It was a bright and sunny August morning. Birds were chirping, the fresh smell of pine cones filled the room via the open window only vented by the aroma of pancakes coming from downstairs. The air was hot, but in a pleasant way like the feeling of hot chocolate going down your throat only it was touching her skin. Due to her mouth being open while being asleep, she licked her cheeks to prevent them from feeling like a desert. After rubbing her eyes from the extremely pleasant dream she was having, she sat up and gave a big yawn. She stretched her arms out with a big sigh and a small tingle spiked down her spine as both her elbows gave a loud pop. She removed her covers from her feet which were sweaty and smelly. Even a girl like her couldn't prevent stinky feet in the summer weather. The small otter that slept beside her gave a small sigh and blinked its eyes open. It hopped up and gave the girl a nuzzle with its small blue nose.
The girl gave her body a quick glance. Still wearing her ducky pajama pants and a comfy, long sleeve and dark blue shirt, she decided to head downstairs still in a rugged mess. It was only her mom, why would she care?
"Alright, better head down now shouldn't we T.V?" she looked at the otter by her side. It had a mostly white body, dark blue ears, a nose, and flippers. Around its abdomen was a lighter blue tinge of skin with a small shell in the center. T.V. was short for Tidal Wave which is the name he was given by the girl when they first met.
The otter blinked and smiled happily. "Osha! Oshawott! Wott!" he jumped up and down. Even after two years, the Oshawott was as cute as ever.
"White! Come downstairs, breakfast is ready!" a feminine voice called from the bottom of the steps.
White smiled, excited for the home cooked morning meal. At this point she really had to enjoy the little things. She used her hands to scoot her waist to the side. The force made her legs swing over and hang towards the bottom of the bed.
White then grabbed the side of her wheelchair and lifted herself into it.
It was one of her best attempts. She was lucky that this time she didn't tumble to the floor and have to pick herself back up. The worst episode had been when she stumbled onto the ground and slammed the back of her head into the floorboard, giving herself a concussion. Cheren and Black had laughed at the event. She was thankful that Bianca was way more sympathetic than the boys. Although in hindsight giving yourself a concussion by simply falling down is pretty hilarious. She smiled at the memory of her friends visiting her in the hospital afterward and bringing her loads of candy.
Tidal Wave took a small leap off the bed onto White's left shoulder. "O-sha!" he said enthusiastically while pointing towards the stairs.
A chuckle escaped White's lips. "In a minute bud, I do need to clean myself up just a little bit." She wheeled herself to the bathroom and splashed some water in her face. She then put her hair in a ponytail and shoved her signature pink hat onto her messy hair. That was by far her favorite thing about hats; it was the ultimate remedy for a bad hair day.
The small otter hopped on her lap and waved his flipper in front of his nose. "Woooooott" he moaned and pointed at her feet.
"I know I know, I'm getting to it." White grabbed the bottle of air freshener, pulled up her PJ's, and gave a few squirts to her feet. She set the bottle down next to her but kept looking at her legs for some reason. Years and years with the inability to walk on her own legs had given her lower half a beating. Pale, thin, and fit the description perfectly for "weak", anytime she looked at her legs her heart sank for a moment. Even after all this time after the accident, she still could not get over the fact that she couldn't use her feet for anything. For the longest time she considered getting them removed completely. What was the point of having them if she couldn't use them? After a little convincing from her mom that she would be losing a part of herself in the process, White eventually decided to keep her useless legs, despite the fact that every glance made her depression even worse.
Apparently she had been staring at her legs for a while, Tidal Wave patted her face with his flipper. White got out of her trance and looked at him. She shook her head, "Sorry pal, got a little distracted there. You ready to eat?"
"Osha wott wott sha!" T.V grinned and nodded. As if on cue, White's stomach bellowed and vibrated.
"Yeah, I'm pretty hungry too." White said.
"WHIIIIITE!" her mom called.
"ON MY WAY MOM!"
