We had been talking about gifts, I already got my sister’s. It was the previously mentioned bean bag chair. After receiving it, she suggested I use it. Which led to… the hours of forum browsing. But back to my parents.

  My father’s eyes widened a little as he nodded, “Oh. Yes, wait a second, let me go get it.”

  He rose from his spot on the living room couch and walked towards his office. A present? Previous presents from my parents ranged from pretty good, to pretty useless.

  My father walked back into the room with his hands behind his back, I couldn’t really read his face, I had no guesses on what this could be.

  My mother rose to join my father and started talking, “I know that you’ve probably been lonely for a pretty long time. And we’re really sorry for that. Your sister is busy sometimes and can’t spend time with you all the time.”

  I looked towards my sister, who didn’t seem to show any offense to that—it was true anyways, and I was pretty lonely, but what were they getting at with all this?

  “So with this gift,” my Dad continued. “We hoped to give you someone to talk to. Even relate to, maybe? Ahem, and now, with your fourteenth birthday, and the last one before you start your journey, I think it’s the perfect time.”

  Oh. I knew what it was, a Pokémon! It was a Pokémon, wasn’t it? But what kind? This was really exciting, was I really about to get my first Pokémon right now? Sure enough, my father revealed a pokeball in his hands. My face must’ve looked pretty surprised because Melissa took a picture of me.

  That didn’t really matter. I reached forward for the pokeball, getting a closer look. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen one, but none of us owned any Pokémon, so it was rare I got to see one.

  The sleek red metal shined as I got closer, revealing a holographic image of the Pokémon inside. It was green… thing. I couldn’t see it that well, I tried to squint to get a better loo-

  “What are you doing?” Melissa interrupted, “Just open the pokeball and meet it!”

  “Don’t be rude,” My mom rebuked. “But it is yours, Genesis. You should meet it.”

  “Him.” My father corrected. It was a boy.

  Alright then, I grabbed the pokeball and pointed it outwards. I pushed the button with my thumb and the pokeball popped open, almost making me drop it as it let out the white energy within. The energy reshaped into a blob, before solidifying so that I can see my actual Pokémon.

  It looked like two light green orbs had collided with each other. On each was a single black eye, and there was a red… diamond shaped thing in between them. Also, there was a yellow swirly thing on one of them. Also, it was encased in a substance. It kinda looked like jelly.

  Despite the odd appearance, I definitely know what this Pokémon was. It was on the tip of my tongue…

  “You got me a Solosis?” I ask, mildly bewildered. “I guess it’s kinda cute. It’s a psychic type, though.”

  I poked the Solosis, it felt like jelly too. The Solosis looked at me with curiousity, it seemed like it was analyzing me… or something. I heard the click of Melissa taking another picture.

  My father nodded, “Yes. I did some research, psychic types are the most useful for a trainer. They can also make things a lot safer, plus… I thought you might like one.”

  Melissa clapped, “Well! You should get to know your new Pokémon! Why don’t you go to your room with it and… do stuff with it? Yeah.”

  I hummed in agreement, and considered putting Solosis into its pokeball to carry it. I didn’t really know if Solosis liked to be in its pokeball though. I considered carrying it, but… touching felt weird. Then I realized Solosis was living, and technically mine. It would listen to me. Or at least I think it would.

  “Hey, Solosis. Follow me upstairs.”

  Solosis let out an agreeable gurgle and followed me as I walked upstairs. He floated up the stairs with no problem. I could admit that was kinda cool.

  …

  “Okay. So umm… I’m your new trainer,” I said, a little nervous to be meeting a new person. Or Pokémon. A Pokémon was a person, though. But I guess a Pokémon I owned couldn’t decide to stop listening. “My name is Gen. I mean, Genesis, actually, but you can call me Gen.”

  Solosis lets out another sound, and then a string of sounds. I couldn’t quite make out what it was saying though. Or who was saying it. There were two heads, did that mean there were two brains in there. And technically, two people? I needed to do some research. Solosis was pretty rare in Johto, so I didn’t know much about it.

  “I can’t… understand you.”

  Solosis blinked, then he appeared to be in thought. Suddenly, a strange feeling assaulted my brain. It felt like something was trying to touch my mind… or something. This feels so weird! I wasn’t actually in pain but it felt strange…

  Okay, what the fuck is happening? Wait, this was Solosis’ doing, wasn’t it?

  “What are you doing?” I asked, now noticing that Solosis seemed to be in concentration. I barely noticed as the sensation started to fade. Nothing felt like it was trying to worm into my brain, but I could still… feel it?

