Chapter Text
Knock knock Knock
I wake up to what is probably my mom knocking on my door. It still looks dark outside. It’s either really early or I somehow managed to oversleep a lot more than I ever have before.
“You should get up Tanner, or else Sophia well get there and pick the best one.” She calls through the door.
“I don’t think getting up this early is necessary. She's an even later sleeper than me.” I say rubbing the sleep out of my eye. I won’t be able to go back to bed so I’ll get up now anyways.
I get in the bathroom and get a shower in before brushing my teeth, before putting it in a bag to take with me on my travels. When I head down stairs I see that my mom already has my clothes packed for me in a bag.
I see there’s a small device on the table next to the breakfast she made for me. “What’s this? I ask picking it up and looking at it.
“It’s a new pokegear I wanted to be able to call you so I ran out and got it for you.”
“Ow wow thanks mom!” I say happily turning it on and taking a few minutes to figure out how to use it. I find the map and the contacts app finding her information already in it.
I quickly eat the breakfast she made for me before heading out the door, I’m brimming with excitement to meet my partner Pokémon. I’ve been thinking a lot about which one I want to choose.
I’ve thought about and have decided on all of them almost a million times. It seems, I always feel like I’m missing out when I make up my mind about one.
I head outside and shiver feeling the cold morning air hit my skin the moment I’m outside. Maybe I should have waited a little longer to come out when it warmed up.
The lights in the lab are on, I guess that means that I’m not too early to get a pokemon, none of the lights in Sophia’s house are on yet, I guess she’s less excited about this than I am. Still sleeping.
I rub my hands together and walk toward the lab, I see another person there with long red hair looking in through one of the side windows.
I wonder what he’s doing, when he sees me looking at him he glares at me which is enough to get me to go inside. I’m not one for confrontation.
Professor Elm looks at me, “Came a little early I see.” He comments after I walk in the door, hugging myself to warm back up.
I see totodile chikorita and cyndaquil are outside of their pokeballs. Seeing them up close I think I know which pokemon I want.
Chikorita is so cute, and I think I prefer grass types anyways. I walk up to him, her, them. I’m not sure what gender it is yet, and kneel down to get closer to it.
I try to pet it and it makes a hmph sound and turns away from me, I try to put it again and it avoids my hands. I feel a lot of disappointment, and decided this one isn’t for me.
Totodile comes up to me, it seems friendly enough and honestly it’s kinda cute looking, I know Sophia wanted this one but maybe it’s meant to be with me.
I reach down to scratch it, but it moves its head and bites my hand really fricken hard. Ow! I exclaim flapping my hand around. I look at my hand and see teeth marks but thankfully no blood.
I guess Sophia can have totodile it’s too violent for me. I move on and find cyndaquil napping. For a fire type it’s pretty cute I have to admit, from the ones I’ve seen and those I’ve seen in pictures they’re usually scary looking.
Cyndaquil is sleeping right now, it’s probably as tired as I am. I sit down and scratch its head a little, it sits up and lets out a high pitched yawn, before crawling over and getting in my lap and settling in.
My heart melts, I guess that means I know which one I’m choosing then. I pet its back as it’s sleeping, I’ve seen photos of cyndaquils with fire on their backs but right now its just nice and warm but no fire.
“I see you’ve made your choice.” Professor Elm comments, pulling a pokeball out of his pocket and giving it to me.
“This is his pokeball, but I encourage you to leave him out and let your Pokémon travel with you, it improves the bond.” he explains.
I hold my hands out cupped together and he drops it in my hand, I look at it and down at Cyndaquil. I think I made the right decision.
“Are you going to give him a nickname?” He asks, oh yeah I’ve totally heard of trainers giving their pokemon a nickname. Hmm what should I name him, it has to be something good.
“I’ll name him Flint.” I think, that’s a good name for a fire type it’s not too aggressive of a name either, just like cyndaquil.
“A fine name.” Professor Elm compliments before returning to his lab work, I sit with cyndaquil for a while not wanting to disturb its nap. He’s nestled into me and sighs softly.
