Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Reborn into a Pokeworld, she wonders what she’s going to do. A Pokemon Journey of a sort might be mandatory… but it didn’t really suit her. While she knew how to kill and could, easily, in the right circumstances, she wasn’t particularly combative… and while she liked animals well enough, she didn’t really want a creature that required specialist care.

So, she began to plan.
Instead of hitting the main Gym’s she was going to just… wander, working her way through the small gyms at her own pace and seeing the sights.

A few worlds ago, a movie involving Pokemon but non typical to the games had come out. The movie itself was… meh, one of those CG things that made the characters look slightly off, but the premise was interesting. She’d be very interested indeed in finding out if Rhyme city and it’s whole cohabitation but non-battling lifestyle was actually a thing. It sounded like an awesome place to live and people didn’t expect their mon to just stay in their balls.

So, it was a plan of sorts and she’d need to start saving towards her trip and learning all she could. If she’d had her first choice, she’d have gone to that fancy school that allowed a person to bypass the whole wandering aspect but still counted, allowing them to skip the Gym’s completely and go straight to the Indigo Conference. Buying Pokemon instead of wandering about to catch them was something rich kids like them could do too. So, so envious.

She was an orphan though, proving that this world was JUST as dangerous as any of the more modern ones she’d been in. Pokemon themselves usually didn’t attack unless their territory was intruded on or they were hungry… but it still wasn’t safe to travel without a Pokemon or an adult with a Pokemon accompanying you.
Here especially. The mon around here were much more animal-like and vicious. They didn’t act like regular mon at all.

She also kind of hated her name. What sort of name was Dollki for a kid? Seriously. It sounded like some sort of Pokemon.
And she LOATHED the nickname it landed her with. Dolly. Yuck.
So she was either going to sound like a Pokemon or a country yokel. Lovely.
She’d be changing that as soon as she registered as a Trainer because fuck that noise.

That was a thing an orphan could do when they registered as a Trainer and, since it was free, she absolutely would be doing that and it would become her legal identity.

Anyway, she was eight, had been orphaned at four ish maybe (she'd been in school she thought, but still very young) and in an orphanage or rather THE Orphanage Village since.
If she had other family, she had no idea who they were or where. As far as she could tell, she’d only had her mother, who left her with a Pokemon carer and a bunch of other kids until she was old enough for school at four, five ish. She hadn’t seen a lot of her so didn’t really miss her, even when landed in the Orphanage.

Also, she didn’t know the timeline either.
She was pretty sure she was in the Kanto region but… which part she had no clue. Nothing looked or sounded familiar to any of the games.
Wherever it was, it was in bumfuck nowhere far on the outer edge, possibly even on an island.
The area wasn’t fertile, being on a rock plain, so she wasn’t sure why anyone would want to set up here.

The orphanage wasn’t overly large, with space for between thirty to forty kids she thought, but currently only had about eight kids from the local area this year.

Their ‘village’ (if you could call an orphanage, a nursing home/ aged hostel and a shrine, graveyard, crematorium that) wasn’t the furthest out or the most central so she didn’t know why the orphanage had been plopped in this place out of all of them but it had. They were on a mostly solid rock shelf, with a high lip of rock along the edge of sharp cliffs, which wasn't great as it retained heat.

Towards the road, if you headed inland, the rock shelf gave way to rolling dust plains.
Most of the towns around this side of the outer edge weren’t well off… so, again, why plop an orphanage here? Maybe it was because it was often overcast and so not as hot as it might be otherwise, even if it got very muggy.
The sunny days were never pleasant since, being on a rock shelf, the rock reflected the heat back and forth and retained it until early in the morning. Despite being semi-desert, it didn't get cool at all until just before dawn. Despite being as tucked back as the hostel/ orphanage were, they couldn’t escape all of it, even at night.
On those days, depending on how many kids there were, they were allowed to bring their blankets and sleep on the floor in the deepest part of the orphanage, which was the dining room, where it was nearly always cool.
Still seemed kind of backward to her.
It was either overcast and gloomy or oppressively hot! That was no good environment for a kid to grow up in, for people to recover in or to spend their last days in.

If you asked her, it would have been smarter to have it in Gateway, which was the biggest town that housed the school and the public library. It had the nicest environment, had plenty of amenities AND had the school right there…
Oh well, no one was interested in an orphan’s opinion, especially if she was a poor one. Nor in answering her questions and the library was no help either. An angry mon had trashed the place a century and change ago so records from before that time were… spotty.

It was only outside funding that kept both orphanage and hostel ticking over.

The area only had one Trainer’s School for the entire Circuit Town area AND they all needed to take a bus to get there, it being in the town closest to where things started greening up as a person headed out of the area.

Weirdly, it was the town out on the furthest edge, where the plains turned to desert, that housed the Poke Lab that would supply their Starter Pokemon and each orphan would get a small, one-time grant to start them on their journey.
She didn’t know what prospective Trainers did before that as the Lab Town wasn’t very old, not more than a century, ‘cause the library DID have history on that. It seems there’d always been a small village there as it was a way point between the two towns on either side, the lab had just let it grow from a tiny cluster of people into an actual town.
(The adventures of those transporting goods overland before vehicles were a thing and space-folding bags/ backpacks hadn’t even been thought of yet made for very exciting reading, since Vehicles had only been in use for a little over a century and weren’t very reliable in the beginning. Despite being primarily an arty sort, she’d also loved a good book, especially one based on real-life experience… and each town had their own history, even if ones like Orphan weren't well known.)

At the end of their schooling, at ten, the school bus made one last trip to collect them and drop them at the Lab, then pick them up and drop them at their starting point to the rest of the Kanto Region. (No wonder nothing was familiar. She was off on an island to the side that had never appeared in any of the games!)
Orphans, the shanty town kids and quite a few of the discarded in Storage Town knew that was it and, whether they succeeded or failed, once they left it was better if they didn’t return. Once their Journey began, they were completely on their own, rather than just an extended trip they could run home from any time they felt like it or even give up on without censure.
Well, that’s how it was.

At least most of them had access to food, shelter, clothing and education for six years… They just had to make it to the age of four and access school to be guaranteed all the water they could drink and at least one good meal a day.
There was access to washing facilities and cheap clothing too.
They could have access to second-hand or factory second uniforms as well, so they were properly clothed at school and that included a pair of old tire sandals with the deal. The uniforms might be a bit worn and their sandals literally made of trash but it was usually better than what they had and it was a chance…
The school also had a number of small chores that a child could do to earn more food or money or, if they needed it, a chance to stay in the overnight dorms for a night or two.

She didn’t recognise any of the names on the one Pokedex they had available in the school town. (That there was a Pokedex around at all was amazing as it didn't seem to be a Silphco product... and was the size of a laptop. It was called a Pokedex but she throught it was more like a slightly smaller desktop computer connected to the library network rather than what she thought of as a Pokedex. It did a similar job though, as only Pokemon details were accessible through it, and even some of that was classified.) It was kept in the town library and needed to be booked.
It meant she was still guessing as to when she was.

Kids grew up learning domestic skills at home as class was devoted to learning basic reading, writing and arithmetic, some of the history of their area and the skills they would need on their Pokemon Journey for survival.
Those who wanted more than that needed to pay for the privilege. Grant funding ensured a basic education but money or influence could open the way to a broader range of subjects and skills, especially if a person wasn’t intending to be a Trainer/ Battler as their life’s job.
She heard they even had separate classrooms from the basic student plebs and could confirm it since she’d taken a single pay for class by working after for the privilege.
The paying students didn’t get to enter the school competitions though. Those were meant to give basic students a much-needed leg up.
There were sponsorships that could be taken on for those who had the grades/ skills.

Occasionally, a child could be taken as a prospective servant to a well-to-do young miss or master and their education costs would be taken over by the house they were to serve but such contracts were examined closely as they were very open to abuse and every child had the right to go on their Pokemon Journey. That was a thing that didn’t change, no matter the Region even if some approached it differently.
A wealthy family or a business might fund a child’s Pokemon Journey in exchange for their working for the family/company in the future, acquiring a specific Pokemon, clearing the way for a child of the house/ business to have an easier run and so on.

While it would make her life easier if she could do that, she didn’t really like the idea of being beholden to anyone… and she had no skills to showcase anyway.
She honestly didn’t think she’d be a good Trainer. She’d played her games by making sure she had overwhelming force and then crushing the opponent. A strategy that didn’t work so well if the npc had the same level as her but she hadn’t wanted to have to think and plan, doing heavy brainwork just for a game and they got more strategy-heavy the later in the Pokemon franchise the game was. A single eaten Berry could tip things one way or another by nudging a mon’s stats which were terribly important. WAAAAAY too complicated.
She’d just wanted to play the game, collect the mon and call it done. She wanted to have fun and relax.

And, now she was living it… which, as usual, was much less pleasant in person.

Anyway, she needed to find a way to earn money to buy equipment since the orphan grant for Pokemon Journey’s was pitiful.
Staying at Pokecenters would help but even so, the funds wouldn’t stretch very far since it was intended for buying a new Journeyer's travelling kit, clothes and so on. She COULD pick pockets in Gateway since tourists weren’t the most aware, but that would be unwise…

People naturally looked down on the poor or targetted them so she’d be better off if she didn’t look like the poor orphan she was or bring any untoward attention to herself.
While the shady side might stick mostly to the docks, there were plenty of tourist brats or wealthier young snots who’d easily and happily target a newbie Trainer, especially one that was poor and completely alone in the world.
The sooner she could shake that image, the better.
The lack of funds were reason B why she was headed for lesser gyms.

The first thing she’d do on hitting the Gateway town was find the Pokecenter, changing her name and registering.
The second would be to buy some cheap new clothes and better supplies than Lab Town provided since it mostly had the basics.
The third would be to hit the library and gather information and make notes.
Pokedex, in this area or possibly, era, were NOT universally available and definitely not just handed out to every newbie Trainer. (The one she saw in the library was an ancient clunker of a thing, chunkier than a brick phone and with even less memory. It was hooked up to the Library's mainframe to access the data faster.)

Meantime, she’d done decently in school but was careful not to stand out that much. Being first in the free education part of the school would come with expectations and envy.
Even if it might get her a bit extra in her starter pack, and first pick of the Starter Pokemon, it certainly wouldn’t be worth the agro and she’d get enough of that being poor and an orphan.

She was going to be skinny and scrawny, the semi-starvation they lived in now would stunt her growth for sure.
Lunch, provided by the school, had been the main meal of the day and better fare than an orphan, one of the working poor or a shanty town child would get at ‘home’ but there was never enough for a person to eat their fill, portions were mid sized at best and the youngest kids got first pick.
Dessert only happened if there had been a donation or there were leftovers from a festival.
No one went hungry exactly, but there were a lot of plain rolls with bubble and squeak equivalent, garnished with whatever the upper years gathered for themselves from the school gardens in years five and six.
It was supposed to encourage them to practice their foraging and preparation skills and yes, the basics of cooking and camping were classes as a mistake could easily get you killed. She felt they were just being cheap as it was one more thing they didn’t have to pay for.

The school gardens and greenhouse, along with a lot of garden/ park dividing the school section from the Trainer/ tourist section had edible plants that had grains, leaves or fruit that could be eaten. It wasn’t much, but it was something a child stranded overnight with no money could help themselves too if they weren’t game to try and sneak out into the tourist sector to bin dive.
In the School sector, and to a lesser degree, the Tourist Sector, there was a child curfew and any found outside, without accompaniment, after ten could count on finding themselves in lock up overnight and, if they had an authority figure, said figure was contacted.
It just wasn’t worth it.

She’d have to be careful of what she caught too.
Extra Pokemon would be sent to a Trainer's origin Poke Lab. The desert lab was rumoured to have stuff all storage so any caught beyond the first six and a Trainer would have to pay extra to house them or somehow have the destination changed to a larger, more spacious, stable or lab.
Ash had had it easy, being connected to Prof Oak and Pallet Town.

She didn't know the name of the island she lived on, if it had one (and she’d looked), it wasn’t recorded ANYWHERE and no one seemed worried about it…which was sort of weird.
She didn’t know the proper names of the towns in this little cluster either if they even had them. Folk here had other, more important, things on their mind, like survival, to worry about little things like that. They were just called by their most distinctive feature.

When she could have been swotting to pass all the tests with high grades or throwing her all into the competitions, she’d been learning what she could of local history instead.
She thought, depending on how her Journey went, she might like to come back and study to become a local historian. Maybe work in the library.
Finding Rhyme and living there would be nice, but she also had to be practical. She was a dirt poor orphan who was likely to get a slightly addled common Pokemon as a Starter.
The odds that she did well in the League were pretty small.

Well, that would be okay too. If she took up in the closest Kanto Main town to the School Town or stayed in Storage, which had the cheapest local accommodation, she could come into town regularly to fight the tourist Trainers around or do a bit of recycling for some money.
Maybe she could even take up something arty again. It had been a couple of lives now, and she missed it.
The only extra class that she’d taken, trading cleaning up after each class (Reason B why she sometimes missed the bus) for a chance to sit in, was art.
Considering most of them were too poor for cameras, knowing how to sketch a mon or situation quickly was a ‘must have’ skill. She’d been able to use class supplies too AND was permitted to take almost used up items back with her and she’d put them to good use practicing.
She’s making a scrapbook of her experiences to date, along with notes on the area, the towns and the history.

Chapter Text

Anyway, the local setup was interesting in a messed up sort of way, even if no one around now knew how or why the towns were set up the way they were…

Going clockwise in a circle and starting from the town closest to the ocean in the ‘eleven’ position, they were Fisher Town, Lab Town, Wells Village, Shaft Town, Produce City, Gateway City/ School Town (by the locals), Depo/ Storage Village and lastly from the outer edge of the ‘clock’, Orphanage Village and Shrine at the ‘nine’ position.
These all surrounded MiddleTown which was roughly the center of the circuit which was a pass through town and built to cater for it.
It had upgraded from ‘pass through town’ to ‘entertainment town’ in the last century or so and was where the ‘adult entertainment’ sector had been set up, though it also featured touristy spars and the like and an upper-class shopping strip for more family-friendly entertainment.
It welcomed tourists and had a hotel, a motel and caravan ground space to accommodate them. One of the few towns that did.

(There were also rumours of some small communities and single homes along the desert side edges of the Gateway's headlands, despite how perilous that would be on the Produce side of the Headlands but she'd never had an opportunity to check those out and not much interest either right now.
That was something to poke at when she was more established.
There was little in the official records either and most of the towns did their best to forget/ deny they existed...)

She’d looked up all she could on the towns in case one was better off to be in than Orphanage but all of them had cons and secrets.

Fisher was communal and so would notice her easily, they also practiced multiple spouses and poly relationships, along with a bit of not specifically sanctioned trading. She didn’t think they did smuggling per se but as they had always had traders come, even in the isolation days, they saw no reason why they should report it continuing to Gateway, the Council of Towns or anyone else. It wasn’t their business.
She also had the feeling a few enterprising sorts from the mostly unused ports at the end of Route Twenty-Five did a bit of ‘trading’ back and forth and absolutely no doubt a few of them had lovers and possibly second families on that side too.
There was a little village up from it wasn’t there? Rifure or something?

Lab had whatever they were getting up to in the labs, along with their oh so secret night racing festivals as well as a lack of kids so she’d again be easily noticed.

Wells was nothing BUT secrets. The only confirmed facts were that it was a Ranger station, built in the shadow of the giant mesa ranges which were half drowned and shipped it’s water all over the islands… oh, and they didn't welcome outsiders and banned small children.
Big Nope.

Shafts… again EVERYONE knew everyone and EVERYONE who could, worked.
Besides, they were all slightly crazy. You had to be a little nuts to voluntarily go rooting around under an unstable mountain and the shafts connected to it.

Produce was hiding, though not very well, their farming and butchery of local Pokemon. That was an open secret among the Circuit towns but not to the tourists. They were very insular and distrustful of outsiders, even from other Circuit towns… which was odd since they were one of the major Tourist towns.
Everyone who could worked there as well and, while they weren’t as familiar with stray kids, a ringer would be picked up and homed soon enough. If a kid could work for their living, they would be, though school kids were also given time to study and checked on to make sure they got enough food and sleep.

Gateway had an actual underworld side, even if it wasn’t big or complex along with a child curfew. Any kid caught unescorted after ten ended up in the lock up for the night, though they were given water and a couple of food bars as well and any adult figures were then looked up and contacted… if they had them.
Trainers were the only exception though the Tourist kids got a gentler approach…

Storage would probably be the easiest place for a stray to set up shop since there was NO sense of community between the buildings even if people attended play groups, study groups and so on in the area together. BUT, she’d have no security, no safety and would have to fend for herself completely, including sourcing food, clothing and shelter.
There were a lot of shady types who used anonymity for meet ups as well. People stayed safe by staying out of other people's business and making sure they did NOT follow up on anything strange but reported it to the local authorities… some of whom were probably on the take.
So long as the actual storehouses and such weren’t touched and no one went after the vehicles, they didn’t really care so long as it wouldn’t call uncomfortable attention down on them.
It also meant that no one cared what happened to other residents in their building block or any of the others.

Orphanage regularly left the ‘and Shrine’ off when talking to outsiders and was probably the least secretive of the lot as there was pretty much no town there at all and MiddleTown? MiddleTown had an entire SHANTY TOWN section.
Not to mention the adult entertainment portion. You bet hinky things happened.

Despite the limited food and gloomy atmosphere and the stigma attached Orphanage was still one of the safest places to grow up in without having to work your arse off at more than household chores.

Vehicles were how the locals got around because the dust plains/ deserts weren’t really safe to travel, even on a riding Pokemon.
Flying types could be used but the weather over the plains and deserts could be very changeable. Even so, each town had a landing port and a place to receive those teleporting in.

(She may or may not have had childhood fantasies of the days of daring and excitement when travelling from town to town was a dangerous adventure taken on by the prepared, the brave and the desperate! She’d be on a flying mon as guard and guide of course…

The Caravan Era was viewed as something between the Wild West crossed with Australia’s Bushrangers with a dash of native guides.
There was a lot of local law, stories and plays about them and why the towns were all very, very different from each other.)

Each town did have a small petrol station though, even if in some, like Fisher, Lab and Shafts, it was mainly in underground tanks and a person needed to pay to activate the pump as well as for the fuel.
Each town also had some sort of eatery since the drivers needed some place to grab a meal, even if it was only open when the truck arrived. It was usually attached to the fuel station and often didn’t have a big range.

-0-

Fisher, Lab and Wells were on the edge closest to the desert with Lab being the furthest into it and they dressed like it. Clothes in Fisher were lightweight but wrap pants were unisex and so were wrap tops and sandals. The kids, unless in school uniform, wore hand-me-down, cut-off versions. Only those going out onto the sea wore heavier gear, mostly made of Pokemon by products to keep them warm in lashing seas or stormy weather.
At night, blankets or body heat were used to stay warm.
Everyone wore hats. EVERYONE. Mostly woven with scales to keep the head cool and reflect the heat back. They were wide as well. The sailers had close-fitting hoods instead and were designed to do the opposite, keep heat in.

Despite being a fishing town, Fisher Town proper was set back from the beach by about half an hour due to a couple of seasonal whirlpools causing water surges at certain times of year.
The Tour Boat didn’t stop in Fisher in whirlpool season and it counted as their off-season since it wasn’t safe to sail though trapped shoals of fish caught between the two could be pounced on when one or the other whirlpool slowed.

The only things close to the dead shoreline were the salt houses and a couple of salt plains which supplied salt not just to the area but also exported small amounts. The floods washed to lower ends of the plains, becoming trapped due to the fields being lower than the beachhead.
Sometimes other things turn up in the plains too, bits of wreckage, mon who have become trapped and died from the salt content and so on.
The plains are gone over very carefully after flood season.
The salt houses are set up on a small rise, where the beach starts slanting up into rock again so they aren't too bothered by any but the highest of floods.
Residents split their time between hauling in catches, sorting them, tending nets and salting their part of the catch.
Salted meats were one of their standard exports along with the salt and meat separately.

Fresh water was a luxury and most of their water came from desalinated ocean water with a small processing plant squatting on a short tidal river, a little further down from the Tourist Center. It was drinkable, but not overly pleasant and could handle most of the surges from whirlpool season relatively easily as it was mostly made to rise and lower with the water.

Yes, the fish were Pokemon but they couldn’t afford to be that picky. Meat was meat though any rare Pokemon would be balled and likely sent to the lab for study… for a price of course.

That was rare as most of the Pokemon around were Magikarp, though the catches were sprayed with liquified Sleep Spoor as they were hauled in to keep Evolution incidents from happening. No one wanted a Gyarados in the nets, even a stunned one, though they’d be worth their weight in currency if they could be caught. They were big, heavy creatures and the nets were NOT made with that sort of weight in mind….

Crabby, Tentacool and Shellder were caught for their meat.
Goldeen, if caught, would likely feed a family for a month with the money they could get for it. Staryu or Horsea, would net them six months worth and something like Slowpoke or Seal a year's worth so the rarer Pokemon were always kept an eye out for.
Something like a Lapras would net them enough funds to move out of the area completely most likely but that was very rare. It had only happened twice in the last hundred and fifty years. Something like a Dratini? Hah! Don’t even dream of it.

Local kids learned to swim in the tidal river from an early age and the basics of sailing as well but they also learned when it was safe to swim and never left the house without a hat at least.

It was the town with the third highest population of families, if not the general population as they needed a lot of hands to work the nets, sort and process the catches and so on.
They were also very family orientated and had as many children as they could handle since they’d lose them, even if temporarily, to their Pokemon Journey at ten. Five or six kids or more in a family wasn’t unusual and if even three of those five or six returned, it meant more hands on deck. Having more kids and focusing heavily on family was simply stacking the deck as best they could.
There were over a dozen different families though most of them were interrelated somewhere. New blood was rare, but always welcome, so long as they were willing to work hard.

Kids from here, on their Pokemon Journey, are less expected to fight in the gyms and more to catch and bring back useful Pokemon or, at least send them back if they, themselves, don’t plan to return for a while. Flying and water types are useful, as are those strong enough to haul nets or that can heal minor injuries. The town and the families want practical Pokemon rather than rare and fanciful or good fighters.

One of the few excursions the free course level of the school did was to send the kids to each of the Circuit Towns to learn a bit about the town, it’s main purpose and what the locals did to accomplish said purpose.
The trip to FisherTown was about midway through year four and there they learned a bit about making a catch, how to dress and process it so it was edible, salt and its effects, water shore survival, the basics of sailing and knots and so on.

The road didn’t run through the village, but rather to the far end of it, with a second road running alongside to the wharf and the processing factory… which was also built into the ground, with the rest constructed of stone and concrete and fish-scaled roofing. It was set on a small rise, back from a beach that wasn’t safe for swimming, due to jagged rocks just offshore.
The lower part often flooded in whirlpool season, so the few catches were salted instead.

For a hundred or so meters approaching the dock, the beach was spread with nets drying and needing repairs as the water wasn’t safe for swimming.
There were drying racks for the actual fish set a little further back from that.
The nets were hung from the ceiling of the community space, with the racks packed away against the walls in whirlpool season, which brought flooding.

Any catches made in the off-season were sorted in the community space, like the old days, before being bundled up and taken to the Salt House for further processing, though some of the catch will also be dried and a very rare few smoked as fuel was hard to get a hold of.
Traditional crafts, mainly involving Pokemon by-products like bones, skins or scales, were practiced and passed on and anything that needed repairing or checking, done. From nets and clothes to the town's fleet of golf buggies and the boats and paddle craft.
Ships that needed dry docking for repairs were sent to the hidden harbour in Storage though.

The village was actually set in the first two prongs of an uneven, flat-bottomed ‘W’.
The first prong went off towards Lab Town, with the road into town continuing along the coast to the docks and then turning to run along the side of the tidal river.

The first intersection is where the rest stop/ petrol station was, on the opposite side of the Lab Town road from the Village. Like everything else, it was recessed into the rock but it also had a small convenience store/ corner store there to cater to the vehicles passing through.
It was where any postal deliveries were dropped off and picked up as well as where the barrels of waste headed for Lab Town were stashed.

It was also the bus stop for the school bus and where the kids gathered in the morning to go as it gave shade both in the morning and the evening.

Two thirds of the way up the river, where it narrowed into a river rather than a spreading mass of shallow rivulets, there was a small, mostly flat bridge that was large and wide enough for the golf cart sized buggies that could tow trailers to visit the salt fields.

On either side of the tidal river bridge, a mesh net blocked access, as did a small row of barricades blocking it off while the tourists were about. There was nothing for them on the far side of the tidal river except for a tour of the salt flats if they were willing to pay extra and it was the last thing before they were returned to the tourboat.
If they crossed it, they could pull up on the beach and there were chairs and awnings and a portaloo, but there was a porta fence put up so they couldn’t go further. There were no refreshments on the far side either.

On either side of the river, there were sheds. One was for storing the gathered salt from the salt flats, while the shed on the near side of the river stored the tourist vehicles and the rest of the set up. All the awnings, chairs, umbrellas, fold out tables and sign boards for the tourist refreshment stalls and the three portaloos as well. Chemical, thankfully. Otherwise the smell would be truly horrific.
The paddle bikes, flat rafts and small canoes, along with floaties and swimming aides. The stalls sold mainly bottled water, Shuckle juices and a few cold treats.
More filling food was sold at the Tourist Center.

There are twin docks, a shorter one on the far side of the tidal river for gathering the salt for sale and the nearer one that the fishing ships docked at.

The Tourist Boat that came by when sea and weather permitted, docked at the farthest end of the wharf, which was covered where the tourists disembarked.
There was always a small fleet of the golf carts used to haul the salt trailers waiting for them, with the little tourist center set back off the beach on the corner of where the road turned towards the tidal river swimming/ boating spot.

On the corner, where the road turned up towards the tourist swimming spot was where the buggy sheds and garage and, in front of that, the small Tourist Center was.
It wasn’t very big and was also recessed into the rock, holding thirty people at the most.
It sold the usual tourist tat, had a photo machine, sold local delicacies for those willing to try it and handicrafts as well as a few lunch options… mostly meat based, along with a local booze, soft drinks and iced treats.

When it wasn’t being used as a tourist spot, the river bridge was where the town shrine was located. It was actually on the bridge itself and the people stood on and across the bridge.

The town itself was circular and irregularly spaced.

It was built around a large recessed, mostly underground community center that was mainly open space. The floor was natural rock and there was space for a large fire pit in the middle.

There was a kitchen section at the far end with a line of flat topped cupboards with storage space and draws under them and so that doubled as a bar in the evenings in front of the kitchen appliances. There was a fridge, freezer, oven, stove set into the back wall with shelving on either side. A sink, with a tank of water above it for drinking and cooking. ‘Washing’ the dishes was usually done using sanitized sand or was pokemon assisted.

It also had the luxury of a washing machine which the villagers were allowed to use once a week. Anything that needed soaking usually did so in a bucket of sea water or a stone hole on the rockier part of the beach.

The small cupboard near the door held cleaning supplies.
There was a row of hat and coat racks on the other side of the entrance.

There were two drop toilets just off the cleaning cupboard and the clothing racks, with a box of sand for sifting over the leavings.

There were some old games like foosball and air hockey set over on the far side, with a small cupboard of lawn games, card and board games in it.

There were fold out chairs and tables stashed against the wall on the far side from the games on hook like racks.

This was the place the community revolved around.

The houses, what could be seen of them, looked small but tended to go back and down, deeply into the rock inside. Each usually had an entry way between the house and the outside.

There was limited electricity though the community center was hooked up to solar panels.

As was the Processing Factory (the power fed to a battery just under the roof since whirlpool flood season was a thing. Cords were strung across the roof but wouldn’t be uncoiled to floor level or plugged into the batteries until after the floods went down.
All equipment was either a solid block that could laugh off a seawater ducking or up on benches, since flooding rarely went higher than midway), the Salt House and the Desalination Plant. Homes didn’t usually have it, making due with fish oil lanterns as they were mainly for sleeping, fucking and storing things, food include, in.

Cooking was also mostly communal though everyone contributed something to the meal and it was eaten together, with the children usually gathered after whatever household chores were handled to socialize and do homework in the late afternoon/ evening as the meal was being prepared and the long table set.

From Schooltown to Fisher was about five hours with the speed the bus travelled.
On a regular bus it would be closer to seven or eight, but the school bus was large, heavy, built to repel heat and basically an armoured transport that could take whatever the dirt/ gravel roads could dish, sneer at it and then trample all over it.
Speeds of a hundred and forty K were perfectly acceptable and expected… though it slowed before entering a town.

While they, and whoever was out on the boats today, were busy, the rest tended to bring their littles to play while they did repairing based chores or handicrafts as time allowed.
The light was better in the community center and there were more eyes on the little ones or older folk whose minds were beginning to wander.

When the boats came in and the catches were sorted, it was fully expected that work clothes would be washed at the site of the processing plant and there were a couple of sea water showers to wash off the worst of the fishy smell.
There were a couple of community pokeballs for if something useful or rare should turn up in the nets and those would be stored in the Village Head’s house until they could be sent to Lab Town for appraisal.

There were community game nights when seasonal work ended and some small festivals but never any markets or carnivals. Outside of the Tourist Boat and the school excursions, no one really visited Fisher. (Any markets or carnivals that came into the Circuit Towns usually stopped at MiddleTown and called it done.)

When the littles were sent to bed, the community center doubled as a bar and if things got a bit indiscriminate, no one really minded.

Spouse sharing and poly relationships weren’t unusual in Fisher.

It wasn’t unusual for one of the sailors to bring someone into the after hours group either.
No one asked where they came from. If they were being sponsored by one of the sailors, it was seen as okay.
They might stay, they might not, but when this happened, any young person who hadn’t a partner yet could try them as someone who wasn’t aunty/ uncle or elder to them.
If the person came with a sailor they should know what they were getting into.

This was one of the ways their kept the Village from inbreeding too much and, if a person returned more than three or four times, they could be invited to stay.

Things were drunk or smoked and the air got hazy.

No matter who you woke up with in the morning, there would be no blame attached so long as that person was Post Journey even if you fell pregnant to whomever.

(Don’t ask how she knows that. Just don’t!

Well, okay. She knew about it because one of the Orphanage workers had a sister who’d married into a family in Fisher and she had VIEWS on the goings on. Views she ranted on when she thought little ears were out of listening range. Personally, the young Trainer-to-be thought that what she had was sour grapes. It was obvious she was imagining all SORTS of things that SHE was missing out on.

The young girl bet it wasn’t that exciting. Sex was hard work and if a person had already been working a physically demanding job all day… sharing the load of the horny with those with the energy to cater to it just seemed sensible.

Digging around in the library confirmed the practice though it was more heavily implied rather than stated outright.

She didn’t see what the big deal was. If they were happy and it worked for them, it was no one’s business but theirs. It wasn’t like they were hurting anyone.)

The sea was a harsh mistress and those who went out didn’t always return. Having two husbands or sharing a spouse just meant if things went down a whirlpool or up a water spout, there’d be someone left to take care of the family.

The elderly were respected as they knew a lot of lore and often had interesting stories, but, if their mind failed to the point where they might wander, they were sent to Orphan as it was a safer town.

The small, not quite a clinic regularly treated heat stroke, though it got bitterly cold at night.
It was mostly run a couple of days a week out of the community center unless there was need and was staffed by someone with field medic’s training, someone who came back from their journey with a Chansey and, lastly, their qualified midwife, with her new assistant.
Any pokemon issues that Chansey couldn’t deal with were taken to Lab Town and the same for the humans. Lab Town had more than one phone, while Fisher had one in the community center and that was it, though it was rumoured the Head of the village had a personal phone.

They were a cash poor but close and hard working community. Very much a community in every sense of the word.
Even so, it was still mostly a fishing village with a bit of tourism on the side.

The sun in Fisher got killing hot.

Outside of unloading the fish and sorting them and when the tourists came, no one voluntarily went outside if they didn’t have too. They were lucky that the bus arrived in the morning before the heat of the day kicked in and dropped them off again when it was very late afternoon or edging on twilight, depending on if there were any delays.
Even shrine visits at new years were done in the early morning hours where possible and the heat of the day hadn’t kicked in yet.

If a sand or dust storm blew up, the kids were expected to take shelter in the Combini which did have a phone of its own. If the storm lasted more than the minimum time of three to four hours, the community center/ headman’s home phone was rung and an adult with a mon capable of blocking the wind/grit/dust temporarily was sent to collect them.
If one did spring up, the free schooling kids had the day off, which was appreciated as they attended six days out of seven.

Sand/dust storms mainly affected Fisher, LabTown, Wells, Shafts, MiddleTown and, more rarely, Produce or Orphan. Produce had orchards around its outer edges which often acted as a barrier and they were inside windbreak hedges along the edge of the fields and Orphan/Shrine was mostly on a rock shelf. Like Storage they occasionally got dust devils, dust clouds and dusty winds, but rarely actual storms.

She had as much detail as she did, due to getting her hands on the diary of the former wife of a fisher couple.

On losing them both and having no children, she’d returned to her birth family but had been unhappy, missing the closeness of the town but feeling she couldn’t return, that she didn’t have a place there… and it was written within the last ten years as the woman had died young.
The other reason she hadn’t wanted to stay was she had developed a terminal illness and hadn’t wanted to burden them with it.

Her birth family hadn’t exactly welcomed her back and she’d eked out a living working as a cleaner in the hospital… and then ended up in Orphanage to spend her last days.

The diary had been under a cupboard in the room she was helping to clean out for a new resident and she’d been curious and kept it. It would only have been thrown out/ recycled otherwise and she felt that was a waste.

It was a bonanza of odds and sods about Fisher, Gateway AND Produce as they’d spent a once in a lifetime holiday there and she’d documented EVERYTHING, excited and happy and hoping she could give her spouses a child…

She’d lost them less than a year later, one to the sea, one to a pokemon attack and then, she’d found out why she couldn’t have children shortly after.

The woman had written faithfully, daily though, pouring her heart into the pages…

Really, the orphan who found her diary had struck information gold with it, despite the fact it was never intended to be read by anyone but the diarist.

-0-

Lab Town was the third smallest town population wise (Wells is potentially the smallest being more of a ranger’s station but no one knows their actual numbers, with Orphan being confirmed second smallest) though it had the most acreage, even if two thirds of it was desert or reclaimed desert. We’re not talking semi arid gravel, though there’s some of that. We’re talking sand and sand dunes desert.

The killing hot sun of Fisher becomes stifling, baking hot in Lab. Fisher at least has ocean breezes, even if they struggle to reach back to the town.

Lab is smack bang in the middle of the desert and built around a tiny natural spring as a hidden oasis/ rest stop.

It hadn’t looked like much of an oasis, back in the day, the spring being tucked away in a hidden well, but it was.
The spring was now incorporated into the lab building which put the noses of the old generation out of joint but those funding Lab hadn’t cared and there wasn’t much the tiny amount of locals could have done anyway.

Desert which disappeared abruptly into sharp high crumbly cliffs that plunged into the ocean and ran into the lower outcrops of what was left of a masa style mountain range.
One that continued on to Wells, where the half crumbled, irregularly spaced outcrops cutting across the far corner of the island turned into the half drowned mess that Wells was built in the shade of.

Legend has it there was an ancient cataclysm that broke this part off from the mainland and there’s enough geographical evidence to show that something land and environment changing had, indeed, occurred.
Those here were supposedly the descendants of the survivors who’d been punished for something, possibly an event that triggered said cataclysm.

The Lab was studying that as much as it was the pokemon and it’s effects on them. It was simply because it was the only Lab on the island that they also handled pokemon stabling and handing out the Starter Pokemon, gear and what not.

The cataclysm story was also the closest she’d gotten to an actual answer on the nameless state of the island, the towns and most of the people, as the majority of them didn’t have family names, unless they were an old family or well to do.
You were simply ‘this person of this town’.
If you were about to start your Pokemon Journey and didn’t want to advertise what town you were from, Gateway was also an acceptable thing to put down on you I.D. papers.

For the town itself, the petrol station/ snack shop/ garage was the first building someone coming in from Fisher passed and set just outside on the same side of the road as the lab. It was also where the road from MiddleTown connected.

The lab was the main feature of the town and the road from Fisher ran directly in front of it.
It was the only building on its side of the road in the actual town and buried under a massive rock hill. It drew all attention on coming into town.

On the far side of it, mostly out of sight, were the three processing plants for nightsoil, food waste and general rubbish - paper, plastic etc.
A small service road leads from the main road to it, with a large truck parking space at the end of it.

On the near side of the mound was the water storage section, massive cisterns and reservoirs.

The lab frontage was built ‘earth ship’ style from recycled materials and used mainly eco-friendly ways to do things. Lots of indoor greenery and buildings that were at least three quarters of the complex underground, including most of the habitats.

The lab boasted all day electricity, a staff kitchen, some overnight rooms, a laundry for the staff, showers and toilets as well as the racks of pokemon balls with their mon inside, a healing machine and several hatcheries, nests and habitats for the pokemon.

Most of the Assistants had cubicle style offices in a small ‘bullpen’ behind the main foyer with the Professor's Office at the back.
Off the side of the bullpen, to the left were the toilets, which were split into male and female and boasted a shower inside as well, in case of contamination or pokemon induced mess, with a unisex toilet/ cleaning cupboard in the middle.
Further down the corridor from them was the laundry and access to the first of the Pokemon Habitats which was ground/ desert aka, the back door to outside.

Outside the back door was a covered walkway/ patio thing that led to the first couple of enclosed habitats, which were underground. Cave and freshwater cavern, specifically.

Off the other side were the staff kitchen, the overnight rooms and, between the kitchen, though not accessible by it, the library /information archive which had a door to the main office in it.
Through the office were the Professor’s small quarters which had a bedroom, sitting room, kitchenette and combined shower toilet with the sitting room connected to the office.

Either side of the main foyer lead to pokemon ball racks and habitats as well as some isolation rooms and examination rooms, the breeding nests and the healing machine along with a store room of general pokemon supplies, grooming materials, foods, dried berries and what not.

The first few rooms on the right were used for childcare while the first few rooms on the left, outside of the practical classes, were were young perspective Trainers would do their final classes to get approved for a Starter pokemon.

Like the rest of the buildings in the town, it had an ‘airlock’/ entryway room with a set of doors at either end to keep out the hot air, shake off sand and dust and so on.
In the center of the walkway, the old spring well has been modified into a tiny fountain, with the original well reconstructed in a nook off to the left side. It’s been turned into a wishing well.

To the right is a small, bare nook for teleporters to arrive safely in, not that there are many.

As a person steps inside the first set of doors, they are encouraged to shake off their clothes and change out of their shoes into soft lab shoes.
Their own and their coats are stored on hooks and small shoe lockers on either side of the entryway before they reach the tiny fountain of drinkable, if mineral heavy water.

Those who don’t change their shoes/remove their outer ware are denied entry as the lab is a clean zone.

Some attempt at a garden had been made outside the Poke Lab but it was something like a cacti and succulent garden. Not very green or welcoming, though it did have a couple of baobab style trees that bird types rested in from time to time.

Spread in wings on either side was canvas awning covered parking and bike racks for the few locals who had cars or motorbikes (though a motorbike in the desert was an incredibly dumb idea.) There weren’t many of either as it wasn’t very practical in town and, everyone knew, if you wanted to go into town for the day, you caught a lift with the Schoolbus and paid your way or, during the holidays, with the Sewer or Food Waste crews as there was usually a couple of seats set aside for such.

Those who could, just flew or teleported using their mon even though they had no official flight tower. So long as it didn’t disrupt what traffic there was, no one cared.

The parking wings had pull across ‘gates’ made of concertina folded canvas and poles in case of theft attempts at night and to block out the worst of any sand or dust storms.

The lab had a large septic tank and a methane gas converter that supplied gas for power though it did have a backup generator and solar panels as well.
The power from the solar panels was usually enough for daily working in the lab, with them switching over to gas supply when bad sand/dust storms hit. Some seasons were more stormy than others.

Not many towns could afford the water for a flush toilet and since the Lab would buy the night soil anyway… As it collected nightsoil from all over, it also supplied barrels to store it in. Fortunately, the system to empty and clean the barrels was automated and the same for the compost barrels.

All toilets in the town, outside of those portaloos, were pan style and it was the duty of a rotating set of psychic pokemon to remove the nightsoil every morning and evening, to a barrel at the sewage treatment plant. No reason the Sewage Crew should have to do it at home too.

Most towns dried the pokemon dung to burn as a fuel source as wood was a rarity.

Electricity was limited as most places only had generators and those required either a pokemon able to power it or fuel to run it on. Only the Lab, MiddleTown, Produce, Gateway and Storage had steady, regular and reliable power on tap.

Lab also had a food waste truck that went around collecting food waste barrels to create compost out of to help provide good soil to their massive greenhouses (mostly set up behind the mound of the Pokemon Lab’s rock.)

Most of the other buildings' entryways aren't quite so elaborate.
Sporting a single push door to enter (even wood handles, if they had them, get burning hot.
At least a person can use a cloth shielded arm to push, even if each store has an awning over the door to shade it further) and shake off the dust and heat, with a small room of about two adult paces to the next door, which is usually a push open.

On the other side of the road from the lab was the main strip, that was mostly shop frontages, with their awnings shading the entry way door, and palm trees either side, as well as the sign over the awning. Windows, if there are any, are very small as they both let in heat, and leak it in the cold. Most shops are lit by reflected natural light using crystals and a sunroof like hole or window it can be reflected from and no two are alike.
There are NO open fronted stalls or markets until after sunset. It’s just too hot.

The shops were mainly the basics of what a new Trainer would need.
Food and grooming supplies, basic clothing, packs, belts and bags. A cafe and an eatery or two.
A sauna/ bath house and a coin laundromat.
A pokemon grooming/ hairdressing shop as well as an ATM equivalent for those rare few times cash was needed as the Trainer Card could tell you the amount a Trainer had on it so long as it was near somewhere it could get internet access.
There were a few specialty stores on the furthest end of the strip on both ends but these were more lab and lab staff focused. There was little there to interest a young Trainer to be.

The lab staff worker dorms are on the furthest edge of the town where there was an intersection and the road split to head on to Wells and MiddleTown respectively.
(Yes, the road from MiddleTown DID split so a person could arrive at either end of the town. That caused no end of confusion but it was meant for those coming in for the racing festivals, so they wouldn’t have to wait so long to get into town…)
Singles were on one side and those few families or workers with children they couldn’t place elsewhere were on the other. The main strip was also the only street with road access as bikes or riding pokemon were the main way of getting around town. This was partially because, being buried in rocks, any walkways through to the ‘streets’ behind were thin, narrow things.

Opposite the lab, in a split between the general pokemon needs and the Trainer clothes and accessories shops, was the walkway to a very small youth dorm.
As poor as the local lab was, and with the numbers the new would be Trainers wanting their Starter pokemon came in, it was sometimes up to a week’s wait for their Starter mon and gear to be ready.

During that week, the school bus made one run at the start of the week, arriving in the evening and one at the end leaving mid afternoon, depending on need, so the new would-be Trainers were left cooling their heels during that time.
There was no charge for their stay during that week and two, small basic meals a day would be provided for them and their new mon. They were allowed to use the Lab’s facilities for training, but not combat. They wouldn’t be official until they signed in at the Gateway Pokecenter.

There were a few mandatory classes on care of their new mon to fill the time though, as well as checking over their gear to make sure it all fit right and was in good condition.

There were a few arcade and gacha games in the small lobby along with foosball tucked in one corner and an air hockey tucked in the opposite corner, otherside of the room.
There was a small couch with a couple of boxes of old games and cards under it and a fold out table attached to the back of it.
The rooms were dorm style with two sets of bunks in each, with two sets of draws under the lower bed where the thin blankets were stored when not in use and a kid could use as storage for themselves while they were there. The beds came with a futon style mattress, two rough cotton sheets and a hard foam pillow.

There were two levels, though the lower level was opened only when there was a bumper crop of newbie’s coming through. (Or the racing carnival was on but SHHH, she wasn’t supposed to know about that!)
There were six roometts in total, but extra futons with attached sheet and blanket were stored in a cupboard at the end of the hall, meaning another person could be put on the floor between the bunk beds.

The lower level had another four rooms with the same set up and was accessible by going past the front desk, which was basically a lectern with a seat behind it and a registry book tucked on the shelf a little ways along from the foosball game.

The single toilet in the place, which had a big bottle of hand sanitizer and damp wipes in place of water to wash hands with, mirrored the set up but on the opposite side of the dorm corridor, in front of the air hockey table.

There was a water cooler between the arcade game and the gacha machine on one side and a small fridge vending machine with cold drinks between the two on the other side.
The water, foosball, air hockey and the stored games were free. The rest of the stuff along the wall had to be bought, even if the cost wasn’t high.

What houses that there were from the hidden spring era were set back behind the shopping strip in irregular rows that went back six deep. Some were higher, some were lower, and there were between four and six to a ‘row’.
Some new ones had been added when the Lab was built but you’d never know it. By now, they were just as battered as the original ones.

Like the Poke Lab, the houses and shops were mostly underground, cut into the rock with only the store fronts and front doors standing out from the rock. Most had only an entryway that was above ground and that was it, making the town look very small.
The town honestly looked like a bunch of barren hills.

(Behind these hills though, where nobody ever saw it, was a large circuit track for cars and racing bikes. It was sealed and covered by cloth attached to small metal posts when not in use. Inside of that was another track with big, high hills and dips, made for dirt bikes and cross country motorbikes.

There were large poles, though not larger than the hills in front of them, for light producing pokemon to cling to or sit, crowsnest, style on or to stick loops on top of, to the side of and so on, or flags, streamers and anything else that could be snatched by flying pokemon.
If no pokemon who can do that are around, crystals reflect and brighten small, generator powered flood lights.

A small shed held fold out, lock together bleachers and other, similar platforms.
There were also a few open front and end sheds with covered over drop pits to act as emergency service garages for the racers.
Twelve battered portaloos with chemical toilets sheltered within the open sheds the rest of the time, with canvas drop cloths over them to keep out the worst of the sand.

A couple of times a year, those in the know gathered for different kinds of racing festivals.
Cars, motor bikes, bikes, riding pokemon, flying pokemon. The only thing they couldn’t race was water pokemon due to having no water nearby.
Motorbikes and bikes are generally used on the inner ring for a more motocross feel.

There were competitions that weren’t racing as well usually involving stunt biking or aerial displays with the flying mon, for the best points.
The prizes were handed out in Gateway, but the festival itself was held in LabTown.

There would be all sorts of pop up stalls, a night market held on the main street, chartered buses to bring in the spectators and pokemon using competitors and so on.
Competitors were housed in the empty Jr Trainor dorms or the spare lab dorms which there were usually quite a few of.

People were only allowed to camp if their camper met the standards because the sun out here was unforgiving and the town wanted no death’s on their hands. People could escape the worst of it by lurking in the small, dark alleys between the shops and drinking a lot, going into the bathhouse or laundry, into the shops or taking a tour of the lab, but it was best to get anything that needed to be done out of the way before nine in the morning at the latest.
Very, very little happened during the day so it was best used for the visitors to sleep and do domestic chores in.

There was no road leading to the track. Markers were put out before the rocky parts on either side of the town to guide people to the track. Even the split roads from MiddleTown missed the track completely, despite those high poles.

Festivals were held roughly three times a year, weather permitting, and was kept mostly a secret from the rest of the Circuit Towns… though she had no idea why. It sounded like something that would be a lot of fun and very popular.)

Very few actual families lived there as everything in the town related to the lab, the shops along the main strip which were mainly aimed at the young Trainers and served locals between times, researching, upkeep of the methane plant and sewage collection, the solar generators, the recycling plant, as well as the food waste (there is little green to waste) collection round for the compost plant, up keep of pokemon the young Trainers on their trip had caught, studying them and learning about them and raising potential starters in time for the next ‘crop’ of Trainers.
Mostly those living in the rock houses were those few who didn’t live behind their stores and the very, very few old timers left from before the lab was built.
(And those who maintained the track during the year.)

There was one store that was for the locals and it didn’t face the main strip.
It was a grocery and general goods store. The owner had bought the once town meeting hall, in the middle of the rocky house cluster, on ‘street’ two and facing away from the main strip, and turned it into the one shop they didn’t have. It was intended to be used by only the locals so they wouldn’t need to go into town very often, since that was harder to do during the holidays.
His goods were dropped off at the combini attached to the petrol station and his trio of psychic pokemon with teleport took it from there.

He ran a shuttle service on the side for those who needed to get into town in a hurry, but he charged a fair bit for it and, if they missed the return trip, they had to make their own way back.
His mon were getting on a bit and the jump to Gateway wasn’t a small one.

Their clothes were a weird mix of old and new since nearly everyone there were lab staff appart from the original families.

Lab workers, spending on their job, usually wore the lab coats over everything but what went under them varied greatly. Shirt and ties only happened when they needed to look ‘professional’. Otherwise, light, short sleeve shirts were the go though the rest was usually covered with natural sunscreens.

Most of it were loose robes or harem pants that gathered at the ankle. Little to no skin was left bare and, like Fisher, a hat or head wrap, usually with a brim, was mandatory.

The well to do had breathable more modern shoes with the more traditional making due with sandals make from pokemon by products.

Blankets were made use of at night to stay warm… or body heat should a person have a spouse or lover available and it wasn’t unusual for the few children there to share a bed for warmth overnight. That or have a feathered or furred pokemon curl around them.

Childcare in LabTown mainly consisted of one or two of the Returnees making sure the few under school age didn’t maim themselves, were fed, given liquid and slept at the appropriate times in one of the unused lab rooms. The brat needed to be weaned and parents either provided money or food for their kid.
Pokemon were used to change nappies and clean the kid up as well as wash them. Usually an elderly Leavanny or a psychic pokemon, who could banish the mess from the kid's body to the sewage barrel.

At four, they went to school and continued going to childcare until they were eight, though in a separate section from the preschoolers, so they could work on their homework in peace, though still be seen by the mon/ older kid watching them. An older kid, often one doing a work placement, was there usually to help them with it.

By six, they were expected to be a bit more proactive and try doing it themselves, asking for help only if they didn’t understand it or couldn’t.
As they were given their evening meal there, most of the time they went home to sleep.

All children were sent home, unless requested otherwise, by eight and one of the lab pokemon would escort them home as the dorms were a long trek for little legs.
After that, the kid would be left in the care of a parent, grandparent, older sibling or parents' pokemon in a pinch.

Those that could, unless they’d been a local family here from the time it was a tiny cluster folk eeking out a living by guiding people who stopped at the hidden oasis, kept their families in Gateway, Produce or Storage unless they lived in one of the working villages were all hands were needed like Fisher or Shafts. Everyone worked in those villages. Everyone.
The ones that didn’t usually had their kids on hand because they couldn’t afford otherwise.
The number of kids actually living in town was usually under twenty.

Pokemon weren’t as trusted as those on the mainland and for good reason.
All pokemon left in charge of children were always from outside the area.

The local pokemon were the reason people travelled by enclosed vehicle if they didn’t have a flying or teleport able pokemon handy too.
The island’s native pokemon, because they naturally got a lesser version of the minerals Produce used to keep their farm pokemon more animal like and so easier to control, were feral at the best and dangerous at the worst.
Their eyes usually were beady and black, their colouring much darker than Kanto main pokemon and they were much less intelligent.
That was why any interesting wild ones were sent to the Poke Lab where their diets could be altered to exclude that specific mineral. By the third generation, they were usually fit to be companion pokemon even if they were still a little instinctual.

Ocean pokemon and flying pokemon, depending on where they fed, were usually better off because the mineral seemed to be in the dirt and so defused a lot more in water sources, being washed away or settling to the bottom. It could be heavily or lightly concentrated depending on what plants a mon age, where they ate and so on.

It was reason A why people from the island often struggled with the idea of intelligent pokemon since the ones on the island are pretty much animals.
The idea that mon could and were partners to main landers was a shock to a lot of their systems… and there was always a couple who died because of it.

As far as anyone knew, the mineral didn’t effect people much… though she wasn’t so sure. There were an awful lot of people on this island who found it hard to empathise and so it was easier for them to treat others, mon or people, badly.
In a place where pokemon were pretty much animals and so didn’t mitigate typical human responses… well, except for the genuine crazies which nothing and no one would be able to help, people were allowed to show the full nastiness of human behavior, constrained only by what they’d been taught or their own morals… and there were a LOT of kids who had precious little in the way of moral teaching in many cases. That was only her theory though. She had no way to really prove it.

Physically, too long without ingesting any and a person developed mild, flu like symptoms, from which they usually recovered in about a week.
Returning, if they ate local fare and did so for longer than a month, got the same. It wasn’t recommended to do that too often though as it hadn’t been studied yet what it might do to a human system.

The islands only had records (tattered now thanks to the rampage of a large pokemon, but they DID have them) of inhabitants for the last two hundred, two fifty odd years or so after all and the Poke Lab had only been there for eighty of those.
With the mess made of the main library that time, anything before that was stories, legends and scraped together scraps.

A child COULD volunteer at any of the safer towns (Fisher, Lab, Produce, Gateway and, more rarely, MiddleTown or Storage, for learning to work on cars or boats. Those were usually saved for return apprenticeships though) to gain experience in their last few months of school, if they passed their tests early… which is what she’d done.

She’d been here for a month and a half already and had another month to go before final exams and the graduation ceremony.
It was so weird to think that she was nearly ten. Nearly about to be sent out into the world after only six years of schooling.

She liked it WAY better than being at Orphanage, though it took longer to get to school from here. Even if it hadn’t come with two guaranteed meals a day it came with PRIVACY and that was worth the extra hours for those few classes she hadn’t tested out of already.

Normally a kid would be hosted with a family for their stay but she’d been lucky. There were empty spaces in the single person dorms so she was fine with staying there for the duration.

There was a bumper group of new Trainers-to-be coming through, to the point where they’d need to open the second level of the Trainer’s dorm to fit them all in so she’d opted to stay where she was even as the Starter Week approached faster and faster.
She made use of the two meals a day though and got lunch in the lab, which was better fare.

She almost didn’t want to leave. All the amenities she could need right here, but she also needed money and so she would…

In her spare time she dug into the lab library which had SO much more information than the school library AND a more up to date version of a Pokedex.
The public library might have more general information because the lab’s library was specialized but, as a school student, pre Journey, she wouldn’t have gotten access to the bits she wanted anyway. It had a LOT more detail on the towns than what she expected though.

When she’d come here at seven for the school excursion, she’d hated the heat, but it was okay if you stayed inside most of the day. The kids had spent the entire time inside the lab, getting a bit of the history of the town and learning exactly what the lab was studying and how it also acted as a breeding center for their Starter pokemon.
Fascinating stuff she’d thought, though she was in the minority and she’d been disappointed that they didn’t get a chance to explore a bit.

-0-

Chapter Text

Wells, what could be seen of it, squatting in the shade of massive mesa like rock structures, where there were hidden pools and water was the most accessible. Unlike other towns, most of the buildings were above ground but built in the shade of the towering piles of rock, though some were partially recessed into it.

The outcrops became larger and closer together, hinting strongly that they’d once been a single outcrop, but something had shattered them into separated chunks that were further shaped by wind, water and weather that had seawater lapping away at their outer edges.
The location Wells was in had likely been towards what would have been the middle and biggest, thickest section of the range but whatever broke the land had shaken hell out of it. What had probably been one large, long outcrop had been shattered into massive bulge topped rock formations and blocky, crumbling rock chimneys.

By the time it hit Wells, it was a mess of narrow, plunging, twisting corridors that often ended in seawater caves or holes and the whole mess shifted regularly depending on what had crumpled away where or what new sink hole had formed.

No one had fully explored that side of the island since the range continued under the water at both ends of it, proven by irregular outcroppings of various height and width in the water that lowered until they vanished into it. Nothing bigger than a small, personal craft the size of a kayak or rowboat could navigate that mess safely with all the underwater outcrops. It was not an area, front OR back, to go into lightly.

It was now a rather deadly rabbit warren maze of twisting corridors, rock and rubble slides, sudden drops filled with water and corridors turned water channels.
For all it was cool in there, it was also extremely dangerous as getting lost would be the least of most people’s troubles

No one was quite sure the exact set up as it was more of a reserve than a town.
Visitors were few and far between outside of retreats and classes and no children younger than twelve were permitted. It was just too dangerous with all the mostly feral mon in the area.
The only exception to that had been the last of the excursions they had with the school, where they were kept to the lecture center for all four hours of the talks, fed and then loaded back on the bus. Very disappointing.

Children of the workers, if they had them and couldn’t afford to keep them in the three front towns or MiddleTown, usually stayed in Lab Town or Shafts, where they could do small chores to earn their keep as well as for a little pocket money.
The schoolbus didn’t even stop there, cutting instead through Middle Town.

The road didn’t even go into the town but curved sharply with the only building inside the curve the small petrol station and even smaller eatery.
Behind them was the large, large parking lot for the hauling trucks and a strip of three buildings of two story units for the hauling drivers to stay at.

Postal deliveries were made and collected from that shop too.

The people of Wells preferred them not to be in the village. Only the Village Head really interacted with outsiders.

The town’s name came from the fresh water lagoons and several deep bore hole style wells that supplied most of the water for the area.
There were natural springs that they also sold water, and far, far more rarely, pokemon, from.
The processing/ bottling plant was tucked out of sight and there were large water storage pods and barrels in the vast warehouse next to it. They had been painted so they blended with their rocky backgrounds.

It was recommended to go with a guide if a person wanted to explore that area as its masa style mountains were half drowned and what looked like a corridor that could go for miles abruptly sank into the sea or became a dead end.
That whole side of their island could only be traveled over, either with flying pokemon or using a swimming pokemon like a lapras. Something as big as a Blastoise wouldn’t be able to navigate the abruptly appearing and disappearing channels, since pokemon nesting, fighting and lairing as well as the abruptly rising and lowering tides changed things.

The range degenerated into a collection of rocky tors and islets as the range continued off the island and out into the water, most having nothing much on them. A lot of pokemon used the area as a nesting ground which made it even more dangerous for humans to venture near.
There were buoys that marked the outside edge of the mess with a net barrier above the water. It wasn’t really intended to keep people out, just to make sure they couldn’t possibly miss it and so were fully warned if they ventured further… Long and short, exploring around there was dangerous and done at their own risk.

Any strangers were accompanied as the area was very easy to get lost in and pokemon attacks when someone has stumbled into a lair or nest are common and, most of the time, outside of classes or special retreats that were run when they had the numbers (there was a four bedroom guest house with shared bedrooms) the locals mainly kept to themselves.

Only those planning to train up as Guides, Rangers or work in Water Transport go there and most of those are post Poke Journey.
It did have a Ranger Station that was the main visible building and they were usually the ones called up to deal with any wild pokemon issues that couldn’t be solved with shooting the thing for pot meat.

Those few residents that were seen were always dressed in ranger garb, except for the service station workers and the truck drivers. This consisted of sandy brown thick, cotton like material in button up shirts that stopped at the elbow but could be rolled up and buttoned out of the way and shorts that went to just below the knee, sturdy desert boots and light socks.
The hats were wide brimmed and ‘slouch hat’ style and covered the back of the neck, as well as coming with optional mesh face veil for sand storms.

It’s possibly the smallest town/ village population wise but no one knows for sure because they don’t tell outsiders the number of residents currently there.

-0-

From Wells, the next town towards greener pastures was Shafts, which had several sink holes and cave systems that had common minerals, but they were plentiful. Enough to make the mining worth the while anyway. As a mining town, they exported both rough ores and processed copper and nickel as well as iron.
Cave based pokemon turned up pretty regularly as well as ground types and they were the ones who supplied a lot of the ground pokemon for the Poke Lab to breed starters from.

The folk there dressed like it too, since they also spent little time out doors/ above ground. Heavy coveralls and hard hats, along with thick boots and socks or the heavy protective gear blacksmiths and smelters required.
It was cool to cold underground after all.
Most of them had a single set of robes/ pants /top that they seved for when they had to go above ground for whatever, save the school kids who had their uniforms… which were unisex and involved a long pair of shorts to just below the knee and a short sleeved, button up shirt with a Well’s style hat and sandals for the Free Education kids or Freeters.
Those with paid education courses had fancier uniforms with skirts and proper shoes and stuff.

Unlike the other towns, Shafts didn’t even try to pretend there was a town above ground.
The only visible buildings were the petrol station/ eatery, the garage, the smelting and processing factory, with attached parking lots and warehouses, all on the opposite side of the road from the ‘village’.
The locals made their homes actually in the rocks and tunnels they had mined, backfilling played out mines and turning them into extended homes which were often interconnected.

Only the mines and shafts actively being worked didn’t have a home in them, though they did have a little portable in front of them as an office, with tracks leading out for the raw ore to be shipped out.
The carts were pulled by a variety of rock mon that were adapted to caves and tipped into big wheeled vats that fed onto a covered conveyor line to the smelter or the shore house depending on the ore.

The played out shafts were back filled to a point and used as stables for the working pokemon or backfilled with the waste and shale piles. Flint was also cut, stock piled and sold from here.
Some were used as storage space.
There were no less than four blacksmiths creating works that were either attached to the smelter or were set in caves of their own.

One of the caves had been converted into something like a daycare though there weren’t that many kids in a mining town. It was the town with the second strongest sense of community as miners' lives often relied on each other. It was a very dangerous job after all and it was relieving to know the community would rally around anyone left bereaved. Orphans from Shaft very, very rarely went to Orphanage.

Flying arrivals landed in the cleared area that was one of Shafts only above ground features and teleporters had a shallow shaft for them to arrive in.

They had a fossil fuel power generator for electricity, two large water towers - one for the smelting plant and one for general use, with most of their water for the smelter coming from Wells. They had a few ponds and wells of their own of course, just not enough to supply their needs. The smelters and the blacksmith’s both required a crap ton of water.
They supplied their own general use water though, likely from the same water table.

It was where the mesa ranges from Wells petered out on the land as the range headed out to sea,and people made their homes in the cracks and caves. It only had the outermost edges of it still on land.

Despite the plethora of mine shafts, It had only one really high mountain/ rock structure that had a sharp, steep cliff-like drop on the other side at the end that sheared off into the sea. Unlike some of the lower hills and turrets, this one was NOT for any brave adventurer to tackle.
It wasn’t safe to climb and doing so involved a lot of ducking in and out of caves and edging along narrow ledges.
Only those seeking a mastery position tried it.
A trail could as often end in a shaft with water at the bottom or blank wall and cave ins were common and no one was allowed to venture in without an Escape Rope.
The tip had a collection of flags up there as each person attempting the trial had their own with their personal sigil on it.
A flying pokemon with a drone camera is sent up to take a picture once the completion signal flare is set off from the tip.
A person is supposed to take their own picture as well, but the trip can be fraught and equipment was often lost on the way.
The tip has a small stock of flares, protected from wind and weather along with stay-dry matches. People who try for it either declined going on their Pokemon Journey (very rare) or did the minimum and returned to what they really wanted to do.
The people of Shafts called it Mt Shakey as cave-ins were common to the point where the whole area shivered and shook with them.

Shafts doesn’t have a high percentage of families but, over all, it ties with Produce for the third most populated due to all the miners, occasional pokemon tamers and people who work in the smelting factory. Quite often the spouses of the miners work in the factory when they aren’t right there in the mines with them.
Only about one in thirteen adults there have kids and only one in eight had a spouse or significant other in the town.

Unlike most towns in the Circuit though, Shafts does have a fully staffed clinic since mining is a dangerous job, even with pokemon help.

Very rarely more precious metals turn up and are mined until they peter out again but the main stays are nickel and copper along with iron ore.

There are several blacksmith shops as well because minerals and semi precious stones also turn up and can be sold. They supply both Middle, Produce and Gateway with jewelry along with general items to sell to the tourists.

The excursion to Shafts had been one of the more fun ones, towards the end of a student’s second year as a Junior.
They were one of the most welcoming too.

The students were allowed to tour the smelting factory, though not to go anywhere near the dangerous bits, check out a mine that was being backfilled, watch a blacksmith at work from a safe distance, get a souvenir of cheap tin with their names on it (or something else if they didn’t want to put a name) by an older apprentice to a jewellery smith, have a local style meal, with stuff mainly brought in from Produce and generally had a good, low key, time.

For all it’s work ethic, Shafts was one of the friendliest towns. She had fond memories of Shafts and still had her tin ‘dog tag’, with the sketched design she’d drawn on it. (The design had been her original incarnation's name, translated to Korean.) She wouldn’t want to live there though.

The rocky shoreline that started several miles outside of town didn’t really give easy access to the water as the coast was still full of hidden rock shoals with the occasional rocky turret rising from the ocean. The buoy line didn’t stop until nearly to Produce.

-0-

Chapter Text

Unlike most of the other towns, Produce had more than just the main road feeding through it. Each field, Berry farm and orchard had a road running alongside and often into it in a big gridwork. They all had their own little packing sheds/ garage as well.

The residents tended to dress like the farm folk they were too, depending on the type of farm. Long shorts or light pants, boots and short sleeved shirts with coveralls over it and, of course, a brimmed hat of some variety over the top. Sunglasses too.
The was a small amount of tourist fashions in the younger generations as there were also some artsy types around heavy influence from the regular stream of tourists.
Kids using the skate/ bike park were expected to ware appropriate safety gear though and there was a sports wear shop in the mega mall that sold that sort of thing.

Also, unlike the rest, the petrol station/ truck stop/ eatery was smack dab in the middle of town. It was bigger than the others as well and it had something like a convenience store/ supermarket attached. Produce, MiddleTown and Gateway were the only three who did. The rest had an eatery/ combini at best.

It also had regular, mostly above ground, homes made of stone or brick with whitewash or cladding. Some families had houses out on their fields and orchards while others lived in the town depending on the job they did and if they ran tours of their property. There were strips of cheap flats and rows of townhouses as well as the more traditional single or double story homes on a block of land, as well as single story flats that were three, four or five to a block.

There was a big roundabout in the center of town with a cluster of trees in it and each of the four directions had a street of shops leading off it.
One direction led into town from Shaft’s, one out of it towards Gateway though that one petered out in the fields as it wasn’t safe to try and go across country, one led towards the harbour and the last led in the direction of MiddleTown.

There was a debate going on about turning the fields in Gateway direction’s area into a small golf course and having tournaments there. It would bring in more money but it would bring in tourists as well who would likely want to stay longer… Despite everything, the town was quite insular by nature, possibly due to the pokemon farming they knew outsiders would turn their noses up at. It was a town secret after all, though they’d managed so far.
It was just an extension of the three day tours and the various class home/ guest house stays…

One of these strips held the huge petrol station, designed for catering to buses and trucks, the garage for any repairs they might need, parking and shopping center/ mega market, the main entrance for which was right next to the petrol station building, so the parking had to accommodate those biking to it or driving to it as well.

The petrol station/ eatery’ parking was, as usual, on the non coast side of the road and had the bus depot for the tourist buses attached. It sat diagonal across the tip of the block rather than facing one strip or the other with the shopping center next to and above it, spreading like a metal and concrete mantle to shadow at least two thirds of the block.

Under the actual building were a couple of dorm rooms bus and truck drivers could use to get some rest for a few hours or even overnight, though they were very basic. A small room taken up mostly by a bed, a small bedside table squeezed next to it to dump stuff on, with a shelf under that for shoes and a hook on the back of the door. The bed had a futon style mattress, a dark sheet, a throw rug/ light blanket and a hard foam pillow in a dark pillowcase with a lock on the door to show the room was in use.

The petrol station/ mega shopping complex was the biggest landmark in the town though the town wasn’t named for it.
It sat on the junction between coming in from Shafts and heading out towards MiddleTown.

The shopping complex building sprawled and had a lot of goods, though the price was marked up from the local grocer/supermarkt. There were no shops along most of the two strips on the block that housed it as most other things were tucked beneath it.
Three buss depots and a pair of thrift shops on the far ends of the block

It had general shopping center stores with not much speciality to them.
Generic pokemon care products, groceries outside of the specialty stuff, had plenty of resting spaces, a book and magazine store, one of those K Mart style everything stores, though there was a separate gardening and DIY supplies, tools etc store that went on for a while.

A larger office supplies store that had made up frames and generic cards, plain pens and binders and all that other stuff along with a ‘develop your photos’ section though it only went up to a certain size and had only two kinds of photo paper available. It had an odds and sods store that sold mass market figurines and books and phone cords and so on.

A chemist warehouse that stocked everything even vaguely related to that area, from hair dyes, to nail care to eye care and cold and flu meds, along with generic earrings and other small potential gifts. The one that actually filled prescriptions was on the public buildings strip.

A person could easily spend hours there, it was so big since only more specialized stores like the fishing shop and the game/ puzzle store weren’t super plus sized. There was a shop specializing in workware and a non specialty seamstress. A few massage chairs dotted here and there, along with coin operated games and rides. A few small, hole-in-the-wall, coffee shops or sandwich places and the non specialty bakery.

There was a plaza with a seating area on the roof, a couple of pop up stalls, some bubblers, pay telescopes and vending machines. There was a track that ran around the outside and assorted potted palms and similar shrubbery. In the center of it, was a thick glass section that looked into the building below, with a cluster of vents and fans in the middle. The glass wasn’t safe to walk on and so was fenced off. It was a measure to keep people away from them.

At the far end, was a small raised platform that was the designated point for flying pokemon to land. There was a second, similar platform across the end of the roof from it for teleporters. The building was split level with assorted bus depots, garages and parking space below most of it.
Only the main entrance, the information desk/ central office, the first set of public toilets, the lobby and a few vending machines on ground level. An escalator or lift took a potential shopper up to the next floor.

Tucked away, and almost out of sight, were a pair of thrift stores.
One leaned towards second hand furniture and spread back under the mega complex above as well as sticking out the bottom. It had a small yard attached for repairs. The second, on the other side of the block, had clothes, games, toys, bags, cookware and so on. It didn’t go as far back but it went for two shops of space, had downstairs storage and a warehouse directly behind it in a fenced off yard.

Taking up the back corner of the block was a large antiques store. It did have street access on either side of the block, but the main point of entrance was from the mega complex above. It also doubled as a restores shop and had a few token wares in the small space above. It was next to a generic jewelry store and a watch setter/ key cutter.
The mega complex also housed something like a cash converters/ pawn shop which was tucked away in a back corner.

There were actually three bus depots and stops along the mostly blank sides of the block.
One for the day tourists from MiddleTown that was just up from the thrift store so they could work their way up the super touristy stores on the shopping strip across the road, one for Boat Tour based rounds of the wine / cheese tours which had it’s depo just down from next to the petrol station on the other side from the Mall entrance and the last for the three day tour packages that was half way down the blank walled lot on the other side…though the bus dropped it’s load of tourists off at the hotel at the end of the block first.
The regular charter bus also ran out of that depo.
Most access for the garages and the like was from the back of the block, in two angled roads that passed by the yards of both thrift shops and around behind the Antique stores yard/ warehouses/ repair sheds.

Across the road from that block on the day tour bus side was the real estate agent that handled not only buying and selling of property but also all the rental properties, of which there were a lot. Only a third of the town houses were privately owned and there were other strips of flats further back in the housing sectors too.

On the three day tour/ charter bus depot side at the end of the strip and across the road from the kindy was a pokemon daycare that saw only occasional tourist business. With not having a Poke Center in town, it was a good place for a pokemon to rest and recover before they went back to work, so the riding pokemon from the park and the flying/ teleporting pokemon that acted as their Trainer’s transport/ goods transporter were regular visitors.

The buses from MiddleTown arrived twice a day, except on the days of the three day tour buses. The first arrived at six in the morning for the workers which returned back to MiddleTown at seven in the evening while the one for the day tourists left Middle Town at ten A.M. and went back at five P.M.
That was plenty of time to have a good wander around the shopping strips, though possibly not fit in the pool and water park or the mega shopping complex or do one of the tours either of the town or the cheese/wine tasting but still, they could always come back again.
The Boat Tourists got special deals on those as they only had a few hours before the boat set off again. Boat Tourists basically got a brief taster.

The multi day packages cost a lot more but had a guided tour of the town included as there was a lot to do in town. Just the museum and the gallery could take up a day, never mind the orchard tours, cheese/ wine tasting, the pool/ water park, food court Plaza features, the various factory tours, park features, pick your own Berry/fruit experiences, various studio tours and the multitude of different classes that could be signed up for.
Those and the various classes were the exceptions to the ‘please get out of our town before sunset’ attitude of the locals.

The Main Tourist Center was opposite and diagonal to it and different from the other shopping strips as, aside from the small garage and parking space behind it, rather than shops, the section held a large public park with small playground sections, public toilets, a band stand, lots of grass, trees and flowers, a small hedge maze with garden sections around it, a pond that was large enough for boating on, with a bridge over it to the tea gazebo on the island in the middle.

Unlike the other shopping strips, the park took up the entire block so there was access the street side and from the park.

On the other side of the street from it, rather than housing, is a large skate/ bike park and a toilet block, along with a rock climbing wall, basketball and tennis courts. With an oval running track /baseball diamond behind them, along with a bus stop.

There was a large water park in the back corner of the block, opposite the tourist center with the public pool right next to and above that on right and on the street across from them was a Fishing/ boat repairs shop and attached yard that was two thirds empty with the rest taken up with boats on trailers. There were some small boats for sale too.