  Suddenly, an emotion that was definitely not mine could be felt. This was Solosis’ feelings, I could feel it, almost like it was a tangible thing in between us. Satisfaction. And while Solosis felt satisfaction, I was quite confused. Why was I feeling its emotions? Wait. I knew what this was…

  “Did you… establish a bond between us?” I asked, still bewildered.

  Solosis let out an agreeable gurgle, and also confirmation through our newly established bond. That felt kinda weird, and also like I should’ve been given consent before this happened?

  “Don’t these hurt? And I thought they took time, is it gonna like, start giving me headaches all the time? This is sooo weird.”

  Solosis sent a feeling of unknowingness and confusion. Guess it didn’t know. Why couldn’t I have gotten a normal Pokémon?

  Oh. Wait. This was actually quite cool. Most trainers couldn’t tell what they’re Pokémon was thinking unless they had really bonded with it. But this gave me a heck of an advantage.

  Besides, Solosis was kinda cool. “Okay, so I want to go on a journey and become a champion. Or, at least try, I’m probably not gonna get that far. That means you’ll have to do a lot of battling, if that’s something you want. If you don’t, I guess you could just be my companion or something…”

  Solosis sent a positive feeling through our bond. Now that I was a bit more relaxed, it felt kinda good?

  “You want to battle with me?”

  Solosis confirmed it.

  “That's… awesome. Ha, that’s actually pretty great! We’re gonna do great. I think. Hey, I think you should have a nickname. Unless you don’t want to, but I think having a nickname is better than having to call you Solosis. Makes you unique.”

  Solosis sent his feelings of affirmation and curiosity. I got to work thinking of a nickname immediately. I didn’t want to call him a regular name… like, Carl, or something. But… maybe I’ll just make it simple.

  “How does Sol sound?” I asked, and Solosis moved around in agreement and excitement. “Alright, then Sol it is!” I grinned, now we were definitely making progress!

  “Alright, then. We’ll take Johto by storm, Sol.”

  My birthday passed pretty normally. My parents left before the day was over, but it was still a pretty cool birthday, how could it not? I got a Pokémon!

  I tapped the screen on my pokegear, Sol watching intently. This was all new to him, apparently he was only like a year old or something. Anyways, I was actually looking at the forums. To be more specific, information on Solosis.

  It greatly perplexed Solosis to see his own picture. I was more fascinated by the information they were giving me though. Apparently, the liquid encasing its body was kinda like its life juice? When talking about it, the forums had a link to a page about it, but it was science mumbo jumbo I didn’t understand.

  So yeah, those juices were basically how it stayed alive, and how its brain… things, got nutrients. It produced the juice itself, though I wonder how it did that…? Anyways, if it was hurt too badly, apparently it could start leaking. It produced its life juice faster than it usually leaked. But I was still concerned about that. In case of leaking, I should take it to a Pokémon Center anyways, or keep it in its pokeball. Leaks were usually healed overtime, in about a few hours, they said. Unless it was really bad.

  I hope it will never come to that.

  But due to this weird juice, it could survive basically anywhere. And due to its encasing, it didn’t usually suffer from heat, cold, and it could even survive in space. That was pretty cool.

  My attention was quickly snatched up by someone talking pretty loudly in front of me. Cherrygrove City was a pretty small town, and in the old days, it was pretty much all a dirt road. Now some of the town had pavement and concrete roads—usually the areas with the important businesses and buildings—while the dirt roads remained near a park and a few old homes.

  I liked the park, it was a lot quieter than the heart of the town. And it wasn’t far from my house, so that was another bonus. And usually, people didn’t hang out here, which is why I was surprised to see someone—technically, two people.

  “Yep, I already got my trainers license and everything. Me and Nidoran are going to blaze through the circuit, just watch…”

  I glanced up to see who it was, but due to that voice. I could already pretty much tell. It was Matthew and Jared, his friend.

  I wouldn’t say they’re the typical bullies. But they—actually, not they, just Matthew. Jared was basically his hype buddy. Anyway, he likes to flaunt and brag and he wasn’t exactly nice about it. Especially to me. Everyone else usually just ignored me, but Matthew couldn’t even do that.

  Which explains why he was looking straight at me, and Solosis.

  “So you got a Pokémon? And a…” Matt trailed off, squinting at the Pokémon floating beside me. “What is that?”

  “A Solosis.”

  “And what type is it?”

  I don’t know why he was probing me for answers, but it was better to just answer, right? “It’s a psychic type.”

  Matt smirked, “Of course, yeah, whatever. If you think a type advantage will trump me, then think again. You don’t even have a trainer card yet, do you?”

  I shake my head, and Matt’s smirk widens before he walks off with one last glance at Solosis. That interaction felt… weird, Matt was really interested in Solosis. Probably because it was a Pokémon he didn’t know, he never liked not knowing something.

  Confusion. I glanced over back at Sol.

