Work Text:
I swung my backpack over my shoulder. “Ready to go, X?” The litten gave a small meow, thundering down the stairs. I followed after, I turned back. “Bye Mom!!”
She sniffled, “Good luck, dear!” The small meowth at her side gave her a small pat on the back, sighing. I smiled, walking off into route one. Alice was already there, tapping her foot impatiently. She was wearing a blue beach hat and pastel blue dress. She topped it off with light brown sandals.
“Hey, no fair! You weren’t supposed to be here first!!” I ran over to her.
“I oughta get the level advantage, don’t you think? You do have the fire type after all.”
“Maybe if you didn’t pick the grass type you wouldn’t have to! The grass starters drop speed stat in this region.”
“At least I didn’t pick the water type.” I shivered, holding back a hurl.
“Ew. Don’t even talk about Popplio. It’s disgusting.”
“It’s kinda cute though!”
“Don’t.” I repeated, wading my way into the tall grass. The sand blew in the beach scented air. It danced around and twirled to the faint music in the distance. Though, the grass was stained with sand clots and felt chunky.
“Ugh. I hate the beach!” I complained, shaking sand out of my sneakers.
“The beach hates you too.” Alice replied, walking easily along the sand in her sandals. “You only say that cuz you’re from Unova! It’s all damp and foresty there.”
“-IF!! You live in the middle of it and around cities!—“ I cut her off.
“Kalos is surrounded by water so It’s nice! It’s sunny and bright and lively! It’s all dark and gloomy where you live! And the traffic is atrocious!” She cut me off as well, swooning over her thoughts of home.
“Keep your head in Alola, Sunshine!” I groaned, kicking a clod of sandy grass attached to my sneaker. She rolled her eyes, picking up the pace through the sand and grass.
I kept my eyes at my feet, pulling out my phone. She was on the news again, that strange girl. Her name was Linarda Zvinele. They say she was from Kanto. She had arrived here about a month ago or so. She was around our age, me being fourteen and Alice being fourteen as well. Linarda was also fourteen. Heh, funny how things work out. I read the headline.
“Ms. Zvinele conquers the island kahuna of Ula’ Ula!!” I bit my lip in jealousy, I wanted to be famous like that! If only I had started my journey a little sooner!! It wasn’t fair, we were both fourteen, both unfamiliar with the region, and here she is, conquering it and proving herself in front of everyone’s eyes; only because she had been that extra bit quicker. I averted my gaze from the picture of her, her sharp eyes glinting through her oversized sunglasses, and through the screen. Glaring at me. I put my phone back in my pocket, and started at the poke ball that contained X. Soon, I thought, Real soon, me and Alice both.
“Hurry up, Slowpoke!” Alice called, and I snapped back to reality. I sprinted after her.
I trekked along the side of the mountain, Alice walking beside me. It was silent, besides the warm breeze sweeping some grass.
“Hey. I heard you can catch Rockruff this route! It’s super rare though. Twenty percent encounter rate!!”
I smirked, “I bet I can find one faster than you!!” I said, running ahead of her. She scoffed, calling from behind me as she struggled to keep up in her sandals. She gripped her hat from it being swept away by the wind. I laughed, skidding to a halt as I neared a harsh cliff. A few pebbles tumbled down the side, disappearing between a few blades of thick grass.
“Whoa.. you almost just died, or broke a leg or something.” Alice said, peering over the side.
“Yeah, bummer.” I replied.
“Don’t say that! Yikes that was emo. Are you ever positive?” I narrowed my eyes, accepting her challenge.
“Alright, I see a den over there! That looks like a good place to catch Rockruff.” I said.
“Good job.” She said, grabbing her pokeball. She let out her Rowlett, and it landed clumsily on its small talons. She held it in her arms, “Tell me if you see a Rockruff, ok, Mothica?” The owl-like pokemon hooted in response, looking around. She started trailing off.
“H-hey! We’re gonna lose each other if you walk off!” I said, grabbing her arm.
“Fine, meet me back here, you go your own way.” She continued walking. I grunted, letting X out of it’s poke ball.
“You ready to find a Rockruff, buddy? We’re gonna have a super cool Midnight form Lycanrock soon if we do!” The Litten nodded, smiling. “Alright then, let’s get to it, partner!”
I yawned, it was getting dark and I had made no progress on finding a Rockruff. There was a small glint. I immediately turned, two blue eyes glared back at me. My heart jumped for joy, a Rockruff! Alice was gonna be so angry!
“Litten! Go!” I declared, and it trotted in front of me. The Rockruff gave a defiant snarl, walking into the dim orange light from the dusk sun. It looked interested and curious, but it also looked like it wasn’t going to play around either. The Rockruff used tackle, ramming into Litten and scraping the rocks in its fur against him. Litten hissed, reeling back. “X! Use Scratch!” Litten sprung forward, it’s high speed stat serving well. Rockruff used sand attack, spraying sand in X’s eyes. X winced, grumbling in annoyance. “Scratch! One more time!!” Litten sprang forward through narrowed eyes, and missed the Rockruff, only grazing its shoulder. However, it still brought it down below half health. I rummaged around in my back frantically, and found a poke ball. I sighed with relief, and threw it. The red beam flew forward, sucking in the Rockruff. It rolled once…. then twice… three times…!! … … It broke out!