As I pet Flint, trying to rub areas I think he’ll like, I remember something I’m curious about, and I should ask now before I leave and it potentially becomes a problem.
“Is there supposed to be fire coming out of its back? Is he sick or something?”
“Oh, Cyndaquil and its evolutions don’t emit fire from the back until they’re in battle or about to attack.”
“Oh I see well, now I’ll know if I made him angry at least.”
“Do you have any berries with you for your journey?”
“Hmm yeah I should.”
I open my bag and move clothes around until I find a baggy of different berries, I hold it up to him for him to see. He studies it before reaching in and grabbing a berry out, and holding it out for me to take.
I put my bag down and grab it, I look at it and back at him. It’s yellow with pinkish spots on it, it looks like two ovalish balls stacked on eachother.
“Feed this sitrus berry to him, its better to learn now instead of trying to feed him in the wild and having trouble.” Elm explains. That makes sense if he doesn’t like my berries. I don't want to be on a route between towns when it happens.
I gently poke him, waking him up with a quiet whine of protest from his nap being interrupted, I hold the berry out for him to see jiggling it a little to try and catch his attention with it.
He tilts his head inspecting it up and down before he takes it in his tiny hand from me and starts to eat it, I help hold it there for him. He slowly eats it up and then lets out a small burp after he’s done.
“Well it seems like you won’t have a problem then, he seems like a good eater.” Elm comments watching me rub the left over bits of food off his long snout.
“Can you do me a favor?”
“Yeah sure, what do you need me to do?” I ask curious about what his request is, I would feel bad saying no after he gave me a pokemon.
“I need you to pick up a parcel down to a friend past cherry grove city, do you think you can do that for me?”
That’s not too far, I should be able to easily do that for him. It’ll be a fun little trip with my new buddy.
“Yeah I can do that, and then I’ll go to Violet city.”
“Sounds good, are you going to wait for Sophia to pick her Pokémon or do you want to leave now?”
“I’ll wait here for Sophia.”
I must have taken a nap because I hear the lab door open and shut rather loudly, waking me up along with flint who lets out a weak cry of alarm.
“I’m here for my first pokemon Elm.” Sophia announced making her presence known.
“Here earlier than I was expecting Sophia. You still have a choice of two pokemon.” Professor elm greets.
“Two? I thought there were three pokemon today?” She asks sounding annoyed.
“There were but Tanner already picked one, so you have the choice of two.”
Sophia stomps to the back probably annoyed I beat her here, I almost picked up the one she claimed to have wanted but I’m not telling her that.
She walks back and looks at me before making a hmph noise, and turning away to look at her options.
Tododile is doing a little dance and Chikorita and inspecting itself by a mirror.
“Hello Sophia.” I say happy to see her.
She doesn’t respond, instead she bends down in front of tododile. She reaches down and it tries to nibble on her, but she closes its mouth with her them and index finger.
“You’re not gonna bite me.” She says staring it down, it looks back at her before looking away and nodding. Giving in to her rather quickly, it’s smarter than it looks giving in to Sophia so easily.
“I see you’ve picked your first pokemon.” Elm comments walking up to Sophia and handing her totodile’s pokeball.
“Are you going to name him?”
“No. He doesn’t need a name.” Sophia decides rather quickly, Elm shrugs and turns to me.
“Alright, are you ready to head out then?”
I get up, holding Cyndaquil in my arms as I do, it makes it a little harder but it’s not that big of a deal.
“Where are you going?” She asks, turning to me, always eager to make sure she isn’t left out of something.
“He’s running to Mr. Pokémon’s house to grab something for me.” Elm explains for me.
“That’s far away. You better let me come to make sure you’re safe.” She says with a smile, I nod, happy to have her company.
Sophia activates her pokeball sucking her totodile back into it and shoves it into a pouch on her built.
“Before you go let me register my information into your pokegear. I take it out of my pocket and hold it out for him to register. Sophia takes it from him before he can give it back.
“I’ll put my information in it too.”
After that we set off heading towards Mr.Pokemon's house.