The petting zoo was opposite the artsy street of shops, but the pokemon ride booking office was on one of the back sides of the park block, meaning tourists found it easiest to access it from the park.

The park had small stalls and pop up booths that sold samples of the wares from the shops on the opposite side of the road, along with traditional treats like crepes, shaved ice, stick ice creams and cold drinks.
There was usually live music or some sort of skit or performance happening there when the tourists were in and it also housed the town’s Shrine.
It sat in the back corner of the park, opposite the public building shopping strip and also opposite the skate park, next to the pokemon ride office and starting point.

Each shopping strip went for exactly four blocks before it turned into a housing district except for the block with the Tourist Center which had park land for that block and a chocolate factory at the end on one side, and the radio station at the end on the other, before a person crossed the road separating the shopping strips from the rest of the town (and they were big main roads with strips of greenery in the middle) and the corner points held local use shops or amenities.

Across the roads from the back sections of two out of the four shopping strip blocks were strips of two story townhouses.

Directly across the road from each shopping strip, on the corner of the block, there was a feature of the town that wasn’t specifically touristy but could be though they sometimes took up the space the town houses would have been in.
The local kindy/ childcare center, the tourist hotel and bar, a real estate agent, a skate park/ bike park with courts and a sports field behind it, pokemon daycare, the local pub and main brewery with attached beer garden, a sailing and boat repairs shop, a recycled goods store - as in made from recycled paper, plastic and glass with the refinery/ recycling center next to and behind it.

Each shopping strip had a theme too or at least a focus area and, depending on size, there were about eight shop spaces to a block. Most stores took up two or three of those spaces or went back into the block where they could but up or down story wise if they couldn’t.
At the end of each shopping strip, there was a small arbour or resting spot, along with a public phone that people could contact a golf cart/ riding pokemon from if they didn’t want to walk back with all their purchases, or they could have them delivered if they were staying overnight.
They COULD have them delivered to MiddleTown or Gateway Hotel addresses, but there was a substantial fee for that.

At the round about end of the shopping strips, there was a bank of different sized lockers a person could load goods into so their belongings and purchases could be left there temporarily while they continued shopping. They were direct pay and each person was given a docket with their code for the locker and how long it would remain locked for.
Those that were left behind and unclaimed were donated either to the school or to the orphanage/ hostel depending on what it was.

Each shopping strip had alleys and parking behind the shop along with storage garages, warehouses and small factories or studios depending on space available.

The shopping strips on the opposite side of the road from park lands that headed towards the harbour had artsy stuff, that alternated between small, shallow shops and features that had two or three stories to them and usually one below ground as well.
This was because this strip shared the back with the Plaza which took up a lot of what would have been their back door space for warehouses and the like.

The gallery and museum shared a building that took up the corner from before where the Plaza ballooned out, making entry from that side possible as well, though that side had the attached gift shops, so a person could go in the gallery, museum and exit onto the Plaza street.
The building went up for five stories and down for two, taking up an entire block of space on their own. Their warehouse/storage took up the end of the narrow alley behind the specialty shops and could be entered from both the alley and the building.

As there wasn’t much space, the smaller specialty shops took up most of the rest of the strip, often having bought up the small shop next to them for space as most of them were single story. Nearly all of these shops were willing to take commissions or run classes on their products and could be booked for these classes which usually ran in the Tour Boat off season.

A specialty cheese store, with snacks and all accompaniments that went into a proper cheese platter took up two shop spaces began the strip, then an ice creamery that connected through to a soda shop, next to a specialty drinks shop, which took up about two stores worth and had an alcoholic section, a bakery which took up two with only one section open to the public, a specialty jam/ honey store, that also had a fermented foods and chutney section, a small jewelers and watchmakers, a glaziers, crystal and glassware store that took up two shop spaces and connected through to a ceramics shop, a specialty paper and ink store.
That was followed by a wool and wool crafts store that connected to the fabric and sewing store next door.

Next, there was a strip of five store spaces that were double layered with a balcony on the top level. These were artist studios that were open to the public sporadically and featured two photography studios, one that did portraits and manipulated images and one that did landscapes and strove for clear, natural looking images, those were both on upstairs galleries.
Under them was where the life drawing classes were based out of and a watercolour artist who did portraits and other works on commission, a specialty paint shop with the artist responsible for making the pigments above it and lastly, an general art store with two levels, the more quality stuff being on the top level. It carried quality paints of all sorts, crafting supplies, glues, glitter, canvas, specialty card stock, brushes, craft knives and so on. All quality brand stuff and sold at prices that said as much. If a person wanted the cheaper, generic stuff, they went to the newsagents on the public buildings side for it.
It was followed by a bootmaker/ cobbler who could make custom fitted shoes for both people and pokemon. His shop also had an underground level and a second story but it wasn’t part of the art studio five.

Next to that was a specialist candy and chocolate store which had a small, tourable factory behind it and that also ran classes.
All the sweets inside were made using local products, which included the hard candies and the chocolates and were sold in kits. The cocoa trees and bushes had several different varieties which were blended and mixed with local Miltank milk.
It was the last thing at the end of the strip besides the resting spot.

Across the road from it was the tourist hotel, though most of the rest of that side of the street was townhouses.

The other strip opposite the park had more public use buildings and was more for the locals, the post office (it was one of the few towns that had one, most having their post delivered to the petrol station and sending packages from a big, thick, solid postbox that had a package shute and a letter flap. Post was picked up at the same time it was dropped off and the van was actually a small truck and pretty much bomb proof), the public library which takes up a block on its own, a decent sized newsagents with a computer tech section, a small clinic that treats both pokemon and humans sharing a building with an eye doctor, an ear doctor and a dentist. This also takes up nearly a block with a small chemist taking up the last place.

That was followed by a small restaurant/ eatery used mostly by the locals, a city hall/ government office building, a small supermarket with toilets inside along with a small thrift store that had a lot of used books and a bit of parking followed by the local radio station.

There was a butcher, but it was tucked around the side of the supermarket, out of sight of most of the tourists, since butchering pokemon could be controversial.
They shared their back block with the touristy strip.

Instead of housing, across the road from the station was the local recycling center/ plant and attached recycled made goods shop. It took up the entirety of that street and two blocks of space going back too. There were big piles of coloured glass, plastic, paper and metal rubbish stored in open fronted sheds.
Most of the Circuit Towns recycling was sent there for processing.
The metal was sent to Shafts to be smelted, while they dealt with the glass, paper, plastic and synthetic cloth onsite. Local artisans took most of the natural cloth to break down and use.

Those opposite the bus depots on the ShaftTown road had most of the food based shops with a Plaza surrounded by cafes, restaurants and food joints, with a milk products factory at the end of the strip before it crossed the street to the local Kindy/Child care and strips of town houses.

Rather than have the shops along the strip with their warehouses behind them they’d chosen to turn it into a bricked over Plaza/ courtyard with a small playground on fake grass in the middle and a tiny water feature.
There was plenty of seating, along with pop up stalls and buskers creating a very relaxed family friendly atmosphere.

Most of the eateries in the large, curved building, outside the stalls, had a veranda terrace/ second floor that people could sit at and admire the views from though the main building went up for another level and often down for one.
The building was in two sections that curved around the courtyard, though there was a straight walkway where it joined the main road, leaving the two entryway sections in a rectangular shape, which just made the curved parts stand out more.

There were public use toilets in both sections on opposite sides of the Plaza, just where the building began to curve at ground level, just before the escalator/ lift on the second level and just before the skating rink/ arcade at roof level.
They were in the two rectangular sections, with the skyways arching over the entryway to the Plaza. The rest of the roof space was open air with awnings zigzagging to create shade, seating areas, several air based sculptures that rippled when blown, turned, reflected the light or sparkled and had further pay telescopes along the edge.
They were connected at the far end by more skyways, though this time they appeared to be of glass or ice and completely clear.
There was one unisex toilet on either side of it along with a water bubbler.
Vending machines and pop up tents with activities for children like face painting, balloon art, clowns, colouring and event stamps.
If they got all the stamps from the features all over the Plaza, they got a little showbag.

(They’d never gotten a chance to try it on the excursion as they were only being given an overview and she sort of resented that. Locals should be able to get a prize too, dammit.)

Ground level had a couple of photo booths and coin operated features like electric rides and merry go rounds, gacha games and massage chairs tucked away in odd corners and little plaques with interesting information on them.
If a kid managed to find all of them and went to the Tourist Information nook at the start of the Plaza, they could get a special prize which was different again, but part of the feature stamp deal. That was just one of the features.

Vending machines of this and that were also dotted around.

It was also the location of the bowling alley (a level below ground), mini golf (just beyond the Plaza and filling in that corner beyond the alley accessing the back of the artisan shop strip though not blocking access to the back entrance of any of the curved, multi level building’s ground floor shops), the small roller skating rink at roof level, which had a retractable ceiling, though also high walls to keep the wind from blowing people around.
The arcade which was also at roof level, in the opposite side of the building the two connected with sky walkways. There were pay telescopes facing all four directions mounted on these walkways as well as some vending machines along them.
The arcade and the rink also had their own little snack shops that sold generic lollies, fizzy drinks and bigger packets of crisps than the vending machines did.
The minigolf section was accessible from the back of the Plaza block, though it wasn’t that side the locals used it from. There was also a gate in the fence at the back of the block.
It was opposite the tourist hotel.

Due to the shape of it, the Plaza was serviced by a curving road behind it on one side and the alley that supplied the specialty shops on a small section of the other.
What was mostly on the other side of the service alley from the specialty shops was the putt putt course behind a high wicker mesh wall.
On the other side of the Plaza on the opposite side of the service road, the remaining space, less than quarter of their designated four blocks, was taken up by its storage spaces, though some of the specialty shops the Plaza design had inconvenienced, also had their storage spaces there.
Transport was no issue thanks to the game changer that was psychic pokemon with Teleport.

On the strip that went towards MiddleTown were the more Touristy shops.

A Grooming/ hairdressing/nails salon using local products that took up six shops worth of space, with an attached massage parlor that took up the last two since it also served pokemon. Assorted clothing and fashion stores that made use of local materials some focusing on human ware and some on pokemon accessories.
Those gave way to souvenir stores with statuary, household goods, cloth goods and all the other friperies all made by local craftspersons in stores that took up two shop spaces and went back for three or four. Another photobooth and a few vending machines.
A specialty tea house where the traditional tea ceremony was still practiced, a traditional medicine store with attached palm reader, a tobaccoist, a coffeehouse with local and imported blends that could be bought. Several more vending machines with drinks and snacks.
A camera supplies store that could develop photos into different sizes or frame and mount them as well.
There was an extremely overpriced specialty theme cafe that was the only eatery on that strip. Oddly enough, an equivalent of a two dollar store was the second last shop which was right next to the brewery that had artisan beer for tasting, along with some spirits.
Most of the shops were single story but went back for two or three shop spaces worth.

Across the road from it was the local pub with the brewery all that fancy beer came from that was open for tours. The beer tasting shop was just a literal taster.

(It was much easier to get information on the towns that allowed tourists to visit because most of them weren’t shy in chattering about all the things they saw and tourist leaflets, city maps were incredibly easy to get a hold of.

She’d picked up most of them when they’d come here on their second excursion/ field trip early in her first year as a Junior. The Prep years being for helping the kids settle into the idea of classes and learning. Any outings were kept to Gateway only except for one very unsatisfying one to Produce. This had been MUCH more what she’d expected.

It had been a full day outing where they’d toured the museum, got to see the docks, looked inside the tourist center and the recycling plant, gotten to tour an orchard, a cactus orchard and a berry farm and then back to Gateway before it did a very late run to get all the kids home again.

It had been lots of fun and she’d signed up for a few of the farm hand jobs, which had put her off living in Produce permanently, ever but she’d needed the money to pay for art supplies since one of the rich snots had kicked up a stink about a Freeter using stuff that THEY had paid for!
It shut the little snot up nicely.

Usually, she didn’t bother with childish spats but NO ONE messed with her chance to do art and got away with it. NO ONE.)

The several Berry farms and orchards of semi arid, salt tolerant trees were all on the outskirts of the town, with the more water hungry Berry farms and cocoa plantations towards the Gateway side of the town, the fruiting cacti orchards in the sector heading towards MiddleTown and Shafts, and the palm and plum groves on the section between Shafts and the coast.

The groves grew dates, figs, salt plums and a couple of varieties of oil palms.

There were a few small fields of cotton and similar arid tolerant crops.
Mereep and Miltank grazed in a few fields left fallow on the outskirts of town.

Some grass or insect pokemon wandered the farms/groves/orchards/fields pollinating, improving the soil, guarding them from wild pokemon and so on.

There wasn’t much out beyond the town in the direction of Gateway.

It was too dangerous.
That area, despite greening out towards Gateway, was unstable ground, full of uneven, jagged terrain and sink holes, small and large.

Large fingers of water intruded inland, though some of the sinkholes were also full of water, most either salty or stagnant from the extremely sporadic rainfall or filled from pokemon fights or similar improbable events.

Wild winds often triggered dust devils and willy willy’s though they broke up just as quickly on the rough terrain. Erratic winds blow any rainfall away before it could do much.

There were a lot of wild pokemon out there, but it wasn’t safe to go hunting them.
It wasn’t even safe to fly over it sometimes.

The beaches of Produce gave way to a series of jagged outcrops of rock, sand bars and reefs that spread out like an irregular, lowering wing that eventually vanished into a shallow channel that deepened abruptly towards the far end of the island.
It also had a buoy line around the outside edge.

Pidgey, Rattata, Ekans and Spearow were an issue and regularly trapped and eaten where they weren’t just farmed. The produce was precious in the area so any marauding pokemon, once the meat was treated to get rid of parasites and the like was just more meat for the pot.

Some pokemon farming happened, but it was usually common mon like Pidgey colonies or Rattata. Pidgey were farmed for their eggs and their flesh and Rattata for their flesh.
To keep anyone from getting attached, heavier concentrations of a local mineral was added to their feed that kept them in an animal like state and thus less able to escape the ‘runs’ made between the rocks out in the badlands just outside of town, between Shafts and Produce.
They also couldn’t evolve while on it, keeping the sizes manageable.
Come breeding season, the mineral was eased off so a few pairs of each species could evolve but the numbers were controlled and, as soon as they had enough to keep the colonies steady, the mineral was reapplied.

The colonies were usually out in the wilds with locals taking a rifle and shooting or trapping one of two of whatever as needed. There was a butcher in town but most did it themselves.

People were too busy surviving to worry about conservation, environmental issues or whatever.
It was well known though that outsiders got weirded out by that fact so they didn’t spread it around and it certainly wasn’t shown to the tourists.

There was some fishing but not much as a boat had to go out into deep water and it often wasn’t worth the effort.
It had been a LONG time since the days when Fisher and Produce had done trading in their own right, being one of only three towns it was sometimes safe to approach from the sea. With the advent of motor vehicles and connecting roads, the need for it had dwindled away until only the Tour Boat came now.
Fisher still does a small amount of trading with their salt but their window for that is short because nothing comes by sea in whirlpool season.

Even so, there’s a lot of history in Produce and each town has their own tales and stories much as they all have their own Shrines, even if most are only used for marriages, funerals and festival/ new years celebrations.

The beaches tended to be more rock pools and gravel and the currents swept wide there.

Rips were things to be respected and feared and there were patrol pokemon and rider teams because there was always that one kid or stupid tourist who didn’t listen.
It was only safe to swim at certain times of day and in some seasons it wasn’t safe to swim at all because the currents that had swept the pokemon out swept them back in again, meaning the shore line was practically infested with dead marine pokemon that had been swept ashore.
The bodies were hauled away to be processed at the Lab and sometimes, rarely, a pokemon was still alive. It also drew scavenger pokemon so it wasn’t safe to be near.
It might make a bit of money but it’s hell to clean up and left a reeking mess

Lately, they’ve been trying things like buoy bound netting to try and keep the pokemon off the shore. It’s only been partially successful as most water pokemon have a way to cut themselves free… if not get back in the water when beached before they bake to death.

The town is saving up to have a sea wall put into place which would avoid most of the issue entirely and make it safer for the tour boat year round since there’s a shallow lip of rock just to the Shaft side of their town's small strip of beach.

Because of the currents, at certain times of the year, it’s not safe for the tour boat to come in.
They’ve partially solved that with a ‘peer’ that rests on the ocean's surface, but it’s a bit of a long walk. Having more lightweight riding pokemon there to transport the Tourists works.
They’ve also tried pokemon towed small boats or direct rides to some success.
It depends on the weather. If it’s stormy or windy, they don’t bother and the Tour Boat just doesn’t stop.

There is a smaller Tourist Center, more of an information booth, on the docks.
Rather than tourist tat or local specialties/ crafts, it held maps, tour lists, locations of various features, times the bus attached to the tourist boat made its rounds with two hours between each round… and it visited all of the farms/ orchards etc giving tours as well as the main strip and Tourist Center.

The Boat Tourists weren’t encouraged to stay overnight but there was a hotel in case something unexpected came up. It happened sometimes that the weather turned and it wasn’t safe to go back on the boat, the boat broke down and so on.
It was also there for the Tourists coming in on the bus from MiddleTown though most of them weren’t encouraged to stay overnight either.

There were a few Bed and Breakfast style places for those wishing to visit for a bit longer, for attending classes or workshops on this and that.
These tended to be more around the outskirts, between the shopping districts and the housing districts, behind that first row of townhouses, where a tourist didn’t stay overnight on the property they were attending the class/ workshop on. Most of them had worker’s cottages that could be glammed up a bit for tourists.
Those usually ran for two or three days and the ‘students’ returned to Gateway via the MiddleTown bus.

Produce was close enough to the greener side of things that it got rain semi-regularly that usually blew in from the sea storms and could tap water from outside the area…and the farms/ fields/ groves were dotted with small ponds and catchment areas.
The farmers still bought some water from Wells as the well/ bore water had minerals in it that helped their crops in controlled doses.

Also due to being on the greener side and having plenty of work to spare, it was one of the towns with the highest population of families..
Between the poke farming, the tourists, the factories and processing plants and the crops, there was always work to be done.
All goods are trucked in through MiddleTown, except for the water from Wells, that comes in via the Shafts road.
Produce is one of the few places that has ready access to water and has flush toilets that go to a septic tank. While they don’t use the barrels like most of the rest of the Circuit Towns, the Sewage pick up boys drain the tanks into barrels once a month.

Kids from here were usually a little more well to do and a little less restricted about what they could send home pokemon wise… Bug and Grass pokemon were always welcome. Though ones able to heal or do heavy lifting were equally welcome.
While flying types were also acceptable, the same types as the farmed pokemon were less so. So, no Ekans, no Pidgey, no Rattata and no Spearow unless a kid wasn’t planning to live in Produce. The fully evolved versions of Spearow and Pidgey could be let slide because there were NO wild versions of those around ever, but most of the mon didn’t do well seeing their wild cousins hunted for meat and products so it wasn’t encouraged.

There was less pressure on them to return after their Pokemon Journey too, as hands could easily be hired from elsewhere if it came to that.

Produce also has a nursing home for those who still feel like they want to do something with their time, but aren’t fit enough to remain safely in their hometowns as well as having a daycare/ kindy for the toddlers over the age of one.

Those who are incapable due to loss of mental facilities go to Orphan instead. Pretty much all the towns do that. Send their mentally able but no longer fully physically capable to Produce and their no longer mentally able to Orphan.

Despite having one of the highest percentages of families, Produce sense of community wasn’t particularly high. The small city was just too big for that and each of the farms and orchards has at least one other person farming the same thing, sometimes even more, so these people, while neighbours and folk you’d drink with at the pub, are also competitors. The only exception is the cocoa bush plantation attached to the chocolate factory.

There was a neighborliness though. If something bad happened to one of them, the town would rally around to support, but most usually do their own thing.

Produce and Shafts tie for the third most populated towns, though Produce leans more towards families while Shafts leans more to pokemon tamers and miners.

-0-

Chapter Text

School/ Gateway was on the point closest to the rest of Kanto and really was the Gateway through which any of the area’s would be Pokemon Trainer’s passed into the main Kanto Region, despite the island nearly being a region of it’s own… just one that had no interest in pokemon battles and had no interest in the League.

Gateway was very much a tourist city as well as the first introduction the young Trainers from the area had to battling with several designated battle areas and an actual arena.

It was on the scale between mediterranean and temperate climate. Still on the warmer side, but a lot greener than most of the other towns being the furthest from the desert.

It had the largest, safest harbour of all the towns and was the main trading point.

A wide river/ small channel separated it from the nearest mainland city, which was Lavender town, the sight of the poke tower.

It was the most heavily populated of the Circuit Towns and the city of choice to keep a person's family if they were able though it was also the most expensive place to live.

The small city was larger than any of the others, nearly three times the size of Produce and had the amenities to prove it. It had an actual hospital, a Poke Center, a small jail that had Jenny trained officers, even if they didn’t have a Jenny, accommodation to suit a range of budgets, two or three mega malls that made it look like the ones in Produce weren’t trying (except for the artisan and speciality shops. Those were produce exclusive), any number of parks small and large, most dotted with some sort of water feature as water in this environment was a way of showing off your wealth, a number of designated battle spots, a full sized arena, any number of public buildings and, of course, the school and it’s various additions.
It was the only city to have running water and flush toilets available in most of the city, the same for electricity at all times of the day or night.

Most of the towns towards the far end of the island didn't have playgrounds/ parks because it was simply too hot to be outside more than a person had too and there were chores to be done.
Play happened at school and each town handled what happened with their pre school kids differently otherwise.
Fisher had a communal play group, Lab kept their tot’s confined to a single room that was loosely watched, and Wells didn’t really have kids there, Produce, Storage and Shafts all had play group/ day care/ kindy as well. Except for the shanty town kids, those who could sent kept their family in Produce or Storage so there weren’t really play group/ kindy options in Middle.

Gateway had two small preschool/ daycares, with one on either side of the crescent, but, like the main school, they were pretty basic.
The wealthy usually had Mannys/ Nannys for the precious spawn until they were old enough to shuffle off to school, if they were sent at all.

The city itself was shaped into a rough crescent, curving around the bay and split into four distinct sections, well, five technically since their were two housing sections, one on either end of the crescent.

The tourist portion on the front part of the crescent, separated from the trainer zone by a wide park, the petting zoo and a small water feature park.

The Tourist District, with it’s many food shops, cafe’s, restaurants, hotels, motels, chemists, hairdressers, large malls full of assorted clothes, beauty, souvenir and craft shops, some chain franchise, both food and store based, along with a large supermarket and other features were spread along the outer curve of the crescent that fronted the beaches.
There was a cinema and a theatre.
It also featured a small, but fully staffed hospital on the opposite end of the crescent from the bus depo, with park and garden around it.

All of the parks featured either a playground, a fountain or a pond/ water feature, often with local pokemon that could be fed. There were concerts and music events and festivals.

There were attractions of all kinds and a theme park on a man made island that changed location regularly depending on weather and water currents, a large water park with slides, tunnels etc just on the beach front, dance clubs and bars and a host club or two, though none of them were sex workers.

There were flying pokemon rides from one of the tallest points on the cliffs along with hang gliding, also pokemon based.

Several zip lines were strung from various tall points for those who didn’t want to fly but enjoyed an aerial view.

There were small boats and paddle boats, kayaks and canoes for hire. There was snorkeling and guided diving and pokemon rides for hire.

There were specified swimming beaches that were monitored. The rockier portions of the coast had several salt water pools at one end and the small aquarium/ marine petting zoo at the other.

There was even an underwater hotel and bar, complete with ‘gardens’.

The surfing wasn’t very good but they made up for it with many other attractions, including diving tours.

There were several small islands on the edges of the harbour and a few floating platforms with features for the tourists to enjoy.

There were a couple of small markets that happened on odd days, a carnaval/ circus on a small islet that could be accessed from the mainland by a sand bar that was only uncovered at certain times. Guests could stay but it meant they’d be there for eight hours until it was fully uncovered again… depending on the weather.

This didn’t cover everything but everything was a heck of a lot and it gave a person a rough idea of just how much there was crammed into the Tourist sector… and that didn’t cover the hikers and ranger guided tours and what not.

The docks that lined the sides of the wide harbour were separated into merchant, fishing and tourist boats and ships.

The fishing was minimal but the shipping traveled to several different ports and there was a ferry that ran to Lavender Town and back, along with a bridge large enough for two way vehicle traffic… but the walkways were lined with Trainers itching for a fight.

That pokemon who smashed through however long ago had come from the Lavender town direction and basically bashed a hole through the range.

Being enterprising sorts, rather than having to take a ferry all the time, why not build a nice, convenient bridge, so they could also come and enjoy tourist attractions. Lavender town had agreed because they could also use the money. It wasn’t just the Circuit Island that had gotten smashed. Whatever that mon was, it had stomped across Kanto as well…

The topography near Lavender town, or rather, the tunnel before it was a little odd. It had a mountain range buffering it from the ocean… but two thirds of the range and a small, well, not so small anymore, straight between it and the mainland. If that mon had crashed through up a little higher, they’d be an island in and of themselves now.
It was possibly that mon’s interference that had the tunnel being built in the first place.

Previous to that, one would have to sail from Route Nine up the straight and out to open sea or from the end of Route Twenty-Five, passed a place called Rifure Village. There was a small set of docks there that saw less and less use until only the locals fishing from it or taking a boat out for a sail were left.

The bridge was VERY impressive. It split the bay into two halves and rose majestically, crossing not just the bay but the straight and the shattered mountain as well.
It took them over a decade to complete it but Kanto had no other bridge to match it. Not even the new one being built to join Celedon and Fuchsia City.

It was large enough that for those walking, or biking it, there were two rest stops that were essentially mini villages built along them in and of themselves.
These were Wayfarer’s Rest and Service Stop. They offered petrol, a konbini, an inn with six or seven available, very simple rooms and a couple of local craft stores. The first of these was just inside where the circles of the Circuit Island headlands stopped and the second was just before the bridge crossed into and through the mountain range.

There was a Flight Tower and a Ranger’s center on the mountains to either side of the bridge as wild pokemon were still a thing in the range.

There were minibuses that departed regularly for Lavender Town but those went straight into town and they left every three hours or so.
The walking/ biking path gave a person two choices. One, follow the road into town. Two, go straight and it would put a person down at the newly completed Rock Tunnel’s end.

The Rock Tunnel was under something called the Vast Plains of Rock mountain. Cheery. They’d been warned never to try going up or across it… ever.

For those who wanted a slower pace, that traditional Ferry left from a set of docks just under the base of the bridge, departing on one side and returning on the other. They ran every four hours depending on wind and weather during the day, starting at dawn with the last coming in at dusk.

There was a wide strip of pristine beach behind it as the base of the bridge was set back from the waterline so that while it cast a shadow, it didn’t interfere with it.

During festivals and New Years, lights and decorations were strung from it all the way to the mountain range so that the lights reflected their neon glows off the water…

There was an island tour that was literally around the island though it visited the small islets in the harbor on the way through to give the tourists a taster of their attractions.

The only places they could possibly stop off around the island were Produce and Fisher. Everywhere else had cliffs or dangerous waters that needed sailing around.
Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t. It depended on the weather, the winds, the season and the tides.
Even so, Produce and Fisher both had a tourist center with information about the town and samples of some local specialties if they were game to try them. Few were.
They could also buy typical tourist tat, take photos and pick up a few local handicrafts as well. Never very much in Fisher as the tour didn't always stop but it was a good boost for the town when it did.
Where Fisher did swimming and boating on the tidal river and a tour of the Salt Plains for a bit extra, Produce did tours of the orchards/groves/farms and fields with cheese and wine/beer/spirits tasting and lawn games/ archery for any kids.
Produce had some overnight accommodation but Fisher didn’t.

Stop overs in Fisher didn’t happen in the hotter part of the year either as that was whirlpool season and the boats had to swing wide for safety.

The direction the island was circled depended on the time of year too.

There was a small craft market between the Tourist Sector and the Trainer Sector set in an open square with a fountain in its center.

There were pokemon ride tours that went from there, along some of the beaches and back, along with fancy coaches that could be hired for special events or just for a circuit of the Tourist Sector with commentary and back.

Just behind the Tourist Sector was the Trainer Sector with the Pokecenter and the shops related to it, along with the Arena, an open area for battling, a trading center, a grooming salon, a pokemon daycare and breeding center and so on.

It was also the only town where battling happened regularly and so had several designated dueling places and pokemon were seen with their people regularly.

It was the thinnest of the sectors and not as glitzy as the Tourist Sector, but it still had many parks for human and mon alike to enjoy even if it was also dotted with battle spots of different terrains so all sorts of mon could fight effectively.

A Trainer, if they had the funds, could fill out what they hadn’t been able to get from the Labtown stores or get better quality, more expensive gear.
Most of the would-be-Trainers bought from Labtown because they could get stuff from their limited range at a discount.

As the Pokemon Center could only house so many of them, it was bracketed by simple, cheap four bed dorm rooms similar to the overnight student dorms, though access to showers and bedding were provided, along with small hotel soaps, shampoos, conditioners and toothpastes.

The Trainer’s Sector, despite being the narrowest of them, did make a good buffer between the Tourist Sector and the School Zone, which also housed most of the public buildings save the hospital and the lock up.

Behind the Trainer area and the park was the School Zone that was more for the residents' use if they didn’t want to interact with the Tourists or Trainers. It was the oldest part of town left, that rampaging pokemon a century and a bit back having smashed the stuff closer to shore to wreckage. This part had been damaged too, but it had stomped its way out into the rest of the island rather than destroy every building in the town.
The things that got wrecked just happened to be in its way.

Unfortunately, the library and the old town hall were some of these, being roughly in the center of the town… and it was just a town then. A big one, but a town nonetheless. It had been a trading port and pinched into the space between two headlands.

That pokemon had smashed the headlands wide open, allowing for the City’s current crescent shape rather than having the beach side and the headland side of town.

The Council had taken the chance to do some modifying to the flattened towns, which was how Produce and MiddleTown because tourist spots, Storage became the place to send everything, and plans for Lab were thought up if not acted on.
It a way, that mon did them a favour by opening things up… even if it, or something like it, was possibly the reason Orphan ended up where it was.

The school of the School Zone was dead center of its section and the building shared a large park filled with edible plants with the Trainer Zone.

The main building was modest as they’d taken parts of the old school and incorporated them, with a memorial so the incident wouldn’t be forgotten.

It had three stories, with the Preppie and admin rooms on the ground floor, the Junior classes and a small admin office a floor up and the Senior students and their admin on the third floor. There was a pool on the roof for learning to swim as well as simulating potential accidents that could happen to a trainer and how to manage water pokemon encounters. The other side of the horseshoe’s roof was where flying practice happened though only under adult supervision.
These were the main buildings the Freeters or those getting a free basic education got to see.

To either side of the horseshoe shaped building (with the top pointing towards MiddleTown) were two, much newer, oval shaped towers. Those doing a paid education with extra courses pre Journey did their classes out of the left eight story tower, while returners pursued further education out of the six story right tower.
They were in far better condition and held more amenities than the main building.
Even the classrooms were nicer, as she could say from personal experience… though the little snots in them were typical rich little snots.
They didn’t even have to share meals with the Freeter kids if they didn’t want to, though they were encouraged to at least once a month so they could keep an eye out for kids who would be easy to direct in the service of the paying student’s family and ones to potentially avoid. Attempts to nobble any Freeter competition would be met with censure and fines, paid to the wronged child or their family.

Any Returners could apply to a bunch of different types of schooling, mainly through distance learning or apprenticeships depending on what town they wanted to work in, whether their family wanted them back home and how their health was.
Or they could just get one of the low paid casual tourism jobs until they could decide.
Only about a quarter of those who went on their journey chose to return unless they’d planned to return from the beginning and, of those, only about two percent were orphans.
Most wanted to get far away from the island and get on with their lives.

The edible garden merged with the school garden divided only by a token fence and gate.

The road passed in front of the horseshoe, curving around it and the bus stop was directly in front of the school.
Paying students rarely took the school bus, susing the teleport station in the center of the horseshoe instead or the private landing space at the top of the eighth story tower.

The practice landing center was behind the school with the rest of the training areas.

There was a stable with assorted mon they needed to care for, small patches of different environments, excluding ice, but they had a cave, a rock zone, grassy hills, a small patch of forest, a lake, long grass and, on the other side from the stables, a really, REALLY big greenhouse in three different sections and assorted sheds.
For practice with desert terrain or water pokemon, they were either taken out into the desert a bit or to the salt water rock pools.
It also had a small training field and battle field with a track around the outside.
None of them had pokemon of their own yet, but the school kept a small range of training pokemon so they could get a feel for fighting with different types.

Just off the side of the Returner’s Tower were the overnight Student dorms. These two had a paying and non paying… or rather gold coin donation, section. There were also some units for those who weren’t open to sharing a dorm.

The dining area was on the ground floor, in a rectangular extension off the top of the horseshoe.
It also doubled as an auditorium/ assembly hall as the chairs and tables were fold away trestles and seats that were stored either hanging on the wall in sets that looked like art when they were hung up, or under the small stage.
The floor was treated stone and so easy to clean. Nothing classy like marble, no these were flint tiles from Shafts fit together tightly, polished until they shone and then coated in waxy stuff.
The kitchen was a bump out of the left side, while the emergency doors were a bump out the right. The staff shared a single toilet per floor while the students shared a bank of them, half male, half female on one that was unisex.

There was no catering to the disabled, since they didn’t tend to last long, nor did they normally get sent off to school.
Mentally disabled were normally dumped in Orphanage, while physically disabled, depending on whether it effected their mobility, were normally kept and home and apprenticed to someone if they weren’t just dumped off in Storage to fend for themselves with a small stipend.
The school DID offer distance learning and higher level courses both paper and through electronic means… for a price.
It was a very unkind world on this island.

The building itself had nine public classrooms, three for each year though a fourth could be opened as needed. These took up one side of the horseshoe with the toilets at the highest point of the arch, near the stairs. The school had its own small library and computer bank along with study nooks, which took up most of the rest of the bottom floor.

Teachers quarters were on the middle and highest floors, above the library. They had a cleaning cupboard and a storage room to mark the end of public spaces. They were split into male and female and, while the rooms were separate, the toilet, showers and kitchener were shared. Males were on the top floor, females on the middle.
There were external stairs on both ends of the horseshoe that could be used as emergency exits and, if those needed to be used, students were to assemble themselves in rows in front of the school.

Rather than grades, the students were separated into two year blocks.
Prep ran until a kid was six. Junior was from six to eight and Senior was from eight to ten.
The first two years focused on helping a kid get used to being in a school situation and beginning to learn, the next two on cramming knowledge basics into them, making sure they could all read, write, handle money and so on, along with a bit of history, while the last two years were all about getting them ready for the Pokemon Journey .

School began at age four and was mandatory up to ten, since every child was expected to undertake their Pokemon Journey. It was six days a week barring sand or dust storms.

Daybreak was between seven and eight (depending on the season) and dusk was between six and seven (also depending on the season.) Twilight and false dawn could last about twenty minutes either way depending on the weather and the season.

Even so, unless there was a school trip, school started at ten in the morning and finished at three with classes in twenty minute blocks with those needing more time having a double block. There was a ten minute break in the morning and another in the afternoon with a twenty minute block for lunch. Another forty minutes after were given over for detentions if they happened.
The school bus began its return round at four.
With one school bus in the morning and one at night if you missed it, too bad.

A kid had about an hour to go and look at the shops or run some errands with the fifty odd minutes they had after school. The only reason they even had that long was because detentions happened and needed to be served without stranding the kid.

Most of the time, when she missed the bus, it was due to her one extra class, picked up when she graduated from being a Preppie to being a Junior… and she’d wanted something to take her mind of the drudgery that was Orphanage and her still relatively recent orphaned state.
It was a lot of work and meant she missed out on the time after school to explore, but she still felt it was worth it.

Even so, it was a struggle in the beginning because she was small and scrawny and Freeters had shorter school hours than the paying students because most of the Payers had their own way to get home.
Since she didn’t and was trading labour and clean up for the right to attend the class, there were occasions when she ran out of time.
She did her best to avoid it because the older kids were supposed to help with the smaller ones in the orphanage and, if you weren’t there, someone else would have to step up or the kids you were responsible for didn’t get cared for properly that night.
Long and short, she’d never gotten to explore much, except for on the rare half days.

Anyway, stranded students was where the gold coin donation over night dorms came into play. These were for kids who, for whatever reason, had missed the bus.
It’d mean missing a meal or two unless they knew what to forage for in the public garden since the school shut it’s gates at six, staying open even that long only for those studying late.

While not all the kids could afford a gold coin donation, it had a pallet couch in the lobby that anyone could use if they were desperate. The actual rooms were similar to the budget, mixed multy bed dorm from a back packers hostel.
There were usually between eight and sixteen beds, in bunks, to a dorm, no separation of gender or age (though a person could pay more for a single or double bed room overnight) and the beds were covered with a single sheet on a hard foam mattress and a hard foam pillow. Blankets were in a vending machine that required more coins to get.

(After getting caught out a few times, she’d used found coin change to buy herself one of those thin, fold up, shiny thermal blankets and took it with her EVERYWHERE. That way, she could tuck herself under the pallet couch, using her third hand school bag as a pillow and remain mostly unnoticed.
Fortunately, in the free classes, everything was on print outs or was handed out for that class only and returned at the end of class so, while sheeves of paper might be hard to keep in order, they were a lot lighter than actual books.)

There was even a courtesy phone that would allow a single call per child, usually to the single phone in the Village Head’s home so they could be informed of what happened.

It had day round electricity, a flush toilet and drinkable water, so in many ways it was better than a lot of kids actual homes but since there was an active curfew on unaccompanied kids, they’d better get their shit sorted by ten.
As previously mentioned, pre journey aged, unaccompanied kids in the School Zone would find themselves carted off to lock up on discovery, shut in overnight and their adult figures contacted.
Since there were regular patrols, even unescorted kids in the Tourist Zone weren’t safe… though they got a gentler approach of asking for names, contacting parents and guardians and so on.
Kids in the Trainer Zone were assumed to be responsible enough to fend for themselves, but WERE required to show their trainer I.D.

For Freeters, there were no annual school trips or official clubs.
Most of the kids simply didn’t have the time for those and rarely really got to know any kids outside of those from their town even though the competitions for points were held in several different towns, with the biannual sports days happening in Produce, the Flying pokemon handling test was in Storage, the desert test happening in MiddleTown, Cave survival was in Shafts and the Marine handling test in Fisher when they could but on a hidden beach on the other side of the out to sea headland otherwise.
It could only be reached by flying pokemon or boat and was a local secret.
(She was pretty sure it was a smuggling port. What underworld elements that there were in Gateway were usually clustered around the docks.)

The school bus and the two lots of waste collectors - well, and the post van, were the only ones who did a complete circuit of all the towns. Even then, the school bus didn’t go to Wells outside of a single excursion to let them attend a class on the various dangers in the last year at school.
Tour buses went to Middle Town and, more rarely, to Produce. Nowhere else.

The actual shopping district and public buildings portion spread out on either side of the school property like wings that joined over the top of it.

The council house and offices, the public library, the post office, the radio station (though it’s main receiver was up on the opposite headlands as the bird pokemon official landing zone), the television station, the bank branch and the local newspaper were dotted between, small newsagents, mum and pop eateries, a small farmers market that happened once a week - the rest of the time it was a flea market, two small independent supermarkets, a small doctor's office/ clinic with a nearby chemist, a couple of parks and playgrounds, some milk bar/ corner stores, a couple of two dollar ship equivalents, there were several former public buildings for hire, including a couple of houses and halls, assorted small shrines dotted various parks across all the Sectors but the Residential and Industrial ones, assorted small temples, one large thrift store than did a bit of everything furniture included, a couple more that did mainly clothes and small items all separated from the Trainer Zone by a wide road (except for the edible garden) lined by a thin, green band of hedges and trees.

Coming into Gateway, one passed between two large head rocks, though the gap between was wide enough for half a dozen semi trailers to park nose to tail and still have space for a car to go around on either side.
Before they entered the headland’s gap, the road split, sweeping to the left and the right and bracketing the outside of the public/ School Zone.
Between them stood the City’s main Shrine with enough space left for at least the locals to gather safely around it. It had a small temple attached.

The roads swept all the way around the edge of the towering cliffs to the merchant docks on one side and the beach and harbor sweeper rubbish collection point on the other.
There was a little, netted off trash island tucked in a dip of the headlands.
Just before the garbage repository, was the Ranger’s Station as they were in charge of the psychic pokemon who did shifts sorting out the various sorts of trash into big, transportable skips for recycling.

There was a joining road just inside the headlands that curved to connect the two others with a third, smaller road coming off the middle of it which then branched to become a bunch of smaller streets. Only the school road remained big enough to accommodate a semi truck… or the school bus.

The cliffs towered above the rocky foothill/ meadows below, shielding them from much of the harsh sun and the tearing winds that whipped over them, depending on the season. Any building done up on the cliffs had to be wedged in tight… not that there were many.
The top of one head was private property, though no one knew who owned it and not much of it was level enough for building in any way.
Despite that, there were hiking trails winding over it to an outlook, just below the privately owned portions on either side of the headland… though the one winding up the desert side wasn’t recommended without a guide… and preferably a shore footed riding pokemon.

There was a sky car and a gondola ride that connected over the gap between the two headlands for those that didn’t want to walk it, but they only ran depending on the wind speed.

The attractions and the flying pokemon landing area was on the other side which, where it curved around the bay and out into the ocean, the wind had shaped into sharp edges and points. The privately owned side had some of that but not as much.

The actual area was huge, it could fit all of Produce, fields and orchards included, all of MiddleTown and still have room to tuck in LabTown - track included, Fisher, Storage and at least a quarter of Shafts.

Even with everything they had in the city already, all of the residential area wasn’t brought up yet and there was still space for things even in the Tourist Zone… though the cost of land was utterly crazy even up on the cliff side. There were a few homes burrowed into it like fungus on a tree and at least three way houses on the trails and one Backpackers motel.
There were even a few sleeping pods part way up the non trail festooned headland for those willing to climb up to them with the main office tucked away in one of those little crannys in the cliff side. The right to do so was bought nice and legal like but they could only go a third of the way up the cliff and there had to be a pokemon on standby to catch anyone who slipped.

Most big port towns always had an underside, even if the planners had done their level best to ensure there were no narrow back alleys for shady types to lurk in.
As far as she knew, the shady areas were pushed to the far sides, beyond the residential areas, close to the docks or did business on little hidden beaches like the one for the marine pokemon handling exam.

Even so, private security guards and security cameras dotted the Tourist Zone and the local police regularly made sweeps of the School Zone. It might be more casual and lived in than the Tourist Sector but it was still patrolled and not just for errant school kids.
The Trainer and School Sectors were less monitored but there was less there to draw shady types, especially as most people used mon to fight, rather than fight themselves and mon battles were NOT subtle or quiet.
Thewere patrols in those areas were mainly to chase off feral pokemon as they were quieter than the Tourist Zone.

The residential areas are on the two ends of the crescent, with the warehouses and storage facilities and the very few factories right on the very crescent points.

The residential areas are separated from the Tourist Sector and the Training Sector by two very wide strips of park land and parking areas. These disappeared into simply a wide road to cross to access the School Zone/ Public District.

The bus depo for the school and tourist busses was on one of these along with the lock up though the police station had to branches, one in the School Zone and another just on the just between the Tourist and the Trainer Zones on the opposite side of the crescent from the School Zone one.

There was a bus services that traveled around the city crossing all of the Zones and each sector was dotted with bus stops. It ran four times a day with two in the morning and two in the afternoon… though it ONLY circled the city. Buses that headed out to MiddleTown (and the ‘secret’ one that went to Storage) left from the Tourist Sector.

There were plenty of private vehicles were also permitted though only those with the proper modifications were allowed passed the headway and there was a checkpoint that ensured all of their paperwork was in order and they had the right mods and licences. After that, they were own their own.

The holiday houses, aside from the beach front condos, were the first few rows in that layer and followed the edge right to the coast. They had regular rows of normal houses behind them before things degenerated into tenement style flats out at the edges.
The cheapest accommodation was in small triple story row units at the very ends of the crescents where they edged on to the small storage/ industrial sections.

The storage/ industrial sections are separated from the residential areas by a wide parking area with a row of trees down the middle and road that was used regularly by busses and trucks and not really made for crossing. If a person had to go there, they’d do better to join the flow of traffic and then turn off. There were one or two sky bridges but they weren’t conveniently situation and took a person far out of their way.
Long and short, if a person had no reason to go there… don’t.

There are petrol stations at the tip of each of the crescent along with large petrol storage and water containers.

The Tourist based towns of Gateway and MiddleTown didn’t actually haver regional styles of dress. The better off dressed in the most comfortable clothes they had access to except when they were at work, then in uniform.
The Shanty kids dressed in whatever they could get a hold of though feet were always, always at least wrapped, because the ground was too hot not to.

Since Storage was split into the workers and the civilian families of people working elsewhere they didn’t either. Workers dressed in either their Security Guard uniforms/ or the mechanic/apprentice work wear while civilians dressed in whatever.
Everyone dressed for comfort though they were more likely to put a daughter in a dress or a skirt. The same with the more well to do of MiddleTown. The more traditional of Gateway did the same but they had too much exposure to outside influence for that to really stick.

Since Orphan was less of a town and more a cluster of services, there was no overall uniforms save for the priests whose garb was standard all over.
The orphans were dressed in whatever second hand clothes with the matrons/ staff in light, cool dresses and aprons depending. The nursing staff dressed in their uniforms during the day with the residents and the patience dressed in their own, usually lightweight, clothes.
The few crematorium workes had fancy clothes for funerals as their work wear she guessed but what they wore outside of that, who knew, or cared.

Her secondhand clothes marked her as an orphan though and an easy target. She’d new, good quality gear, to ditch that label…

The three ‘tourist’ towns were by far the easiest to get information on. Leaflets of attractions and features, maps and guides… all sorts of things.
The next couple, aside from MiddleTown, were less so and she still lived in one of them.

Chapter Text

Depo/ Storage, the next town along from Gateway on the circuit was exactly that. It was a series of half buried warehouses, storage silos, large tanks and garages.
Any excess that wasn’t shipped or trucked across to the mainland or elsewhere in the Circuit Towns immediately went there.

There weren’t houses exactly, but more multi story small apartments and units and lots, and lots of office space.

The housing blocks were five or six stories high, not higher than the massive warehouses and silos so they were truly hidden.
Each side had space for seven small apartments with storage space on each corner on two sides and an elevator on the other two. There were less apartments on the top three levels to accommodate the extra bedrooms.
They had one, two, three and, on the top floor, four bed rooms, along with a lounge, internal shower, internal toilet, kitchen and balcony as well as a Building Manager to help with issues and maintenance for them.

There were eight of the buildings in a square with a small courtyard in the center and a flat roof with clothes lines and four longer strip ones in front of them.
The square ones had a small playground/park/ garden in the middle of each.
The square ones had their own little parks so they rarely needed to leave the courtyard to play.

Even so, the buildings were big enough that most of the kids from the same building didn’t know each other on sight, let alone by name.

The long strips had an indoor flush toilet at the end of each block, shared washing machines and balconies with a bar for washing line. There was a shared shower block at the end of each next to each toilet on each level. They had a small bump of a kitchen with one or two bedrooms. Two bedrooms were on the top floor with the smaller ones on the bottom. There were coin operated washing machines in the basement.

There was a parking strip between the straight apartment buildings and the square ones but between that and the building itself, there was a long strip of cut grass that had a bit of plastic or wood play equipment on it.

Seesaws, a fold up sandpit, a few basic swings, a slightly rusty monkey bars/ climbing frame and a couple of small slides. It was mostly play kits donated after the kids got too big for them anymore but it was something and open for the use of all, so there was that.

In front of that was another row of double level office buildings, slightly longer than the long housing flats.
Only the first row got official business and, even then, there was rarely enough to fill that building to capacity.
The building behind was more often used for more recreational purposes. Parties and meetings held out of there. Various clubs and occasional classes run from there and so on.

It wasn’t even unusual to find a couple of squatters or run aways had set up in one of them they were usually moved along if found. Under school age kids were sent to Orphanage. Older kids were sent to Produce where they could be put to work, learn some skills and, more importantly, go to school to prepare for their Pokemon Journey.

Nor was it unusual for someone to meet their lover or kept lover in an unused office. Anyone could hire an office after all, even if all they wanted to do was screw on the desks. As long as they kept away from the locally used end, no one cared.

On the end of the row of square apartments, there were three triple story row apartment buildings that were single room apartments.

They had a single toilet at the end of the row, two or three coin operated washing machines and some troughs in the shared basement and lines strung between the polls on the breezeways as washing lines.

There was only cold water available from a tap at the end of each row, opposite the toilets. Aside from a tatami mat floor and an overhead cupboard, there was a bench along one wall with storage spaces and draws under that cupboard with space at the end for a single appliance and a single power socket.

There was a shared cooking space/ kitchen off the laundry that had a hot and cold tap.

The rows had flats up and down each side and were accessed by stairs and breezeways.

Unlike the square blocks, the long rows and the offices, they weren’t air conditioned.

These were probably the cheapest places to live in the Circuit Towns that wasn’t in the shanty town. They were used mainly by the down on their luck, the itinerant workers and the poor students who hadn’t done well on their Pokemon Journey.

In the back corners at the end of the single room blocks, there was parking spaces for those who had vehicles.

Theres a few empty fields near the flight school were some rough sport tracks had been chalked
out, along with a baseball diamond and a soccer field.

There’s a bike track too, with both a straight track and one with dips and rises.

Neither are very inviting being full of yellow, sun scorched dry grass that comes up to the knees in most places.

It isn’t safe to try riding to Gateway. Not really since there’s nothing between Gateway and Storage and no real way to contact help if there’s trouble. It’s not even safe to try motorbiking to any of the towns during the day.

Efforts have been made to give the kids somewhere to go and something to do and the unused offices at the residential end of the office blocks have been converted into a number of things, including a study room, with a couple of general use computers with dial up internet and a printer, with paper, stationary and reference books in a cupboard.
There’s a video games room, a lounge/ music room, a small, book swap type library, a toy library, a craft room and a creche/ play group.

There’s even a little kitchenet with a fridge of free food and a food pantry cupboard and flush toilets. Unfortunately, the latest it stays open is eight and there needs to be at least one adult in residence for the kids to use it.

The shuttle bus that goes to Gateway has recently been updated from three times a week to one trip daily and is essentially gold coin donation to travel on, is very welcome as outside the clubs and such the residents come up with for themselves, there are no amenities.
It’s purely a storage/ residential town.
It doesn’t even have it’s own supermarket or restaurants. There are no cafe’s or eateries. Just a combini / corner store attached to the petrol station/ garage.
Kids from here are more likely to deliberately get ‘left behind’ by the school bus than any other.

The most exciting thing happening are the Flying Classes and those usually are held well away from the locals.

There were a few empty fields for pokemon to land and leave from, along with a control tower, and shared dorms for the students where needed, just outside of the town, next to those sad attempts at sports fields.
Pokemon flying lessons were run from there for the Circuit towns.

It was also the main vehicle depo of the council owned working vehicles. Trucks, utes, vans, buses, if it was council owned, it stayed garaged there.
The town, such as it was, was built around guarding the warehouses and the small garage to service and maintain the vehicles.

Below the cliffs, there was a camouflage protected little private marina inside an artificially widened cave mouth. It could only be seen when approached from a certain angle and was to the boats what the garages up above were to the Councils working vehicles. It was where the council cruiser and tour boats were docked when not in use.

Produce sent over a lot of stuff, passing through MiddleTown as it did because the trip straight across would have taken them over the widest part of the island and that was a long jaunt. Produce from Fisher came through Orphan town.

Gateway also stashed a lot of excess stuff there. Things for festivals, parade floats and all of that sort of specialty stuff.
Storage wasn’t quite as hot as it was high on a cliff and got a lot of sea winds.
It was also the furthest town that Wells water was sent too.

It was an hour's drive at the speed most cars could safely travel (usually about eighty k) or use a riding pokemon to get to.

The sun was still murderously hot more often than it wasn’t and Storage very rarely got rain or even cloud cover, though they did get breezes from the gaps in the cliffs.
Not enough for people to safely climb of course but wind whistled through it and sometimes sea spray.

At any rate, getting to Gateway from Storage was either drive or fly, or, if you were lucky, teleport and there was a single office set aside specifically for that.

It was about the fourth most populated town simply due to that since Shafts and Produce were roughly equal at third. It was far cheaper to house a family there than it was in MiddleTown (unless you lived in the shantytown part) or even the cheapest residence in Gateway.

A single room flat like the end strips in Gateway was the same price as one of the long strip flats in Storage. If a non trainer person had to stay in Gateway for a while, it was actually cheaper to rent a motel room. At least most of those came with a kitchen, a bathroom and laundry facilities. Cheaper still if they stayed in a dorm or a backpackers hostel.

The kids from this village came in three sorts:

A. the bored middle class from one of the squar buildings, who were the most childlike in mentality of all the Circuit Towns due to literally having nothing much to do work wise and, apart from maybe a few chores in the home and some home work, little to no responsibility.

B. the ‘embarrassing relative/ bastard born child’ who got a stipend from their parent/ relative but little actual oversight and thus were half feral from having to fend for themselves… though doing so before they were at least a Junior in school was considered bad form and the parent/ relative was looked up and penalized for it. Most of them realised that once their Pokemon Journey came, the funding would likely be cut off so they’d better make the most of it.

C. the children of the working poor who were a short step above the shantytown kids for care. Not because their parent/s didn’t want to but because they literally couldn’t afford better.

None of these typically fared well on their Journey.

It was the place someone would keep their illicit lover / and child and people mostly minded their own business outside of the various clubs and activities. There was no real sense of community and ‘ask me no questions’ was the rule.
It was also the place with the strongest amount of Stranger Danger as unsupervised children could be ‘disappeared’ very easily.

She’d been glad to be in Orphanage. It was gloomy, sticky or too hot… but it still wasn’t as depressing as this place, with it’s half hearted efforts at entertainment and air of desperation or concentrated boredom.

Their school excursion to here had been to explain a little bit about it’s main role, which had nothing to do with most of the people who lived here, and explain the flight training class should they want or need to use it in the future.
It had been pretty boring, over quickly and they were back to school for lunch. Classes had continued as usual, only letting out half an hour earlier.

It had been their very first outside of Gateway excursion and she was utterly underwhelmed. It was a bit much to expect a five your old to pay attention to that, road test to see how prepared the older year of Preppies were for excursions regardless.

The best thing about that day had been the extra hour she’d had to explore and place things in her mental map, even though she didn’t have any money to speak of… and her mother hadn’t been around to listen to anything she had to say anyway.

Chapter Text

Orphan town, the last in the circle before heading across to MiddleTown, housed, you guessed it, the orphanage/ group home.

The town was a bit weird as it was essentially split into two parts and appart from an ‘and Shrine occasionally taked on to the end of Orphan Town, it was never mentioned.
The first was the Orphan/ Hospice part.
The second the major Shrine/ Crematorium and Graveyard. It was almost like two small villages really, really close to eachother.

Despite being in a semi arid environment, Orphanage was also mostly up on the cliff rock shelfs, with the Shrine three quarters of the way down. The cliffs and rock shelf didn’t peter down to accessible beach until two thirds of the way to Fisher.

The sun blasted fields of Storage had long given way to barren, pock marked, dark rock making things as bleak surroundings wise as the weather was gloomy.

The weather leaned towards being overcast more often than it wasn’t… which didn’t block as much of the heat as a person might think.
When the sea spray was splashed hard enough to come over the top, it was chilly.
It was probably the only place on the island that got that way during the day… though it was normally either steamy hot or baking hot depending on whether nearly omnipresent cloud cover deigned to shift enough to let the sun shine through or not.

At any rate, it was gloomy cold misery, gloomy sticky misery or blindingly baking misery.
As previously mentioned… this was a super sucky place for an orphanage, a recovery hostel, a nursing home or anything else focused on care of life.
Though it WAS a good way to keep people from roaming, there was literally NOWHERE to go.
The only bit of green was on their plates or in the greenhouse and you had to be at least a Junior in school to be able to help in there or they were permitted to go next door where there was some sad attempt at outside sitting nocks made, including mostly succulent or drought hardy plants.

Even the kids of Storage could roam around the area if they wanted too (not that they would. Blasted grass wasn’t interesting and it was usually too hot to use the bike tracks, unless it was early in the morning or on twilight.)

Fisher’s kids got to actually go swimming provided they picked their time of day!

Admittedly the kids in Shafts and Produce were usually working once they were in school, but they still had a lot of things they could do when they had a break or a rest day.

MiddleTown actually had a FOUNTAIN that kids could play in… even the shantytown kids.

Even LabTown had more to look at than this… even if it was just go and stare at the tiny fountain in the Lab lobby.

Kids were actually excited to go to school because it meant they saw more than the building, barren rock or the people next door.

For a place that had stray kids, mind addled oldies, people recovering from injuries and terminal patients, this place had NOTHING. NOTHING!

She still wanted to know WHY anyone had thought this was a good place to set up, what had obviously once been a school.

Not even the excursion had hinted at a reason…

Their excursion to Orphan… had actually mostly bypassed the orphanage except for a mention it was there, what it did and why, along with the units/ hostel/ nursing home, had focused mainly on the Shrine, the graveyard and the Cremetorium… which they’d gotten to tour. (She could have lived without know people got burned in a recycled cardboard box in a fire that used dried pokemon dung and coal for for her entire life thanks. Just dump her corpse in the drink and call it done when her time came.)

It had been their third last excursion as it felt some maturity was needed… yeah, cause they’re oh so mature at eight. Still, this excursion was one of the tests to see if they were ready to move up to Senior class.

The school could and would delay a kid moving up if they felt they weren’t ready… even if that disadvantaged them a bit. Such kids were encouraged to stay over the holiday periods to cram, with the usual fee for the overnight dorms being waived and a guaranteed two meals a day. A teacher and a trainee ‘mentor’ would work with the kid until they felt the kid was ready.

She’d never tried that as she hadn’t wanted to be noticed or memorable, though she was a little envious. She was sure those kids got access to more than a Freeter’s education, even if they also got a stigma of being held back…

Maybe the way it wasn’t talked about was a clue, like the Christians in early Japan, who had died in their hundreds, persecuted for their beliefs. Could it be something as simple as it being a remnant of an unwelcome group or belief system?

While the area had Shrines like the rest of Kanto, their beliefs had drifted a bit due to being mostly cut off, though Gateway had always had a bit of trade happening. As had Fisher and Produce, though far less due to the hazardous waters near both towns.

Well, it was unlikely she’d ever get a proper answer so, moving on.

The orphanage, and the hospice is shared this oh so ‘charming’ location with, were nestled against the highest of the jutting cliffs and built partially out of a cave system.
Two separate large caverns that were, none-the-less- practically side by side, the fence between them separating the big recess they’d been built out of into two long yards.
The problem was, the rock ‘walls’ bracketing the yards sloped down sharply until they merged with the rock of the ground, meaning most of the long yard was still subjected to the sun when it broke through and reflected the heat.
The cloud cover was near constant though it was hazy white as often as it was grey. No rain ever made it to ground level. The rock was just too hot usually. Even the spray that sometimes splashed against the rock cliffs turned to steam. Those days were very, very unpleasant.
Sticky heat was her least favourite kind.

Unlike the neighbouring building whose rock ‘bracket’ abruptly widened out halfway down the yard, theirs ran straight ish until it merged with the ground, making their yard long and narrow. The rock had mostly been concreted over around the building and down a path to the gate, but the est of the yard, what there was of it, was rock.
There's a few painted game squares and other yard games. Hopscotch, two and four square and downball against the orphanage wall… There was a basketball hoop and the lines for it. There’s an awning stretched over to connect to poles on either side.

This was all in the shadow of the rock caves or the main building though, which took up a lot of space, leaving the playing space squeezed in where they can. It’s only comfortable to play in the morning anyway, overcast or not.
By the time ten rolls around, the heat begins to build quickly and everyone comes inside.

Both the orphanage and its neighbour, being set back against the cliffs and half in a cave, were so far from the road that, if not for the fence line and gate, no one would know they were there.

Despite the town being named for it, the Orphanage had no presence unless you were living in it. (She suppose naming it for the crematorium and shrine would have been to morbid? Or maybe it was two small townships but the Shrine town fell out of use except when someone remembered to tack it on?)
If a person didn’t know they were up there, they’d drive straight past, which most did.

The orphanage building was massive for the location it was squeezed into. It went up by four stories in the two towers, seven in the bell tower (it was pretty good odds the orphanage had once been a school) and three in the main building.

It could house fourty squeezed in and twenty-five comfortably.
The towers weren’t normally used unless they were really pressed for space with the tops of each and the bell tower being storage. There was no bell in the tower anymore, and the belfry was mostly bricked over. Things that only got used once in a blue moon were shoved up there.

The bottom layer had the dining hall, the kitchen, the bathroom, toilet, laundry were all at the back in the cavern part with the dining hall and kitchen right at the back, the laundry, bathroom and toilet along the rock wall.

The foyer and office were in the free standing part of the building as well as the towers which were accessible from floor three with floor ones being storage space and it was were the sports equipment, fold away tables and chairs and so on where stored.

It was a bit of a weird design, with only one tower having it’s lowest level on the first floor though the next floor up wasn’t accessible.
It’s second level was accessible on the second floor and held the creche but had no access to the next level. It might be tower shaped from the outside, but it was essentially just another large, round room as far as the interior design was concerned.
Like the second tower (if on the other side of the building) the first tower’s tower part was accessible from floor three. There was even less inside to show that part was actually a tower than the first one.

The second story held a play room, a combined small library and study room, a toilet, linen cupboards, the staff bedrooms and the creche, which had cots and bassinets.- more or less depending on numbers.

The toilets were the sort with metal pot that got pulled out and emptied into the sewage barrel and that was done every morning and evening by the staff or their pokemon. Kids, even second year seniors, weren’t trusted with that.

The top floor was all converted to bedroom space, including the first accessible level of tower two and the third level of tower one. Four to a room in bunks and split into boys and girls.
More beds could be added as needed and the tower floors opened as required, with the floors accessible by trap door style pull down stairs. When they weren’t in use, the extra beds, pallets etc were stored there.
The towers had roof access but they were always locked.

(She thought it was a dumb design as hot air rose and cold air sank. For the kids to sleep comfortably, they should be at ground level… but the rooms had to be above twenty eight degrees before they’d consider it.

The adults weren’t about to listen to a kid, firmly convinced that they knew better and a little discomfort was good for their charges, even when the kids learned more in school than they’d ever know.

She wasn’t going to waste her words on those who wouldn’t hear them, just creep down the stairs to the cooler second floor and wiggle the dodgy lock, spending the night in the playroom when she absolutely couldn’t sleep due to heat. It was usually warm enough that she didn’t need any kind of blanket.
She didn’t bother to climb in her nighty, light as it may be, simply shucking it and tying it around her waist.

She had excellent night vision along with half remembered survival training skills that she was practicing diligently once more until she could actually scale a hanging rope, knots down it or no knots, with relative ease.

Before that, she’d used her thin coil of rope, rescued from the school dumpster, to go down the stairs on the other side of the banister so she could avoid telltail squeaks or groans, and repeating the process to go back up.

After she got rope climbing down again, she didn’t bother with the stairs, just chucked the rope over the side of the banister and shimmied down it, tucking the dark coil behind the stairs.

She still had the knack of being able to awaken at a certain time too.

The babies and infants were put down at about seven. That might seem late but they were allowed to sleep later as well. It was done that way so that the school kids would get back in time to help. Since they could arrive anywhere after six ish.

Preppies were down by eight thirty, nine ish which game them a chance to eat, wash up and do any homework.

Juniors were to be in bed by ten, any homework left was to be finished in the morning.

Seniors, which she was now, had an eleven o'clock bedtime… but only if they were quiet.
The staff preferred them to be in bed by ten thirty at the latest.

Due to this, and the staff themselves usually going to sleep by ten thirty, they usually didn’t wake, outside of crying baby/ toddler and calls of nature, until seven ish the next morning, which is when the school kids were expected to begin stirring.

The school bus usually arrived by eight so kids were expected to have everything set up to go the night before.

No one was too fussed in the first year if a kid didn’t get all their homework done. It was mostly learning how to recognise numbers and letters, shapes and colours, simple words along with learning how to sing, dance, play games and so on.
Freeter kids were given a small packet of crayons each to take home, which had to last them half a year before they were given another. They graduated to pencils on becoming Juniors and pens on becoming Seniors.
Second year of Prep though and they were expected to start showing progress in getting it done and in, so they had to become good with time organisation skills very quickly.

She cheated a bit by having lifetimes of knowledge to draw on though that could hinder as well as help but it meant she usually got the basics down fast and thus had plenty of time to decide how well she was going to do at school this time, if there was schooling to be had.

As such, a five A.M. wake up call to slip upstairs and into her designated bed was no biggy.
No one was going to censure her for waking up a bit earlier and getting organised before the rush and it was often the only free time there was in a day.

Even though she was shorter on sleep than she might like, she often slept better and more deeply anyway since she wasn’t so overheated.

They couldn’t even open the windows for some air flow as they were old and crusted shut.

Besides, school age kids had chores anyway.

Four and five year olds were helping play with and distract the littler kids, make sure they had everything for school and that their homework was done. They were also starting to eat by themselves so the older kids could help with the preschool kids.

By six and seven they were helping gather and sort laundry, with setting the table, scraping any scraps into a compost bucket, making their own beds, setting out and dressing in their own clothes and dish washing.

By eight and nine they were helping with meal prep, helping the Preppies eat, dress and complete their home work, helping actually do the laundry rather than just gathering it into baskets and sorting colours to help build muscles and so on, with a rare few being permitted to help in the greenhouse.

She missed the first year of Prep which had included nap time, story time and small, cheap snacks of protean bars. Those were used to help get malnourished kids back up to a healthy ish weight. All the meals had vitamin powder, bought in bulk, mixed into them too.

Oh well.

Their one free day a week was spent gathering the sheets to be washed, taking the mattresses outside to be propped against the rock wall to back, helping the littles get up and dressed, gathering the things needed for baths in the evening, making sure all of their school work was complete, gathered up and in order, as their shoes and school bags hung on rows of hooks inside the foyer door and, lastly, those that had duty that week went across to the hospice/ hostel to see if there was anything they could use some able bodied hands for.
(There always was.)

You had to be a Senior to actually help but Juniors could start visiting people and most had a favourite resident or two.

She’d ducked actually interacting with the residents whenever she could unless she could actually be busy doing something.

She wasn’t fond of listening to the hospice patients bitch… though she could occasionally coax stories out of them about their home towns and how great/ sucky they were which made up for it. It was how she’d gotten most of the information on the non Touristy towns.
She usually traded them a sketch or two on her precious paper or if they were willing to help her get it, a bit of board and some acrylic paints. The paint pots were normally tiny, meaning she had to really thin the colour or use it to highlight only but the story teller had their coloured sketch to go home with, so there was that.

Once it was learned she was a decent artist, she was commissioned to make portrait sketches of the residents, particularly the hostel and unit patients.
She’d never been comfortable around people who were mentally damaged in some way and the terminal patients… yeah, that just made her sad.

Despite the sad attempts in both of the main buildings covered pateo things to make it a bit more cheerful, with a few potted plants and flowers set up around a couple of sets of tables and chairs. It was still no place she’d want to finish her life. If she was going to kick off, she’d want to do it somewhere pretty, not in this barren, desolate hell hole.
Not all potted trees and bushes and card games in the world could make up for the ugly view.

She still did it though, because it earned her a little bit of money, and sometimes, sometimes a way into town.

The school bus did a around on the rest day as there were a lot of people that had it as their only means of transport. On rest day it started slightly later, arriving at the orphanage round about nine ish. There was usually a hospice patient who could hobble on crutches desperate to get out or a terminal patient who might have to live here, but sure as shit didn’t have to stay here most of the time, ready to go.

It also wasn’t unusual for a qualified doctor to arrive on the bus to see this or that patient or to give the kids their inoculation jabs and health check them. It was just easier for the doctor to come here, rather than have to cart a bunch of tiny’s in to see them.

Once in a very rare while, a patient did not WANT to be painted in this place, so she’d get on the bus with them and one of the hospice staff members and go into Gateway to have it painted.
They weren’t allowed to get off in towns they could potentially be stranded in overnight.

She now even had a little sketch pad specifically for that purpose, along with good quality pencils, eraser, tiny pots of paint and two brushes.

(She’d filled it with portraits of all the current residents and staff before she left, with a note that she was leaving the rest of the pad and the pencils for the next person able to sketch to use.)

While she might have to dance attendance on her subject and the staff member, it was still worth it because she usually got to eat well, hear stories and might even be able to pick up a few things she wouldn’t have the time or money to get otherwise.

Sometimes, she was even given a shopping list from the orphanage staff, the staff and residents of the hospice/ hostel/ units and a card with the money for it.
She divided that between here and whatever staff member was with her today but to get OUT of there, she was happy to do so.

Sometimes, the thrift shops would have things they were willing to donate. Things that just needed a little TLC to fix but that the stores couldn’t spend the time, effort or space on.

Those were good days… even if sometimes, sometimes, the terminal case she’d gone out with, once the sketch was completed, didn’t return with them and would never return anywhere ever again. She’d be given something to ‘hold for them’ while they ran an errand… and that would usually contain a suicide note, will, legal papers and what have you.
There was a little known outlook that was tagged ‘the leap’ and some cheap meds that when mixed together could knock a person unconscious. If they bought them from different chemists, no one would be the wiser. It was called the ‘suicide combo’.
A leaper would take the drugs, wait until they started kicking in and then fall over the edge to the rocks and water below, usually never to be seen again.
The local wild mon had learned and the corpse was usually taken fast…

Those were depressing, but who was she to deny someone the right to end their own pain on their own terms and she was never blamed for these. The unit residents were mostly sound of mind and failing in body. They could make their own decisions.
Besides, they often left her something small to make up for the trouble.
Not always money and sometimes there was a donation to the orphanage as a whole instead, but something.

Outside of the sketching, she’d much rather help clean up the rooms after someone had passed which a lot of the kids found morbid.
Or just help clean in general. If there was one thing she KNEW how to do, it was clean.

She caught a bit of crap from others that were jealous she got to go out but she told them point blank, when they were willing to give up their afternoon after school to study art, clean up after that and occasionally miss the bus, going hungry for the evening meal and sleeping in the open THEN they could bitch! Until then, shut up about it.

When there were no people wanting to go out to be sketched somewhere nicer, it wasn’t unusual for her to do cleaning instead and one of the kids participating in the school competitions was allowed to go on outtings to town as it counted towards one of their goals.
She had NO issue with them taking her place on those. She only went on the drawing runs.

The bell tower had a staircase in the middle of the building leading up and back as the bell tower was built against the rock above the back cavern and was the place where she'd made her most amazing discoveries.

The Bell towers third floor was more like a loft than a separate floor.
The fourth floor was actually quite a decent size.
A little larger even than the tower's fourth floors.

The floor space for the levels got smaller as it rose with the fifth being a very small room that might fit a bed and trunk at a squeeze and sixth barely counting as a landing.

Floors five and six were accessed by pull down trap door stairs.

The seventh was up in the actual tower itself and more of a cupola than a room. It didn’t have a floor, just a ladder up and shelving wedged into the brick work or hanging space from hooks or nets under the bottom most.
There were ropes with hooks hanging from the old bell yoke to suspend heavier things from. It served the same purpose as an attic.
Things that had no current use were left up there to bake just in case they might be needed in the future.

She had, of course, explored it thoroughly. Who could resist such a lure as that?

Most of it was strange stuff - full adult long johns anyone? - but she had found many treasures.

She remembered the excitement and her thoughts with each new discovery, though she was free of the place now.

An old compass and a compendium of the stars. An obviously child orientated book on knots.

A couple of clearly very old embroidery samplers, one of which was a bookmark.

She took all three of them. She’d clean them up and see if the school wanted them, or the library. She thought there was a museum in the Tourist Zone of Gateway even if most of it was now electronic and interactive.
She’d ask anyway. If not, she could surely do something with them.
They were tucked into a book on embroidery that was also very old.

She found out on returning from Lab Town for her school tests that the library was absolutely rabid over getting them and the ancient, annotated, embroidery book.
She’d also misremembered. There was an interactive Museum in the Tourist Zone, but it was a SCIENCE museum. The Library had been the correct place for those as they had a rare and historical wing that was only open to selective public a few days a year.

They’d done a raid of sorts on the orphanage and made off with pretty much EVERYTHING she’d left, leaving the orphanage with a substantial cash bonus and an empty new store room.

A couple of very old books that she was having fun parsing her way through the ancient language. They were even older than the encyclopeadia set, though she found them first. She was sure if she’d donate them or not. It depended on what they were about… though admittedly, the library could care for them better than she could.
The could restore the slightly moth eaten stuffed animals as well.

An old bow that was still sound though the string was gone and it had no arrows. That she left, regretfully and the library was gleeful over. They hadn’t strung it of course but it went into the collection on the wall.

A very dusty, clearly very old pendant style ocarina which she was keeping if it worked. She thought she still remembered how to play…

An old child’s violin still in its case but lacking a bow and some strings. A very large mouth organ and a ukulele that seemed to be in decent condition. She’d intended to take them to school since it would be nice if the Feeter students had a greater range of instruments they could play than triangles, castanets, tin whistles and rhythm sticks or maracas. Something, aside from the tin whistle, that could carry a tune.

