Chapter Text
“Attention, this is your captain speaking. We are beginning our descent now…”
The captain’s voice could hardly catch Owen’s attention as he gazed out the window of the aircraft. Below him was a city filled with lush foliage and greenery. A new land was waiting for him, and Owen couldn’t wait to get off the aircraft and explore around.
Once he was able to exit, he found himself outside in a city, while considered small had dwarfed all that he had been to save for Nimbasa. Pokémon were everywhere. People riding them, some were standing next to shops, and wild Pokémon roamed the streets. It was truly a sight to see this many Pokémon out and about.
“This is so cool!” Owen stared in awe of an Exeggutor that dwarfed the ones he had seen back in the Pahlm region. Their trunks were almost five times as high and towered next to the buildings. Owen approached the base of one, and stood there, gazing all the way up to its heads up above.
Then, he saw another part of the Exeggutor, the tail. In addition, there was another smaller and seemingly more docile head. He crouched down to its level and saw that its eyes opened as he smiled, “Hey there!”
The head immediately furrowed its brow, winded up, and smashed across Owen’s cheek. Tumbling to the ground, he picked himself up and rubbed his face, “Ow… what was that for?!”
Owen glanced back at the Exeggutor’s tail, who was scowling at him. Dusting himself off, Owen stretched himself and remembered his travel agenda. Looking through the slip of paper, he then waved down a rick-shaw being pulled by a Tauros, the three tails of the large brown furred Pokémon snorting as the handler gave a tug on the reins.
“Alola! Need a lift somewhere?” the man who was wearing a straw hat waved to Owen.
“Alola?” Owen looked back a tad puzzled.
“Ah, you must be a tourist. That’s how we say ‘hello’ in Alola!” the man chuckled, “So, where can I deliver you to?”
Owen then took out his map from his suitcase, fumbling with the contents within, “It’s gonna be the Pokémon Academy-”
“Say no more! Hop on, why don’t ya?” the rick-shaw driver patted the seat behind him.
Owen clambered on and fixed his luggage safely as the cart began to move, the Tauros mooing and pulling the rick-shaw.
“So, kid. Where do you come from?” the driver glanced back.
“Oh, I come from Santan Town from the Palhm region,” Owen replied back as he took in the various sights of people and Pokémon walking around the city.
“Santan Town? I can’t say that I’ve heard of it before. Isn’t Palhm that tiny region several miles away from Orre?” the driver asked.
“Yeah. We don’t have a Pokémon professor, League, or really anything now that I think about it over there,” Owen confessed.
The driver pursed his lips, “Hey, champ. That doesn’t matter all that much. I originally came from the Orange Islands. And that place was practically unheard of until a Pokémon League was made there.”
“Really? Huh,” Owen nodded as he watched a blueish-grey Meowth with a slightly more smug expression than he had seen Meowth with before bat at a trainer’s pant leg, “Wait, is that a Meowth? It looks different than the ones that I’ve seen before.”
“Oh, that? That’s an Alolan Meowth! Some Pokémon in Alola appear differently than anywhere else in the world! Neat, isn’t it?” the driver enthusiastically replied.
“Yeah, that is pretty cool!” Owen smiled and continued to watch the surroundings, eventually giving way to a dirt path.
“You know, Alola used to only have the Pokémon trainer school. It was a pretty small place until the first Pokémon league tournament was brought to Alola,” the driver started.
“Really? And it got turned into a bigger academy?” Owen asked.
“Right on the dot! A school that only had roughly ten children at a time is seeing it turn into one that two hundred trainers of all sorts of expertise are going to both learn and train,” the driver then explained to Owen as Tauros kept pulling the cart along.
“Wow… I can’t wait!” Owen gripped his seat with anticipation as the journey took a little while, but eventually found himself looking back at the city and into a more foliage-covered part of Melemele Island.
It was only about ten minutes later that Owen began to notice other trainers walking along the same path that the cart was heading down. Some seemed to be younger than Owen, looking at maps or their PokéNavs as they trudged along. Others that seemed to be at Owen’s age, or even older had a Pokémon walking alongside them, all sorts of varieties of the creatures. Some he were familiar with, but as for others, they were all new to this beginner trainer.
“Are we getting close?” Owen asked for the third time.
“Actually, we’re here! It was a pleasure!” the driver shook Owen’s hand and helped him unload his suitcase, “Now be smart, and be careful!”
“Thanks! Goodbye!” Owen waved back as he ran down the dirt path towards the school, now coming into view.
And boy was it a sight to behold. The mass congregation of trainers were all migrating to not a structure, but something more akin to a large park. A massive tree with several small wooden platforms and structures jutted from its branches, and was resting next to a multitude of circular-shaped blue buildings, connected to each other with walkways. Thatched roofing made up the ceilings of the buildings, and a small river that ran to the right of the school channeled into a lake, overlooking a gorgeous view of Alola’s ocean. A small track with a grass field in the center ran to the left of the schoolyard.
“Oh wow. This is some ‘school’,” Owen gawked at the open-natured area. He had seen schools before, but never in his wildest imaginations could a plaza and collection of park-like structures equate to being a learning environment.
He had seen pictures of the school before on pamphlets and a brochure of Alola he had in his suitcase, but even then, it was truly a sight to behold in real life. In addition, he noticed some other additions to the school that he hadn’t seen before. Most likely done to really push the whole ‘academy’ renovation.
Two large buildings on the left of the school now rested within the treeline, most likely additional classes and what appeared to be some sort of research lab, Owen noticing two men in lab coats through the sea of enthusiastic and moving trainers. Further along towards the shoreline were numerous extended buildings that overlooked the sea. All Owen could guess is that those must be the dormitories. Along said structures were smaller individual thatched bungalows that draped around the coast.
