"Garnet, time to wake up!" The teenager groaned as his mother flung open the curtains, the morning sun hitting his face.
"Ugh... What time is it?" His mother's Glameow wriggled into his arms and he gave her a sleepy smile patting her head.
"11am, I was going to wake you earlier but you looked like you were having a good dream!" That he was. Dreaming about being on the beach battling his best friend since childhood. Majestic Empoleon versus powerful Gallade, watching their Pokémon's fluid movements as they shouted commands. Seeing his friend's silver eyes sparkle with passion like he used to see when they did practice battles with their parents' Pokémon before he had moved away.
And soon they would be able to battle for real, as his mother had arranged for him to get his own Pokémon tomorrow.
"By the way Diamond told me to get you to video call him, he got his first Pokémon today!" His mother was excitable as always and it just made Garnet feel more excited. Diamond lived all the way in Heartholme City whilst Garnet lived in tiny Twinleaf Town. But his friend had promised they would start their journey together, and would finish it together.
Jumping out his bed, he stretched his arms laughing as Glameow nuzzled his leg. "Okay, I'll call him right away!"
After changing into his favourite outfit, a dark red jacket over a black shirt and jeans, he made sure his golden hair was somewhat presentable before setting up his computer hearing Starly chirp outside. Glameow jumped on his lap and he idly patted her wondering when his mother's Froslass was going to make her appearance. Garnet knew when she was around because his room would go freezing.
He called Diamond and was greeted by a Gardevoir answering, staring at him visibly confused.
"Garde?"
"Gardevoir, what are you doing on my-" His friend looked at him and grinned, sitting in front of the screen. "Oh hi Garnet!" Glameow swatted at the monitor and Diamond chuckled. "Hey Glameow." She purred happily and Gardevoir waved at the two before disappearing.
"Mum said you got your first Pokémon." He nodded grinning and Garnet saw a baby Ralts climb onto his lap before shyly waving at him. Teenage boy or not he couldn't stop himself from aww-ing. "Aww, it's so cute... Did your parents breed it for you?"
"Yep!" Glameow purred at Ralts and it giggled making them smile. "Looks like he likes Glameow. Good too, he refuses to go in the pokeball. Hate for him to spend all day hiding from her."
"You're still coming here today?"
"Yep, I got loads of repels so we don't get ambushed in Mount Coronet." They laughed and Diamond brushed his chestnut bangs away from his eyes. "So you're still going with Piplup?"
"Of course," he said rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms. "I've been saying that since I was 5. If only I could have started my journey earlier but by the time Professor Rowan returned and found new starters, Team Spacemen popped up and frightened my mother to death."
"Yeah and then they rose the age because of all the kids that had their Pokémon stolen didn't they?" Diamond hugged his suddenly frightened looking Ralts. "We'll be okay though, don't worry Ralts. The bad people won't get you."
"You say that but-" His friend sent him a warning look. Don't terrify the baby. But it wasn't like Team Galactic were the only thieves, there were still Pokémon poachers and thieves everywhere you went whether tied to a group or not.
"We'll be fine. No one's stupid enough to attack during the daytime, we can just check into the Pokecenter before the sun sets until our Pokémon become strong. We'll leave at noon, and we'll be here in no time. Don't worry." He prodded the screen as if booping him over the internet and Garnet snorted.
"Okay, I'll pick some berries for Ralts later. What are you going to do about trainers though?"
Diamond waved a white flag and he laughed. "He's only level 6, the trainers around here are crazy."
"Good call, he can battle a Pokémon his own level tomorrow." He heard someone call and his friend gave a weak smile.
"Andd that's my mother. She's competing in another contest with my dad today. Probably wants my opinion on her new dress." He sighed. "I could never do contests if I had to wear a flashy suit all day. Well I better go, I'll see you at 2. 4 if I run into a roadblock and need to find a trainer with HM Rock Smash or something."
"Okay, I'll see you later then Dia! Bye Ralts!" Ralts waved timidly at the monitor and he had to suppress another aww, the call ended with a bleep.
Glameow left and he took out a book from inside his desk. The Newbie's Guide To Sinnoh Pokémon. He was going to find how to counter that Ralts for when it became a Steel smashing Gallade.
"I can't believe it!"
Gardevoir and Gallade laughed to themselves as they saw their owners coddling their very embarrassed looking son, his mother refusing to let go of him and his father snapping pictures of him and his somewhat frightened somewhat curious little Ralts blinking in response to the flash.
"M-Mum let go… It's not like I'll be gone forever…" he grumbled voice escaping strangled as he wondered if Ralts' Confusion would do any long lasting damage or if it would just push his parents back. He wished repels worked on humans.