  “Don’t worry about it, Matt’s just a guy who doesn’t have anything better to do… and all that junk. I dunno…” I wish I’d been able to say something against him though, my test for my trainer card was soon, but…

  I stood up, putting my pokegear back into my pocket. “We can still do a little bit of training, right? See what you know at least. We’re gonna have to battle to earn money, so…”

  Solosis seemed to approve of the idea, and so we set off to find a suitable place to train.

  …

  What we settled on was a small clearing surrounded by trees. The routes and ocean that surrounded Cherrygrove were fairly tame because so many people traveled the roads. Though they weren’t regulated by rangers or anything. In any case, the place we had settled on was just on the outskirts of Cherrygrove and not on an actual route, so I deemed it safe enough to train in.

  “Okay, I said. Show me whatcha got.” I said, a little excited to finally be commanding a Pokémon. Not in battle, but that would come soon.

  Sol faced towards a tree, and focused. After a few seconds, Sol let go of its energy and I could see a few faint purple rings that dissipated within seconds and didn’t even hit the tree. I could feel the psychic energy within the air though. Even so, Sol looked disappointed at the turnout.

  My mind immediately went to affirmations for Solosis. “It’s okay, we can work on it. This is definitely a good base to work off of.”

  Sol perked up again and using its emotions I deciphered what it was trying to tell me. It had another move, I told Sol to use it and once again it focused. A thin, white screen expanded from nothing in front of Sol. It faded just as quickly as it came though.

  “Was that protect?” I asked, though it didn’t look like any protect I’ve ever seen.

  Negativity.

  “Reflect?”

  Affirmations. I got it right on the second try. That was a reflect? It seemed pretty weak, with how it dissipated immediately but Solosis seemed to be proud of it. That didn’t really matter though, we could work on it.

  And so, the rest of the day was spent fooling around with Solosis’ powers. I wanted to get to training and get stronger, but the night encroached upon us quickly. And soon we went back home, ate, and went to sleep.

  Tomorrow, I thought I’d do some more training. But really, I spent most of the day on my pokegear trying to search up information about Solosis. This would be so much easier with a Pokédex… soon.

  Anyway, using the internet I found out a couple of things. Sol wasn’t two beings yet, but it would be once it evolved. That was… interesting, it felt kind of scary too. What would splitting in two feel like? Wouldn’t they just be the same? I decided it was too early to think about stuff like that and kept searching for other stuff.

  Apparently, Reflect worked a lot differently than I thought it would. It protected against mainly physical attacks, yes, but it disappeared as soon as you used it and only appeared once a Pokémon striked it. That was interesting. So how powerful was Sol’s protect, was the question? I couldn’t really test it. But I’d like to, in the future.

  As far as training went, I didn’t get to do much today either. I wanted to train, but I might’ve gotten carried away while searching the internet for stuff. Sol tried to talk to me a lot that day, but I couldn’t understand everything he said.

  I could understand his emotions easily, and sometimes even his intent, but other than that I couldn’t understand complex thoughts that he sometimes tried to convey. And he liked to talk a lot, to me, at least. We had a lot of moments where I could understand what he tried to say. I hoped that changed soon.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Another reason I wasn’t able to train as much was studying. Not for school, of course, but for the trainers’ test. To become a trainer, you had to demonstrate the knowledge needed to survive, and only then would you receive a trainers card. It was necessary, I guess. It still sucked. You had to learn rules like you couldn’t go outside of city limits or off route without six badges or more. Boring stuff, but I had to learn it anyway. Not all of it was boring though, just most of it, and I had Sol to keep my company.

  Oh yeah. Apparently my parents had registered Sol as a pet since I wasn’t an official trainer yet. He still belonged to me, but I couldn’t technically battle with him. Just more reason for me to study and pass this test. Thankfully, I was never bad at studying.

  But that day passed by very quickly, there was only a few days until I got to take my test now. But this day, I would actually spend on training.

  I returned to the same area as before to train this time.

  “Okay, we should improve your confusion if we want it to be useful in battle, yeah?” I said, already thinking about how we could do this.

  Confusion was a basic psychic attack—one of the weakest—that could be used with a chance to confuse. That was because of the purple rings that were hypnotic when being attacked with. Right now it was barely visible, and wouldn’t last long enough to hit a Pokémon. I think that actually hitting the Pokémon was more important than making it stronger.

  “Try and focus on maintaining the psychic energy, I think that’ll help.” I advised, trying to follow information I’d seen online about training Pokemon.

  Sol followed this advice and began to train, using Confusion over and over again while focusing. I could already see it began to improve, it lasted longer and went farther. I could even make it out clearly. But it had the side effect of tiring Solosis out, which I didn’t think was possible considering he was just using his mind but apparently it was.

