Chapter Text
In a world full of pokemon, there’s many paths a trainer can take. You could choose to have an office job, or adventure the world in search of being the greatest. There are endless possibilities. For one particular trainer, he never knew what he wanted to be. So, he had two pokemon he was extremely close to, but never had the courage to journey or battle with. He went to college, yet dropped out, and ended up at a convenience store, working away his days, hoping that something great might happen.
…
That’s where I come in. Pezzy, a twenty-eight year old with absolutely nothing going for himself in life. I’m bored… extremely bored. After my shift one night, I saw a flyer hanging on a pole. It was encouraging new trainers to begin their path to becoming the new champion.
“Defeat all eight gym leaders for the chance at challenging the champion and claiming the title,” The words said, bold against the white paper. I already had a little battle knowledge, especially from school when that’s just what you did during free time for fun. Maybe this was exactly what I needed to spice up my life.
I went to sleep, thinking over my options, and decided that it was at least worth it to try. If I really ended up hating battling, I could just come back home. I lived with my parents anyway, I’m sure they’d be glad to see me leave, even just for a month. Vaniville town was all I knew; where I grew up and where I stayed. Truthfully, I’ve never even been to Lumiose City, the capital of Kalos, and the biggest city in the region. You’d think I would have at least visited other towns… But I didn’t. Now that I was thinking about it, I would totally get lost the minute I step out of the town borders. Maybe this wasn’t the smartest idea.
Nonetheless, I packed my belongings into a crossbody satchel, throwing on a plain black shirt and cargo jeans, something simple that would keep me comfortable but still looking nice. I had to make a good impression on everyone else right? I went downstairs to see my mother cooking. “Where are you off to?” she asked as I made the final step.
“I’m going to battle the gyms, and maybe become the champion. I don’t know we’ll see how far I get,”
“Be careful please? Wild pokemon are no fun, I know from experience,” and she did. My mom used to be a trainer before she married my dad and had me. She defeated the eight gyms, but never challenged the champion. She would tell me the stories of running away from hoards of beedrill or outrunning a tauros, all things that scared yet intrigued me as a child. I think I got my adventurous and impulsive personality from her.
“I promise I’ll be safe. I’ll keep you updated,” I had everything I needed, and stepped out the door into the fresh air. There was a new feeling of lightness in my bones, excitement I’ve never felt before coursing through my blood. I was really about to travel the world, alone. It was pure freedom. Before I got too far, I let Togepi out of her ball; she should get to experience this with me afterall. When she appeared out of her ball, she instantly made a sound similar to joy. After having her for eight years, I’ve learned how to decipher her various tones of voice, almost like we can have a full on conversation.
“Are you ready to go?” Another high pitched trill. “Come on then.” I made sure to leave Togepi enough room in my satchel so she could sit inside. She always liked to be carried, I guess that’s my fault for treating her like a princess, so now she gets sassy when you ask her to do things.
“I’ll need to catch more pokemon, are you up to making new friends?” Togepi answered a little unsure. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they’re nice to you.” I patted her head a little which helped calm her nerves. It’s only her and Gastly, and Gastly has been a new addition to the team. I found him while in an abandoned warehouse. I only really caught him before he was trying to attack me and I had a quick ball on me. But over time I started to really like him, he was spooky sure, but it was fun to have him around. He would try to scare me during the night, which was not a fun conversation to have with a pokemon that is quite literally made of gas and souls of deceased poison victims, but he’s slowly learned how to behave around people.
Aquacorde town was the first location we would stop at. I needed pokeballs and potions for the road, and I especially needed some food. Maybe a new jacket while I’m here, why not splurge a little right?
I gathered everything I needed at the pokemon center, stuffing them into my satchel and pant pockets. Then it was time to go to the small attire shop at the border of the town. They didn’t have a lot to choose from, just simple hoodies or zip up jackets. One in particular caught my eye, a pink zip up that looked like there was a bubble pattern around the sleeves. It was on sale, so I paid what I owed and continued on my way to the first forest. Nightfall wouldn’t be for another two hours, so I had time to make it to the town through the woods.
There was a small wooden sign right outside of the trees, reading “Welcome to Santalune Forest. Keep an eye out for dropped items!” weird thing to mention but alright.
Even though the sun was still up, the trees covered the sky, the leaves providing shade from the heat, while also making the entire place feel eerie. Why was there no one else walking through? Surely people were going on walks in here, or hanging out, I don’t know but I didn’t like being alone.