"You come visit as soon as you get back here to challenge Fantina, alright kiddo?" his dad said and he nodded wondering how his psychic type Pokémon would fare against ghost types. Probably not very well.
"Okay, I will, now stop taking pictures!" Ralts crawled over to the bike leaning against the door, waiting for his trainer. Diamond had fixed a box to it for him to ride in, and had hyped up the previously shy Ralts so much he was now really impatient to go. Ralts couldn't wait to see all the forests and cities his trainer had showed him pictures of. "You ready, Ralts?" The little Pokémon nodded excitedly and he grinned. "Okay the-"
"Wait a minute, young man!" His father passed him a scroll. "A map for you and Garnet, you wouldn't want to get lost would you?" He gave a weak smile nodding and blinked as he held out two small boxes.
"A-Are those poketches?"
"Light blue's yours, red one's your friends. Very useful, try not to break them." He took them smiling and put them and the map carefully in his bag. He knew the route to Twinleaf for now at least. It shouldn't be any trouble.
"Thanks. I'll call when I'm in Twinleaf."
Before he left he made sure the white flag was tied to his bike.
Thankfully the ride through Mount Coronet had been smooth sailing, no need to beg an experienced trainer to smash rocks for him or pointing wildly at the white flag to stop his baby Ralts getting trounced by level 20 Pokémon.
As they reached Oreburgh City, Ralts's stomach started growling so they stopped at the Pokecenter.
"You okay little guy?" He picked up the psychic type and he cheered happily as he chained his bike up and took him inside the warm bright building. They were greeted by a Pichu, which was quickly followed by a little girl.
"Pichu, Dad said-" She stared at him then looked at Ralts and squealed. "Aww it's so cute! What Pokémon's this, I've never seen them around here before!"
Ralts waved at her and her big eyes lit up, Diamond grinned and lightly patted his head. "He's a Ralts, my parents bred him for me."
"Oh cool!" She tilted her head. "What does 'bred' mean?" Thankfully before he had to explain the creation of life to a 7 year old her father called her over and she and Pichu ran over. Sighing in relief, he headed to the counter greeting the clerk. The Pokemart and Pokecenter had merged two years ago to save room for other buildings. Mostly schools because not all children lived in Jubilife City.
Ralts stared puzzled at all the pokeballs and medicines as his trainer bought some food with the little money he had not spent on repels and potions in case the repels failed. Diamond would get money for pokeballs the old fashioned way- beating the crap out of his enemy's Pokémon. He tilted his head as his trainer gave him what looked like a muffin.
"It's a pokepuff, try it." He cautiously bit into it then cheered and rapidly ate the sweet. "I guess you like it! We'll get back on the road in ten, let's meet some more Pokémon."
Ralts started to grow restless as they rode through the dark cave known as Oreburgh Gate and Diamond felt chills go down his back. It was usually populated by trainers he had heard but it was completely silent, he couldn't even hear any wild Pokemon and the repel had long worn off.
"Don't worry Ralts, we won't be here for long…" Ralts shivered then cried as red light exploded in front of them and a Golbat and Kadabra blocked their paths. Before Diamond could act voices echoed through the darkness.
"Golbat, use Air Cutter!"
"Kadabra, get them!"
The new trainer got off the bike just in time to avoid the air cutter, grabbing his startled Ralts before it crashed into the wall. "Sheesh, what happened to 'I challenge you to a battle'?!"
Holding his Pokemon close and backing away from the approaching Pokemon, he saw two human shaped silhouettes in the distance.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"And make it doub- Hey we're not Team Rocket!"
There was an awkward silence.
"Do we even have a motto?"
"Dunno, maybe we should ask the commanders when we get back."
Diamond wasn't sure whether to be terrified or just really confused.
Ralts chose for him when he started wailing and the enemy Pokemon started closing in. Trying to ignore how his legs started shaking, he focused on the silhouettes able to make out they were wearing identical outfits. They both had really stupid hair too.
"W-Who are you?"
"Who cares, give us the Ralts!"
Ralts started trembling and he quickly slipped a hand into his bag groping for the pokeball. "There's Kirlia in route 212, j-just go there…"
He heard one of the strangers snort. "Can't, some jackass is blocking it off."
"T-Then just fly there with Golbat?"
"We're not battling four gym leaders to be able to use Fly when we can get a Ralts here!"
His hand closed around the ball and his eyes darted to the light at the end of the tunnel. He highly doubted he'd be able to outrun two Pokemon. Maybe if he stalled along enough he could hope someone would finally pass through and rescue them. Taking a deep breath he murmured to Ralts. "I-I might have an idea, please get in the pokeball." Ralts gave a shaky nod and Diamond swiftly returned him trying not to faint from fear as he faced two evolved Pokemon. "S-So… That was Team Rocket's motto right?"