“Thanks for coming with me.” I say after we’re a good bit down the trail, I was a little nervous leaving Littleleaf by myself for the first time. Mom is always with me if we leave town.
“Well we agreed to start our journey together so I’d like to help you finish this small detour as quickly as possible.”
“Oh yeah? I didn’t think you still remembered that. It was so long ago I was only like 8.”
“A promise is a promise no matter how old. I hope you weren’t planning on leaving without me.” She says leaning in close.
“Oh of-“ I can’t even finish my sentence I trip on a root and almost trip, I would have coursed poor little flint if I did that.
Luckily Sophia grabs me by the back of the shirt catching me before I can. “And you’re notoriously clumsy, you wouldn’t make it on your own.”
I let out a sigh of relief and plant my feet firmly beneath me before she lets go.
“Besides that, I’m surprised you didn’t end up picking chikorita.” She comments looking at Flint with some puzzlement.
“Oh well he was a lot friendlier so I picked him.” I answer, holding him up for her to get a closer look.
“Hmm, why don’t you put him back in his ball at least he just be heavy.”
“Oh Professor Elm also said that it was a good idea to keep a Pokémon out of the ball to bond better, and he’s my only one so far.”
“Hm” she pulls out totodiles pokeball from her pouch and releases him. He’s happy as ever doing a little dance once free.
“Alright I think I’ll try feeding him then.” She says opening my sack up and pulling out another berry. She inspects it before looking at totodile.
“Here catch.” She says tossing it at him, he catches it in his mouth and happily chomps it to bits. He’s an eager eater and biter.
“Easy enough.” She comments before sucking him back up in her ball with a shrug. “I don’t want to carry him everywhere and besides, what are you gonna do when yours evolves and gets bigger?”
“Hmm maybe he can follow me around?” I say unsure, but he hasn’t even battled her so I’m not getting concerned about it yet.”
“Oh yeah, we should fix that soon.” She comments
“I don’t think I’m ready to battle with him. yet.” I comment, not wanting to start a pokemon battle with her just yet. I want more time to get to know Flint before his firsr battle.
“He’ll need experience before the first gym.” She says, I know she’s right but battling sounds scary.
“You are planning on challenging the gyms and entering the Pokémon league right?”
“Well, yeah but I mostly care about sightseeing.”
“Oh don’t worry I’ll make sure you get to see all the sights you want.” She assures me. Well I’m sure that we will get into all sorts of adventures anyways.
We make it into cherry grove city, Mr. Pokémon’s house isn't much further once we get out of the city.
“Why couldn’t he live in town instead of being a weirdo recluse.” Sophia comments after we walk we walk a good bit through the city.
“Maybe it’s cheaper to live out of a town.” I suggest, maybe he just doesn’t like people. Some people are like that.
“Yeah well it’s not too far outside of town thankfully, then we can come back and get some pokeballs and stuff.”
“Yeah I want to get a few potions for sure.” I answer, when I do battle I will definitely need a few potions afterward.
“Well I want to catch a pokemon.”
An old man stops us, when we almost get to the exit of the town.
“You look like you could use these.” He says holding up two pokegear cards.
“Why would we need those, and what do you want for them?” Sophia asks crossing her arms suspicious of him.
“Oh Ho, cautious are we? I noticed that your friend had a new partner Pokémon and I just wanted to help out two new trainers.”
Sophia shoots me an accusatory look causing me to shrink behind Flint a little, before she turns her attention back to the old man.
“Well if you’re just giving them to be nice then thank you.” She says holding out her hand for him to put the pokegear cards in. He drops then in her hand and she grips it before dripping on top of Flints little head.
Her looks up and it almost slips but she grabs it again, I set Flint down for a second so I can add the card to my pokegear and check what it is.
Oh it’s a map, that’s handy and I can mark where things are that I might want to revisit.
“Thanks.” I say before picking Flint back up.
“Of course and if you need any help with the Pokémon center and pokemart I can tell you about.”
“We know about them already, and we’re in an bit of a hurry but thanks.” Sophia says before grabbing me by the arm and dragging me outside of the town so we can continue our trek.
“That was nice.” I comment happy to have a map, I’m sure it’ll come in handy later on.
