First of all, if you haven't figured it out already, Grey is my version of Hilbert/Black/Touya/whatever else you call him, I don't care. Since this is more or less a novelization of my first playthrough of the game (as well as some original content to keep things interesting), using that as his name makes it a little more personalized.

But you don't care about this stuff. On with the story!

I wake up one morning, and I lay there motionless, watching the ceiling fan slowly turn above me.. My name is Grey, don't worry about my last name. I'm seventeen years old and I live in Nuvema Town with my mom and my sister, Sil. Actually that's not entirely true, Sil left about a month ago on some adventure with a pokémon Professor Juniper had given her. I, meanwhile, stayed home and enjoyed a carefree lifestyle: watching TV, playing video games, hanging out with my friends Cheren and Bianca.

But on this particular morning, I came to a profound and life-changing conclusion.

"I'm bored."

In a town of less than a dozen people, you run out of things to do fast. And so, I stayed in my bed thinking about some new thing that could break the cycle of my humdrum life in Nuvema Town. Finding the ceiling fan's rotations becoming stale, I turned my attention to the infinitely-more-exciting "sunlight spreading down my wall." As the light creeped down toward the floor, it illuminated a small pile of envelopes sitting atop my dresser. Each of them contained a letter my sister had sent home on occasion while she was traveling.

Traveling?

My mind had yet to fully wake up, but the spark of idea was forming as I stared at the letters. I haul myself from under the blanket and make my way over to the stack of paper. I pick one up and read it. Then another. Then the rest of them, and the idea in my head transformed into a full-fledged decision. I would follow in my sister's footsteps and go on my own pokémon journey. I mean, what else am I gonna do?

Turns out, Cheren and Bianca had the same idea.

The next day, a package from Professor Juniper's lab turned up on my doorstep. When the three of us found out that we all wanted the same thing, we arranged for our starters to be delivered to one of our houses and we would all make our selections. Cheren arrived soon after I called him. Like I said, small town. Bianca, on the other hand, seemed to be taking her time.

"You guys live right next to each other," I say to Cheren after ten minutes of waiting. "Why is it taking her so much longer to get here?"

"You know how Bianca is. She's not all there at the best of times."

"Yeah, but that's what makes her special. You can never predict what she'll do next."

We heard the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut just then.

"I certainly didn't predict that," Cheren said with a smile. "I was expecting her to take another five minutes before she even left the house."

Footsteps pounded up the stairs into the hallway outside, and Bianca barreled into the room.

"Sorry...I'm...late." She panted, doubled over with her hands on her knees.

Cheren shrugged. "It's nothing we're not used to by now."

I was about to offer to get her a glass of water when Bianca suddenly perks up, hands clasped and eyes shining with anticipation."So, is it true? Are they really here?"

"Yep." I wave over to the box sitting on my desk. "Who's going first?"

"Since it was delivered to your house, Grey, you should get the first pick," Bianca reasons. Cheren nods his approval of the arrangement, and I walk to the box and remove the lid.

Inside are three red and white balls nestled in a bed of foam. Above each, there's a card with the name and a picture of the pokémon inside.

"Let's see. Sil chose Oshawott when she started out and I'm partial to Fire-types, so I'll take Tepig."

Bianca rushes up and takes a ball out of the box. "Great! Then, I'll take Snivy. Cheren, you can have Oshawott."

Cheren seemed taken aback by her brashness. "Wait! You can't just...Fine, I would have chosen that one anyway."

Bianca suddenly gets an idea and starts jumping up and down. "Hey, you know what we should do? Now that we have pokémon, we should have a battle!"

Cheren sighs and rubs his temple. "Bianca, we can't have a battle in here. Something could get broken, if not by the pokémon, then by the way you keep jumping around."

"We'll be careful. Come on, Grey!" She tosses the Poké Ball and her Snivy appears in a flash of light.

Guess I don't have a choice. I call out my Tepig and the battle begins.

Snivy uses Tackle.

Tepig uses Tackle.

Snivy uses Tackle.

Tepig uses Tackle.

Not quite what I was expecting from my first pokémon battle.

Eventually, Snivy faints and Bianca returns it to its ball.

"Wow, Grey, your pokemon must be really strong!"

"Well, I don't know about that. I probably just got lucky is a-"

Cheren coughs and we look over at him. "You two might want to take a look around."

Wondering what he means, we do just that. My reasonably tidy bed has the sheets thrown over the edge and the mattress knocked halfway off, everything that was on a shelf is now in the floor, and...are those footprints on the wall?

"How did all of this happen from them tackling each other?" I wonder out loud, feeling a little heartbroken by the sight of my TV lying screen-down on the floor.

"Guess we got a little carried away." Bianca says while Cheren and I give her a "You think?" look. "But since the room's already a mess, maybe you and Grey should have a battle now."

Cheren sighs again, but I can tell he wants to. "I guess I can't let you two have all the fun," he finally says.

After a few more minutes of tackling, Tepig manages to defeat Cheren's Oshawott.

"You managed to beat both of us," Chern muses "Perhaps you have some skill after all."

"That must have been hard for you to admit," I joke.

"More than you know. Now, I suggest we should apologize to your mother for making such a mess before we go visit the professor."

When we do just that, Mom says not to worry about it. Our journey is more important than worrying about a messy room and she would take care of it. Bianca and Cheren decide to wait for me outside as I run back upstairs and salvage my hat, jacket, and bag. Once I have everything, I return to the front door, open it, and step out into the early autumn sun.

And that takes care of the game's first five minutes.