She wheeled herself over to the top steps and cracked her knuckles. Even if her legs were weak, she was sure she could knock a 7 foot man out with one punch. That is, as long as she could reach him. The point is, she thought, is that my arms have gotten buff. She inched forward as she leaned back slightly in her chair making the front wheels lift up. Once the back wheel dropped down to the top step, White gripped her wheels firmly to prevent herself from toppling to the bottom and giving herself another concussion. Tidal Wave gripped the left arm rest to brace himself for the ride. White let herself fall down each step in complete control. After years of practice and months of developing callouses on both of her hands, she had the art of going down stairs in a wheelchair to a science. A twenty set took her only 15 seconds, and White only knew that because she had her mom time her after she had really perfected the skill.
She took the final four steps a bit quicker, letting herself lean forward a bit. After the bumpy ride to the bottom, she let the wheelchair roll on its own. White zoomed past her mom in the kitchen and slammed into the wall, opposite of the stairway up to her room. It would've been painful, but White had done this so many times that her mom had set up padding on that very spot on the wall. It made for an exciting way to start each day. Hey, that rhymed White thought and gave a humorous exhale through her nose.
White turned her chair around, expecting to see her mother with breakfast setup at the table. Although yes, her mom did have her food ready, what she wasn't ready for was Black, Cheren, Bianca, and Professor Juniper standing all around her living room.
"SURPRISE!" they all shouted with glee. White would've stumbled back if she weren't already in her chair. Tidal Wave however had been standing on the arm rest and had fallen off from the shock of all the visitors.
White's mom clapped her hands together excitedly and put her arms out in a "look what I got you" type motion.
White smiled wider than she had in quite some time. "Holy crap! You guys scared the hell out of me!"
"Language." White's mom scolded softly.
"Sorry." But White was too excited to see all her friends to care what came out of her mouth. "What are you all doing here though?"
Black scoffed, "What, you didn't think that we'd miss this special occasion?"
White's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "What special occasion?"
Professor Juniper snorted. It was one of the more human qualities about her compared to her usual perfect Pokémon scientist personality. "Why, today marks two years that the four of you received your first Pokémon!" She gestured to the four of them. "Bianca got her Tepig,"
The small orange fire pig peaked out from behind Bianca's legs. "And even after two years of Wilbur knowing you guys, he's still shy around you" Bianca added.
To her left stood wonder-nerd himself. "Cheren got his Snivy"
The future "champion of Unova" tilted his glasses back in place. His recently evolved Snivy into Servine stood as proud as Cheren at his feet. "And we're getting stronger every day!" Cheren boasted.
Professor Juniper eyed White. "Which left Oshawott for you White"
Tidal Wave gasped at the partial insult. White chuckled. "For what it's worth I was going to pick you from the start bud"
"And with no more Unova starters for Black he made the special request to Rowan from Sinnoh. Took weeks for Chimchar to get here" Juniper motioned towards Black.
Jalapeño the Chimchar, or JP for short, sat on top of Black's head, resting his feet on the bill of his trainer's hat. "What can I say," Black said, "the monkey inside me connected"
Cheren gave Black a friendly punch to the shoulder "Yeah, and as the Professor said it took weeks for him to get here. We all had to wait so we could get our first Pokémon together." The group laughed at the memory of two years ago.
White sighed, "Wow, I can't believe it's been two years already"
Black nodded, "We all came to a consensus that we wanted to spend all day together, the four of us, to catch up and relive the old days"
Bianca added, "It was all Cheren's idea too! Who knew he could be such a softy after all"
Cheren shrugged at her teasing. "Hey now, just because becoming stronger is top priority right now doesn't mean I've become a sociopath. You guys are still my friends. Even though I could kick all your butts in a Pokémon battle."
"Wow, so smug" Black said. "Maybe one on one, but in a two on two Gizmo and Mojo would completely own you" Gizmo and Mojo were the nicknames for two of Black's Pokémon that he had caught during his time in the Hoenn region. Since Cheren and Bianca were out discovering Unova, Black decided to start exploring in Hoenn and becoming strong there. He had done a bunch of research on all the regions and Hoenn had two Pokémon he knew he wanted to train from the start.