Eventually we make it to Mr. Pokémon’s house I knock on the door, I hear a voice from within telling us to come in.
When we get inside we see older men sitting, one of them must be Mr. Pokémon who is the other man. He looks like a professor, he’s wearing something similar to what Elm wears.
“Are you two Sophia and Tanner, Elm called and said you two would be coming to pick up the package.”
“Yeah, uh are you Mr. Pokémon?” I ask wanting to make sure he’s the one I’m supposed to be taking to.
“I am.” He says with a nod walking over and opening a cabinet, inside his modest home.
“Them who’s this guy?” Sophia asks, pointing at the other man.
“I am Professor Oak, a professor from the Kanto region, I also happen to be a radio host in the Johto region.”
“Oh I know you, my mom listens to your radio show all the time.”
“I’m glad you’ve heard of it, is she a big fan?”
“Oh yeah, she is.” I answer, remembering how much she liked listening to it, never missing a broadcast if possible.
“Tell her I said hi, infact take this business card, if she ever wants to be on the show have her call me.” I take the business card surprised by the offer.
“Here it is.” Mr. Pokémon says pulling out a large pokemon egg. It has different colored triangles all over it.
“Let me see your bag I should be able to fit it easily.” Mr. Pokémon requests, with a nod I take my bag off and hand it to him. He roots around the litte pouches and stuff until he find a spot. “Here we go this makes eggs much more manageable.” He said placing it inside, the egg shrinks down. It must work the same way pokeball do to let me carry more items easier.
“You don’t have a pokedex?” He asks after handing my bag back to me. I shake my head, Elm didn’t give us one yet.
“Lucky for you I have two new ones I’m working on.” Oak chimes in pulling two Pokédex’s out of his briefcase, and offering them to me. Sophia takes them greedily and inspects it. Before she uses it on Flint.
It reads out a small blurb about it before she hands it to me, I look at it and it also shows me what moves flint knows. “Leer and Tackle.” I comment, flint perks up as I read the moves it probably is confused if I’m giving it a command or not.
Sophia releases her totodile and uses the pokedex on it as well, it jumps up and down upon being called out and Sophia takes a minute to calm it down before she scans it.
“This will be useful so I’m grateful.” She says before shoving it in her pocket. I place my inside one of the outer zippers of my bag and nod.
“Thanks a lot!” I am happy to know what moves Flint has in case I need to battle.
“Well we shouldn’t keep you waiting any longer I’m sure Elm is eager to get that egg.” He comments, I nod yeah I’m sure he is. He’s a big fan of pokemon eggs.
“Thanks for the pokedex.” I say again, before me and Sophia leave, once we’re outside she looks at me and then lets out a sigh.
“I can’t believe he gave you a business card for your mom, I heard he had a reputation for that kind of thing but come on.”
“I think he was just being nice.” I say with a shrug, not sure why else Oak would go out of his way to give me it.
“You think everyone is just being nice, you’re too guillble.” Sophia chides me,
“You think everyone has an alterior motive.” I point out causing her to life a little.
“Yeah and I’m right. People are selfish. Not me though I always help you out for free cause I’m so nice.”
I nod, it is true she has been nice to me anyways, and maybe just a little bit abrasive to other people.
Before we leave Cherrygrove city we run into a person with long red hair, long sleeved navy shirt, and dark blue pants. He looks at us as we approach.
“You guys are the ones who got Pokémon from Elm huh. Seems like a waste to give them to you.”
“And who the hell are you huh? Some loser who probably didn’t even get a pokemon from him, and thinks he can talk big to us.” Sophia shoots back immediately.
“Oh I got a pokemon from Elm, I’ll show it to you if you’re not too scared.” He says holding up a pokeball.
“If that’s your way of challenging me to a battle then, I accept.” Sophia says holding up her own pokeball.
I guess that means Sophia is getting into her first battle with a random guy who picked a fight with her off the street. Well I guess I can’t say I’m too surprised it was either this or she challenged someone else.
“Good luck, Sophia.” I say quietly as they throw out their pokemon.