  We took a break an hour or two in and ate lunch. I thought about training the whole time. To get the most out of it, we’d probably have to wake up earlier, right? I’d never been an early riser, but I could try. I considered adding a morning run to training exercises, but Sol didn’t run, so…

  I mean, I could still run. A lot of advice online said that the trainer should train along with the Pokémon. That meant I couldn’t slack off too, I’d deal with that later I decided. After I got my license, maybe.

  Even if Sol couldn’t run, I thought that maybe levitating higher would be similar to running. After break, we practiced for a few more hours and went home. Sol was really tired by the end, I felt pretty bad for pushing him so hard.

  My sister wasn’t back yet from… wherever she went. And I was hungry, but like, not hungry enough for dinner. I scoured the fridge, everything was mediocre and I wasn’t ready to lower my standards just yet. I checked the freezer and…

  Bingo.

  Hmmm. “Hey, Sol. You can taste things, right?”

  Affirmation. Was all that he sent, but I got the feeling it was more complicated. The information I had found on Solosis said that any food it got dissolved in its life juice or… something and supplied it nutrients. It could technically sense and experience if it was sweet, bitter, spicy, etc.

  I turned back to the freezer and smiled as I picked a cold carton of ice cream. Someone had bought it from my ice cream—on top of the cake, man, that was good—but it wouldn’t hurt to take a little now, right?

  I grabbed an appropriate cup for both of us and a spoon for me. Scooped out the ice cream and then put it back. “Alright! Sol, Ice cream’s amazing, literally like the best thing ever made.”

  I may have been exaggerating, but I had a sweet tooth and wasn’t afraid to hide it. Sol bobbed its head before absorbing some of it into its body. I watched as it dissolved.

  Mild enjoyment.

  It looked like Sol didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. Sol levitated his ice cream into my bowl, which gave me an idea.

  …

  After I finished my ice cream, I grabbed a soccer ball and headed outside with Sol. We were going to play catch. As I said, Pokemon like Solosis could use telekinesis very early, they had an innate ability for it. So I hoped to be able to train that skill even more so Sol could stop opposing attacks or even Pokémon from even hitting him.

  And honestly, it was pretty fun too. Sol didn’t seem to get tired from playing catch like he did when practicing his psychic attacks. So we played catch until dinner and then I studied some more. There seemed to be no noticeable difference in Sol’s telekinesis skill, maybe he needed a bigger or heavier ball to challenge him? Or maybe I was expecting change too quickly.

  The next few days went the same way. I headed outside to train first, which was quickly gaining some results. I didn’t really work on reflect—I didn’t even know how strong it was in the first place. I couldn’t test it out on wild Pokémon and apparently only people trained in martial arts or something similar could break a standard reflect, so it would have to come later. Confusion actually looked like a move, the pulses moved forward quicker and they were fully visible and were able to damage the tree. With more power came a bigger charge up time though, so I was trying to focus on that next.

  We kept playing catch, again, no noticeable change. I was pretty confident in my knowledge of trainer regulations and the like. There’s no way I was failing this test. And also I kept studying Solosis. Turns out, there was a lot of information about one Pokémon that one could find. I was pretty much an expert in all things Solosis now, sort of. I learned about Sol’s moves, supposedly there were more moves that he knew like Protect, Psywave, or Recover, but he wasn’t ready to learn them yet. When he was, it’d be easy to, though.

  This was actually the case with almost all Pokémon, and especially ones with unusual parents. If they passed a special move down, it was exactly like that. It was very interesting to learn about.

  I had gone to sleep very confident that I was going to pass the trainers’ test and become a real trainer. “G’night, Sol.” I said before falling asleep.

  “Wake up.”

  Shit. Who was that? Was that my sister? Didn’t sound like her, actually, the sounded like it came from my own head. Wait, was someone kidnapping me or something?

  My eyes snapped open and I immediately sat up, but I was in my room. And the only one in here was Solosis.

  “Oh shi- I mean, that actually worked. You heard me, right?”

  The voice sounded… kinda slimy. Like I was hugging Sol or something. Wait, it was coming from inside me so how could I hear it. Wait…

  “Sol, you learned telepathy?” I asked, somewhat breathlessly and amazed.

  “Yes. Now thinking of it, I should’ve pranked you with this first.” Sol responded while floating in front of me.

  Ignoring his juvenile idea, I thought about this recent development. I knew this was going to happen eventually, but this soon? Usually it took a few weeks, not a few days!

  “This is awesome, I can tell exactly what you mean!”

  “Right?” Sol agreed. “That was very annoying.”

  I nodded slowly, still amazed at the revelation. God, it was way too early for such excitement.