Gizmo, his Aron was a defensive tank for being so small and was very easy going with a huge love for sleep. Mojo was his troublemaking Abra who had learned a lot of strong attacks in the past year and a half with Black. For a while, Abra made a mess of things; stealing food from vendors, stuffing smaller bugs down unsuspecting pants (Black had bug bites on his legs for weeks), and even making other trainer's Pokéballs come loose. Those poor unfortunate people had heart attacks fearing that they would never see their beloved Pokémon again. After a lot of training, Black was able to teach Mojo some respect and he became one of the most polite Pokémon White had heard of. Still, Mojo pulled the occasional prank, but it was much more just for fun instead of causing mayhem.
Those two Pokémon had become close over the years though and in double battles practically unstoppable. Mojo's attack power was great and could easily take out other trainer's Pokémon, but only a couple hints would hinder him and after four he would be knocked out for the match. Gizmo however, received some special training from Black and despite being a Steel and Rock type, grew into one of the fastest Pokémon. At least, that's what Black had told White over one of their many phone calls while he was away. With Iron Defense, Gizmo could tank any hit aimed at Mojo allowing the psychic type to get free hits on any opponents until they finally won.
Cheren knew about the duo's power and blushed, embarrassed. "Maybe once I'm champion we can battle" he said, avoiding the possibility of getting trampled.
White's mom intervened the nerd out session between them. "Well, how about we continue this conversation over some food. Let's eat!"
The entire morning was one of the most pleasant moments of White's time being disabled. It was going in the happy memory banks, for sure. That was what White called any memory that she thought about when just the sight of her wheelchair made crumple in sadness. They kept her going: the time her friends visited her in the hospital with her concussion; they had all stopped their adventures just to drop by and make sure she was ok. There was the time that a bunch of wild Rattata's had invaded her house. She and Tidal Wave had battled every single one of them out of her house. It was the one time she felt like a true trainer. And now there would be this morning; pulling her out of her most depressed states. If only rock bottom was weak against water attacks. That would make things a whole lot easier, she would think to herself.
The day was not over though. White's friends released all their Pokémon for them to play together. It was the first time she saw Bianca's Lillipup and Minun along with Cheren's Zorua and Staryu. When White asked how they had gotten Pokémon from outside the Unova region when the two of them had never left, Cheren explained,
"You seriously don't know? For a while now, the scientists from each region, like Professor Juniper and Professor Rowan from Sinnoh, they've been wanting to study Pokémon from outside they're region. So they came together and brought the specimens they were studying and traded with each other. Then they took the new Pokémon to their respective regions and released them into the wild to see how they would react to the new environment. The first time was such a success that they did it every year for an entire decade. Now there's no such thing as region specific Pokémon. Now really it's just that the Pokémon that are native to the region are more common than foreign Pokémon"
White could've done without the sass, but it was great news to hear for the world of Pokémon trainers. It made her desire to be one herself grow even more. Since they were all 5 they all made plans to become trainers and adventure the world together. Now eleven years later, going their separate ways and White being stuck at home doing nothing was not how she had pictured it as a kid.
In the afternoon the Pokémon battles went underway. Bianca was excited to show off how strong her Minun was; Cheeks was its nickname. The electric rat was in fact very strong, taking out Cheren's Staryu with one Spark attack. But Servine was able to take out both Cheeks and Shortstuff the Lillipup easily. Then the double battle that Black had talked about finally happened. Mojo sat on Gizmo's back playfully, but ready for a fight. Cheren's Servine, Jack, stood by his side ready for another fight. The Servine's name was Jack as Cheren explained how his grass Pokémon was a jack-of-all-trades type Pokémon; not overly powerful at one aspect of battling but not weak in anything, The confusing part was when he sent out Cosmo, his Staryu, out again.
"Woah, wait, isn't he tired from our fight?" Bianca had argued. However, there the water Pokémon stood without a single sign of fatigue.
White stood by Black trying to figure out the strategy grinding around in the brain gears of her friend's head. "You do know Gizmo shouldn't tank any water attacks from the Staryu, right?" she offered her advice. Staying inside most of the day gave her plenty of free time to study weaknesses, strengths, moves, and even the use of special items on Pokémon.
Black acknowledged the comment, "Yup, I'm aware, I know exactly what I'm going to do"
Professor Juniper, who had agreed to be the referee for the battles, commenced the fight and Cheren wasted no time with his first order of attack. "Jack, Razor Leaf! Sh-err-Cosmo, follow behind with Tackle. Both of you go for Abra!"