“Let’s just be in and out,” I whispered to Togepi, who looked scared as well. I took hesitant steps down the dirt path, looking out for any people and wild pokemon. I could hear the chips of some birds, and even trills of insect pokemon, but nothing large or vicious.
Although my nerves were through the roof, it was quite nice. There was a breeze blowing past the trees, rattling some of the branches above my head. The longer I walked the less stressed I felt. I saw some pidgey hopping from tree to tree, catching up with their flock and playing around.
“Damnit!” A man’s voice startled not only me, but the pidgey as they flew away into the sky. “I’m wasting all my pokeballs!” I should just mind my own business right? No need to find some stranger in the forest and ask them what's wrong. Yeah that would be ridiculous. “Man, all for an eevee!”
Eevee? Did he say that? Now that caught my attention, and my feet moved faster than my mind, carrying me to the direction of the angered grumbles of the individual. There was a small clearing, sunlight illuminating the circular area. In the middle was the man, he wore a jacket with one blue and one green sleeve, with a riolu by his side. He kept muttering to himself, something I couldn't hear from standing so far away. He looked nice enough, so I came out from the trees and walked up to him.
“Did you say you found an eevee?” his eyes shot open at my sudden intrusion.
“God don’t just scare people like that in a dark forest!” His riolu hid behind his leg. What an adorable little creature.
“Sorry, didn’t mean too, but seriously, did you find an eevee?” right back to the point.
“Yeah, two of them actually. But I can't catch the little shits because they keep tag teaming me!” Ah, so that’s what’s got him so frustrated.
“I’ll help you battle them if you let me keep one,” I’ve always wanted an eevee, more specifically, an umbreon. But I never had the time to try and find one on my own, especially when I never traveled anywhere that had eevee sightings.
“I’d appreciate any help I can get,” he sighed in relief at my offer. “My name’s Droid by the way.”
“I’m Pezzy, nice to meet you,” We shook hands shortly, before a sound coming from a busch had Droid whipping his head to the direction.
“They’re over there! Let’s go get these little suckers!” He ran to the bush, riolu following behind.
“Come on togepi, it’s time to battle!” She didn’t look too happy about it, but got out of my satchel regardless, and ran close behind.
“Riolu use bite!” Droid was going for more physical moves, so should togepi use a long distance move? I don’t want her to get hurt, and these eevee’s have good agility.
I focused my attention on the eevee on the left. I needed it to stay away from Droid as he battled, so it wouldn’t be able to interfere with him catching the other. “Togepi use dazzling gleam!” she got out in front, being enveloped by a bright light and flashing the eevee. It cried out, but regained its composure, using baby doll eyes in order to lower togepi’s attack.
Think of something good to use to change this battle in our favor . “Togepi use psychic next!” I called out, and togepi listened. She lifted eevee off of the ground, holding the poor thing in the air. “Now throw eevee away from Droid’s battle!” and just like that eevee was sent flying in a different direction. I almost felt bad, but this was what battling was all about. After this is over, I’ll make sure to bring eevee to the pokemon center to heal up.
Now that eevee was alone and easy to fight, I told togepi to use dazzling gleam again, this was the last move until eevee was unable to continue. She tried to fight to stand up and run, but togepi was quicker, and after her move, eevee had fainted. I got out a pokeball, throwing it in the direction of eevee, watching her go inside, and the ball rocked back and forth, before clicking. I just got an eevee!
“Great job togepi! You’re getting whatever treat you want when we get to the next town!” She excitedly chirped before climbing back into my satchel to rest. I looked at Droid to see how he was doing, but he was already behind me with a wide smile, a pokeball in his hand. “I’m guessing you finally caught it?”
“Sure did! Thank you for helping out, I was chasing those two for an hour with no luck,” He put away the ball, before stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Where are you off to now?”
“Santalune City. I’m going to be staying there for the night,” I answered.
“No way, me too. Want to walk together since it’s getting dark?”
“Sure, since we’re going to the same place anyway,”
The two of us strangers went through the rest of the forest easily. I found it much more comforting to have someone beside me, and actually have a conversation instead of talking to myself and hearing the trills of togepi replying.
“What are your plans as a trainer?” Our conversation continued.