  “Anyway, hurry up and get ready. You’re booked in two hours, remember?”

  Ugh. Why did I pick so early again?

  …

  “If you gave me your pokegear, I could tell you the answers to the questions.” Sol suggested while I was eating breakfast.

  Sol was a lot more wild than I thought he would be. He kept suggesting ways to cheat, and while I felt tempted to take one. I still had some sense of honor. I swallowed the piece of pancake and responded, “Sol, I’m not gonna cheat, stop giving me suggestions about it.”

  “I just don’t want my chance to fight all around Johto to be squandered just because you failed a stupid test.”

  “I’m not gonna fail, I’ve been studying for days. Don’t you trust me?”

  “Somewhat. But still.”

  “Whatever.” I refocused back on my food, finishing it within moments. Despite Sol’s uneasiness, I knew I was going to pass this. And I was excited to get it over with, I washed my plate and waited for my sister to come down. We had agreed to go together, though I didn’t need her there, she was excited to see me become a trainer too.

  Of course my parents weren’t here though.

  “You’re already ready, must be excited, huh?”

  I turned around to see my sister wrapping a bag around onto her shoulder with a smile. I nod, “Yep. Been preparing for this all week.”

  “I’ve know you’ll ace the exam,” Melissa said, before turning to Sol. “Then you and this cutie will be able to go out on a journey.”

  “You’ll call any Pokémon cute,” I retorted.

  “I am cute!” Sol responded, having clearly loved the attention.

  “Yeah, you are! But Mel would think a frickin’ Grimer is cute.

  “I wish I could talk to Sol too!” Melissa complained, before remembering our current task. “Enough talking, actually. We’ve got to head to the Pokémon Center asap.”

  Lucky for us, the walk to the Pokémon Center was a short, fifteen mount walk. There was only one Pokémon Center in Cherrygrove City so it was nice that it wasn’t too far from our home. That meant that it was the only place one could register for the Pokémon League.

  Larger cities, or ones that had gyms, had more than one Pokémon Center, though usually there was only one where you could sign up to be a trainer. Citizens of Cherrygrove City had been wanting another one with the expansion over the last few decades bur no luck yet.

  Luckily, I’ve never needed to go to a Pokémon Center.

  Until now, I thought while facing down the pokeball plastered above the Pokémon Center’s door. It had a pink outline and white insides, the official sign of a Pokémon Center.

  “Let’s go in,” my sister said, taking the lead. The doors opened automatically, and I followed before they closed.

  The hub of the Pokémon Center was a busy place, and pretty big too. It was mostly a pastel pink and red, with benches along the side. The centerpiece of course being the main desk where a Nurse Joy resided. Aside from her, there were lots of people in the center, trainers and the like.

  Though there were battle facilities now—even Cherrygrove had one, though it had only been built in the last few years—to hang out and exchange battle techniques. Lots of trainers still used the Pokémon Center to socialize with trainers. Maybe because it’s where your Pokémon would be healed, or because most trainers used the free.

  I wasn’t here for any of those things though, me and my sister headed towards Nurse Joy who also doubled as a receptionist.

  “We came here to take the trainers’ test.” Melissa said to the pink-haired woman behind the front desk.

  Nurse Joy nodded, doing something on her computer while talking, “Both of you?”

  “Uh! No, just me.” I immediately answered, feeling like I should contribute. Though maybe that was too abrupt?

  “Got it. Are you Genesis Carter?” Nurse Joy asked.

  “Yep,” I nod.

  Nurse Joy nods to herself, then points towards a hallway. “The test area is that way. Follow the signs, it’s almost starting.”

  At that, me and my sister started to shuffle a little bit faster. The signs were easy to follow at least, I hated when people asked seemingly simple things that I managed to get confused on anyways.

  The test area was very standard, it was larger than most school classrooms, almost two times as big—the Pokémon Center was very big. It was set up like a regular classroom though, despite having more space. Desks in columns and rows and a bigger desk at the front of the room. A man that I did not recognize was sitting there, and almost every desk was filled so I didn’t have much choice of where to sit.

  I said goodbye to my sister and left Sol with her. Pokémon weren’t allowed in the test zone, especially psychic types. After a few more minutes, the man started talking.

  “Alright, so I know you guys are all itching to start. So let’s go over this quickly, first the important stuff. You have to get an 85%, probably higher than you’re expecting, unless, of course, you studied.”

  The man paused for a few seconds. I had known about the percentage needed to pass, which was higher than I thought originally. But I was still confident I could pass. The man started to explain the rules next, no cheating, no talking, no…

  Yeah, all that stuff. It went on for longer than I thought it would, but finally, they started passing out the test.