She’d taken them to school as intended, but the teacher had freaked out and contacted the library. They were all in working condition and the violin had been restrung and tuned, with a new bow, but it was put on display rather than played. It was too valuable despite being a kid’s violin and intended for tiny hands.

The mouth organ was actually from the principal’s family and returned to him. He even had stories about it and it’s former owner. Family legend sort of stuff. Having its existence proved real was a head trip.

She’d started with the items hanging in the middle, as there were clusters hanging at different heights. Then she’d gone through the rows of shelves and cases wall by wall, top to bottom and then bottom to top on the next set of shelves, taking her time and slowly and carefully because, technically, she wasn’t supposed to be up here.

She was two thirds done in her last year but she kept being distracted by interesting things… and she’d only been able to get up here as an eight year old.
With how little time they had for much of anything, she could only explore at night or when everyone was having a siesta on the rest day.

She hadn’t been sure she was going to get done before the end of her final year rolled around either even if she had permission to use the top actual room of the bell tower as a study nook… though she had to show proof of her studying in the form of notes and properly completed homework. In fact, she slept up there now since the orphanage had gotten so crowded.

Long and short, she no longer went down stairs when she was restless, but up to continue with her explorations. She even had a little crank torch to do so.

There were some very battered encyclopedias, an entire set, that were clearly very old and set up strangely. Rather than sequentially running through the alphabet, they had little bits of things, though always in the same order.
How to do a household craft like knit, crochet, darn, sew on a button and so on.
That was followed by how to do something DIY ish, which was followed by a poem, that was followed by part of a story, that was followed by a little history section, that was followed by a small cartoon or moral story, that was followed by a small section that did run through a section of actual encyclopedia, that was followed by stars and their names, which was followed by an explanation of a natural phenomenon like tides or cloud formations… they were just stuffed with so much knowledge… that was a bit hard to navigate until she came upon the index volume. That made things much easier.

But, if she was right, these were older than the damage caused by that angry mon. She might just find what she was looking for, history wise in here!... and, of course, she would find those when she had less then three months left here!
She wasn’t handing them over to ANYONE until she’d been through them herself. The answers she craved might be IN there!

She was planning on going on a work placement, even if that cut into her time up here and she’d have to leave SO many things since she had nowhere safe to take them.
With that thought in mind, she placed the things she found interesting, but were unwieldy or delicate aside on the highest shelves and behind other things.

She’d have liked to take her time and enjoy, but oh well.

A rolled up rug or carpet that looked worn but of fine make, some clothes so old they were practically costumes now, a piece of interesting rock on a leather cord - that she took.

She left the carpet and the clothes, all of which had the custodians practically squealing in glee.
They didn’t have any particular history outside of being good examples of daily wear from before that pokemon rampage. Possibly even in the isolated towns ear. They were still dating them.
Even the long johns had value. Who’d have thought.

A fountain pen and inkwell, an old map from before motor vehicles… oh, that was fascinating.

The librarian’s felt so too. Even about the bottles of dried up ink which she’d missed in her fossicking, as they were in ratty looking bags, tucked into an odd shaped nook you needed bright light to find.

A small stone crown… that tickled a memory but she couldn’t put her finger on it yet. She’d take it with her though… and it had.

Oooh, a pokeball, though the design was a little strange. It was empty but yeah, that could come too… and it did. The Professor overseeing her was utterly fascinated by it.

An ancient set of pastels with a tiny travel watercolour set on the other side. Definitely keeping those. There was no way she could afford her own.
There was a full set of charcoals back there too, artist grade and some ink sticks and a grind stone. A handful of miscellaneous crayons too, likely from several different packs and a small satchel with the remains of brushes.
It was easy enough to shake them out and put all her lovely new finds into it.
They were all travel kits except the crayons.

She was kind of hoping some of this person's work would pop up. She’d love to see it because all of these supplies show signs of use.

There were some promising coils of curled paper in the corner… that were sitting on YES. A folio as well as an artist's pocket book. A lovely little piece sturdily bound in now aging leather with a tie cord and all.

She couldn’t take the folio, though she could and did eagerly look at it making sure never to touch the fragile old pages directly. Their work was very amature, but they’d managed some pretty or powerful pieces in there.

The shelf under that held what looked like a diary that had to be JUST as old. These really, really, REALLY needed to go to the library if not a museum. They needed to be preserved!

She’d done it just before she left on her work placement so if push came to shove, it wouldn’t come back on her.
Then she’d gone ‘screw it’ and taken the encyclopaedia set as well.

If it came down to it, she could buy a lock box at the bank - yeah, that didn’t happen. Unless you had megabucks, they weren’t interested in knowing you.
She’d gone with her second plan of hiring a locker in the bank at school that was used for students that had too many belongings to take with them but nowhere to keep them. There were different sizes and they were situated on the staff dorm floors, in banks just before the cleaning supplies room and the school general storage room.

She’d done as planned, hired one the next day and began slowly to fill it with her retrieved goodies. She had credited the orphanage… but only after she’d taken all she wanted.

A month was barely long enough to transport it all, even though she took two or three items a day, planning on saving the stranged sized or bulky ones for the last two days… though she’d dithering long and hard on the carpet/ rug.
She’ve had to squeeze it into the backpack, which was on it’s last legs anyway, being third hand when she got it.

It would depend on how big it was. She’d need to get it down to see… In the end, she left it.

Moving on, she was onto the final set of shelves, with a bare month to go before she left…

The first four held nothing of particular interest. Old toys like a metal spinning top, tin pokemon, a toy wagon of the covered sort with attached pony shaped pokemon to pull it and a little figure on the seat… They were cute, but she didn’t need them.

The library was thrilled over them. No one made ANYTHING like that anymore and there were very few examples, let alone in such good condition.

What looked like bone dice. They’d obviously been heavily used as they were worn smooth at the corners. Okay, maybe she’d take those.

Some sort of game on thin board. Not cardboard, actual boards. OH, the dice went with the boards. Never mind then.

Some little figures made out of carved stones. They didn’t look particularly valuable, but the Professor might be interested anyway.

A metal goblet of cup in a case. Some old trophies.

The metal goblet was from the founder of the orphanage and not much was known about him and the trophies were ones he’d brought with him and displayed here before the orphanage was an orphanage.

She’d been right, or at least the evidence strongly hinted that way.
The writing on the trophies, their style, the places they mentioned and what the trophies claimed to be for gave a LOT of clues.
They’d been from out of the Region. Not just this island but Kanto main as well. A little cluster of stranded folk from another Region who had NOT blended well with the locals.
The Hospice/ and this mannerhouse/ school had been the only buildings they’d managed to build before they died out.
The had a name for him now, and a potential home region. How exciting!
He’d been a trader of course.

There was some debate about whether the library should take them at all if they’d been founder’s artifacts… they were willing to hire them from the orphanage at a standard rate per year, as well as clean them up and display them properly.

Done. The orphanage ALWAYS needed more funding.

There were some climbing pitons that looked old but still in good nick. Yep. Yoink. Good quality ones were expensive!

A blunt old knife in a sheath and a packet with pieces of scale or bone.
Another with pieces of stone and a little chisel and hammer. Possibly from the person who made the figurines. Not really her jive but she’d take them anyway.

A little case filled with leather working tools, still in good condition and another full of different rock and mineral samples. Weird, but she’d taken them.

A clutter of old metal tools in various working conditions with saws, unattached blades and what not hanging under them, and, behind them, tucked away over at the back, a little, unadorned jewelry box, and another wooden case with an intricate catch.

The library wasn’t as pleased with the tools as with the other things but they still took them. Despite the wear and tear, they had history to them.

With that, she’d been done. DONE and with days to spare!.

The jewelry box was inlaid with the local version of Nacre, which was highly polished Shelder shells and was a wind up music box with a little dancing figure.
She didn’t think they had ballet here so the figure was in some sort of native carb and had both feet down, the arms were flung up.
You had to take the figure off and lay it in a niche in the roof of the box before it would shut. What a clever little thing.

The last case held what she’d always called dingle balls but were actually called prayer or meditation balls. Their enamel work was still bright, depicting… whoa. Was that a cataclysm?
Huh. They jangled nicely and fit comfortably in her bag. They were coming.

The Professor had been utterly fascinated and had hired them from her to study the images properly. He’d been extremely pleased with the case of rocks and minerals and the figurines of ancient pokemon as well.

She was off to a roaring start.

The orphanage didn’t have electricity but it did have a lot of manual devices and cold running water that was from a large water barrel on the roof. All the water in the area was and a new delivery of water arrived every month that was split between the orphanage, the hostel, both sections, the Shrine camping ground, the crematorium AND the attached staff cottage.

They had a generator that gave them three hours of power a day and used it mainly to heat water for cooking and baths.
They didn’t have a phone but the hostel part of the hospice did and a kid was sent across to the hostel foyer every night to see if there were any messages.

Lighting was either via pokemon or cranked lanterns and torches.

Laundry was done in something that looked like one of those lottery barrels, only you put washing in the top rather than balls with numbers on them, with a hatch at the top and a handle to crank it.
Then it was taken out and put into a second barrel, where you had to peddle to make it spin, thus flinging most of the water out before it was put on collapsible clothes racks outside.

Linen was hung from the lines under the awning meaning the kids couldn’t play there for the duration which, honestly, no great loss. Most of the kids were happy to wrap the wet cloth around them even though they dried extremely quickly except on muggy days.

There was an old plastic, shell folding wading pool that when it was particularly hot, the staff might be convinced to fill with water for the littles to splash in while the older kids sat with their feet in the water. Or they all sat with their feet in shallow buckets.

It was one of her few good memories of the place, outside of all the swag she’d picked up from the bell tower.

There were three or four staff depending and it was standard to lean heavily on the older kids to help care for the younger ones.

Usually, the orphanage had between eight and twenty kids with only three people to oversee them all as well as do the cooking. Most kids in the towns had chores to do, morning and evening, before they left and when they got home so that wasn’t unusual.

Only once before had the orphanage been filled to full capacity, when that huge feral pokemon stomped its way through anything in its path… which included the Circuit Towns.
Some of the damage still remained even now, a century and assorted years later.

She hadn’t liked this place… but, she’d grown up in far worse.
Here, at least, a kid got three small meals a day, all the water they could drink, two sets of clothes, one set of summer sandals, one pair of closed shoes, one light jacket, one sun hat, one pair of gloves, three pairs of socks and three pairs of underware and one set of swimmers. They got one night dress or pair of pyjamas.
They got one pillow each and one blanket.

And that was pretty generous, all things considered. Better than what a lot of the shantytown or working poor kids got.
This was repeated once a year, except for the pillow and the blanket,unless there was a donation of clothes or toys.

Even so, she was happy for it to see her back and, now that she’d plundered what she wanted from the place, she was never returning.

The orphanage shared a greenhouse that was split up the middle on the fence line and took up most of the space of the front ‘yards’ and that was fine since it was mostly rock anyway. The Hospice/ Hostel side had more space as their rock wall turned at a sharp right angle half way along, so their ‘yard’ was a lot bigger… but then they had more to cram onto it.

Kids were encouraged to stay away from the road unless they were coming or going from school or making themselves known and possibly useful in the hostel etc over the fence.
While they were technically supposed to go down and around, most of the time the kids wiggled through the loose slat, because honestly, who’d go all the way down if they didn’t have to.

Over the fence and also tucked half back into a cavern, though a shallower one than the Orphanage, was the hospice, which was the closest thing to a hospital the rest of the cluster had asside from the various clinics.

Essentially, if someone was injured enough that they couldn’t work, but not injured enough to require an actual hospital, that’s where they went.
It was the place you were sent to recovered from your multiple brakes if your town wasn’t conducive to hobbling around on crutches and the miserable surroundings and climate often made a person impatient to leave.

There are eight staff in the hospice and another four, including a registered nurse, in the hostel.

The hospice was licenced for up to thirty people but rarely had more than a dozen at any one time and so part of it had been converted into a twenty person elderly hostel bringing it’s capacity down to twenty.
Part of the first floor end had been knocked out, creating a covered gap between the hospice and the hostel. The hostel portion came out from the first floor, but at a right angle to the rest of the building, creating a wonky L shape.

Their generator was larger than the orphanages. Even split between two buildings, it was enough to give eight hours of power a day

It was two stories but sprawled more than the orphanage as the area opened out more once out of the cavern. It was still rock shelf underneath, but there was more building space.

The part built out of the back cavern was single story and housed the kitchen and dining room. The laundry, bath room and first toilet was along that wall, which then opened out into a reception and foyer.
The foyer also had the stairs to the second floor where there were four bedrooms that could be turned to eight with fold out dividers.
There was an upstairs toilet as well, against the back wall of the cliff. (Most of the time, the staff couldn’t be bothered trotting the night soil down stairs to the sewage barrel and so dumped it out the back window. Ewww.)
To the right were two wards next to each other and then another eight on either side of a corridor. They were two person wards, so there were their twenty beds.

Then came the hollowed out section of the underfloor and the hostel extension.

The hostel section had a reception and office through that door, followed by a nurses station and toilet and kitchenette.

Their food and the food for the terminal cases was cooked in the Hospice kitchen and wheeled out to the hostel on triple layered trollies.

Kids often delivered food to the terminal cases where they couldn’t come to the dining room on rest days, though a kid could volunteer to do it in place of caring for a little in the orphanage and one or two usually did… even if only to see a different set of faces and a different building for a while rather than the same old.

If no kids were available, a nurse wheeled it through the hostel, dropping off meals, and then took it out the door at the end to distribute to the units.

After the reception there was a small dining room/ lounge the lead immediately to on of the paired rooms at the end of it.
There was a thin gap, barely big enough for a person to walk down so they could wash or open the windows and then another two units and a double at the end with two more going down the other side of the corridor. Same window situation and repeat.

With the last repeat, the rooms going down what’s now the back of the building are doubles.
Each unit has a toilet but the showers, which are pulley type and fed from a water tower on the roof that are topped up regularly, are on the rock side at the far ends of the corridor.
One shower per five units.

There’s a second floor that’s accessible from the nurses station that houses the four staff rooms, their toilet and shower and the roof access to release more water from the water tower. The staff for the showers isn’t drinkable but it’s good enough to wash with.

Most oldies were cared for by their families or towns but for some, whose minds had gone, it was too dangerous to keep them in that town anymore, or they had no family and could no longer manage on their own.

The five little bungalow units had been added for those who were terminal and just waiting out their time but had no family to support them. During the day, because their little units only got power for three hours a day, they usually came and sat in the hostel building, spending time with the mostly confused residents and enjoying the cool.
If they were capable, they helped out where they could.
Otherwise, it was a bed and board situation.

They were checked on regularly and monitored by pokemon otherwise.
They often had pokemon of their own which were out almost all the time so pokemon chow was dropped off as a regular staple. Just as often though, they had already released/ passed their mon off to likely people before they even wound up in this place.

(One of the signs they knew their end was coming was they released their Pokemon or their Pokemon also took the drug… a slightly modified recipe would have the same effect and went with them… or they introduced their mon to a likely person and asked if that person would take on the mon’s care.
The nursing home/ hospice and even the orphanage had a dozen or so different mon that came to them that way.
More rarely, a mon would be passed on to a kid and they’d start their journey with a mon that knew the ropes even if they had to adapt to each other's style.)

The units were little portables and it was a good thing the rock walls bracketing the orphanage, hospice and hostel gave way abruptly three quarters of the way down the hostel’s length, otherwise it would have been a VERY tight fit.

As it was the units were in a little cluster rather than a line and were able to have an awning over a common shared ‘patteo’ which was basically a square of concreted over rock, painted with non slip stuff and dotted with potted plants to make it more inviting. It wasn’t uncommon to find mon lounging around or flopped in an old kiddy pool filled with non drinkable water.

Even so, the units nearly came down to the front fence so there still wasn’t in their ‘yard’s’ side of the fence, mainly because the drop turned from a gentle slope to ‘one slip and you’ll be rolling all the way to the Shrine grounds’. The fencing on that side stopped just before the sharp drop and had two unit’s with their back ends to it.

The kids from the orphanage were encouraged to visit if the eldies/ terminals were okay with it. It gave the kids something to do beyond chores, games or schoolwork and sometimes there were errands they could do to earn a little money either in the hospice or the hostel.

It might seem kind of morbid to have the orphanage in what was essentially the ‘death town’ but it gave the kids a strong urge to leave which was encouraged.
No one went back to Orphanage after they left if they could avoid it.
Not unless they’d fallen into working at the crematorium or the hospice/ recovery house.

Very rarely a kid couldn’t go on their journey due to injury or illness and they were usually either trained to take over one of the jobs in the town or were found a job in one of the others.
Sadly, it was this type of person who often ended up as one of the whores/ rent boys.

At the end of the fence line was a depo where supplies were dropped off.

It had something like a corner store that the kids could visit on the way back to the orphanage if they’d been lucky enough to find/ earn/ win/ ‘accquire’ some money and where post were picked up and dropped off.

There WAS a post box, but like most of the desert esque towns, it was actually inside either the petrol station or the konbini… which were often the same building since the post boxes got too hot to safely handle, not to metnione what the heat would do to the mail inside, if left out in the sun.

The second part of the town was also the Circuit Town’s major Shrine, a crematorium and a cemetery. It was far further down the hill from the orphanage/ hospice where the ground dipped in a natural indent.

The shrine was in a basin that used to be a rockpool at one stage but either the spring had dried or the weather had shifted.
Even the worst storms tended to mostly fizzle out by the time they battered themselves on the high cliffs. What spray/ rain did make it over settled in a small channel at the back around a little niche and statue of the supposed founders of the island which looked good wet or dry.

Some towns gave their dead back to the waters (Wells and Produce mainly) and kept some hair from the person in a jar in a small shrine or something, but most had their dead burned and either took their ashes to home shrines or placed them in the cemetery.
It was too hot to have the dead dealt with quickly, but burying them in the rock or sand wasn’t really feasible and often led to the wild pokemon digging them up again and eating them.
Not pleasant.

In the old days, it wasn’t uncommon to basically put the corpse out on a rock to bake, with some people guarding it so it wasn’t stolen by mon and then burying the desiccated corpse in a cave or something similar. Dried human jerky was much less of a potential wild pokemon draw.

In contrast to the orphanage and the hospice, the Shrine itself was practically on the roadside, with the grave yard of niches for urns with ashes in neat rows behind and spreading out from behind it.

There was a small shrine goods store, though everyone went to their local town shrine on New Years or special occasions and each town had one, even if it was little used through the rest of the year.

The shrine had a small, four room temple attached, which the shrine keeper and two juniors lived out of. The graveyard had a small handyman’s cottage out the back.

The crematorium was the last major building in the town and off to the side of the graveyard so it was easily accessible by road.
It had a small garage for the three hearses it used for body pick up, as well as a small strip of flats above and behind the garage for the workers and, very rarely, their families.

Just before the Shrine/ graveyard, about five minutes away by car and fifteen to twenty walking distance, there was a small petrol station with attached eatery and convenience store for those passing through since Storage had a regular run to Fisher and back.

There was a small hostel that could house eight comfortably but fourteen squeezed in tight attached and an equally small trailer park which would fit five trucks/ caravans/ tents / trailers at the most and had no amenities outside of a cold water tap since the petrol station was so close. Both were mainly so visiting families could stay overnight if needed.

Of all of these places, only the orphanage and the nursing home/ hospice had actual bathrooms. Everyone else made due with barrel baths or wooden or copper tubs. Water was precious after all.

None of the towns outside of MiddleTown, Produce, Storage and Gateway had flush toilets. Dried pokemon dung was burned in the fires and human waste was collected and processed into a methane gas plant at the Poke Lab, which supplied it with power.
It had a back up, fossil fuel generator and some solar panels but most towns made some money by selling their nightsoil to the Lab.

Most families had a night soil barrel which was taken and swapped out once a week by the sewage truck.

The population of the two parts of the towns combined with the possible exception of Wells because no one knew the exact numbers in their village? Commune? Made it the smallest of the towns population wise. It barely even counted as a village having under a hundred people there most of the time.

Chapter Text

Moving across to Middle Town… it was both a thriving tourist town and a slum town.
It was also the main water storage depot for Wells water as it had equal access to the border towns.

Being the ‘pass through’ town, it had built itself to cater to that until that long-ago rampaging mon smashed it to rubble and it rebuilt itself as a tourist town AS WELL as a pass through/ truck stop town.

It was at the base of a single, giant mesa that was flat topped, huge and towered over the landscape, putting the town proper in it’s shade for most of the day.
The wealthier you were, the more in the shade your housing was.

The main strip had been built along the road running from Gateway to Labtown and passing to the left of the mesa.
The road from Produce to Orphanage crossed in front of the Mesa and before the town proper started.

The Tourist Center/ Information stand was in the center of the main strip and so was the bus depot for those that ran to Produce and back.

Unlike most of the others, the main garage and the very large petrol station, with it’s attached combini and eatery, also doubled as a truck stop so they wouldn’t bother the tourists and the locals.
As with Produce, there were a couple of rooms under the building they could rest in for a few hours… if they weren’t planning to kill some time in the AE district.
It was the only town with official, licensed and regularly checked sex workers, after all.

It had Gateway had a morning bus and an afternoon bus coming and going and were the only towns that did outside of the small, hirable tourist buses.

The town had a large general store, a trailer park (even if most of it was units and portables), a cinema and play house (which they were very proud of, it being the only one in the area outside of Gateway), a seamstress/ tailor and cobbler, a public park with fake grass, real flowers and small trees/ shrubs and small paddling fountain/ wishing well (the shanty town kids sometimes raided it when they were desperate and people were willing to look the other way), a couple of boutique shops and a beauty parlor, with hair, nails, waxing and skin care, attached to a public bath house with spar and sauna and specialty mud baths and sand baths, along with an attached massage parlor that offered touristy massages and beauty massages, a hotel that boasted a pool, a motel for those looking for a cheaper option, several eateries, a clinic with attached chemist, a small Ranger’s station with landing area for flying/ teleporting mon up on the bluff and an ‘adult entertainment’ district tucked discretely out of sight.

It was why Gateway didn’t really have one outside of a few ritzy host bars and dance clubs. Gateway was aimed at family fun and young Trainers.
The more ‘adult’ activities were moved off site, out into the dust ‘desert’.
The bus might take an hour and a half to get there… but someone driving or flying could get there in forty mins or less.

The adult entertainment area wasn’t large, but it did cater to most tastes.
It sported a small hostel with cheap ‘by the hour’ rooms, a brothel, a gambling house/ bar, a pub, a couple of cabarets, a couple of dance clubs that occasionally also hosted burlesque acts and shows or x rated films to get the audience stirred up with staff willing to attend to their needs if their date wasn’t, a strip joint that ran male and female shows from each side, a host bar that was split into male and female hosts, with a panel dividing the club into two; who’s members could be taken back to your room for the night or who you could go on a date with, a ‘massage parlor’ and bath house that allows full body and ‘happy ending’ afterwards and bath assistants who would do the same though the massage staff were properly trained and so were the attendants.

The hostel also had an ‘escort service’ running out of it.
A pretty lad or lady to escort you while you had your fun.

All sex worker institutions cater for male and female clients.

There was an even smaller ‘alternative’ section where there was a cross-dressing host establishment, cabaret and bar, running out of the same building.

It sometimes surprised that there was little to do with pokemon there, fighting rings or races, but the desert wasn’t just cold at night, it was dangerous.

The feral pokemon were more active away from the bright lights of the district.
The only place that allowed any sort of battling was Gateway.
And racing only happened a couple of times a year, in a completely different town.

The entertainment district was tucked away on the far side of the mountain and spilled out of a large cavern.
It was twenty minutes away from the main strip, though one had to go past the caravan park to get there.
A golf cart and guide could be hired to get there or simply as transport.
A person could stay overnight in the entertainment district quite easily and the walk back wasn’t hard, or a person could arrange to be picked up by one of the carts.

The main thoroughfare, to the side of the flat-topped towering mountain and in its shade for most of the day, held all the publicly acceptable stuff, while the big water storage pods lined up around it’s base behind the main strip.

Between those pods and the shopping strip was a small residential area.
It had a couple of blocks of units at each end of the sector but the rest was regular, if small, houses - except for the houses of the town head and other rich folk, which were on the foothills of the mesa, sitting above the rest.

All of them had electricity from a couple of wind turbines out towards Lab Town and some banks of solar panels and it was needed.
A.C was a must for comfort in that place.

Between the main strip and the ‘entertainment’ strip was the caravan park, which was split. On one side were workers' units and accommodation, which was basically a cluster of small portable units, with a couple of rows of single or double-room flats.
Most of these had a toilet at the end of the row and shared shower, laundry and kitchen space, with cold running water only. They did have power, though and more importantly, A.C. and a single tap with cold water.
They were tucked away at the back, out of sight of the tourists.

For the portables and those passing through, there was a shower block and a toilet block.
The other was for people passing through and the very rare longer term tourist who was here to paint, photograph or whatever.

It was well fenced though and set slightly back off the road so, while they did have to put up with drunk tourists being loud sometimes, there was rarely any trouble.

The shanty town housed those with nowhere to go and the bastard born children of the prostitutes and so on.
It was cobbled together out of boards, tin and whatever scrap that person could scavenge.

It was a place where those who had nothing lived.
It was a place of transients and rejects. Those with gambling problems, the kids from waitress mums who hadn’t been careful enough, the society daughters who’d been kicked out and had NO idea how to look after themselves and so either died or became desperate enough to sell their bodies or wastrel sons who didn’t agree with their arranged match.

Some of them were booted because they weren’t hetero, some for being neurodivergent or for being other-gendered.
None of that was particularly welcome here and it wasn’t exactly studied or understood.
The Legendaries help you if you have something like ADHD or a speech difficulty. Worse were the physically or visually mentally disabled. If your family didn't care enough to ship you off to the Hospice at Orphan... guess where you ended up. Produce might take you if you still had wit enough to work but they were entirely more likely to take on a more physically able child and you'd have to work twice as hard to prove your worth it. If you were able to survive to school age and could get there, a kid might have a chance... not much of one, but a chance.

The boys and girls their parents abandoned outright and no one cared enough to collect them and send them to Produce or orphanage… There was less of that these days.

Those who didn’t know how to function in normal society.
Most of them didn’t have pokemon. Not even the ones from their Journey.
Either they died or were taken or something else and their person was the worse for it, without their mon by their side.
Gangs of pokemon thieves and traffickers were a thing after all.
It could be devastating to have yours stolen, especially if you were poor and couldn’t afford to buy more balls.

It was not a place people went if they had any other choice and the majority of residents wished desperately to leave.

Sadder were the grandparents, or those with an irresponsible relative who has just been landed with orphaned brats and literally doesn’t have the money to care for them or has no desire to and so, while they’re technically in that person’s care, they take no responsibility for them at all.
Not for housing them.
Not for feeding them and certainly not for keeping track of them.

Most of these kids would have been better off as orphans but island law dictated that if there was bio family who could take them that wouldn’t physically harm them, to the family they went.
All they had to do was see to their care until the kid was school age and could decide for themselves if they wanted to go back to their relative or to a ‘foster family’ in Produce where they would spend most of their time working for their host family to cover their bed and board.

A family member COULD give a child up but it wasn’t the done thing. However, some of the struggling grandparents have had to, simply because they could barely feed themselves, let alone a child or children.

It was a place most out of public view… and that got most of the sun all day.
The poorer you were, the more in the sun your living space was.
It wasn’t visible from either road into town being on the most sunward side of the mountain's base, though it was close to the entertainment district.

Shanty town also had a clinic of sorts as a lot of the girls couldn’t afford to go into Gateway to give birth. Even with contraception… and sometimes because a client wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, pregnancies happened.
He wasn’t exactly a nice sort and a bit handsy, but the boys and girls who used his services weren’t overloaded with choice on who they could go to.

The shanty town wasn’t large since there was a pretty high turnover of kids and the kids at least were desperate to get out.
Like the orphans, their Pokemon Journey tended to be one way, unless they had a younger sibling at home they wanted to come back for or were sending money back for.
If they were orphaned or abandoned, kids were encouraged to have enough to get on the tourist bus, go to Produce and into the main petrol station (Produce and Storage are the two main towns where the Head Person’s home isn’t readily identifiable) and tell the person there they want to work.
If they were younger than four, they’d be sent to Orphan but if they were older, one of the families would take them and put them to work.

If they couldn’t afford that, they could catch the school bus by explaining their circumstances and where they’d like to go.
Produce meant they’d be working mostly and likely separated from a sibling if they had one, but was a prettier place to grow up.
Orphan meant staying with the sibling, but no chance of earning money and growing up seeing only the orphanage or hospice/ hostel etc folk until school age.

(The young Trainer-to-be had just had the bad luck of being born in Lab Town and so, when she was orphaned, was sent to the orphanage rather than being taken in and put to work. She wasn’t sure if either option was better.)

If nothing else, the conditions encouraged the kids to go to school because school included a meal and snacks for the younger years, water to wash in and all the water they could drink.

 Why let the Shanty Town part exist at all, you might ask? Mainly because no one cared enough to clean it up and there was NO other town it could exist in, except possibly Storage... but that was to much of security risk to allow. Everyone knows poor people steal, right? Can't have that near the valuable warehouses. Nevermind that that Working Poor and Thrown Away kids were just as likely to go for five-finger discount if they thought they could get away with it as any Shanty kid or were desperate enough and shady types flickered in and out of the 'for rent' office spaces... The difference was, they had to be seen to be keeping things somewhat secure in Storage. In Middle Town, so long as it was out of sight, no one had to think about it so no one cared.

There was no creche/ daycare or school in Middle Town.
Kids, if they lived here, usually had babysitters or mannys/nannys depending on their wealth level, though there was a public park with a small fountain which also had a drinking fountain.
Kids were taken there to play in the morning before the heat of the day really kicked in.

As drunken people can get rowdy, there was also a lock up, which was in the sun for most of the day. The locals saw it as incentive not to cause trouble.
If you can’t hold your drink, don’t drink so much.

They wouldn’t let a person die in there… but letting them bake for a bit was perfectly acceptable.
It was reason B why there was a proper clinic in town.

There was a road up to the top of the mesa where there was a camping spot as it gave fantastic views.
There was even a garden of sorts up there, though it was more of a zen garden.
It was where the town shrine was, along with a small temple and the caretakers cottage for the ‘gardens’ as well as to maintain the lookout.

She would give them this.
Semi-arid, arid and desert environments made for THE best sunrises and sunsets.
Very beautiful and picturesque and the vista from the top of the Mesa’s lookout was amazing at any time but dawn and dusk was when it really shone.
The overhead sweep of starry sky was worth the climb as well.
(This was also an excursion the school took them on.)

It was the second most populated town, the second most tourist visited and the only one with a regular shuttle bus back to Gateway.

It might not have the room to spread that Produce did but there were a lot of people in the shanty town and the tenement flats that most of the Entertainment workers lived in, tucked halfway between that part and the shantytown… where they didn’t just live in the building.
Some of them lived in the main part of town, making good money of their jobs, but just as many didn’t. Some actually lived in Produce and commuted from there.

Chapter Text

Her Pokemon Journey™ began, not with the well wishes of family, or even the grim determination of a shanty or orphan child, which she’d expected.

It didn’t even start during the designated week for it.

No, hers was heavily delayed.
In fact, it began almost a month late.

She’d lost the chance to keep a low profile when she’d offered the Professor potential research materials related to his area of study on a platter.
She knew a true academic when she saw one and also knew better than to get in his way when the gleam of REseARcH was in his eyes.
He might have to pause to give the brats their Starter mon and trainer I.D. cards but you could bet your last bit of currency that he’d be deep into those books the rest of the time.
She wouldn’t begrudge a man his passion, so long as he was willing to share whatever relevant things he gleaned out of them about the cataclysm, the history of the towns and so on.

He seemed to appreciate her patience.

Since she was mentally older and had a very different plan to the other young Trainers to be from their area, she volunteered to wait until the latest crop had been through, if she could come in to buy her supplies early before the shop was cleaned out as she was already there, due to doing her school sponsored work placement in Lab Town.

She’d been there on and off for nearly three months, outside of attending final exams and wrap-up classes.
It was full on, but she was enjoying it.
Pokemon were so fascinating and there was so much to learn, even with the random game knowledge she had already.
It was DIFFERENT experiencing it in person, but she didn’t mind it.
She’d never minded dealing with or handling animals so long as they weren't a hazard to her.
She enjoyed it more than dealing with people.

It was almost annoying that she had to leave on her Poke Journey… but she didn’t have the funds or the backing for the fancy school that would let her shortcut it.
Nor did she have an injury or illness that would keep her from going, so go she would… even if it was after everyone else had been through and left.

Since she was willing to help out in the lab for mate’s rates on her supplies along with being willing to let the swarm through first, the head of the Lab was willing to roll with it.

An extra hand at this time of year, without asking for money, was worth it’s weight in gold.

A few generic supplies was more than worth it.

She’d likely have to delay her departure because they had a record-breaking thirty-seven, including herself, going through this year and it was the second intake but she figured it was worth it to get cut-rate gear and supplies.
After all, the orphan grant was pitifully small.

Slowly, the youth dorm emptied out, the young Trainers having to wait nearly a full three weeks to be kitted out properly and get their mon, with a charter bus coming to pick up the last of them at the end of the third week. (She was rather glad she hadn’t been in there. Even with the second floor open, it sounded cramped and she’d had more than enough of being stuffed in a room with other kids.)

Then, finally, as though he’d forgotten about her up until then (which he well might have. Those ancient encyclopedias weren’t going to read themselves.
She was contemplating leaving those two really old books here as well.
While she might be enjoying herself deciphering them, being on the road with her would NOT be good for them.
He may as well do them too… which reminded her.
She needed to go through the stash and decide what ELSE she was leaving here), the head of the lab, one Professor Larch, called her in and presented her three balls to choose from.

To her shock, opening the balls presented her a Koffing, a Diglet and Onyx to pick from.

Wow.
Just… wow. How did he get his hands on these?!

The Koffing was out from the get go.
She didn’t want to draw attention and a Koffing would.
Diglett and Onyx would also draw attention.
Where she wanted to head she wasn’t sure if these big, big boys would be alright.
Well, Onyx could be a ride on pokemon but it’s stats weren’t great unless she could fine a Metal Coat and someone who’d trade and then trade it back to her… Diglett it was.

She was very grateful.

Then, he proposed a deal with her since he could see she was very different fare from the usual brats.
Her plan was likely different too.
He needed fresh stock of several common pokemon and was willing to supply the balls and detach the ‘six only’ rule if she caught his fresh samples first in the designated ball, along with several other specimens if she could get her sights on them.
He’d like male and female of each if she could get them, but he’d take what he can get. He needed samples untouched by the mineral so, the further afield she goes to get them, the better his results!
For this, he’s willing to offer a small ‘finder's fee’ per mon and…

Her eyes opened wide in shocked wonder and glee!

A Pokedex!

It wasn’t standard that every kid doing their journey got a Pokedex. They were too expensive.
Instead, they got a key card that allowed them to register with the Gateway’s Pokémon Center. It didn’t automatically identify pokemon but it would allow a user to take a picture and request information when they next reached a pokemon center.
For a fee, they could trigger something like a ‘hot spot’ connection and get the information right at that moment… but still, they had to pay for it and, like a payphone, when the money ran out, so did the hot spot access.
It could also be connected to a family or personal bank account the young person could request access to funds or withdraw them directly from their account as needed.

An actual Pokedex would allow her to bypass that completely!

It would also mark her as something like a junior assistant meaning she had access to more and better resources than the regular kids.
She could even request funds if she saw something the lab might be able to use or have as well as her own funds.
Like the cards, it locked to a single users and acted as an identifier too. He’d be able to see what pokemon she identified and that was fine, but not exactly when or where she found them though the Pokedex could act as a clock, though the card couldn’t.

This was a windfall she couldn’t have anticipated, but she’d accept it, and gratefully.
While she was tempted to explore the Circuit Towns properly, a ten-year-old would stand out too much.

She needed to go first… Well, since she’d be returning anyway to drop off the mon (transporter tech was still very crude. It COULD transport pokemon from the Poke Centers, but only by bouncing them through relay stations, and often, if they needed to be transported over water, they had to be literally transported before they continued their transmission journey. It was getting rarer but it wasn’t that unusual to have more than your combat team on a Trainer, even if you were supposed to only use your combat team to fight. The six mon only thing was more of a heavy suggestion than an enforced rule right now), she could leave more here than she’d thought.

The travel kits were definitely coming… though she’d left the figurines, their kit and the carving supplies.
It might be something she picked up later… but later wasn’t now.

The old knife, though technically for carving bone, she was taking until she could get one of her own.
She’d had it sharpened.

The stone had a new thong and she was wearing it but the crown-shaped rock was staying.
The pitons and her rope, the compass (which still worked, she’d had it tested) and the book of knots, or rather a copy of it, were coming.
She’d always struggled to memorize her knots, and they were so useful.

The compendium of stars, while fascinating, wasn’t accurate anymore and so she made due with a printed off sky map instead, as well as a land one of Kanto.

She was ready, finally and, of course, it would be the day after rest day meaning the School Bus won’t be back for another week, since it ONLY runs on rest days at the end of graduation.
Even though there are kids in the younger classes, there is a month’s break of the teachers to organize… which sort of sucks for the kids who rely on that one meal a day but, by now, they should have realized it was coming and made plans… even if those plans were something like go to Produce and work or stay over in the dorms and graze the gardens.
It wasn’t much, but it WOULD keep a kid alive enough for the next term.

Long and short she had to get herself to a town that was accessible by tour bus since she’d missed the traditional ride out.
Under normal circumstances, the School Bus would do one last round to pick up the young Trainers-to-be from their homes and drop them off at Lab Town, picking them up a week later.
Since there had been so many this time, they’d had to call in a charter bus at the end of weeks two and three and now, almost a month later, there was just her to go.
It wasn’t worth it to call a Charter bus and she didn’t want to waste her money.
Nor did she wish to blow money in staying in the dorms since her grace period is over, now that she has her mon and I.D. card.

Normally, she’d have a grace period since they’d be waiting for the bus to arrive, but that had been rendered moot by the very lateness of her Journey start.
She’d have to catch a lift with one of the teams in order to start her journey, though.

That was fine. She could just sleep in the newly empty student dorm for the night and then set off. She’d just snag some food before she left to tide her over…
Meanwhile, she’d hang around and get to know her new pokemon a bit and then catch a lift to Middletown or Produce with the next crew headed out and the tour bus from there.

Of course, it was just then a dust/ sand storm blew in and paused all traffic coming or going from the bottom part of the island.

They couldn’t blame her for staying put with that howling away outside. She couldn’t control the weather after all and the cost of the extra night/s wouldn’t be charged to her.
NO ONE moved in a sand or dust storm unless they had a mon (pokemon) with Teleport.

She was just… REALLY impatient to finally start.
She could hardly return until she left first!

Chapter Text

Two days later, it had finally blown over but the only ones going out were sewage collection drivers and the compost collection crew.

She opted for the second and asked them to drop her off either in Produce or Middletown.
The route skipped Gateway completely since it was on mains sewage and had it’s own treatment plant. Had it’s own water supply too.

Thanks to the storm, the route had shifted a bit, so they were headed straight up through Middle Town and she was fine with that.

With her hair tucked up under a cap, her dull coveralls and scuffed shoes, she looked like a very short Lab worker.
She’d change once she was there and again in Gateway.
She wanted to look like a tourist child, rather than a local orphan off on their Journey.

Arrival in town and splitting from her ride was quiet and unnoticed.

She stripped the coveralls behind the truck and then slipped into the nearest clothing stall she saw. Not a second-hand one either (there were a few thrift shops tucked around the back of the main strip, usually accessed by the locals). There was a certain look she needed to pull this off.

She was wearing her Trainer Gear, but she wouldn’t be the first youngster who wanted to buy something trendy with their first serious Battle’s pay out and want to do it away from their hometown, and it wasn’t the store attendant's place to question a customer anyway.

With the new outfit bought, she looked in the mirror and nodded.
The outfit consisted of a floofy little skirt that came to just above the knees with bike shorts under it, (those could be useful later), a sleeveless swing top that matched one of the colours on the skirt and a little, balero style jacket that was hardly more than to three quarter, drappy arms that flared in the same way the skirt did, a collar and a strip of back pannel in the same material as the skirt, but in the dark colour of the bike shorts.
A purple belt bag/ fanny pack was around her waist with a black strap/ belt part.

To really pull the look off, though she needed to trim her nails, her hair needed attending too and she needed different shoes.

The shoes were easy enough to find since she wasn’t worried about fit. Really, the first showy but impractical sandals she saw that fitted enough not to hurt and somewhat matched her outfit were fine. It only had to do her to Gateway after all.

The hair she had trimmed professionally, though she already had the hair crayon equivalent on her. Her hair might have originally been dark, but spending hours a day out in scorching sunlight for school’s afternoon outdoor classes had bleached it enough for a Hair Crayon's colour to show.
The trim was just to neaten things and get rid of the dead ends.
All orphans had short hair as it was easier to care for, but she’d been growing hers out for months and it was just long enough now to pull back in a top knot and tail. It was naturally wavy too and the hairdresser washed and set it for her.
She was willing to allow the expenditure since she’d make it up shortly.

Again, she wouldn’t be the first young Trainer to want to try out their own identity by growing her hair out and trying different things. It was all part of a Trainer’s Journey to figuring out who they are and their place in the world.

She even bought some cheap nail polish and painted her freshly trimmed and filed nails, finger AND toe.
A silly visor-style hat was added and she was good to go, her trainer clothes and gear tucked away in a new, touristy pack and small, showy water bottle hanging off her belt.

She wouldn’t be known here, outside of a single school trip four years ago, while she would, at least a little, in Gateway.

The less recognizable she was, the better.

She had lost the chance to be low-key/ ordinary in LabTown… but she hasn’t in the Gateway.
She isn’t known in the Training Zone so this is a fresh start.

It helped that, being an orphan, she was small and scrawny.
The orphanage didn’t skimp on meals… but they never went to bed full either and the food wasn’t the best quality.
They bought in bulk and only fleshed things out a little from their greenhouse; there was very little meat in the kids’ diets, unless they received a donation.

She’d been sick as a child too, a little before she was sent off to school…
Not that her mother noticed.
She didn’t remember the woman at all and didn’t think much of her.

It had been the Pokemon watching over them that noticed which hammered home the point that she was in Pokeverse like nothing else did.

She was missing a decent chunk of time and awakened in the hospital.
Her mother never showed and when she recovered, she was brought ‘home’ with the School Bus run… and it was nearly three months later.
There was still no sign of her mother.
She wasn’t sure the woman had even known she was missing.
Why the hell did she even have her? OR keep her?
It wasn’t like she was interested in her at all.

Anyway, it had settled into her mind slowly and, once it clicked, she decided she wanted to keep a low-ish profile until she’d gotten the lay of the land.
It didn’t happen often. She usually knew from the time she was old enough to understand the concept of reincarnation but sometimes something blocked her memories and it needed a jolt to ‘wake her up’.
After that, it was just a matter of figuring out well, everything. World mechanics, society level, gender roles and setup. Sometimes, even language as well.

This one had been pretty easy as she already spoke Japanese... which the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh Regions were the equivalent of, though the Circuit Island was probably equivalent to being from Kansai, only more and worse.
Their accent was certainly very distinctive... she'd have to work on that.
Unlike Kansai though, they were REALLY isolated out here, except for Gateway and, possibly, Fisher. Even the various Towns had been isolated from each other until the introduction of vehicles for transport.

At any rate, she looked like she could be eight or nine rather than ten and that should provide just enough confusion for her purpose on hitting Gateway.

She had a bit of ‘cash in hand’ money that was hush money, from that one tech who wanted to flirt and maybe more with another while on the clock, which made the pretense easier.
(Guess they’d forgotten that there were cameras on in the main sections, always. Well, their loss but at least she wouldn’t be around for it when they were busted…)

All she had to do was stick close to a couple getting on the tour bus and she was golden.
The sandstorm hadn’t made it to MiddleTown after all so the tour bus had been making it’s daily run in the morning and back in the late afternoon as usual.

This would work.

-0-

All was going according to plan when the bus broke down a little outside of Gateway.

One of the wheels had dropped into a suddenly appearing hole.
It was just big enough to catch the wheel, which snapped off, sending the bus careering into a rocky half wall.

Everyone was okay, but the driver had bashed his head on impact.

She offered to wait on the roadside and wave down the mechanic because the bus driver was very dizzy and likely concussed.

They were about a ten-minute drive, so about a forty-minute walk, from the town.
Too far for a tourist to even think of trying it.

It might be greener here, but she wasn’t dressed for travel, and the sun was unforgiving of foolishness. She only had a little touristy water bottle too.

The road was just out of sight of the bus and, while she was there, she checked out the sudden hole, which still had the tire in it… and a mon trying to chew on the tire.

Well, that explained a lot.

The road wasn’t paved but it was well maintained.
Still, what mon would…

Her eyes widened…
‘Oh my blessed signs from on high! A Trapinch! Those aren’t native to Kanto are they?!
It wasn’t native to the area either! The eyes might be black, but they lack the feral edge and it was tiny! Probably only just hatched!
She wasn’t Registered yet and her only pokemon was also a baby and a bad match for it, sharing most of the same moves but… but… she had to TRY. She HAD too!
This was the sort of opportunity that only came around once!'

Glancing back over her shoulder to see no one in sight, she released her pokemon quietly. She couldn’t draw attention. Not now.

She had two health potions.
If she needed, she could simply heal her mon and wear the baby down like that.

It had to be pretty hungry. She had some poke chow. It wouldn’t be the right sort but the baby likely wouldn’t care.

The T.M. move her also a baby pokemon knew wasn’t one she was happy with.
The guy had to have been drunk to have done it. T.M. moves weren’t cheap either.
It required a specialized Move Tutor or a mon who knew it and was willing to share it.
What had he been thinking?! Or had it been a test run for a prototype?
They weren’t made easily these days.
A disk could only be created with much time, effort and expense.

Still, it might be her only way of winning here.
Right.

She snuck some pokechow out of her pack and tossed it to the baby who, of course, lunged for it hungrily.

‘Now,’ she told her baby mon.

Take Down was effective, but the recoil damage to her baby girl wasn’t something she was happy with.

She gave her mon the first potion.
“Again,” she told her, “and then Scratch!”

The baby Trapinch was still reeling so the second Take Down hit it hard.
Scratch knocked it out completely and she threw a pokeball, which captured it without fuss.

(A change from game mechanics to real life she definitely approved of. Trying to catch the things while they were conscious was just pain in the arse! It might be a bit unsporting but, on this island, a person couldn't afford to be otherwise!)
Her baby leveled up to two and she Returned it to its ball.
Both went quietly back on her belt under her silly little skirt.

Just in time. She saw a dust trail coming down the road and waved her arms to draw attention.

Then, things got busy.

After spotting the tire in the hole, he knew this wasn’t going to be a quick fix and called for both an ambulance for the definitely concussed driver and a van (there were only eight of them, now, her included. Seven of the group had stayed overnight to check out the night life. A club had newly opened in the entertainment district…) to take them the rest of the way into town.

Chapter Text

Once they’d been dropped off at the bus station, she made her way to one of the beach showers that were cold and used undrinkable groundwater to rinse out her hair, put on her Trainer clothes and quietly made her way to the Poke Center to register properly.

She’d been registered as an Acquisitions Agent since Professor Larch had given her the Pokedex and locked it to her but it was still bad form to do any capturing until properly registered… unless the Pokemon was a danger, which the Trapinch had been so she was probably in the clear.

They didn’t have a Jenny in town, but the Pokecenter was an official one, so they did have a Joy. She looked at the young girl sideways a bit, but left it at that.
(Part of that might have been her VERY late arrival now that she thought about it.)
It wasn’t her place to inquire and the Pokemon had been a danger and in danger.
The Trapinch was a mere baby but no less dangerous for all that.

The young Trainer, who was Anna once more, (the name the first incarnation she remembered had chosen for herself when she was born wrong gendered and the name her bio parents had given her didn’t suit… Anna was a name she’d always answer to, or Ann. Never Annie though. She put that on the same level as Dolly.
Anna of Gateway was her new identity) was ready to get into things.
Anyway, she’d done right to catch the thing.

-0-

While her Pokemon were getting healed up, she headed straight to the library.
She might have a Pokedex now but it wouldn’t be smart to flash it about.

It was ridiculously easy for a newbie Trainer to get stuck in Gateway, especially if they were alone and only had the Orphan Grant for money.
Some of them didn't even get that as they weren't orphans, just poor.
It was why the Lab handed out a standard kit of six Pokeballs, to potions and belt clips for shrunken Pokeballs. Anything else had to be bought.

Battles could be for practice or for pay, but there wasn't much a ten-year-old could do to earn more funds when theirs ran out, even if it was free to stay at the Poke Center and attached dorms and they were entitled to one meal a day while their pokemon were entitled to two.

While it was supposed to be an INDIVIDUAL Journey, it wasn't unusual for groups to form during the school years to support each other by Training together and even sharing funds or meals if one had had a windfall.

Of course, it also made it easier for Gangs to form, which centered on 'bullying' the newbies and bilking them for cash so that they had no choice but to turn around and do it to the next lot of newbies coming in.

The dorms were only for newbie Trainers, too. If a kid was still there after the third year, it was assumed they weren't serious about Training and they were encouraged to find other accommodation and one of the cheap, casual labour tourist-based jobs.
They were still able to avail themselves to the Pokemon Center's healing for their mon, along with the laundry facilities... but ONLY if they re-registered as a Trainer.

This was also where Sponsoring came in.
A sponsored Trainer either helped their young Patron to Train by being Battle punching bag, Trained the mon FOR them, scouted information by testing the Trainers around, acted as their servant for the trip and pretty much anything also their Young Master/Mistress wished.
They also acted as Battle Partner with them during double or triple Battles, as well as Trading Partner if there were mon that needed Trading to evolve.
For this they'd receive a stipend of their own, access to a higher level of Training, three good quality meals a day, proper gear and training clothing, access to a higher level of Pokegear and tech and training on dealing with the well-to-do.
Supposedly.
Reality, as usual, was often very different.

The reason for all of this? The Bridge.
It was traditional to Battle your way across the thing so that when you hit Kanto Main, your mon were of a high enough level to handle themselves.
Of course, that was virtually impossible with only a single mon, so many of the Gacha games and even the arcade prizes were centered around Pokemon gear that could be sold to raise funds to buy another mon.
Or a person could take a chance and take a bus or ferry across to Lavender Town after buffing their mon as best they could. It'd still be a hard fight, but if they could snatch a mon from the caves or the grass, they'd have a much better chance of tackling the Bridge.

Most newbies didn't think of that or it didn't occur until it wasn't an option anymore because they had no money for a ticket and nothing to pump their baby mon up with... so they were left doing practice Battles until their mon was strong enough to handle Battling for money... and then they'd better hope they won.

Which began the vicious cycle of targeting newbie Trainers for funds because they were the only ones such 'stuck' trainers could be sure they could beat... the shabbier ones anyway.
The ones with quality gear and ware were probably either Sponsored or the ones doing the Sponsoring and so probably not safe to target.

Starting as late as she had, she'd probably missed that 'blitz' but she was still a weak, newbie trainer and gear that was barely above standard. She needed to change that image, fast.

She spent the rest of the day researching Pokemon around Lavender Town and where might be best to go from there.

Since she was avoiding most of the main gyms, it was smart to find the locations of the minor ones so she could plan her course.
Rumour had it there was one near Celadon city, maybe up where Bill’s Cottage was… would be? It depended on when she was in the timeline.
Her Pokedex did have a main roads map but it didn’t update location unless a person was near a town and it could pick up a connection again.

While she was tempted to build up experience while she was here, a Diglett was too memorable and so was a Trapinch.
It wasn't just generic gear that would get her targeted.
She’d need to go catch something generic and then come back.

To have a Diglett, she at least needed to look like she’d come from the Rock Tunnel... Hmmm.

Or she could go the young Tourist Trainer route. She had the costume and the nice hair and nails though she still spoke like a local.
She'd work on that.
It could be plan B if she couldn't pull off plan A.

She was tempted to leave Trappinch at the Daycare as they took ages to level up but she couldn't afford that right now, as she literally only had two mon.
That could be for once she had more mon fit for Battle.

She moved forward with her tentative plan, using up most of the rest of her grant to buy better quality equipment, trading in what she had already to get a discount.
She had a fully stocked med kit as well as the few extra potions she'd been entitled to as a Lab Trainer.
Rather than more potions, she bought local berries, which had the same effect and could also be used to supplement food or boost stats, though usually only one at a time and a mon might not like them. The common ones were a LOT cheaper though, than even the weakest of potions. A lot easier to get a hold of and transport too, since you could get them in packs already dried or ground.
They might have traces of that mineral but it would still help her mon hold out until they could hit a poke center.
She’d pick up clean Berries as she wandered and the seeds for them.
She was sure they’d come in useful eventually.

Crossing the bridge would lead to successive Battles and she wasn’t ready for that yet.
It might be the last challenge a newbie Trainer faced before entering Kanto Main and a rite of passage of sorts… but she’d be skipping.

It didn’t matter that she was over a month ‘late’.
It would be the same for her as any other new Trainer, since it wasn’t unusual to build up your new mon with battling for a month or two at minimum before attempting the bridge challenge, with the rest spots working as ‘save points’.

Winning or buying mon was the only way to get more since it was illegal to catch local mon as they were feral and dangerous.
Paid 'Trades' where a Trainer paid a person for their mon and it was 'Traded' into their empty ball also happened, but far more rarely.

It could take a year or more to work your way across or longer and some just got stuck there, unwilling or unable, due to being targeted, to let go of their pride just to take the damn boat!
At least in Lavender Town, a young Trainer wouldn't be 'encouraged' to move along so long as they were still officially on their Journey and registered.
(She DID get why Gateway’s Pokemon Center had that policy. It was one of the few ways they could keep the newbies from being bullied or coerced, but still…)

She thought that was just dumb.
Who cared if you decided to go and get some real-life experience before trying the bridge?
Or didn’t challenge the bridge at all?

Outside of those who had banded together to save funds, it wasn’t like Trainers from their area socialized or communicated with each other, outside of possibly kids from Fisher or Shafts.

And not all those working their way across would be new Trainers either. Quite a lot of tourists challenged it for the experience or for bragging rights.

Screw that.
She had nothing to prove to herself or anyone else.

Without a shred of remorse, Anna ‘cheated’ and took the ferry across.

Her mon would stand out too much trying the Bridge Challenge anyway.
They weren’t the usual Starter Pokemon and she still had a thing about not wanting to stand out. She wanted as normal a Pokemon Journey experience as she could get.
(Yes, she was aware that it was already abnormal. That's why she wanted a fresh start in Gateway! Even if that now included skipping the Bridge Battle Challenge.)

While she was very tempted to explore Gateway properly, she had no money and her age would get her watched… She needed to look like a Returner at the least, so that would be put on pause until she at least looked fourteen or fifteen.
While she could do touristy things as a Tourist rather than a local Trainer, most expected a kid to be accompanied by someone.

The idea that a kid might come into their town just for something to do wasn’t something that really occurred, apparently.

(Most local kids trying that had to have a pass written by an adult figure on hand to stymie attempts to hand the kid to local authorities.
There was less oversight if they were in the School Zone part or if they went across to Produce, though. It wasn't unusual to see a kid killing time in the park or the sports area.)

A few hours later, after a calm and pleasant trip, she took a breath, stepped off the boat and began the next phase of her life properly.

With the damage left by that Pokemon’s rampage, it would be interesting to see how much of her old memory knowledge was still valid.

Lavender Town.
It didn’t sound like much.
Didn’t look like much either but she was HERE.
She’d done it!
She was off the damn Circuit Island!

Rather than give in to her emotional response on the docks in front of everyone, she set up at the Poke Center immediately, shut herself into a room and laughed until she cried.

She hated to admit that she’d been more anxious than she thought over being stuck in Gateway… but no longer.
She was here. HERE!
She’d done it!
Stage one, completed!
The rest of her life awaited!
No one knew her here, so no one would judge.
She was just another newbie Trainer coming through.
It was… soothing actually.

She calmed herself down and, collecting her mon, slipped out town and into the wilds near the start of the Bridge.

There wasn’t much grass there, but there was some.
Enough to trigger wild Pokemon encounters anyway and that’s what she wanted.

Some baby mon for her Pokemon to fight and maybe they could catch some common ones to train up. They couldn't ALL be high-level, surely. This wasn't a game after all.
She wasn’t going near those caves though.
Not until she had something that could learn Flash.

She should have contacted the Professor about the Trapinch but she wanted time to settle first.

She let her Pokemon out.
It should be safe enough for Diglett to explore but Trapinch was just a baby still. Its instincts were strong though it was now accepting food from her easily enough but she'd keep it near her and distracted.

Chapter Text

Diglett came back quickly, jiggling at her foot and then nudging it insistently.
Once her tiny mon had her attention, Diglett ducked away.

Intrigued, her Trainer followed.

A Pokemon in the rushes.
It’s badly beaten up, but plump under the injuries and… is that a collar?
Well, damn.
She can’t move it without hurting it more and she doesn’t want to use her remaining potion.
It isn’t conscious enough to chew the appropriate berry either and she doesn't want to risk the time it'd take to re-hydrate the dried ones anyway.

She tried throwing a ball… it worked.
So, an abandoned pet. What a dick move.
She had no time or respect for people like that. Pokemon, good ones, weren’t easy to acquire.

Back to the Poke Center they go.

While the Pokemon is being healed, she went and reported the incident to the local Jenny. Lavender Town had one of those.

It was a pity because Meowth’s could use Flash, but she would give the cat a choice.
Stay with her or be sent to the Poke Lab.
At the Lab he could lounge around outside of tests and maybe a bit of study duty, or stay with her and battle with her.

The cat was a very unhappy kitty because he’s pretty sure something bad happened to his person, but agreed to stay with her for long enough to catch another Pokemon to be her main. He was level eight, so still within her control, provided Badges equaling control of higher-level mon carried over AND he agreed to learn Flash to be her cave navigator, so long as he didn’t have to Battle.

Fair enough.

They led the local Jenny back to where Meowth was found.

A little further on, signs of a struggle were found.
A few scattered drops of blood but no signs of dragging.
They’d need to check along the shoreline. They found Meowth’s broken ball too.

(She’d judged too quickly. She’d have to watch that tendency. It could get her hurt.)

The Jenny and her police promised to keep the young Trainer updated as best they could.
They'd keep track of her Pokedex location any time she logged in.

She agreed.
Meowth deserved closure after all.

While that was being investigated, the plan was to contact the Lab and see if she could get the Flash T.M. from there.
If not, hopefully he could direct her to a Move Tutor.

Meantime, she had some mon to catch and battles to fight...

A Pidgey and Sandshrew were caught with an unhappy Meowth’s help.

He’s level fourteen despite being mostly a lap cat.
He’d fought hard to try and protect his human and then himself, trying to get away to get help and so he hated his new levels.

With the bait of her picking up other mon to fight in his place he was reluctantly willing.
He was also made Trapinch battle partner until the others could level up a bit.
He still hated fighting though and that was fair.

Pidgey was level fourteen and Sandshrew was level sixteen.

Anna very foolishly stuck her nose into the cave and was mobbed by Zubats. She really should have kept to her 'not until I have Flash' resolution.

Pidgey blew them away with gust and a couple were blown out of the cave.
Disorientated, they were easy enough to bring down so now she had a level fifteen Zubat and two others to her collection.
She kept the highest level one while the other two could go to the Lab.
Definitely not going in there again without Flash.

She didn’t attempt to challenge the Bridge this time either… it was a good way to earn some money but her baby mon needed seasoning up a bit before that.
Walking it was never going to be a fast or easy journey.
She needed to use a bike (there was a bike path section though, if you stopped and there was a lurking Trainer nearby, you could be challenged and were expected to take them up on it) or just take the bus again.

She’d give her baby mon some experience in fighting the Trainers in Gateway first now that she had some generic mon of a decent level and more than the one. She was working hard on losing the accent too, copying how the Lavender Town locals spoke.
It was a work in progress.

She WOULD challenge the bridge… but ONLY when she had a good chance of succeeding.
If people knew, they’d say she was cheating but she firmly believed there was no one right way to go on your Pokemon Journey as long as you got your Badges and didn’t get in trouble with the law.

She didn't have her Trainer’s Badge, to mark her as an official and legally registered Trainer, on open display, proudly pinned somewhere prominent for the world to see.
No, hers is on the inside of her collar, tucked out of sight and for good reason.

A Newbie gets it at the Pokemon Center when they come in for the first time and their Card, Pokedex in her case, is properly registered.
Most of them are red and white, with a black background, enameled on a silver base.
Basically a stylized closeup of the activation button of a Pokeball and the official sign of the League in the Kanto Region.

Her badge isn’t that different… mostly, but it has a gold outline that would make it stand out. The gold outline on hers marks her as attached to a lab and this is NOT something she wants advertised to all and sundry as it will lead to certain expectations.
Expectations she had NO intention of fulfilling.
Her Journey is going to be done her own way or what’s the point?
She will flash it as necessary, but she still hopes for a mostly normal Journey thanks… She’s going to try anyway.

She needed to be strong enough to win some money cause she had nearly nothing on her outside of what Meowth’s Payday’s had dumped.

In her improved Trainer's getup (simple gray pants with proper pockets front and back, detachable just below the knee and a matching windcheater/hoody with detachable sleeves.
Over that, a sturdy shiny gray waterproof jacket, also with detachable sleeves, a bandanna hat with visor and some sturdy walking shoes with thick, chunky soles but a mesh patch over the toe so her feet can breath and absorbent inner soles that adhere to the bottom of her feet for walking on hot sand, gravel and so on.

She’s lucky she has average skin, not too pale or too dark, black hair and brown eyes. Utterly unmemorable, which is just how she wants it.
With her mousy brown hair, slightly pale skin, brown eyes and plain features, she’s not going to stand out unless she does something to make herself… and she’s no plans to do that.), she started seeking Battles.

Not from other newbie Trainers or the ‘fine people’ trying to make easy money off them but the tourists who could afford to put up more cash.
She observed them first before she challenged, trying to match her mon to those a level or two below or that had a type advantage against.

She lost some but won a lot more and thus had a bit of money in pocket again as was satisfied in the results.

The main plus side of getting mon at higher levels was they had more variety in their moves.
More things that would work on different types of mon… Still, the only mon that had a status effect or moves that would work on rock mon was Zubat’s with Screech and Absorb.

She was only going to use Trapinch on wild Pokemon only… and she finally reported snagging the Trapinch to Professor Larch as well as asking about Flash while she was there.

His eyes narrowed through the video call .
He’d very much NOT ordered a Trapinch egg.
That meant someone was up to mischief and, considering it had already wrecked a tour bus… He’d get word to the right people and see what they could dig up.
He’d also like a look at her mon when it came to it.

She agreed easily enough but decided not to return just yet.
Since the auto transfer is currently turned off, she’d need to actually go in… or she could just leave them there with instructions to send them on and hope Nurse Joy would.

Yeah, that sounded pretty good.

With luck she’d grab a few more Zubat, Geodude and whatever else she might find in there once she had Flash.
After all, she couldn’t go back empty-handed.
Besides, she wasn’t sure how this world worked when it came to Pokemon Battles and leveling and whatnot. How much of it followed game mechanics and then there was WHICH generation of the game mechanics would it take after? Or would it vary Region by Region. Would her pokes no longer listen to her if they got to big without a gym badge?
Maybe she’d need to hit a couple of the Main Gyms after all? But no, that couldn't be right since then, why bother with having the Minor Gyms. Also, the whole being unable to use a move thing until this specific Gym Leader was defeated... blow that for a lark!

To her bemusement, Professor Larch sent the T.M. straight to the Pokecenter.
The Lab must be experimenting with their creation.
It looked like an old school C.D. disk or maybe a hard floppy disk but sort of more fragile?
It seemed having her Pokemon auto transfer turned off did nothing to his ability to transport stuff to a designated Poke Center.

This just got a LOT easier.

Meowth learned Flash, just like that AND was willing to teach the move to whatever new Pokemon she designated.
Nice. Very, very nice.

She took the bus back across the bridge again (it was faster than the ferry but not as peaceful) as she wouldn’t be challenging that until she had both a full team and they were at least level ten on average.

A quick stop in Lavender Town to top up supplies and a caving she went.

Another Zubat, three Geodude (all also hard fights… she’s just not got the mon for beating rock types easily), two Machop (a hard fight since she didn’t have much that would effect a fighting Pokemon), and an Onyx - that was a thing?- later (an even harder fight because only Absorb did the rocky snake any damage) done in four separate trips and she felt ready to return to the Lab…

Her young mon had all gone up a level or two with Zubat at seventeen,
Pidgey at sixteen, Sandshrew at seventeen, Diglett was at thirteen now and Trapinch was at level ten.
Meowth had, to his distaste, gone up three levels.

Now that they were stronger, she promised him the only thing he’d need to do after she got through the cave was possibly babysit Trapinch sometimes.
When she went back to the Lab, he’d go with her and that would be the end of any Battling he did.

Even with her mon somewhat leveled up, going through there wouldn’t be easy.
All the mon are level twelve to seventeen or eighteen and, at this early stage in her Journey, that REALLY matters. (Where are all the baby mon born to these cave dwellers. They've got to be SOMEWHERE right?)

No wonder Newbies are encouraged to do the Bridge first and then head towards Saffron City and then towards the upper part of the map rather than trying to go down or tackle the Cave.
She lucked out with Pet Meowth.
She could have nerfed herself badly.

Just leveling up isn't going to cut it. She needs something other than Ground or Normal mon.
She heads back to Gateway and looks around for a Pokemon to buy or trade for.
The Zubat probably won’t be of much interest but the Machop and the Onyx might.

Someone is willing to trade a Bellsprout for a Rock-type.
Given the choice of Geodude or Onyx they go with a Geodude.
They don’t have the space, money or food to handle an Onyx.

Fair.
She wouldn’t have caught one either if not for the Lab’s request.
(Hang on. Just because it’s a Lab mon, it doesn’t mean she can’t pull it out to fight, before she delivers it right? Oooh, she'll have to remember that. Could save her rear one day!)

With the level eleven Bellsprout added to her team, bringing with it potential for status effects, this hopefully got easier… maybe.

She left the lab mon at the Poke Center.
They were to be shipped to the lab care of Professor Larch.
Technically, she was supposed to take them in but eh, there was more she needed to collect first.

At worst, they’ll be left here waiting for her return when she comes back in.

At best, they’ll be shipped to the lab as she requested.

Either way, less mon to feed so it’s all good.

A bit more Battling to bring her traded mon up to level thirteen, where she started getting her Status Effecting Powders, Anna felt ready to have a shot at the Bridge.

She’s likely going to need a Gym Badge soon if the Pokemon getting too strong and not listening is actually a thing…

Chapter Text

This time, she tackled the Bridge to fight her way across.

It was a hard fight, despite her leveled-up mon and the rest stops were lifesavers.
She rested for three days in each to get her mon back in good condition, taking the time to explore said stops while they were there.

They didn’t have landing points for flying Pokemon.
There wasn’t enough room for that but there were two little nooks set aside for Teleporters since that was one of the easiest ways to get supplies in as there wasn’t much room for vehicles to pull over, outside of the small service station.

There were several points where a vehicle in distress can pull over, some overtaking lanes and some u-turn points, along with a few outlook points on either side where a small vehicle could pull over to admire the view, take stretch and shake out the cramps.
Some even had mounted pay telescopes.

The bridge Trainers and the walkers used them as break spots.
One or two even had a single built-in toilet cubical and more had awnings or shelters because the bridge, even at the best of times, took days to walk the distance and that was without the inevitable Pokemon battles.

Traffic slowed to a crawl through the rest stops with the buildings either taking up the space the bike path and the walking path would have taken or being built literally over the road, making small tunnels under them with the buildings connected via stairs and skyways.

It took her nearly a week to make her way across and she practically collapsed in a heap on reaching the Pokecenter.

She needed a Badge and soon.

Her mon, outside of Meowth and Trapinch, were now level twenty, twenty- one, traded Bellsprout included.
Pidgey had evolved into Pidgeotto and Bellsprout was one fight away from it.

They were going to have a little party to congratulate Pidge in a bit… once they’d all recovered. He was made much of and thoroughly enjoyed himself, along with the attention and grooming. He was smaller than most of his sort, which is why he’d been easier to catch but he was very gutsy and a fine figure of a bird otherwise.

Then… THEN, they were going to tackle the damn cave, since she had more mon to capture for the lab and she didn’t think she’d be up to fighting Trainers with mon whose levels were in the low twenties.
AND she made sure she had a damn Escape Rope!
This was real life.
You didn’t magically reappear if all your mon were knocked out and you could easily die without a battle able mon to protect you from wild ones.
If you were lucky, another Trainer would allow you to hang around until they were done and follow them out… but the stranded person would be expected to pay a tip either in money or items for the service.
Some were nicer about it than others, but it was protocol. Like rescuing a person in the water and responding to an S.O.S. equivalent if it could be done safely, so was rescuing a stranded Trainer.

And so they did.
Another Zubut, a Geodude, another Machop and two more Onyx and she considered her duty to the lab here done… Flash made all their lives so, so much easier…
With all the encounters and her mon big enough to take a bit damage towards the other end of the cavern, she started letting Trapinch experience share.
She vaguely remembered something about a Poke Center being there. She really, really hoped she wasn’t misremembering.

Before she knows it, she’s out the other side… mainly because she’s lost track of time in there. It’s taken her nearly a day, with getting turned around a couple of times and all the damn battling but she’s out now… and there’s a Pokemon center?

Well, okay.
Bit of a weird place for a center in the middle of nowhere but sure?

She gets her Mon patched up and reports her progress, asking if there’s any specifically that Professor Larch wants.
He sends her a list.

Nothing too onerous. He wants at least two or three of most common Pokemon for study and breeding purposes.
He wouldn’t turn down any of the rarer or more exotic Pokemon if she finds them, but it’s the common flying and normal types he wants for now.
Water types too, if she gets a chance.
He’s looking for mainland analogs of the Pokemon local to the Circuit Town’s island.

Okay, that’s doable.
The school kids might think his Lab was small, but she knew from working there, it has entire sections that never see the public eye to house his breeders, mostly in modified underground caverns.

He just doesn’t want the brats sending lots of Pokemon he isn’t getting money for housing.
That’s kind of a dick move, but it’s not like the kids can do anything about it or have the money to pay the stabling prices he’d ask.
It makes sure the kids are choosy about the mon they catch, so there’s that… Even so, still a dick move.

She had to laugh though.
The Move Tutor who taught Flash was in THIS particular Poke Center.

Ah well. A good thing to know for the future and it would be interesting to see if there was a difference between disk taught and Move Tutor taught.

Chapter Text

She exited and made her way up to the grass before deciding what to do.

She COULD backtrack now but well, she’s already here right?
She may as well look around?

This proved to be VERY unwise.

Before she has a chance to do more than take a couple of steps, she’s caught in a whirlwind and, when it finally cuts out, she’s actually halfway up a mountain.

She’s sick, dizzy, more than a little battered and has no idea where she is.
She’s lost a decent chunk of time though, if the position of the sun is right. She can see a city in the distance… It must be Celedon… or she hopes it is.

She’s not hurt overly much but if she ever gets a hold of whoever was letting whirlwinds out willy-nilly their groin needs to have a meeting with her knee, human or Pokemon regardless.

It takes her a little time to scrape herself up and patch her injuries and then try to figure a way down. This is probably Mount Moon and Mount Moon isn’t lightly climbed.
Calling it a mountain was a bit of a misnomer.
It wasn’t a single standing mountain, but simply the larger part of a connecting range between the mountain ranges that bracketed both sides of Routes Three and Four as the ranges ran from Pewter City to Cerulean.
(The side range ran from Vermilion City to up the coast, more or less.)
It’s almost as dangerous as going through it.

Her Pidgeotto is still pretty young and small for his type (he’s only about half as big again as he was as a Pidgey. Definitely not safe to ride yet) but he’s gutsy, willing to be ready to catch her if she slips, so she climbs carefully downward.

She hasn’t done the flying course on the island but she has a pretty good idea on how to hang on to his legs so he can take short glides from ledge to shelf where she can’t climb herself.

She gets some unasked-for ‘assistance’ for the last seven odd meters in that someone blasts the ledge from under her, causing her to fall and start sliding.

If not for Geotto’s quick reflexes, it would likely be her badly injured body or broken corpse that arrived at the bottom. Geotto couldn’t carry her for long, but he could get her off the rock slide and onto a more solid ledge… provided that wasn’t also blasted from under her.

Whatever was happening down there, the fighters didn’t give a crap about collateral damage. Her repositioning had put her right next to a cave entrance.

This is definitely Mount Moon then.

She recalled Geotto despite his protest.

This was getting too dangerous.

Another blast hit the entrance, near her hand this time and she tipped forward.

It was only two meters this time but she still landed hard and the drop knocked the wind out of her.
As she lay there in a heap, stunned, she caught sight of the ‘generous’ people who had ‘assisted’ her down.

