The Journey Unfolds

"I swear, sometimes I think this girl is just plain nuts,"

Pearce was on his way to meet his friends, Mable and Lux, outside of the Pewter City museum. Lux said she had exciting news to share with both of them. Whatever it was she had seemed worked up about it. Hopefully it wasn't another scam she had fallen for by someone pretending to sell Pokémon.

Only one of those shady people had actually given her one of the mysterious creatures that people hold so dearly. Sadly it was nothing more than a Magikarp, which she had named Koop, with its only move being Splash. Nevertheless Lux was the first of them to own a Pokémon, even if it was a pretty useless one. Although once the red fish evolved it was extremely powerful. It was just a matter of getting that to happen.

As he neared the museum, Pearce pulled his black hoodie tighter around his body. It was far too windy and cold on this fine winter day to be out and about. Even his short red hair was blowing in the fierce wind. It was an insane idea to meet in these conditions.

Finally, he saw Mable and Lux. There was another girl with them, a girl he didn't recognize. Whoever she was the three of them were laughing. Mable took first notice of his approach. She was Hispanic, so her skin had a slight tan to it. She was wearing a red jacket lined with fake fur around the hood, a pair of jeans, and her usual gold colored round glasses. While she had warm hazel eyes, she was blind as a Zubat. The truth was all three of the friends were. Lux and Pearce wore contacts. Her hair was brown but the tips around her shoulders had been bleached from a Halloween costume two years earlier in which she had to dye it red. It actually looked really good. At least, Pearce thought so.

"Pearce!" She shouted across the way. The next thing Pearce knew the running force that was Mable was tackling him. She was quite the forceful hugger, and sometimes it was intense. "We've been waiting forevs! What took you so long?"

"In case you guys haven't noticed, it's twenty degrees out here. That tends to affect a person's ability to walk," Pearce responded with a chuckle. Lux and the other girl were already right behind Mable. Lux had a mischievous look on her face, meaning whatever she had brought them together for was either really good or really bad. She was a dark-skinned girl with dark brown eyes. Her hair was very dark brown, but it wasn't black. She wore a pink shirt with a Houndour using ember on the front, a turquoise jacket that was unzipped, and a pair of jeans.

While Pearce waited for the mystery girl to introduce herself, Lux began explaining what this ordeal was about. "I woke up this morning, and I went outside. There at my doorstep lay a box! A cardboard box! And I was like 'What's this doing here?' and of course I had to open it. Inside was a note, and said note had the words 'USE THEM WELL' in all capital letters! And I was like 'Use what?' and when I opened, I saw these!" She pulled four small red-and-white balls from her pocket. All three of the others groaned. They were Pokéballs. Poor Lux had fallen for another scheme.

"Lux, what's wrong with you? It's obvious someone wanted to fool you!" The words from the mystery girl were jokingly said but had a hint of scold. Quickly, she turned to Pearce. "My name is Erika, by the way. I've known Lux for years," Lux cleared her throat, bringing attention back to her.

"Come on, you guys! I figure there's one for each of us, and if they're duds then they're duds. Let's at least try them out!" Her eyes were full of pleading. Clearly she desperately wanted a better Pokémon than Koop. Reluctantly the three of them each took a Pokéball from Lux's hand. A huge grin spread across her face. "Great! So I'll go first, since it was my house where they were!" Without giving the others a chance to argue she pressed the button on the device, allowing it to expand.

Gracefully, as though she had been practicing for years, she tossed it into the air. As it hit the ground the Pokéball opened and a blinding light emanated from it. Within moments there was a pink blob standing, or whatever blobs do, in front of them, with two black dots for eyes and a line for a mouth. "Ditto!" the creature cried out.

At once Lux rushed towards it and began hugging it. Although to Pearce it looked more like she was trying to squeeze the life out of it. "Look at little Zubo! It's so cute!" Lux exclaimed. Apparently that was the creature's name. It seemed to like it, because it had a smile as soon as the name was spoken.

Erika was next. Her throw was a bit less graceful than Lux's but it wasn't bad. It was probably due to shock that it wasn't a scam and someone had actually given Lux real Pokémon. At any rate, a small green insect appeared from the light. "Caterpie!" it squeaked.