In response, the Servine turned and spewed sharpened foliage like a machine gun towards Mojo followed by Staryu charging forward. As the usual strategy went for Black, Gizmo lunged to the side and took the blow of the Razor Leaf attack. Staryu kept barreling forward when Cheren ordered again, "Cosmo, jump over Aron and continue your attack"
That command stunned Black and Gizmo as the Staryu leapt over the Steel/Rock Pokémon and barreled forward like a steamroller. Black remained speechless for only second though as he responded. "Mojo, Hidden Power, and then Teleport!"
"Bruha" Mojo squealed as he focused on a small ball of light forming in between his hands and then forcing it forward. The Staryu was unable to dodge the attack, however he continued his assault towards Mojo unfazed. Just as he was about to reach the Abra with its Tackle attack, Mojo teleported to Gizmo's side.
Black stared at the Staryu, who although he could tell it took damage, seemed relatively still strong. "I knew it" he muttered under his breath. White, with all her studying, even she couldn't tell what he was thinking.
"Gizmo, use Iron Claw on the Staryu! Mojo, use Shadow Ball on Servine!" Black yelled to his Pokémon.
White tugged on Black's light blue jacket. "Dude, Steel moves aren't very effective on water type-"
"Just give them a second" Black assured her. The Aron who was very light on his feet rushed at the Staryu and swiped with his claws. Cosmo tumbled to the side from the powerful hit and slammed against the wall of White's house. Completely knocked out, the Staryu started to shimmer and revealed that it was in fact Shadow, Cheren's Zorua. White admitted to herself that even she was fooled by the dark type's ability to look like another Pokémon.
Mojo on the other hand, formed a ball of darkness in between his hands and lobbed the shadow bomb at Servine, who easily rolled forward to dodge. Jack proceeded to unfold from his somersault and whipped his tail around, knocking Mojo to the ground. The Abra wasn't out, but everyone could tell a large amount of damage was sustained by the small psychic type. Black shouted again, "Gizmo, use Dig!"
"Ron A! A! Aron!" the Pokémon shrieked in agreement as he used his claws to dig into the ground.
"Follow him Mojo!" Black said and White immediately knew what he was doing. It was the strategy he used in every double battle once there was only one Pokémon on the other side. According to him it was guaranteed to win him the match and so far he was undefeated in double battles.
The Abra began to crawl his way into the hole his teammate had made. Cheren stood confident still.
"Stay on guard Jack. Be ready to dodge it" he said. Servine lowered himself and made aware of his surroundings.
Eventually the gravel under the Servine's feet began to shake. "NOW!" Cheren said and his grass Pokémon leapt backwards.
"Mojo, teleport!" Black said. Gizmo popped out of the ground where the earth had been slightly displaced, but his teammate did not appear behind him. When the Servine landed after leaping backwards, it was only until he noticed the Abra behind him when Cheren realized he was defeated. "Mojo, Shadow Ball!"
The Abra once more, put his hands together, producing a compact blob of darkness, and shoved the attack into the back of Cheren's Servine. Jack flew forward and tumbled to the ground defeated.
Professor Juniper lifted her arm. "Cheren's Pokémon are no longer able to battle. Black wins!"
Mojo got on top of Gizmo's back and the two began running around again playfully in a victory lap. JP the Chimchar jumped off of Black's head when the two came close and tackled his fellow Pokémon to the ground in a heap of joyous laughter. Black was the last one to slide to the ground next to them and play along.
In the most gentlemen voice he could muster, Black congratulated his Pokémon, "A fine battle if I do say so. Please, gentle Pokémon take bows. All around" Black lowered his head in respect followed by his Chimchar and Abra putting their hands together and doing the same. Aron bent his front knees and lowered his head too. After a couple of seconds they kept on laughing. White could tell that the bond between Black and his Pokémon was incredibly strong. Any Pokémon would be lucky to have him as a trainer.
Cheren walked over to him. "Wow, you weren't wrong. Gizmo, Mojo, you two worked well together"
Black turned to his companions, "What do we say to compliments?"
Aron smiled, "Aron!"
Abra followed suit, "Bra, Abra!"
Black turned back to Cheren, "They say thank you"
Very lucky indeed, White thought.