Someone who looked like a street person but with a ragged cloak had some mon she didn’t recognize and was going at it hammer and tongs with someone in an almost cosplay like detective outfit.

It was clear these two weren’t aiming for the other’s Pokemon and didn’t care about anything but taking the other person down.

This wasn’t a Pokemon battle, this was a grudge match and what she thought it might look like if the Regions ever went to war with each other.
They clearly hated and were so desperately trying to kill each other, they were blind to anything else… including collateral damage.

Something struck near her face, kicking up a puff of dirt and slicing her cheek.

She managed to roll further into the cave. It wasn’t safe!

The two didn’t seem to care if they brought down the entrance either.
They didn’t seem like they were going to stop until one or the other was dead, or they were out of Pokemon and she didn’t want to wait to see what would happen. WAY too dangerous!

A blast of flame came pouring through the opening, briefly lighting up the cavern, followed by ice, which made the floor slick and slippery.

Nope!

She headed away from the entrance as quickly as she could. Only once the noise had faded did she bring out Meowth with Flash.

Fighting her way through all the bloody Trainers who wouldn’t take no for an answer or even listen until she’d beaten them (at least she made good money off them) and all the upset for good reason local Pokemon annoyed the hell out of her… even if she did get a good haul.
Two Sandshrew, a Paras, a Clefairy, and another two Paras and she’s about ready to leave and make haste to Pewter so she can report the situation.

Then, she tripped over a Chansey.
The fuck.
Since when!
What the actual… ah, um.
Yeah, no, she was taking that for herself… once she caught her.

It was a hard, hard battle as she kept healing herself… but she wasn’t trained, was nearly ten levels below most of Anna’s mon and was running on instinct.

Her Trainer would do something about that once she had her pink goddess to be in the bag.

After that fight, catching a second Clefairy was a dawdle and she considered herself done.

She wasn’t sure if the Rock Tunnel mon were clean, even if none of them ventured out of the caves and there was a mountain range between the Circuit island and the Rock Tunnel, ever but these guys should be.

They were nowhere NEAR Lavender and the Circuit Towns.

She hoped the situation with those two guys was sorted quickly.
She could return now, if she was able to get through. Since Meowith wasn’t interested in fighting, she needed someone else to learn Flash.

At least she knew where to go for it.
Between the Clefairy and her Chansey… yeah, that was going to take getting used too, hopefully one would be willing to learn.

She caught a third Clefairy on the way out. Two for the lab, one for her.

As she didn’t have the auto transfer system active, it was fine for her to have more than the regular six.
Trapinch and Meowth didn’t really count as her team anyway.

Of the three, she’d take the one with the highest level as she had little interest in grinding if she could avoid it.
Right now, there were plenty of mon for her team to level a newbie up with but that wouldn’t be the case later on… if this followed game mechanics.
So far, it had in some places and not in others.

Since she was there anyway, she looked around in the local area for Pokemon.

It was a bonanza of ground types… and most of them were small enough for her babies to fight.

Trapinch and her new Clefairy and Paras did their best and lost as often as they won but it was fine. The Pokecenter was within a short distance… and there were wild Berry bushes around.

While she was here, she might as well right?

Four male Nidoran later she gave up on that, but caught two more Sandshrew, three more Pidgey and thirteen Spearow (the flock attacked and between Diglett’s sandstorm, Paras poison, Bellsprout’s sleep and then Pidgey battering them, they were dying) mainly caught to save their lives.

She hadn’t counted on the Jigglypuff… or the two Igglybuff.
It was obviously their parent.
Oops.
She hadn’t intended that.
At least they could all go to the Lab together.

Being attacked by the Mankey out of nowhere, just outside of town was just annoying and it was a hard fight for her already tired Pokemon.

She ended up having to pull out Meowth who was unimpressed and annoyed at her.
Last time, she promised him.
She’d made the mistake of tucking away the higher levels so her littles could get some experience.
She wouldn’t do that again and, if he was willing to teach her Paras Flash, it would be the last time she pulled him out at all beyond feeding him.

He settled, grumbling.
Even so, she had the Mankey brat now and she was keeping him!

Chapter Text

She dropped all the mon off at the Pokecenter and reported the situation with those two guys fighting to the local Jenny as well as some tool being careless with whirlwinds and asked her to contact the Celadon City Jenny too as the Mt Moon exit was possibly damaged, then contacted Professor Larch and did the same.

It might be some time before she could get back but asked him anyway if he’d like some insect types since she was near Viridian Forest.

She also asked what he wanted to do with the Spearow. An entire flock might be too many… but Professor Larch looked eager.

She could have one if she wished. He’d take the rest and, yes, he’d like some insect Pokemon.
If she could manage it, three or four of the baby forms. The adult ones were a bit too dangerous to try for and the cocoon forms were usually guarded by the adults.

She shrugged. Okay then, will do and she doesn’t mind if he pays her the finders fees in installments. She knows his Lab isn’t overly flush.

He looked put out, but agreed. She had a point.

She wasn’t sure if that thing about strong Pokemon ignoring someone who leveled them up too much without a Badge was a thing, but it was probably better not to risk it.
She COULD go catch herself some water mon but she could probably manage this easily enough with the status changes her bell and bat could dish.
Clefairy had Sing, but no strong offensive moves so was no real use for this fight.

Since she was here anyway, she might as well try fighting Brock.

She wouldn’t say she romped it, because this wasn’t a game and the guy (it wasn’t Brock) was a lot tougher than he looked.
Still ground Pokemon but four instead of two and they were level twelve. Geodude, Graveler, Golem (and how had they managed THAT. She’d been pretty sure Golem wasn’t a natural evolution!) and Onyx.

She won by doing scratch damage and spamming the Poison and Sleep Powder, along with Absorb.
Still, a disgraceful win is still a win and, it seemed her first Badge would be a Major Gym Badge after all.

Oh well. Apparently, she could now use Cut… if she had a mon that could learn it.
Nice. She’d have Paras learn it once she tracked it down. It could use an attack move.

She used the money she’d made off fighting the miscellaneous Trainers in Mt Moon to top up her kit and ventured into the forest.

The Trainers weren’t very strong, all things considered, but it was good Battling experience for her babies.
Trapinch and Paras weren't very strong but Clefairy and Zubat made up for it.
Mankey, she could already tell, was going to be trouble. It was already something of a fight nut and that wasn’t what she needed in her mon. It attacked the Trainers mon very enthusiastically.

She made it through the forest with two or three Caterpie to show for it. The Weedle still had Beedril adults looking out for them. Even if they were low-level, she saw no reason to disturb them over something she could get elsewhere.

Out of curiosity, once she left the forest, she continued on.

Viridian City wasn’t very big, but it WAS an excellent place to grab some clean water Pokemon and she did have a rod bought in Gateway for this purpose.
It isn’t very strong, somewhere between and old rod and a good rod in durability, but it should let her catch a bunch of young Pokemon.
She can top up on balls too, since she’s got some cash on her now from the forest fights.
She also wants to top up on things like potions and ailment cures. Those Beedrill are mean and aggressive and there’s never just the one attacking.

She also wants to check if Pallet Town is there yet since she has nothing but her clunker of a Pokedex to go by for where she is in the timeline.
She knows Lavender Town hasn’t burned yet, because the tower is just a tower rather than a poke graveyard/ memorial.
Would Pallet town be there yet?

Anyway, she caught three Poliwag, a Slowpoke, two Goldeen, endless amounts of Magikarp and Feebas which she released again. Reconsidering, she kept eight of the Feebas. They didn’t have any of those around their island since they were freshwater fish and they were great for keeping water ways and ponds clear since they liked living in clean water.

She stayed overnight at the Poke center, leaving her newly caught in the Nurse Joy’s care.

She left late the next morning as it wasn’t far.

On the way through, she caught four Rattata, six Weedle and another two Caterpie.
Butterfree were damn useful so she was keeping one.

Pallet was there… just. It was only a couple of houses with more in the throws of construction. A couple of fields and roads being built.
There was no Poke Lab but she should have expected that.

She knew she was at least twenty years from Canon since the tower was still there, possibly even more, because Lavender Town and it’s tower were still intact.
It was very hard to judge though.

She skirted the town, heading for the beach.

Krabby, Horsea, Shellder and Magikarp there were by the dozens.
She caught three of each, even the Magikarp and considered it a job well done.
A Psyduck and a Staryu were the surprise catches of the day and almost broke her rod.

She’d have to hustle to make it back to Viridian before dark too.

She turned and headed back the way she came.
Another Ratatta, two more Weedle and a Caterpie larger than any she’d seen before were her haul. The colour was different as well. Okay, that one was hers now.

Another overnight at the Pokecenter and a quick call to Professor Larch to see if he wanted any more water Pokemon and she was done.

Two more of the marine types, except for Feebas, which he wants another four of and two more Poliwag, otherwise she’s good.
Should she get a chance for another Staryu, that would be excellent but he’s pretty pleased with her catches so far.

She'll return to the lab as soon as she can and he’s forwarded money for more balls until he can send her more lab balls.
He’ll send them to Pewter though and she agrees happily.

She buys two dozen more balls because you never know. Her luck’s been downright weird so far and better safe than sorry.

She passed through the forest relatively quickly, tripping over an entire cluster of Pikachu. There were a couple of Pichu too. They were adorable.

They were also unconscious and badly poisoned except for one or two that had been under the other’s bodies.

The Beedrill buzzing angrily weren’t happy to be interrupted, but a few sandstorms and damaging gusts saw them off.

She couldn’t do much for the ones that were on the top of the pile but she could stop the Beedrill from attacking these ones.

She caught the entire cluster of twenty-three and six of the adult Beedrill since she’d knocked them out.
She was beginning to run out of balls. She’d been given sixty of them to start with and she had twenty odd balls of her own but she’d been catching mon right and left.

She made haste to the Pokecenter and explained about the Pikachu and the Pichu, along with the adult Beedrill. If there was a Ranger and they could be, she’d like to return them to the hive. If not, she’d send them to the Lab.

For the Pikachu, she’d ask if any of them would like to go with her, but otherwise, she was happy to return them to the forest.

She’d only acted as she had because the Beedrill had turned violent on her… and it probably wasn’t good for them to thin out the entire Pikachu cluster.

Something was hinky there and Nurse Joy agreed.
She also has a delivery of a dozen lab balls for the young Trainer. Nice.

Anna’s Chansey, having been learning from the Center one, was ready to return to her too.

Of the Pikachu, one Pichu who saw her fight off the Beedrill and three Pikachu, likely it’s parents and a sibling, agreed to go with her.
The Beedrill, it seemed, could be returned to the hive, so there was that.

Two of the other Pikachu had permanent injuries that would make it hard for them to survive in the forest.
Anna asked if they’d like to become Lab Pokemon. They’d have some tests and stuff run on them but, aside from that, all they’d have to do is breed and some of the littles, when they grew up to be Pikachu, would go out into the world with a Trainer.
They agree.
They accompany her as she and the Ranger return to the forest and the Beedrill are set free, the ball they were caught in broken.

The Pikachu cluster are set down in a different part of the forest as the ranger still needed to find out what poisoned the cluster. It wasn’t just the Beedrill stings. They’d been poisoned before that.

The young Trainer was happy to leave that in the ranger’s hands. None of her business.
Still, she was nearly twenty balls down, which sucked.
Oh well. She’d buy thirty new ones. Hopefully, the lab would reimburse her for some of them.

One of the adult Beedrill was following her. It was an older one with a slightly damaged wing.
It followed to the edge of the forest where she coaxed it to her with some honey water and recaught it. Probably for the best.

There was a younger one that was clearly following the old boy. It looked newer somehow? Possibly newly evolved? It definitely wasn’t one of the ones she’d caught earlier…
Oh well, she caught that one too.
One for the lab, one for her.

Since she was in town and it wouldn’t hurt to try, she contacted Professor Larch and asked about the balls and also asked about the numbers she had.
She could let some go if he didn’t need all of them or if there were some he wanted more of.

The numbers were actually pretty good. She’d keep the Pichu and his other three family members, while the two damaged would go to the labs.
She could agree to that.

He forwarded her another fifty balls.
Aside from possibly some Mankey or Jigglypuff, which would be bonuses, she just needed to get her hands on some Ekans and female Nidoran but you never know and if she has a chance to fish again… well, he’d like clean versions of Seal and Tentacool if she can. Another Staryu would be useful too.

Doable and she agreed easily. She’ll do her best, but her rod’s getting pretty worn. It won’t last for much longer…

It took a bit for the balls to arrive, though he’d sent them express.
Meantime, she bought herself another forty regular balls, in case she found another ridiculous situation like the Pikachu one.

Chapter Text

Once the balls arrived, there was no more reason to stay so, back towards Mount Moon she went. She got a Fly H.M. on the way through, so that was cool.

A single female Nidoran as well, but that was okay.

Someone on their Pokejouney, a guy called Sammy Oak, who was enthused about Pokemon, ALL Pokemon, was willing to trade one of his female Nido's for a male. He had three females.
She trades happily and eagerly.
Nice. This should make Professor Larch very happy indeed.

She finds a second Pichu in her backpack. It’s been hiding since after the attack, too scared to come out, even though it was very hungry.

It’s an orphan now but Sammy Oak is able to charm it easily and soon has it eating out of his hand, literally.
The little creature agrees to go with him.

He gives the young Trainer a second female Nidoran and the two of them go their separate ways…they exchanged numbers though.
He’ll be someone in the future, she’s sure!

Wait. FUCK. Was, was that a kid Professor Oak?!
Huh. Well, what do you know. That’d put her roughly forty-odd years pre original game.
He looks older than a first year Journeyer. Maybe twelve or thirteen… or he could just be big.
She’s not quite sure what to do with that knowledge.

She doesn't need anymore Pokemon from this area.
Mount Moon either so she avoids most fights… well, except for that second Jigglypuff she found already knocked out.

There was an Ekans near it. That was weird. They weren’t native to this area.

She captured both with lab balls because why not and Ekans was on the desirable list.

There are more knocked-out Pokemon including bodgies that shouldn’t be in this area.

An Abra for instance why would someone leave that?
A Charmander, another Ekans and a Butterfree. (It has a broken pokeball near it… was it abandoned? Well, shit. Better grab that too. Whoever it once belonged too needed to be tracked down.)
Had some Pokemon thief’s bag sprung a leak?

She caught all four with lab balls.

Something is hinky here and the lab balls aren’t registered and won’t be until they reach the lab.
That meant if she needed too she could open the ball and recapture the Pokemon with one of her own later. Was it dodgy? Yeah, but she REALLY wanted those mon.

There were a couple she didn’t recognise either.
One looks like a bell with streamers, another like a set of keys and then there’s this weird pig head on a spring. Non Kanto Pokemon sure got bizarre.

She caught the obvious bodgies (well, not the bell or the keys, those were interesting) with her own balls because they were probably going to be impounded and the ones in lab balls could be switched to yours at a later date.
Still, she keeps collecting because this can’t be good.
Maybe someone was looking for something specific?

Two more Mankey go into the lab balls - they were on the list, some sort of fur covered piglet… there were three of them.
A Rhyhorn… that one she recognises and a Kangaskhan.
DRATINI. A pair of them and a Lapras too!

There were some plant and bug type Pokemon that were also not local to this area but Kanto Pokemon.
Oddish and Bellsprout, Magnamite, Venonat, Scyther and Pinsir and she lab balled those because she was undecided.

Then, there were the ones that were DEFINITELY not from this region.
Joltik, Spinorak and Ledyba, for instance. That little pink worm was definitely some sort of caterpillar too.

Oh, my this was a Pokemon bonanza.
Into the lab balls they all went.

The piglets went into hers though, even if she was tempted.

A scattering of unfamiliar fish/ water Pokemon, all obviously struggling.
She pokeballed them all because she didn’t really recognise any of them and they were weird looking.

There were some that she thought were ghosts, but wasn’t sure.
She thought she recognised Sableye - a purple humanoid with jewels for eyes, Duskull - looks like a grey/black sheet gathered at the base with a stylized white skull from the upper jaw up and glowing red eyes, something that looks like a small purple balloon, with a white speech bubble on it’s head, two dangly ‘cords’ with yellow, upside down ‘hearts’ on the ends and something like a cross tape in a yellow that matched the ‘hearts’ between the two black dots for eyes - Driff something? (Drifloon. It was cute. Lab ball it was. What, she was a preteen little girl. She was allowed to like cute things.)

There were three blue jellyfish like things that all looked sort of dead (Jellicent).
She lab balled all three because there was something off about them.

Nearby were an encrusted anchor (Dhelmise), a couple of piles of sand with red spades in the top (Sandygast) except for one with a green spade.
They were big but she lab balled them anyway. There was another of those jellyfish, only pink. (lab ball… she’d decide on it later.)

A pile of five things that looked like black comma’s with arms; three with a gold mask held in the bottom of the comma that curled under to hold it and two with what looked like a bit of wall from some ruin, complete with partial pictograph (Yamask), a small pile of triangular black somethings, with round black balls for feet and hands, that looked like they were wearing a yellow, orange lined hoody/ coat (Snorunt), more of those pig head springs (she decided from here on out to grab at least two of each kind, if there were that many, for the Lab even if she didn’t want them) mixed in.

There's a little person made of shadows that’s VERY interesting and she definitely want that. (Marshadow.) It’s cute.

Four things that looked like a cross between sea slug and turtle, three blue and one (lab balls. They’re sort of ugly cute), a weird looking white bug with stubby red wings (Nincada), something that looked like a red ball with white ringed holes irregularly over it… actually, she recognised that one. Shuckle right? Well, she thought so. Not much of a fighter, but it could make some very tasty and healthy juices. Lab could definitely use one of those…

Two Seal, a Bulbsaur and a Mankey led her to the next major pile.

Something that looks like a hermit crab (Dwebble), two somethings that look like crayfish (Corphish), something that looks half ghost/ half candlestick (Litwik), a Squirtle and a very cute looking squid that was NOT doing well out of the water (Inkay. She thought she’d keep that one if she could. Lab ball)

A little further along was a big, tangled pile that looked like a bunch had fallen or been dumped at once. Like the hole in the bag had ripped more or it had been jolted badly.

From the bits she could see, there something that looked like a white ball with a horn, a tail and limbs (Cetoddle), something that looked like an octopus with boxing gloves for limbs (definitely not native to Kanto… so weird. Clobberpus), a trio of fish types she didn’t recognize, two she did (she was keeping both the off colour Magikarp AND big Feebas, along with the little candle ghost. It was cute), something under a costume (she left the costume alone but it went into a lab ball. If she was right, that was a Mimikyu and one of her favourite Pokemon, even though it’s move set was pretty not great. She just liked them. No WAY was she letting this chance slide!), Miltank she also recognised, another two Eevee, a Tentacool and jumble of babymon including Igglybuff, Cleffa, Pichu, something that looked like a toddler with a pink ring for a mouth (Smoochum)… was that a Happiny, the baby form of Chansey?

A couple more she could only see parts of under them pile: she pulled them out and lab balled them anyway. They really didn’t look so good and she wasn’t sure what they were.

Two things that looked to be different species but were both baby elephant shaped. (Cufant and Phanpy. They were sort of cute but probably big eaters and she couldn’t afford that yet. To the Lab with them.)
There’s two somethings that look like stone eyeballs with feet and top knot (Roggenrola), a dog seemingly made out of bread (Fidough), another with a candle on it’s head (she was very tempted… but put it on the egg list pile for now), a pink bird Pokemon that looked like a flamingo (Flamigo) and a very fluffy looking bat that she was eyeing with interest (Woobat) and then… oh.

There’s a pair of corpses.
Very familiar corpses too.
These were the two who had been brawling at the Mount Moon entrance on the other side of the mountain.

One with a sack next to him was pretty scruffy looking and one who’d likely been fighting him, but had been stabbed point blank.

Sack person had froth around his mouth, very obviously poisoned and equally obvious sting marks at his throat.

The two look very familiar, though the bum didn’t have that red symbol on him before and the other guys ‘cliche detective outfit’ hat and coat were torn up pretty badly.
There were two pokeballs laying in grass near him. Both were badly scuffed.

She picked them up gingerly but she didn’t know enough to know whether the scuffing would effect the balls or not. She could only take them with her and hand them over to Nurse Joy.

Then she noticed there was some sort of blue scorpion sitting on the bum’s chest.
It was stirring but wasn’t fully awake yet.

He also has four actual pokeballs scattered around him and she picks them up.
(One of them feels weird and looks odd. Old, like that pokeball from the bell tower. This one she’s taking to Professor Larch directly. It’s got a weird vibe to it!)

AFTER she catches the scorpion thing of course and then picked up the sack, checking it over.
Yep, it has several holes in it and it was just bad luck that the balls looked to be some sort of cheap knock-off.
Falling had broken them?
She hadn’t even known that was possible. Weren't Pokeballs monitored and restricted?!

Looks like she’s going back to Pewter City. Jenny and the Rangers need to know about this. It likely explained the Pikachu situation too.

On the way back she takes her time and looks around carefully.

She finds a few dozen more dodgy balls that fell but didn’t break.

She opens them to check their contents and, if it’s something she wants, catches it with a lab ball. If it’s not or if it’s something she doesn’t recognise but has seen two of previously and lab balled, she either puts it back into the fake ball or catches it with one of her balls.

This nets her a Gastly, a Goldeen, a Staryu, a Bulbasaur, a Cubone, a Doduo, a Vulpix, a TRIO of Eevee and a vaguely familiar insect type. She thinks it’s called a Yanma?
She’s not sure if it’s the one she’s thinking of as she’s most familiar with Kanto main and the Orange Islands Pokemon. Oh well, if she’s misremembering, it can always go to the Lab.

She doesn’t trust the shady balls at all, but she’s only got so many of her own.

The best thing she can do is get back to Pewter as quickly as she can… which isn’t very.
The sack has dozens of dodgy balls so she has to move as slowly and carefully as she possible, occasionally fighting off wild Pokemon.
(She may, or may not have snagged another female Nidoran. Virtually no males out this time around but at least the Professor had his choice and to spare now.)

Her battered Beedrill is good at finding the dodgy and back-tracking on their trail, so soon the sack has three dozen more on top of that… and she finds the remains of a hand cart.

No balls in it but she does find an emblem she doesn't recognise and there’s a shelf under the cart where there’s another sack, similar to the one the balls are in but empty.

She takes the balls of the holey sack out carefully, using her spread-out bedroll as padding so that nothing bumps them as she sorts.
Obviously, broken balls go to the side, while the more intact ones go to the other.

She uses the old sack to put more padding in the new one.
Balls in decent condition go down the very bottom, a layer of old sack between them and the new one.

Then a second layer of old sack and another layer of okay balls.

When she starts getting to the less okay balls, they’re more carefully wrapped rather than put between layers.

She gets through about six layers of those before coming to more broken balls. These ones are holding on but the next time they open, they’ll break.
Each ball is as carefully wrapped as she can manage (she’s running out of old sack).

Lastly, there’s a pile of ‘one wrong jolt and they’ll break’ balls… and there’s over two dozen of these.
She has to carefully open each ball and either lab ball it or pokeball it.

Most of them are pokeballed though if she’s on the edge of whether to keep it or not it goes into a lab ball.

So far, it’s been three Poochyena, two Houndour and a pair of Growlithe.
A Skitty and a Purrloin too. (What? She liked the puppy and kitty mon okay? Most of them were cute!)

There was a quartet of bird Pokemon, only one of which she sort of recognized. It was called Taillow she thought.
The other three were all tiny birds but she wasn’t sure what they were. One looked sort of like a Starling (Starly), another looked like a Dove (Pidove) and the last like a Robin (Fletchling).
There was a crow-looking bird she thought was sort of familiar too. Murkrow or something? Anyway, there were two of those and a Horsea.
She was running short of lab balls…

At least the other ten had gone into her pokeballs.

One ball broke on the way, releasing an obviously very young Ponyta. She lab balled it.
She caught another Mankey to make up the numbers.

Three more broke on the way and, rather than find replacement mon, she just stomped the balls to shards, burying them in the dirt.
Three more Gastly?
Okay. She was sure she could find a use for them, even give a couple to the lab.
Another of those little shadow people two. Lab ball!

Despite her best efforts, two more broke, one just as she was entering and she had to stop and pokeball them.
That was fine, they were a Seal and a Tentacool.

She’d been as careful as she could but balls had broken even so.

She headed straight to the Pokecenter and asked for the local Jenny and the Rangers to be contacted.
She has found what was obviously a Pokemon Trafficker and likely a poacher too… well, the corpse of one and many, many strange Pokemon in knock-off balls.
This is WAY too big for her.
She caught the ones from the broken balls, when they fell out of the sack because a lot of them aren’t native to this area and some she didn’t even recognise. Even her Pokedex didn’t know!
The rest need to be gotten into proper balls asap and there’s a LOT.
Who knew what these knock-off balls were doing to them… every Pokemon she found from a broken ball had been unconscious!
She hands the entire mess and the balls she used to catch the unconscious mon from the broken balls.

Joy told her it was a good thing she hadn’t tried to open any but the damaged balls because they could only be opened once or twice before they broke.
They weren’t actual pokeballs. They were just for transporting the Pokemon.
They didn’t even hold them in stasis properly and could be actively harming them.
(It was lucky the not poke balls broke so easily. A few stomps and no one knew exactly how many balls there had been, they were in such tiny pieces.)

The young Trainer knew she should feel guilty… but she’s not at all.
There’s probably no other way she’d be able to get some of those mon.
Honestly, she kind of wishes she’d gone through the rest of the bag… well, she had but only to look for broken balls and most of those were odd bods.
(There were another four ghosts she kept. One that looks like a stump, one looked like a pumpkin and one looked like a bramble, but the cheeky Misdreavus she recognised.
She may or may not have picked up a Tangler as well and a definitely water based something that looked like a clump of seaweed.)

She’d brought in the broken pokeball as well, which was likely the Butterfree’s since everything else was in baby form. She knew pokeballs were registered so maybe it would help?

She'd been perfectly happy to guide the Rangers and Officer Jenny back, just in case she missed any.
She hadn’t touched the bodies either, in case she disturbed something the Officer or the rangers could use though she did pick up their pokeballs from where they’d fallen in the grass because she didn’t want anything to happen to them.

She handed over the five balls with Mon in them easily too.

She was a bit worried because the balls were kind of scuffed up.
She’d found one broken ball too, so she’s guessing the poisoned guy abandoned one of his mon to make room for something else.

She has a Meowth that was a pet and found in bad condition.

They think something happened to his master and he didn’t react well on awakening in the Pokecenter without him.
She’d hate to be the one having to deal with more like that and didn’t envy Nurse Joy at all!

They set out immediately, despite it being late in the day now.

Officer Jenny has a Growlithe which is able to scare off most of the local wild Pokemon.
(The young Trainer makes note of that. Roar is excellent for not having to bother fighting off local Pokemon. She was pretty sure she had a bunch of doggos in there somewhere if she’s forgotten to buy or run out of Repels.)

The Rangers Pokemon were scouting to either side but she’d gotten most of them.
There were only three balls she’d missed.

Those bodies were still there, definitely dead and it was obvious Officer Jenny recognised that symbol. Her face went grim. The corpse was just the final proof.

They’d need a team for this and the young Trainer is encouraged not to leave town while they investigate.

The second corpse the recognised too.

It’s a private investigator with a grudge against the organisation the poacher/ trafficker belonged to. They’re a problem across nearly all of the regions.
The rich and bored don’t care where their new exotic pet comes from as long as they get it in the end.
It’s a real mess.

At least the young Trainer hadn’t messed with the scene and come back to get the authorities as soon as she could.

Now that they’ve secured the area, they don’t need her and she’s allowed to leave.

She goes to the Pokemon Center and falls over for a bit. It’s been a LONG day. Her first dead bodies of this life too, even if she didn’t kill them.

Chapter Text

Three weeks she’s cooling her heels, but the fact she was willing to hand over the pokeballs with the non-regional Pokemon in them without objecting and the knowledge she helped out previously with the Pikachu situation… likely caused by the same man, stands for her and they eventually let her go.

Jenny also informs her of the fate of Meowth’s owner.

They have word from Lavender Town.
The police have dredged his body out of the straight where he was hastily dumped.
(That wasn’t very smart as the little straight of water between the mainland and the range doesn’t go anywhere so the tides couldn’t wash the body away… )
His other Pokemon are missing.
He’d been a disabled middle-aged man who owned a strip of four shops and lived off the rent. A flower store, a pet store, a cafe and a second hand book shop. He had an amicable relationship with his tenants, so there was nothing there.
He’d had no close family, no lover, no real enemies being a mild-mannered sort. Just a man living quietly with his mon for company.

They weren’t sure if it was related to the Traffickers or simply a target of convenience but, as the man had no other family, his wealth had been deeded to the care of his Pokemon… of which only Meowth remained, while the stores were made available for the tenants to buy outright.
The money would, once again, go to his Meowth.

It was looking more and more like he’d been a target of convenience, but, despite being independently wealthy now, Meowth had nowhere else to go.

Meowth is desperately unhappy and probably needs a place to break down in so his trainer prepares to leave… finally!
She’s had more than enough of this place already even if she’s made a bit of money off the local Trainers and her mon have gained another four levels.

To compensate her for the trouble they even fly her to Lavender Town so she can skip the whole Cave thing again.

She would have preferred Cerulean City but oh well.

They stop in the wilds for a bit… though NOT near where they found Meowth.
She went through Lavender Town to the other side.

She asks what he would like to do. He’s independently wealthy now and fully
intelligent enough to make his wishes clear. If he wants, rather than the lab, she’ll set him up in his own little place somewhere with some female kitty mon and a carer and groomer…

He doesn’t know WHAT he wants to do, he just wants to be far away from here for a while and not have to think too much.

She’ll take him to the lab and see how he likes that.
If he doesn’t, they’ll try something else.
Even though it’s not fair, he’s her mon now, until or unless he decides otherwise.

With that sorted, as much as it can be, she heads straight for the Gateway Bridge.
While she feels a bit jittery with all the mon she has on her, earning herself some more money and her mon more level-up opportunities couldn’t hurt.
Trapinch was, sadly, still only fighting wild mon for experience.

Her haul was decent but her avarice has gotten the best of her and she knows it.

The longer she has all those mon in Lab balls, the more on edge she feels.
Like a bank robber, she couldn’t just show up with them all at once, or she’d tip off the authorities.
She’d have to be careful and ‘acquire’ her new Pokemon slowly - most likely through ‘trading’.

She also had to decide on which ones to keep.

She was wavering on both the Rhyhorn and the Kangaskhan. It was the rarity of them that was drawing her though. She didn’t actually need them.

She was keeping the Abra. Those little bitches were hell to try and catch in the wild. Honestly, she wished there’d been more.

With two Dratini she’d keep one and the lab could have the other.
The Lapras she was keeping too.

Joltik she wasn’t sure on, Spinarak she was possibly keeping (she might be getting it confused with another mon) and Ledyba, could go to the lab.

The pink worm/caterpillar she was keeping because curious.

The Seal could go to the lab, the ghost candlestick she was keeping along with the big, off-colour MagiKarp but she was wavering on the big Feebas.
Mimikyu was definitely a keeper and so was that set of keys mon and Miltank she was wavering on. They were damned useful on a Pokemon Journey but how would she explain it?

Gastly she was keeping but the Goldeen and the Staryu could go to the labs.

She had at least one of each of the official Starter trio now and she was willing to cut a deal with Professor Larch. So long as he would give her an egg from them, the Bulbasaur, the Squirtle and the Charmander could go to the lab. The same for the other two Eevee, the Poochyena, the Houndour and the Growlithe.

She was tempted by the Skitty and the Purrloin but they’d likely be more trouble than they’re worth to keep. No matter how cute.

The Murkrow pair she didn’t need or the Horsea. She could catch one of those for herself.

She wanted to keep the tiny birds though. They were super cute and probably her only chance to have one.

The Oddish and the Bellsprout could go to the lab.

She was wavering on the Cubone but the Tangler could go.

She didn’t need the Ekans or the adult Butterfree either. She wanted to work with her babies.

The Venonat she was wavering on, but the Scyther and the Pinsir could likely go. They were rare but she did want to keep a lower profile.
(She thought the Butterfree with the broken ball had been one of the Trafficker's own mon. Everything else was baby form. It had signs of battle on it and wasn’t in good condition otherwise. It was likely he’d just abandoned it when it fainted. What an arsehole.)

She’s wavering on the Vulpix. It's super cute and a strong fire type but the Doduo and the Ponyta she’s keeping so it might be surplus.

The seaweed looking seahorse she was wavering on too.

Most of the other ghosts, except for the not a balloon, the little shadow person and one of the sand piles could go.

She was keeping a jellyfish type one in each colour and the same for the not sea slugs. Probably one of the little crayfish as well.
If she remembered rightly, they were their Region's answer to Feebas, only pollution didn’t bother them. They still cleaned up the water though and that’d be useful for so that any water-based mon she had with her that were more delicate wouldn't’ be troubled.

The Shuckle could go to the Lab. She’d have an egg when she could.

She wondered if she should bother checking Bill’s place.
In the games, you could get a ticket for the S.S.Anne there but did that even run yet?
Well, she’d find out later… especially since she heard of a rumour of a minor Gym there.

She’d done her Rite of Passage on the Bridge already, so, unless she needed more money, there was no need to do it again… besides, no one said you had to do it all in one go or go all the way across if you didn’t want too.
She thought it’d be nice just to be able to go out to one of the look-outs and just take in the sight of the open water…

She unapologetically took the bus.

She stopped in Gateway and did actually trade a few mon.
Ghosts were hard to catch and she had five of them.
That could explain away her Miltank and the Ponyta.
(She now had a Dewgong and something called a Chinchou which was basically a little blob with two tendrils that had lights on the end coming out to the top. That one she’d keep.)
Gateway had tourists from literally all over.

She waits in Gateway for two days, battling to level up her babies, even Trapinch since people had seen her trading and it wouldn’t be to strange to have one.
Neither MagiKarp nor the Feebas were brought out for the experience. She wants the illicit ones checked out properly first.

Weedle and Catapie level up pretty fast and are soon at the cocoon stage.
Pidgeotto and Sandshrew are still doing most of the work but that is fine.
Diglett has stopped advancing so fast but that’s okay. There’s no rush.
The Trainer fights were exactly what Trapinch needed and she’s leveling quickly.
Mankey, is of course, a fight nut.
Anna’s really not fond of Fighting Types though they have their uses. If only she could find one of the zen, tranquil, serene sorts rather than the down and dirty fighters… They usually had expectations of rising to the top and that was NOT her goal.

It hasn’t even been a full two weeks yet. Honestly.
The School Bus isn’t running properly yet and, while she’s getting a bit antsy, it’s nearly rest day, when it runs anyway.

She calls the lab to let them know she’s in the area and Professor Larch sends a code to her Pokedex. It’s authorisation for the Food Waste crew to give her a lift as she’s headed for the lab. He must want her there NOW, soonest even rather than wait the day or two.

Well, okay then. She’d planned to spend a bit of time doing some sketching but if this needed dealing with NOW…

She made her way to the depo where they pick stuff up from (she should know where it is for future reference), flashed her Pokedex with the code and climbed aboard. She still has the clothes of a lab worker, so she won’t draw attention.

She doesn’t get out beyond stretching her legs and toilet stops in the Petrol stations.
She’s not used to the heat anymore, but at least the truck has air conditioning. It would be unbearable if it didn’t and the bins smell bad enough as it is.

On arrival, she gives the gents a tip for the ride and then heads inside.

As she figured, Professor Larch is as ‘practical’ as she is.
He might not commission such a thing but he’s not going to turn down a windfall like this either.

She’s made good on their deal and brought back Mon he would never have a chance at otherwise.
There had been over a hundred more, likely from all across the regions, but he wouldn’t have a good explanation as to how they turned up.

Actually, yes he would.
That Trapinch she caught? That had been the tip of a large rock, sticking out of the sand.
He had three dozen exotic and less mon to care for now, because this was a Poke Lab and there was nowhere else to send them.
Her odd bods would blend since he could just say he found another cache. They’d been similar balls too so not even the symptoms would give it away.
He’ll take all she cares to give but he’s willing to make deals on the others.

If she’s willing to leave most of the odd bods in his care, she can take the Starter Trio with her, once they’ve been health checked.

With the tiny birds and the ghosts and the few other odd bods she’s earmarked, she has more than enough for several full teams… There’s a few more Kanto types she wants to catch too.

Professor Larch offers her the chance to be something like a field agent.

It wasn’t what she’d planned for, but it was steady work and money.

Once she’d raised them up to breeding age, the Starter Trio could come back for a bit to do stud duty but he’s pretty happy with the rest of her haul too, even Meowth. It will be easy enough to keep the kitty slightly doped up and drowsy so he can be properly examined and bred.
(She did NOT tell him about Meowth’s funds and he’s still officially her Pokemon, which he’d asked to stay and she’d agreed to.)

The two Eevee and the Dratini are priceless. The Pikachu are useful too.
(Her Pichu was apparently VERY persuasive as he got his family to stay with the others she brought back, making their own little cluster.)

The young Beedrill is a bit distraught to be staying behind until they give her the Weedle to care for.
(Anna releases Beedrill to keep her company while they’re here.)
That one will officially remain one of her mon too.

Professor Larch is near giddy. He’s going to need to hire more assistants!
With this, he can get so many more government grants! His Lab might not be flush now but it won’t be dirt-poor anymore either!

Talking it over, the non local ghostly sextet are registered to her, but he only takes two of the Gastly.
Although they are registered to the lab, she now has a stash of Pokemon specifically for trading purposes. The results will come back to the lab but she is to battle with and train them up.

She can live with that.

Meowth might not be happy right now, but he’s glad not to be fighting anymore. He was a PET, hatched and bred for it. Fighting is just NOT him.
He’s a lab Pokemon now and looking forward to it. They even have two new, exotic cats to match him with if he’s interested.
The Skitty and the Purrloin were both female.

The Seahorse looking thing, which was apparently a Skrelp, she’s leaving in the lab’s care.
She’d just taken it because it looked interesting.
She’s keeping two Jellies or rather Jellicent, the two not sea slugs or Shellos and the shellfish shaped Corphish.

The Yanma and the Spinarak as well. The Yanma did have a way to evolve, she vaguely remembered, but she had no idea how and the Spinarak was more an industry Pokemon than a fighting one. Their silk was prized for making fine silk wares.

Even if she had a good idea about how to do the Eeveelutions. Some of them couldn’t be done here as they didn’t have the right stones but she could give ideas for the ones that could.
The various dog Pokemon as well.
She could give Professor Larch a direction to look in anyway.

Her main team has the Pidgey, the Sandshrew, Mankey, Pichu , Clefairy and the Diglett. (Team Normal)

The alternate team has Eevee, Ponyta, Vulpix, Chansey, Gastly and Dratini. (Team Special)

Alternate team two has the starter trio, Cubone, Doduo and her Beedrill adult. (Team Ad hoc)

Alternate team three had the tiny bird quartet, Trapinch, Mimikyu. (Team Non Kanto)

Alternate team four had the insect trio, Magikarp, Paras and Abra. Team Non Combat)

Then, there was the ghostly Sextet. (Team Spooky)

Alternate team five or Team Marine had Lapras, the boxerpus or Clobberpus, the jellies or Jellicent and the not sea slugs or Shellmo.

Marine team two had the cute squid or Inkay and her traded water mon Chinchou.

Lastly, there was her Feebas… was she missing some? She felt like she was missing some… Oh, yeah! The Miltank, the Woobat, the Drifloon and the Joltik as the Professor said he’d get better funding if it was Trainer-owned rather than lab-owned and her little key guy (Klefki).
That was pretty much another team right there.

Key guy is staying, for now and for much the same reasons as the non Kanto ghosties and, while she’s curious about the little shock bug, she doesn’t need it right now and it’d draw too much attention.

Since her Feebas couldn’t evolve without A, feeling beautiful, or B, a Prism Scale. She was fine with leaving him here too.
A Feebas or two in the berry orchid ponds would do wonders for the water quality and she didn’t think anyone else knew how to evolve them.

She did tell Professor Larch though. Money issues were no joke and Prism Scales sold for small fortunes.
The water parts of the Poke Lab were underground and specially lined to avoid contamination. It was like a grotto, the sun outside filtered carefully to make it’s impact less.

With the Miltank, she was willing to wait on an egg, so long as this Miltank’s milk was spread about, the orphans and the shanty kids in particular needed it… actually she had a list of eggs that she wanted one of in the future. The Kangaskhan and the Rhyhorn were on that list.
She’d also been promised eggs for the dog-type Pokemon, including the Eevee.
For the cats as well AND she had an upgraded rod.

For Spearow… she was wavering. Wild Spearow were flock birds and it would be a pain in the rear to catch a wild one, rather than a Spearow raised from the egg.

In the tradable collection she had a second Abra, a Poliwhirl, a Gastly, the Butterfree, a Parasect, an Onyx, a Taurus, another Diglett, a Seal, a Staryu and a couple of Goldeen.

She also had a hundred lab balls and a new list of lab wants.
Volturb, Koffing - if she should come upon one.
More Eevee, always.
Far Fetch’d, Ditto… as many as possible.
A Drowzee, two if possible, some Exeggcute if it can be done safely and some Magnamite.
Lickitongue or Jynx (BUGGER. The kiddy version doesn’t count apparently) would be acceptable, if only for study purposes… If she should come across non Kanto specific Pokemon, he’d take any and all she can bring him, even if many of them would be registered under her name.

She stayed long enough for her Assistant paperwork to come through and to get to know her mon a bit before she left.

She still had the stash of lab balls but now the auto transfer system for her would be turned back on.
Anything ‘interesting’ she’d need to stash in the lab balls which she was required to return manually.

Incidentally, he handed her a sheaf of papers, that had all the research he'd managed to do so far out of the Encyclopedia set and her two super old books.
She’d actually done a pretty good translation of what she’d gotten through so far, and she’d left her notes in the lab.

He was quite impressed and put the translation his minions had come up with and her translation along side eachother so she could compare.
The lab one was more accurate but they had more resources to lean on.
She’d done excellently for her lack of age and experience.

The book on the stars had the information copied but the original sent to the Gateway Library for assessment, along with the leaflet of knots.

The Library wanted to buy both. He was just waiting on her go ahead, which she gave cheerfully and easily. More money was always nice.

She was surprised he’d remembered. Pleased, but surprised.
This was working out nicely.

Chapter Text

Now that she has her paperwork all set up, she catches a lift the School Bus on it’s rest day run and back into Gateway.

She’s tempted to stay in Shafts or Produce for a bit but no, she has her plan, time to get out there and do it.
She has a limited amount of time to find the Minor Gyms and beat them. She can relax WHEN she has enough for the League Conference. Not before.
Meantime, she’s going to level up her mon and go off the beaten track.
She might fight at the main Gyms, she might not. It’s not important to her unless it limits her from being able to use needed T.M.s.

She hadn’t played the games past Crystal or watched the cartoon beyond the Orange Islands.
Thieving and holding things and Z moves and… yeah, she had NO idea about any of that. Disposition either. Why did they have to complicate things like that…
Even the Eeveelutions were mostly unknown beyond the main three and half of the stones weren’t known of.
Fairy wasn’t an acknowledged type yet and no one knew how they evolved.
Friendship evolutions weren’t known of either.

Hmmmm.
Well, not her problem.

At least there was no need to visit a probably empty Cottage for a ticket, if it existed yet and her questions about the cruise ship were answered.
Professor Larch had simply handed over a ticket for the S.S. Beth and mentioned that he had a couple of associates who could use a few errands run for them in exchange for useful things.
She had a list of names…

Back in Gateway, before she wandered off she dithered a bit as to what to do next. It was all very well to go ‘Imma fight me some minor Gym’s yo!’ You had to find the damn things first! Unlike the Major Gym’s which were in most major towns in Kanto, the Minor ones were all off in obscure corners and tiny towns and hamlets.

While she was thinking about what to do she contemplated doing some touristy things, but even with her current funds, she didn’t have the money for most of it. That and she was supposed to be on her Pokemon Journey™, not blowing time and money on tourist stuff… meh, screw that. She would if she wanted too, even if she couldn’t afford to do most of it.

She takes the Pokemon coach tour around the city while she’s thinking things over, because ‘why not?’
She thinks better when she has pretty surroundings.
Even on those incarnations where she hadn’t been artsy or hadn’t had a chance to indulge, she surrounded herself with beauty wherever she could.

Still unable to decide a direction and because she needed a break, she decided to take the tour boat to give herself extra thinking time and/ or a chance to put it aside for a little bit and hopefully pick it up with fresh eyes later.
Looking at beauty was good for that and it was basically like an extended version of the coach tour… only taking all day and around the entire island.
She’d never seen the outside of the Circuit Towns island and she was curious.

She SHOULD go to the Poke Center to activate the transfer system… but she didn’t want to.
She had Team Normal, Team Special and Team Non Com currently on her.
She LIKED being able to switch them around at will even if it meant she needed triple the amount of food…

No matter.
She settled in to enjoy the ride.
It was a pity she couldn’t let her mon out. They would have enjoyed this a lot too.

Maybe she’d go to Produce in the future and hire a boat and driver to take her mon around the island. Or basically follow in the Tour Boats wake? Her mon deserved some fun too right?
Or if the S.S. Beth was anything like the S.S. Anne, her mon would be able to come out and enjoy themselves, even when they weren’t in battle.
That was for the future though.
Right now, she needed to stay in the present.

They stopped on the little touristy islets on the way out of the bay.
These were always stopped at, no matter what the weather so the tourists always had something to bring back to show for their trip.
The same with islands and the fake islets on the otherside on the way through or back, depending on the direction the boat was going this time around.

She hadn’t known that but it made sense she s’posed.

They were interesting with a lot of gacha style and side show mini games.
Not something a young Trainer would normally see since the few casinos in the Tourist Sector were age-restricted. No one under eighteen got in there, Pokemon Journey or not and you had to prove your age just to get on the barge for it.

She was a bit surprised as to why they were out on islands that floated around, close to the Tourist Sector rather than out in Middle Town with the rest of the ‘Adult Entertainment’ but who was she to question? Maybe the Japanese attitude towards such had carried over in that it wasn’t something you advertised.
Or maybe it was something like the Race Festivals where it was parcelled out to a different town to handle?

Anyway, none of her business and not her problem. These games were as near as she’d want to come anyway.

There’s no battling on these islands.
Just games to play, attractions to look at, food and drink to buy and eat and so on and she quite like that.
With Gacha games, except for those bloody rigged claw games, you always got something, even if it wasn’t what you wanted.

People, outside of the staff, don’t normally live there but there was accommodation on one of the larger islets to cater to water market goers who wanted to stay overnight.
It wasn’t big, being able to house no more than thirty people but it did have a small camping ground that could house another twenty small tents but it was enough since most people went back to the main island for the night after the market shut down at ten.

There were five islets on one side and two actual islets with four or so man-made rafts on the other, serving the same purpose.

The distance between the islets/ artificial islets was narrow enough that a person could boat from one to another inside of half an hour and they were all easily visible from each other, nestled in and around the outer edges of the island’s harbour.

These islets main draw is the Water Market which is set up in the narrow channels between the islets/ fake islets.
It was a major tourist draw and there were regular runs from the main island to visit it.

The Tour Boats only drop people off or stop at the outside edges so they won’t interfere with this, even on days it’s not on.
It was a taster so that the people would be interested enough to come out here and spend a day, or two or three, looking through the goods.

The market looked chaotic but there is an order of a sort and rough maps are available for purchase. Even a guide if a person is willing to shell out.
Temporary floating walkways are set up between the islands with small skiffs, junks and rafts of goods spread out along them. It’s possible to walk from one island to another but only if a person is athletic enough to try hopping from boat to boat and catch a lift across the center way which is kept clear so boats wishing to leave can do so.

It runs from eight in the morning until ten at night, ran for three days, with a three-day break between for clean up, set up and paperwork to be sorted.

While the market was on, there were guards with water-based mon to keep any native Pokemon from causing problems as well as fliers to deal with issues like pickpockets and other thieves as well as keeping the tourists from getting themselves in trouble due to ‘dumb tourist doesn’t listen’ syndrome.

She, of course, had never been.
Never even really heard of it but it would be a great place to come back and explore sometime.
She took information leaflets and a map of it though (no, she didn’t pay. Simply picked up one someone had dropped. She had no shame) though for future reference and bought herself some snacks while she looked around.
She REALLY wanted to sketch this. The noise, the movement, the life, the colour…
She settled for taking a reference snap for later. It wasn't the full Market experience as that was on the other set of islets right now, but this was a good toe in the water. She didn't really like noisy, crowded places but maybe if she did more things like this first? Kind of like immersion desensitising? Worth a try anyway.

Huh, apparently, on the days it wasn’t being held on this side of the harbour, it was being held on the other so people got a chance to visit either coming or going on the round-the-island Tourist Boat. It would take a bit of pressure off the people on this side of the bay too and give them a bit of recovery time.

It showed quite a bit of devotion to get here for the sellers, since the beach turned into rock that wasn’t easy to negotiate on the outer edge, so they had an hour or two’s paddle from the market docks to get there… unless they were Pokemon assisted of course. Most people couldn’t afford something like an outboard engine, but having your boat pushed or tugged by a marine mon was entirely doable.

She didn’t know which way it was going to run as, knowing it existed didn’t mean you kept track of the details unless it directly effected you.

It seemed they’re going along the cliffside this time, towards Fisher first.
The other side had the unstable grounds… and they'd hit the Water Market on the way back.

Okay then.
She was pretty content having won a bit on the islets so it was already a good day.
She’d actually won a Pokemon and some other odds and sods from one of the Gacha machines though she hadn’t looked through the capsules yet…

She was glad that, old as it was, her Pokedex had a camera because the cliff side was very dramatic… it sort of rendered her art class efforts wasted time but eh.
She couldn’t have known and, as much struggle as it had been, she still felt it was worth it in the end. That was the one class she’d allowed her self to do her best in and not just because she needed to keep the teacher’s good will to allow her to keep trading labour for attendance. She GENUINELY enjoyed art in many and varied forms and it showed.

Idly, she thought about trailing a line over the side but decided not too. The Pokemon here were partially influenced by the island’s minerals after all. May as well wait and get clean versions.

She watched hard to see if she could locate the hidden cave/ docks but didn’t spot it. She did spot wild Pokemon nesting on the cliff sides and took pics.

The boat wasn’t fast but there was no rush and plenty to see with pods and flocks of wild Pokemon to watch, drinks and snacks served gratis, many deck and lounge chairs set up and coin telescopes or fishing rods people could use while aboard.
There were also some deck games on the deck and card games or similar in the lounge along with observation sections in the bottom of the boat and along a short section, one in the front to the right and too the back on the left. It was interesting to watch from that perspective and she found herself enjoying it more than she thought she would.

At the stopover in Fisher where the boat docked at the end of long warf, the few hours that it was, she gleefully paddled biked and swam in the specially shaded section of the tidal river, drank local specialties and bought a few because she was here so why not.

She requested the Salt Plains tour and, on hearing her, several others piped up as well.
It was very different doing it like this than it was with a school group and the school group didn’t get little preserved salt crystal keychains at the end of it either, or the chance to buy the little bottles of regional salt to take with them.
She wasn’t sure if that particular mineral was in the salt, but it it could help her stave off those flu-like symptoms, she’d take it and pay the very touristy prices happily.

The sand art was very nice too and she bought a little bottle with a pattern of pretty coloured sand in it. She didn’t have many useless things to her name so it was nice to have one.

A dip in the river again after the tour to wash the salt residue off and she was good to go… which they did.

It was back on the boat to continue the tour.

They left after the boat had been refueled and she was amazed at how far they had to swing to stay safe. The desert out from Fisher covered a far wider territory than she thought.

The fishing beach wasn’t all that long all things considered before it turned back into rocky sholes that became an escarpment and cliffs.
The cliffs had plenty of ragged bits and steps and breaks in them but they probably weren’t human safe and not just because of the environment.
The cliffs themselves were very crumbly and seeing bits of them fall into the ocean wasn’t unusual.
There were cave mouths irregularly dotting it both high and low on the cliffs but very few around the center point.

A little after they swung around the back end of the island, she spotted movement.

There was a plume that looked like something between a cloud and a sand waterfall.
Approaching from the side, they could see there was a massive chunk of cliff that had fallen away into something like a sink hole… only it had sand from the desert pouring into it, with the winds whipping it up through that channel.
The winds gouged and ripped at the loose sand in the hole, scooping it out and sending it either tumbling over the edge or spouted up in a big plume that was blown far enough to reach even their boat. The heavier pieces rather than get caught by the wind, tumbled into the ocean beneath the sinkhole.
At other times the wind died down and the sand just poured into the hole until it was filled, a few fine grains falling over the edge according to the captain’s voice over.
It seemed they were lucky this time and the sand plume was putting on a spectacular show.
The strange, orangy red sand catching the light and sparkling in the air. There must be mica or something similar in it.

She took pics because it was freaking gorgeous. She would absolutely, absolutely be painting this. It was too beautiful not to try.

Interestingly, despite their unstable nature, the cliffs were still dotted with plants and mon.
It was glorious and there were a couple of places that could turn pics into postcards. She was game to give it a shot even if she didn’t really have anyone to send the postcards to.
She wondered if there was anyone who would be willing to buy good images of it. The tourist bureaus had to have SOMEONE who kept track of that stuff right?

She’d ask in Produce, since there were a lot of artsy types there. They seemed to be the only ones exempted from the town folk's attitude of ‘You must WORK. Get out in the them fields already!’
Yeah, no. She was a lot less enchanted with the dirty tricks they pulled on a kid who didn’t want to get ‘fostered’ and put to work.

There was a strip of flats in the two more desert sides of the house sectors, where those from out of town, the poor and the uncooperative were ‘encouraged’ to live.
They were low-rent flats that went up three stories and were the most basic housing in town. They were two or three room flats, with the three bedrooms in their own block and the two bedrooms in another.

The two bedrooms had power that relied on a solar panel/ generator that was quite old and a bit dicky. Its power was unreliable and there was a limited amount per flat. It could run a single appliance and a light and no more and the power went out regularly.
They had a cold water tap in the sink, a toilet at the end of each row and combined laundry, kitchen, shower in a section of the basement.
The laundry machines were coin-operated and so was the ancient fridge. You had to by a shelf to use and put your name on it.
There was enough storage under the rest for bikes or motorbikes, but not really for cars. Cars weren’t really encouraged.

If you needed to get out into the fields, orchards etc for work, you had to make arrangements to catch a lift with someone, hire a riding Pokemon (that was the Pokemon Daycare’s other job) or get yourself a bike to get around… even though the shopping strips Bus Traffic only. Trucks went around the back and bikes were expected to stay on the designated bike paths through the main intersection.

The three bedrooms had a bedroom, main room/kitchen and shower, the kitchen being a strip along the edge of the main room. There was a single toilet on each row of eight flats, open walkway/ breezeways to each strip of flats, cold running water and guarenteed power for three hours in the morning (six till eight) and three in the evening (eight till ten), but coin laundry machines and a large, coin accessed, share fridge in the basement. They had parking spaces under most of them, even if the parks weren’t big.

Not as bad as the single-room tenement flats in Storage but still not nice and all a person had access too, unless they were willing to adopt the local attitudes or unless you had the money to basically thumb your noses at them… in which case, you probably wanted to live somewhere less judgy.

They couldn’t do anything about the adults, except slight them in small ways because the adults lives were mostly in a different town.

The ‘rebellious’ kids though, well, that kid would be expected to fend for themselves, work and money wise, missing out on the little ‘extras’ those living with a foster family got. Extras like laundry being done with the family and food cooked, even if they had to help regularly. A guaranteed ride to and from their work place. Extra small chores or errands they could do for pocket money and so on. If they wanted ‘independence’ they could have it and all that went with it.
Even so ‘checked up on’ regularly. If they were found to be ‘not coping’ in anyway, they could be forcibly placed unless they volunteered to go to Orphan.

She had nothing but respect for the kids who’d toughed it out, then flipped Produce the bird and shook off the dust from it when they began their Pokemon Journey.
As long as they weren’t hurting anyone, people should be able to live as they chose, not how some local council thought they should.

Anyway, back to the main topic…

The boat followed the coast pretty closely until it had to swing wide to avoid the mesa range rising fron the depths… what remained of it anyway.

There was still plenty to see.
The somewhat regular outcrops of wind-rounded rocks were very dramatic, though there were gaps where one or two had broken off or crumbled away.
There were flying Pokemon all over them and marine mon around their bases.

Even the seawater shifted colour in places. Deeper blues and greens.

It was kind of weird seeing nodges and rock spires jutting abruptly out of the water.
Even from a distance, a person could tell that there had been an impressive range there.

They could also tell there were big gaps where there shouldn’t be.
Like something had blasted through it, smashing and destroying part of the range, tumbling bits down so that they slid under the water to settle in uneven rises and juts where the had probably been a flat approach to them once.
These shifted and settled with the tides making the entire area unstable and a bitch to navigate.

Fortunately, there was also an irregular trench along the bottom of the ocean.
A massive crack that also probably wasn’t natural but that was okay.
It marked the edge of the unstable area and so was safe to sail on. Anything tumbling down into that wasn’t going to make much of a difference, the crack was that deep.

There were buoy lines marking it and commercial boats stayed outside that line.

Like the crumbly cliffs, the mesa outcrops were also teaming with Pokemon, flying and roosting or clinging to the side of the rocks before disappearing back into the water, most of them blatantly ignoring the boat and just carrying on with their business.

She got a lot of really nice pics, even spotting some she was pretty sure were NOT Kanto natives. The Professor would probably want to know about that.

Chapter Text

Just as they were coming around the side to where the outcrops began to lower in height, the range sank back under the water and the buoy line began to swing in closer to the coast (it wouldn’t stop completely until most of the way to Produce. The mesa range had some weird effects on the local currents and tides) the young Tamer bolted upright and grabbed the arm of a crew man.

“Stop the boat if you can do so safely, and please call the Gateway Pokecenter and the Ranger Stations. The Poke Lab too, if you can.
Use the code off my Pokedex as your authority. Tell them we have a ‘rock tip’ situation!
Does anyone here have a Pokemon with Surf?”

She flipped out her Pokedex as proof of her claims.

One of the crewmen did but was reluctant to take her out until she dragged him to a coin telescope and pointed out what she’d spotted

Wreckage of a small boat, a sack… floating balls that were NOT pokeballs.
This was now a rescue.

She said to him and the rest of the crew, “If anyone has spare Pokeballs and uses them, then you’ll be reimbursed, but the balls out there are badly made fakes by Pokemon poachers and they’re delicate. They’re going to break the moment we get them out of the water and I don’t think I’ll have enough!”

The boat was stopped and a careful team was sent out with the girl as she’d handled a similar situation before. (The deaths of the Pokemon Trafficker and the P.I. were all over the news.)

The sack was carefully lifted out of the water with a fine net strung between flying Pokemon. Most of the balls stayed intact.

As predicted, the balls in the water broke as soon as they were lifted.

The ones in the sack weren’t in too bad a condition, protected a little bit by it, but those in the water were quick to become waterlogged, sink and break, releasing the unconscious Pokemon into the water to drown.

When lifted, they also broke, dumping out the Pokemon.

She didn’t have a chance to keep track of what they were, just throwing balls as quickly as she could, the crewmen joining her.
She was SO glad for the lab balls!

The crewman sent out a flying Pokemon to scout the area to find any more balls or mon.
They were to either scoop them up in a net and bring them back as fast as they could if they encountered mon, or tap the ball on the water and then scoop up the mon.
They’d already proved there was no point in trying to grab water logged balls.

Between them, they rescued sixty- seven pokemon directly, with the flying pokemon bringing in nearly thirty- one more and there were another fifty-seven in the bag.
Twenty-four of the balls in the sake broke en transit.

She honestly couldn’t even have told anyone what was in them since they just needed to get them up, out of the water and into a ball.

The cruise was paused while a Ranger vessel was sent up to pull up along side and transfer the sack the balls and her over, since she’d taken responsibility.
She gave them money to replace the pokeballs as they would need to be handed over since the mon needed treatment.
Dammit! Curse them to Distortion! Sigh.

A boring six hours later, the area was utterly scoured as best they could and all retrievable balls had been. There’d probably been a lot of pokemon lost but they couldn't help that.
Another seventeen balls were brought in… and of course, broke in transit.
They’d also bought in another twenty-four living pokemon, which were promptly balled with supplied balls, no matter what they were.

She spent her time checking over the balls and opening the clearly broken ones, using supplied pokeballs or her own balls.

The crewmen had caught forty-three mon and she was willing to leave those alone until a Joy could check them out and left her own balls to be checked later. It wouldn’t do to have attention drawn to the fact they weren’t being auto transferred.
She was willing to leave those brought in fifteen too. There was nothing she could do for them.

She was checking her way through the sack balls instead.
Common or Kanto specific mon went into the supplied balls.
Bodgies, or ones on the list (or mon she just wanted) went in hers.

Eighty-seven of the one hundred and sixty-two mon went into the supplied balls, with more Eevee, two Ditto, an Electakid, some Tauros, another Kangskhan, three more Dratini, a Lapris, three Voltorb and seven Magnamite among the haul this time.
Well, that checked off a lot of those she had on the list.
Not all of them, but then, she didn’t know what was in the lab balls. (She wasn’t about to check those were people could see and remember the balls didn’t act like regular pokeballs…)

The seventeen balls were a split, roughly half and half for Kanto normal pokemon and odd bods.
She went through them, slapping a label on the ball to say what was in it as best she knew. Mostly common pokemon from other regions.
A Swinub (those furry piglets), a Remoraid (a long, slender fish), an Azurill (small, blue ball with another blue ball on a zigzag connection for a tail), another Ledyba, two Sentret (a cross between a squirrel and a beaver in looks), Spinorak, Hoothoot (small, one-legged owl), Zigzagoon (cross between a raccoon and a ferret) and Natu (round ball of a bird with feathers and a tuft for a tail) from that collection of balls.
She’d possibly keep a Ledyba but the rest could go to the lab.

Among the sack broken balls were some Mereep, a Stantler, a Girafarig, Deerling, Wooloo, Skiddo and Mudbray. (Sheep, deer, giraffe, different sort of deer, different sort of sheep, goat and donkey ish thing respectively.)
There was also a pair of Buffalo looking mon. She didn’t know what they were but it was almost like they had an afro on their heads. (Bouffalant)
There were a trio of little zebra-looking things… that sparked while unconscious? Oooookay! (Blitzle) She’d keep one and the lab could have the other two.

The Noibat (bat), Rufflet (another tiny bird), Minccino (oversized mouse), Gothita (reminded her a bit of Jynx or it’s baby version. Humanoid, female looking baby mon… in goth lolita fashion. Alright then), Tandemaus (a mouse mon that is always in a duo) and Espurr (another kitty) tempted her and badly.
They were adorable and the fake balls had the side effect of clouding the pokemon in it’s mind and memory so they’d accept whoever freed them as their new master…
She’d have to see…

She couldn’t even be annoyed that her cruise had gotten shafted because Pokemon!

Instead, she kept going through the sack balls. Not one of them was undamaged. These things truely were sad, pathetic and an insult to pokeballs everywhere!

For the mon she didn’t know, she just used a label and a description of the mon.
It filled up the time.

The Ranger was inclined to be condescending to her until she mentioned that it had been she who found the bodies near Pewter City. That was how she’d spotted the wreck, sack and balls.
She was a Jr Assistant attached to the local Poke Lab and he’d told her they’d had a similar issue here. This must have been the agent they couldn’t find, even though they’d busted his hide out and raided his stash.
And this would explain why they couldn’t find him… or her.
EVERYONE knew you didn’t muck around beyond the buoy line. That was just STUPID… but outsiders never took it seriously, thinking they knew better. The bodies were usually never found but sometimes the pokeballs or the wreckage of their boats were.

Ah, the woman hadn’t realized she was a local. She should be on her Pokemon Journey .

And she had been… but then the bodies happened and she was asked to come back to the lab. She’d just been on her way out again and decided, on a whim, to take the tour because locals rarely did the tourist y stuff from their area and she couldn’t afford it before and also, she’d needed some time and calm to think and plan things, since she was barely a week in due to a late start…
Then, this happened.
She’d probably have to hang about for a bit so they could get the details from her and then she could finally leave.
She’d probably have to head back to contact the lab as well, since they’d just got a crap ton of addled pokemon dumped on them and would need and explanation.

She might have missed the stop in Produce and the Tourist Islets on the other side of the bay but she did get to see the rest of the coast, sort of.
They were moving much faster than the Tour Boat.
The time had mostly been spent waiting for the mon and partners to scour and dive for sinking balls. They even managed to rescue some of the unconscious mon, so she couldn’t begrudge them that.
There were, as expected, a lot of dead mon but most of those had been snatched up already by local mon to feed on and the water mon, provided they awoke before they were attacked, had already sped off into the blue.

The twenty-four mon that had been rescued alive were mostly in bad condition and would go straight into Nurse Joy’s capable hands.

Anna didn’t get to see most of those. Oh well.

It would probably have been faster to let them off in Produce and go overland, but who is she to question the Ranger’s way of doing things.
It wasn’t like she was in a rush anyway.

The boat took her the rest of the way to Gateway and she stopped at the police station to do an interview and that took hours as well.

Rather than go to the Pokecenter - she decided she preferred the auto transfer system off.
And she had to go through and process the mon in the lab balls as well as the mon in her own.

The Ranger had taken the supplied balls and the ones ‘donated’ by the crew, so that was fine and she used the stomp trick to lessen the amount of broken balls to confuse the issue.
It was easy enough to dump the shards over the side and the weather on the way back had picked up, meaning their small boat was tipped and tossed, so more than one of the ‘semi okay’ balls fell and broke. The damn things were so crappy and delicate, all it took was a tiny joggle or knock.

She balled another fifteenth mon from that. Most of them exotic… but she didn’t recognize any of them though there were a couple weirdies that looked like vehicles.

There was something that looked like a Wooper, only it was brown with bones instead of little antennae on either side of its head. There were two of those. They were sort of creepy looking. One to the lab, one to her perhaps?

There was something that looked like a trio of two-tone mushrooms on a white blob base with a face. Under that was a white root that splits into three acts as feet/legs.
There is a white ‘crown’ of bumps around the head which the mushrooms grow from. All the mushrooms had white stalks. The two smaller mushrooms at the front were light purple around the base and cream/purple on top with the bigger one in the middle being dark purple around the base and light purple on the top. (Morelull)
It was sort of cute, even if fungi weren’t really her thing. Too the labs with that one.

There’s also a pair of rather neat looking little green caterpillars with six small ball-like yellow feet on their undersides. The head is a round yellow ball with two yellow bumps on the top. They had a green, leaf-like growth wrapped around the head. The leaf appears to have a bite on either side out of it near the tip and a hole in it. The leaf wraps around the head like a hood, joining where the head connects to the body.
The eyes are two round circles with white dots in the middle. The mouth/ beak looks like a circle with a triangle section taken from the bottom and is the same darker yellow as the feet.
There is a small white fang /tooth at either side of the mouth. The chin /chest area is white, and looks like someone glued a white circle to the body under the mouth. (Sewaddle)
That one she was really, really thinking about adding to her Team Insect.
One to the lab, one to her

There’s also a different type of mushroom shaped mon, with two small flippers on either side of the bulbous ‘stalk’ and a pink blob under the two black pupilless eyes for mouth.
The ‘cap’ of the pokemon looks like the front of a pokeball when seen from above. (Foongus)
Like she said, fungus aren’t really her so, also one for the lab.

She vaguely remembered something about his one because it was bipolar when hungry… or something. Anyway it has a similar body type to Audino, Wigglytuff, and Clefable. Base body is yellow with black covering it on the right side from it’s head tuft/ear down to the upper limb, about halfway down it’s body on the right side with the exact same patch on the left in brown.
The patches create a zigzag edge up the body and head though it’s a straight edge along the body under the arm. The face is a carbon copy of a Pikachu face. (Morpeko)
The lab could have that one with her blessing… whatever it was.

She peered hard at this one. Was it a bug or a plant… or both? It was sort of cute so… Did she have a plant team yet? If not, she should make one maybe?
The seed-shaped body is light pink with a dark pink stripe down the center. Above that is a green ‘ruff’ separating the head from the neck. Two green and white ‘leaves’ hang down from under the ruff on either side of the body and are used as limbs. They are lighter green than the ruff and white at the tips.
The head is round and the same shade of pink as the main body. It has no visible mouth but only two eyes in the shape of corn kernels of the same dark pink as the body stripe with dark ovals in their center. On the head are two layers of green ‘hair’ made of five leaf-like bumps with one larger ‘bang’ between the eyes. Above that, in a green that matches the ruff, is a bulb like that on the back of a Bulbasaur. (Fomantis)
She wondered if it was its Region’s answer to Bulbasaur.

This one was very flashy looking. Like something from a tropical island.
It looks like a yellow flower sitting on a red wig that’s resting on a green cone. There’s a small face between wig and cone and the cone has two little leaf-like flippers on the sides.
The face is a tan colour but the green triangle coming down between the two, brown oval-shaped eyes makes it look like a tan mask. The eyes are partially hidden by the flower and the ‘hair’. There’s a small line of a mouth just above where the green cone stops. (Gossifleur)

This one she DID recognise. The ambulatory acorn that was Seedot was pretty hard to forget and it’s evolved form was pretty impressive too.
It was definitely on the list, for an egg at the least.

This one was just weird looking. It’s a blue blob with a lilypad on the top. Seriously? (Lotad)
The lab could have it.

The last of the planty looking ones was a spiky little thing. She thought she recognised it but couldn’t remember the name for love nor money.
It’s body is a round ball of dark green resting on two darker green cones for feet.
There are two lines up the front, mimicking those of a cactus plant and stopping at the mouth wich is a smile shaped line of black ovals that are smaller at the ends and larger in the middle. There is a dark green triangle, the same shade as the ‘feet’, in each of the three main body sections. A club like limb, also divided and with a row of four spikes around the tip that echo the shape and colour of the ‘feet’ begin just below the mouth on either side of the body. These are as long, about the width of the pokemon’s round body.
Above them, on the ‘shoulders’, two larger spikes that echo the feet and limb spikes in colour and form sit. These lead up to a dark green triangle, topped by a yellow ‘crown’ like growth that sits like a side ways cock comb on the top of it’s head. The green triangle dips between the two eyes the size, shape and colour of the largest of the ‘mouth’ ovals. In the center of these ‘holes’ sits two smaller white ovals with black circles in them and white dots in those. (Cacnea)
Yep, lab could have that one too.

The next one… she wasn’t sure quite what it was?
Some sort of bird maybe? Probably a psychic pokemon. They came in some really, REALLY weird body shapes.
It was a yellow ball with a double frilled dress/skirt going around the middle. The top layer was the yellow of it’s skin that gathered into a frill around it’s middle. The second layer of the frill was a pink/purple that matched the stubby cone-shaped feet, it’s tiny bill and the upside down triangle marking on it’s head between it’s eyes.
It had two white half half-bow-like like extensions from the top of it’s head. It honestly looked like someone had immersed a bow in its head so that only the two top parts of the bow emerged. The eyes were large and black. - under the ‘skirt’ the lower part of it’s body was orange/ brown. (Flittle)
The lab could have that one too… er. How many was she up too?

The next one looked like a living engine, with itty bitty stone wheels on each side. (Varoom)
She didn’t remember this one at all but she wanted it. W.A.N.T.E.D it. Even if she never made it evolve, the novelty value of her own little living engine would make it worth it.
She was going to look this little guy up because AWESOME.

The next one, like that little goth-themed mon (Gothita), this one was humanoid in form. It looked like a toddler, little tooth shape in the mouth and all.
It was tiny, it was pink with an equally pink top not and a diamond of grey armour in the center of it’s chest. It’s clutching something that looks like a rock rattle made of two different tones of grey rock. The top half has an emblem of the same rock in the middle of the ‘rattle’. (Tinkatink)
She’s… she’s wavering on this one. It looks like when it grows up, it’d be a battle-type mon and she’s not really going to be a battler for a living…
No, the lab could have it.

She put an ‘X’ on the ones she found interesting. She’d negotiate for them later.

There were four unclaimed pokeballs.
ACTUAL pokeballs. These were probably the dead Traffickers' actual mon.

Why were they left here though? The Ranger should have taken them. Or Nurse Joy.

Well, she was curious anyway. Why not.

She opened the first ball… huh. Looked like a Mr Mime but the colouring was off.
It had less round bits too. It was blue and white and appeared to be wearing dark blue pants and a white, scallop-edged shirts with light blue round cap sleeves, white, round ankle bracers and two-tone, mid and light blue clompy clown shoes.
The top layer matched the mid blue of the diamond set in it’s chest, while the bottom layer was the light blue of it’s ‘sleeves’.
Unlike regular Mr Mime, it had a dome-shaped head, with two long tufts of comb-like hair either side then Mr Mime’s usual gravity defying wispy tufts. The ‘cheeks’ were dark blue and it had a triangle nose. The pale fawn skin is echoed on the thin, stick-like arms which end in white gloves.
It’s limbs were longer too.
It kind of reminded her of the difference between a regular clown and one of those sad French ones… whatever they were called.

She recalled it quickly. Definitely a variant of some sort!
Were they all going to be like that?

She tried the second ball.