  Damn, the test papers were a lot thicker than I thought it would be. This was going to take a long fucking time. Good thing we had two whole hours… ugh.

  Most of the questions were pretty basic, there was a section about Pokemon—types, different kinds of Pokémon, all the basics, I assumed it would be the easiest, though. I think I got all of them right, at least.

  And the sections went on like that, nest was status conditions, berries, what kind of berries did what—I was seriously stressing over the ones that helped Pokémon resist type energy (seriously how does that work?). Anyways, there was also a section on medicine, Pokemon injuries, and healing.

  But then I got to the real kickers. The questions I wasn’t completely sure if I got right or wrong. Trainer regulations—what trainers could do and couldn’t, the type of Pokémon trainers could catch, ranks, restrictions due to badges, among other things.

  Questions like if a trainer could catch a Pokémon with a weight of x. Or if flying at altitudes of y were above the city limits. I can’t cram that much information into my head. It was in times like these I wish I had taken up Sol’s ideas for cheating. He’d most definitely be caught though, so all he could do was try his best.

  After what seemed like an eternity, I was finally done.

  You weren’t allowed to have any electronics, so I glanced intently at the clock at the other side of the room. It was… 10:34? I couldn’t believe I’d been at this for two hours and a half, I sighed, hoping for the best as I grabbed my paper and stood up, walking towards the start of the room and handing it to the teacher.

  “You done?” The instructor asked, looking up from his computer.

  I nod, and he starts to look over my paper. I stand there awkwardly, feeling the compulsive need to say something. I shouldn’t though, instead I looked over the room. There were still lots of people taking the test, but less than before. I’d watched as people who finished before me went up and got their test graded and left.

  It was kind of nerve wracking to see my paper getting graded. I could lean over and watch, but somehow, that felt… wrong.

  I kept entertaining myself with random thoughts until he finally spoke up.

  “Congratulations, you passed. You got a 92%, which is a passing grade. Head to the waiting room and… wait, I’ll get this filed and you should get all the correct trainer supplies by the time the test is over.”

  “Thank you,” I said and quickly shuffled out of the room. It looked like he had something else to say, but I was too excited. Couldn’t be too important though, right?

  I saw the waiting room on the way there, and it is right next to the test area. I sat down on a blue chair and saw that the others that had already finished were here too. We’d have to wait another hour at least before we got anything, I realized.

  This was going to be boring.

  …

  “Genesis, you’re getting your trainer card! Come on, get the hell up you—“ “I get it, Sol!”

  Wait, what? I opened my eyes to see the waiting room was a lot more active than when I closed it. Must’ve dozed off. Wait, what did Sol say? I looked around to see Melissa in the seat beside me, looking confused. Probably because she couldn’t tell what Sol said. But there was also a man coming down the aisle of chairs giving out… trainer cards to the other participants.

  My stomach felt a little jittery at this moment, this was like, the second best day of my life. “You’re right, they are giving out trainer cards.” I managed to say, which didn’t fit the situation somehow.

  “Well, duh. That’s what I just told you!”

  Sol was being way more witty towards me ever since being able to talk to me, which was this morning!

  “Oh, yes,” Melissa finally interrupted. “I forgot to congratulate you about passing! That’s awesome, y’know? I wanted to earlier, but you were sleeping. We should totally celebrate when we get home.”

  “It really wasn’t that hard, I-“

  “Are you Genesis Carter?” A man interrupted, the same one who was handing out trainer cards.

  I nodded my head, feeling like my heart had suddenly sped up. The man selected a trainer card and a Pokédex from a box and gave them to me. “This trainer card is how you identify yourself as a trainer and display information about yourself. It’s also how you’ll show up on the official trainer database, you can link to your online accounts and computer, and whatnot. The Pokédex scans information about your Pokémon and shows you information about virtually any Pokémon. You can link that to your card too, if you want. Congrats, bye.”

  After the man finished his speech, I looked down at the two electronic devices in my hand. One was sleek, white in color, and displayed my name, picture, badges, and a miniature version of my only Pokémon, Sol. The other was a slightly bulkier red device, which made sense considering it did so many other things. The screen was black, it was turned off.

  “Can we leave now? You’re a trainer, let’s get out of here.” Sol immediately said, taking me out of the moment.

  I sigh and stand up, “Yeah. I was just taking in the moment, and also these devices. They’re seriously cool, y’know?”

  My sister laughed, “I sort of wish I had one of those pokedexes too. Never liked Pokémon battling that much though.”

  “Yeah… let’s get out of here, what was that you said about celebrating?”

  And so, I was on my way to become a Pokémon Champion. Or something like that, I seriously doubted I was getting that far.