“Oh man, this place is gigantic!” Owen thought to himself with pure and utter amazement, “But where should I go…?”
It was made apparent to him that most of the students were looking at the numerous wooden bulletins posted around the school, so as such, Owen wandered over to one and took a look.
“Let’s see…” Owen read off the bulletin and gathered that the numerous names posted were the various students, and the names on the right of them corresponded to some sort of dorm on the right of the campus.
“Owen… Aqua Den…?”
Shrugging, Owen then took his belongings, and headed off to the structure that was colored a marine blue. The climb down the stairs was difficult with Owen’s suitcase and everything packed up inside of it. He struggled to keep the thing from-
Owen suddenly lost his footing, “Oh what the-!”
He flailed down the wooden stairs, his suitcase flung from his grasp. As he stumbled down the stairs, he could catch a glimpse of a small blue figure at the bottom with another white and blue blur, almost twice its size.
“Look- OW! Out- OW!” Owen kept faceplanting himself onto the hard wooden stairs, and at one point got more airtime to the point where in that split second, he knew that his landing would be anything but soft.
Then, he heard a voice come from the blue figure.
“Quick, Primarina! Make a balloon!”
“Priiiii!”
Owen braced himself for impact with the concrete base, but the landing he feared had never come. He opened his eyes, and found himself nestled on a massive water bubble. He was miraculously suspended above the ground on the platform of air and water, until-
Pop!
The bubble burst, and Owen landed flat on his back, “Urrrghh…”
“Are you alright?!” a soft, yet deeply troubled voice broke Owen back into reality, his blurry vision giving way to a blue-haired girl with a golden decoration on her head, almost like a crown or a laurel. Her deep-sea blue eyes almost matched perfectly with her hair, and a sleeveless white shirt along with baggy wave-patterned blue pants completed her figure. The figure then spoke up again.
“How many fingers am I holding up?!” she held up two fingers, and her Pokémon held up a flipper, “Marina?”
“Urgghhh… three?”
“Three? Oh no, I have to get you to a Pokémon Center right away-” the girl looked up, and noticed her partner also holding up a flipper, “Primarina!”
The Primarina then covered its mouth and gave a tiny giggle.
“I’m fine… thanks.”
Groaning again, he stumbled to get up, but not without help from the girl who’s Pokémon had cushioned his fall, “Hey, thanks so much, by the way. That really would have been a nasty landing.”
“Oh, don’t thank me, thank Primarina right here,” the girl outstretched her hand towards the Pokémon, who took a gracious bow as if it were on a stage.
“Heh, thanks. You really saved my rear. Literally,” Owen rubbed the back of his head, “And my head.”
The girl then gave a little laugh and picked up a small bag at her side, “I’m Lana, by the way. What’s your name?”
“Oh, it’s Owen,” Owen smiled and shook her hand. To this, Lana gave a small, but noticeable smile. He figured that everything about her might as well be subdued.
“Nice to meet you! Are you a new student here?” Lana asked Owen.
“Yep! Just flew in from… well, nevermind about that-”
“Huh? Why? Is something wrong?” Lana implored.
“Marina?” Primarina looked intently at Owen.
“Oh, well. Uh, I kinda come from a place that you’ve probably never heard of. Not much interesting secrets about it too,” Owen confessed.
“Oh, come on! Don’t be like that! Your home is always a special place no matter where you come from!” Lana dug deeper. Her seemingly shy and quiet demeanor seemed to have vanished from the face of this world.
Owen was taken aback by anyone wanting to know more about his hometown, “A-Alright! So… I come from a region called Palhm. It’s kind of a small, sort of ‘flyover’ region that doesn’t have a League, or even a professor from that point.”
“Palhm? Wow, what a coincidence! My Uncle Korar lives there! Are the waves and the fishing as good as he really says?” Lana suddenly seemed to have sparks in her eyes, wanting to squeeze every last bit of information about a ‘literal where’ region from this random boy she just saved from a concussion.
“Well, I mean, I guess? I never really went to the beach a whole lot in Santan Town-”
“Santan Town and you never went to the beach?” Lana then furrowed her brow.
“Hey, cut me some slack, okay?! It’s not everyday that some stranger just implores you about every detail about their hometown!” Owen threw up his arms, throwing Lana off. Primarina too seemed surprised at Owen’s outburst as well.
“Oh, sorry about that. I kind of get like that sometimes when I hear about a place I’ve never been to before. Especially one as beautiful as Palhm.”
“It is a pretty nice place,” Owen nodded and looked up into the sky.
“So…” Lana looked around.
“Yeah, I think I gotta get to my shack or hut or... something,” Owen pointed his thumb towards the extending bungalows resting on top of the ocean.
“Oh yeah! Sorry to keep you here. Hey, I’m also going to the trainer school, er- academy too. I can’t wait to meet your Pokémon too!” Lana gave a smile.
“I don’t have any Pokémon. I’m a new trainer, you see.”
“Ohhhhhhhh,” Lana nodded, “Well, I know that tomorrow, a bunch of Pokémon professors from all around the world are going to be coming here and partnering up trainers with their first Pokémon. You might not want to miss that.”
“Really?! Wow, thanks for telling me!” Owen then ran off towards the extending pier with his suitcase after retrieving it from the sand, “I’ll see you later, Lana! Bye Primarina!”
“Take care!” Lana waved goodbye.
“Marina!” Primarina outstretched both of its flippers as well.