What came out LOOKED sort of like a Wheezing but they had top hat chimney stacks… and smoke mustaches. Their faces were green above black ‘suits’. The bigger ball had a skull and cross bones on his.
She looked, blinked, looked again and recalled it cause what the actual fuck.

The third ball opened and whoa… she was looking up, WAY up.

That was one TALL mon.
It was an Executor… if someone had taken the main body and stretched it reeaaally hard to form a long, palm tree like neck, though the usual three ‘heads’ and leafage was at the top. Also, it had a ‘tail’ of wood where the rear on an animal would be. This tail held a fourth ‘head’ that was green with two small tufts on top.

Right… back in the ball.

She was almost afraid to open the fourth ball… she did it anyway.

What came out was stupid-looking and shaggy, though vaguely cat-like. It was bipedal.
She thought it might be a Meowth variant because there was a charm like they had on it’s head, only it was silver and in the center of a ‘helmet’ of fur.
Pale grey shaggy fur sprouted from the side and underside of a wide, permanently tooth-bearing mouth to for a ‘beard’ that hung to the creature's legs.
The body fur, except for wide strips around the ‘wrists’ and ‘ankles’ was a pale brown, paws included. The tail, a ‘fluffy’ brown mass the same colour as the body, had the same texture as the ‘beard’. The bands, claws and upper half of the head were a dark, almost black grey.
Rather than ears, fur was spiked up to form a set of upward curving but outward pointing ‘horns’, the tips the same silver as the forehead charm. Two smaller spikes sat either side of the charm.
The eyes were orange half circles, with the arches facing up and dark grey slit pupils…

Annnnd it was getting ready to jump her. Back in the ball for YOU.

Regional variants… they had to be and adults at that!
She knew she should give them to Joy or Jenny. She knew she should but!
The Professor could trace the ball's owner most likely but he deserved to get some eggs out of them for the trouble if they’d breed true here.
She didn’t know much about breeding. She’d only done it to get the baby forms to fill her pokedex while playing the games, not trying for any specific result.

They all seemed in decent enough condition. The Professor could deal with the rest.

Since she was going to be waiting to catch a lift again, she stayed in the Pokecenter, battled visiting Trainers, ‘trading’ for interesting pokemon.

(She may or may not have accidentally used that off-colour Mr Mime by accident and it Evolved. She didn’t know they could DO that! After that, she put the four balls in pouch and tied it to her necklace stone. Shrunken, the balls had hardly any weight and she wouldn’t mistake them again! She didn’t like the attention she was getting!)

Her baby team (level-wise) was growing as well since she regularly trotted across the bridge and had them fight wild mon, making the most of her time here. Even Team Non Com was gaining some more experience.
She had to be careful where she let Chansey, Mimikyu or Dratini out though.
Mimikyu in particular. She was such a sensitive little girl and not very good at the costume making, though she tried hard.
Dratini and Chansey she could explain away as trades or prizes… Mimikyu not so much.

She enjoyed spending time with them though.
Some of them liked battling but most were happy enough to just chill with her.
She supposed it didn’t hurt to have SOME mon that liked a good battle if only to keep the others safe from poachers.
Especially since she liked to visit the smaller markets with one of her mon accompanying her at a time, usually nothing too big or that would stand out too much though.

She didn’t really find much of interest but it was a good way to kill time. She actually busked for a bit here and there, playing her ocarina, letting her Pokemon ‘dance’ and sometimes doing sketches for people.

The first time had been a bit of a surprise.
She just been sitting there playing while her Pichu danced to it. Pichu loved music. Loved it with a passion. She was still trying to find something his tiny hands or mouth could play.
Her hat had fallen on the ground and the next thing she knows, coin change was being tossed into it. Quite a bit of coin change, and the stall next to her slipped her a bit more to keep playing as it was bringing people into this often-ignored corner.

She’d played for several hours off and on, tucking away the change when it looked like too much and switching out the mon every half hour or so to give the first one a rest.
Eevee, Abra, Vulpix, Clefairy and, oddly enough, Paras. She liked the vibrations and would happily wave her legs around, while Abra bobbed his head and the others actually capered around or yipped in time.

She’d recall them if anyone tried to touch though.

She made a decent amount of change but preferred to do sketching for herself too. She had so many rough sketches now. She needed to get herself a decent-sized travel folio so she could start fleshing them out.

Since she had a riding mon, she checked out the trails up the headland too, taking pics and doing rough sketches. She didn’t get to explore more than three-quarters of one trail so she’d have to come back…Some really awe-inspiring views from up here.

She couldn’t wait until Pidgey evolved and he could take her for flights so she could get and overhead view…

Of an evening, in the safety of her room at the Poke Center, she also went through the lab balls, sticking the ones she wanted with the ‘X’ labels.

There was a second Miltank and something that sort of looked like a Chansey but was tiny! This time she was keeping Miltank and seriously considering adding the tiny to her baby team. After all, she’d given up the first ‘for the good of all’ but this one, this one she’d keep.
A Spearow too which took care of that. The fake balls screwed with a mon’s mind and memories. If that lil one had a flock or a master, it didn’t now.

There WAS a second Noibat, Rufflet and Minccino. But not the other three. Looks like she’d be waiting for eggs from the Espurr, Gothita and Tandemaus.

Some of the mon were just weird-looking.
Another of those pig heads on a spring. A sun rock (Sol Rock), a moon rock (Lunatone), a rock puppy (Rockruff), something that looked like a nose (Nose Pass)? Don’t even get her started on the random gears… What in the name of all that was holy?
Okay, the puppy was sort of cute. It could go on the egg list.

Some of them were obviously variants. There were a couple of Meowth that were VERY different and a Diglett with hair!
Some dragon types she didn’t recognize, though they were interesting look.

There were a lot of common mon, Pidgey’s, Ratatta, Nido’s him and fem, Sandshrew, Spearow, Ekans… the Pichu, Cleffa and the Igglybuff were are surprise. So was the tiny thing with big lips that was definitely a baby form of something.

There were a couple she was wavering on even if she wasn’t sure why on the first one. It wasn’t what you’d call cute.
It was bug shaped quadruped, with a black head and purple body and small feet. A rounded bulge out the front looks like a nose but has a small mouth along the bottom of it with a purple tongue. (Shroodle )

There was another tiny bird and a Murkrow so, why not. The unknown had a black base body, with a blue chest and underside. It had a yellow crescent shaped band on the upper wings where they joined the body and similar pointed yellow crescent that cut through it’s face, with the upper wings sitting with the eyes half on, half off and the lower point just under the beak, which was oranged and matched the legs and webbed feet. (Wattrel)
She was always up for another tiny bird.

Another insect type that was utterly adorable. It had a fluffy white body with four long black legs and tiny round feet. There was a yellow band around it’s face with brown loops on it’s two clear, blunt shaped wings. Definitely a keeper. (Cutiefly)

The really round seal looking one was also kind of cute though.

There were a bunch of baby fighting types that she had no interest in.

A handful of unrecognisable water types as well that were mostly fish or shell fish shaped. (She was reserving one of the Remaroid though. It’s evolved form, Octillery was pretty bad arse.)

There were another lot of the starter trio as well and a second Charmander.

A scattering of seed/ fruit looking pokemon along with another Seedot, a couple of things that looked like metal eggs with spikes and eyes (Ferroseed), a couple that looked like leaf cacoons with grey spirals on top (Burmy), three that looked like cherries (Cherubi), six apples (or rather Applin), an olive (Smoliv) and a couple of berries (Bounsweet).
She was wavering on the cherry, apple, the olive and berries but she needed more information.

The kitty and another with along, curly tail, (Glameow) joined the Professor’s kittymon collection and she’d settle for an egg. She’d catch her own little Meowth later.

Professor Larch could decide what to do with them.
She was quite happy to dump the whole thing in his lap.

She was keeping the white Vulpix and the Ponyta outright though as they were gorgeous. That little blue bird with the fluffy wings as well AND that little grey thing.
The others she was willing to negotiate on.

She finally remembered to open her prize pokeball as well.
Huh, a regular Wooper.
Cool, now she could have one of each… provided the Professor let her. They’d probably be staying in the lab anyway for now… but she still wanted them.

There was a quadruped that was blue in colour with it’s single head covered in black ‘hair’. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it but it intrigued her. She’d keep it if she could if only to find out why. (Deino)

There were two squirrels, one blue and one yellow. The were cute but she didn’t know if she’d keep them, much the same way as she didn’t need the various puppies and kitties.
Blue looked like a regular squirrel (Pachirisu) and the yellow looked like a flying squirrel… with sparks on it even when unconscious… (Emolga) That was INTERESTING. She could probably use another electrical type if the Professor wasn’t willing to let her have the zebra looking one… It’d be a good scout being small and able to fly. Hmmmm.

There was something she thought was a Larvitar at first (she found one of those earlier) but a second look showed it wasn’t. For starters, it was fuzzy rather than rocky and the legs were a bright red. Definitely not local but interesting for all that. She’d need more information before she decided either way with that one. (Larvesta)

The last out of that batch to draw her interest was a little creature that looked like a cross between a Chansey and a Wigglytuff. It was a little bigger than a Wigglytuff with light pink and tan colouring. Honestly, the little thing looked like it was waring a pink cardigan with a pink bandana over the top part of it’s head and ears and bright blue button eyes. The ears were a combination of frilly and fluffy, with two tendrils close to the head, one on either side. The fluffy curves were echoed on the bottom of the ‘cardigan’.
Once again, she was very, very curious and wanted to find out about the little creature. (Audino)

She thought she recognised the critter with paintbrush tail… Smeargle?
Anyway, that she was dithering on that one.
It might be nice to have a fellow artist type around, even if it wasn’t much of a fighter. She wasn’t really either, right?

It did remind her that she was seriously considering making a second non combat team. Not because they couldn’t fight, but because they didn’t want too.
If she was going to find Rhyme City and live there, she’d need mon that weren’t fight nuts.

There were six more baby forms that looked familiar… but off colour or had different features. A Geodude, a Tentacool, a Rattata, a Meowth, a Sandshrew and a Slowpoke.
To these she added a Farfetch’d, a Muk and a Voltorb too... Along with two she thought might be Growlithe but it was hard to tell. She also thought the third Zigzagoon to turn up looked off colour. With the two Wooper, that made a LOT of off colour mon.
Maybe they were Regional variants? It did happen.

There was something that looked sort of like coral… but it was ghost white. She thought they were meant to be pink? Was this a variant too?
Wait, there were a couple of the pink ones in there so the white one was either a Shiny or a Regional Varient. Either way, she wanted it.

There was something that looked like a Diglett… but it seemed to be struggling on land so water based? Weird. Cool, but weird.

There was another one of those bells with streamers too and she might as well have.
Sure, why not. The gears and the round seal as well.

Screw being low key and normal. That was already blown out of the water. She wanted to play with these interesting looking mon.

Chapter Text

Professor Larch was exasperated to see her… until he started going through the haul. VARIANTS. Regional Variants he could breed! And some pokemon he’d never even heard of before! (The not-a-Diglett was one of these.)
He was so excited she got all of the pokemon she wanted.
He still wanted the clean versions of the locals of Muk, Koffing, another Tentacool and another Seal. The request for Drowzee and Lickitongue still stood though.

So, she added a Spearow, the Miltank, the little grey thing - a castform apparently, the little bird - a Swablu, the Wooper varient, Vulpix and Ponyta variants, the Ledyba, a Taurus, a Kangaskhan, the second Noibat, tiny bird Rufflet, tiny bird Wattrel, Murkrow, Blitzle (the not Zebras), Smeargle (who was VERY enthusiastic about art), the Seedot, the Fomantis (which was the green and pink thing which was apparently solid plant, not insect at all), the seal - a Spheal apparently, how apt, the leaf caterpillar or Sewaddle, the little engine cart thing or Varoom, Minccino, the gears - a Klink and a Farfetch’d.
She had her prize Wooper as well.

She added the cherry (Cherubi), the olive (Smoliv) and the berry (Bounsweet) but not the apple… which she suddenly remembered needed a bunch of area specific items to evolve. Items Kanto didn’t have. She didn’t really want the Capsakid either but the Professor shoved it and one of the Applin on her anyway. Oh, well.

She also got the little purple /black not a bug or Shroodle, her cute little bug which was literally called a Cutiefly…okay then.
There were two more of the pink worms or Wurmples, so she took a second one of those, and this little snow bug thing. It was called a Snom and it was adorable.
The fuzzy not a Larvitar or rather Larvesta, was actually an insect/ fire type. Oh, she was curious. So, SO curious!
She did accept the armoured little Venapede, the black and white catapiller like Scatter bug and a Magnamite. Like Sperow, Abra or Gastly, they were hard, dangerous or both to catch. Better safe than sorry, even if she’d wanted to try catching her own.
(The actual Larivtar, that she was wavering on, she finally did add to a team. She was making a ‘Team Curiosity’.)

A small dark fox type called a Zoroa, which had a bad rep, but it was cute, so there was that.
The sparky little flying squirrel too. Emolga apparently. It was adorable and she was debating which team to put it on…

She got the Gothita, the ghost Corisola (the coral looking thing) and the Tandamaus.
To her Gothica, she added a him and fem pair of something called Indeedee that looked like little imps, an adorable little mon called a Hattena, that was mostly pointed pastel hat on gray ‘hair’ and a round body ‘head’/body with legs, the Gossifleur too even though that one was a bit flashy for her.

The quadruped thing, a Deino, had a bad reputation but she wouldn’t let something like that bother her.
The pink and tan thing, an Audino, was also some sort of healer and she was looking forward to seeing whatelse it could do.

She’d have to jiggle her teams, but that was fine.

The Professor also threw in a metal bird called a Skamory. It knew Fly and was trained to carry a rider. He wanted her to do the flight training course at Storage before she left so she wasn’t having to cadge lifts from the clean up crews all the time.
She blinked. Sure, that was probably a smart thing to know.

Then, she handed him the for pokeballs and told him what they had in them. More variants. ADULT variants… ones he could possibly breed before he had to give them back to whoever the dead Trafficker stole them from. She didn’t know if it would work, but it couldn’t hurt to try, right? Also, the blue Mr Mime had evolved again. She didn’t know that could even be a thing!

He picked her up and kissed her, right on the head and then danced around the lab cackling gleefully before snatching the balls and dashing off. Research Proff’s gonna research she guesses and to the afterworld with human manners.

In his wake, he left a stack of paperwork for her to sort through, with instructions, authorisations and so on.

One of those was for what Professor Larch called ‘seasoning teams’.
Pokemon that didn’t need to be super good fighters but needed experience to evolve or be evolved so they could be used for testing and breeding.

The starter trio and a trio of Eevee’s to make a team. This was Team Level Me.

A second team was all baby mon with an Igglybuff, a Happiny, a Magby, a Pichu, a Wynaut and an Azurill. (She asked if she could switch out the Pichu with her own Pichu and he allowed it.)
All of these were friendship Evolutions and the charming Professor had told her to ‘prove it.’ Right then.
She dubbed them Team Fwendship, because they needed that to evolve and they were babies.

There was a second string waiting in a Cleffa, a Mantyke, a Munchlax, Mime Jr, an Eleckid and a Riolu but he wanted the first team of babies handled first.

Since when did he have those… were they from the stash he’d found earlier maybe? She wasn’t sure about their evolutions.
(She really needed to sit down and make a list of what she did and didn’t remember.)
She just mentally tagged them team Baby Mon and put it aside to think about later.

Some of them had been holding stuff or needed something to evolve as well as experience level/ friendship/ time of day. She wasn’t sure she remembered them all…
If she did, she could start stocking up now, before people realised and the price was driven up.

She was also handed an Egg to care for. Err… well, okay then. She guessed?

She was tempted to leave her Chansey with the Professor where she could be of most help… but that just seemed mean.
So, she asked.

Chansey didn’t like fighting. She’d had to do too much in the caves to survive.
While she did like her Trainer who, though young, tried to keep her out of any battles, she didn’t like travelling around either. She liked stability.
She was happy to stay at the lab and become one of the lab pokemon.
She wanted to learn more healing moves.

Professor Larch was nearly overjoyed. A Chansey AND a Miltank.
This just got SO much easier! He’d almost saved up enough to by a Shiny Scale as well so his money issues would be sorted shortly…
Taking a chance on that young Trainer was the best thing he’d ever done!

He rigged her belt so, even though it would register her pokemon as returned, they would stay with her and then gifted her with an All Store backpack. She’d be able to carry a shops worth of food with her.
Another two hundred lab balls too, just in case.
While he had many new pokemon to study, there were still dozens out ther needing to be caught for study purposes.

A pity most of the pokemon acquired seemed to be male. The egg would normally take after the female parent.

Fortunately, the Professor had Ditto now. He could breed whatever the hell he wanted… provided the pokemon was old enough.
He could even have more Ditto since he had two of them.

He was bemused that she knew that.
Some of them could learn things if they were holding onto something.
Her Chansey had come with a Shiny Stone. That could be useful later since she didn’t think the lab knew what those were useful for yet. She let Chansey keep hold of it.

Also, apparently, her old boy had been a busy bee indeed and the young female was now carrying. Talk about moving fast!

She’d lay two or three Weedle eggs shortly which was unusual for a first clutch, apparently. First clutches usually had a single egg at most. In fact, clutches were not a norm at all, except for a few very specific insect types…

She asked him if he’d like to stay… and the answer was, ‘no’. He wanted to be out there with her. He wanted to be by her side.

Well, alright then.

The teams now run as so… subject to future pokemon acquisition and team needs.

Main Team (Kanto Normal):Pidgeotto (him), Sandshrew (fem), Mankey (him), Weepinbell (fem), Clefairy (fem) and Beedril (him).

Alternate Team (Kanto Starter/Support) :Bulbasaur (him), Squirtle (him), Charmander (him), Miltank (fem), Doduo (fem), Zubat (fem).

Alternate Team (Team Non Combat): Kakuno (him), Metapod (fem), Magikarp (him), Paras (fem), Feebas (him) and Abra (him).

Alternate Team (Kanto Special): Taurus (him), Ponyta (him), Vulpix (him), Kangaskhan (fem), Farfetch’d (him) and Dratini (him)
.
Alternate Team (Kanto Common): Spearow (fem), Diglett (him), Venonat (him), Magnamite (genderless),
Alternate Team (Kanto Ad Hoc): Eevee (him), Cubone (him), Gastly (fem),

Regional AlternateTeam (Marine A): Lapras (him), Spheal (him), Chinchou (fem - trade), Inkay (him), Clobberpus (fem), Corphish (fem)
Regional AlternateTeam (Marine B):Jellicent (1 m 1f) Shellos ( pink, blue, both -him),
Regional Alternate Team (Fresh Water):Feebas (him) , Wooper (him),

Regional Alternate Team (Curiosities A): Klink (genderless), Klefki (fem), Varoom (fem), Chingling (him), Drifloon (him),

Regional Alternate Team (Ad Hoc): Audino (him), Blitzle (fem), Smeargle (fem), Woobat (him)

Regional Alternate Team (Humanoids +): Misdreavus (him), 2 Indeedee (him and fem), Hattena (fem), Gothita (him), Castform (him), Marshadow (genderless),

Regional Alternate Team (Varients): Vulpix (him) and Ponyta (him), Wooper (fem)

Regional Alternate Team (We’re Cute!): Noibat (him), Minccino (him), Tandamaus (dual gendered), Zoroa (him), Emolga (him).

Regional Alternate Team (Uncute): Larvitar (fem), Deino (fem), Shroodle (fem), Mimikyu (ghost costume -fem)

Regional Alternate Team (Birb A): Taillow (Swallow- him), Starly (Starling -him), Pidove (Dove- him), Fletchling (Robin- him), Swablu (Swan- him), Rufflet (Eagle- fem),
Regional Alternate Team (Birb B) Murkrow (fem), Wattrel (Petrel -fem), Skarmory (him),

Regional Alternate Team (Spooky):Litwick (candlestick -fem), Phantump (stump -him), Pumpkaboo (pumpkin -fem), Bramblin (bramble -fem), Corsola (ghost coral -him), Sandygast (shiny- green spade-him)

Regional Alternate Team (Bug Type A): Snom (him, two Wurmple (him and fem - hopefully), Sewaddle (him), Trapinch (fem), Larvesta (fem).
Regional Alternate Team (Bug Type B): Joltik (him), Ledyba (him), Cutiefly (him), Venapede (fem), Scatterbug (him)

Regional Alternate Team (Grasstype): Seedot (him), Fomantis (him), Gossifleur (him)
Regional Alternate Team (Foods): Cherubi (him), Smoliv (him), Bounsweet (fem), Capsakid (him), Applin (him)

Not all of them were full teams, but she didn’t doubt she’d pick up more mon and they’d fill out eventually. She wasn’t EXPECTING more exotics, variants or non regionals… but with the weird shit that had happend to her so far, making space for them just seemed smart.

Then, there was the egg.
What did she know about egg care? Well, some since she’d done a sort of work experience/ internship thing here but still…
She was very tempted to just give it to the Gateway Pokemon Daycare to look after…

Mon she wanted to catch and raise for herself from the Kanto area were Team Catch ‘em - Meowth, Seal, Staryu, Horsea, Rhyhorn, … maybe an Ekans, a Muk or a Koffing. She was still on the border regarding those three… simply because the last two were high maintenance and the first was nothing exciting.

A few had been added to the egg teams and she had a pie in the sky wishlist too.

Egg teams, Kitties - Shinx, metal variant Meowth, Skitty, Espurr, Purrloin and Glameow.
Egg Teams, puppies - Poochyena, Houndour, Growlithe- regional varients, Rockruff
Egg Team, other - Remoraid, Rhyhorn, Shuckle,

Wish List: Sudowodo, Ralts - him and fem, Budew, Litleo, maybe one of each of the other Regional Starters…. She noticed that among all the smuggled mon there had never been any of the other Regional Starters, even though there were several of Kantos.
It was weird.

She’d already decided that the regional teams would wait for her to deal with the Kanto mon first despite the fact she was practically itching to play with them and see what they could do…

She had Seasoning Teams, of course so on her she had Teams Normal, Starter/Support and Non Combat.
With two Seasoning teams (Level Me and Fwendship) and the twelve pokemon she had for trading, that was an Abra, a Poliwhirl, a Gastly, the Butterfree, a Parasect, an Onyx, a Taurus, another Diglett, a Seal, a Staryu and a couple of Goldeen, Skamory and her egg… damn that was a LOT of mon.

She also had a hundred lab balls and a new list of lab wants.

Lickitongue, Tentacool, Koffing, Muk, Drowzee, Exeggcute, Jynx (the baby one - Smoochum, still doesn't count) and, of course, any non Kanto ones he doesn’t have already… with Slugma, regular Wooper and Sneasel top of the list because they’d be easiest to get, thanks to access to the Sevii islands that had some Johto regional pokemon that lived there.
One would be fine as, thanks to the Ditto, one is all he needs to breed his own but more would be better though so he can get some bloodline’s happening.
Now that he had all those babies, he just needed a couple more versions for comparison.

She left permission to breed any of her mon in his care capable of it. Most would need leveling up before that or to reach their next evolution but still.
There were regional variants and he’d be able to get more if they bred them with Dittos. She was interested to see what the results would be.

Chapter Text

Professor Larch had used his influence, sparse as it was, get her booked in almost immediately.
She’d be staying in Storage for the week or so it took to run through the lessons and perform the final test.
Well, okay then.

Storage charter bus runs were an open secret, but no one actually in the town knew which of the buses it was because they changed every other run. The only thing that was the same was that they arrived and left from the same point that was out of the way from all the others. Those using it just took down this bus's number.
If a person was smart, they could catch a ride to Storage on it, but you had to find it first.

She’d figure that out later because it’d be useful to know, but for now, she was just being dropped off by the Foodwaste run lads.

He’d even booked a door bed in the small building attached to the flight field especially for these classes. It was four or six to a dorm and gave her flashbacks to the orphanage (she’d shared with three others before retreating to the tiny bell tower room. There had twenty-two of them by the time she turned nine and another ten had come in, the year she left.

Reason B why she’d been only too happy to take on the ‘work experience’ at the Lab for as long as she could and she’d been spending more time in the overnight dorms in Gateway before that so she would be so she could access the library and focus on her studies.
As she was in the last year and had caused them no trouble, ever, they allowed it because she’d been dutiful about everything else.
She even warned the staff she would be so they could assign her charges elsewhere. It wasn’t unexpected or even unusual and having the extra bed to assign to another as well as the rations had been useful. )

It’d only be a couple of days. It was fine.
It apparently had an attached eatery that was overpriced and had mostly convenience foods but that was fine too.
She’d bought her own supplies from Labtown while she was there she just needed to prep the food rather than buy outright. She did buy the occasional snack to keep on their good side, but outside of that, kept mostly to herself. Interacting with people she’d likely never see after this was more trouble than it was worth, especially staff.

There were eight others in the class besides herself and four of those were tourists.
Everyone was older than she was, with most being post Poke Journey in age. She got some weird looks because of her age but, apart from a pair of overly friendly and chatty tourists, everyone else minded their business.

She and Skarmory were new to each other, but the bird mon was well-trained and she’d been studying the protocols from the time she learned this was happening.

The Professor had even been generous enough to include a saddle. It was old but still serviceable and Skarmory was patient with her fumblings to get it on and off.
She didn’t have time to learn it to her usual standard (which being able to do it heavily injured, stumbling exhausted, blindfolded or any combination of the above. She’d get to that later) but this level should, hopefully, be enough to pass the test.

Any time that wasn’t spent on necessities (eating, sleeping, bathroom usage - for either washing or waste disposal, studying) was spent with Skarmory, getting used to the mon and his quirks and practicing together.
Even though they were both adapting fast, she honestly didn’t expect to get a pass on the first time but figured this was good experience either way.

No one was more surprised than she when she barely squeaked by with her pass.

(She was surprised but hoped it was honest.
She’d spotted one of the instructors getting a bit of ‘service’ from one of the other students, even if they weren’t the one monitoring that student for the test. A dick move either way. If they were going to help ‘ease’ the way for that student, it was cheating the rest of them. If they weren’t, then it was getting sex under false pretenses… even if the student was stupid to try it.
At any rate, it didn’t inspire confidence but she kept her mouth shut. It was none of her business, so long as they didn’t just pass someone incompetent she didn’t have to care.)

Now that she officially had her wings, this just got so much easier…

Even so, she still waited until the next day (despite the sour look she was given and the too interested one from that one instructor who’d accepted that bit of ‘service’ for potential extra credit) and took the charter bus, just so that she knew where it dropped off.

You never knew when that sort of info could be useful and there were any number of people looking for a quiet place for this or that meeting.

Offices in Storage got hired all the time and the kids from one building didn’t necessarily talk to kids from another.
Most of the square buildings were their own little communities despite the best efforts of game clubs, creches and playgroups.
Four years wasn’t long to get to know each other before they were off to school and during school, there were three or more of each rank of class, then leaving at ten even if they might come back a few years later, most of them did schooling elsewhere.

Long and short, the residents wouldn’t be able to pick a ringer, except maybe by the clothing. Kids had already been taught to stay away from adults they didn’t know or recognize because Trafficking didn’t happen just to Pokemon and places like Storage and Gateway had prime pickings. Despite all the bored kids and left behind wives, strangers came and went all the time, they just did it from buildings other than the socially used ones.
So long as no one went near the warehouses, silos and whatnot, no one cared.

There were a lot of ‘other familys’ kept in Storage. The lover/ mistress and their kids, the inconvenient child from an earlier marriage, the kids you’d been landed with or bastard-born embarrassment child/ren.
They were given basic care until they were ten and the brat left on their journey with the understanding that they weren’t to return....
Pokemon world or not. People were people, the shitty side of them as well and, being a reinc, she was more aware of that than any other kid her age, except for maybe the shanty town kids and those being actively abused.
It was something to be aware of.

Chapter Text

She stayed at the Pokecenter and had the two teams checked out.
Being a field agent, she had special dispensation to raise, train and level up a team for the Lab, as well as one of her own.

She didn’t have the money to enjoy all the features of a place like Gateway properly as tourist and the last thing of that she tried was a bust, so she stuck to the Trainer specific area for now, or went back to trekking up the headlands.
Doduo had recently evolved and she was really eager to test out her new, larger body with her Trainer who’d helped get enough experience for it.
They’d give the now three-headed bird who was getting used to her new body and the extra head a little celebration party… though perhaps it had been a bit soon for this. Dodrio still hadn’t quite gotten this new body down yet. Oh well, she was doing fine so far.

Anna was determined to get as close to the top as possible and then have Skarmory take her even higher.

She did NOT count on some nimrod to come tumbling from a trail overhead, crash down in front of them, roll into poor Dodrio legs and knock them ALL off the trail, from two-thirds up the headland. It wasn’t Dodie’s fault. The guy had rolled directly under her foot as she was putting down and her attempt to cling for balance had dragged him over with them.
Anna swore as she returned Dodrio and brought out Skarmory.
“Grab us!’ she yelled and the reliable metal bird mon complied…

Someone was going to have some serious explaining to do, OH yes!
She just wanted to do ONE peaceful, touristy thing with out some sort of shit happening! She was NOT an anime protagonist! She didn’t NEED ‘adventure’ falling into her lap thanks! ‘Adventure’ could fuck right off!

Skarmory flew them over to the flying Pokemon landing area on the other headland and dropped them gently before landing.
She got up on shaky legs, brushed her self off, threw her arms around the bird mon’s neck and burst into tears, trying to force ‘thank you’s’ between the sobs.
If not for this bird mon, she’d be oh so very, very dead.
That was enough mountain explorations for a while.

When the official had come to reprimand her, she might have been a bit short but come on! She’d just been knocked off a mountain and said as much… but the other idiot unconscious at Skarmory’s feet. Even if there were mitigating circumstances of some sort, she hadn’t appreciated having Dodri’s feet knocked out from under her, sending all three of them over the edge… now, if they’d excuse her, she needs to make sure her Pokemon is alright!

She is also going to take Skarmory to a professional groomer and pamper the hell out of him for a bit. The splurge would be worth it. Without him she wouldn’t be here anymore.
Not just the local groomer who usually saw to newbie Trainers either. No, she was taking this big metal bird mon to the good ones in MiddleTown.

Because the officious idiot had all the sensitivity of a brick, he had her take them to the site of where they fell from and she took pics… but she was shaking even as Skarmory circled the spot before she asked him to land near the Pokemon Center in Lavender Town.
She’d had ENOUGH of this shit and she was NOT okay.

She asks the Lavender Town Joy to document the injuries to her Dodrio.
There was an accident and they were knocked off the Gateway headlands by another person falling and the idiot official forced her to go back there so he could check the sight… less than twenty minutes after. He tried to suggest that it was her fault for fooling around on the mountain because she was a new trainer… and one probably without a flight licence.
If he tried to go official, she’d like to have something to shove in the face of his bs.

After she’s calmed down a bit, she taking Skarmory to get the absolute pampering of his life. She’d be so much broken mush without him.

Dodrio didn’t take too much damage, but what she does have matches with her Trainer’s story. Her left leg is a bit wrenched and her right is bruised from where the guy crashed into it. She has broken feathers where the edge of the cliff caught her as she went over it… she’s probably going to have a bit of trauma too.

Lovely, Anna sighs. They can work on it together or she can keep Dodrio for riding across non mountainous territory.

Anyway, she’s going to take her bird mon, once she’s fully healed and head for MiddleTown.

Stopping at the Tourist Center in MiddleTown, it seemed she’d misremembered. MiddleTown catered to only human guests though guest could have their Pokemon out if they wished.
It was Produce that had the frou frou pokemon groomer but they’d require booking ahead… they didn’t take walk in’s without a LOT of zero’s attached.

Sigh, of course they didn’t.

Well, that idea was a bust.
She’d just take them to the Lab one which had little to do now that most of the baby Trainers were off and away.

Incidentally, her pics from the Tour Boat were very nice. They were extremely interested in buying them, which she appreciated, so long as there were some she could use for herself and, if they made a calendar of it, she wanted a copy.

And, just like that, she had money to take her bird mon to the frou frou groomer if she wanted, but screw that. She was just as happy not to give Produce a damn thing.
She really didn’t like that place. They were judgy sorts and she was very much a live and let live sort of person, so long as it wasn’t harming anyone… and yes, she knew that was being judgy herself, but at least she didn’t try and force her views onto other people…

She brought out Dodrio to see if they’d like to try on a nice wide road instead of a little track with no railing whatsoever.
Dodrio, brave girl that she was, gave it a try and seemed to enjoy it after a little bit. They were to the top in twenty-five minutes were it would have taken her small Trainer over an hour walking herself. A person COULD land just outside of town and walk or ride in but it wasn’t encouraged.
She’d done it anyway but since she was here, she figured she’d give Dodrio a dummy run to assess the damage, as it were.

Once to the top, she moved to the launch platform and called out her big, metal boy.
Saddling him up took no time and soon they were in the air, arriving in Lab less than an hour later. There was a problem though… with all that she’d learned there, she’d utterly forgotten to locate the Flying mon landing tower. Ahaha. Oops.

She landed in the racing course as those poles were nice and big and easy to see and glintted in the sun. Then, she rode Dodrio into town and went straight to the groomers. While she was there, she asked the groomer to help show her the best way to groom the many, many mon she had charge of now.

The person in charge was a pragmatic, no nonsense sort and quite happy to take her money for the lessons. It wasn’t all frills and bows but Skarmory and Dodrio too, got that thorough grooming and pampering she’d promised, then, because she was there and why the hell not, she got her own hair done and a mani/pedi besides.
Getting her nails done wouldn’t be practical while she was out training, but getting them nicely trimmed and a protective polish put on was fine.

It took all day and she spent the night in the empty, currently unpowered, student dorms but that was fine.

They were off after breakfast the next morning… and, apparently, landing in the circuit wasn’t encouraged. Neither was landing directly in town. If one must, then out by one of the staff dorms was fine. They didn’t have many coming and going from here so there wasn’t even a control tower.

Well, okay then.

Chapter Text

She flew back to Lavender Town, passing over Orphan (which also didn’t have a designated landing zone, for either Flyers or Teleporters… she guessed they figured no one was going to the orphanage willingly and flying over the graveyard/ shrine was rude but still…) and Storage before turning and flying over the channel.

She fought her way across the bridge and then made a circuit of the battle spots, earning some money and getting Seasoning Team: Level Me me a bit of experience.

(Oh, they were putting in a family-friendly path so the tourists who didn’t want to battle could cross the bridge. How interesting.
Sadly, it took at least a parent/ grandparent and child to be eligible to use it.)

Finally, she stopped dragging her feet and stopped at the police station she’d been taken to that other time, about the accident. She had her photos and Joy’s report as her proof, which is good, cause the dude who took a header is still unconscious.

They did say there was signs of a struggle on the overhead path and signs that he’d gone over the edge. They found on of his pokeballs at the site. His mon were being cared for by Nurse Joy currently.
She was cleared of suspicion and actually to be commended for her fast thinking, though it was Skarmory that chose their landing site.
That attendant was known to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder regarding new Trainers and was on his third warning. Whatever hang ups he had, he was to keep them away from the job.

She left her evidence anyway and requested to be kept updated on the guys situation.

With that out of the way, she did a bit more battling but wasn’t in the mood for anymore tourist stuff… except perhaps the island markets.
That got her thinking though. If they were meant to be night markets… why had they been going when the tourist ships arrived in the morning?
Did they operate a small part of it specifically for the Tourist Boats?
Oh well, whatever. She wasn’t in the mood for a market right now.
She wanted to clear her mind and one of the easiest ways to do that for her was art! Getting lost in the creative process…

BUT she WAS going to try ONE more touristy thing before she left the area, hopefully for some time. She had to get at least ONE where nothing hinky happened? Right? Right?!
The island carnival seemed safe enough to try. Or a pokemon ride around the bay.
She flipped a coin.
Welp, it looked like she was off to see a carnival!... in about four hours.

With nothing better to do, she booked a bit of studeo time. It would probably be easier to do in Produce but, yeah, no, screw that.
It was basically a small, bare room with drop cloths over a simple table and chair… possibly to put props on, along with an adjustable easel, a sink over a small cupboard with chemical paint cleaners, clean towels hanging over rails on the doors, with one side clear and a drying rack on the other side. One wall had hangers for large works, with a clip on weighted bottom to keep it from drying.
Everything else the person using the room needed to bring along.

She had herself some decent travel brushes now, in a roll up kit, as well as a more modern version of her antique travel kits, except the crayons which worked like new.
It might be a bit silly to have them and not use them, but they felt precious.and she didn’t want to just use them willy nilly.

Four hours later, and she was feeling much more centered and the basics of an expanded piece is blocked out nicely, just waiting for her to start filling in the details.
She’d lashed out and bought her self a travel easel as well.
It’s a simple wooden thing that can either rest on her knee or she can detach the top and attache it to a fold out set of tripod legs that had a clip at the top.
It wasn’t very big, but then, neither was she.

She could have worked for a bit longer.
The sand bar wouldn’t be fully uncovered yet and she didn’t feel like wading but, she needed time to clean up and it needed to dry.

Fortunately, water colour, unless drenched, dried quickly.

She was at the sand bar walk way as the top of it began to emerge from the water fully, along with a small crowd of others. She hadn’t pre booked but that wouldn't matter.
Pre booking got preferential treatment but she wanted to experience being ordinary for a bit.

And that was exactly what she got. The show was actually pretty good. Would have been better with company so they could ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ together but oh well.

At intermission, she happily wandered around the sideshow attractions, played games and lost at most of them but got a few cheezy ‘prizes’, went on what rides she could (she was to short for some and others she wasn’t interested in. Nothing that spun. Even though she wasn’t in this life, she still remembered the nausea brought on by spinny rides in dozens of lives) took pictures and had her’s taken, bought snacks, petted some of the carnival mon and basically had a good, fun touristy time.

This continued through the rest of the show.
The most exciting thing that happened was she helped a little girl find her parents after being separated and told another little boy where she got her light-up souvenir.
Finally, some light-hearted fucking fun!

She didn’t even get volunteered from the audience. This was how it should be. No drama. No fuss. No dastardly business behind the scenes… or at least that involved anyone among the fairgoers. Just family-friendly entertainment.

She took pics for future sketches and prepared to leave with everyone else.
Then changed her mind.

She waited for the rush to die down and, when there was no one else going and the water was beginning to lap over the sand once more, she called out her metal bird with Skarmory just on the island and she on the sand bar, saddled him, mounted him and they were away…

Chapter Text

She wasn’t doing the cave again. Screw that.
She’d head through Lavender Town and off to see the Professor’s two associates.
Who was it she could get Fly from again? She wanted more than Skarmory to have the ability. Or Surf? Was there one for Teleport? Her Abra could do that but he wasn’t strong enough to take her as well yet.

She fought her way across the Bridge, because more money, and turned towards Lavender Town. Where was it she could catch a Meowth again? She should have hit the library first. Wait, she had a Pokedex. She’d stop in Lavender Town and check there.

Right, just outside of Lavender Town, the non beach direction it was.
She went there for a little bit with her baby mon collection, to get them a bit of experience.

She battled numerous wild mon and finally, finally caught herself a little Meowth to add to her collection. An Ekans ‘cause she didn’t have one of ther own yet.
A Growlithe ‘cause they were there, and a second for the lab and, finally, after LOTS of battles (Team Level Me were all on the border of evolving) two Vulpix for the lab.

She got her new mon patched up and headed out of Lavender Town.
She bought a bunch of Repels in Lavender Town to trek through the cave. Beedrill had Flash. She was going to check out where the Cottage and Cerulean too. Unfortunately, to Fly to a major town, you had to have been there first and she’d bypassed it by accident… twice.

A Journey was all about exploration, right? She’d gotten to do precious little of that.
She wasn’t going do an Ash and group where they wandered around like lost souls, but a bit wouldn’t hurt, right?

She could have probably just gone up that road where the Pokemon Daycare was… but there’d been some problem blocking it she thought… or she could be misremembering again. It had been a long time…

It looked like she’d have to do the caves after all… joy.
She bought up on Repel.

Best decision she ever made.
The caves were a dawdle with Repel active.

Took her a couple of hour all tolled and a popped her head into the Pokemon Center at the entrance of the caves. Still a bit of a weird place for one but oh well.
Also, apparently, to get to the power plant site (who knew if it was actually there or not) you needed Surf… she needed to locate the teacher or place you learned that from.

The chappie who could teach Flash was still there, which was nice since her Bee boy wasn’t going to be on her team forever. He was long in the tooth for his type of mon.

There were a bunch of Trainers to fight, which was great and probably reason B for the random Poke Center since you wouldn’t want to tackle the caves with a team of wounded mon.
Team Level Me was coming along nicely but next time, it would be her Team Main’s turn.

She didn’t use a Repel in the Diglett cave because it’d be nice to have a few more.
She caught two and left it at that.

Diglett cave was done inside of twenty minutes and then… yet more Trainers to test her teams on. She alternated between Team Level Us and her Main Team. With all that had happened, she’d been neglecting Team Main a bit. She had time though. There was no rush.
She wanted to explore properly going off the beaten path and finding those minor gyms.

She caught two Drowzee and, after much frustration and finally using Sing, thanks to Clefairy, an Abra. Check one off the list.

She stopped at the Poke Center for the night and decided what to do next.
She was pretty sure that one of the Professor’s associates was in this town. She might as well do the Gym as while she was there. It was a water one if she remembered rightly…
Needed to track down the teachers of Fly and Surf too.

Well, that just got much easier… The teacher of Fly was right in the Poke Center.
Well, okay then. They didn’t even want anything in trade. Nice.

They were also able to direct her towards Professor Larch associate who was something like a chain quest.
She just needed to trot various things to various other cities and towns and she’d get a bunch of T.M.’s, a H.M. or two and some berries and balls and shit? Nice.
Each errand would get another reward, ending in a Pokemon to trade. They didn’t say WHAT pokemon. Just that it was like nothing they’d ever seen before. Okay then.
Sounded fun. She’d be back to do bits and pieces as she could.

Meantime, they had a Cottage site to visit.

Chapter Text

She headed up to the Cottage path.
There was only a couple of Trainers looking for mon, not the gauntlet of Trainers the games had thankfully.
She used Team Level Up for the experience and kept an eye out for Berry Bushes.
Professor Larch wanted clean versions of various plant samples and Berry seeds too.

Also, her wishlist now had Heracross on it. Those bugs were badarse.

There was probably a Cottage but she didn’t even make it that far.

At the end of Route twenty-four where it turned sharply towards the shore was a sort of cross road though the two heading ‘up’ and ‘left’ where stubs or looked like it.
On the path heading ‘up’ there was a minor Gym set up at the end of it. Awesome.

Three battles later and she had herself a Solitude Badge.

She fought two assistant Trainers with Sandshrew and an Oddish/ Bellsprout. The Leader, Marsh, had a Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Vilebloom, Victreebel and a Bellossom.
(Her eyes snapped to that last. Where had he gotten it! She’d pump him for info after!)

It was a hard fight, especially for the random mon collection that was her main team since there wasn’t a fire type on there. (She’d have to do something about that…)
She likely would have done better with the Starter/ Support team but she’d been neglecting her main team a bit lately. Or even using team Level Us so she could return them sooner since they were a short push from evolving or being a high enough level to breed. It probably would have been smarter to use this fight to give them their leg up. Oh well.

She shifted the line up a bit so Clefairy came out first. Sing was an excellent move. Even so, the lack of powerful moves on Clefairy (she should do something about that too) and the fact her mon were three levels lower than the Gym Leaders… She’d not thought this through at all.
Well, learning experience.

She’d been down to Mankey in the end, mainly doing scratch damage, using Fury Swipes.
She made note to buff up that team a bit and use them mostly for battling Trainers rather than the Gyms.

Also, her Mankey knew Thief. How. Why. WHY did her biddy fight monk know Theif?
Oh well, she was sure the Professor would like to breed this little guy in order to get more baby mon with the ability. It could be invaluable for collecting held items… and those had hardly been studied at all.

She knew Professor Larch’s main focus was their island’s mineral and the effect it had on local pokemon (not good, it turned them animalistic and feral) and people (made them sick when they were away to long and sick again when they came back. No long term studies done… which was probably bad) but surely he wouldn’t mind a few of his growing amount of assistants having a focus area of their own…
Potentially more grant money to be had.

She doesn’t think she impressed the Gym Master much, which, fair.
She wasn’t very impressed herself. That had been a dumb move. She thought being several levels above his team would carry her. She kept getting smacked by this. Meta knowledge was NOT always accurate, especially since she was so far before Canon.

He was a little more tolerant when she asked if she could sit down and have a review with him. That this was only her second Gym battle bemused him a bit until he learned where she was from and that she was still in her first two months of her journey.
She was really a baby Trainer still and his Minor Gym was an unknown so she couldn’t exactly prepare for the fight properly…

As a field agent, when she requested to know where he’d gotten his Bellossom, he did eventually give up the information, especially when she bubbled on about how she suspected there were more than the main three evolution stones.
Learning he’d caught it in the wild meant that, where it had been there might be more.
If she could prove this was a thing…

After she’s returned from healing her mon, he’ll take her to the meadow he found his Bellossim in. So long as she doesn’t cause trouble for the mon there.

She agrees easily. She can always catch an Oddish elsewhere.

He’s bemused when she returns within a day, on the back of a Skarmory no less.
He’s guessing she used the chance to switch out her mon?
How does she have a Skarmory anyway.

Trade, she told him easily. And being a certified field Trainer for the lab.
Professor Larch loaned this one to her so she could get things back to him more easily if they couldn’t be posted safely.

The hike up to the mountain meadow wasn’t easy as the path up was more of a barely used pokemon trail but it was worth it. There were some lovely views and several Berry bushes.
She took pictures. ALL the pictures. Like, SO many pictures.

The meadow was a lot bigger than she thought it’d be and full of flowers and plants and plant and bug pokemon.
Her promise to Leader Marsh was hard tested because that was a HERACROSS over there. As far as she knew those were NOT a Kanto main pokemon!

Still, she squished the urge because it would be a shame to upset this tranquil place.

There was a small, clearly spring fed, pool over by the more mountain side of the gently sloping meadow. There were a few fresh water mon in it.
Mainly ones with a form that could move around like the Polywag line… but there were Wooper too, which also shouldn’t be in Kanto main.
Curious.
Still, not what she was here for.

A wind puffed up and suddenly a trio of Gloom shone and transformed in the light of evolution. Three Bellossom appeared.

She released Beedrill and asked him if he could sense or scent what was on the newly formed Bellossim without scaring them.
If he could, would he be able to track it back and find more of it.

He struggled some, but finally he was able to get a fix when the wind shifted.

It led back to a section of exposed mountainside a few miles away. The wind scoured bits off the exposed stretch and, when it blew in one direction, it blew it back into the mountainside and off a cliff where it was dispersed into nothingness.
On the other, it blew it back towards the meadow.

With Marsh permission, she planned to remove a bit so she could get the lab to analyse it.
She didn’t need too. Some larger parts had broken off but were too heavy for the wind to move. She gathered up all she could.

Interestingly, there were NO Vilebloom in this meadow so it must be effected by Sunstone only.
Well now she knew where to come to get more.

The mountain was mostly inaccessible as a brief pass on Skarmory showed. The trail passed the Sunstone cliff rambled up and down a bit but eventually petered out into cliffs and a rubble pile shale slide.

She bid farewell to Marsh and took off from the cliff on Skarmory’s back.

Chapter Text

On the other side of the mountain meadow was just a mass of heavily sloping foresting.
The trees were thick and grew close together and the branches went right down to the ground in most places.
There were a few places where trees had fallen and had opened up enough space in the canopy to allow other of the same trees and a few sorts differen plants/ trees to grow.
This led to a few patches of different colours in the overall blue green.

The rest of the range rose up further out of this with the green around the bottom of it like a skirt the wrippled and billowed up and down along the top as it wasn’t just one mountain, but several making a sort of barrier range.

The range was as thick as the tree coverage and so pretty much unclimbable… by humans. There were bound to be pokemon up there because there usually were, but humans would likely never lay eyes on them unless something happened to open a way up.
They couldn’t even fly up because, above a certain height, the winds picked up and became wild and battering.

She was looking for other meadows or similar. Just because she had agreed not to catch them in THAT meadow, didn’t mean there weren’t others.

There! She directed Skarmory down to just above the above it. It didn’t really look accessible except from the air. The forest was thick and practically blocked access downward.

They were about four hours from the Bellossom meadow and deep in a section where there was a massive chunk of forest between Route Twenty-Five and Mount Moon where the range turned back towards the main routes rather than running parallel to it.

There was bit of room to roam above the meadow, but it didn’t really go anywhere unless a mon had wings or could float on the breeze.

The meadow was dotted mainly with Sunkern and with few cotton puff ball looking pokemon she wasn’t familiar with. Neither of those were Kanto standard either.

She was guessing the Sunkern had a couple end up there by accident and kept breeding to fill the small meadow. There had to be over thirty of the little guys though there were only two of the bigger ones. Sunflora she thought they were called… maybe?

The little cotton puffs looked like they’d blow along easily on a high wind which is probably how they got there. They looked happy enough though so there was that.
There were only a handful of those. Less than ten and only one of the larger version.
So, she was guessing the Sunstone dust didn’t make it very far over this way.

Letting out Beedrill, she asked him to look around for the same scent as last time.

There was a small outcrop of sunstone, but it was tucked away in a nook.
No wonder there were so few evolutions. The ones who had evolved must have been those brave or restless enough to wander around rather than stay in the meadow. There wasn’t really anywhere for them to go but they would eventually find the the outcrop and so, evolve.

As tempted as she was to sprinkle the lot with the dust and nab them, they were happy enough here. Instead, she had Clefairy sing them all to sleep and caught two of the weakest looking of the Sunkern and four more outside the meadow. Also two of the little cotton guys again, outside of the meadow. One for her, one for the lab.
She found three of them wandering up towards the Sun Stone, though one had slipped and was falling. She evolved that one after catching it. It deserved something for it’s near death experience. Obviously, they wanted out and she could help with that.

She evolved one of the wandering Sunkern too, just to confirm.
Yep, Sunstone evolution and she took a video of it happening both times.
What a haul.

She took time to feed her mon and let them out for a bit of exercise. They’d leave before the rest woke up. She didn’t want to distress them.

Chapter Text

They hit the Mount Moon connecting range and went high, skipping over it. They’d come back to it later. Anything in there had probably at least been scouted/ flown over already. She was more after things away from the main routes. Places where the deep, thick forests gave way to something more before becoming mountain slope.

They were looking for more of these meadows. It was unlikely they’d find another since from Mount Moon, the main Route and the towns along it were nestled into the foot hills or the sides of mountains themselves but it didn’t hurt to look.

They traveled for hours along the range until it turned sharply and she was pretty sure she was now passing over the Viridian Forest. There were no pokemon meadows exactly but there was a wide section where there was a grassy gap between the thinning forest and the mountain slopes. There was grass but it was a thin layer over rock and mostly cold killed. It wouldn’t support much… but there were a few nice, likely looking spots for a rest stop and so, stop she did, letting everyone out, cooking a meal, grooming the mon and camping overnight.
There was a tall, purple blue mountain in the distance. Probably the Indigo Plateau…

They were away late in the morning as she saw no reason not to give her mon a sleep in if they wanted one.
Flying for an hour or so saw the forested mountain slopes beginning to give way to cliffs and another main Route… likely off in that mountain’s direction.

With that, she landed Skarmory at the closest town to allow her tolerant metal bird mon to rest.
Perched just below the mountain line detached from the main range on the other side of which was Route twenty-two which led to the Victory Road gauntlet, was a small village nestled in the trees. If a person could bush bash their way through the trees, either in straight path or a diagonal, they’d end up on path one, just out of Pallet Town…

How there came to be a town there, when there didn’t seem to be a road out saving cut along the mountains just above the tree line which dropped them just outside Viridian City.
The track up, once followed back, was clear enough but Anna doubted many saw it, let alone used it.

There was a minor pokemon Gym in this little nowhere town.
It was apparently called Ao Town, named after a grass mon that was an unusual colour that had saved the town… or some such.
It sounded very much like a Bellossom and possibly a Shiny or a Variant.
Curious.

Nearly everyone in the town had a grass type of some sort in homage to it and the Gym was poison/ grass based.
Three Trainers using Oddish/ Bell Sprout lines, with the Leader, an older woman called Leda, using an actual Bellossom.

This time, she used the Level Me team and romped it.
Charmander evolved mid fight. Very dramatic but she went through the other five first to get them some experience before bringing out the fire lizard.

And so she earned an Ao Badge.
(She may or may not also have had a chat with the leader about where she got her Bellossom and a certain meadow behind a Cottage where there was a way to make more.
Take your Gloom there and wait for the wind to blow a certain way… but don’t disturb the mon in the meadow. It wouldn’t surprise her if it became a pilgrimage for members of the village.)

She left with the gratitude of the Leader and two more evolved pokemon.

Also, a Leaf Stone that was a treasure of the village.

Fire, Water and Thunderstones were well known. Leafstones rather less so. They and Moonstones weren’t really known yet.
She was guessing that the Village and that other plant Trainer in one of the main Gyms, Erika? Eriko? Something like that knew about Leafstones too or would know about Leaf Stones? She kept forgetting she was long before Canon.

Once just out of the village, she released Beedrill, let him scent the Leafstone and asked if he could scent anymore in the area… not in the village.

Interestingly, her buzzy boy headed off on a diagonal, following a series of rocky disruptions in the forest. There was no clear path and she had to use Skarmory to hop some of the worst of the tangles but several hours of hiking and a few more short trips on Skarmory later they were at the mouth of a waterfall gushing out of a cave, and there were several small bits of stone.

A net strung under the mouth of the tumbling water, another, finer one under that, and a third finer one under that, and there were several Leafstone fragments already. They were tough enough to endure the water pressure.
Thank the Legendaries for pokemon based products.

It had been tricky and fiddly but they didn’t it to catch the entire flow of water, just some of the main bit, so putting it behind and under and bring the edge forward worked… eventually. Her Bulbasaur and Level Me’s Ivysaur were invaluable for putting them in place and would be made much of later.

She’d had the nets ever since that last ‘dredge the fake balls out of the water’ thing.
Who knew when she’d come across that sort of situation again and the nets would have made things so much easier.

So, obviously the stones formed underground somehow, broke off in the rough current and were blasted out of the mountain by water pressure and current. They fell into the river/ stream they emptied into and then out into the world.

The stream/ river was pretty deep, it was easy to tell and the flow was fast so anything that was in there would get swept away hella fast.
Likely the few Ao village had found had been snagged on the side of the river or found in old loops of it that had gotten cut off when the river’s course shifted.

She released Magikarp and asked him to check how far the water went down, by tucking a piece of string with meter marks on it behind him. Her Karp was a big, BIG boy. Even if the current was powerful, he’d likely make it down there if he wanted.
When he got down there, he was to jiggle the line.

Okay, so, five meters deep.

She gave a little tug to let him know it was okay to let go and to come back up.
Oof… that was flowing pretty damn quick. She’d been hoping they could net the river, rather than the falls. Nets under the falls were pretty obvious, the river less so.

She asked her boy if it was faster near the top, the middle or the bottom. For top he raised his left fin, for bottom his right fin and for middle his tail. The left fin went up… but the water flowed fast in the middle of the river too.

Actually, now that she thought about it. Nets in the river was bad. If there were any wildlife in this river, a net would block their way. Oops.

The nets only happened at all thanks to Ivysaur, Buzzy and Skarmory.

After all the hard work, she took a break and let out all the mon… except the Trade ones. That wouldn’t be fair because they’d start looking to her and they were just going to be traded away.

She pulled out her easel and happily sketched the scene, taking some reference pics and dangling her feet in the water.
She set up a little campsite and dozed while the Pokemon played.
She trusted Buzzy and Skarmory to keep order.

When she awakened she stretched, cooked up food for herself and her mon, did a bit of grooming with her mon, had a wash hereself and then went back to work on her art.

Did people know certain puppymon, aside from Eevee, used a Firestone to evolve yet?
Eh, not her problem.
She’d met Sammy. If he had his way, the knowledge would get around soon enough. Meantime, she was willing to enjoy the benefits for herself.

Actually, did people know what Pokemon a Leafstone was good for yet? Did they know about Leafstones at all? (She may or may not have left several chunks of Leafstone in Ao Village’s shrine. She wouldn’t have found this place without them.)

Meh, she’d inform Professor Larch and let him deal with it. It’d be better coming from a Professor anyway, even if that wasn’t specifically his area of study.

She didn’t want that sort of responsibility and notoriety. She’d never been one to seek power or fame unless it was needed for survival. She was normally happy and satisfied with home, spouse and family and enough money to be comfortable.
This time… she wasn’t sure she wanted that either.
She would have thought, as an orphan, that she’d want those things more than ever but this time, this time she just didn’t really want to be tied down.
That’s why being a field agent was a good deal. She could roam where she wanted, catch what she wanted mostly and being attached to the lab would ease her way if she wanted to go to other Regions.
She’d probably need to make an attempt at the League Conference but she wasn’t fussed.
If she went as a lab agent/ Trainer rather than a Kanto Trainer, she could get special dispensation depending on why she was going.

Technically, she should probably go back to the lab and drop off the Level Me team… but she wanted to check the rest of the range on the other side of the Cottage. She wanted to get herself a Heracross dammit.

She’d be back to check this place properly later, but it gave her an idea.
If she could get a sample of all the evolutionary stones and get Beedrill to ‘sniff’ for them any time she was in a possibly appropriate area, she could find some for herself. She hadn’t been to a major store but she’d no doubt they were hella expensive.

They’d have to see if more opportunities like this one turned up.
If not, maybe the lab had some or could borrow from another lab and her buzzy boy could pick up the scent from one of those.
That was for later though. For now, it was back to the meadow and see if they missed any on the way.

They check the nets before they left, with Ivysaur’s help. A nice haul already and she took the bigger stones...

-0-

Flying across from there to the start of the Diglett Cave, where the inner part of the mountain range began, the search renewed. There were many more small towns dotting the forest in Celedon City’s direction, but those died off as she followed the range towards Mount Moon.

The range was split more with valleys full of forestry into a second range that went off on a slight diagonal, ending at Saffron City. She’d look at that later. She was following this side of the range connected to Mount Moon first.
There were multiple small gaps and meadows, some with mon, but none so cut off and isolated as the Sun Kern meadow.
The forest was different too. Thinner and a different type despite also being around a mountain range. Maybe because this lot of mountains didn’t go as high?

Even breaking off to check out the other range didn’t find what they were looking for. She did catch a couple of very bold oddish, letting Team Fwendship try their luck.

There were a few large bird types monopolising mountain tops but she was happy enough to fly around their territories rather than provoke them. While she might return some time to check out the small towns and villages, that wasn’t what they were looking for right now.

She flew across to the Rock Tunnel range… which mostly had no tree cover near it at all on three sides and it was HUGE. On that part of the way, the tree cover stopped pretty low down on the range.

She skipped across to the large, square section that was boxed in by Routes Nine, Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five and a stretch of rocky mountain slopes plunging into the sea.
This section too has less dense tree cover and there were many breaks in the canopy, but very few actual meadows.

Some rocky ledges with a bit of plant life and stuff along the border from where it switched from forest to mountain but most of the ones they found mainly had nesting bird pokemon in them. Spearow, Pidgey, once a Twillow but that little one looked lost and injured rather than being in it’s natural habitat.

She knocked it out and captured it. One for the lab as she already had one.

They didn’t find anything else like the Sunkern meadow and she was actively looking.

They stopped in Cerulean City for a rest ‘cause her boy Skarmory had been doing a lot of flying. She updated the Professor about Team Level Me and mentioned that he needed to get his hands on some evolution stones if he wanted the elemental trio for the Eevee on it.

She also mentioned that she’d found something interesting but couldn’t trust it to post. He needed to see it for himself.

She had an eyebrow raised at her but she hadn’t wasted his time yet, so he’d give her the benefit of the doubt and do his best to acquire those Stones.

She warned that she had something she needed to check on but aside from that she’d be back in a month or so and, thanks again for Skarmory. He made life so much easier.

Chapter Text

On the way through the were attacked by a flock of Spearow and their Fearow leader.

Annoyed, Anna released Team Level Me’s Charmeleon and threw some Flamethrowers about. Barbeque Fearow plus Spearow to go.
She threw some balls, enough for each falling bird.
She’d ask at the next Pokecenter what to do with them.

After the Fearow went down, the rest of the Spearow scattered.

Grumbling, she returned the Charmeleon, and they flew on a little higher up. Spearow flocks could be such a pest.
She made note to have one of the electrical types ready to roll next time but using electricity while riding a metal bird seemed like a bad idea all around.

They swept towards the Minor Gym and the Cottage. They’d camp there overnight and warn Marsh that he might have people from a certain village that valued the Bellossom to turn up, in order to see if they couldn’t have their Gloom evolve.
She received a sour look but at least she hadn’t told them about the stones.

She shared a meal and stayed at the Cottage clearing overnight, feeding her mon.

Marsh was very keen to travel with her to make sure she wasn’t aiming for the meadow mon.

She gave him a glare and said ‘no’. He had had her word already and if that wasn’t enough, too bad.
Insulted, she jumped on Skarmory and took off, leaving him in the dust. She didn’t HAVE to warn him and if this was the thanks she got… screw him.

She cruised on her bird mon, following the path up so they could turn right rather than left this time, but ran into another flock of Spearow… with a Heracross they’d just dropped towards some sharp rock.

It was already unconscious, so she threw a pokeball and caught it. It might piss off the bird mon but screw them too! AND she hadn’t hunted it from the jerk’s precious meadow either.

She released the Level Me starter trio, placed them carefully on Skarmory’s back and asked them to pick their targets and shoot down the Spearow. Ivysaur swatted anything that got close, with Wartortle and Charmeleon picking off the rest of the flock.

She asked them to try for glancing damage only. She had more than enough Spearow.

They did pretty well, though she did end up having to catch a couple that were heavily damaged.
Not too bad.

Chapter Text

They had to loop back to find the Bellossom meadow again but once they did, they flew in the opposite direction than they had before.

Following the range along until it turns abruptly towards the coast and then following that. There were some likely looking spots but none were large and all appeared to be empty at first glance. She’d examine them more closely on the way back.

As they were on the coast, they were essentially flying along the edge of the mountain range. The range sort of went on for a bit and as they hugged the coast which then turned and jutted out for a bit.

Where it dipped back in again there was a cove and a sharply sloping ‘meadow’ that went a third of the way up before it turned to cliff and rock. It had mountains and rock on three sides.
It also had no viable water source outside of few small, shallow rain filled puddles.

Even so, there were pokemon here and sparse covering of grass.

The pokemon looked to be some sort of plant type… but they were easily lifted by puffs of wind. They swirled around the meadow and were often pushed down it but weren’t blown away as they caught on the sides of the mountains bracketing the meadow and dropping down again.

They looked vaguely familiar with the dandelion looking leaf and flower. There were no versions of the final evolution.

Out of curiosity, she took out one of the smaller, more powdery sun stones and tossed a couple of handfuls into the wind.

A few of them glowed a little and then she realised she’d been dumb.
The mon in the other meadow were exposed regularly to the dust and so slowly built up the level until they could evolve. This would take a different approach.

She landed high on a ledge up the mountain and got Skarmory to grind one of the other Sunstones to dust with his beak and then paused. Before she did this it might be an idea to have Beedrill scout the area.

Her buzz boy was confused momentarily but then he started heading up high and then higher and higher still until he was struggling. She had him rest on the back of Skarmory’s head and let the metal bird do the literal heavy lifting. The winds up here were no joke.

Their Trainer was starting to get cold too. She HAD dressed for flying on a birdmon, but not for mountaineering. It was f ing COLD up there.
Still her bee boy wanted to go up but the winds were getting too chancey and she didn’t want her mon to get hurt just to locate something she could get more easily elsewhere.
She’d have to bring her snow bug, Snom up here sometimes. There’d be plenty for the little snow muncher to gorge himself on.

She had Skarmory head back down as fast as he could go. They needed to get warm.

With that out of the way, she sets Clefairy loose to Sing for a bit and, as the pokemon fall asleep, she catches the most ragged of the baby form.
She hovers above them on Skarmory and tosses a full Sunstone’s worth of dust into the wind.

This time she got a better result. The three biggest and healthiest of the plant mon glowed and then transformed and she made sure to catch it on video.

She knew she shouldn’t interfere but…
While the pokemon were unconscious she went to a level below them and had sandshrew dig out a nice deep, wide pond with a channel and then had Wartortle fill it to the brim.
It wasn’t the same as having a natural water source but it would help for a bit.

She let her pokemon rest and fed them and then they took off again.

The range and the coast continued but there was a storm coming in hard and fast and she turned back. They weren’t equipped for something like that.

Back at the field, the plant mon were doing their best to cling to the edges and she got Sandshrew to dig out the nooks a bit deeper so she could also shelter.
The overhand now went back deep enough that even the wildest of weather shouldn’t reach her here. Sandshrew had done a good job.
There was even a level section. Enough for her to sit and lay in and then the gound sloped sharply like the rest of the mountain and ‘meadow’.

Nor was she surprised when the plant mon joined her.

Obviously they’d never seen a human before, or even other mon except for a few marine types that washed up in or lived around the edge of the cove.

The usual range really for a sea shore. Crabby and Kingler, some Shellder and a Seal or two lounging on the rocks.
The pokemon that could travel were more cautious but those that had hatched and lived here all their life weren’t.
While it would be easy to snag a Seal here, that’d feel like cheating… a bit.
The mon here were living in peace. She saw no reason to distrupt that.

Unsurprisingly, the marine mon had gone into the water or buried themselves deep in the face of the approaching storm.

She had some basic pokechow for plant types because Bulbasaur… Ivysaur now but it wouldn’t hurt them and likely had better nutrition than the sparse grass of the cove/ meadow.

The wind, even under cover, was no joke, even with the clustering plant mon to keep the worst of it off her. It was a looking to be a long, long night.

Then she had a brainwave and let out the fluffies. The three Eevee and the Growlithe would be enough warm fuzz to keep the winds at bay… and Growlithe was warm being a fire type.
Ah… much better.

---

The storm raged for two days before it began to abate and she kept the fluffies out and fed them and the plant mon as well.

When it finally dissipated, the plant mon bumped around her gently. She was nudged and nudged and nudged more towards one specific overhand which, despite looking deep, the plant mon stayed away from.

She shrugged but couldn’t go in there. The hole was too small and deep.
She got another brainwave and broke up some plant pokechow and had Pidgey flap gently, blowing the smell down the hole.

A quartet of incredibly ragged tiny bud pokemon crawled out.

The poor little things. It was obvious they needed sunshine but the winds in this place were to strong for them and they’d been blown over continuously. There was no fresh water for them either. This place was terrible for them.

It was obvious the floating plant mon were worried.

They practically savaged the Berries she offered and finally, Anna sat down and asked, ‘Would you like to come with me? I can take you out of this place to were there is wind protection and all the sunshine and water you could ever need. There’s plenty of food and no predators… You would never have to fight if you didn’t want too.’

The leader of the little troupe managed to get across that she’d follow her into the ocean if it meant he could have more Berries.

She laid out four balls and told them, if they touched the button in the middle, it would allow her to take them out of here.

They didn’t even have to think about it. The leader escorting each of the others to a ball before tapping the last himself.

She turned to the other plant mon and offered them the same deal.
Some were reluctant and she wasn’t about to force them but as more and more accepted the Berries and then went into the balls, peer pressure and a desire not to be left alone had them also going in. She used Lab balls and all forty three balled themselves.

This place wasn’t great for the other plant mon either though it seems she had that water hole dug out for nothing… ah well.

There were some marine pokemon essentially washed up on the shore.
Most she recognised and a bit of Sitrus Berry was enough to help them recover.

One was on the point of death and too weak to eat. She wasn’t sure what had happened but the Seal was undersize and a mess.
She caught it. What else could she do.

The baby whale mon and the sharks were shoved pretty far up the slope. No way they were getting down from there and something was stuck in the hole.
It looked like a loveheart.

She sighed and caught it. It would do it no good to be stuck in there.

The two sharks and the whale as well. None of them were in the best of condition.
What the heck were they doing down here anyway. They weren’t Kanto pokemon and she didn’t think she was near another region… hmmm.

At least she managed to get most of them at least onto the beach if not fully back into the water.
They should be safe enough to leave there.
She caught a Staryu that was down a leg… sigh.
Not how she’d wanted to get one but still.

Another look around this not quite a meadow and she was off on Skarmory.
It would be better to get this lot, all of them, checked out. The Spearow too.

Those potential meadows would have to wait for another time, but they weren’t going anywhere.

Chapter Text

She stopped above the meadow of Bellossom and made her way to the Sunstone outcrop, harvesting the most prominent outcrops with the help of Sandshrew and Beedrill.

All this and she still hadn’t checked out the city proper yet.

She’d get the various plant mon healed and then take them somewhere nice and isolated for a talk… and also warn the local Joy that one of them was plus, plus, plus, plus sized as well as water based…

The next morning she took the puffy plant mon from the slanted ‘meadow’, Hoppip apparently, along with Skiploom and the three Jumpluff she’d caused to evolve.

She told the Joy a bit about where she found them and the conditions she found them and the little quartet in. Those were, apparently, Petilil. They’d be cute once they recovered.
Her best guess was there’d been a wreck of something and they and the Hoppip had washed up there. There was enough grass for the Hoppip to survive okay, if not thrive but the Petilil were on their last legs.
They’d need a lot of TLC to recover properly. She intended to take them to the lab.

The Spearow she was happy to hand over. She’d only caught them to keep them from dying outright after they’d attacked her.
The Nurse Joy was happy to take custody of them to hand over the Ranger on Anna's behalf and Anna was happy to leave the problem in their capable hands.

That other mob though… There’d been a few likely places. Some of them were too small for the whole mob but if only a couple wanted to stay.

She took them up to a place that wasn’t really a meadow but rather a narrow strip where the mountain stopped and the forest started but there was enough space here for them all to be able to listen without distractions and enough protection from the wind to keep them from going airborn at every gust.

She released them all and explained that, if the wanted, she could take them to a place like this, but better. Some of the places already had Pokemon in them but most wouldn’t bother them if they left the others alone.

She was hoping some might like to stay with her, but the rest she was willing to take to check out a few places and see if they suited.

Ones who were willing to stay with her, she put back into their balls and into her belt rather than her pouch.
There were about thirteen of those. Nine of the Hoppip, three of the Skiploom and one of the Jumpluff. A bit less than half. That wasn’t too bad.

The first stop was the Bellossom meadow, where they would have a chance to evolve if they wanted to and there was the chance to encounter human Trainers if they wanted that.

They wandered around and had a look and, with the permission of the Bellossom, another fourteen odd choose to stay and Anna broke the lab balls to free them completely.

The next place was the Sunkern /Cottonee (that’s what the cotton mon were called) meadow.

The mon, who also had never encountered humans before, were bemused by the new arrivals but not unfriendly.

Despite the fact they’d never reach their final evolution here without going on a bit of a journey, the remaining members of the Hoppip evolution tree happily settled in… only they didn’t want their balls broken. They’d be happy to be visited again by their rescuer…
Well, okay then. If that’s what they wanted…

Chapter Text

She returned to Cerulean City and, since she was in the area, she might as well check the place out properly.

There… wasn’t actually all that much here.

Well, there was the bike shop but it was stupid expensive.
She knew in the game you got a voucher somewhere but, she didn’t know if that person was around yet. The Cottage Professor and the S.S. Anne weren’t.

She’d do Mt Moon again too in order to see if they could find the Moon Stone.
She wouldn’t be breaking it though. She’d be looking for shards or even dust so her Buzzy Boy could look for more.
If there weren’t, at least she knew where to go for Moon Evolution Pokemon to evolve. That should be useful in the future.

Since it was water types, her main team, or rather her explorer team weren’t the best for that. Pichu was her only electric type on her and still a baby.
She hadn’t really given them much training outside of battles either.
That was slack of her but she kept getting distracted by interesting things.
She’d do better.

Ooooh, nice. One of the people in town was a Trader and she had that Polywag to trade. Level thirty two. Professor Larch would be delighted.
The guy was much younger here but eh.

Since using the Explorer Team would be a harder fight than it needed to be, she switched to Kanto Starter/ Support. She really should start working with them properly.
She’d go fight a few Trainers first so they weren’t going in cold, but then, right to the Gym.

… Team Kanto Starter/ Support was a wee bit overpowered. Just a touch. Pichu was the only one who knew and trusted her but Dodrio knew her well enough to listen.

This turned out to be a good thing as, while the two Trainers in the Pokemon Gym weren’t much, the Gym Leader (She was guessing this must be Misty’s grandfather?) was an absolute monster.
Dude sent out a Dewgong, a Starmie and finished up with a freaking Gyarados.

It was just another reminder that this wasn’t a game where the bad guys/ adversaries got tougher sequentially. The Trainers and Gym Leaders didn’t sequentially get stronger either. They just used a weaker or stronger team depending on your amount of Badges…
Any Gym leader, Trainer or Pokemon could and would fuck you up.
A swarm of level five Beedrill aren’t going to bother anything over level forty, especially if they didn’t have a type advantage no matter how many of them there were… she didn’t WANT to be the proverbial Beedrill swarm.

She won in the end though, even if it was a hard fight.