“Myah!!” X’s dismayed.
“Nooo!!” I said along with it. But, the Rockruff was weak. It limped a bit, snapping its jaws at X. X stumbled back, using scratch a final time. The Rockruff collapsed, it’s HP in the red zone. I gasped, looking through my bag again. I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find another one! My fingers brushed something round, and a smile made its way to my face. I lifted the poke ball from the bag, and threw it. The Rockruff was sucked in again. It rolled once…twice….three times!! …
A click noise was heard, I had caught the Rockruff.
“Yes!! Yes yes yes!!” I jumped for joy, picking up X and smiling. He smiled back, giving a small “nya!~” I let the Rockruff out. It was still on low HP, and it looked up at me. It lowered its head in defeat, whimpering. I used a potion and healed them both, petting the Rockruff. I brushed the fur on its head with my hand.
“Hey.. this is actually pretty soft— OW!!” I dragged my hand back. The Rockruff bit me! It huffed, turning away from me. I sighed, laughing it off. “I’ll call you Etch.” The small puppy gave a little yip of approval. I put them both back in their poke balls. “Now to find Alice..”
I opened up my phone, I had been waiting for awhile and still no Alice. I texted her.
ALiCe - ChAn
whatever edge lord
1d ago
yo where u at it’s getting dark?
now
I’m at the PMC. I found an Alolan
Vulpix passed out on the beach!!
;-;
now
oh crap on my way rn
now
I closed my phone and shoved it in my pocket, running toward the Pokemon Center. I sprinted down the mountain, jumping over large stones and branches. Running over the barrier between the rock and stone, I passed through the clumps of hard sand and ran down the street toward Hau’oli City. I halted in front of the PMC and went through the automatic doors. Alice was nowhere to be seen.
I walked up to the Nurse Joy, “Have you seen a girl with black hair and a blue dress on?” She nodded, pointing to the door on the side of her. I dipped my head in thanks, opening the door and walking in.
“Alice?” I asked as I peered in.
“Shh!!” I heard a familiar voice shush from a corner of the room.
“What happened??” I said, looking at the scratched up Vulpix on the bed.
“I don’t know..! It was just washed up on the side of the beach wounded! I didn’t have any revives so I just brought it here!”
“Well, do you plan on keeping it instead of the Rockruff?” I asked.
“Yeah, probably.” I nodded, looking back over to the small white fox. It twitched slightly.
“I think that revive is starting to take effect.” She gasped, her eyes widening in excitement. I smiled, it was always nice to see her happy. The Vulpix slowly blinked its eyes open, then stood on its paws. It shook out its glossy white fur, and sneezed.
Alice neared it slowly, “Hello little one..! A-are you ok?” The Vulpix curled its tail over its face, whimpering timidly. “Ah! It’s ok! I won’t hurt you!” Alice ran her fingers through its fur. It flinched, then slowly raised its head. Its bright blue eyes blinked, it gazed at her curiously. “Aww!! You are such a cutie! I’ll name you Azure.” The Vulpix smiled, rubbing its head against her hand. Alice took out a poke ball and put it toward it. The Vulpix touched i with its nose, and as sucked inside. After a few tips, a click was heard. She caught the Vulpix. She turned to me, smiling big. I gave her a thumbs up, and walked out. She ran after me, “Hey, wait up you big dummy!!”
It was dark outside, about 9:00pm. We were walking on the streets, dragging our feet on the cold stone.
Alice groaned, “Godddd where are gonna sleep??” I rubbed my eyes, yawning.
“There should be an inn around here somewhere, we can rent an apartment.”
“Well hurry up and find oneee! I’m gonna pass out!!” I rolled my eyes. Drama Queen… I opened up my phone, puling up the GPS.
“Nearest inn.” I said, and it rolled up some locations. “Okay so the closest one is around the corner.” She sighed with relief, following me to the Inn.
The lights were on, and the Inn sign said “Alola Inn.” I opened the door, stepping inside. It wasn’t too crowded, but there wasn’t a lack of people either. The tables were filled but it seemed most of them were just visiting. I kept walking, dragging the tired Alice over to the reception desk. “Excuse me, could we rent a room??”
“Yes, which would you like?”
“One with enough room for the two of us, I guess.” I replied, shaking Alice awake a little.
She handed me a key, “There’s a room upstairs to your left, It’ll be 600PD.” I handed her the money, and helped Alice up the stairs.
She collapsed onto her bed, groaning.
“I’m so tired..”
I collapsed onto my bed as well, “I’m beat.” Within a few minutes, I could hear snoring from the other side of the room, and I slowly closed my eyes as well.
My eyes shot open, I felt a sharp pain in my side. I looked over, Alice was tasering me with her fingers.
“Wake up!!” I got up.