  We celebrated hard that night—my parents didn’t show up, but that was whatever—and the very next day, it was back to training. I was pretty invigorated after getting my trainer card, and motivated to actually get some progress done. Speaking of my trainer card…

  “How the heck do I do this?” I muttered to myself, selecting the Help button on my Pokédex. I read through the instructions, which were actually pretty simple. There were just way too many buttons on this device. I clicked one of the buttons on the side, and pointed my Pokédex towards my trainer card. It scanned it with a red light and a notice popped up on the Pokédex’s screen.

  I skimmed over it, it was basically just saying I’d linked my ID, yada yada. My Pokédex could also be used as identification too now. Apparently they were thinking about merging the Pokédex and trainer card into one, which would be convenient.

  “Hey, what are you doing? We’re supposed to be training!”

  I took another glance through my dex before looking back to Sol’s training. He had stopped practicing Confusion to scold me.

  “Sorry, show me another Confusion?”

  Solosis huffed, “Sure.” The green ball turned back towards a tree that’s skin was falling off due to repeated abuse. Concentrating for a few seconds, he let out a series of small hypnotic rings. They hit the tree, causing a ring pattern shaped mark to be formed. Of course, on an actual Pokémon the damage would be delivered mentally too, but we couldn’t fight actual Pokémon yet.

  Well, technically we could, now that I was a trainer. But I didn’t want to disrupt some wild Pokémon.

  “That’s good, we’ve made a lot of progress on Confusion in the past few days. It’s a fully fledged move now. We’ve got to start expanding your movepool now…”

  I started to think we were going to be heading out in about a week or so—mental note to buy supplies for my journey—and so adding more moves to Sol’s arsenal was essential. We could try for Psywave, which would be easy apparently, but I wasn’t sure yet, and we already had a psychic attack for now. There were moves like Rollout, Light Screen and Hidden Power.

  The gym that we’d come across first would be flying type, wouldn’t it? A rock type move would be awesome…

  “What do you think about Rollout?” I asked Sol.

  He responded after a moment of thought, “I’ve never tried fighting up close. Rollout hinges on momentum, too, right? If you’re thinking about using it against flying types. It’ll be hard to get them in place long enough.”

  “But you can like, fly and stuff. Huh… maybe we could use your psychic powers to speed the process up.”

  That’d take an immense skill over psychic energy though. How did one train such a thing? I glanced at the time and announced it was time to go home. We’d figure the rest out tomorrow.

  But that’s not what ended up happening the next day.

  …

  “Gen, battle me.” Matt said, still sporting a confident smirk.

  I’d been hoping to avoid him as he walked by, but the brown haired boy had walked directly in my path. This sucks.

  I didn’t exactly want to battle, “Uh… no? We can battle some other time, maybe.”

  “Battle me right now! C’mon, you’re not scared, are you? Besides, you need real experience if you’re ever gonna succeed.”

  I wasn’t scared—though I didn’t want to lose—but he did raise a good point. I’d had no chance to actually battle someone else. Sol wouldn’t get better with only training.

  “Uh… just a second, Matt.” I said, I decided to let Sol choose if we battled or not.

  Matt frowned, “Fine. Just don’t take too long.”

  I walked a few paces back, and turned to Sol who’s been floating by my side. “Should we battle or not? I mean…”

  “Hell yes. Let’s fucking battle this guy!” Sol immediately responded, surprising me. “He’s annoying, and also, I want to test my attacks! You’re gonna get into a battle sooner or later.”

  He was right, it didn't matter if it was against someone I disliked. I’d have probably battled him anyways. Matt was planning to go on a journey too, we could even be rivals…

  Okay, I was in.

  “I’ll battle.”

  Matt’s grin widened, like he knew I would expect. “Then come on and follow me, we’re doing it in the battle facility.”

  In the battle facility, huh? I never thought I’d see the day I’d battle in one of those. Cherrygrove’s was only built a few years ago, so it was still a fairly new sight to see. It was a pretty big building that was mostly white, with a little blue, and held several battlefields. There were referees—not trained ones like at tournaments or the league, these were volunteers usually—for the multiple battles going on.

  The battle facility around here was usually in constant use in league season. Despite the fact that our town didn’t actually have a gym. Trainers—usually beginners to the intermediate level battled here.

  Luckily, there was an open field. Matt and I registered ourselves as opponents using our trainer cards. That meant this battle was recorded and would count towards our win loss ratio. I checked Matt’s profile briefly, he had 4 wins to 0 losses. Not much, but a lot more than my 0 wins.

  I was suddenly feeling a lot more nervous now.

  There were a few people watching our battle, some I recognized as Matt’s friends while the others seemed to be strangers. That was sort of odd, seeing how we were beginners. Maybe some people just liked to watch stuff like this.

  “This battle between Matthew Pine and Genesis Carter will be a one on one. League rules apply, begin!”