Chapter Text

Huh. Where was Cut again. She thought it was on the S.S. Anne in the game but that ship wasn’t around yet so…
When in doubt, ask around she guessed.

It turned out that she’d need to go and talk to one of Prof Larch’s associates in Vermillion City. Booooo. Oh well.

Still, on the way down from Cerulean to Saffron and then Vermillion there was a Pokemon Daycare. Nice.
She dumped off the egg in the Daycare.
At least ONE of those things she’d been given in trust to do stuff would have a chance to grow.
She’d been a bit slack on that and could admit it.

She really did NOT like the vibes of this guy.
He felt kind of skeevy.
Still, she had the bike voucher and without having to do anything too onerous.

Just drop off a message to a sailor from the S.S. Beth… who gave her a once over with his eyes, eye fuck style. EWW. She was still a kid in body!
She wasn’t sure she ever wanted to get on that ship now. She probably would because Trades and swag but she’d have to be on her guard…

It didn’t even occur to her until later to wonder why a sailor from a cruise ship was in a completely different town from. That wasn’t suspicious… nope. Not at all.

The second task was to go and swap a pokemon, two even. Spearow for a Farfetch’d.
She didn’t do that one yet because she already had a Farfetch’d.
She’d be back next time she went for a fly and the Spearow got snotty about it and needed dealing with. Catching one or two should be fine.
The second Farfetch’d could go to the lab.

The second trade was for the Goldeen and the Parasect… but the dude had been overly friendly and a bit handsy. A hit to a pressure point or two convinced him to… not.

Definitely sketchy. Why else would he be trading a Sandshrew variant (it was metal and ice other than ground and as metal looking as her Skarmory) for two common ish pokemon.

Whatever, the Professor could deal with it.

The kid looked healthy and happy and excited so, okay then. The third trade was with a little kid who was obviously being used as a front.

His carer, teen and female, didn’t seem to, well, care.
Either way, she traded him a Tauros and Gastly for his Lickitongue and Koffing.

She’d be more concerned if this was Gateway as one of the favourite things the wealthy liked to do for their precious spawn was to contract a poor kid with little prospects, let them get to Gateway and fight to level up their mon and then force them, via contract, to Trade their leveled up mon for babies. Since they were left with at least two mon each time, it was legal.

They had to make sure the kid had food and enough money to fight to support themselves but it pretty much nerfed a kids chance to even go on a Pokemon Journey, more or less trapping them in Gateway unless they were smart enough to simply hope the bus or ferry, level their mon up and THEN tackle the Bridge.
Any mon caught outside of Gateway or not given to them by their ‘sponsor’ family were legally theirs and could only be Traded if a kid actually wanted too…

It was reason E why she’d never tried to draw attention or gain sponsorship. The Lab Trainer thing was the closest she’d ever want to come to it.

The final trade was to a very excitable, well-to-do little girl who only wanted CUTE Pokemon. Her eggzies weren't cute no matter WHAT Mama said.
She didn’t WANT to have to stick to plant Pokemon. None of them stayed CUTE…

Anna suggested she start looking into non Kanto variants and showed her a few on the Pokedex. Lotta cute plant mon out there.

Even so, the girl was determined not to keep the boring, ugly Eggs.

Reluctantly, though the girl’s current watcher didn’t interfere, she traded the little girl a Seal, who would definitely stay cute, for the Exeggcute.

She thought she’d keep those and prove that they were fine mon thanks even if they weren’t cutesy. They honestly deserved better.
Anna would work something out with the lab later. Or she could just catch another Seal…

She found a couple of Pokeballs just in a side alley on the way back.
Well, that wasn’t suspicious at all.

She took them straight to Joy to be checked out and then to Jenny.

She would have loved to keep them since there was a Fomantis (small, cute plant Pokemon) and a Starly (a tiny bird Pokemon… she didn’t think she had that one yet.)

Jenny looked suspicious but Anna had a good reputation, was fully cooperative and perfectly happy to lead Jenny or one of her team to where she found them.

There was nothing there now of course, but a scent was putting the Growlithes’ backs up so something definitely had been.

They were keeping the balls and the mon as evidence… and then someone or something attempted to break into the police station, likely over them.

There was damage… but they did NOT get the balls. They were still tracking down who they were registered too.

Which seemed to be no one… or at least no one in this Region.
Jenny’s weren’t equipped to care for a mon long term and since she was attached to a lab…

Reluctantly, Anna agreed but it would be dangerous to wander around with them… so she went somewhere private, released both mon, had Clefairy use Sing, broke their balls and recaught them using Lab balls.
Good luck tracking them now you bastards.

Even so, definitely time to head back to the Lab.

She did stop off at the Pallet Town beach to test her new rod briefly. That hadn’t been broken in yet and caught two more Tentacool and a Seal.
She caught a third Tentacool for herself and called it done.

Chapter Text

She flew back to Lavender with Skarmory but didn’t rest overnight in the Poke Center. Too dangerous with those two balls in her hands. She’d had her mon watching over her the entire time she’d been fishing with her Karp in the water and her Explorer Team on standby.
Karpy couldn’t fight yet, but he was smart. He could at least give a warning.

It’s a lot of flying so she made sure Skarmory was well rested and let Zubat out to lead the way. Skarmory’s vision wasn’t the best at night.

Navigating from the air was hard, but Skarmory knew the way home. They’d taken the route over the channel and Storage again… though it was a lot harder by night even if the bridge made an excellent beacon and navigation guide.

They should totally pick a spot to make over as a stopping point for any future flights. That barrier range was big enough to have plenty of spots.

She could understand why only licensed and experienced fliers were permitted to do the trip and why you’re supposed to do the check-ins with official Flying towers and why you shouldn’t fly at night but… It’s all such a hassle, she doesn’t want everyone and their dog mon to know why she’s coming and going so much and she just plain doesn’t like the attention.
She has a mon with wings to fly her anywhere and she’s gonna use him!

The air rising off the hot earth made for some VERY variable winds. If not for Zubat, they’d have had to set down during the night, several times. Her ancient compass still works a treat and she knows which stars are in the right direction that away. If they hit the ocean, they’ve gone too far and need to turn back!

Getting high helped and the winds were calmer at night as there was no hot air to rise. They just traded navigation difficulties instead because even half the main towns weren’t really lit at night. The Touristy Trio of towns were and Storage a bit so they could see anyone trying to sneak around the bits that actually held stuff easily… Everywhere else, not so much.

Dawn was breaking as they approached and they’d gotten lost a few times while Skarmory and Zubat figured how to work together on this, but they didn’t stop or set down until they hit Lab Town. Skarmory was, quite legitimately, knackered and Zubat wasn’t much better.
Nor was she.
Seriously, she needed to look into developing her Abra a bit because, while Flying made getting there easier, it was still a serious pain in the arse!

Professor Larch was very pleased indeed.

Team Level Me was ready for breeding/ evolving, she bought him back a slew of non Regional Plant Pokemon that would have been hard to get a hold of otherwise and could get him more at any time, had several Pokemon from his list already as well as the two bodgies from the suspect balls and a variant Sandshrew (it would need an Ice Stone to evolve so that would likely never, ever happen but oh well) AND brought home TWO new types of Evolution stone and proof they worked as well as set up a way to get him more if/ when he needed.

He was almost shivering with happiness.
Oh, the grants he could get from this information!

He let her keep the Exeggcute but she would still need to get one or more for the lab and the rest of the list as well, but she was off to a fine start with five Sunkern, one Sunflora, two Cottenee and one Whimsicott, nine Hoppip, three Skiploom and one Jumpluff, along with the traded pokemon of Jynx, Variant Sandshrew, Lickitongue and Koffing, he wasn’t going to argue if the leader of the Petilil quartet wanted to be her official pokemon… and neither was she.
She could use some more plant representation on her team… aside from her new Exeggcute.

The two Oddish she’d leave here for now. She just wanted them so she could have both final evolution variants…

The two Diglett were always welcome and he could accommodate her two Carvanha (the two shark ish pokemon) but was dubious about the Wailmer. He’d have to see if he could set something up with Wells.

She left that in his hands without guilt… in fact, he could have them if he wanted them.
She’d grabbed them because they were injured… and non native. She’d settle for an egg from both in the future…

When she mentioned her buzz boy could track Evolution Stones once he had the scent of them, his eyes almost dropped out of his head.

He had a set of Evolution Stones he was going to use on Team Level Me’s Eevee but he was happy enough to let her Beedrill scent them first.

It wasn’t entirely successful as these Stones had been sitting in a sterile lab for some time and had been refined a bit even if raw worked just as well for Evolution. Refining them just made them look prettier and not track dust or dirt everywhere.
Raw stone samples would be better… and not ones from this island if it had any. (It didn’t. A lot of other interesting minerals, stones and ores but no Evolution Stones of any sort.)

He could do that. He needed to borrow them from another lab and planned to get the young Trainer to retrieve them.
She was proving a very able agent indeed… even if he should probably let her get on with her journey but…

He’ll also supply more lab balls and a young Spearo for her to trade.

The young girl was only too happy to do so as having her Beedrill able to track natural deposits would help her as much as it would him.
She also mentioned that some of his associates gave off a very uncomfortable vibe so, if he had any other Jr Agents, don’t send them that guy’s way.

He raised an eyebrow but left it at that.

Chapter Text

She stayed for a day to meet up with her Chansey again.
She had some maimed mon that needed care and she wanted Chansey’s opinion.
The Seal would recover with time and care, though it might never reach the size that was standard for its kind in baby form or after evolution.
The Staryu would recover, but slowly. The damaged limb would regenerate… but it would likely always have a scar. It likely wouldn’t be fighting any time soon, but that was fine.

Anna had never really seen the lab’s seawater environment before. It was connected to one of Wells' many caves, canyons and water filled sink holes, making an underground cavern of a sort with some clever jiggery pokery to let in sunlight. There were plants and stuff so it was pretty much a biodome rather than just a big tank or something.

It was quite lovely and certainly nicer than most of the actual shorelines were.
There was even a simulation ‘tidal river’.

Seal and Staryu were a bit jittery still but they were slowly calming down.

She also dropped off the Berry seeds and plant samples she’d picked up.
He could do with those what he willed.

She’d be looking up the second of his associates. That one could teach one of her Mon the H.M. Cut. Well, okay then. Hopefully he wouldn’t be as skeevy as the other guy.
She’d need to find him first though.

Now, where was it again? Ah, it was a she, and she tended to lurk in one of three places, Viridian City, Pallet Town or Mt Moon…

She’d given him a glare over that because seriously? He couldn’t have mentioned that earlier?!
Sigh, whatever.

It looked like she was heading back to Cerulean City to pick up her bike and then backtracking.

She stopped in Gateway for some supplies and some battles because Team Starter/ Support could use the boost (though her funds were actually doing quite well all things considered) so she didn’t really need the money.

She also traded a Diglett for a Muk.
The Muk wasn’t in the best of condition because the child obviously hadn’t wanted it. They REALLY liked digging Pokemon though, so hopefully they’d take better care of it.

She left the Muk in the Center and asked to have it transferred to the lab rather than go back herself already. The transporter could be tetchy as it was still very basic and buggy and the other end had to know it was coming… oh well, if it came down to that, he could always send someone over to pick it.

She’d already let Professor Larch scan the information recorded in her Pokedex… which was probably going to turn Poke Science on its head again but eh, and she preferred to have several mon or things to hand over if she was going to go back in person.

It was fine.

She was also giving team Fwendship a bit of experience as well, especially since her own Pichu was on it.
She’d need some more time with them to bond and train.
Perhaps, once they evolved, she’d be able to petition to keep the team together. Pichu was already hers and being on the same team would create bonds… hopefully.

Team Non Con needed some experience as well.
Besides, she had a few mon to catch for her own teams.

She didn’t have much interest in raising the Nido line and she’d already caught several for the lab. If she wanted one in the future, she’d just get an egg from the lab.

The chappie in the Pokecenter on the Celedon side of the Rock Tunnel and all his errands too.

Besides, she thinks it’s time to slow down a bit and start thinking of her own needs.
She’d been so busy running lab errands that she hadn’t taken the time to just stop and explore the way she wanted too.
Don’t get her wrong. Working for the lab had been very, VERY lucrative but still…
She’d been prioritising the lab requests over her own journey and that had to stop.
This was HER journey. Her ONLY journey. She wouldn’t get a do over so, she should slow down and start enjoying it properly. She’d do that from now on.

The person who caused her accident had finally awoken, though he wouldn't be saying anything soon. His head was still quite scrambled. Oh well.

None of the tourist attractions really had any draw for her… but she did rent out a studio again to get some painting in. For the whole day this time. and she got six works that just needed filling in or final touch ups, completed. It was satisfying.

She’d also made copies of what she wanted from the pocket sketchbook and handed it over to Professor Larch to decide what to do with.

Long and short, the Library was in a frenzy… again and she had some nice zeros on the end of numbers to further pad her account.

She decided to do ONE touristy thing any time she had to pass through… this time, it was Pokemon rides around the bay and, aside from coming off pretty regularly… she absolutely did NOT know how to surf, it was fun.

She’d have to come for a closer look some time with her own mon since she didn’t have any diving, or even snorkling equipment. Was a rebreather a thing yet? She’d have to look into it. That’d be invaluable for exploring water sources…

That out of the way and having dried off from this adventure, she was off again, this time officially from the flight tower even.

Chapter Text

Meh, since she had to go to the mountain anyway, why not go over it.
Had anyone actually gone UP the mountain, rather than through it? She’d like to find out.
And how much of that mini range counted as Mount Moon? Did the rest of the peaks in the bridging range also have names?

The same with the Rock Tunnel.

The flight back to Celedon was peaceful enough and asking about that person in the Pokemon Center brought no news… she did get her bike though.

She got Skarmory to take her over and around Mount Moon… where something was glinting.

Skarmory couldn’t land on the mountain. There was no room but Pidgeotto could help her glide down to the spot.
That would mean she’d likely have to climb the rest of the mountain but… she was actually alright with that.

She glided down to the glinting bit and, with Pidgeotto’s help, placed the ropes with those pittons she’d been carrying around. Yay. She finally got to use them!

It was metallic but not a pokemon. It seemed to be some sort of bracer? Or maybe a ring? It was really hard to tell.

Sandshrew dug around it carefully.

There was a stone attached to it.
She called out her Buzzy Boy and had him scent it.

Then called out Clefairy… who promptly evolved to Clefable.

So… that had been a Moonstone. Neat.
She tucked the bracer or whatever it was into a belt pouch to study properly later.

Buzzy began buzzing around looking for more. He had the idea by now.
Pidgey, holding Sandshrew’s pokeball and a sack, followed while their Trainer slowly climbed up the mountain behind them.

When the trio returned, the sack was full, Mt Moon had several (dozen) new holes over it, some of them quite deep and their Trainer was puffing her way carefully up the mountain.

That… was a heck of a haul.

She’d thought the Moon Stone was one big rock… perhaps smaller parts had peppered the mountain when the larger rock came down? After all, most people went THROUGH the mountain, not over it so these wouldn’t have been found.

Ah well, something else to hand over to the lab and Professor Larch to deal with.

She was making her way around with Pidgeotto acting as her eyes in the sky and Beedrill occasionally buzzing off with Sandshrew clutched in his legs to find more Moonstones when she stumbled onto something that was very definitely a path.

It was faint, rough, barely there even. Not even a pokemon trail really but it was definately a path. Not one to look a gift Ponyta in the teeth, she got Pidgeotto to keep acting as her scout and guide her from above.

As they went higher, Beedrill struggled more until she finally paused on a little outlook, barely big enough for her to sit, and pulled out food for him.
He’d gone above and beyond today and deserved a treat.
For now, this would tide he and Sandshrew over.

She wasn’t near the top when night began to fall but she could deal with this. She had Sandshrew dig out an overhang a bit more, turning it into a shallow cave.

She was going to leave the bags of Moonstone here. There might be something at the top, there might be nothing but she wasn’t going to hump these rocks the rest of the way up a mountain if she didn’t have too.
She wasn’t going to abandon them of course. Her mon had worked too hard for that.
She’d have him dig out a hole a little deeper and then cover it over so it wasn’t easily seen at a glance. She wasn’t trying to hide it forever after all. Just from a casual seeker.

She fed the mon who had worked hard with her today the mix she used when they’d been working hard. Those who had been mostly in their balls all the time got fed a standard mix.
It was only when they’d been training or working they got the berry upgraded stuff.

Her bank account might be very healthy right now, but she still had the poor orphan mindset and so was very careful with where and how she spent the money.
It was reason B why she left the teams she wasn’t currently working on at the lab. They had better access to food varieties and could get subsidised or bulk buy deals.

Currently, she had four teams on her and the trade pokemon, along with Skarmory for transport.
Teams Main (she was thinking of changing that name to ‘Team Explorer’ as they weren’t a good battling Team), Starter/ Support, Non Combat and Fwendship.
That was twenty five, twenty six mon at any one time.

Unsurprisingly, there were not a lot of mon up here.
Some bird mon, Spearow mainly and one or two Sandshrew but not much else.
So, it was safe enough to sleep without a tent and releasing the fluffies (feathered or furred) would keep the cold at bay, so she was set.
She’d shifted the teams around again a bit and somehow managed to end up with most of the comfy furries (Mankey was NOT a cuddly mon) back at the labs... still, snuggling with Pidgeotto and Dodrio wasn’t a hardship. Dodie couldn’t fit in exactly, but she could block the hole, the big fluffy feathers providing plenty of insulations. She was just lucky Pidge was undersized for his evolution stage.
They slept with two heads outside, one inside so one rested and the others kept watch. They switched out during the night, keeping watch.

She slept well enough and Dodrio decided to stay out the next day, making her feel inadequate by trotting up the ‘path’ easily, warbling encouragement and chortling laughter. It seemed she’d gotten over her fear of mountain paths. With this one at least, there was a clear view all around and plenty of choices for going up… so long as you didn’t mind the extremely steep slope… which she did, kinda.
Come on, scrawny, slightly underfed pre teen here.
Her mon was such a brat.

Pidgeotto was still acting as guide but he was less comfortable at this height. He was still a young bird and the Pidgeotto didn't usually fly to higher heights until they reached the Pidgeott stage. Still, it was a good experience for both of them.

Beedrill and Sandshrew were taking a break today and she had plenty of Moonstones to do whatever with. She was keeping one for each of her future potential mon and a small spare so Beedrill could track down more later but the rest could go to the lab.

A day of trudging, scrambling and climbing and finally, finally she was near the top… only to burst into hysterical giggles.

There was something that looked like a mix between a hidden temple, monastery and mountain top fortress. It was tucked, quite literally, into the side of the peak where it merged into the range of mountains behind it and probably wouldn’t be seen from the air… if anyone could get up that high. Mount Moon was BIG and a flying mon would have to be very high indeed to be able to pass over it.

What’s more, there were signs of cultivation. The greenery and the open pond, cistern thing was a bit of a give away if anyone got close enough.
They’d even bought up some Feebas to keep it clean and fresh. There was planning for you.

She wondered if this was a battling Gym or just a shrine/ monastery type thing.
Well, it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

There didn’t seem to be anyone around, human or mon.

Should she… call out or something.
Meh. That would ruin the peace and tranquility of this place.

Instead she scouted around a bit using Zubat until she found the main temple and then settled down by the front entrance.

To kill time until someone turned up, if they did, she let out all of her mon one by one and groomed them thoroughly.

Then, she started cooking.

The mon all had different tastes, like humans did. Berries came in Dry, Bitter, Sour, Spicy and Sweet and she mixed up a pot of pokechow bulked up with rice and seasoned with the Berries.

She let them out in batches depending on the food flavour they liked.
She’d staggered it so as soon as one batch was done, the next was cooking.
Even after feeding them all and grooming them, there was no one and no response… so she did the dishes which took a little time and then wandered around taking pictures.
The view was pretty spectacular.

Well, if no one was actually here, she’d stay overnight and follow the trail down from Skarmory’s back, with Pidgeotto to lead the way. Pidge’s eyesight was better than Skarmorys.

With nothing else to do, she brought out Team Fwendship and began a little basic training for them. Pichu knew her but the rest didn’t and she hadn’t spent nearly enough time on them. That was on her.

She’d done the same to Team Non Com without meaning too. Bug types levelled up and evolved fast. They should be in their final forms by now and they weren’t yet.
Also on her.

She’d do better. She had a year to wander around and collect Badges and what not but, with Skarmory and Fly, that wasn’t a big deal.
She’d honestly prefer just to wander and explore without worrying about Gym battle bs.

The babies were adorable and she had each of them working on a move that would be useful to the team.

Igglybuff was practicing Sing and Pound.
Happiny was practicing Heal Bell, an egg move it had hatched with but rarely had the chance to use before now.
Wynaut was purely a defensive pokemon. She couldn’t attack at ALL unless the move was a reflected one or could cause a double knock out. Wynaut was practicing Encore which would force the pokemon facing it to repeat their last move.
Pichu, Magby and Azurill were elemental so they were practicing that.
Thundershock for Pichu, Water Gun for Azurill and Smog for Magby since it needed to be level four before it could learn Ember.
The three had Surf (yeah, that surprised her too), Bounce and various fire related moves for Magby. Fortunately, she’d hatched with Dynamic Punch which was a heck of a move for a baby.

Paras, Kakuna and Metapod acted as their training dummies. It was all experience after all.

It wasn’t until evening that there were stirrings of life other than she and her mon.

The turn out was about twelve or thirteen individuals of indeterminate age. The youngest looked to be at least mid twenties, early thirties. The oldest was wizened and probably in his fifties but other than that, who could tell. They all had this sort of agelessness to them.

They reminded her a bit of those Shaolin monks; only these one’s clothes were silvery white, the heads were completely shaved on male and female alike and possibly waxed so that it shone like a full moon. There was a moon symbol on each forehead too.

Now that she thought about it, there had been little moons in various phases hidden in the architectural features around the place. Having seen them, now she couldn’t unsee the little motifs everywhere.
Well, whatever.
It wasn’t hard to guess what this group revered.
It was a good thing she had left her Moonstone stash halfway down the mountain.

They weren’t an official Gym anymore, it had been far too long since anyone had come up here. It had been nearly sixty years.

She may have goggled just a little bit. The younger ones looked to be in their twenties! Definitely some sort of poke based jiggery pokery going on here!

Even so, if they were willing, she’d still like to battle with them.
She wasn’t trying to do a straight run on the Gyms but exploring the world a bit.
She had a couple of major Gym badges and a couple of minor ones but she was mostly wandering around, finding interesting things.
Reason B why she was up here.

She had a team of baby mon she wanted to prove a point with as well as the starter three and their support.
She trained for her local lab too which is why she had two teams and a Skarmory for transport.

They were willing to battle, especially when she brought out the cuff thingie and explained what happened to the mon who touched it… her new Clefable. The stone in it had disappeared.

They wish her to battle using that mon in the team and she’s fine with that.

She fought using a mixed team of the three starters, Dodrio, Miltank and Clefable.

It had been some time and, unsurprisingly, all of them had pokemon that evolve using Moonstone, from the usual fairies of the Igglybuff, the Nido and Cleffa lines to more exotic lines like the feline Skitty/ Delcatty and something she’d never seen or heard of called Munna/ Musharna. It was very similar to a Drowzee in the way it reacted if not its body form… though that was sort of similar too. It was a quadruped bean in shape rather than an upright one.
It probably served a similar purpose in its Region’s ecological niche.

Even if the Moon Badge was no longer acceptable in the Conference, they still fought in a typical Gym set up.
One must fight their way past the ‘lesser’ (nothing lesser about this lot, that’s for damn sure) Trainers until they face the ‘gym master’ which is the ageless looking guy.

The lesser Trainers had mid and evolved forms where there were three and first and second forms where there were two in the evolution tree.
That meant three with Clefairy/ Clefable, three with Jigglypuff/ Wigglytuff, three with Nidorino/Nidorina and their King/queen forms.
One with Skitty/Delcatty and one with the unknown mon. Munna and Musharna apparently, psychic pokemon that, like Drowzee, worked on/ with sleep and dreams.

The Gym Master had one each of the Kanto locals making for six pokemon… and they were venerable, high level and powerful. These mon might be from common Kanto lines… but there was nothing ordinary about them.
They had that same sense of aged but agelessness as their human.

Long and short they were WAY out of her level and she got her butt thoroughly kicked but it was a learning experience and she enjoyed it.

She’d be back to try again and they said she’d be welcome.

She stayed overnight in an outside room of the complex before taking off on Skarmory until they came to their overnight niche where she released Buzzy with Sandshrew and had Skarmory circle as best he could.
Pidge was also released to help.

Sandshrew would extract the bags, Pidgeotto would wiggle in and put the end of the hood through the bag ropes and give the signal which was a tug on the rope and then Skarmory would go a bit higher to pull the bag out Anna would haul it up so Skarmory could grab it.
Then, Pidgeotto would fly up and Buzzy would pick up Sandshrew and return.

To her surprise, it worked neatly and smoothly and she recalled her three mon with no fuss.

They followed the trail down until they lost in the last hundred or so meters.
Apparently, you were supposed to free climb until then. Something to do with proving your perseverance… or some such.

You couldn’t just fly up either… usually.
There were any number of bird mon that would mob a flyer and drive them off.
Skarmory must have just been more than they could handle… or something. She wasn’t sure what had happened there.

She had been warned that, should anyone just try and teleport without the key, they’d be bounced and may, or may not, find themselves in mid air and free fall.
A cuff/bracer of the type she found, with its accompanying Moon Stone was the key.
The cuff/ bracer WOULD keep the bird mon mostly off them though, so there was that.

Anyway, she’d be back, that’s for sure.
Despite not winning, they had allowed her to keep the cuff so she could challenge as often as she liked.
Should she ever win, they’d reward her with a Moon Stone for it.
Nice.

Chapter Text

This had gotten her curious. If the Moon Temple complex was up there, were there more above other, similar geological features… She should go look.

So she did.

The Rock Tunnel had a tiny village/ town about the size of Pallet Town around an equally tiny minor Gym… it was still a legit Badge though. It was nestled into a lesser peak near where the edge running along Route Nine was.
The Above Badge was added to her case.

It was serviced by the Poke Center at the start of the end of the Rock Tunnel and now that place made much more sense. It might be there for the Trainers to make sure their mon were healthy before they attempted the cave but its other purpose was the Trainer Gym above.

(She should go talk to that guy for the next mission in the string while she was in the area.)

It was a tricky fight despite only using mon from the tunnel below it.

There had been one assistant and the Gym Leader.
The assistant had a Zubat and a Mankey of a higher level than her Starter/ Support team and the Gym Leader had, Machop, Geodude, Graveller and Onyx.

It had been a harder fight than she expected but she did win that one.
Maybe she shouldn’t have used the Explorer team. Ahaha.

Chapter Text

What about the Diglett Tunnel?

Yep, one there too and it was even smaller than Above Village.

The Digg Gym only had the Gym Leader Rune who used, you guessed it, Diglett and Dugtrio.
It wasn’t too hard to beat either.

The Gym was a few hundred meters above the Tunnel entrance.

She wondered if the Gym Leader went into the closest town for mon Healing.
This Gym was so tiny. Why did she do it? Why stay up here all alone when very few were likely to come up for a battler?
It would be rude to ask though, so Anna didn’t.

One Digg Badge collected.

Chapter Text

She thought she might go look up the second… or was it third? Of the Professor’s associates. And possibly finally trade that Spearo for Farfetch’d.

Where was that again… she really needed to keep better track of these things!
She went back over her Pokedex looking for details.

Ah, right, she’d been looking for the associate who lurked around the Viridian Area.
This would be SO much easier if they had mobile phones and internet connections. Tech was so primitive right now.
Oh well.

She posted the Moonstones off to Professor Larch, giving him the list of the mon they worked on as well as a brief description, with pics, of the Moon temple and it’s rough location and the hazards of trying to Fly or Teleport there straight off.
She was also sending Clefable to study as she’d used a Moonstone on it to confirm what it was. She didn’t need it right now since Igglybuff had learned Sing and could step up especially as she’d be using the baby mon team more.

First though, she went and picked up her egg from the Daycare… It was a Togapi.
Huh. Okay.
What was needed for them again… she wracked her brain but struggled to remember. Damn, she missed Google. She should really write all this shit out.

At any rate, she slotted Skarmory onto her main team and considered what to do with Togepi. Screw it. It could go back into Daycare. She didn’t have time to care for it properly right now.
She SHOULD probably send it to the lab... It was fine in Daycare.
She’d retrieve it after finding the move teacher.

She started in Viridian, asking about the person, who was confirmed to be female.
She’d just left apparently, headed for Pallet Town… well, better there than chasing her over and through Mt Moon.

She set off for Pallet Town on her bike… and she was in luck.

She found her alright.
Face down in the grass with a figure in dark clothes running from her.

Anna released a pokemon.
“Skarmory, grab him and take him up high! Don’t let him release any pokemon!”

Skarmory swooped, seized the runner's arms and lifted him up into the sky.

Her current Trainer released Happiny and got her to use Heal on the woman.
She’d leveled up quite a bit during the Moon Temple fights.

She also released Pidge, wrote a noted and sent it off to the Viridian police station.

She stayed with the lady and placed a shock blanket over her.

Jenny and some officers arrived within half an hour.

A half hour in which Skarmory kept circling and her catch needed to change his pants.
With the arrival of the officers she waved Skarmory down and the flying pokemon gently dropped her now, very wobbly, load.

The officers pounced immediately and cuffed him.

He had the woman’s registered pokemon in a bag on his belt.
A pokemon thief.
How mundane… and kind of stupid. Pokemon balls were registered to a specific owner. Unless they broke the ball and recaptured the mon, it was going to fight them.
Maybe that’s what the whole fake ball ring had been about.
Muddle the mon’s mind so that it accepts whoever opened its/his/ her ball as the master.
What a nasty plot, even if it had worked to her and Professor Larch’s benefit in the end.

Anna’s patch job on the woman who was attacked would keep her stable until she could be taken back to Joy to be treated.
Chansey was much more experienced than Happiny after all.
She wasn’t sure why Nurse Joy hadn’t just come here but whatever.

The woman was lifted onto the stretcher by a pokemon using psychic and carried carefully between two harnessed Growlithe, apparently trained for search and rescue.

She hadn’t known that was a thing but she supposed, with the Viridian forest right there…

She was semi commended/ semi scolded for sending her mon after a human but honestly, what else could she have done. She was a scrawny stick of a ten year old and that was an adult who had already hurt one person. So she wasn’t going to apologize or feel guilty for ensuring he couldn’t hurt her or anyone else in a non lethal or even harmful fashion.

The woman had recovered by the next day and quite happy to teach Anna’s mon the move.

She’d already considered who should learn.
Technically, anything with claws, or in Beedrill’s case, stabby, pointy things. Her Mankey could and so could Paras and Sandshrew.

Huh, her battered old Beedrill could learn Flash. Who knew. Could he also learn Cut? After all, he had those pointy, stabby things on the ends of his forelimbs.
He could indeed.

As such, Buzz boy and Sandshrew got Cut, with a T.M. version so she could teach another one if she was of mind.

The lady got her mon back safely too.

Since it wasn’t really safe for her in this area anymore, the woman asked for a lift to Violet Town, which she happily gave.

She was given a freshly caught Nido him and fem for her troubles.
Well, okay then. Saved her having to go out and do it herself. No idea what she was going to do with them though.

Well, it gave her an excuse to find a better Trainer for Mankey she supposed.
That one was a fight nut and she very, very much wasn’t.
She didn’t have any great aims to conquer the Conference or the Elite Four, didn’t want to become a Champion or anything else like that.
The Mankey deserved a partner who’d give him the training and life he wanted.

She met a sparky little brat on the bridge and, after asking Mankey’s opinion, swapped him for a Tentacool, with the proviso that when Mankey was ready to find a mate, she get into contact with Professor Larch of the Lab Town lab and the lab would cover any cost. Mankey had an interesting ability and they’d like to try and see if they could get a baby with that move.
It was a long shot, but it was damage control as she’d forgotten she was going to try and breed for another mon with Thief as their egg move and she couldn’t exactly demand Mankey back.
He and his new Trainer were happy with the trade.

Oh well. Hopefully there would be other mon with the ability in the future…
She wished the kid all the best and said she’d be watching for her at the conference.

She didn’t really need both of the Nidos, not when they had the same move set, more or less.
Might be time to collect her egg and switch it out for one of the Nido’s.

She did some fights for funds and then paid a call on the Kanto main Daycare. She’d leave Hedo there and Shedo at the Gateway one.

Chapter Text

Now, where else could she wander too. She didn’t have any mon that could Surf yet and her mon needed some more experience.

She also wanted to tackle the Moon Temple again.
So, what worked against Ground/ Fairy types.
She… might need to actually look that up.

So she does.
Huh, Water and Poison types huh.

Who does she have like that?

Well, Buzzy, but his poison isn’t that strong.
He was her general purpose bug with Flash and now Cut. In a fit of lunacy, she wondered if he could learn Surf too. (She seriously doubted it, but it was fun to think about.)

What other necessary moves were there. She had Fly, Flash and Cut.
Surf as soon as she could get it. Um… something to push rocks and something to break them so, Rock Smash and Strength? She’d need at least two mon on her main team to use them all.
Huh, her buzzy boy could learn Rock Smash… Well, it sort of made sense. Two drills on his forelimbs after all.

She was called back to the lab as the Elemental Evolution Stone trio had arrived.
She retrieved Muk on the way through.

Damn, this was tedious…

She really needed to level up her Abra. Teleport was so much faster than Fly and she hated that she was, essentially, on a schedule.
She didn’t WANT to have to get into the stupidness of continuous Pokemon Fights no matter WHAT was expected.

She had to face it.
She wasn’t a Battler.
Never had been if she had the choice, just like she didn’t like being in the spotlight.
She just wanted to play with and get to know her mon.

She wanted to study what was currently known about mon and what she could share to improve things. Her knowledge wasn’t what you could call precise… it relied on her very spotty memory.

Things she could confirm she knew, things she thought she knew but couldn't confirm yet and things she vaguely remembered, but couldn’t be sure of.

She needed money though. She got a small amount from the lab as one of their Trainers on staff as well as an agent and a deal on pokechow, but that was mainly used up on day to days.
She’d need to keep fighting for money, until she could figure out a way to be financially secure enough not to need to.
The stuff the lab had sold on her behalf was a larger amount, but she had an absurd amount of mon for a rookie not even six months into her Journey and they needed feeding and care.

She remembered, vaguely, that you needed to do something in the Safari Zone to get one of them, but she couldn't’ remember if it was Surf or Strength… or both.
Would it even be the same since she was WAY before the any of the Kanto Games timeline.
She’d need to find out.

Um… she hadn’t been to Fusica yet had she… it was kind of hard to keep track of what she had and hadn’t done. It had only been a couple of months and SO much had happened.
She’d had her map of Kanto and it was time to start marking down what she had and hadn’t done, who was where and so on.

If she remembered right, there’d been a bunch of items scattered hither and yon as well and she hadn’t so much as gone looking for even one… or tripped over them.
Perhaps that wasn’t a thing in reality… but it wouldn’t hurt to look.
So many things to remember and she wasn’t even eleven yet!

She flew straight from Lavender Town, again, which was still a long, long jaunt and she may or may not have had to set down few times, (touchdowns in the middle of the desert with no shelter or protection from mon and sun were NOT fun and she absolutely did NOT recommend them) but the winds were crazy today and she was pretty sure another sand/ dust storm building. There was no time to waste. They eventually landed safely behind the Poke Lab.
(Screw flight etiquette. If he wanted her here, he could deal with her landing behind the building's big damn rock!)

Skarmory was a really great pokemon and a strong flier. He was absolutely getting another pampering/ grooming session!

She reported to the Professor immediately.

The Muk had arrived safely painlessly, as had the Moon Stones.
He accepted the traded Tentacool as well but it was added to her mon tally rather than the Labs. He didn’t say why but okay? That was a TentHecool where the one she caught was a TentShecool. Maybe they’d like each other and breed?

There were several mon that were egg heavy including the two Ditto that had been successfully bred with Level Me’s Eevee.
He had the first Eeveelution trio done, even though they were young and more Eevee’s would be welcome.

He’d also tried the Moon Stones on several Lab mon already to great success.
Yay! More grants!
She was fast becoming his favourite person.

Another sheaf of research was plopped in her lap while he eagerly set things up for her Buzzy Boy, with recorders and everything…

As it turned out, after a bit of confusion, her Buzzy Boy could indeed track Evolution Stones of different sorts once given a chance to ‘scent’ them.
A few from stores had been dotted about the place and her boy was able to track them down and retrieve them.

The Professor eyed her boy with speculation.

“Nope,” she told him. “Mine. I would be willing to train up another later to see if it’s just him or a species ability, since I’ve a Kakuna from the same hive though… and you’ve already got the female Beedrill carrying. Do some tests on her once she’s done spawning.”

He agreed with ill grace.

Incidentally, the lab had that Fearow she caught too.
It had been deemed too dangerous to return to the wild, though the Spearow with it had been released as well as those from the second batch.
That was also listed under her mon collection and needed a lot of training…
Which she didn’t have time for right now. Fearow was fine where it was and could stay there until she had more time to deal with it… for all it was an excellent flier.
She wouldn’t trade Skarmory for it though. Skarmory was reliable and steady, lab mon or not.

She decided to keep it as a trade pokemon. There had to be someone out there with time to devote to a giant, angry birdmon.
… Did they have any of those fake balls? Addling it’s mind might make it more manageable.

Professor Larch looked to be seriously considering it.
She’d come back to that later.

With that test out of the way, she was permitted to keep a small sample of each evolution stone to date so her boy could always have a fresh scent to track.

She was going to head back to the Library in Gateway but then had a brainwave.
This was a freaking LAB. Its library/ research notes section had to blow the Library out of the water AND it would have access to more than a single ancient Pokedex.

She buried herself in the archives for a week, refreshing what she knew about the Kanto region and making herself a detailed map.
(While she’d given the Professor a detailed description of the meadows three, she hadn’t marked them on any map in the lab and had no intention of doing so. That was too risky.)
Still, hopefully, no more wandering around like a lost soul looking for things.
On the minus side, there was nothing to confirm or deny what she knew from the games in most cases. She really would just have to go and look. Oh, well.

She also caught up with her mon, spent time with them and did a little training both herself and with them. Going up Mt Moon had shown her she was terribly out of shape.

She still didn’t really have an idea about that really.
Most of the time in the game, training wasn’t needed.
You taught your mon a move, it knew, you used it in battle. The end.

This whole training thing wasn’t something she was familiar with… well, she was, but for herself, rather than other beings.
And their abilities were all so disparate.
Even the ones that were of a similar type had different body forms. Different levels and ways of moving and to do right by them, she needed to be familiar with the to make proper plans…
There were so many of them though… and she wasn’t sure she wanted to do that.

Screw it. She’d wing it and, hopefully, have fun. She wasn’t aiming for the highest of heights.

Should she go looking for Surf first or maybe do a few of those string quests.
There were a few more names on the list of Professor Larch’s associates she could look up too… or she could just spend a bit of time with her mon, somewhere out of the way.

She had two Main Gym Badges and four Minor ones. Two more Main or a quartet more of Minor Gyms and she could do what she wanted for the rest of the time… yeah, that sounded pretty good. She might even have the funds, by then, to do some of the pricier Touristy stuff in Gateway or go and check out Produce properly. She didn’t need to spend any money there. Just wander around, explore and enjoy.

The Nightmarket looked pretty interesting too and so were the gacha games…

Where was it that had something similar to that in Kanto main? Would it even be built yet?
She should have a look.

She had a shiny new bike now, she may as well use it.

This time, when she returned to Gateway… all official and proper like. It was tedious and in future, she’d totally land in the desert and ride in or just cut across the channel and land in Lavender Town to avoid all this. Very, very tempting indeed.

This time, she tried the gondola line… and then a couple of the zip lines.
They were fun, in a vaguely terrifying way.
Early video phone prototypes were out and video cameras… she hired one and filmed ride all the way down.
The filming might be a bit jerky and bumpy and things were going a little too fast to enjoy properly but it wasn’t a bad experience… she still preferred flying though.
One more thing off the checklist…

Chapter Text

Setting out from Lavender Town, she went along route eight, fighting the Trainers out and about, and past some dozing guards into Saffron City.

She guessed that meant she didn’t need to use that tunnel… was it even there yet? She should check it out. Eh, later.

Saffron Gym was a Psychic Gym in the future, but she had no idea what it currently was… and little interest in finding out.

There was a mall there… but it was still in the throes of construction.
In fact, it looked like they’d barely started and Silph Co was a tiny store that sold Evolution Stones, potions and a few early T.M. disks.

It did have a Move Tutor and two slot machines but over all, Saffron was a nothing town, not even worth being called a city yet.

Even the Gym didn’t appear to be much… since she hadn’t found it.

At least the Pokemon Center had a Move Tutor willing to teach Rock Break.
Buzzy and Sandshrew learned it. She would have left it at Buzzy, but he was old for a Beedrill and, should he pass, she needed someone who knew it on the team.

That reminds her, she needs to work on Team Non Com.
She wants to test if the rock sniffing thing was just Buzzy or a thing with his colony.

There was a guy who’d been causing trouble and though she wanted to avoid him, he wouldn’t let her passed without a battle. Someone had already gone for the local Jenny so she just needed to stall… She agreed to battle but found herself regretting it.
All his mon were fighting types and he was angry because the Gym wasn’t open so he was taking it out on any trainer who went by.

She fought using mon with status effects but it was still rough and she only squeaked out a win thanks to Venonat being willing to poison anything in reach even as he fained doing it and Dodie’s wicked Drillpeck.

The local Jenny was understandably pissed and not in the mood to listen to excuses though the locals vouched for her saying the man refused to let her go and had even grabbed her and shook her until she agreed to battle since no one was willing to fight him…

He’d be looking at fines at best and jail time with loss of pokemon at worst.

Chapter Text

After that mauling, and with how rough he was on she and her mon, she badly rattled and definitely in need of something more low key.

She looks up that guy and does the trade for Farfetch’d.

Then goes and visits the chain quest guy.
Running a bunch of errands sounds like the go right now. So far, she’s gotten a T.M., two Berries and a high quality pokeball.

There have been a few battles and she used Team Non Com.

Only Paras, who has also been taught Cut and two cocoon mon have any attack moves and none of those are strong. Even so, they should evolve quickly and then she’d see what happened with her off colour Caterpie. Even her Feebas and her Magikarp are different being larger and slightly off colour.
She feels like an anime protagonist.
Looking back, the amount of crazy shit that’s been packed into a couple of months…

She’s been lucky too.
If not for being picked up by the Professor, she’d be struggling just as hard as the other orphans and shanty kids.
She’d spotted a few of them in passing but hadn’t interacted with them. Why would she? She had her own Journey and it wasn’t like she could do much for them.
Some had banded into groups of three or four while others struggled along alone… but it was clear most of them were weren’t doing well.
They looked pretty thin and ragged and there were usually only two or three balls on each belt… for those who had a belt.

She could probably afford to do something about that now but wasn’t sure what exactly.
Just giving them food or money or poke supplies might help short term but…

She wasn’t sure she wanted the attention.
Most orphans and shanty kids wouldn’t take that for granted the way a kid from a comfortable home might. Debts were to be paid back… maybe if she did it anonymously and left a note?

Yeah, that could work.
She’d make up little kits and drop them off when she saw someone who was clearly struggling.

Chapter Text

Seven errands later and she’s feeling better.

They even have a mini scanner that will help them find lost items.
It’s not the Item Finder from the game by any stretch but it does give a ‘bing’ sound if there’s something in the area.

It’s experimental and she agreed to test it out ‘cause why not and it sounded fun.

She did have to wonder how long this string of quests was.
There have been eleven so far.
It wasn’t that she minded getting all this stuff for trotting here, there and everywhere and running down assorted people to deliver messages, pick up items, deliver items and so on but still…

On quest thirteen, she was stalled.
It was in a town she hadn’t been to yet and she needed to deliver a message to the current head of the Pokemon Safari Sanctuary.

Well, she guessed she was getting back on the road again, and possibly doing more *sigh Gym Fights. At least she had a rough idea where several more Minor Gyms were now.
That would make life much easier.

Her Pupa mon have fully evolved now, since there were Trainers to fight on the way and wow, okay then. Butterfree at least is definitely a Shiny version. The wings and feet are pink and it’s two sizes up from a normal Butterfree. Butterfree was a big, BIG girl.

Beedrill Jr Version is a normal one of his type… and she asks Buzzy if he can teach his Junior the ability to sniff out Evolution Stones. The lab would like one that could since Miss Buzzy is too busy breeding.

She also decides she can now be more gracious to her fellows from the Circuit Towns who are down on their luck. Shanty kids, orphans and the kids from the working poor households rarely had a good time of it.

It wasn’t that unusual to see them ending their Journey in a hospital.
If they were lucky, they went into a main land orphanage and got to continue their education. If they weren’t, they fell afoul of one of the Trafficking groups, into a gang or out and out died.
With no support, no one would miss them.

She’d see if she could put up a list of Lessor Gyms was put around in the Poke Centers.
They’d have a better chance with those. Unlike the games, this life didn’t come with a handy walkthrough you could consult at the hard bits.

Speaking of the Lesser Gyms… she should get that out of the way as well as testing Jr’s stone finding ability.

They took him up the Bellossom meadow to let him get a feel. Giving him a sealed piece to get the scent and then letting him ‘sniff’ for it.

It took him longer, but he managed once he got the idea.

Then they tried on the Sunkern Meadow, followed by the Leaf Stone Waterfall area. Then, Moon Mountain.

Bitty Buzz learned fast.

So, when they stopped by a lake that supposedly had a Lesser Gym near by, Fighting and Poison mostly, and Buzzy Jr took off, the followed easily enough.

A shallow cave with old signs of habitation.
Bitty darted in, with Buzzy on his heels.

She sent Butterfree and Pidge in after them to make sure they stayed safe.
She would have gone too but the pair were moving far too quickly.

It was nearly two hours before they returned but they’d gone up two levels and they were all clutching Evolution Stones. There had been a cache in there, hidden but easy enough to get through using Rock Smash.

It was safe enough for her to come and look… so she did.
There were no more mon. Her mon had scared them or driven them off.

The cave didn’t go back too far and had no real forks outside of a few dead ends.

She pulled out Zubat and had her do a scan. Three of the four were genuine dead ends with the remains of rough furniture or benches and the like carved into the rock itself.

The last however, Zubat sensed something beyond. She had Buzzy drill some careful holes. They weren’t trying to bring down the wall, just get access.

There’s a rock pool in there, forming from water trickling down the stalactites.
What was more important, Water Stones were forming in that pool.

They took the ones that were fully formed, all thirteen of them and packed them away.

Sandshrew and the Beedrill worked together to block the small hole they’d made so it looked like it never existed.

She’d come here with Gastly, Diglett and Abra so they could get through the wall without damaging it in the future. It’d be an interesting experiment. Could a Psychic Pokemon teleport to an image shared by another pokemon? They’d find out soon enough she guessed.

Having dealt with that, the group moved on to the cache behind the main cavern.

There was a natural series of caves back there but they weren’t wet the same way the Water Stone Cavern was. It’d been hard to move in there for all the stalactites, stalagmites and joined columns. It must have been very damp indeed.

These were cool and dark because underground and caves, but not damp. The weirdest thing about it was there were no mon.
These caverns must not have open access anywhere else.

The stash, outside of the dozen odd Evolution Stones of different types, a bunch of miscellaneous items along with a small amount of gold and some strange looking coins but that was all.
It was enough to fit inside of a single chest.

She wondered what the history of it was?
There was nothing with the stash and no other sign of who it might belong too.
Perhaps the people in the local Gym would know buttttt she wasn’t telling anyone of this and, since Pokemon could hold an item, she had each of her mon that wouldn’t be effected by it hold one of the Evolution Stones.

There were Fire Stones, more Water Stones and some Thunder Stones… but there were a couple of odd bods she didn’t recognize straight off.
She was pretty sure they weren’t Kantoan though.

They’d be back to explore here later, since they weren’t in a rush but she’d need supplies and to inform the locals that the caves now extended FAR further back.
(She was honestly surprised there wasn’t a mon guarding the stash but this was fine.)

She did reprimand Jr even as she hugged him.
“You did well finding them,” she told him. “But never, ever fly off without support okay? You need someone to cover your back while you do and someone else to help you carry it. I don’t want any of you getting hurt just for these!”

She also made each of the group their favorite foods that night as a treat.

The Gym was nothing special.

They knocked it over, if not easily then easily enough that a few Berries consumed during the fight saw them right. She’d used the Baby Mon team to get them a bit of Experience before switching to Starter / Support for the main fight.
There’d been two Jr Trainers and the Gym Leader.
Then, she had herself a Bait Badge.

They were in the section between Route Seven and Route Six out from Saffron City so there wasn’t a Pokemon Center immediately available but several Berries saw her mon right.

The locals took the news that their shallow cave now ran a lot deeper varyingly well.
She used the excuse that one of her mon got a bit too enthusiastic fighting the local cave mon and a Geodude got hurled into the wall and then pounded on, causing the wall to break.
She needed to train her mon more and she’s very sorry.

They’d send groups out to explore later.

The Gym didn’t even have a town attached. Just the living quarters behind the Gym, which the eight of them lived and trained out of.

Okay then.
She asked if there was anywhere that might have a bit of the history of the area because some of the caves looked like they’d been shaped into furniture and like it was lived in…

They… reluctantly, share some of the legends and the history of this Gym.
There was a trader from distant lands who fled persecution and unfair charges to Kanto and he and his family lived out of the caves.
Eventually Gym Challenges started happening and his grandson decided to set one up to get in on the deal…

She smiled, nodded and read between the lines.
The ‘merchant’ was obviously a pirate/ thief/ scammer who’d made off with the goods.
The charges were likely fully justified and they’d said nothing about the stash, which was probably a ‘treasure’ in the stories.
The man hadn’t told future generations, likely either about the pond (if he’d known of it) or his stash so, in order to get money, future generations had set up a Gym here but, since it wasn’t in one of the Major towns, it didn’t get much traffic.

Amazing how passed down stories and legends prettied things up.

She went on her way.

Butterfree could learn Teleport. They could learn Psychic as well. Nice.
Butterfree would be swapped to the Explorer Team while Jr would go back to the labs to see if the ability to sniff Evolution Stones would breed true.
Unless Buzzy wanted too. He was old for a mon and might like to rest.

She asked. Actually, both of them wanted to stay with her but Jr was willing to give way to his Sr. Both of them had liked having another Beedrill around since they were hive pokemon.
She’d have to remember that.

Maybe at the lab Jr could make a hive of his own with Miss Buzzy or one of her offspring. Honey would be a valuable addition to the Lab’s resources.
She’d need to collect more seeds from flowering plants!

Meantime, she’s nearly dancing with happiness! There’s another seven Shiny Stones in there! And THREE, count ‘em, THREE Ice Stones. She doesn’t recognise the purple black stone, or the blue one with the star burst but, if they’re in there with the others, they must also be Evolution Stones of some sort. Probably not for Kanto native pokemon though.
They’d need to research!

This stash must have been from a raider way back when who might not know what it was he’d picked up but had hidden it anyway!
How EXCITING.

Even better, despite their probable age, the Stones had barely degraded at all!
Being Sealed in that cavern must have been to keep them in their best condition.
She needed to get them to the lab and sealed asap!

There had been some other hold items in there as well but she couldn’t identify them as easily.
She’d head back to the Lab again to off load the goodies… though she’d reserve at least two of the main Evolution Stones for her use.
She found them! She deserved that much!

Teleport was among the moves she’d gotten from her chain quest guy and she taught it to Butterfree immediately. She might be young still and newly evolved, but she was no weakling and she had stamina to burn for her kind.

Thing was, she and Abra both needed to actually see the place before they could go there and it was a LONG jaunt… so she flew again.

Skarmory really was a very agreeable bird mon and very well trained too. She should show her appreciation more often…

It was getting faster each time since Skarmory was familiar with the route now.

Fly from wherever to Lavender Town. From Lavender town to the Middle Town landing point, check the weather report and then Fly to Lab Town if the weather allows. It was less officious than Gateway and they didn’t really mind if she landed beyond the town limits and rode her riding mon into town, so long as she kept out of the way of traffic.

So far, she’d had clear runs but, if she was stuck in town for a bit, she’d check out their attractions or head up the mesa and do a bit of sketching, painting or photography. Maybe go and check Produce out if it didn’t reach MiddleTown or Produce.
She had more photos for sale anyway as well as some of her art…

Teleport would, hopefully, take care of the delay issue since the Teleport arrival station was in a nook in the antechamber of the Lab’s front entrance.

She and Skarmory arrived just ahead of a dust storm, so they’d likely be staying until it blew itself out.
Butterfree was very young and her stamina was good for her age and training but Anna wasn’t going to push her too hard, not without a need too. Abra though was a literal baby.
Neither would be able to take her far yet.

She intended to take them to each of the Circuit Towns because, if they could get her to Produce or MiddleTown, she could take it from there or they could trade off while the other rested. No point in pushing them if she didn’t have too.

Annnnyway. The Professor was so excited he kissed her on the forehead again and picked her up, spinning her around before he dumped her and bolted over to check out the stash.
He’d gone passed gleeful into joy, even if he didn’t recognise even half of the items mixed up with the stones.

She did though. Some of them. Maybe. Or she thought she did.
It had been a while and some of them just looked like junk. Cracked teapots and old armour and hold items of various sorts… Ah, the Shiny Stones. She grabbed one. Those were important. She was sure they was, even if she couldn’t quite remember why. She’d take one with her and give it to Happiny until she figured out what to do with it…

She vaguely remembered that some pokemon, to evolve, needed to be traded with an item and mentioned it. Like Onyx and Steelix.
She didn’t remember all of them. Just that it was a thing.
She didn’t know how they managed in the wild or even if they did. It might have been a game mechanics thing, like the whole ‘a mon only has four moves'. (There were six per mon)

Chapter Text

Evolution Stones could turn up in the wild so various mon that needed a stone to evolve could just do it if they found one, but the mon that required trading, or trading with an item… she didn’t think they COULD evolve in the wild.
There were even some fusion mon that required one be traded from either end to create the Pokemon but she couldn’t remember which that was. It wasn’t Kanto, Johto or Orange Islands and those were the ones she was most familiar with.

Let’s see. Among the loot was a couple of King Stones (she dug hers from the orphanage out of storage now that she finally recognised it. Damn, she felt stupid now), six Metal Coats, four of what she thinks are King Scales, some teeth and scales she doesn’t recognize, along with six little boxes, some with a bolt on the side and some with little flames, two more items she doesn’t recognize at all but, if they’re in there with this lot, they’re probably hold evolution items and… is that… YES. Fuck yes. A Prism Scale. With this, any money problems the Lab might ever have had are solved… There only needs to be one to make more after all.

She grabs the item, dancing around a bit.

Professor Larch had never even HEARD of Trade-based Evolutions.
She tells him to just try it… before getting distracted by the Scale again and remembering why she’d come.

He’s as thrilled as she is. Enough to actually grab her and spin her in a circle while planting a kiss on her mouth (no tongue or anything sexual. Just an outpouring of joy and enthusiasm) before dumping her on the floor again, snatching the scale up and taking off towards the freshwater Pokemon enclosure.

Anna was slow off the mark as she’s not as familiar with the place.

By the time she arrives, he’s in the process of using a net to snatch up the first Feebas he can grab and, following her instructions, places the Scale with trembling hands among the little fish’s own scales. Then he drops the fish and jumps back.

There is a high, trilling cry and the light of evolution and then… There is a Milotic, one of the most beautiful of the water Pokemon sitting, looking extremely confused half in and half out of the pool's water.

If there’s one thing she doesn’t like about the Professor, it’s that he’s too accustomed to dealing with the mineral dulled, more animalistic Pokemon.
He forgets that many regular Pokemon are fully as intelligent as humans and so forgets to take the Pokemon’s preferences, wants and needs into account… just like he did here.

While he’s busy celebrating, the young Trainer elbows him out of the way, bows to the confused large eel mon and congratulates it on its evolution, telling it, with its help, there will be many more others like it soon.

She repeats that to the other Feebas in the pond. They’ll get their turn in the future.

For now, she asks that it settle in and make itself comfortable and she’ll bring it some modified chow and berries so it can choose the ones it likes best.

Mollified the Milotic, a female, settled back into the water and sang to the Feebas.

She pretty much pushed the bemused Pokemon Professor out of the enclosure and then rounded on him. “These aren’t mineral muddled Professor. They’re as smart and in some cases, smarter than humans. They have opinions and desires like we do.
It’s in our best interest to keep these guys as happy and healthy as possible and, if you can’t keep that in mind, get some assistants who can!

Also, each and every one of those items that I’ve brought back are evolution items, either stones, breeding hold items, hold items or hold items for trading.
I don’t know how whoever made that stash got them, since two thirds of them aren’t Kanto or even Johto specific. They must be from very distant Regions indeed.
Anyway, The second most exciting thing in the pile Professor is we have an Ice Stone for your Variant Sandshrew! You can raise him to Sandslash anytime you want!
I know trading tech is pretty basic but, if you give Onyx a Metal Coat to hold and trade it, I think you’ll be very pleased with what happens. The same for a Scyther.
Try it if you don’t believe me. I promise, you won’t be disappointed!”

He hummed, hawed and did all kinds of tests on them before finally, finally giving it a shot.
You could have knocked him over with a feather when Steelix emerged from the ball, rather than the Onyx he’d sent.

He goes into an excited tizzy and starts contacting all the other Labs he can… inside AND outside of the area.

She shakes her head.
Honestly, that man. He needs an out of territory assistant. One who hasn’t been conditioned to think Pokemon are just animals. Out of this area, they aren’t and mon from outside this area should never be treated as though they are.
She’ll keep an eye out.

She’s still there, a day later, caring for the new Milotic.

There’s a second Prism Scale in the mess, and she approaches the pool, asking if there’s another who is willing to try Evolving.

There’s a rush of volunteers and she eventually turns to Milotic and asks her to pick one. That one will pick the next one, once they have more Scales and so on.

She picks one, seemingly almost at random.
A male this time and soon the pool has two beauty noodles coiling happily in the water, enjoying each other's company.

Because it’s there and she can, she gets things set up for other Trade Evolutions.
Scyther with a second metal coat, ready to be traded, a Poliwhirl with a King Stone and a Seadra with a King Scale.
They didn’t have any Slowbro to evolve but they did have a Machoke and a Graveler.
Obviously, she wasn’t the only one with a ‘train for the lab’ team.
They didn’t have a Rhydon or a Haunter yet either. Did people not want to work with the powerfully rocky or the spooky?
Well, she would once she knocked over the rest of the minor Gyms and then work on her teams, which would need reordering… again. Ah well.

She didn’t actually do it because that would be WAY overstepping but they were ready to roll when the Professor finally resurfaced from his Lab contacting spree.

While she was there, she spent some time with the mon she owned, all of them. She didn’t do this enough.

Time to restructure the teams so they were more team-ish rather than simply grouped together by type, Region, whatever…

Pidgeotto was coming along well, but with Skarmory to fly on, they didn’t need him as much and now that Butterfree could step up as a scout AND had teleport, he simply wasn’t needed.
She’d still make time for training with him and take him out for a few fights. He wasn’t far off evolving after all.

For now Butterfree would take his place on the Explorer Team.

The same for Weepinbell. Butterfree could handle most what she did as well.
She should offer that one a chance to evolve if she wanted… and possibly somewhere to cluster with others of her kind.
he’d done her dues and if she wanted a peaceful retirement, now that she was no longer needed so much, that was fine.
Perhaps she’d like to make a bunch of little sprouts herself?

Or she could catch more and they could be used as Starters…

Well, first to see if the Bell wished to evolve yet.

She wasn’t overly eager, but she did like the idea of staying in the lab for a bit and having some Spouts… but she wanted a male Weepinbell, not a Ditto.

Fair enough.

She’d evolve when her male counterpart was ready too.

Okay then.

Anna would have gone out and caught another and even trained it up, but it turned out the lab had several on tap. Since they preferred to be with their own kind, there was a cluster of little sprouts and a couple of Weepinbell as she wasn’t the lab’s only attached Trainer.
Weepinbell could settle in and see if any suited.

Diglett… she’s not sure what to do there.
While she’d like to have her starter on the Explorer Team, it’s not practical…
Not with Sandshrew already on the team.
Besides, Diglett isn’t a Pokemon that enjoys fighting. It will if asked but it would honestly be happier just chilling in a nice cave.

Her Explorer Team was now Butterfree for Psychic and Teleport, Sandshrew for Dig and general rock/ground work, Zubat for scanning and when they can’t afford to use Flash and, once she grew a bit, she’d be able to learn Fly, Gastly for checking behind solid walls and objects and for Hypnosis and Strength and his ability to track things on the ground, Beedrill with Flash, Rock Smash, Cut, Poison Sting and his ability to sense Evolution Stones and track things in the air.
She needed one more.

Growlithe was her first choice. Her growly fire pup both for general fire related stuff, thunder moves, though her pup couldn’t do poison like the rest.

Maybe she’d keep Pidge on until he evolved and think about it then.
There was no need to rush.

Ideally, she’d have a water type and someone with healing in there too and the line up would likely shift again once the baby team evolved but since she carried two teams, on for exploration and one for battle, it was okay not to have those on the Explorer Team for now.

She’d also learned that both Zubat had Thief. Nice.

She’s considering bringing back Wigglytuff as that one can do both Sing and Water moves or that small non regional one… what was it again? Audino?
There was little information but apparently the little mon could use water as well as healing and thunder moves… Never mind Wigglytuff then.
Gastly and Zubat both had Hypnosis and Butterfree, for now, had Sleep Powder.
She’d try with Gastly for a bit and see how they went, but Audino was her first choice for switching out.

The baby team of Team Fwendship would remain unchanged with Igglybuff, Happiny, Magby, her Pichu, Wynaut and Azurill.

Team Starter/Support would remain unchanged too with Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander, Miltank, Dodrio and Venonat.

Team Non Combat’s new line up was Trapinch, one Wurmple, Magikarp, Paras, Eevee, Abra. Even if only Abra and Magikarp were truly incapable of fighting, it still counted.
Trapinch, Paras and Wurmple weren’t fast or strong, and were restricted by their natures, despite having a way to protect themselves.

Eevee could learn more but she didn’t expect the Eevee to remain an Eevee for long unless she gave it an Ever Stone to keep it from Evolving until she wanted it too…
Did the lab even have one of those? Were they a known thing yet? If not, was there one in the stash? She hadn’t fully gone through it yet because she’d gotten distracted by the Scales for the Feebas and the potential tradeable held items.
She’d check.

They do and she gave the little mon the stone, though doing so confused it.
She phrased it as allowing the little mon to choose if and when it evolved and into what.
She told the little mon that there are eight options for evolution and she’s perfectly happy to let it choose what it wants to be. Five require an Evolution Stone to evolve, while the other three need high friendship with a Trainer and one requires for him to also know a Fairy move.
The last three are more difficult because she’s not a super great Trainer and knows it.
She’ll give it a bit of experience in fighting but, beyond that, it can choose its own future.
The little mon looks a bit unsure how to take that but Anna leaves it there. Honestly, she’s not really all that invested…

She also learns she misunderstood something.
She has TWO years to collect the Badges, not one.
Because their off side islang area of the Kanto Region has so little support for the Trainers, they’re given a handicap, in that they have more time to do it. So, essentially, the Trainers of the Circuit Towns Island have one year off and one year on when it comes to the Conference.
They CAN go yearly if they want… but they don’t have to.
They’re also more likely to be adults still on their Journey, finishing at eighteen to early twenties.
She… has time. She doesn’t have to rush. She kind of wishes she’d taken that in earlier. It would have made things much less stressful.

With the pressure off a bit, she can bring forward her plans to raise up some of her fellow local Journeyers into some competent and, more importantly, empathic with the Pokemon, assistants and workers for the lab.

While she’s here, she packs away all the items into vacuum-sealed containers with a label on saying what they are, what mon she knows they work on and how to use them.
In the case of the ones she doesn’t know, she puts ‘Out Region Hold It/ Hold Item for Trade Evolution or Out Region Evolutionary Stone’.
Straining her memory she remembered something possibly about dusk and dawn… but she wouldn’t put money on it.
It also seemed that the Stones that were held items didn’t suffer the degridation of regular stones so this might not be necessary for all of them but still…

(She may or may not have let all of her claimed mon have a look at all of the Stones and items, just in case…
She was not expecting it to be Misdrevious that pounced on one of the dark, purple possibly Evolution Stones.
Apparently, he was a Mismagius now. Well, okay then.
The Professor was probably going to be pissy but she deserved this much, right?
At least she had confirmation that it was an Evolution Stone.
She had to wonder what the two blue star marked Stones worked on…)

She has a Mismagius now and one that wants to go out into the world.
Well, it wouldn’t hurt to take a Non Kanto team out.

She’d ask around and see if any of the others wanted out as well.
She’d not really done well by them so far. She’d do better.

Audino wanted to come and so did Larvesta,
In the end, they weren’t all non Regional that wanted to come with.
The final Away Team was Mismageus (of course), Larvesta who was a fight nut of a bug, Audino who wanted to practice the healing he’d learned from Chansey, Deino who also wanted to fight and test himself, Dratini who was still very young and just wanted to explore and learn about everything and Diglett, who just wanted to be with her. He was her Starter and felt his place was by her side, fighting or not.

Since Audino was coming anyway, Growlithe got the final place on the Explorer Team.
She’d take Pidgey too, since she wasn’t limited to six balls. He deserved his chance to level up and evolve.

She’d need SO much more food…

Fortunately, Professor Larch had gotten his hands on the early version of a SilphCo bag, which was essentially a Bag of Holding and assigned her to road test it along with a half dozen potions and assorted Berries.
It was still a bit larger than a regular backpack, but she could fit ALL the food in there. Her gear had been upgraded too, tent, bedroll, cooking supplies and camping furniture.
All of it fit neatly in the backpack.

Even her wearable gear had been upgraded.
Her belt held all the balls invisibly, except for six so it looked like an official belt.
She had a case for her Badges.

Her jacket was now reversible with a waterproof side and a thermal side as well as a fold-away hood, though all her Trainer gear had retained the removable legs/ sleeves.

She has four sets of clothes now, aside from her Trainer outfit and all of them of high-quality materials, along with a week's worth of underwear and socks, proper waterproof hiking boots as well as warm weather sandals, also suitable for walking.

Her hat is waterproofed and has a flap of material that covers the back of her neck but can be rolled up around the hat and folded flat so it was like a bandana with a visor. It came with an attachment that covered her face and throat.

Clothes wise she has a second set of her Trainer outfit, cargo shorts and a light summer, though not short-sleeved, top with attached singlet top, a girly looking, cap sleeved summer dress for if she needs to look like a little girl for whatever reason and some heavier winter wear with thick pants, a thermal long sleeved skivvy, a heavier coat with a high collar that comes up over her chin and goggles. That doubles as a flying outfight cause it gets COLD up there.
She also has a long-sleeved nighty for sleeping in the Poke Centers.

Skarmory’s saddle has been upgraded so it’s easier to put on and take off and needs less care for its upkeep…

And all of it. ALL of it fits in the bag.
It’s amazing!

Chapter Text

While she’s here, she tests out the Item Detector because she’s curious and, to her utter bemusement, gets some ‘bings’.
There’s stuff here to be found!

She gives the device to Gastly and asks Zubat to go with him. She's looking for balls or disks in odd places and, when he finds one, brings it back to her. It’s about time she developed some abilities to manipulate things.
If she absolutely can’t, and Anne knows it’s a hard thing she was asking, then ask Pidgey to go with her to grab the item. She CAN use other items to help her because that’s still getting the results her Trainer wants.

Try it for a day or so and, if she can’t retrieve them all or bring them back, Anna will go around with her tomorrow and they’ll get the ones the mon weren’t able to retrieve…

While her spooky mon was doing that, she was with one of the Professor’s Assistants, getting the details on the next Seasoning Team she was being handed which are all baby and all non Kanto Pokemon.
What happened to her second Fwendship Team? No, no she gets it. None of them have evolved yet and these are under a different category.

There’s no rush on these because the Professor isn’t sure how things will play out for them. There just isn’t enough available information on these Pokemon so, she’ll be making it up as she goes along and her findings will go into new Pokedex.
This won’t just be leveling up, but fact finding and detail taking.

She didn’t recognise most of them.

According to her updated Pokedex they were:
An Aron (a small quadruped in white armour - him).
A Goomy (basically looks like a slug but is pure dragon - him).
A Gible (squat in body with stubby arms and legs and a mouth that opens across the body. The head has a fin that curves back with two torpedo-like protrusions either side of it - him)
An Axew (a little grey and olive thing with what looks like a green floaty around it’s neck, a bone, double sided knife in it’s mouth and a fin on it’s head along with a stubby little tail - fem).
A Bagon (t rex shaped, but stubby and under formed with what looks like silver locks swept back over it’s head and yellow plugs in each side of the head. The yellow is echoed in the under side of the jaw and the underbelly, the rest of it is blue - him).
And, lastly, for something completely ridiculous looking, a Dreepy.
(Normally, she likes ghost mon but this one just looks so stupid. It has a long lizard like body, like the ghost of a lizard with a weird ring with spikes a third of the way up the tail/body in a weird grey that echos the upper part of the head… which looks like a on of those triangle shaped fighter jets. No, seriously, it looks like someone stuck a grey jet to the top of this mon’s head, added a pair of pink fins under the wings, to match the pink on them, a pair of yellow eyes on the top of the jet and a green jaw to match the rest of the body under it. It’s also got a pair of weird, flippy little limbs on the front. -him)

They were all dragon types though so that was interesting.

She was then handed what information on them the Lab already had.

She spent the rest of the day going through the information and figuring out how to approach them. They were all baby mon and low in level with only one or two moves apiece.
Being mostly dragon ish though, they’d probably need to regularly be put in their places. They were mostly males as well so that was something to be aware of.

Having an Assistant handle this isn’t surprising. Not with how busy Professor Larch is running around trying to contact other labs.

Right then. She opts to do the meet and greet in the Lab to give it an official feel.
These baby mon haven't been socialized or introduced to any others. These are fresh from the fake balls so they will be inclined to regard her as Master.
How they managed that she’s not sure. Perhaps they meant they transferred them to the Pokeballs while unconscious and so they haven’t seen a human yet?
Well, whatever.

(One of the fake balls survived the transfer of mon and has been cleared for her use with Fearow. It’s a risky experiment but oh well…
She will fight the bird mon to defeat and fainting, break its current ball and capture it in the fake ball… if she can. There might be a reason it’s only baby mon in the fake balls… they’ll have to see. If not, there’s the empty ancient ball which won't be anywhere near as comfortable as a modern one, but if it wants to upgrade, it will need to behave!

It’s a risk and a gamble but outside of putting it down, there’s not much else they can do with it.)

At the end of the day, her mon have retrieved half a dozen different objects but Pidge was needed to help. He’s very much enjoying the treasure hunt even if Gastly is frustrated that she can’t ‘hold’ more than just the device.

She gets commended anyway because they’ve done really well.

The little spook spends the next day leading her Trainer around to the ones they couldn’t get too.
Most of them are Berries or upgraded Pokeballs, but there are some T.M.’s along with the mysterious ancient Pokeball.
That counts as an Item? Okay then.

She takes it.
Maybe they’ll find a way to open the ball or the person the ball will open for. Maybe it needs another item to trigger? Or a certain set of circumstances. Who knows?
She’s had a bunch of very protagonist-y things happen to her, if not to the level Ash Ketchum did. She hasn’t encountered any Legendaries or potentially world destroying incidents, thank Arceus.

At the end of the day, they put the device away.
They might not have found everything, but this is something they can come back to.

The next day, they gear up for the Fearow fight. Her team beats the bird with relative ease, knocking it out. Then, she taps the fake ball on it.
The fake ball holds for less than five minutes before breaking.
So, they can only likely be used on baby mon. Good to know.

She chooses to use a regular Pokeball on Fearow rather than the ancient one. She’ll work with the mon until it can be trusted not to attack everyone and everything in sight.

She hands it over to an Assistant for healing and she’ll retrieve it later.

Normally, she’d be fretting and stressing, restless to go but now, now she knows she doesn’t have to rush. She’s halfway done and got plenty of time…
She might do the rest of the Minor Gyms ‘cause why the hell not and it will take her off the beaten path the way she wants anyway.

She wouldn’t go looking specifically but, if she saw a CT Island Trainer who looked down on their luck, she’d approach.

Chapter Text

They’d have to visit Middle, Produce, Gateway and Storage so they could just ‘Port there from now on… actually, may as well do that now.

Skarmory did a truncated town tour, adding Wells because you never knew.
Most of them didn’t have an official Teleportation or Flight tower. Only the Touristy Towns and Lab Town had that… Well, Storage did have a Flight Tower but it was more for training classes than mon arriving ‘cause, honestly, who’d want to come to Storage unless they needed an anonymous office for whatever reason?

For most of the towns, the Petrol Station/ konbini was good enough a landmark and they just landed behind it, though away from the back door.
This worked for Orphan, Fisher, Wells, Storage AND Shafts. Produce, MiddleTown, Gateway and Lab all had official Teleport receiving spaces.
While she didn’t mind Gateway knowing as she’d be just one of many, doing so in Produce or MiddleTown would make her stand out and she still had hang ups.