“GaAAhhH OkK OK!!” She huffed, backing away and letting me get up. She was already dressed. She was wearing a white T-shirt with a purple ribbon around her, waist. A white beach hat and her brown sandals again, with a purple bag. She wore sunglasses as a finish.
“I’ve been trying to get you up for the past hour!! I got ready by then so get your stuff and go get ready! I’ll be downstairs.”
“Okay!! Ok..” I walked into the bathroom, getting changed. I wore a white T-shirt as well with black sneakers, ripped jeans, and oversized grey sunglasses. I opened my phone. She was on the news yet again.
“Ms. Zvinele conquers the new Pokemon league!” I grumbled in frustration. If Alice hadn’t been so tired last night I could’ve been at the next island challenge by now and getting Z-Crystals! Was she dragging me down..? I shook my head, brushing my hair and teeth and walking downstairs.
Alice was at a table by herself, drinking some tea. “Where we going today?”
“Where ever’s next.” I replied, sitting beside her. I had a bottled water, and I unscrewed the cap.
“The island Kahuna is nearby, we can do the island challenge and make our way out of here and to the next island.” Alice babbled, scrolling through her phone.
“Any other useful Pokemon we need here?” I let X and Etch out of their balls, feeding them.
“Lemme check..” She typed something into her phone. “Not really unless you like Zorua. And there’s also Salamence and that’s pretty OP. But then again it’s way over our level.. what level are your pokemon at?”
“Yeah, uh.. X is level 11 and Etch here is level 10. You?”
“Mothica is level 11 and Azure is level 9.”
“I’ll think about Salamence, where do you find it?”
“Well in route 3 there’s Bagon, so we can just evolve it into a Salamence there.” She explained.
“Uh, I’m not really a Salamence person.” I concluded, not in the mood for it.
“I think It’ll be a good addition to my team. I’ll catch one!” She declared, her eyes glittering in excitement. I chuckled, shaking my head and returning X and Etch. She followed me out of the Inn, handing the keys back to the receptionist.
“I think we should head to Verdant Cavern! That’s where the first trial is, then we can get to route three. The Trail Captain there is… Llima.”
I nodded, “Sounds great! Let’s head over.”
“Yay!!” Alice gushed, smiling big. I smiled back, walking with her down the street.
We arrived at Verdant Cavern, Llima was waiting for us. He had short pastel pink hair and blue eyes. He had on a white tee and brown vest, with white jeans to match. He smiled and waved as we neared him.
“Alola! Welcome to your first Trial! Are you ready?” He shouted in excitement.
“Yes Yes Yes!!” Alice exclaimed, jumping up and down.
“Ya.” I replied as well, closing my phone.
“Good! Ok, let me explain the rules. You see those caves over there?” He pointed to little dens, shadows flashed inside of them, “Inside those dens are Yungoos and Rattata. Defeat three and challenge the Totem Pokemon! Then you can claim your Z- Crystal! Ready?? Go!!” He moved out of the way, and we sprinted in.
I leaned over, looking inside a hole, while Alice sat beside her own with her Rowlett, waiting for something to come out.
“You’re gonna get your face clawed off if you look in like that!!”
“Pay attention to your own hole!” I replied, pointing for Litten to crawl in. X shuffled his way inside, then yelped and ran out as it was chased by a Yungoos. “Crap! X! Use ember!” X whirled around and fired up the move, but was tackled, coughing up little sparks of flame. “Try again! Cmon you can do it!” X arched his back in defiance, and fired up ember again, shooting it out. The Yungoos cried out, and scurried back toward its hole. “I don’t think so!! X! Use scratch!” X ran forward, and clawed the Yungoos. It hissed in defeat, fainting. “Alright!! That’s one down! Two more!”
“One, more.” Alice correct, standing smugly beside a fainted Rattata. “You really should battle more quietly, you’ll scare them off.” I rolled my eyes at her, crawling over to another hole quietly, mimicking X’s hunting pose. Alice stifled a giggle at my ridiculous look, cuffing her hand over her mouth. I ignored her, narrowing my eyes at a flicker inside a den. I heard a scamper from above me. A Rattata stuck its head out of the den up on the hill. It let out a small squeak, and ran back inside. “X! Catch it!” I commanded. X let out a defiant mewl, jumping into the den. The floor rumbled, and the Ratatta appeared out of the den beside Alice, X on it’s tail. “Alice! Now! X, trap it!” X jumped in front of the Rattata, it let out a yip of terror, backing up slowly.
“Mothica! Use Tackle!”
“X! Scratch!” The Rowlett tackled the Rattata, sending it flying into X’s scratch attack. It squeaked, and collapsed, fainted.
“Alright!! Nice work everyone!” I gave Alice a high-five, but missed as she crouched down to heal our Pokemon. I landed with a thud, the wind being knocked out of me.
“That wouldn’t happen if you would’ve tied your shoes, dummy.” She said tartly, using a potion on X. I grumbled in frustration, but didn’t argue. Getting back up, I brushed the dust off of my T-shirt. She rose to her feet, “Ready to defeat the Totem Pokemon?”