“I don’t know, maybe become a gym leader? Right now I’m just going to try and defeat all of the gyms, but you never know what could happen,” Droid responded. “What about you?”
“It probably sounds stupid, but I want to be the next champion. I’ve never done anything exciting before, and now I’m here with a total stranger, walking to a town I’ve never visited before,” It brought a smile to my face to think about how many more people I’d meet on the road. I hadn’t even thought about it before, but so many opportunities would arise just from new interactions.
“That’s cool, I’m sure you’ll do great,” he said nonchalantly.
We continued to talk as we got to the pokemon center, resting our new eevee’s and settling in the community room of the center. It was nice that they had spare rooms for trainers, so you didn’t have to buy a hotel room or sleep outside. I knew a few people that would camp, but I didn’t have enough room for a tent or sleeping bag, and honestly I didn’t want to risk getting attacked in the middle of the night by an ursaring.
Droid claimed a bed by the window, not bothering to change or wash up before throwing himself on the clean sheets and letting riolu get comfortable beside him. “Good night, see you in the morning!” he turned over on his side so I could no longer see his face. So he’s just assuming I won’t leave at the crack of dawn without him? Nah, who am i kidding, I won’t wake up that early.
…
And I was exactly right. By the time I had sat up in bed, my phone displayed the time as 12:42. I half expected to see Droid in the bed opposite of me, but he was gone. Maybe he was tired of waiting for me to wake up, so he decided to just leave. It wasn’t like we were sure friends, but I thought he’d at least want to talk some more, or even walk to the next gym with me. That’s what it felt like was happening.
Togepi was still sleeping soundly beside me, so I grabbed her in my arms and started to get ready for the day, putting on some fresh clothes and styling my hair. By the time I was cleaned up she had woken up, grumpily trilling. I knew she was hungry, but I didn’t have anything on me. Guess it’s time to buy something from the pokemon center.
There were quite a few people trying to get help from nurse Joy, and I felt slightly bad for her being the only worker present today. I walked past the group of people either waiting for their pokemon to recover, or just taking breaks from walking, and ended up in the shopping section of the center. When I reached the counter, I saw a familiar tuft of dark brown hair also waiting to be helped.
“I thought you said you’d see me in the morning, but you ran off,” I teased the man beside me.
“Oh sorry! I was going to buy some berries, then come back,” Droid responded.
“Likely story, I think you were just trying to run away from me and got caught,”
“Never that,” he joked back.
We bought whatever supplies we needed, including enough food for three days, and settled at a table outside to eat a small breakfast.
“So are you going to the first gym?” Droid asked between bites of a sandwich.
“Yeah, know anything about them?” I didn’t do my research before leaving, which now in hindsight was a bad idea. I wasn’t at all prepared for who I would be going against, especially what type they use.
“I’ve only heard about him. Even though he’s one of the first gyms you encounter, he’s extremely hard to beat, because he uses psychic types,”
“Great, a hard trainer to welcome me into the battling world,” I scoffed. It would do me some good to catch another pokemon before battling a gym. Maybe a ghost type or dark type, since they’re the strongest against psychic. That means I would need to go outside in the dark to catch one. I wonder if Droid’s up for that.
We ate in silence, small comments being made to our pokemon, asking if they wanted more food and the like. The first gym was in Santalune City, where we currently were, so I could just go ahead and make my way to the gym today. But I still need practice, and I haven't even tried battling with eevee, what if she's stubborn and hates me? Yeah, today wasn’t the best option.
“Hey, I was thinking,” Droid cut the silence, bringing my attention back to him. “Mind if I tag along with you? I mean, we’re both going to the gyms, so we might as well have some company right?”
It was a good offer. I found that I hated being by myself anyway, especially in places I wasn't familiar with. “Yeah, having a friend would be nice,” I decided. It brought a bright smile to Droid’s face instantly.
“This is going to be great!”
So we grabbed out things, walked around town and admired all the shops. Just simple things to keep us busy as we waited for nightfall, where Droid agreed to help me catch a ghost type pokemon. I even challenged some other trainers, and won! They gave me items after winning, small amounts of money, berries, charms, but all nice gifts that would help me in the future.
The sun barely begins to dip out of sight, passing the horizon. Droid shoots me a small smirk, before we make our way back into Santalune forest, the darkness much more daunting than it was during the day. We took hesitant steps inside, not knowing what kind of wild pokemon would be just beyond the path.