She'd fly to MiddleTown but land outside the town and come in on Dodie, but not from the main road. She’d come in from the Shantytown direction during the day when it was quieter and then head up the Mesa to the teleportation arrival point.

From there, they’d pop over to one of the other towns, trading off turns and practice.

The receiving station for Teleporters is behind the Shrine.

Butterfree was fascinated by all of it and she allowed the Away Team out at each stop to get a feel for it. They were here to explore after all.
It was only a brief taster of each, so they had a rough idea but it was something.

They head back down and into town and she hires a motel room for the night. She’ll catch the workers' bus in the morning before the Tourist swarm and make her way into the mega mall… after stopping for breakfast. She could fly, but this way was less flashy.

It was seven ish when they arrived and she killed a bit of time in the mega arcade.
The pawn shops interested her more than anything, with the antiques shop a near second. She’d also hit the thrift shops, ‘cause you never knew if you’d find something interesting.

She found a few fascinating pieces, but nothing she really wanted to buy.
Well, except for that pair of dangly Pokeball earrings. They looked sort of like that ancient ball she’d found in the bell tower. They were adorbs. They needed to come with her now.

While she was here, she got her ears pierced at the chemist so she could wear them.
She had sleepers in the holes but would get Chansey to heal them once she got back to the Lab.
She was contemplating a nose piercing as well but that wouldn’t be smart while she was wandering… the earrings probably weren’t smart either… but they were SO cute.

The balls were small, about the size of her pinky nail and sat on the bottom of a pair of short gold chains that went straight through the holes and a pair of clear rubber stoppers that slid up them so she could decide how far she wanted them to dangle.

Forty Pokedollars was probably over paying but they were, supposedly, actual gold and enamel, with a piece of some grey stone that gleamed along the edge where the two Pokeball halves joined and the ‘lock’ on it that looked like a zipper toggle actually flipped up. It was very realistic since there was a little bump it closed over… It was smooth and cool to touch but had the faint smooth gleam of moonstone. It was definitely grey, not silver too so the contrast with the pale brown of the bottom of the ball and the gold outlining it was very strong.

It was fine. She deserves nice things too…

Nine o clock came quickly and she trotted her way back to the elevator to the roof.

It was much better now.
She heard it used to be in the Plaza near the arcade. That would be so noisy. And the Flight tower used to be above the skating rink! That was so dumb.
This made much more sense.

She released Butterfree and Abra as well so they could get a good look around.

After this, it was just Gateway and then they could practice for a bit.

She COULD hang around and do touristy things but she wanted to get this done already and, once it was, she could come back any time she liked.

She released Skarmory, saddled him up and they were off.

They reached Gateway with no problems and she trotted down the track that curved around the front of the headland, rather than the one that led down to the road into town.
That’s where the Teleport arrival point was. It didn’t see heaps of use but there was enough to warrant one.

On arrival, she let out Butterfree and Abra and they were done.

Points on all of the Circuit Towns marked.

Her next project would be to mark points in the Major Towns of Kanto, and then the Major features too!

Meantime, she had Butterfree teleport them back to Lab Town from each new location and then back again and then from the non Lab town to a different town.
Abra wasn’t left out either. For every three Teleports Butterfree did, he got to do one.
She didn’t want either mon straining themselves over this.

The mon were knackered by the end of it but she had an idea of Butterfree’s stamina and teleportation range now and Abra’s too.

With the task successfully completed, it was time for some fun and she asked her mon what they’d like to do.
After all, Team Away were here for the main purpose of being able to check things out and explore!

There were designated areas where a person could let their mon free for a bit and that was their starting point.

Except for Fearow and the trade mon and the bitty feral mon team.
She couldn’t trust them yet to behave themselves and not cause trouble.
She also wanted Fearow’s first introduction somewhere there weren’t potential bystanders to become collateral damage.

It was a great day.
Her Pokemon explored and played and got to meet others outside their own teams.

There was something like a park / playground for them to explore. Dirt or sand to burrow in. Things to climb and hide in and so on.

She cooked using the grill and fire stove. There was plenty of bark to burn and Charmander and Growlith took turns using a small, steady amount of flame for her to cook with.
The food was good, she groomed them all afterwards and called it a successful day.

They didn’t need to do anything special to make it a good day. Just be around so she could enjoy their company and they, hers.

She forgot that sometimes. A person’s mon, if they were treated well, would often just be happy being with that person.

For her touristy thing this time around, she decided on visiting one of the big arcades.
She didn’t expect to do well at the games but that wasn’t the point.
She just wanted to try it.

She was… okay at some games but, with foosball and air hockey the closest thing to arcade games she’d experienced before, it was no surprise she didn’t do terribly well.
A lot of these games require fast reflexes and she didn’t really have those.

It was fun watching people with good reflexes go though. She’d always admired skillful people strutting their stuff.

The most exciting thing that happened was she stalled some bullies targeting a little kid by setting Gastly on them to prank them a bit. Enough to distract their attention so the little kid could slip away and then, ‘cause she loathed bullies, she basically pick-pocketed all their tickets, found the little kid later and went halvies with him.

Whatever the story, even if the little kid had baited them into it, they were stupid to fall for it and, if it was legit bullying, then they deserved what they got.

(She may or may not have had Gastly keep an eye on them to ensure they didn’t get in the shit later for not having those tickets… Pyramid extortion wasn’t that odd among the kids of the rich and powerful. Not on this island.
If things went to shit, she had permission to prank the extortionist as hard as needed for the other kids to get away, but no permanent harm and she wasn’t to be seen…)

The kid got this MASSIVE plushy with the tickets and a couple of key chains and gave the rest to her. There was nothing she particularly wanted but the jewelry set that matched her earrings would do.

It had so many bits to it.

Eight clips, a slide for the back of your head, an ear cuff, a forehead decoration on a chain, silvery strands with bells and charms to braid into hair, five hair combs in three different styles, two small ones with a single Pokeball graphic and two bells, two mid sized that were curved and joined with chains and charms obviously for the back of the head and the last, larger comb was obviously meant to sit at the front of the head out of a bun or other up doo that had five large teeth. It was very elaborate and echoed the moonstone, enamel and gold theme.

A nose stud that could connect to a matching ear cuff with a tiny charm and more embedded in the chain, a three-tier necklace that could be detached.
It had collar, choker, princess lengths and was pretty simple otherwise.
Black leather thongs, with bars at the side of the neck to hold them to the right lengths apart. The bars could detach and become simply dangling decorations or be removed completely.

There was a matching slave bracelet, bracelet and anklets, and slave anklets and a set of armbands, all with bells on either side of the pokeball.

Her earrings don’t have that… but closer examination shows they were supposed too.

She might look up the maker later and see if they have any replacement bells.
She wonders if there’s a costume that goes with all this.

It was complete overkill but she had the tickets, so she got all of them.
She’d check back another time and see what they replaced the set with…

She even had a few over, which she gave to a stressed unhappy looking kid.
They probably wouldn’t get her much, but it would get something.

She found a few gacha games and some crane games in a corner but she’d never been good at those, so she just played a few of the gacha games.

She played some older school pinball which was fun and some of the pachinko as well.
She didn’t expect to win anything, so the silly little keyring out of one of the pachinko machines was a win as far as she was concerned.

She’d see if any of the mon would like it.

After lunch, she booked herself some studio time. She’d had portions of her zip line video slowed down and printed out so she could use them as reference pics and one of the Assistances, with the Professor’s permission, was selling her artwork for her.
Or making deals for the use of her photos.

Chapter Text

Settled and happy, she made her way out once more.
Perhaps she should also list what the Major Gyms had?

She vaguely remembered something about a Fighting Dojo or Gym or something in Saffron City but hadn’t seen it when she was there.

Since she was curious about that, she flew straight to Saffron from Gateway, being sure to let Butterfree and Abra get a good look around.

Most people arrived just outside the city, either Fly or Teleporting on the mainland as they didn’t have sand/dust storms to worry about and it was considered rude to just Fly/Teleport into a city or town… which, fair enough.

She went looking for the Dojo and, yeah, it was there but it was no wonder she’d missed it. It had a tiny sign saying Dojo and Gym and just looked like a regular house.

She poked her nose inside and it seemed the young master had recently taken over.
He wasn’t confident and so spent his time training himself and his mon on the rock tunnel outside town. If she wanted to fight him, she had to find him and get him to return.

Right then. That could wait.
She didn’t have much that would stand up to Fighting types anyway. Sure, she had flying mon but it was Psychic mon that really did the damage…

She’d be Flying to the towns she’d already been to so that the Teleporters could get a good look… and she wanted to try and catch a couple of Poliwhirl.
She thought she remembered a King Stone working on their line… Or was it the Slowpoke line? Anyway….

From there she flew to all the cities and towns she’d been to already to give her Teleporters places to land… and then started including special places like the Meadows, the Water Stone Caves and the Leaf Stone Waterfall.

It would save a crap ton in travel time, even if soaring over the world serenely was lovely.

It wasn’t that travel had been unpleasant for her to date, since she’d stuck to the main roads and took her trips in easy stages, so she always ended the day at a Pokecenter. Her gear was sturdy enough that even wet weather wouldn’t slow her much and she wasn’t stupid enough to go out if it was going to be misty or foggy. She was in no rush most of the time.
Having said that, if she could get where she was going more easily, why not do so?

They practiced Teleporting for the rest of the day, much as they had in the Circuit Towns.

Less got done because the distance between was a lot greater but soon, both Abra and Butterfree could get her reliably to any town they’d been to on Kanto main… and then, by hopping to Gateway or Storage, to any town of the Circuit Towns as well.
She was SO proud of her mon and promised them a good pampering when they were next in the area of a Groomer.

Chapter Text

Now, she had a choice to make. The water path involved a LOT of fighting and would be good for leveling up, but it was grueling and there were few wild mon to face.

Actually… had she even been to Vermillion yet? She was SO bad with names and it had been so long she kept getting things confused. Why did this Region need two C named cities that sounded similar and two V named cities? Why couldn’t they be like Fuschia, Lavender and Saffron with different sounding names!

No… actually. No, she hadn’t been to Vermillion City. She’d been to VIRIDIAN City.
The one with the forest, not the one with the boat.
Well, damn.

Vermillion first then… though she wouldn’t be going near the S.S. Beth. Not until she was MUCH stronger. If that sailor had been anything like the rest… yuck.

She didn’t remember what Gym was where anymore but it was fine, she’d find out when she got there along Route Six.

Oh, hey. It was the opposite side of that tunnel. She should check that out on the way back since that guy was supposed to be on top of it somewhere…

The trip was short. Outside of a few Trainer fights that she used Team Fwendship for she soon found herself in the harbor city of Vermillion.

A trip to the Pokemon Center and around the back of it to let her Teleporters have a spot to memorize and she was ready to explore.
Well, except for the S.S. Beth. The sailor on the dock is trying to be subtle about it, but he looks like he’s sizing her up as a bedmate. Ick.

Fortunately, there are other boats and ships and she’s interested in getting to Fuchsia since the bike path bridge they’re planning to build is just that, plans. Ship or a long and complicated path rambling down the coast on the other side are the only ways to get there…

There’s a ship in about four days that accepts newbie Trainers and comes recommended by the local Jenny AND the Joy so Anna’s willing to give it a shot.
Unlike the Beth, these smaller ships don’t really go out to sea. The Beth is a cruise ship while these smaller vessels are mainly cargo transports that take passengers on the side.

They’ll hit a bunch of the small towns around the harbour, with Porton (Port Town) the tiny town she’s pretty sure doesn’t exist in the future when the bike bridge connects and divides the port into inside and outside (she’d have thought leaving a way through would be smart. Oh well. Maybe they thought full port access wasn’t needed anymore or access to Fuschia was more important? It still just doesn’t seem very practical to her.)
Being so close to Fuschia City, they might have just been relocated there… or to one of the other small towns around.

While she very, very much wanted to get to Fuschia because she’s pretty sure that’s where Surf is… or possibly Strength, maybe both?- It will do her good to learn a bit of patience and have a look around at all the smaller towns. The trip should take about a week or so and once she’s been there and registered at the Poke Center, she can come back any time without having to run the trainer gauntlet.
She’d rather save those guys for when she needs the funds. Besides, she has a few mon to pick up for the Professor and Surf is the only way to get ‘em.

Meantime, what’s there to do around Vermillion City…

Not actually much. For a ‘city’ it wasn’t very big.

She collected an Old Rod from an enthusiastic fisher, which she’d hand off to a Trainer from the Circuit island that wasn’t doing well.
Being from there, they’d have no issue with catching Magikarp to eat.

She talked to some people, stopped by the Pokemon Fanclub and got something aside from a bike voucher… a person willing to put up all the Major and Minor Pokemon Gyms up on a map and then speak to the Joys about putting it up so Trainers seeking the Minor Gyms could do so more easily.
He was also the first person on the mainland willing to buy not just her pics of Pokemon but her art as well, so long as it was Pokemon based. He was willing to reach out to other fanciers and galleries as well.
Gateway and Produce might get prints, but his connections would get the originals.
That beat the crap out of a mere bike voucher in her mind…
He was also willing to direct commissions her way which was even better.

Mobiles hadn’t been invented yet, but handheld phones were and her Pokedex could act like a pager if she was in range for him to call her.
She’d need something like a P.O. box and an agent, or something similar.

For now, she was on her Pokemon Journey and told him that was her main focus.
She’d welcome the idea of commissions later, when she had a more stable address as she was a Circuit Towns Island orphan and so, essentially homeless for the duration.

He offered to set a postal address out of the Pokemon Fancier’s Club (it’s official name) so she could use this place as her mailing address for Commissions and she agreed because that would make her life SO much easier.
With Butterfree and Skarmory she could pop by literally any time.

She left with good wishes on both sides…

Chapter Text

There was nothing in the water Pokemon wise here that she couldn’t get elsewhere so that was a no go, she guessed she may as well challenge the Gym and get that out of the way.

Was this the Electric Type using guy? Would he even be a thing yet? Did she have any Rock types who could laugh off the damage? Or ground types?
She’d need to check.

Poking her nose into the Gym, it’s still an Electric type Gym so she needs Ground and Rock types… which are light on the field in her stash… at least she thinks so.
Still there are plenty of lab Pokemon that need levelling up, so she’ll see if there are any Rock Types the lab needs leveled up…

After all, her Explorer Team isn't necessarily for Gym battles.
They might be her most used, but they aren’t her only Team.

She didn’t really have Rock Types outside of Larvitar. Many Grass Types either, not that were up for a Gym Battle, since she’d not really put any time into them. She did, however, have several Ground and Normal types.
Time to retrieve Hedo, Shedo, Kangaskhan, Wigglytuff since she already had Diggles on her.

She didn’t expect to steamroll the Gym. Just passing was fine since she’d spent no time on these mon and their moves would be pretty basic.

A quick trip via Butterfree Express (with occasional Abra interludes so the babymon could get some further experience) and she had her team gathered and the two young Oddish in day care instead. They were purely for evolution purposes after all and then the lab could study/ breed them if they wanted.
One Vilebloom and one Bellossom.

One of the folk in the Pokemon Fanclub had given her a doohickey that supposedly let her know which of the trainers was up for a rematch. She was game to give it a shot. She also sent Gastly and Abra out with the other doohickey to see what they could find.
Pidge was too big, even if he was small for his evolution, for sneaking around anymore.

With his hands able to hold the doohickey and the sack and Gastly’s ability to go through solid objects, he and Abra were an excellent team. The two were to sweep the town, but stay away from the ships for now.

Three days of bouncing about Kanto and fighting Trainers leveling her Nidos and the Kangaskhan… Wigglytuff, that mon needs help. Most of the level up moves are pretty crap.

Meh, Wigglytuff just needs Sing and one move that can cause some damage. She’d let the Nidos do a mid fight evolve but she just wants a pass so lets them level up and evolve anyway.

Kangaskhan is a very versatile mon.
She looked up what moves it could learn while they were at Gateway’s T.M. / Move Tutor market, which only happens once a month (and you can never be sure who's going to be there) and ends up buying the mon a move each, including Diggles.

K’khan received Hyper Beam, the Nidos both got Toxic, Wigglytuff added Ice Punch to their move list and Diggles already has Earthquake, Magnitude and Dig and Sleep Talk and Rock Slam. Gastly is added to the list as a throw away.
Acid Spray is added to Lick, Confusion Ray, Toxic and Pain Split.

(While she’s there, she goes for her first diving class ever. She wants to learn how to do it properly so she and her mon can go together.)

Honestly, she overprepared. It wasn’t quite a curbstomp but it was close.
It seems the Mains in this time are either complete monsters or barely stronger than a regular Trainer.
Electrical guy here, even though her mon aren’t much higher level wise, was nothing to speak of.

All she can do is blink, shrug, leave and call it done.
They had a T.M. of Shockwave too, which was nice.

Chapter Text

She gets on a ship a day later and lets her mon out.
This one lets you do that so long as they aren’t too big.
She’s decided she’s going to try and Trade for most of her water mon. She couldn’t be bothered leveling them up… unless she catches more that are in danger.

For this ride, she pulls out something she hasn’t touched since the start of her Journey.
Her scrapbook.

Watching her Pokemon flutter or ramble about on deck, with the fliers happily ranging ahead, behind or wherever was very peaceful.

Her birds were too big to land but they could hover while she recalled them.
So long as they could keep up with the ship and didn’t cause trouble, she didn’t care what they did in the meantime.

While the day began hazy as they left port the day turned warm with a pleasant breeze.
The sky was blue with wispy clouds, the sea was sparkling in the sun and calm. It was absolutely perfect weather and she was going to enjoy it while she could.

Between that, she reads her way happily through the research notes to date.
They had some fascinating theories on the cataclysm while she was interested in the results of that mineral on humans and why the Circuit Towns didn’t have proper names… not even the island itself.

She had her own theories but they’d stay theories until or unless she had an opportunity to prove them one way or another.

Before she knows it, the day is almost gone and they’re pulling into some place called Maiden’s Peak.
She thinks she vaguely remembers that from the anime, with a Gastly or Haunter helping keep the legend alive… or some such.
It wasn’t a festival time, so it was an ordinary little harbour village.

They were staying only long enough to refuel during the day but overnight at night so, after finding a spot Abra and Butterfree could memorize to teleport too she paid for a room for the night.
No Gym here, but she’ll be back to explore in the future.

She DID manage to Trade a Goldeen for a Horsea… she should capture some more mon to trade in areas they wouldn’t normally show in.
Oooor, she could get some more from the Lab.
Those two stashes from the Poke Thieves had plenty of common mon in them. The Lab doesn’t need ALL of them, surely.

Since she’s here overnight, she’s got time though the ship leaves early in the morning and she’ll need to be up by five at the latest as the ship is leaving by six.

It’s harder as it’s dark but Butterfree does her best.
It takes fifteen odd minutes for Butterfree to get her breath back and set up for the next jump. From Maiden’s Peak back to Vermilion. From Vermilion to Saffron. From Saffron to Lavender and from there to Gateway. From Gateway to MiddleTown and then to Lab Town.

Three hours later, she’s back with a Weedle, a Catapie, a Geodude, two Machop, a Tentacool, a Seal, two Diglett, Abra, Gastly, a Bellsprout, two Spearow, a Mankey him, an Oddish, a newly hatched young Pinser and a Scyther. A bit of fishing nets her three Poliwag.
That should be plenty.

She collapses gratefully into bed and sleeps until four.

---

She’s groggy and sleep-deprived the next day and naps in her cabin, only stirring when they once again hit port.

A place called Hutbert Port in a region called Porta Vista.
It has two major towns Hutbert Port and Acapulco. Both of them are only small towns for now but the locations are gorgeous. She has no doubt they’ll be popular in the future.

There’s no Gym here either, but it’s a lovely place so she happily takes pics and does some sketching.
The local mon are pretty shy, but the locals are happy to do some Trading.
Bellsprout, Oddish, Weedle and Caterpie all go in exchange for a Seal, a Krabby, a Goldeen and a Shellder. Huh, that’s most of the local water mon sorted.

---

The next stretch takes most of the day and they stop at a little nowhere fishing village, right on the beach… such as it is since the slopes of the mountains are practically on the beach, though there’s a tiny, shallow cove that provides them some protection from wind and waves.
The village is on stilts and is buried in the trees.

She doesn’t get off the boat and neither does anyone else.

They leave before dawn the next day. The sky is brilliant red… and that's rarely a good sign.

The haze builds to actual cloud cover of the lowering and threatening sort and the ship has departed from the norm of the last couple of days to swing wide, out into the center of the bay… and into the teeth of an approaching storm.
Lovely.

They swung wide because the coast becomes treacherous in rough seas… and these are rough and getting rougher.

Two days of fighting the storm later the ship swings into a tiny cove on the Laramie Steading.
They aren’t encouraged to get off the ship, but the ship is allowed to stop there in bad weather.
This is very bad weather.

Another two days before itself out and it’s safe to venture out again.

Chapter Text

The next accessible cover is off Laramie land and the first major town they’ve come to in a while. It’s one of the major off-loading points as this side of the land mass is mostly forested and not as heavily sloped.
It was called Norm Port due to the Gym.

It was a Minor Gym which Anna happily challenges.
It’s a Gym of normal types… Really, REALLY buff normal types hence the town's name.

It was a typical small Gym set up. Two trainers and a Gym Leader but they were a HARD fight.
They were all level twenty-eight odd.

The two trainers had four mon each with the first having Stantler, Rattata, Raticate and Tauros, while the second had a Meowith, a Persian, a Lickitongue and Smeagle.
The Gym Leader, Grant’s line up was even tougher with Kangaskhan, Munchlax, Snorlax, Miltank, Happiney and Chansey

Her hastily thrown together team of Doddie, Mismage, Gastly, Pidge, Fearow and Skarmory do okay, despite being levels below in a few cases. She’ll work on that.

It was still a tough fight because most of his mon were tanks… or capable of healing the others/ themselves. And they were capable of learning elemental moves…

If not for Pidge pulling a final evolution out from under his tail feathers, she’d have lost.
She’s not a strategist, she’s NOT good at thinking ahead and planning for counter moves and it shows. Hell, she struggles to remember what’s good against what, outside the obvious ones like Electric against Water or Flying.
Still, she did get herself a Pound Badge in the end.

There’s no Poke Center here as the Gym Leader’s two healer mon usually handle it.

She’s got her own healer mon so they handle it instead. They need the practice.

Still, Pidge finally, finally got his third Evolution and was made much of.
As a Pidgeot he was finally big enough to carry her safely and very excited about it.

She has something different in mind though.
Despite being bigger, her boy doesn’t have the stamina of Skarmory.
He can only take her for short flights, despite being a far faster flyer than Skarmory.
He’s going to be her message runner mon and, if the need calls for it, her parachute mon. Pokemon Hangliding exists and she’d LOVE to soar under him so she doesn’t foul up his feathers or wings.

After thinking about it a bit, he doesn’t mind that idea, just so long as he doesn’t get left at the Lab. He hates it there. He hates the Circuit Island completely.

Fair enough.
He can join the Away Team.
Seven slots on a team is rare but that team really are out here to explore and see the world…

With him, she might be able to do some Commission stuff after all because he can fly to the Pokemon Fanclub and back to wherever they are inside of a day.
(Of course, Abra could also do it, being a teleporter but he’s still a baby. He’s getting bigger, leveling up slowly, but he still doesn’t have a lot of stamina.)

Pidge is a smart birb. He can figure things out from an image and he’s happy to play mail bird.
They’ll learn how to Hang Glide together, next time they’re in Gateway.
He’s very excited…

The town looks a little like Storage, lots of warehouses and stuff but there’s also houses scattered about and a few stores.

She takes a few pics, finds somewhere to use as a Teleport point andTrades a Pinsur for a Heracross and one of the Spearow for a Mankey (him).

Someone else has a Koffing and a Muk to trade but they’re a bit iffy on what sort of mon they want in return.

Anna ends up having to run a few errands for them before they finally decide on Nido Him and Nido Fem which she hadn’t even considered bringing.
That’s fine.
It’s daylight so Abra can also help meaning she's off to the Lab and back inside in two hours.

A Nido him and a Nido fem are soon in his fickle minded hands…

Oh yeah, his kid brother wants a Tentacool cause they’re too dangerous to try and catch…
He’s offering up a weird mon that no one around here’s seen before and he doesn’t know what to do with.

Anna offers to have a look at it.
She can barely contain her excitement! That’s on the list AND it looks like a variant!
She’s pretty sure this is a Sneasel!
She happily trades for it and asks the kid if it perchance came out of a weird ball…

It did.

She explains about the Poketraffickers and the not-Pokemon balls.
This were Pokemon that they had stolen from someone and because they used the not balls for transport no one can find their owner. She’ll take it back to the Lab and see if they can’t help.

His younger sister also has a couple that she doesn’t want and is willing to trade.
They never told anyone but they’re big brother because they needed the balls but didn’t want to get in trouble.

She’ll trade for them, but would like to see where it was they found them.
Those not balls don’t hold the Pokemon properly and, in fact, hurt them if they’re in there too long.

The kids went a bit grey at that.

She traded Abra, Diglett and Spearow for Exeggcute, Wooper and a non variant Sneasel.
The little girl won’t get in trouble for those Pokemon and there aren’t any in this area so they’ll be different but not TOO different.

The kids led her to a little cave with a tiny pile of eight not pokeballs.
Audino and Happiney stand ready but they might be too late.

She has the kids wait outside.

She breaks each ball carefully and a Pokemon flops out.
They’re all in TERRIBLE condition. She needs to get them to a Pokecenter asap!

Meantime, Audino and Happiny do their best to shore them up so they’ll survive the trip. They all go into lab balls.

There’s a Pidgey, another Sneasel - non Variant, a Wooper, a strange bipedal creature with circuitry like markings (Elgyem), a fox Pokemon she doesn’t recognise (Nickit), a Magnamite, a Polywag and another Exeggcute.

She also takes the children and reports this to the Gym Leader since the town doesn’t have a Jenny in residents, being so close to Fuschia City.

The children are censured for hiding this but permitted to keep their traded for Pokemon since Anna is a Lab agent and most of them ended up there anyway.
He’ll send word to Fuschia’s Jenny about it and keep looking around. There might be more mon whose balls broke that are still loose or more balls.
They’ll get onto it immediately.

She’s sort of curious about why they don't have a road going back through the forest to Fuschia. Wouldn’t that make transporting goods easier?

Gym Leader Grant explains that the grounds beyond their port town belong to Fuschia City and they’ve been requested not to touch the forests more than they must, the road they use to transport goods goes down the coast so, technically, she could get off here and still get to Fuchsia but she’s not going too.
She paid for the trip and the rest of the trip she will take, thanks.

The ships are about to leave anyway and, outside of teleporting or flying, it’s faster than what they can do by land.
He can send word ahead so that the Fuchsia City Joy is waiting for them on the docs.

Anna would really appreciate that and says as much before running for the ship.
She makes it with fifteen minutes to spare.

Chapter Text

Joy and her Chansey are, indeed, waiting on the docks which seemed to have not much else apart from some shipping crates since Fuschia City is literally a fifteen minute walk from there.

From there, the ship hits another small town called Stone Town and then turns around to go to Cinnabar Island.

Actually, now that the mon are away safe, she’s changed her mind.
Having been to that port town with another close to Fuschia on the list she didn’t feel the need to actually go TO Fuschia itself right now… and normally, getting to Cinnabar Island by yourself was a fucking pill!

Screw that. If she could take a ship, she was taking the damn ship.
She was aware that in the games there was a sort of barrier in place to keep you from being able to wander off too far and to keep you from just sailing out into the bay to get there yourself, but this wasn’t a game.

Ships DID come and go from there since it was a Tourist Trap like Gateway… at least for now.
She really was getting the easy ride. Once the bike path got put in, it would make it a LOT harder since ships would no longer be able to go from Main City ports right to it.
The ships and tourists would need to come from outside that line…

Oh well, not her problem. Once her mon knew how to get to a place, she could just ‘port or fly.
It was getting there in the first place that was the problem and, if a bit of extra fare on a cargo ship could solve that, you BET she was taking the easy road!

She could even call it Lab Business since it actually was.
Nurse Joy, while collecting those mon, had passed on a message from Professor Larch requesting her to go to Cinnabar and pick up whatever the thing was for him, even giving her travel funds.

The ship's captain wasn’t impressed but for double the price he was willing to keep her on until then… her cabin was being downgraded though.
Some folk from Fuschia were headed to Cinnabar as well and they’d booked those cabins. The ship only had so much space after all.

The downgraded cabin was shared with two others using bunks and a hammock.
As the last minute shove in, she got the hammock but wasn’t overly bothered.

At least the meals weren’t downgraded and she was still free to use the facilities, such as they were, and her mon were still allowed to be loose on deck, above or beside it, depending on the mon.
She would have kicked up a stink if they weren’t.

Rather than continue to work on her scrapbook, she was spending time with Pidge and they were practicing what he’d need to do as both a mail bird and a hang glider carrier.
He was mainly practicing grasping things and flying smoothly with a weight under him.
He might be small for his kind, but damn he was fast and he could turn on a wing tip.

She also spent a bit of time getting to know her new Traded water mon.
She might have to make a new Team Marine. With the Seal and the Staryu in the Lab she did have six… it would depend on if those two wanted to stay or return to the wild.

The weather, which had been overcast, turned drizzly and miserable meaning she gave her mon the option of staying in their balls.
None of the bird mon really wanted out in that… which, fair.
The water mon weren’t thrilled with the idea either. They couldn’t hide deep below the water’s surface as the mon of a Trainer…

She couldn’t do anything that required a steady hand, not with the way the ship was pitching.
She might not get AS seasick as a person with glasses might, but she wasn’t enjoying this either.
She was doing her best to simply sleep it off… hard in a hammock that rocked violently with the ship's motion but she was giving it her best.

A voice over came that there were a pair of Gyarados fighting in the waters ahead so they were going to attempt a detour…
Even so, all hands and Trainers should be ready at a moment's notice to abandon ship…

Well, bugger. Of course it wasn’t going to be that fucking easy. And here she was without Surf!

Chapter Text

Nearly a week was added to the trip and the ship limps into port heavily damaged, but they survived. It wasn’t moving under its own power, but rather the combined efforts of the mon from both the Sailors and their Trainer or Tourist passengers.
If they had a mon that could help, they were asked to use it.

With both Water and Flying mon, as well as a couple of healers, her mon were made of use of, a lot.
While it was simply expected in an emergency, she’d been one of the first to step up and ask what she could do to help… honestly, all she really wanted was off the boat and onto solid land and the faster she could help that happen, the better but still.

There would be commendations for all who assisted but she might get a reward out of this too so okay then.

Those passengers who’d signed on for the rest of the trip would either get a refund or a recommendation for another ship from the same company, only slightly later.

She… was actually very tempted to make the full circuit because why the hell not.
This wasn’t something that she’d be able to do in a couple of years and, having been here once and registered, she could fly back at any time.

She’d explore the islands when she felt like it and not because she was forced to in order to get to Cinnabar.

As one of the major contributors to the ship getting here, she didn’t think they’d turn down a simple request like that, especially since they were already going to have to juggle cargo and passengers… She didn’t mind if it wasn’t the nicest cabin. She just wanted to see those tiny little ports and towns that likely wouldn’t be there or would be greatly reduced in the future.

Yeah, that sounded like a plan. Pidge and Abra could take the thing back to the Professor while she explored…

There’s a little ceremony where all those who helped are given acknowledgement and a little plaque but those who have contributed the most are given a voucher.
Sometimes these ships carry exclusive goods that aren’t claimed and they have a sort of private store/ warehouse thing at their main base in the deep cove formed by the Pallet Town peninsula. It’s on the opposite side from the Indigo Plateau path.

There’s no official town there and access is by air or sea. Nor is it on their Route of stops as they usually go from Cinnabar straight to Sunny Town and continue on from there.

Only two other people got the chance but they didn’t seem to recognise what a great opportunity such a voucher was and, for the chance at a rare Pokemon and an Evolution stone, along with a bit of cash, sold them to her.
She had plans for those, oh yes.

Since they were an exclusive item, she also had to sign paperwork saying they handed them over to her as well and the agreement of the company who gave it. One was going to the Lab because she’d no doubt these people would come across interesting items from time to time.

The other, she was going to hold in reserve.
Should hers ever become lost or damaged she would have a spare and it was going to be put in storage against future need.

Chapter Text

Meantime, while there was a Gym here and touristy stuff, there was no great mansion, burned out or otherwise. Just a bunch of small cottages… she wondered if she could buy land here?

The answer was ‘yes’, but it would cost her a fortune or three or four to do so.

She was in no hurry to challenge the Gym because, while Blain might be just starting out as Gym Leader, he was no pushover. He was young, he was powerful, he was proven and a little bit cocky.

None of her water mon were of a level to touch his.

Even his Jr Trainer’s Pokemon were all in their mid thirties level wise.
This was NOT a Gym to challenge on a whim… and she might not need to anyway.
After all, she had a nice handful of Minor Gym Badges and along with two from Main Gyms.
So, along with what she had already, that was enough for the League Challenge. She could relax now and challenge or not as she pleased.

Since there’s going to be a two week wait, she makes vague plans to hop back to Fuschia and return then… once Pidge and Abra return of course.
It took them a couple of days doing it without her direction but they’d be better next time.

In the meantime, she’s going to ask around and see if anyone wants to Trade or battle.

She also has those truly epic pics of the two Gyarados battling. That was far closer than she EVER wanted to be to such an event, but it was definitely awe inspiring to see and, considering the conditions, the pics had come up quite well.
She was going to do several different versions of this fight in a couple of different media because that image was burned into her head and she REALLY needed to get it down while the muses were flowing.

They didn’t have studio space for rent here but she could hire a small, empty room and set up something close to it herself.
It was annoying to have to buy or rent all the stuff but worth it in the end.
She had two sketches in ink and charcoal, another two for transferring to pottery paper or to be copied onto a ceramic vessel of choice, three different angles in water colour and two done with acrylic paint on flat canvas board.

It took her a week and change to complete them all, but the creative urge wouldn’t let her go until they were at least mostly done.
She’d also blocked out some cutouts for a screen or lino print as well. She just needed the proper paint for it and the sealant which weren’t available here.

Now that she had the Gym Badge shit sorted, she could afford to indulge a bit.
Rent a proper studio and put some serious work in…

Anyway, that only leaves her four days until the new ship's arrival. Well crap.

Rather than get flustered and rush about, she takes her time, chats to the locals, takes pics and tries out some of their version of touristy things.
She does some sketching of interesting faces and places.

When a kid catches her at it and begs for her to do one of them she agrees easily, cause why not and ends up spending the day selling sketches of people and their mon.
She hadn’t intended that but it was fine.
She had a copy for her and a copy for the client as they were done on tracing paper that she sprayed the back of to seal before she handed it over.

Several people were interested in Battling her baby mon, new water mon or even had specific types they wanted to train against.
As a Lab Trainer, she had several teams on hand at any one time so she usually had something in the category they were after… She was lacking in Normal, Psychic and Rock Pokemon though and usually had to bring out one of the trade mon.
The only fighting type she had that was hers was her Traded Mankhe.
Likely an oversight on her part but she wasn’t much for fighting anyway.

Trading wise, she had'd swapped Poliwhirl, Butterfree, Machop, Diglett, Gastly and Abra for Exeggcute, Jynx, Drowzee and Geodude with the last wanting two for his one… considering it was a Slugma, she felt it was worth the trade.

The Professor would be very happy indeed. That was most of his wish list checked off!

She was keeping the Drowzee and the Geodude though. She needed more Psychic and Rock representation on her teams.

There was also a slightly shady guy running an Egg Stall.
She had the money, so she bought out his entire stock. She’d cycle them through the DayCares and see what popped. If they were common mon, they’d go to the ab or be traded.
If, on the extremely unlikely circumstance that they hatched something more exotic, she’d have to see.

She dropped off his location too the local Jenny anyway, just in case.

On the day the new ship arrived, there was an article in the local paper about a notorious Egg Thief having been caught from an anonymous tip-off. Nice.
There was a small reward offered, but it wasn’t worth turning over her egg stash.

Since she’d bought him out and then his back-up stock as well, she had twenty-three eggs.

As they’d been forced out into the bay rather than along the regular route, the ship offered to backtrack along the islands to Stone Town and Norm Port before cutting across to Sunny Town.

(She’d be taking a slight detour to visit Home Port which was as the name said.
That way she could Fly in when she needed to… they preferred Flying to Teleporting and that she send word if/ when she was coming.
The ‘shop’ only opened on certain days of the year and they’d send her an invite when it was open. Fair enough.)

The Island Strip that ran from the forming Pallet Town to Cinnabar, the Sevii Islands were by invitation only though a person and their mon could Surf out to them and try their luck.
Some of them were touristy but they were very exclusive on who they let in and no one was sure of the exact criteria.

Most of those who had been on the first boat and hadn’t made other arrangements agreed.

They’d be a day transferring over the cargo from the damaged ship and taking on new cargo too so people had time to get their details sorted and prepare to come aboard.

Anna used that time to teleport carefully back to the Lab with her eggs and the Traded mon.

The Professor wasn’t there, whatever it was that had been delivered from Cinnabar had sent him haring out into the desert with his team, but that was fine.

She picked up some more trade mon in Pidgey and Spearow (two of each), another Diglett, a Hedoran, a Shedoran, two Oddish, two Bellsprout and three Feebas.
She left two of the Poliwag she caught also and her traded Water mon and fight Mank.

She’d stopped by and picked up her two Oddish first, who were a fight or two from evolving, and gave the Daycare’s the first two eggs.

Twenty-one eggs were entirely too many for a single person to care for but the lab could handle it. She did keep one on her that was a nice rusty tan colour though and left it at that.

She’d had the Daycare run a viability check on the eggs to make sure they were still alive.

They’d been a bit leery but she explained she’d bought them off a guy at the beach and a few days later found out from the paper that he was an Egg Thief.

She didn’t care if they all hatched Pidgey or Rattata so long as they hatched safe and healthy.

To her relief they were all viable.
Not in the best of condition perhaps, but viable.

With the eggs dealt with, she’d stopped by Produce to pick up those speciality art supplies she needed.
Produce wasn’t the only town to carry such of course. They WERE available in Gateway, but you had to find the place which was buried in one of the mega shopping complexes. The one in Produce might be a bit more expensive, but it was a hell of a lot easier to get to…

Chapter Text

She returned to Cinnabar a few hours before they shipped out and settled in happily.
She has a first-class cabin and plans to work on her art… provided the sea, wind and weather remain cooperative.

The first island they came to was flowing with medicinal plants and samples.
Mossgreen Village was the main town and they specialised in medicines and such.

She offered a few Feebas outright as they could only live in clean water and would help keep any fresh water source that way.

They were a bit leery but willing to try and took two.

Fresh, clean water was important for medicinal plants so, for a chance to Teleport back here as needed, she’s willing to give them the Feebas.

That’s acceptable.

She buys a little of everything for the Lab to study and sends them off with Pidge, telling him to wait for her by the Poke Center in Fuschia.
If she doesn’t turn up within two weeks, go and wait at the Pokemon Fanclub and she’ll be by that town sooner or later or send Abra for him.

He leaves cheerfully enough.

The medicine island had other small islands nearby but they were nothing much.
One had a small town with the ominous name of Dark Town while the other held a place for carnivals, though they seemed to be between times at the moment.

There is someone who's willing to trade with her though.

They want a Pokemon that can handle heavy lifting and are willing to trade something called a Delibird for it.
That Pokemon isn’t doing well in the warm climate and her upkeep is too much for them to manage.

Geodude might be a common Pokemon on Kanto main but it’s not out here and it’s strong enough for the Trainer’s needs.

The Trade is accepted and gladly.

Chapter Text

The Seafoam Islands are lovely. A different sort of touristy from Cinnabar and has a lot happening. They have a film festival here every year but that isn’t for some time yet.

Still, the weather, sea and sand are enough of a draw by themselves or there's various things to do.
Wind Sailing for one, with two variations, Pokemon assisted and normal rig.
She hasn’t tried that yet and she’s game to try both.

They’re here for an entire day and overnight.

She has the necessary Badges so she won’t be Battling unless some of her mon want to or she’s been challenged and most people seem fine with doing touristy things.
It’s a nice break from the whole ‘Our eyes have met, we must battle!’ thing.

There’s even a dude willing to trade his Slowpoke for another ocean type.
Staryu is apparently perfectly acceptable.

There’s a young lady who is willing to trade her Psyduck as well, if you can defeat her in a two on two battle.
She has a Kingler and Pidgeotto.

Pichu, who's getting pretty up there in levels, makes short work of them both and the Happiny uses them as healing practice.

She’s willing to trade, but she wants a less dumb water Pokemon.

Anna has to ask if she minds if it’s a fresh water one, cause all she’s got left is Poliwag..
Though Anna can go fishing for a bit to see what turns up…

She asks for that.

Fishing turns up mostly Psyduck or Slowpoke but Anna does catch a of Seal and a couple of Shellder.

She accepts a Seal happily enough but then the little kid she is supposed to be babysitting wants to trade too…
He’s got another Psyduck that he’s happy to trade for a Shellder.

Okay then.
As usual, one for the lab and one for her.

Since Pokemon are allowed on the beach, she retreats to a less popular section and releases all the mon except for those up for trade.

She has a LOT of mon. Her newest baby team, now that she’s no longer fully focused on acquisitions or Gym battles, she can start paying proper attention too.
Team Fwendship as well.

Now, unless she’s challenged, needs money or wants to get her mon some experience, she doesn’t need to fight anymore…
Repels can even see to it that wild mon will mostly leave her alone. She likes this idea. Only fighting if and when she wants too.

Watching her mon train, she relaxes under the sun. For now, she’s going to enjoy her holiday.

Chapter Text

Chrysanthemum Island was an eye-opener. It’s a Contest Battle island and she knows nothing about that sort of thing but is interested in learning what she can even if she doesn't care to try it.

Apparently, its really big in Unova and a part of their culture.
She’s all for learning something of different cultures.

There’s a resort here too but she’s much less interested in that.

The ship is luxurious enough.

There’s a small regional Contest happening right now and she’s happy to watch from the crowd.
Some of the performances were good, some of them were so so, but there were a few that stood above the rest.

What was interesting to her was how the Pokemon became part of the performance.
Some of them had the mon as a prop. They didn’t fare so well point wise even if their own performance was good while for others, the Pokemon was an integral part of the performance and so, even if they didn’t do as well in the actual performance, they were about equal with those who had good performances but little mon interaction.
The ones that really scored well were Trainers that had both a solid performance and integrated their mon into it.

She was very admiring. This would have taken just as much effort and training, more even, than Trainer battles.

There’s a little boy who wants a pretty Pokemon and is willing to trade for it. He has a Tangler and is happy to trade for a Seal…

The overnight stay was very peaceful.

Chapter Text

Wisteria Town on Potpourri Island is less interesting. Not because it doesn’t have a resort but because it’s also Contest focussed.

She supposes there had to be other places that also did it but there’s nothing really going on there right now.

Still, it’s a pretty place so she just plays with her Pokemon on the beach and sees if there’s anyone who wants to trade.

There are seven, mostly young and surprisingly, only a few offering common mon.
She can’t call a Sentret, a Qwilfish or a Natu common in Kanto, let alone what that other flat thing is.

Both Pidgey and both Spearow go to a pair of young, young trainers wanting flyers and trading two Magikarp and a Goldeen and a Qwilfish for it.

There’s a fight nut who's willing to trade the Psychic Pokemon he’s been given for fightering Pokemon. He doesn’t care if these aren’t available locally.
They aren’t fighters so he doesn’t want them and so Mankey and Machop go to a good home while she gets a pair of Xatu in return.

His sister is after Grass types and is willing to trade the weird Pokemon she found for them.
For an Oddish and a Bellsprout Anna gets a Sentret and something she doesn’t recognise off hand (Dunsparce) but the Lab should be able to work it out.

A very profitable time.

Chapter Text

The next island… oh, the next island was MUCH more satisfying.
It was a Pokemon reserve and, after getting permission and flashing her Pokedex, she took SO many pictures and they were such nice shots.

Her Pokemon had a wonderful time playing with the Pokemon there.
It was so utterly lovely.

Skarmory took her up above the island so she could get an overview and a head count of the various mon herds.

She offered to share them with the Joy staffing the main office and she was delighted too.
With her permission, Butterfree memorized a point they could transfer to and so did Abra.

She’d be by later so Joy could go through them and decide what she wanted to do with them.

Really, it’s such a beautiful palace and she takes several reference pics for future sketches.

She really, really needs to share just how gorgeous this place is.

She hears Nurse Joy complaining about the water source and offers up the last Feebas and the Poliwag. They should help keep it clean.

The Nurse Joy reluctantly accepts.

Anna might not be getting anything physical out of it but a chance to foster good relations with them isn’t to be sneered at.

Chapter Text

Rather than Stone Town, they stopped at Neon Town first or rather the port nearest it.
Neon town was far too busy and frantic for her taste, but it was the first place on Kanto Main that’s like the Tourist Sector of Gateway.

It’s interesting in its own way but she is very, very glad to get back to the boat.
People there really need a chance to shut down for a bit and rest and that's just not happening it’s so frantic.
She took some pics and sketches but was glad to go.
WAY too busy and ‘big city’ uncaring for her taste

Stone Town… oh, Stone Town was very interesting. She didn’t get much of a look the first stop there as she was worried about the newly located Pokemon.
Because of the mountain that regularly turned up Evolution Stones, it was the town of choice to go and evolve your mon at and Evolution Stones were easy, if not cheap, to buy.

That reminded her, she really needed to find a source of Fire Stones that wasn’t here since the mountain required a licence to go and look on.
She had a source for Water, Sun, Moon and Leaf… Huh. She needed to find a source for Thunder Stones too…

Volcanos would be a good place to look for Fire Stones but she wasn’t sure about Thunder. She’d need to do some research or cadge some research from the Lab.

Since they were going to be here for several hours, she decides to just go into Fuschia, and register at the PokeCenter so she can Fly or Teleport back here at need.

It also give her a chance to look in on those poor mon.

Nurse Joy has worked miracles and managed to save all of them and she’s very, very impressed. Nurse Joy was upset about the condition of them but glad Anna had managed to find, rescue and get them to her while they could still be helped.

If they’re recovered enough, she’ll take them to the Lab herself. If not, she’s happy to leave them here until they are.

They need more time and that’s fine. They really were in utterly dreadful condition.

She pops quickly back to Stone Town in time to get on the boat.

Chapter Text

They skip the Fuschia port, pulling instead into Norm Port. She takes the chance to fill in the Gym Leader and asks that he tell the kids the mon are alright now. Still recovering, but they’ll all make it.

This is their last stop before a long jaunt across open water.
Next official stop, Sunny Town, which she expects to be just that, a small town since the Bike Path bridge isn’t a thing yet.
It should take roughly a week in good weather…

The week was mostly calm and sunny and by the end of it she actually got a bit bored.
It was a new experience for her as Circuit Towns orphans, whether in Orphan or Produce, don’t have the spare time for boredom really. Not once they’re old enough to do chores or attend school and she, who was taking an extra class and paying for it through labour REALLY didn’t have spare time.

By the time they pull into Sunny Town, she’s groomed and checked every single Pokemon she has on her, Trade mon included.
She works a little on her art, trades Onyx to a woman with a son who loves BIG Pokemon from the Unova Region. In return Anna gets something called a Shinx which is some sort of electric cat Pokemon.
Interesting.

There’s also a fellow Lab Trainer… but from a lab out of Sinnoh. He’s after common Kanto Pokemon, which Anna happens to have on hand.
He’ll trade her for four common Sinnoh ones… or maybe not?
What’s a Bonsly… or Combee?
She doesn’t know Kricketot or Buneary? At least the bunny mon is cute?
Hoothoot she knows though.

She hopes he’s legit. She doesn’t want to get into trouble…

She’s also out of Trade mon for the first time in she doesn’t know how long. It feels a little weird but it’s fine.
She doesn’t need more right?

Someone among them had a Ralts which was cool to see and the little mon was even willing to let her take a couple of pics and sketchs.

She sketches all the mon she doesn’t recognise outright.

Before she realises it, each mon she’s sketching and their owner is taking home a little sketch of them and their mon.

Pics would have been better but a lot of the mon aren’t okay with up close photography outside of candid snaps.

Chapter Text

They pulled into Sunny Town which was, indeed, simply a small town. The passengers were encouraged to disembark for a bit, except for her.

Then, the ship turned around and sailed into their base at Home Port.
They’d be here for several hours while they unloaded cargo and took on more… and she got to check out their exclusive store and have a rummage through the manifest while they did stuff.

There were all sorts of bits of random tech including a T.M. machine and a Transport Machine.
These were surprisingly modern versions.

She asked the price on them and they were as absurd as to be expected.

She rang the Lab to request if they wanted them or not and they agreed to cover the cost.
The Milotic had shed several scales already so the Lab had money for this sort of thing now.

They were bought outright and packed up to be shipped to the Lab.

There were all sorts of buffs for Pokemon as well as assorted samples of medicinal plants and several balls of Pokemon as well.

It was an odd hodge-podge of stuff in there honestly. It kind of reminded her of a Dump Shop where the nicer stuff has been rescued before it's dumped at the tip.

There was a cluster of eight eggs of unknown origin and sixteen of the fake balls, empty.
She bought them all and had them shipped to the Lab too.

There was a very nice, very fancy camper's pack which was great because she had an idea she was considering and she needed prizes.
She picked up other odds and sods of camping or Pokemon equipment in good condition.

She grabbed several Fossils as well. It might not be a thing yet, but that revitalizer dohickie that reanimated Pokemon from fossils WOULD be a thing in the future she was sure.

There were a dozen or more Pokeballs as well, from crew or passengers who died and had no one to pass them on to, that no one had the time or energy to win the loyalty of.

She bought all of them too and they were ‘traded’ to her ownership.
It didn’t matter what was in them, the Lab could take them if she didn’t or couldn’t.

Lastly, she was introduced to the sight of the Flight Tower for future visits. She had a card with the warehouse/ shops number so she could call ahead for future visits and they requested she didn’t make uses of it more than once a month at the most.

After that, she went back to her cabin for a nap.

She kept the eggs and the mon with her. She could transport them faster than they could.

Chapter Text

She barely got to glance around Sunny Town. Just long enough for Butterfree and Abra to pick a Teleport point before the ship was moving on.
It was fine though. There wasn’t much there anyway from the grumbling of the other passengers.

She’d send the eggs to the Lab at the next town, provided they were there long enough. And by send, she meant by mail.
The Transport Machine struggled with eggs as they were could be delicate. Pregnant pokemon were okay but the eggs themselves… anything beyond a short range transfer was iffy and it was better to just not.

For the pokemon, there were eighteen of them, including, to her surprise, some versions of other Regional Starters. Some were baby, some intermediate but only one was fully grown.

(That was one odd things she’d noticed with the Traffickers. Aside from all the mon being baby forms and nine out of ten being male, there were NO other Regional starters. A couple of the Kanto Starter doubles but none from ANY other Region.)

In the balls, there was a Pidgeotto, a Sandslash, a Machoke, a Ratatta (though it had an odd colouring. Shiny she’d bet), a Cloister, a Slowbro, a Furret (the evolved form of a Sentret), two weird pokemon that looked like a cup of tea (Sinistea and Sinistcha), a weird looking fire crocodile called Crocalor that was apparently a mid version of a Paldean fire Starter, a green kitten or Sprigatito that was their Grass starter baby form, a little mon that was clutching a coin (Gimmighoul), a Meganium (the final form of the Johto Grass Starter), a Marshtomp (the middle form of Hoenn’s water Starter), a fire pig that was the middle form of Unova’s fire Starter (Pignite) and, last but not least, two of the Kalaidian Starters in the flame fox Fennakin and the water frog like Froakie.

The Professor was going to flip his shit.
She’d like to keep one or two, but she’d settle for eggs because he was ABSOLUTELY going to want these guys.

If the eggs yielded up similar results, well… hopefully remunerations would be happening.

They stopped at the next town of Mimbo… for Mime and Bonsly which were the town's favored Pokemon.
It wasn’t large but there were plenty of said named Pokemon and their adult/ baby forms to be seen.

ONLY seen though. The place was a Reserve so, while a person COULD Trade for a mon if they could find a resident willing, they couldn’t capture them… except on film.

Which she did, repeatedly and gleefully.

She’d have liked a Bonsly as Sudowood was on her wanted list and it was a baby form but then she remembered she already had one through trades.
Honestly, she needed to sit down and write out all the mon she had and the ones she wanted for herself.

A little further along was Hophophop Town which was actually a suburb of Celadon City. They got to tour the rooftop gardens which were lovely and had amazing views.

Both towns were also close to the Grand Prix race course which was interesting.

Gringey City was NOTHING like it’s name. It was bustling and lively but without the overdone lights of Neon City.

They were there for an entire day so Anna took the opportunity to pop by the Daycares to check on the eggs (two baby Pidgey which she said the Daycare’s could keep and hand over to deserving Trainers if they wanted. They both accepted) and hand over two from the current stash. The one in her bag hadn’t done anything yet.

She remembered she’d picked up an egg carrier/ incubator thing. Maybe she should start wearing it?

Then, she delivered the mon and the rest of the eggs to the Lab before popping back to a chosen sport in the garden. Butterfree and Abra had this down to art by now.

She actually kind of hoped it wouldn’t be too much longer.
She was sort of getting sick of the ship and the other passengers and wanted to roam for a bit to get rid of her itchy feet and then settle down to go through her snaps and sketches and develop some of them…

Apparently, it was rock cliffs from here all the way to Vermillion City so if she wanted to bail early, she could without missing much of anything but… she’d paid so she stayed.
And regretted it.

The weather that had been friendly and benign turned abruptly to wild winds and sheeting rain. They couldn’t even pull in close to ride out the storm as the bottom of those cliffs were dotted with hidden rocks and sholes.

They’d had to swing out to sea for safety.

The weather lasted for three days and by then, they were way off course.
Only the light beams from a lighthouse kept them from running aground or into Vermillion City’s docks on the wrong side.

They were in port sooner than expected, the wind having almost driven them into it.
Normally, there was a small party to celebrate the end of the cruise but the passengers just wanted to get off and onto solid ground again…

It wasn’t really safe to do so though as the ship couldn’t dock with the winds as they were.

Anna suggested that for those who really couldn’t wait, if they had a pokemon with Teleport, they could just go straight to the Poke Center…
If they didn’t, her Abra and Butterfree were willing to play shuttle for them.

Twenty two of her thirty three fellow passengers took her up on it… and three more had their own mon and used those.
One of which had a ball fall off or out of something and Anna picked it up, hoping to return it at the Poke Center.

The rest of the passengers had connections that would meet them at the docks once the ship got in so they were going to ride it out.

Well, whatever. She wished them the best of it and left it at that.

She bid farewell to the crew and remaining passengers as Butterfree, more than a bit soaked, popped her to behind the Poke Center and she went in to get out of the weather which was as miserable on land as it was out at sea.

She also handed over the ball, explaining how she’d gotten it. Hopefully they’d be able to track the owner…

She picked up Pidge who was waiting for her with a stack of mail as well, which she’d go through later.

A good nights sleep and she was heading back to Fuschia in order to find Surf… and maybe find out where you got Strength from.

One thing was for sure, she was DEFINITELY done with boats and sailing for a while.

Chapter Text

Morning saw her contacting the Lab as requested while Professor Larch gushed happily at her.
She was getting a bonus for this AND her pick of any team of Lab Hatched Pokemon which made her a little excited.
Maybe she could start her kitty or puppy mon teams!

Nurse Joy also told her the Pokemon from Fuschia were ready to be picked up.
Anna would be transporting them to the Lab herself, which she had no issue with.

Also, the pokemon teams of the trafficker and the fallen detective were also headed for the Lab and were to be handed into her care as well.
She wasn’t sure why that was happening, but wasn’t about to argue.

It’d be interesting to see what mon the two had fielded on their teams.

Once she had Surf (and possibly Strength) she’d be back in Vermillion to go through the pics in person at the Fan Club to see if there was any they wanted to blow up to poster size or turn in to postcards and other potential items to sell.
She’d gotten some REALLY nice pics of some rare Pokemon.

The Pokemon had recovered as much as they were going to and she took them straight to the lab and dropped them off. Their rehab would continue there under Chansey's care.

Now… to see if Surf was in the same place… also, taking a mon with her that could learn Surf would be smart too.

The Safari Zone Keeper was a lady this time out and she asked that Anna find and retrieve some toys her kid left behind when a stampede made them have to clear out fast.

Even though you aren’t supposed too, Anna did release some of her mon. Not to fight, but she sent the usual scanner team of Gastly and Abra for object retrieval.
There seemed to be at least some scattered everywhere and she planned to pop to various places she and her teams had already been to see if they could find loot. All of them.

She also released Buzzy to help her scout those toy bits.
She didn’t need any of the mon from in here save possibly a Rhydon or an Exeggcute.
Maybe she’d find another Chansey. One was good, but two would be better and maybe she could install one at the school. Lots of kids came through with damage/ malnutrition issues.

She was keeping her Fwendship team though. Screw the lab so when Happiny evolved…

With Buzzy directing, she made her way to the cottage in the back corner and found Surf. While she was very tempted to teach it to someone now… it would be a lot smarter to go back to the lab and see if they could make a T.M. of it.
Or at least train someone up as a Move Tutor…

The toy parts were scattered far and wide and it took her three tries to get them all.
She used up her balls for the most part each time but wasn’t particularly worried or upset when she came out of all three with only an Exeggcute for her troubles. She wasn’t here for mon after all.

After gathering all five toys/ toy parts (some of them were a bit stomped on) and turning them over, Anna was presented with the H.M. Strength.

Nice!

Even better, the Item Hunter team had bought her lots of loot… and two Pokemon.
She wasn’t even going to ask how they’d managed to get a Pincher and a Scyther to follow them and allow themselves to be quietly captured…

That was definitely weird.

She was also able to speak to that chain quest guy’s associate in Fuschia who wants her to take a message into the Hidden Ninja Village for Chief Koga…

She makes a face. If this means she has to go challenge the Gym, that’s gonna suck. They all use fucking Poison or Psychic types… not to mention that you have to navigate the damn place!

Well, nothing to it but to do it, she supposes…

When she gets there, she has her choice, she can wait until he has time to meet her which won’t be any time soon, or she can challenge the Gym and force a meeting…

She’s considering her options but there’s no rush.

While she’d like to finish the string quests eventually to see what the mon is (she’s betting it’s the fighting type that isn’t available at the Fighting Gym since it’s official right now and just gives a Gym Badge… she thinks anyway. That’s also a thing she needs to check out) she has all the time in the world now… or at least for a year or so.

Besides, she has a bunch of new mon to get to know and new teams to form up around them.
She’s thinking of making teams of seven because she’s an official Lab Trainer and can do that sort of thing now…

Since she had Gym Badges now and a bunch of them, the Gym Leaders were using higher level teams… and even their lower level ones were pretty high being late teen to early twenties in level. For people like Anna who had several Gym Badges in their case? His trainers were in the early thirties level wise and Koga, the Gym Leader, was in the late thirties.

Another Gym not to be taken on lightly.
She’d wait until he had time. This wasn’t something she could overcome that easily…

Chapter Text

With that, she collected the loot from the Safari Park and Teleported back to the lab.

Professor Larch seized her face and kissed her full on the mouth… with tongue.
That was NOT normal no matter HOW happy he was…

She shrugged it off because he dropped her shortly after and practically danced off.

He has Regional Starters. STARTERS… Some of which were baby form and so small enough to use those three fake balls on AND she’d brought back an invite to a reputable Marketing Group's private shop! If she was old enough, he’d fuck her through the bed!
(Odd how his mind was becoming focused on his lower head lately when he’d had no interest before. He hadn’t really been paying attention but the more he went to that site or studied the artifacts from there… the more he was becoming aware of females and it was deeply, DEEPLY uncomfortable. He disliked it intensely!)

Which reminded her. She should check on how Fearow was doing. The ball had messed him up a bit but they weren’t sure if it had in the way it was meant to do.

He allowed her to have the ghosts (he weren’t sure if they could be bred) and the three Regional baby Starters were going into three of the fake balls to strip their minds… then they’d be going to her to level up until they could be breed.
No, she didn’t get a choice about that. The Lab would take on the others as well. The Traded mon, the Market mon AND the stashed mon.
Since she’d manage to retrieve unused, undamaged versions, they’d be studied to see if they could replicate the memory wiping effect.

He was listing a bunch of mon under her name still though. The more exotic ones anyway.

The Pokemon of the fallen trafficker and the detective were registered under her name as well.
Now he had access to adult forms of the three Kanto Starters and several other rare mon besides. It was also considered a fact now that the reason the P.I. had been so angry was that the Traffickers had stolen Pokemon from him.

Investigations of his belongings mentioned that he’d had his Charmander taken and explained why he only had two of the three Starters and why he turned his back on his well to do family to play Private Investigator. He’d been disinherited for it which is why his mon weren’t going to his family when they’d normally have first choice.

The trafficker, aside from the ancient ball no one can get open and the broken ball near the adult Butterfree had a Nickit (dark fox pokemon with a bad rep), Charizard, Dragonite, Beldum (a rock/ psychic pokemon) and a Vaporion

The P.I.’s mon were more Kanto standard, well, except that they were all evolved forms and some of them were exotic. They were an Arcanine, a Rychu, a Blastoise, a Venosaur, a Pidgeot and lastly, a Bellossom.

The Trafficker’s mon had originally not been in great condition but, aside from being beat up, the P.I.’s were… mostly. It seemed his obsession was such that he’d made his mon battle hard and given them little aftercare, anything else, including care of his remaining mon, being burned away in his rage…
A mess all around that incident, even though the Lab had done well out of it.

(Anna had already given him some information about the Beldum. She said she thought it filled the same ecological space as Magnamite did in Kanto, meaning it required more than one of it to evolve. The chances were small, but he’d see what he could source.)

He was allowing her to keep the Traded pokemon she wanted to since she’d done so well for the Lab so far.
All three Sneasel, including the Variant, the flat pokemon (Dunsparce), the strange humanoid (Elgyem) and the unknown fox pokemon (Nickit) were all registered under her name, along with twenty-four of the other pokemon.

Of the four Lab connected Trainers, she was the one who had brought the most interesting finds and she was GENUINELY interested in their research. She might not be the best Trainer per se but she was the one most likely to join the Lab permanently.

The Sneasel were unexpected and, although he’d requested them, he knew they were going to be difficult to handle… but they’d be useful for keeping egg numbers down.
They’d be used to track down eggs in the wild as well, though not permitted to eat them.

The older common pokemon, especially the fliers, would be retrained and parcelled out to the others or used by the staff.
Now that they had a chance to copy both Strength and Surf, a whole lot of new options had just opened up. They might even be able to train up their own H.M. Trainers which was invaluable.

Thirty plus new Lab Pokemon AND all of those from the list he’d given her.
She’d done all he could have asked from her and more.

Half the pool of Feebas were now Milotic and so money was taken care of for the near future and the Lab was being expanded, along with the Pokemon environments.

He’d also attempted the Pokemon Trade Evolutions she’d set up… The lab now had Golem, Alakazam, Machamp, Gengar, Politoed, Scizor, Slowking and Seadra to go with Steelix.

It was sending shock waves through the entire community. They’d tested it several times with the Lab Pokemon and then called for volunteers.
The results were sent to other Labs to test as well with uniform results.

Grant money was practically flooding in.

If he had any interest in women at all, he’d marry the girl, just to keep her tied to the lab or at least fuck a child into her… once her body was old enough for it.
He might ask if she was willing to carry for him as he wasn't interested in using a Surrogate.
She was his cash Miltank. His Swanna that lays golden eggs. Keeping her tied to him and the lab was of utmost importance.
He didn’t care HOW she knew this shit. Just that she did and shared it with the lab and, more importantly, didn’t ask for her share…

He’d put some aside for her anyway, because keeping her sweet was important, which is why he was letting her have whatever she damn well wanted, since she wanted so little.
She wanted care for her mon and her eggs. No problem.
She wanted first claim on some of the more exotic Pokemon’s eggs. Easily done.
She wanted a permanent address and a place to store her things for cheap… by the inferno, he’d have a house made for her, complete with studeo if that’s what it took!
He’d raise her stipend until she was as well paid as any member of staff… he’d add her name to his discoveries and deeded her a five percent ownership in the Lab should he kick off…
She was the best thing that had happened to this Lab in years and they needed to keep her onside so the good things kept coming…

The T.M. machine and the Transfer system she brought back were both in her name as well.

Better yet, she never thought to ask because she was also adept at minding her own business and morally flexible enough that she’d look the other way so long as no humans or mon were being harmed by any slightly shady business.

Speaking of T.M.’s they weren’t able to make H.M.’s of them but weaker T.M.’s.
Anna, the young trainer, was willing to leave the H.M.’s in the Lab’s care for several copies of T.M.’s.

That pile of stones and items had been the real deal too, but they needed more research and possibly to try and get more of them.
They needed to study the Evolution Stones, especially the ‘new’ ones as well.

The female of that hive could also track Evolution Stones, though not as well as the young male. They were making a hive in their habitat, with the young female accepting the young male as a viable breeding partner, even if she preferred Anna’s old Beedrill.

Now that most of the Weedle were safely hatched (there were thirteen now. Five from Fem’s laying with the rest wild caught or Trade) Anna offered to take them out and level them up to the Kakuna stage at the least. Unlike wild hives, the young mon needed stimulation and assistance to level up and evolve.

Since young Anna had enough Badges already to qualify for the League Championship, she could spend the rest of the time training mon and seeing to her own interests… officially even.

Anna spent a day or two sorting her new mon into the right places and readjusting the teams and then she left for the Pokemon Fanclub.
Idly, she wonders if she should add all the Lab mon that are listed under her name on there too?
She has SO many mon right now, even without the ones that are actually Lab mon that she’s eternally grateful she doesn’t have to pay stabling costs.
She's gone from skint to flush enough that she doesn't have to keep track of every Pokedollar and, with her Pokemon, she's gone from famine to over full.

She also plans to switch her teams to teams of seven format, which a person can do with the backing of both a lab and the local League.
It might be merely a token thing, like buying a personalized plate for a car on Earth, especially since she’s a certified Lab Trainer with several teams on hand, but still.
Since she gets the feel Professor Larch would probably kneel and kiss her feet or eat her out if she so much as hinted right now, he even covers the reams of paperwork that will take too.

Awesome.

She hasn't thought of how she's going to set it up yet but there's no rush.
Get the official parts sorted and then set things up.

Chapter Text

After leaving the Lab she went straight to the Pokemon Fan Club and spent a lovely two days going through her prints with the President.
They were going to make up a couple of photo calendars to sell in order to fund the Club for more things.

About thirty of her pictures were going to be put up in different categories and people were going to be asked to pick the twelve they liked best for four different calenders, which would also include a little information about the Pokemon, like its name, type and where it could be found if they knew it.

One was a Kanto Specific calendar made up of shots of local Pokemon. The second was going to be an Evolved form calendar. The third, an exotic Pokemon calander which would include rare Pokemon evolutions and non Regional pokemon, with the last being a Fanclub Members and Subscribers exclusive pics.

All of the winning pictures would be available on a number of products /formats, including mugs, shirts, posters, button badges, cards and postcards, mouse pads and available as computer backgrounds downloadable from their website.
Colouring pages and books as well, with further information than would fit on the calendars about each of the Pokemon featured.

She also got three commissions and the President also bought another thirteen prints for future use in the newsletter and the Featured Pokemon of the Week board.

There was even a room he was willing to let her use as a studeo and have the prospective clients come to her.
Alternately, they could send her a reference picture and what they’d like for her to use from it and the medium they’d like it in. She offered charcoal sketches, coloured ink, water colour, collage, mixed media and acrylics as options.

All three commissions were straight forward enough. They’d all sent a reference picture with requests for water colour in two cases and mixed media for the last.
This would be fun!

She stayed in Vermillion City fore a week and a half, knocking over the first two but the last wasn’t coming together the way she wanted, so she put it aside for the time being and went out to give her brain a break…

Chapter Text

She flew to Viridian City with her little cluster of Weedle plus parents/ hive elders to fight low-level Pokemon.

The Weedle had a lot of fun battling while the adults and their human stood guard.

It gave Audino and Happiny plenty of opportunity to practice their healing as well, so it was all good.

By the end of the week, all of them were in the Kakuna stage with three on the verge of evolving again.
Beedrill were Bug Pokemon and fast to evolve.

They moved to the other side of Pewter City.
No point in disturbing the local hives and forest residents.
It gave the young bees-to-be more space and stronger mon to test themselves against too.

After, they were going to give the young mon a crash course in Stone finding before returning to the Lab.

This was fun and just what she needed.
She let the baby mon out to explore and play too.

She began working with the dragon mon baby team as well, and Fearow since they were out of collateral damage range.

Fearow wasn’t a happy mon. He was off balance and scared, aware that SOMETHING was wrong but not what, and that something was missing!
Spearow were flock Pokemon… and here he was, without one.
Trainer raised Spearow COULD come to view their Trainer and team as flock, but he hadn’t been raised that way.
He was sad and lonely. He wanted a flock of his own as he SHOULD have by the Fearow stage and that was… fair actually.

She couldn’t give him a flock of Spearow… but she did have a number of small bird Pokemon who could use an older, more experienced mon to help guide them as they grew and while she was away. One of them was even a Spearow.

He wanted to see them first before he agreed but it would be better than being alone.

He wasn’t comfortable with her flying with him, but he was willing to watch over the Beedrill swarm while they fought and practiced and, finally, evolved.

When the last of them had evolved into a Beedrill, they were ready…
She took the swarm back to the Lab and only those of Buzzy and Fem’s line were taken out again to see if they could Stone Hunt.

Chapter Text

After a few dummy runs at the Leaf Stone Waterfall, both Sunstone Meadows, Mt Moon and, lastly, the Water Stone cave, they moved onto the acid test.
Stone Mountain above Stone Town.

The Beedrill baby swarm were chaperoned by an older Pokemon, in this case, the older three Beedrill, Mismage and Zubat but otherwise let loose on the mountain with orders to retrieve only those Stones that were on the surface and weren’t already in the possession of human or mon.

Abra and Gastly, would have been on babee sitting duty, were given their usual job and sent off to scout in the town.
They hadn’t had much chance for it when they were here last but, since the group was hanging around until the Beedrill were done, they had plenty of time.

While they were all off doing their thing, Anna decided to sit down and work on some of her art.

She even had some ideas for the mixed media work. She’d been going about that wrong, trying to be too forceful and controlling. Instead, she was going to buy a bunch of mounted canvas of all different sizes, put them together and make the background all in one hit.
Then she’d see if any of them fit what she needed as a base. The rest could be put into storage against future need.
If none did, she’d just try again.

By the end of the day, all the mon returned safely… and successfully.
With only the scent of the small samples of rock in her packs, they’d retrieved a Water Stone, three Fire Stones and three Thunder Stones, the three pairs with the older Beedrill in tow having found two each.

Anna was very impressed and said as much, promising all the Beedrill a special grooming/ pampering session each before they returned ot the Lab and a few Battles if they wanted.

Gastly and Abra had been equally successful and brought back several stimulants, a T.M., three Berrys and a specialised Pokeball.
They got made much of as well.

With that, she and the Beedrill (after their promised pamperings/ Battling) returned to the Lab and their hive and began re settling in.
From here on out, they’d be ‘loaned’ (hired) out in pairs with one elder and one younger Beedrill to hunt down Stones.

Chapter Text

Fearow was introduced to Anna’s baby birbs as well as the older Delibird.
They weren’t a Spearow flock but they’d do and the young Spearow would be raised as his heir… and possibly his mate. She was young, but plucky.

With that sorted, Anna left to check on the Daycare Eggs and add new ones if they’d hatched.

They had and what a haul. The Professor was going to flip… again.
Two more Regional Starters in a Chikorita and a Torchic. (The egg she had on hand hadn’t hatched yet…)

She handed over two more eggs to the Day Care staff. (The beach Eggs and the Shop Eggs had gotten mixed so she had NO idea which was which.)

She handed the freshly hatched mon over to the Gateway Pokecenter Joy to be transferred to the Lab.

While she was in Gateway, she began her Pokemon Diver’s course.

She had many marine mon now that she could dive with, so she wanted to learn how to do it properly… and it was something that couldn’t be done in a rush.
People might be physically tougher in the Pokeworld but they’d still take damage from the bends and similar afflictions.
One couldn’t go down too deep without taking it slowly and carefully beyond a certain point.

After this, she’d go back to the Fan Club and get working on that last commission… and see if there were any more.

She had six more Commission’s waiting and several of her own pieces to do but she was getting itchy feet again and she had some baby mon teams to give a bit more attention to.
Fwendship was coming along nicely and she felt they’d probably start evolving soon, but she also wanted to devote some time to the new babies and team Non Com.
Away and Explore would probably like a chance to do what their names said too…

Chapter Text

Also she was curious about Snom. Apparently the little bug ate snow. Lots, and LOTS of snow.
She knew a place she’d like access too but couldn’t fly there because of the snow, wind and weather and her guiding mon’s lack of resistance to all of the above…

What better place to let her little snow bug loose…

She upgraded her gear to snow ware and brought with her ice Pokemon or mon with fur thick enough to laugh off snow and weather, as well as her regular teams, so Delibird, Noibat and the Variant Ponyta and Vulpix were brought along as well as the regular Vulpix as a lap warmer.