The night ended peacefully. Cheren and Bianca stayed in their families homes neighboring White's house in Nuvema Town. Black was allowed to stay the night and the following day before his ship departed back to Hoenn. He stayed with White on the balcony outside her room. The two had been chatting for hours as the sun went down. He was easily White's best friend out of their group. He was the easiest to talk to and the most supportive. While he, Bianca, and Cheren were out on their adventures he was the only one to call regularly. White couldn't blame Cheren and Bianca for their lack of communication. They were busy doing Pokémon contests and training their partners to become stronger. Yet Black had always made sure he had time to call White to see how she was doing and to make sure she knew she was remembered while they were away. They talked about everything, from the Pokémon Black had discovered to the silly comments White's mom made about her daily soap operas and everything in between. That's how White had known all about Mojo and Gizmo and how Jalapeño had learned Thunder Punch to take care of his weakness to water and eventually when he evolved into a fighting type, the weakness to flying.
And if White was completely honest with herself, today was the first time she had ever seen or even heard of Cheeks, Shortstuff, Shadow, and Cosmo.
The two remained on the balcony. Black was on top of the wooden ledge leaning against the wall. White sat a couple feet away from him, admiring the beautiful orange and purple sunset they were viewing.
Today, something seemed off about Black though. White couldn't put her finger on it, but her best friend instincts could tell there was something on his mind.
"Alright, spill it" she finally said.
"Huh?" Black stifled up.
"You heard me. Spill what's on your mind"
"What? Your crazy, nothing's on my mind"
"I know, usually it's a blank canvas, but I can tell when something's wrong. Remember when you broke your mom's only hair brush when we were 10? No one thought anything of it, but it tore you to pieces and I was the only one who could tell. Now do I have to come up there and knock you in the head or are you going to spill it" White searched his eyes to try and figure out what was bugging him. Were his Pokémon okay? Was one of them sick? Was his mom keeping in contact with him? Arceus knows how much he worried about his mom while she was out searching for Pokémon fossils. What if Black had found a girl in Hoenn and things were wrong with them? It wasn't until she noticed him giving a quick glance to White's wheelchair that she knew what the problem was.
"Black, it's been two years. How many times do I have to say it; the accident was not your fault!"
"I know, you keep telling me that but I still feel guilty. I can't stop thinking about what happened, how you couldn't go out in the world and be the Pokémon trainer you always wanted. It's so hard to live with myself that it was my responsibility to take care of you. I should've noticed it, I should've seen it-"
"Hey hey hey" White gently put a hand on his arm. "I should've seen it too. And sure it eats me every day not being out there catching Pokémon with Tidal Wave and Jalapeño and you. But I've managed. T.V takes care of me and I find my own entertainment. Who knows, maybe I can study Pokémon from a comfortable lab like Juniper" White could hear the cheers of her Oshawott with Black's Chimchar, Abra, and Aron playing in the yard below them. She took comfort knowing that just like she would always have Black, Tidal Wave could have his own Pokémon friends. White turned back to Black.
"You need to promise me that you will keep having adventures. Become one of the strongest trainers in the world; I know you can, and I can tell your Pokémon believe you can too. You can't be hindered by me"
Black nodded slightly, "Yeah, sure, okay" he said. But White could see in his eyes this wouldn't be off his mind anytime soon. How ironic, she thought, that the disabled one is comforting her friend about the inability to do what he loves. White decided to change the subject.
"Okay, so how did you know Cheren's Staryu was actually his Zorua" she asked.
Black chuckled, "Well, I didn't at first, only a little suspicious. So I took a risk putting Gizmo in front of it. But when Mojo used Hidden Power on it, well his Hidden Power is a grass type move-"
"So when you saw that a super effective move didn't do as much damage as it should've you knew that it wasn't a water type, that it was the Zorua!" White finished the thought, finally knowing what had happened.
"Wow, lady knows her Pokémon" Black commented.
"Hey I have a lot of time on my hands. Also whenever Professor Juniper is in town I help her out and she's taught me a lot" White explained. She was happy to have gotten the subject out of Black's mind.
Or so she thought.
"Hey, I need to tell you something" Black said after they had sat for about an hour in silence. It was another perk of their friendship. Even sitting in silence wasn't uncomfortable. White knew he had something serious to say, but she couldn't resist a joke.