  I was too distracted to realize the battle was starting. Even so, I smiled, my first battle! I had to make it a good one.

  “Solosis, go!” I called, maybe a little bit too exaggerated for my own taste. Solosis moved from my side to the battlefield, as Matt called on his Nidoran first. It’s more purple complexion meant it was obviously a male. The small rabbit-like Pokémon stood alert, ready for battle.

  Matt got the first command in. “Nidoran, go in quick and use Poison Sting!”

  “Reflect!”

  A white, thin layer of protection was put between Solosis and Nidoran. It faded quickly, but Gen knew that it would appear if Nidoran tried another physical attack. Evidently, Matt knew too, considering how he reacted.

  “Nidoran, stop!”

  I stopped his attack! This was going a lot better than I thought it would. Nidoran were pretty common, more in Kanto than in Johto but I knew the few attacks they knew this early were physical. And Nidoran obviously wasn’t strong enough to break the Reflect, so I had this!

  “Confusion!”

  Sol shot out his rings of purple psychic energy right at Nidoran. They were on track to hit until…

  “Out of the way, then Confusion too!” Matt ordered.

  Nidoran did a sideways barrel roll that ended with a rough landing. Nidoran got back on its feet quickly though, managing to have completely evade my attack. Then, to my shock, it shot back with the exact same attack—albeit smaller.

  “You looked shock, Gen. My Nidoran isn’t no ordinary Nidoran, not only is it bigger than the average for a Nidoran, its parent also passed it down the move Confusion!”

  Well, that explained that. But Nidoran were poison types, psychic type moves wouldnt come so easily to them. I had to admit, Matt did train his Nidoran well. I looked back to the battlefield, where Sol was dodging confusion. Less thinking, more commanding.

  “Sol, multiple Confusions! Box it into one area, and don’t worry about taking Confusions, they won’t hurt you as much!”

  My plan was pretty simple, lead the Nidoran back towards the edge of the field. Our attacks were super effective so it needed to dodge. But when we had it cornered, we could attack in full force and overwhelm it. It may have a ranged attack too, but that wouldn’t do enough damage to knock Sol out.

  I could still do this. A small smile made its way to my face, I was feeling the battle now. My plan was easier said than done, Nidoran wouldn’t let itself be cornered that easily. Since I could see over the whole field, I commanded Sol on where to shoot its confusions so that we would get it into proper position. Of course, Nidoran fought back with its own Confusion, but Sol took it like a champ. Three or four confusions would only tire him a little.

  Eventually, my plan came to fruition as Nidoran backed up against the line of the battlefield. It looked back, knowing it couldn’t go any farther or risk being disqualified. It shot out another Confusion to try and gain some ground, but Sol didn’t budge.

  I paused for a dramatic second before giving the final command. But before I could, Matt interrupted. “Go in quick! Peck and Poison Sting, aim to puncture!”

  Nidoran showed no hesitation, diving in towards Sol which surprised both of us. I figured it was a last minute attempt now that they had no other options. I wasn’t worried, Reflect would shove them back.

  Nidoran smashed right into the Reflect with a Poison Sting, its horn full of deadly poison. The reflect cracked, shocking me. Shoot, I had to do something! Before I could open my mouth again, Nidoran obliterated the reflect with another Poison Sting and pounced on Sol.

  “Confusion!” I shouted out, but it was in vain. Solosis shot another Confusion out that didn’t hit Nidoran in the slightest as it started to attack. A Poison Sting plunged into its skin, and I could feel Solosis’ pain through our bond.

  Shoot, what should I do?

  Nidoran dragged its horn in a line before halting its Poison Sting. Sol moved wildly as he tried to get Nidoran off, but it was resilient. I reached for my pokeball, thinking maybe I should forfeit at this point. Nidoran pecked at its previous attacking point, and tore into Sol’s fluids.

  He was leaking his… life juice or whatever.

  Sol immediately started to hover lower and his eyes started to flicker. I could feel tiredness through our bond. I had to do something…

  “I… I forfeit!” I announced, aiming my pokeball at Sol. I looked towards the referee, and he announced Matt’s win. I muttered a return call and a red light sucked Sol into his ball. Shoot.

  I was really worried about Sol, but after a battle, the trainers were supposed to shake hands and all that shit. I walked towards the middle of the battlefield to do so, meeting Matt’s gaze. He was still smiling, did he plan all of this?

  “Good battle,”

  “Good battle.”

  After that exchange, I walked out of the arena, and then hurried out of the facility and towards a Pokémon Center. It was nearby, which was an obvious design choice.

  My first battle was a loss, and even worse, Sol was injured.

  Whatever. I didn’t really think I’d get far anyways.