Noibat was for helping Zubat navigate if conditions turned bad.

A teleportation later and they were at the sloped ‘meadow’ which was actually a runoff shoot from snow melt down the side of the mountain. It’s why there was nothing more than sparse grass there. Everything else got stripped away during the avalanches.

Skarmory took them as high as he could, with Beedrill leading the way and then set them down and both were recalled. From here, it was up to Snom.

Delibird helped set up a decent-sized igloo and some Ice corridors to outside.
This would be base camp, and she’d follow the little bug's progress every day on V Ponyta while Gastly and Mismage would take turns keeping an eye on the little guy’s progress.
They’d send off a flare if attention was required.

The little bug went nuts, plowing through the snow like it would be taken at any moment. That was one super hungry little mon.

Being told, 'Have fun. Go nuts,’ was exactly what he wanted to hear and that he would have a chance to train every night to get stronger was even better.

When he was tired, he was told not to make it’s resting cocoon until he was brought back for the night and he was to shake its ice crystals hard when he was ready to be picked up.

They’d see how well the little bug listened that evening.

Unsurprisingly, it took him a couple of nights to get the hang of it, but once he did all was well.

Anna spent the time getting to know the two Variants as well as the mon she didn’t interact with regularly along with practicing with Team Fwendship and Away.
The new Team Non Com were included, what members that wouldn’t freeze solid.

They spent a month up there, with Butterfree popping to the nearest town for supplies and, aside from a couple of blizzards that went on for three or four days a piece (Snom was kept in the ice tunnels or his ball for those) Anna also spent some time up there exploring and practicing with her icy mon.

Snom managed to eat his way up the mountain, higher and higher while V Pone carried a well-wrapped Beedrill and his master higher and higher up the mountain after him.

The deposit of E Stones needed drilling out and, while there were some Sun Stone in the outcrop, it was mixed with Fire Stones, probably from long ago when this region had been volcanically active. The ice had sealed them away nicely.
There was a single Lightning Stone as well.

They dug out the entire outcrop which wasn’t all that big over several days with Abra popping them back up and down while Snom ate Anna and her Pokemon’s entire body weight in snow.

Now that she had what she was after, it was time to go.

They remained for another week so that they could get a bit of ice training resistance and the Icy mon could enjoy the snowy, chilly environment.

Every night, the training battles between her mon continued…
Snom and the Wurmple were about ready to level up, so they just needed to find some mon to fight for experience…

With one last day for play and for Snom to gorge, they left the mountain arriving back at Pewter City.
She was going to explore some of those small towns she saw flying over the ranges…

Chapter Text

Dodie was her transportation of choice on the ground with Skarmory for the air and Butterfree and Abra for fast travel and the Variant pair for snowy travel and navigation.
Now, she just needed to pick a mon as her Surf/ Water travel partner…

She still had the Strength and Surf T.M.’s... A couple actually but who to give them too?
Buzzy already had Flash and Rock Smash, which wasn’t exactly a H.M. but still had it’s uses… surprisingly, it was the humble Krabby that was the best to take them on and was able to learn Cut as well. Sandshrew could also learn Strength.

She taught Surf to Squirtle and Strength to Sandshrew. It looked like Krabby might be the final piece in her Explorer team since her Teams now had seven places. Officially even.

Her chat with the Lab also had them offering up a piece of experimental tech that needed road testing. One she’d honestly forgotten all about.
Experience Sharer.
An item that would split the exp of each fight won between all of those on the team.
Since she had several Teams, they wanted to see if it would try and scatter it through all of them or only through the Team of the mon actually equipped with the item.

She needed to come to the Lab for it since they weren’t risking sending it through the post and it might need a few adjustments, so she did.

Incidentally, one of her Teacup Ghost pokemon had grabbed something that looked like a chipped teapot out of the pile of E Stones and items and wouldn’t let it go for love nor money and the Lab wanted her to take the mon out and have it battle a bit to see if there was a reason for it, or if the mon just liked the item.
She didn’t remember one being in there but she’d been a bit distracted when it came to the unknown items and pretty much just shoved them into the sealed bags.

Every now and again, any new exotic mon brought in were gathered up and exposed to the various Stones and items so the Lab could see if they had any effect on them.

There was another version of the little pot it grabbed as well as a cracked one and three or four tea cups in similar condition. Honestly, they looked like junk but since they were in the pile…
The pile was being added to as well, since mon could come in holding items. It was figuring out what the items did beyond the simple Berrys that was the hard part… or getting the Lab staff to click that hold items were also a thing that should be studied.

Whatever, the little teacup mon could get added as Away’s seventh.

She collected her T Krabby (she had a normal one as well, apparently) as well as two more eggs just in case and popped away to visit the Day Cares again who had hatched two previous eggs and found homes for the donated mon.

The current pair hatched a Meowth and a Caterpie.

She handed over the two new eggs and had the two baby mon sent back to the Lab from Gateway, along with Vulpix and V Vulpix, who seemed to get on quite well despite being a fire and and ice type (she’d forgotten about those two and didn’t really need them right now).
She might pick them up next time she did some snow exploring but they hadn’t really been needed last time so she might not as well.

She’d been working hard with her mon, so she took a couple of days to decompress, rest and do a bit of art before she did her one touristy thing for the visit, her next diving lesson… WITH Krabby as her diving aid/partner. They did need to get used to each other after all.

The Krabby was big for her kind and caught on fast.
She’d had the mon taught Surf and Strength, adding a newly bought Dig to the Water Gun she already knew.

With that, Krabby was added as Team Explorer’s seventh permanent member.

She added Sinstea, the teacup ghost mon’s name, to a team and went find some Trainers to battle…They’d soon find out.

She spent a day battling and a day to rest and write out the results.

So far, the Exp Splitter’s results were spread only between mon in that type of ball.
If she kept the different teams in different balls, then the share effect would be confined to that Team… and yes, there was much hasty ball juggling and transferring.
She hadn’t realised there were this many kinds available yet but damn were they expensive. It was on the Lab’s tab though so it was fine.

None of her mon Teams were in Lab Balls.
Non Com were in regular Pokeballs, the baby mon teams were now in Friendship Balls for the older team and Nest Balls for the Dragon babies.
Away Team were in Great Balls while Explorer were in Luxury Balls.
Any Misc mon were in Lab Balls while Team Starter/ Support were Ultra Balls.

She also had two Heal Balls on her, which healed any Pokemon inside them.

(Much like the Pokedex, she hadn't known these were a thing yet. She throught they needed to wait for Sammy to grow up and finish his Journey for the Pokedex and for the main Pokemon Equipment makers to get their acts together and grow their businesses for the Pokeball updates, 'cause, if they weren't making them, who was?)

She might not need them right now but it couldn’t hurt to have them on hand. Not after those two kid’s stash.
The only reason she didn’t buy more was because they were THAT expensive. The shop had only had the two.

There was no on/ off either. If a mon was holding the item, battle experience WOULD be split between their team.
Aside from that it seemed to be working well enough…

Snom was added to Fwendship and settled pretty well.

As a traded mon Krabby was leveling up fast.

Her Sinistea seemed to need only a single battle to evolve, since it had it’s pot in hand… and, unlike other mon, it could do eggs but much preferred to propagate itself by using leftover tea… though it had to be in a proper cup.
She imagined the other Teacup ghost was the same, though likely it required the proper Tea Cerimony tea caddy so there’d likely be a lot less of those.
Not much call for it on the Circuit Towns island or even in Kanto.

On being asking it if it wanted to go back to the Lab or tag along, it chose to tag along and so was tacked onto the Away Team.

Variant Ponyta was added to Starter/ Support.

Anna also wanted to find some quieter waters to practice with Magikarp who was getting up in levels and should evolve soon.
She’d have him learn Surf, but load him up with T.M.’s.
He and the other two Magikarp were going to be part of a water-based security system… it was only a vague idea for now, but she thought perhaps she could hire them out to keep Produce beaches clear of mon when the currents drove them ashore instead of far out to sea… Something like that anyway.

She also wanted a closer look in the area where that Traffickers boat was wrecked.
Any surviving not balls with mon in the would likely be only holding corpses at this stage, but there had to be a reason why it was out among those rocks rather than just a trading spot.
She was sure of it… but didn't have the means or the ability to go and check it out and likely wouldn’t for some time yet.

It was fine. She’d plenty of time. The year wasn’t even half over yet and she had all the Badges she needed…

If she remembered rightly, there was a festival coming up and the library would be holding an ‘open house’ into their museum part.
You bet she was going there. She wanted to see how the things retrieved from Orphanage would be displayed.

She was also thinking of hiring a permanent office in Storage as combined Storage / Studeo.
It beat having to hire one in Gateway all the time… or having to go specifically to Vermillion and risk being ambushed with more offers…

She could even have security of her own there. Perhaps her ghost mon might like to lurk and scare hell out of anyone trying to bust in… What did ghost mon eat anyway?

Most of her ghosts had solid bods too… perhaps she could use some of the lab mon as guards? She’d have to wait and see…
It might not be fair to a mon to just set it a job and leave until the space was needed again. Perhaps a rotation or if she told them they were also permitted to scan the local residents to see if there’s one that would suit them as a partner?

Well, that was for the future.
While anyone could hire office space, a kid in the first year of their Journey wouldn’t be taken seriously anyway.

She was headed back out. There were small towns to explore…

Chapter Text

She stopped by the Pokemon Fan Club to drop off her completed pieces and pick up mail (Pidge was doing his best, but he couldn’t know where she’d be from one night to the next, especially when she didn’t herself) and any new commissions and then to the Poke Center as they’d asked her to come in.

That ball she’d handed in hadn’t been claimed so the mon was hers.
It was a male Ralts! The very one she’d been sketching from the ship. She almost squeed with glee. Well, it did suck that they couldn't reunite him with his person but still!

Word had also come that Koga could see her now and she made haste to Fuschia City.

She was left waiting and her Teapot ghosty served her tea to her bemusement… but she drank willingly and eagerly. It was the first sign that it was interested in her so even if it turned her inside out or gave her violent cramps she’d damned well DRINK.
Instead, it was the most delicious tea she’d ever, and she meant EVER, had.

She ran her hand over the battered teapot and hummed happily, taking contented sips.
So delicious.

She fell into an almost meditative state and so didn’t notice time passing, except that her tea ran out and was refilled by her companion.

When she was finally allowed in, she handed over the whatever it was and was given a token to return to the Associate.
She’d probably lose points or whatever for not challenging the Gym but she wasn’t stupid. Right now, even her highest level mon would get stomped flat.

To her bemusement, the Associate didn’t seem to care and she was given an item she had no idea what to do with but figured would come in useful later sometime and a token to take back to the string quest guy.

Chapter Text

The quests were getting more complicated now.

There were a few more local area ones with things like tokens for the new shopping complex being built in in Saffron City but the next one sent her to Cinnabar Island and Gym Leader Blaine.
She had to complete his quiz in order to hand over the thing, even if she chose not to challenge him right then.

His quiz was no easy thing, but thankfully there was a short course available or a Trainer could wander through the island getting answers from his Gym Assistants dotted about the island and from plaques and signs dotted here and there...

While that did sound fun she was on a time crunch here, so the short course ‘cram school style’ it was even though it had to be paid for but wandering around was free.

Two days later, she felt relatively confident and had taken copious notes. It was actually quite interesting and she’d have liked to be able to spend more time on the subject matter but…
She’d look up the references later.

The Gym set up was kind of weird. A sort of maze with electronic doors. You had to answer a trivia question to get through otherwise you had to fight one of Blain’s Trainers… she absolutely did NOT want to. Their levels were all in the high thirties with Blaine himself at forty.
Ahaha. No.
She’d get flattened. Forget that.

Fortunately, there was no time limit to answer so she could check her notes and she was pleased to say, she only got ONE question wrong because she’d misunderstood it.

He’d had two pokemon to her seven but she did NOT want to do that again!
Starter/ Support had done the fighting this time out and squeeked out a win… but it was so, SO close and Miltank was hard pressed to patch everyone.

She double and triple checked after that because she couldn’t stand up to another one of those fights and she KNEW it.

Blaine was bemused to have something handed over to him, rather than a Gym challenge but could respect that she wasn’t ready yet. (Would likely not be ready any time this year even… maybe not even the next or the one after either.)

He gave her a token and a return message with another item and she left gratefully.

An overnight stay to get her mon properly healed and she was off again.

Chapter Text

The quests, rather than being local area now, sent her all over Kanto or started having added levels of difficulty. Time limits or having to find a specific person who may or may not be in a place and so on.

She left the current one of look up person with obscure knowledge in tiny town of ‘insert name here’ (though the name sounded vaguely familiar. She’d think about it later) for Gateway.

She had a Museum section to tour!

It was too soon for her next diving lesson so she got out all her marine mon, Kanto or otherwise, and tried out the salt pools with them. The day was overcast and the sky threatening so they had the pools mostly to themselves, especially since they went around lunch time which was an unpopular time of the day for it.

It was great to see her mon having fun and interacting with her or not as they wanted.

She’d absolutely have to do this again, or find herself a little sandy cove somewhere. There were entire ranges that dumped into sea water. There had to be one or two spots that weren’t found and claimed already…

After a little trouble with a wild mon who’d gotten washed in and was shooed away again, she packed up for the day, staying in the Poke Center which was probably the only accommodation not booked nearly solid already. With most Trainers out on their Journeys still, the Pokemon Center and it’s attached flats were empty except for those who were stuck in Gateway until they were strong enough to challenge the Bridge.
They’d even allowed one set to be rented out as backpackers style dorm space.

Only two days until the festival kicked off properly…

She spent day one lazing around the combined Trainer/ School garden giving tips to the brats foraging for things to pad out a meal.

Which ones helped you feel fuller, how to make them taste less shit and so on as well as tips for being stranded overnight.

Always try and have enough on you to access a kitchen… if you couldn’t then absolutely invest in a fold-away thermal survival/ camping blanket and either a lighter or a set of waterproof matches and tin foil.

The shopping district had parks and shit, find and clean out one of the big bottles of water, find one with barbeque facilities, gather enough bark to make a fire and heat one up enough to cook your plants and roll if you had one. Tinfoil, shaped right, could cover roasting stuff, hold water, or be used to make a spoon or cup.

Yams, sweet potato and regular potato tasted better when cooked and there were enough herb or spice ish things around to flavour/ garnish them with as well as plants that could be used to make a suitable warm drink.
Always save a little salt or pepper from school lunch as well or look around in the local takeaways for bamboo cutlery, serviettes and straws but never take more than one or two from the same place.
Use their toilets as well, if you can.

It was safe enough to sleep under the futon couch in the overnight dorms but in the dorms themselves were safest if you could afford it.
If not, that’s where the thermal blanket and your school bag came in. Maybe even a rubber bedroll or yoga mat if you could get it.

You’d be stiff in the morning… but it beat having people able to find you easily.

She helped them identify the good stuff, though took none of it for herself since she didn’t need it and they did.
(She may or may not have cheated a little, using her mon to access the high-hanging stuff that usually never got touched. It was the festival in a day's time. A little treat wouldn’t hurt them and they’d have something to take home too.)

There were three kids, two of them obviously first-year Preppies and she took all three to get a thermal blanket, though only the oldest one, a second-year Junior, got a lighter.

She also showed them how to make a simple meal on the barbeque of a nearby park and how to clean up properly after themselves. They also got one roll of tinfoil each.

She gave them enough for three nights in actual dorms and left it at that.

It might not seem like much to an outsider, but to a Freeter kid poor enough not to be able to afford the overnight dorm, it was a lot.

That got her thinking… it wouldn’t hurt to start looking out on the down on their luck Circuit newbie trainers, that way if/ when they washed out, she’d have bodies to throw at whatever job she needed done…

She could afford to do that now, so she would.

But first, Festival Time!

Chapter Text

There were going to be fireworks involved so if she wanted a good view, she’d better find a spot now because the air wouldn’t be safe while they were going off.

She and Skarmory scoured both lots of headlands, circling cliff tops for a nice spot that, if it wasn’t flat now, could be made flat easily enough. Most of them were sharp edged, but there were a few spots that had crumbled away leaving niches. One or two even had plant life in them or growing out of them.

She found a spot on the upper curve about two thirds of the way along where a tiny ledge had been created slightly below the lip of the far side of the wall.

A little careful work by Sandshrew and Buzzy, some flames from Charmander to heat the rock carefully to hold the new shape and her viewing platform was complete.

The ledge had been extended to three paces along and one deep.

The lip of the rock, as seen from the inside wall, was left in tact to provide a wind shield because it’d be fecking breezy up here and there was a small raised lip along the back, up to about knee height. From there, wire mesh had been melted into the rock on either side and along the lip.

Though a little gap had been left on one side to act as a runnel for any storm water that might happen up here and because the local pokemon were quick to take advantage so the next time she wanted to use here, she was probably going to have to flush the guano out of it… even if they covered it over before they left with something.

(She had Plans. Oh yes she did.

Something like a mesh ‘lid’ that would close along the top to hide this niche from view.

Since she’d been careful to fly outside the headlands cove, she hoped she’d been less noticeable but wouldn’t put money on it.

Luckily she’d stopped at half a dozen different spots before moving on. This one included.

The spot she’s spent the most visible time at was at the far end of the other headland’s cliffs where there was another little niche, right at the end of it, open to the wind on three sides, with barely enough room to stand and the headland top itself blocking part of the sky…

She’d only come back to her actual chosen site later, at night with a dark lantern so the mon could see just enough to work.

Yes, she was paranoid, what of it?)

She could sleep up here safely enough, if she was of mind… And she thought she might.
The view was utterly magnificent and the stars, even after the fireworks, would be beautiful, she had no doubt about it.

It wasn’t big enough for Skarmory, or Pidge to land.
Even Butterfree was pushing it but Abra should be able to get her up here just fine, even if they’d need a bird to open the ‘lid’ first in future.
This was going to be AWESOME.

Preparations made, she had Abra practice popping her to her current room and back because like hell was she trotting all the way down the damn cliff or up it if she didn’t have to. Honestly, it was a DUMB place for the Teleport arrival space.
If it came to that she’d do what she did in Middle Town. Land just outside of town and ride her mon in.

Chapter Text

While she was wandering through the crowds, she noticed the odd kid in Trainer's clothes who looked scrawny, thin and ratty and decided, fuck it. Why not. She was going to get that sponsor thing happening now and the festival gave her the perfect excuse.

She went back to the Poke Center and asked the Joy there if she could put up a sign and then began asking shop owners as well.

The signs read, “In honour of the festival, I, a Trainer who has done well for myself, am holding a small tournament. I will foster twenty trainers who fit my criteria.

1st. They must not have crossed the Bridge by challenging the Trainers on it.
2nd. They must have two or less pokemon.
3rd. They can’t already have a patron.
4th They must not have earned a Gym Badge of any sort.

Trainers within first to fifth year from getting their Starters may apply.

There is no entry fee and trainers will be loaned up to two Pokemon for the duration of the tournament with the chance to keep one or both at the end of it.

There is no cash penalty for losses or cash rewards for victories but there will be prizes at the end of each round.

Hold onto your ticket as it goes into the lottery for a door prize. There will be five draws.

One meal a day and basic Pokemon chow will be provided. This meal will be at midday when the Tournament will pause for an hour. A person may claim a meal for themselves and their mon so long as they fought in the Tournament on that day.

(She’d already hired on several scrawny looking kids who couldn’t enter the Tournament for whatever reason.
For their work they’d get a free meal and twenty five Pokedollars for each day on the job, along with a chance to do a Gacha game for either a potion/Berry/pokemon enhancer, a piece of Trainer’s kit, either clothing or equipment and a chance to go into the lottery for a pokemon Gacha game after the Tournament.

They wouldn’t get their chance until the Battling Trainers were done and their prizes would be left overs, but it was still something they wouldn’t normally be able to afford for a bit of labour.
As it was only the helpers in that draw and there’d be two winners, they had a two in fourteen chance of winning a Pokemon… and they’d all walk away with something.

Meantime, they’d be cleaned up, given aprons and would hand out the meals to the young battlers, assembly line style. There wouldn’t be seconds… but there would be dessert.
The food wouldn’t be gourmet but it would be filling and nutritious.

At night or in the morning depending on the type of food and how well it kept, before the battles started, this team were serving the food into disposable trays so there wouldn’t be any chance of fighting over serving sizes.
These trays would then be placed into tubs after use, with a Battler’s name on it, washed and sterilized for the next day.
Losers had the option of taking their tray with or chucking it.
Those chucking it would put them into a recycling bin, while those keeping them would wash them and take them with them.

A drink aside from water or a voucher for one was included with the meal and there were several soft drinks, juices and some shuckle juice on tap.

Battlers got a cup with their name on and it was treated like the trays were.)

Further rules and prizes will be handed out on entry.
A central board with all the rules and the prize list will be behind the main desk for reference.

Chapter Text

One hundred and thirty-one young trainers signed up from ten to sixteen turned up and assorted common baby mon from the Labs were brought out for them to use.

Rattata, Meowth, Ekans, Pidgey, Spearow, Krabby, Seal, Shelder, Polywag, Geodude, Oddish, Bellsprout, Sandshrew, Nido him and Nido fem were the mon on offer.
Scratching together two hundred for them to use was a stretch but between the Lab breeders and the retrieved Pokemon there were enough, if only just.

She’d also rounded up enough Assistants to oversee the battles and participants were health checked first along with their mon.

Chansey, Happiny and Audino would be kept busy but everyone looked satisfied so far.

The rest of the rules and the prizes were enough to get people buzzing.
This might only be a privately sponsored Tournament, but the prizes were very, very generous and the rules were reasonable and sensible.

The first rules were repeated and then the rest of the board continued with…

There will be NO fighting except during a Battle. Anyone instigating would be removed from the tournament and their prizes confiscated. The Sponsor’s Abra WOULD be watching!

Two swaps of borrowed Pokemon to try new ones are permitted during the tournament provided the Pokemon a Trainer wishes to swap to remain available, so choose carefully.

The Pokemon being used in the tournament will be the ones offered as a round winner’s prize so keep that in mind when selecting.

Numbers to choose Pokemon will be drawn at random so no complaints over not getting a desired Pokemon will be listened too.

Pokemon Battles will be decided by random draw, one on one until there is a winner.

Battles will be three on three Pokemon following normal tournament rules.

Should there be an uneven number of Trainers, the best of the losing Trainers from the previous round will roll for the chance to fight again.

In the event that there are not enough Trainers to fight all rounds, the top five losing Trainers will roll for a chance to rejoin the Battles.

Healing between rounds is acceptable and expected. Sponsors Chansey will be standing by.

Winning the Tournament does not guarantee sponsorship. Regardless of winners, only twenty Trainers will be chosen.

Prize list is as follows:

Participation prize.
One Pokeball, one meal voucher and twenty-five Pokedollars.

Round one winners.
One random Berry and thirty Pokedollars.

Round two winners.
One random piece of gear and thirty-five Pokedollars.

Round three winners.
One of the current Pokemon in use, a bag of pokechow to suit it and forty Pokedollars.

Round four winners.
One random Pokemon enhancer, one potion, a good fishing rod and fifty Pokedollars.

Round five winners.
The second Pokemon currently in use, two bags of Pokemon chow to suit it, a Great or Ultra ball and seventy Pokedollars.

Round six winners.
Five potions, two pieces of random camping gear, two random pieces of quality Pokemon gear and one hundred poke dollars.

Bonus prize for the losers:
A Gacha roll for one of the Traditional Starter Pokemon with one of each on offer.
(Pokemon may be Traded after if a winner is discontented with their prize.)

Round seven winner.
Six months supply of Pokechow, transportation to a private training spot, two hundred and fifty Pokedollars and a T.M. of the H.M. Flash.

Bonus prize, a Gacha roll for a rare Pokemon with the five possibilities of Tauros, Kangaskhan, Abra, Gastly or Rhyhorn.

Rules and Prizes are NOT open to negotiation. Any Trainer causing trouble will be expelled and their Prizes confiscated.

There were three or four instances of the best from the previous rounds losers having a chance to fight again and, over all, things ran smoothly.

What she hadn’t told anyone was that she’d be choosing two or three trainers to add to her sponsored each round.
Her pics were those that looked like they needed help the most.

The babies were mostly passed over though she did make note to hand Nurse Joy a bunch of meal vouchers to hand out to Trainers who looked like they really needed one and there were a few she’d keep an eye on. If they weren’t gone by next year, she’d sponsor them.

It was those who were on their second, third or fourth year that really needed the help though most of those who had gotten a second or third pokemon would be passed over to see if the new boost would give them the motivation they needed to finally get across the bridge… or to get a clue and take the damn ferry across, get some experience and then come back.

By fifth year most of them had accepted that they weren’t going to make it across and gotten low-level jobs to make ends meet though several of those looked pretty ratty as well.

She’d be choosing mainly from the first two levels with an eye out to the rest to fill the gaps among the twenty chosen.

She didn’t like the brat who one over all. He was fourteen, cocky and a braggart.
She would not be sponsoring him but she’d no doubt he’d make it over the Bridge just fine with the Pokemon he’d won and his Gacha rare one, in tow.

He won the Rhyhorn, because of course he did. At least he seemed satisfied with it.
He had two Pokemon already. A Pidgeotto, who’d been his Starter, and an Ekans he’d won through arcade prizes. To those he’d added a Seal and a Nido he.

He’d be fine… And was probably going to be very disappointed when he learned the ‘private training spot’ was just being popped over a random patch of long grass with mon of a level his newbies could fight to level up and then popped back once they all hit level eleven odd and that should be plenty high enough to see him over the bridge… if he fought smart.
Well, that’d be on him.

The other top three hadn’t impressed her much either with their attitudes.
Unsurprisingly, most of them were fourth or fifth year. They didn’t need her help. The extra mon would be enough.

For the Sponsor candidates, there was one from Round Five, whose younger sister made it to Round Three that she had her eye on.
Five from Round Four who tried their best but simply couldn’t manage and could use a boost, Round Three held another four, with Round Two having six and Round One another four… and there was her twenty.

She was satisfied enough.
Twenty- eight of the struggling trainers would get a much needed second Pokemon, with seven of those getting a third.
She’d leave most of them alone unless they had either a spark that drew her attention or the look of someone whose hanging by a thread.

She might hold this every couple of years to see if it makes a difference and she’d make sure there were food vouchers in the Poke Center always available.

The random prizes were drawn via Gacha and they got what they got. Not all might have been satisfied but it was something for essentially nothing.

Lastly, there were the door prize draws of five basic supply packages.
One was camping based, one was equipment based, one was grooming equipment based, one was human and pokemon food based and the last had full kit from all of them.
The last and unexpected prize was a free session to have an art piece of them and their mon.

There were free photo ops for each of them and their new mon/ gear that could be picked up in a week or so.

The non physical prizes would be handed out from the Poke Center a week from now, though the prospective sponsored Trainers had notes dropped in their pockets and they would also meet in the Poke Center just after the Festival.

It had taken three days to get through the matches properly and there was the prize draw after each Round’s end to allow the winners and losers who got to retry, the chance to rest and get healed up, before the next one.

As a special bonus for all those who’d signed up, she gave away fifty Pokedollars for each, so there was something to have fun at the festival with.

With that, she vanished, literally.

Once out of sight, Anna shed the wig and the glasses she’d been waring, as well as the costume with the platform boots that added inches to her height.
With the height gone, along with the flashy clothes and her plain looks, no one would look at her twice, which is just what she wanted.

Time to enjoy the festival.

Chapter Text

They were two days in and the Festival went for five. The Library museum section was open from day three so it was excellent timing.

She ate good food, wandered around and admired the attractions, smiled to herself as the Trainers with their new mon or even those who’d just opted to enjoy their free fifty Pokedollars dotted the crowds and finally got to check out the Library.

The space looked like a converted hall or archive, but they’d done a magnificent job of it. It kind of reminded her of an exhibition center.

It had three layers with the top being mostly a walkway, a large domed roof with stained glass sections that splashed colour across random parts of the building.

It took two days to get through it all and Anna happily took her time, making sketches (taking photos wasn’t allowed, especially around the older books or cloth samplers) and reading all the information while having a little giggle to herself about it.

They’re all so nicely presented now and as cleaned up as they can manage without damaging things more.

She wonders if she should have let them take the carving and leather working kits but she still wants to learn how to use those and they’re excellent quality.
Does she have anything left of that stash she could donate?
She’ll have to check because it would be funny if she did and could just donate it anonymously on the way out…

She does have the music box, but screw that. It’s gorgeous and she’s keeping it! They can have it when she’s dead since she’s got no plans for a spouse or brats.

The sketch book pages have been removed and carefully mounted with the original binding just under them since the pages themselves are old and delicate.

It seems artifact preservation isn’t much of a studied art here but they’ve done alright she thinks.

There were parades and floats along the road circling the city so it went around all sections, there were plays and stalls and side games and street performers, commemorative goody bags and traditional dancing.
She wandered happily with a balloon on her wrist and snacks in her other hand with Pichu perched excitedly on her shoulder.

She tried games and mostly lost but won a few small prizes, had fun in stalls browsing and trying snack food, didn’t try the traditional dancing but did try on some traditional clothing and had her photo taken, which was fun.
There was something like a cosplay costume play thing going on in the background so if you stayed dressed as a character, you were participating… but that didn’t really interest her so she shed hers after the photo shoot.

As much fun as it would have been, it would cut into her fireworks prep time.

Despite holding her own little Pokemon Trainer Tournament, she still didn’t want or like attention and being part of the cosplay contest would draw that.

Just on sunset, she took snacks, drinks, her bedroll and her gear and settled in with Pokedex to take photos of the sunset and the view for later sketches and then, it began.

The fireworks were really worth the wait. They were so, so spectacular.

And after, she set up her bed, rolled over pulled the ‘cover’ over her head and went to sleep.

The storm in the early morning hours was unpleasant and unexpected and she made note to add waterproofing if she slept up there again.
While she might have been interested in seeing a storm from there, right now she was groggy, tired and wet.

Abra popped her back to her room where she cleaned up, dried off and went back to bed.

Chapter Text

The Sponsored Trainers gathered and she, back in her Sponsor costume, explained what she was offering.

There would be a guaranteed fifty Pokedollars per week so they alway had Battling money.

Once a week they would have the option of being taken to another location where they could fight wild Pokemon and possibly add to their team and an Abra would be standing by to transport them on the chosen day.
They could book a few hours, a half day or a full day’s training but were encouraged not to leave the area… though they could Battle any Trainers in the area.
They could also request a stronger area if that one was becoming too easy.

There would be one guaranteed meal a day arranged through the Poke Center. They just had to present the token she’d give them. They already had access to the Poke Center dorms for washing themselves, their mon and their clothes as well as cooking facilities.

She expected them to challenge and pass the Bridge at least once… though wasn’t overly concerned whether they did it from this side or the other since the buses and the ferry existed.

The sponsorship was until their first attempt at the League.

She expected them to remain on the right side of the law and to avoid causing trouble where they could or they’d be dropped.

She also had arranged a refresher class on dealing with Kanto Main Pokemon, camping and foraging skills and how to groom and care for their mon.
The class went for three days and began today with snacks, tea and coffee being served.
It was mandatory to attend and pass or they’d be dropped.

She had a contract for them to sign stating terms and conditions and what they’d get for signing.

And so, Abra would come and wait for one day of the week in the Poke Center to pop Trainers to a relatively isolated location they could train act before popping back after a certain time.

There would be two or three trainers to a place, but spread out enough that they wouldn’t get in each other’s way or even see each other without wandering for a bit.

They were also told that if they found something, Berrys or whatever else, they could keep them and it was perfectly acceptable for them to forage while they were there.

The winner would be taken separately but since his new mon were all around level five or six, getting the rest to level ten would take no time at all.
He seemed a bit annoyed that he wasn’t getting personal interaction with the Sponsor. Just a note, a waiting Abra, a free bottle of water and a basket of convenience food meals and snacks each time he went out.

His mon reached level ten inside of a week and things were left there.

Chapter Text

By this time, Anna was off again on the chain quest guy’s newest mission… to Sunny Town. Go figure. Who knew that cruise would prove useful already?

The next errand sent them down near Hop Hop Hop town and Celadon City.
A place called Commerce City. Obviously a place of business but it didn’t seem to have much to differentiate it from any other city in Kanto.

It wasn't that much different from a lot of the other quests. Meet a person, drop off message / thing, collect acknowledgement in some form of token/return message, return to dude, get a prize… Occasionally, the person they were running the errand to would give them something or they’d be transporting a thing to the dude and he’d decided he didn’t need it and Anna would get to keep it instead.

Speaking errands, she felt a bit stupid since she hadn’t dropped off those stones she collected both from the Beedrill expedition AND the trip up the mountain. Oh well. No rush.

Anyway, that one hadn’t been hard to find but now she had to find some place called Cremini town that was off the beaten track… still, there wasn’t a time limit and she’d been meaning to look into those towns anyway.
Now seemed as good a time as any…

It began off Route Three, starting with Sable City… which was more like a town really. Their only claim to fame was occasional one day Pokemon Tournaments… none of which were happening today.

Still, Anna was making good time thanks to Dodie’s speed. This felt nice. She and Dodie didn’t get to do this that often because when she wanted to go somewhere, it was usually easier to just Fly or Teleport.
She was glad not to be walking it because she wasn’t that fit, but the steady if rapid pace still allowed her to see things and Dodie was a comfortable ride.

Over the mountain pass, (they stopped long enough to let Snom gorge a bit… but he didn’t like the taste of this snow so they moved on quickly) the next town along was called Mulberry City.
She hadn’t known Contests were a thing on Kanto main but apparently they were and the place was pretty crowded with hopefuls.
Contests didn’t hold any interest for her and she’d been exposed to this sort of thing earlier, twice already, so she was ready to move on… or would have been if there wasn’t someone willing to Trade.

The kid had a Magikarp he was friends with but they were going to landscape the area the little girl lived in. He couldn’t capture her being just a kid and his mother didn’t like Magikarp, considering them useless.

He had his grandfather’s old mon, which his mother hadn’t wanted either. His grandfather had bought it back from overseas and left it to the kid in his will.
He hated to do this but he couldn’t look after the old mon properly even though he loved her dearly and his mother, a widow, was no help.
She hated everything to do with her father, mon included.

He couldn’t hide the old mon, but he would be able to hide his Magikarp friend until he could go on his Journey.

She had no doubt the pair were going to be devastating on their Journey because, with the bond between those two?
Yeah, even as a Magikarp she was stubborn and tough. As a Gyrridos, she’d be sweeping Gyms, without a doubt and only an idiot would try and take a Gyrridos from his or her human.

The Magikarp was willing to be caught if it could stay with the boy and so that’s what they did.

Anna then Traded the Magikarp for whatever mon the grandfather’s had been.

She opened the ball so the kid could say goodbye properly and so they could get a look at the mon and find out what he… she, needed.

Anna… actually had NO idea what that mon might be.
It appeared to be something like a cross between an eel and a flower (Glimmora) and it floated around the boy brushing him with it’s ‘petals’.

Even so, Anna could tell at a glance this venerable old girl wasn’t doing to well.
If she was supposed to be a dark purple blue, she was badly off colour and Anna wasn’t sure how to help her.

She gave the kid the Lab’s number and she told him she could also be reached through the Pokemon Fan Club in Saffron City. Her name is Anna of Gateway.
When he begins his Journey, come and find her and, if the old mon is still living, she’ll return this mon to him. Meantime, Anna will get her as healthy as she can.
He’s done well, and he’s going to be an awesome Trainer. She can tell.

She leaves the town thoughtfully. The mon should be alright in the ball but maybe she should pop out to the nearest Poke Center…

There was a Battle Tower… but she had no interest in that and passed by.

The next town was… YES, Cremini town. It looked kind of like Neon City and even Gringey City but that to the side, she just needed to ask at the Poke Center.

Oh, nice, this place had rooftop gardens too and her target was up there.

Since they’re there anyway, she continues on to the next town out of curiosity.
Apparently, the Contest circuit also has its version of Badges, which are Ribbons.

Vaguely fascinating to know but not really her vibe.

There’s also a Pokemon Breeder which is more interesting to her.

More importantly, they have a Poke Center which is her main interest here.

The Nurse Joy tuts at the Traded mon, a Glimmora apparently, and her condition, or rather, lack of it.

Anna explained how the mon came into her hands.
She didn’t doubt the kid had done his best, but it’s hard without adult support.

As it was a type the Joy wasn’t familiar with, it might take a while, but that was fine.
Anna had something to drop off and she could be back in a few days.
If not, this is the number of the Lab she’s attached too and her Pokedex number so she can be contacted through the other Poke Centers if a message needs to be sent.

With that her business is sorted and she’s ready to leave.
They’ll come back another time so Gastly and Abra can do their scanning thing.
They’ve had to put that aside for a bit since Abra is on Sponsored Trainer transport detail but most of the prizes for the mini tournament had come from their item finding efforts, much as the mon had come from common ones from the not poke balls.

Since there didn’t seem to be any Gym’s out this way, Anna teleported back to turn over that item and get the next errand, and as long as it wasn’t time sensitive, she’d head back to Saffron for a bit.

The photos of the Trainers and their mon had come up quite nicely and so had her photos of the view and the fireworks.

She still had the prize art to complete as well so she decided to work on that for a bit.

After, she’d go wandering about, finding Minor Gyms and checking out the spots on the map Professor Larch had given her.

Chapter Text

-0-

Her birthday was coming up… not that such were paid much attention to in the Circuit Towns… not if you were a Freeter. It would be nice to have a day to celebrate you and maybe a little treat, as most of the time even if they knew, no one really cared.

Only two birthdays were celebrated there.
Your first, because if you survived that long, odds were you were probably going to keep living and were no longer completely reliant on parental care for survival.
Your tenth, when you went on your Pokemon Journey.
(If you were lucky enough to be part of a good family, even if you didn’t do well on your Journey, then your eighteenth when you were officially and legally an adult was also celebrated.)

That sort of thing were only for those with the time/ money to care about more than just survival.

She’d kept track of hers in a vague ‘so, I’m a year older,’ kind of way as the older you got, the more you could do… and the more responsibilities you had.

Her Journey had been very freeing in that way. Despite being on the road and Battling, the pace was a lot less frantic.

Her tenth year was running away so quickly. It was already a half gone and SO much had happened. It was all very Anime Protagonist… but she wouldn’t have minded a quieter time of things. She still wasn’t comfortable being in the spotlight.

Chapter Text

She did the next couple of errands of the chain quest and found something new to spend her attention on.

She came across a fellow Circuit Trainer in rotten condition.
Not only was he beat to crap but he was thin. Starvation thin. Maybe they should stock some food vouchers in the Main Towns as well. Lavender Town at the least.

She Teleported him to the closest Pokemon Center and pitched her idea, pointing to him as an example and explaining how it was for Circuit Town disadvantaged.
They had literally NO support and were essentially kicked out into the world to fend for themselves with a single Pokemon to accompany them at ten. No money from home. No government grants outside the pitiful, one-time Starter’s Grant.

Starvation or death in the field could and probably did easily happen. It didn't help that someone had beaten him up and left him for dead.
Honestly, Anna was amazed they hadn’t stolen his coat and his one Pokeball even though those were trackable.

The kids doing it rough were either children of the Working Poor, Orphans, Shanty Kids or Abandoned.
All of them, outside of the one-time grant, were on their own from the moment they hit Gateway.

Most of them were stubborn enough to choose to fight their way across the Bridge before they tried going out into the world… it was something of a rite of passage, but then you had the ones like her that just wanted to put the Circuit Towns behind them and are smart enough to take the bus or the ferry.

The problem was, neither of those dropped a baby trainer in an area with weak enough Pokemon or Trainers for them to fight with their single baby Pokemon and win. There were always SOME weak Pokemon, but the baby trainer was just as likely to get one that was three times their current strength as not. It was luck of the draw.

If they did a Trainer fight and lost, they couldn’t get back to the island either, essentially leaving them stranded in Kanto main with nowhere for them to go, no food and getting increasingly desperate. If the Pokemon Centers could set up some food vouchers in local shops here, or set up a soup kitchen and maybe some errands they could run for money, it would go a long way to stopping this (she poked the kid with her toe) from happening.

The Joy nodded but seemed horrified at the seemingly casual abandonment of ten year olds and the fact they had no choice but to leave and nowhere to go back to. A meal could usually be had at a Pokemon Center, but for stays of longer than a couple of days, people were expected to take up residence and find meals elsewhere. For a kid who wasn't strong enough to GO elsewhere AND was skint... it wasn't a good situation to be in.

The Lavender Town Joy was all for it.
They hadn’t realised they had and NO support at all outside of Poke Center’s and their own Pokemon. How had this been allowed to happen let alone continue!

Anna shrugged.
None of the other baby Trainers would have thought to mention it as no adult had really helped them, ever unless they’d done something to earn it.
That or they thought the Kanto Main adults knew and were like the Circuit Towns adults.

This couldn’t be allowed to stand…

Anna left it in their hands… though she’d keep this one, if the kid allowed it.

She was definitely going to hire some people to make up care kits to drop off at other Main Poke Centers too. If baby Trainers made it that far, they’d need it.

Even with Healing, he and his Pidgey were worse for ware. It was unusual for someone to be beaten up rather than flattened in a Pokemon Battle and the Jenny’s would want to know about this. She needed to get the kid onside to talk.

When he came around he was sitting outside the Poke Center, or rather, behind it.
She was seated next to him.

He saw her and froze.

“There’s no debt,” she told him. “I can afford it. The Professor took a shine to me. I’m a Lab Trainer and I have enough Badges…”

He relaxed a little and swallowed. “Alright. Why then?”

“Because I can.
Things are gonna change around here. Kanto Main is different from the Towns. The only reason the adults here haven’t been helping, is because they didn’t know.
There’ll be food vouchers in the Poke Center, a listing of Minor Gyms and some small errands that can be done to earn enough to cross back to Gateway to train more or to challenge the first few Bridge Trainers.
There’ll be no more getting stuck and slowly starving or being driven out into the wilds in desperation only to get killed either.
What I seek is a travelling companion. If not you, then another like you but… you are here and so you get first chance.
If you choose to do so, I can take you to an area were you can catch mon for yourself and grow stronger. It won’t inconvenience me as I have a team of baby mon to train for the Lab…”

“I’d be an idiot to turn you down. I may have been thrown away… but I’m no fool.”

She blinked. “Storage, row flats?” She asked.

He nodded. “You?”

“Orphan, but I was ambitious. Took on an Art Class exchanging labour for class time and mostly used up supplies. I also did my placement at the Lab and was willing to wait until the mob went through for my Starter. I have a guaranteed monthly payment so I’m secure enough to afford to care.”

He stood, a little stiffly. “Understood. I’m Steven of Gateway,” he bowed slightly.

She nodded back. As the money fem, she was boss.
“Anna, also of Gateway.
I want you to talk to the local Jenny about how you came to be in the condition I found you in.
If someone’s relying on their fists rather than a Poke battle, they need to be taken down NOW, before they get any bolder.
After, we’ll get you healthy enough that you won’t keel over on me and then take you for some training, somewhere it will actually work.
I’ve already asked the Joys to put out that I’m seeking to sponsor Badgeless Freeters so maybe we can have more people surviving to do something post Journey.
For now, I’ll leave you and your mon here to recover fully. I’ll be back in a few days. I just have something I need to check on in Gateway.”

Stephen nodded respectfully and they went back inside.
He'd be safe enough to leave here for now.

Chapter Text

She checked on the progress of the Sponsorlings and was unsurprised when three were already challenging the Bridge.

The meal vouchers in the Poke Center were a hit.
Without the need to find their own food, they could concentrate on Battling.

The cooking crew had drawn their prizes with two walking away with a Bellsprout and an Oddish. They seemed content with that.
Those that couldn’t use their prizes or didn’t want them could always sell them so they still came out ahead.

The’d been included in the free art/ pics as well which were all done and handed out.

Outside of booked transport days for her Sponsored Trainers and hiring some of the cooking crew to help make up Care Packages (for the cost that they could have one themselves) there were soon thirty packages to send out.

This would repeat once a month though more or less would be made according to an area’s need. Since she was planning to open the locations of the Minor Gyms to public knowledge, she was expecting those areas to get more traffic and so planned to place some there as well.

If the area had no Poke Center, they’d be behind the reception counter at the Gym instead.

Done with that for now, she took her third Diving Lesson and then, on a whim, decided to take Snom up another mountain so he could try different snow and this sort was more to his taste.
She let him eat his fill before they went and checked on the Day Care eggs which had hatched a Spearow and a little owl like mon, that was a Starter, though she couldn’t remember the Region.

She had the little guy transferred to the Lab, but kept the Spearow for her new companion, since things weren’t looking good for his Starter Pidgey.

She was bemused to get back a something called a ‘Wingull’ and the Gateway Day Care gave her an abandoned Zubat.
Well, okay then.

However things fell out, the boy would have plenty to choose from… or he could have them all.

With that sorted, they went back to pick up her new ‘Pet’... which, demeaning though it might sound, was what such companion Trainers were called.

It didn’t happen often, because the situation where there were companion Trainers or they were sent out as a kind of forward guard to soften the way for a young master or mistress, had those trainers in signed contracts with the house sponsoring them… much as what she’d done for those twenty Trainers.

Strays that were picked up on the way, who had things smoothed for them, were pets because they were essentially being cared for and raised like one.

That was different again from the girls who volunteered to be paid surrogates. Once upon a time, when the towns were more separated, being a Child Barer was an actual job in it's own right, even though it meant a girl likely wouldn't go on her Journey as, back then, the Journey could start anywhere from ten to fifteen depending on health, finances and the avaliability of a Starter Pokemon, along with access to Kanto main. and
It was only after the towns became more connected and young Journey goers had more options that Pets (sponsored Trainers) and Surrogates (Carriers) began to decline in importance.
It still had carry over into current society. Pets and Surrogates (Carriers) were on the same social level even if that was less important now.

If she wanted to, she could stick a collar and tags on him to show his status and he likely wouldn’t refuse.
She wasn’t going to do that though. He wasn’t a slave.
She just had a pin for him to wear on his collar so they’d know he was Lab associated and leave him alone from now on.

Chapter Text

Steven was waiting, having carried out her previous orders.

Unfortunately, the brats responsible were from ‘good’ families and felt this gave them the right to do whatever they wanted.
The little snots were now facing grievous bodily harm charges.

Their families were forced to pay compensation as well so Steven now had a cool two hundred Pokedollars in is account thanks to his suffering and that of his Pokemon.
His Pidgey might never fly again as she tried to protect her master and they broke her wings.

The three responsible were now black listed from recieving a Lab Starter for their Pokemon Journeys. If they wanted a Starter, it would have to be a common mon like the one they’d mocked and harmed because no reputable Breeder would sell to them. Not with those black marks on their names.

Steven’s Pokemon was going to need a LOT of recovery time if she was ever to fly again and her battling days were done.
His stolen belongings, such as they were, were returned to him and the families also had to shoulder the cost of buying him a new Starter since they’d maimed his.
He wanted a flyer but he didn’t want Pidgey to think he was replacing her.

Anna advises him to bilk them for all they’re worth and get a mon he REALLY wants as she has several fliers that he can pick from. Even a non Regional one.

Taking her advice, he pushes for, and gets, an Eevee for his team.
He accepts the three other flying Pokemon as well. They won’t grow super fast, not being Trades but he’s okay with that.

He fully intends to work with Pidgey every day until she can fly again. She saved his life since she raised such a racket that even outside of town, the brats ran off.

No one had counted on one of the stupid, spiteful brats stealing his brother’s Arbok, which was currently broody and releasing it on Steven while he was working with Pidgey.

She saved his life again… but died doing it, blocking the thrashing, maddened snake Pokemon with her body and getting her neck broken for the trouble.
He’s absolutely devastated and that kid is not only disowned and sent to live with far away relatives, but completely blacklisted from owning a Pokemon or ever going on his Journey.

The Arbok isn’t blamed because it wasn’t her fault. She was broody, stolen from her nest and young. Of COURSE she lashed out in panic.
Not even Steven blames her.

It’s also suggested that the kid responsible for the tragedy get psychiatric help because that’s not stable behaviour.

His Pidgey’s ashes are interred in the Lavender Town Tower with the family of the kid responsible paying for the cost.

He’s not okay and he really needs to get away from this whole area for a while… Fortunately, he has an ‘owner’, who has a Pokemon with Teleport.

For a complete change of pace, Anna takes him with her to visit Chain Quest guy… who’s sending them to the Laramie Ranch to help out there.
There’s a big race or some such happening and they need extra hands.

Chapter Text

This is just what Steven needed, complete distraction among mon that have nothing to do with flying Pokemon, at all, whatsoever.

Anna explains quietly to their prospective employers Steven’s circumstances and asks that no one bring it up and just let him throw himself into the work… without over working himself. Having your first partner, your Starter Pokemon, essentially murdered is enough to leave a scar on any person.

They can do that. All of them could easily put themselves in his place. Ranching isn’t a peaceful, easy life.

Anna’s thrilled to be able to see some different Variants of Tauros.

The Laramie’s have welcomed a family member who had to leave Paldea in a hurry and has fled all the way to Kanto in the hopes of not being chased down.
He brought with him his Pokemon team which include the Paldean variants of Combat Breed, Aqua Breed and Blaze Breed. All Tauros are male, so she’s not sure how the species has continued but then, there are all female Pokemon types as well. Just look at Jynx.

Pokemon breeding is a bizarre world she’s just as happy to stay out of.

They likely won’t breed true here as she remembers some Regions have location specific evolutions for their Pokemon Variants and she’s pretty sure Tauros are one of these.
Even if they do get eggs from these boy's breeding partners, without new blood they’ll only get one or two generations… but they’ll be interesting to study anyway.

(She may or may not have sent word and pics to the lab. Her Pidge is mostly keeping clear out of respect for Steven’s grief but mail delivery still happens.)

Anyway, why they’re here is due to a race.
It’s purpose was to help settle grudges among the locals in the area. Things like being able to extend the territory, fence placement, water rites and so on are all sorted here.

Needless to say, there’s always one person, sometimes more, who let their greed direct their actions and try and nobble the race, one way or another.

The extra hands are so the more experienced riders can keep an active eye on the race to try and nobble the nobbling.

Steven is barely interacting with his new mon and has thrown himself into working to the point of collaps. He has yet to cry.

He’s NOT doing well and, if he doesn’t snap out of it soon, she’s going to smack him one. Grief, no matter how consuming, isn’t an excuse to neglect his mon who are reliant on him.

When all is said and done, he’s the proud, but bemused owner of a Ponyta, a Tauros and a small pack of six Growlith.

Anna, on the other hand, ended up with the Pokemon of the two would be Pokemon rustlers… with ten out of the twelve mon being non Regional and two being Tauros Variants, specifically, an Aqua Breed and a Flame Breed.

The others were a weird-looking, mostly ugly bunch. Did these two have a fettish for ugly-looking Pokemon or something?

She didn’t recognize most of them either… or had only seen pics in passing.
Some are intriguing so she’d hold onto them if she could despite the uncute factor but some… yeah, the Lab could have those. Some were going to the Lab no matter their looks because they’d be incredibly useful. They also, apart from the two bulls, seem to be split into Bug ugly and other ugly.

Starting with the Bug types because she semi recognized a few of those and there’s less of them, first is the air holding spiderling thing. She thinks she knows that one. Dewpider or some such… Ooooor she’s getting it confused with that water spider that turns into a weird, possibly a moth, thing.
While she’d love to keep the mon as a diving buddy, the Lab could really use his help to inspecting the water environments for the freshwater and marine mon…

There’s another spiderling with a big arse pile of string or thread stuck to it that looks like it’d be a hit among the weaving/ crafting types that can also go. (Tarantula).

There’s another worm/ bug thing that looks like it’s just a head and mandibles, stuck out of a white cocoon. The cocoon looking bit’s white, with three sets of nubs underneath that act as legs, a dome-shaped head in brown and yellow, which is echoed on the pincers, with the yellow echoed by the two yellow dots on either side of the white parts of the body.
It’s also a sparky little thing and she’s considering keeping it. Her team could use a little more electrical representation. (Grubbin)

The last bug looks vaguely cricket-shaped… if it was an unfinished sculpture of one. It’s grey black and very quick.
It’s not pretty to look at but she thinks she should hold on to it for some reason that hasn’t come to her yet. (Nymbol)

Then, there was the derpy looking yellow and brown lizard thing.
Most of the body was skink-shaped and yellow with black at the tail tip and feet. Unlike most lizards though, the head was a dome-shaped ball, with two floppy hound-like ‘ears’.
Apart from an inverted triangle section between the two blue eyes, the top of the head and most of the ‘ears’ were black except for the ‘ear’ tips which were the same yellow as the body.
It did have a little, lizard-like snout though.
If she could, she thought she might keep it. It was sort of ugly cute. (Helioptile)

The snake could go to the Lab it was just so ugly. It looked like someone had stuck a noseless, earless hound dog’s head into a big gob of snot with darker chunks and then stuck a slender snake's body on the other side of the humped ‘gob’. (Silicobra)

The one that looked like a black and white mole with a purple lightning bolt across the front was going to the Lab not due to being especially ugly, but because they could really use it’s probable drilling abilities. It looked like a top notch excavator and she already had Diglett for any under ground work that might need doing. (Drilbur)

It was a pig. A really round, black pig with pink trotters, a splotch of brown that covered most of the face (the top half the ears included) an a gigantic pink snout. The yellow line and skin tag like growth under both eyes made it look like the eye was diseased and weeping… so yeah, the Lab could have that one.
Even if it had a prettier adult form, she had no need of an ugly piglet. (Lechonk).

The next one though, was just interesting. It was a pink imp. No, she meant that literally.
It’s body had the form of a classic fairy-tail, minor demon imp in a dark pink. The only bits that weren’t were it’s tongue, which usually hung out of a fanged mouth, it’s wing like tuft of hair and a ‘mask’ over it’s eyes between the up-turned nose/ snout, all in purple. A darker pink echoed the shape of the horns/ ears/ whatever those were and it was bipedal.
With that sort of look, it was probably trouble, but Anna didn’t care. It was fascinating even if it wasn’t pretty. Definitely a keeper. She wondered if it was a Ghost type. (Impidimpi)

The last mon was… well, she honestly wondered if it was a Psychic type it was so weird looking. It was bipeadal with an oval body in a dark grey. It had a white under belly that stopped at it’s stubby excuse for a tail. The head had two lumps on the top of it which the oval-shaped eyes rested under. The yellow of them was very disconcerting.
There was a pale grey snout/ nose above the mouth and a little grey crystal in the location a nipple would be if it were human. It had a single dark, triangular fin on the back.
The whole of it put together with the stubby limbs (the hands had these pointless long, ribbon y bits that hung from above the wrist that matched the eyes) made for one ugly, misshapen, angry looking little mon. Even if it evolved into something epic later, and there were no guarantees on that, she wasn’t sure she wanted something that looked like that in her crew… (Frigibax)

(Yes, that was shallow as hell but she was a ten year old girl. She was ALLOWED to be attracted to cute mon. )

The Lab could have the fun of figuring out what the hell they were and what Region they’re from as that might give some hints as to the origin of the Traffickers.
They’d had a pin with that familiar symbol on the inside of their coat.

Okay, this was bigger than some local Traffickers. These guys again!
Anna informed the Laramie head of this and their possible connection to an older case. They needed to get the Jenny’s in on this, asap.

He wasn’t happy but he could see the sense.
That sort of Poacher/ Trafficker were a threat to all Ranchers and Breeders and even ordinary Trainers. They couldn’t be allowed to continue.

Meantime, she was going to get these mon to the Lab so they could get to tracking them.
Besides, she needed to pick up more eggs for the Day Cares and to drop off the various Evolution Stones she’d found.

Chapter Text

While they were in Gateway, she encouraged Steven to try a bit of Battling to get to know his new mon a little more.

When she got back, they were going second-hand shopping to get him properly kitted out in both regular gear and snow gear.
They were going to be headed up the mountain from time to time to let Snom feed and to let the Ice types out to play.

Well, this was a shock. A nice one but still.
On one hand, she wouldn’t have to hire office space for a studeo. The Lab now had a little annex flat thing, done in local style… that was hers. Completely.
It was mostly underground the way the rest of the buildings were but it did have it’s own little boulder on top.
That was… bemusing but it would save a lot of time and effort.
She didn’t even need to pay for utilities as it was part of the Lab complex.

Apparently, Professor Larch was very, VERY happy with her.

Learning what the mon she was transporting were and beginning inquiries as to their Region of origin began immediately… AND he let her keep her picks.

She got the grub-looking bug, which was actually called a Grubbin. Go figure.
The cricket-looking thing was a Nymble.
The imp was actually called an imp or rather an Impidimpi… they were an all male mon, like the Tauros were only they had evolution forms and the Tauros didn’t. They weren’t Ghosts either, rather Fairy (though they were only just confirming that as an actual Type) and Dark. Huh.
The last was the derpy lizard or rather Helioptile.
They could all join Team Uncute.

They’d be staying at the lab with her other exotic mon but the Jenny’s were in a flap about more of that gang of Traffickers showing up and finding out the mon were mostly Paladian or Galadian was worrying.

She settled into her new home… that was weird. She was all of eleven now, officially even, and she had gotten a small flat for her birthday…
This was fine.

It was actually really luxurious for Lab Town having a flush loo and a small bath and bucket style shower and a small washing machine all sharing space in that room and opening off the entry way corridor, with a kitchenette that opened into a lounge room on the other side.
A bedroom opened off it and with a second, larger room next to it that was bare and set up with what the rental studios had.

They’d really gone all out… if this was her reward for bringing them non Regional mon and connecting them with more business from Kanto main, she’d keep doing it because this solved a LOT of problems and meant she’d always have somewhere to come back too.

For them to build it in Lab Town itself meant a lot to. They were putting a claim on her and, surprisingly, Anna was okay with that. She could still have a home in Rhyme City should she ever find it. She had Pokemon with Fly and Teleport. Distance was irrelevant.

Now that she had a home, and the Badges to attempt the Conference (she might be one or two short but she had plenty of time still and there were more Minor Gyms to find) there was just her art to do, new places to explore and her ‘Pet’ to raise.

She’d meet up with him and go from there.

Chapter Text

Steven was bemused to be brought back into Gateway but taken into the Residents Section. They were going through the secondhand shops for clothes he both liked and that fitted. She could have bought him new, but understood that doing so would just make him uncomfortable.
(She could relate. She’d feel the same in his place.)

They’d be getting underwear and socks new because those second-hand just wasn't hygenic, but generic brands that weren’t too expensive.

It took them two or three days, and he felt weird doing it but soon relaxed enough to start picking out things he liked or that were comfortable.
By the end, he had six outfits of mix and match casual wear, including a coat, a hat, some swimming shorts and some PJ’s.

She also bought them both two flashier outfits for when they were playing Tourist.
He didn’t get why they needed those but felt it wasn’t his place to argue.
Those were also gotten second-hand but from one of those up-scale secondhand stores where you could still pay thirty dollars for a piece of clothing, but they were clothes that had probably cost over a hundred originally. Still far cheaper than original price but not something a poor baby Trainer could actually buy.

Then, she took him to a Trainer’s exchange were Training ware and goods could be traded in for better quality stuff at a discount.
There was some new stuff but mostly a range of quality levels with matching prices.

Right now, he had close to nothing. His Trainer’s belt for his pokeballs, his I.D. card and the pokeballs with his mon in. The cheap gear he’d bought with his Starter Grant had been wrecked by wear and the brats who’d beaten him up.

He was going to be fitted out in mid-range ware.
Decent quality, but secondhand and so slightly worn. Except for his footwear, which was going to be properly fitted and new and his Poke Belt.

He was getting the full camping gear package but not a backpack since she was passing her old one on to him. Professor Larch had upgraded her to a better one a little while ago but the old pack was still good quality and better than he could buy, being Lab tweaked.

The full kit of grooming gear for his mon and poke chow/ Berrys.

A case for his Badges and a medical pack along with sanitary needs.
(They could get most stuff in a Poke Center but not out in the sticks. Having your own shampoo/ conditioner/ tooth powder/ soap/ loofa/cloth was a must.)
He’s gonna be on vitamin supplements for a bit to help him get over his malnutrition and he’d need somewhere for those too.

Lastly, and this one she does NOT allow him to skimp on. Snow and ice gear.
Thermal gloves, snow boots, overalls and coat. Thermal underthings and socks to go in the snow boots.
A brimmed snow hat with warm flaps over the ears and neck and a clip across mouth and nose guard.
Fitted prescription snow goggles since his cheap glasses had been smashed.

(Silly thing hadn’t told her he needed glasses until she caught him out after he tripped and fell on his nose.
He now had two pair of prescription glasses and a pair of contacts and their kit.)

He’s embarrassed, but he’ll just have to suck it up. He’s a ‘Pet’ now and she looks after what’s hers, mon or human.
That's the whole point of BEING a 'Pet', so your Patron can properly kit you out to suit their needs and train you up.

In the pre Connection days, it was pretty much the only way for a poor kid to get out of their local Area to attempt a Journey unless they lived in Gateway or one of the Port Towns. It was one thing for the Kanto Main Governments to decide that EVERY child had the right to attempt a Pokemon Journey and a whole other thing to actually get that to happen with the towns isolated the way they were.
A Pokemon Journey was once a rich/ noble child's perogative on the Circuit Isle which is why the still had things like 'Pets', Surrogates and Indentured Trainers was as avaliable options for school age children, though the Surrogates had to wait until at least sixteen or a successfully completed Journey to go on the list for accepting offers. They needed to be physically, at least fourteen to start looking and sixteen before they could accept a commission to carry and there were all sorts of health and physical tests to go through as well, before they could be full accepted as a potential Surrogate.

There WERE studs on offer as well, but it was far easier to take a sperm sample and store it than it was to carry a child.
Gateway had a small Sperm Bank but that was a more modern thing. it was set up only in the last twenty to thirty years when science had advanced enough, along side medicen to make test tube babies a potential thing.
Before that, Studs, like Surrogates, were kept for helping breed up Heirs and some had lines that could be tracked.

People were bred much like the Pokemon were, by Discarded, Abandoned and so on had still happened when a child wasn't up to what the person who commissioned it wanted and the child was left to manage on his/her own with most of them dying or being used as serving staff, sold to the red light district and so on.
The Circuit Isle had some very ugly history as well as the adventure stories of the bold flying or leading caravans or sailing ships to attempt connecting the towns.

Heck, even the school had only been active for the last eighty-odd years when the Discards/ Abandoned or simply poor were shipped to Gateway where they would be less of a strain on resources. Not all of the Towns practiced that.

Produce mainly held on to the less wanted children as Workers, Fisher didn't have that practice at all with their Poly based society, Lab Town was too new and Shafts too Family based. No one could say how long Wells had been there as they didn't, as far as anyone knew, actually DO families. It was more like a sacred site/ training site.

Orphan, had once been a town/ settlement in it's own right, for all that it was now reduced to the Orphanage, the Hospice/Hostel and the Shrine. Likely kids had been picked up out of there to take back and train for whatever as there used to be a festival that presented the kids on their tenth birthday. Sort of like a hiring fair that listed their traits, character and so on. If they were lucky, a noble or rich house might pick them up to train as staff/ companion etc. Only the best/ brightest/ prettiest were chosen as a 'Pet'.
That rampaging mon had through and, shortly after, the rest of the settlement, slightly inland from the buildings along the cliff/coast, vanished without a trace.
(She intended to try and find the site one day, just out of curiosity.)

It was mainly Middletown, Gateway and Storage, (which was STILL thought of as slightly dodgy as it had the reputation for being a place were things were tucked away. An unwanted child that a guardian was still legally obliged to provide for. A Mistress and her children. An illicit lover. The families of those who couldn't afford the prices of Middletown or Gateway and couldn't find space in Produce. Even with the fancy complexes to live out of, it was still the 'leftovers' town.) with a little bit from Produce as a Trading Town that held the greater part of the Nobles/Rich folk who indulged.

And there had still been small pockets of tribe remnants dotted here and there, clustered around hidden waterholes in those days whose sons or daughters were occasionally scooped up as well.

Then, the school in Gateway was proposed and built after that mon's rampage, transport became easier as more common folk were able to go on their Journey and access to Flying/ Teleporting mon became a thing and then vehicles became more reliable and the mon based transport services were mostly retired.

Technology took a big leap forward to and things like the Pokeballs and the Pokecenter based transport systems became available and the old society systems became less necessary as poor children COULD actually go on a Journey for themselves without needing a rich Patron to get them out of their hometown and the training they needed to do it.
It didn't work very well but even with access to only the most basic of training and the likelihood of them getting stuck in a dead-end job in Gateway than actually making it to the Pokemon Conference, a poor child still had a chance.

Even so, kids like Steven happened all too often and that could have been her, if not for the luck of drawing the head of the Lab Town's Lab, Professor Larch, attention.

If she'd been born even twenty years earlier...

She shook off that thought. She hadn't. She was here, and she had a 'Pet' of her own to help raise up along with her mon.
There was no point in dwelling on what would likely have been when it was the 'now' that was important.

Chapter Text

Shaking off the heavy thoughts, it occurs to her that she now has someone to go and do fun touristy things with… and one of their first stops to get him used to this will be the Plaza in Produce.

First, she dresses them both in bright, touristy clothes so they won’t be picked as baby Trainers and the pair catch the late bus to MiddleTown.

Steven doesn't mind as he's never had a chance to do anything like this either. She doesn't know his backstory and she's not asking. He'll tell her if he wants and, unless there's something there that might come back to bite, she doesn't need to know.

They wander around and window shop, eat in one of the little cafe’s on the main strip and then check out a few of the others, including a Maid cafe, a Cosplay Cafe where the theme shifts every week, few eateries with Region specific foods and finishing up at a Pokemon Petting Cafe.
(She may or may not have looked with a practiced eye over the mon to check their condition. There aren’t many, and they look mostly okay.)
If a person has personal Pokemon, they’re to stay in their balls in order to avoid any potential diseases or ailments out of town mon might bring in which is sensible.

It’s mostly Meowth, with an Eevee or two in there but there’s a couple of Ditto as well that can be hired to take on the shape of any mon they have a picture of and that’s interesting.

After playing with the mon, they pay to play with two Ditto for a bit, not having it assume any particular form, just having fun letting it mimic them or just stay in it’s own form and be handled or not as it wishes.
It’s more entertaining if the mon is also having fun and the Dittos seemed to be.

The pair then hire a swanky (to them), room for the night in the lowest level of the hotel, but they do have access to the pool and a really nice view from the roof. There’s a restaurant up there but the two are stuffed already and make due with what's in the mini fridge and the fruit bowl.

Fortunately, MiddleTown wasn’t like Gateway, with it’s child curfew.
They discouraged brats in the Adult Entertainment Area and most of the stores and attractions shut by eleven, but if a kid got here and could afford it, no one would look twice if they hired a room for themselves.
Anna even had a separate bank card for when she wanted to keep a low profile. It was linked to her main account but it was the one she used to do most things touristy.

Since Steven wants to see things from the top of the Masa, she has Butterfree pop them to the bottom of it and Dodie and his Ponyta race each other up the road to the top.

She needs to get Steven to practice riding a mon more; he’s terrible, especially for someone who was working at a ranch for a couple of months. He almost fell off his mount half a dozen times. He needs a proper saddle and hackmore reigns at least and she's a bit surprised he didn't have one already from his Ranch wages.
That’ll be next on the shopping list after they’re done playing tourist. Getting his mon properly kitted out.

She promises to pop them straight back to their room, but the trip up makes the view from the Masa better in her opinion. Like they’ve done something to earn it.

They stay up there for several hours, enjoying the view from the outlook, while Steven begins to loosen up enough to babble enthusiastically about the stars.
It’s cute. She makes a note to give him a copy of the Kanto sky star map she has.

They aren’t the only ones up there but most of the others are as quiet as they are, just taking in the view… well, a couple might have been engaging in adult activities, but they weren’t blatant about it so it was ignorable.

The pair chose to leave when they started getting cold and a bunch of raucous adults in a bus showed up. There were a few hot drink vending machines but it wasn’t worth staying with that loud mob around.

They went to bed because they needed to be up early tomorrow. They were taking the worker’s bus rather than the touristy one.

They went into the big mall as they had time to kill and she hired them a pair of little roller disks from the front desk.

These were a single electronic wheel with a foot stand on either side, a handle and was either controlled from a handle or by how a person leaned.
Forward to go forward, left to go left, right for right but there is no backward. Leaning backward makes you stop.
To actually go back the way you came, you need to make a u-turn and then go back.

They have breakfast in a chain eatery and tootle about essentially window shopping, as few shops are open yet at seven.

She earmarks the ones Steven seems interested in for later.
Some two-dollar shop equivalents, a more upperclass secondhand shop, the pawn shop, a couple of those chain everything stores, a game/ toy/ puzzle store, a craft shop…

It seems Steven has an interest in carving and not just wood. Perhaps she can get him some classes and he can make use of that old carving kit or they can learn together…

By the time eight thirty has come, they’re on the roof looking at things and admiring the view and the Plaza is just starting to open.

She’s going to check out the three or four secondhand stores in town, likely tomorrow because she’s always loved upcycling, and today is about being a pair of touristy kids doing touristy things in the Plaza. Things they never actually got to do while at school.
Steven was in a different class too her, which is why she probably would have only seen him in passing. Their year had been particularly large and so split up to make it more manageble which, fair enough.

They’re going to DO all the things and get all the stamps, get their little showbag and all the other stuff there as well… though maybe not putt putt. That takes a while.

Then, they’ll do the park/ pool/ water park and only after that will they do the stores or anything else that catches their interest.

They make their way down and out, towards the Plaza and get their hands stamped as they go in.
There’s a mini carnival today with booths and clowns and acrobats and side show games. Even a few small rides.

There’s a card to get stamped with each feature and they do them ALL and get their prize, which is a neat little keychain along with half price snacks at the food stalls. The keychain is a pokeball that opens and each ball has a different mon in it. All Kanto and all baby form.

Hers is a Ditto.

Steven got a Pidgey which brought him down for a bit… until he decides he’s going to put it on his Pidgey’s urn. She loved shiny, clever things like this.

There are show bags that have more at the concession stands and some are prizes in the games…
She wants a second Ditto so she can give them to the Ditto in that Poke Cafe.

Steven has better reflexes than she does though she manages to win something, it’s not the one she wants.

Fortunately, she hears another kid whining about getting a stupid Ditto when he wanted Charmander!
Steven got that in his show bag (she bought two) and he was happy to swap her for Ponyta.

She waves the kid down and offers to swap. He looks at her weird but since he’s getting a Charmander out of it, even if only on a keychain, he agrees.

She secretly looses Gastly to find her any that have been lost or abandoned, as well as do her usual thing. Abra’s working today transporting her Sponsored Trainers around, but Gastly can locate the goods and she and Abra can pop back after shut-up time and retrieve things.

She whisps off happily to get to work.

Depending on how many she gets, they can go to the orphanage or maybe to Anna's Sponsored Trainers.

It only takes a couple of hours to work their way through the carnival and so they start doing the other two activities
That’s going to take two or three days likely since there are a lot of places to visit in here, but they have their stamp cards and they’re ready to go!

Butterfree will pop them back to her place overnight and they’ll be back in the morning.
Anna just wanted people to see them coming in as tourists so they’d be ignored with the rest for the first day.

Steven’s bemused she has a place but she tells him he isn’t half as bemused as she was to find out. She’s still getting used to the idea. Professor Larch is apparently VERY pleased with her results and wants to keep her tied to the Lab any way he can.

They leave several eateries, putt putt and the skating rink for the next day, retreating to a quiet spot, out of sight before Butterfree pops them away.

They feed their mon, though her little flat is too small for some of them and Steven’s Tauros are stored in the Lab and she shows him how to groom them (he should know being a ranch hand, but at the time he wasn’t paying attention to much of anything, using work to try and numb his pain) before handing over a copy of the sky map for being such a good sport about this.

He’s embarrassed and flustered but settles fast. If this is the sort of thing she wants from him, he has no problem with it. It's actually been fun.

She hasn’t really furnished the place yet, so they use their bedrolls for the night. The chance to wash up and wash their clothes is nice.
She has a second lot of touristy clothes for them to wear tomorrow but the third day, they’ll be at the park so more casual clothes would be better and he’s good with that.

Gastly and Abra happily returned from their night ‘raid’ with over fifty key chains along with assorted ‘located’ items and a lot of prizes from bags that had been lost, left behind or tossed.
There was more, but they’ve filled up the bag.

Since Abra isn’t working tomorrow, they can wrap up in the Plaza and move on to the area around the mega mall.

They don’t have to stick to the area she and Steven are at. If they don’t find much in their current area, they can widen the search.
They’re to stay out of people's private homes, though the fields are usually okay. Leave the orchards alone as well. Anything on a path or road is free game though.

They don’t have to even wait for her to be in the town. If they know she’s going to be there later, they can take their time and several bags and explore.
She wants them to have fun too and, if they see people behaving badly or being bullies, they’re allowed to prank them. Not enough to give themselves away, but enough to give the bullies/ badly behaved a scare.