The shapes nodded, the speaker sounding puzzled. "What's it to you?"
"Maybe you'll get a promotion if you make a new motto for your group or whatever, something to invoke terror in all trainers to find." Thankfully for him these guys seemed stupid as they called their pokemon to stand back with them.
"Prepare for-"
"No, no! Don't base it off Rocket's, you might get sued for copyright." Diamond took a deep breath. "How about… 'They see us rollin', they hatin', cryin' and tryin' stop us playin' dirty'?" They nodded enthusiastically and chanted the line back and forth between them. Thank God Garnet had taught him how to troll people. Because they may be intimidating but they weren't smart.
Diamond had been stalling for ten minutes when the attackers, frustrated with themselves and each other because of the motto, realised what exactly he was doing.
"What are we doing?" One of them shouted abruptly and his Kadabra jumped to command. "Are you trying to make a fool out of Team Galactic, kid?!"
That explained the stupid haircuts. But Team Galactic had disbanded three years ago, or that was what Diamond had heard. Must be posers. Extremely stupid posers. Either way, they had Pokemon and he was doomed if Arceus didn't rain luck on him right now.
"N-No uh... You guys make fools of yourself," he murmured pathetically, backing away slowly. Maybe he should run. Either way he would fail his journey before it even began. "Oh look it's a shiny Zubat!"
They turned away and he made a run for it.
"Kadabra, Psybeam!"
He hoped his Ralts would fall into better hands than these idiots. Then a shadow darted past him.
"Toxicroak, use Sucker Punch!" Before the Kadabra could act it was knocked down by a stealthy figure and Diamond found himself being pulled back by someone. In the dark he couldn't make out the man's appearance, however from his voice he could tell he was older. It sounded mature and sharp, cluing him that whilst he was an adult he wasn't anywhere near his grandad's age.
One of the grunts stumbled. "Y-You- Who do you think you are?! Golbat, Air Cutter!"
The Toxicroak swiftly dodged and growled out, throat sac inflating. His mystery rescuer chuckled and held his hand out. "Stone Edge!" Rocks ripped themselves out of the ground and flew at the bat, blasting it out of the air. Red light flashed and the Pokémon vanished, footsteps thumping as the attackers left the cave. The man stared after them silently and Diamond took a shaky breath trying to process what happened. His Ralts almost kidnapped on the first day. And he was completely helpless.
"T-Thanks sir. If you hadn't come…" As if sensing it was safe Ralts sprung out of the pokeball hugging his trainer, he managed a weak smile patting its head. "My journey would have finished before it even began… Hey Ralts we've been saved." Ralts cried happily to the man and the Toxicroak disappeared, up close Diamond could barely make out a smile on his face.
"No need to thank me, that must have been frightening." He reached out and Ralts nuzzled his hand. "Hey, no offense but were you going to challenge the gym past here? Because Ralts looks like it could use more training."
Diamond shook his head looking at the exit to the route to Jubilife. "I'm on my way to Twinleaf Town, I promised a friend we would start our journey together. I didn't… Realise Team Galactic were still around."
The man looked the other way and following his gaze he saw what he could make out to be a girl walking towards them. "Cyrus was always ambitious, I should have known he wouldn't have given up… " Diamond tilted his head.
"Did you know him?" The man did not answer, instead he addressed the girl.
"I need to get back to work, you wouldn't mind escorting this boy to Twinleaf Town for me would you?"
She looked Diamond up and down then nodded. "Yes sir, right away sir."
And immediately she yanked him and Ralts out of Oreburgh Gate, leaving him wondering who exactly had saved him. He would have asked about bringing his bike but it'd cost way more to fix than it would to replace. And who knew, maybe he'd get a new one if he saved a bike shop owner.
Diamond thanked the girl and her Crobat as Ralts stared around taking in the small town his trainer had been talking about. It was exactly like he had described, full of trees with flowers scattered around. The tiny Pokémon crawled towards the pond situated in front of a small house with a fenced off berry garden and Diamond caught him laughing as he started sulking. "Hey don't go wondering off." He yawned. "Come on, let's see Garnet."
Tapping on the door of the nearby house Ralts stared as the boy he had seen on his trainer's computer answered with a wide grin on his pale face. "Hey Dia, hi Ralts!" The Pokémon cheered in response and he chuckled. "Aren't you full of energy? You look like crap though Dia, no offense. Rough trip?"
"Guess you could say that," he said with a shrug walking past him. "Now if you'd excuse me, I'm going to go black out on your sofa. I've got one hell of a story to tell you."