Just as Lux had done, Erika charged for it and gave it a hug. Her hug was gentler out of fear for the bug's life. "I shall call you Belgabad and you will be the greatest Caterpie known to mankind!" the Caterpie squealed with delight and seemed instantly attached to her new owner.

As Mable readied her Pokéball, she got nervous and slammed it to the ground like a football player scoring a touchdown would do. Surprisingly the ball wasn't injured. It contained a yellow duck with an enormous beak resembling a slice of bread. Its hands, if that was the correct term, were against its head as though suppressing a headache. "Psyduck!" the duck quacked, tilting its head to one side.

"Ducky!" Mable said instantly and rushed over to the poor confused looking creature. Rather than stay in one place he tried to run away. Sadly the duck couldn't waddle fast enough, nor could any creature wishing to escape one of Mable's hugs.

"Psy," he exhaled, accepting defeat.

Panic struck Pearce as he enlarged the device in his hand. What Pokémon would he get? What if there wasn't even one inside? There was only one way to find out. "Here I go!" he called out as he threw it in the air. It was more of a large toss than a throw, and it nearly hit Lux on the head. At first nothing happened and Pearce was worried he had done something wrong. Or worse, that he had gotten a dud. As he bent down to pick it up and try again it burst open causing him to jump back. A brown star with a red gem surrounded by gold in the center, a small gold band around one extension, was in front of him.

"Kyeeaah!" it cried forcefully. The Pokémon was a Staryu, a Pokémon Pearce knew quite well. He was actually fond of them and found them very intriguing. While he was trying to figure out whether to hug Staryu or not, Erika squatted down and poked its gem.

"It feels weird," she remarked.

Needless to say the Staryu was not happy. It spun to face her and looked ready to attack. Before it got a chance Pearce picked it up. "Staryu, it's not nice to attack people without a very good reason," his tone was gentle but clearly he was scolding the creature. "But that doesn't mean Erika had any right to poke you. Erika, you owe someone an apology," he sounded like a parent, but she didn't need to do that.

Rather than apologize, Erika held up her middle fingers and mouthed, "Fuck you," resulting in another blast of water to the face.

"Good job," Pearce laughed, hugging his new Pokémon, "Now you need a name. How about…" he thought for a moment, 'Burst!" Burst's mood instantly boosted at the sound of its new name. The others were still coddling their Pokémon, although Erika seemed to be protecting Belgabad from any possible attacks from Burst.

"Okay guys, what do we tell our parents? And what are we going to do now?" Pearce was always concerned about what things were to come. "I mean, we were told to use these Pokémon well. What does that mean?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Mable spoke up after forcing her Psyduck to cuddle with her. "I know what I'm going to do! I'm going to get the eight gym badges! It's about time I got out on a journey. My mom's been nagging me for years," and Mable wasn't the only one being nagged by her parents. All of them were sixteen, except maybe Erika. Pearce wasn't sure but she did look their age. A Pokémon journey started usually at age ten. But the three of them, and apparently Erika, had never been able to go. None of them had Pokémon, except Lux's Koop but that isn't enough to go on a long journey around Kanto.

"Sounds good to me," Lux jumped in. "Of course, I'm not sure how to break the news to my parents. Shouldn't be a problem though. They can't wait to get me out of the house," she seemed excited to get the journey rolling.

"Well we aren't doing this unless we're together," Erika proclaimed. "I say we do it," she turned to Pearce. "We're in. What about you, Pearce? Come on, it's all of us or none of us,"

Truthfully Pearce never wanted to collect badges. He just wanted to learn everything there was to know about Pokémon and possibly learn to breed them. If he collected badges along the way, that was just an added bonus. He turned to Burst, asking its opinion. It let out a fierce "Kyeeaah!" as if to say Let's do this!

Pearce nodded. "We're in. We need to leave soon, though. It's a long journey. How about Saturday? That gives us two days to prepare," Plus, tomorrow was his birthday and he wanted to spend it with his family. "And we should get Nurse Joy to check out our Pokémon before we go. They could be sick,"

The others all agreed, and put their Pokémon back in their Pokéballs. As the four of them walked to the Pokémon Center a feeling of excitement swept over them, coupled with a feeling of sorrow. They were leaving their families behind. Yet it was truly the start of something great.

To be continued…