"Oh my god, I knew it, you're gay. I so called it. MOM! BLACK IS GAY!" White teased.
Black gave her a shove, "No you dope, I'm not gay"
"Aww too bad, I know some cute guys who I told you were dying to meet them"
"Damn woman, what makes you think I'm gay?!"
"Maybe it's the the way you walk, the way you talk, you know you move your hips when you talk"
"I do not move my hips when I talk! I'm as straight as an Onix"
"You know Onix are a lot rounder when you take a closer look"
"Oh shut up" Black ended the teasing and laughed at White's joke. After a second to let White settle down he picked up his backpack. After rummaging a bit, he pulled out a Pokéball. "First let me introduce you to someone." He pressed the button in the center and the capsule opened. A tiny stream of energy burst from the ball and compressed into a wing shaped creature on the arm rest of White's chair. After a couple seconds, it was revealed to be a Zubat. The tiny blue bat shrieked in greeting at White.
"Meet Blue. She's a very caring Pokémon and any one that has threatened Mojo or Gizmo or Jalapeño or even me she gets really angry at and uses Supersonic to make them rethink their actions. I'm still trying to train her to focus that attack on one opponent because it's still pretty disruptive to anyone on within range of it" Black said while rubbing his ears for emphasis.
White scratched the top of Blue the Zubat's head who graciously accepted the friendly petting. "This is really cool, I'm sure the others are glad to have her on the team"
"Oh yeah, they absolutely love her. Scratch behind her ear, that's where she really loves it" Black said. White moved her hand accordingly and Blue swooned as she curled into a ball on White's lap comfortably.
"So what cave did you find her in? I don't remember you telling me anything about finding her" White asked.
"Umm, well, I found her in the Rocky Tunnel, near Cerulean City" Black said. A small switch went off in White's head like a little red flag.
"Black, Rocky Tunnel and Cerulean City are not in Hoenn. What were you possibly doing in Kanto?" White confronted.
"Well, I was in Lavaridge town and the gym leader there, Flannery, she told me about another fire gym leader, Blain, who is on Cinnabar Island. It was also the same place that they restore old fossil Pokémon like Aerodactyl and Kabuto. I had this crazy idea but I had to make sure before I got my hopes up. So I took a ferry to the Kanto Region and went straight to the lab there. I talked to a couple of scientists about the process of restoring old bones and fossils and it sounded not as complicated as I thought it would be. So eventually I asked them if they could also restore human bones as well and you know what they said?"
"Black, where are you going with this?"
"They said yes. They do it all the time! If someone's bones become weak just a simple surgery can restore them to better than new! White, they could get you walking again."
White didn't know what to think. Could this actually happen? The concept of walking again, she had practically forgotten what it felt like to stand on her own two feet. There was no way it could be that simple though, could it? That thought she couldn't keep to herself.
"It can't be that simple, can it?" White asked.
Black smiled even wider as he spoke. White couldn't remember a time Black was so excited about an idea he had. "There were two complications, really. One was convincing your mom about it, but she was amazingly all for it. She couldn't have asked for something better for you."
"And the other?"
"The other is less easy. The price of that kind of surgery is crazy expensive. Over 1,000,000 Pokédollars"
"Holy shit" White muttered.
"I know, as I said, crazy expensive. But Blaine, the gym leader there, he noticed me talking to the scientists while he was taking his daily walk around the lab. You know, since he owns the place. And he looked at me and he said 'Son, if this friend of yours can beat me in a gym battle I will pay for the entire surgery myself'."
White stopped scratching Blue. "Black, what did my mom agree to?"
Black at this point was shaking, about to burst with the incredible news. "White, I'm about to make your dream come true" He shuffled through his bag again and pulled out two slips of paper he handed one of them to White.
She read the slip of paper…
Boarding Pass
Departure: Castelia City 8:00am August 7
Arrival: Vermillion City 12:00pm August 7
White started shaking too. Her thoughts were racing fast as if tiny consciousness humans were Olympic athletes in a 100meter dash in her head. She looked at Black with amazement in her eyes.
"White," he said, "Would you like to have a Pokémon adventure with me through the Kanto Region?"