Chapter One - Three Trainers

People were cheering for Rose as she ascended the stairs to the double row of columns that guarded the entrance to the laboratory. Endless petals streamed through the air like confetti. At the top, Doctor Lazarus was waiting for her, beaming proudly. "Today is your special day, my child." He told her, and his voice was solemn and benign. He extended a wizened hand and presented a solid gold pokeball to her. It opened in a splash of light.

"A shiny vulpix!" Rose gasped. The little fox Pokemon looked up at her and then jumped up into her arms, mewling cutely. Rose caught it in a hug and did a little spin, laughing. She held her new partner up Lion-King-style to show the crowd.

Rose woke up in her bed with a startled grunt. Something was vibrating. She rolled over and her phone, no longer trapped under her, proceeded to blare a rather startling alarm (she had turned the volume all the way up last night, after all). Frantically Rose checked the time. "Waaaah! It's already that late?" She scrambled out of bed and got changed in a hurry. Without time to attend to her hair, or the limited quantity of makeup her father allowed her, like she had planned, Rose threw on a big hoodie over her t-shirt and found some clean pants in a pile waiting to be folded and put away.

"ROSE!" her dad shouted from the kitchen. "Where's my lunch?"

"It's in the fridge, in the garage!" She shouted back. Before dashing out into the living room to grab her bag.

Her dad came into the room dressed in a pair of overalls and a plaid shirt. A tool belt was fastened around his waist and he was holding a thermos of coffee and a lunchbox. "Good luck today sweetheart," he said, "your mother would be proud if she could see you now."

Rose just smiled hastily. She threw on her backpack and hurried out the front door. She ran to her bike and felt in her pockets for the keys to the bike lock but she couldn't find them anywhere. "Haahhh!?" she sighed in frustration and ran back to the front door. It had locked automatically behind her. Cursing her absent-mindedness Rose rushed around the tiny house, hopped over the low white fence, and reached the garage. Her father's truck was pulling out of the driveway and into the street and she had just enough time to get inside before the garage closed. She dove for her narrowing window of opportunity and managed to roll inside. A few minutes later she was on her bike and the big oak tree that marked the entrance to the lab was coming into view.

Meanwhile, two other locals teens had already arrived. It was rather anticlimactic when the twins saw nothing but three pokeballs on the table. Chester of course thought it would be funny if one of the pokeballs contained something that really sucks. The old Pokémon doctor and scientist just gave them a smile that his twin found very 'wrinkly and weird.' Chelsea decided she wasn't going to be impolite though, even if she was very excited and really wanted to know what was in the pokeballs. The doctor, or professor as a few call him, was named Lorenzo Lazarus. Dressed in nothing but his usual business attire, and a lab coat, the old man looked exactly what they call him. Chester often suspected that a man of such dully cliche appearance must be hiding something.

"Good morning, Doc." They both managed to say at the same time, earning a slight chuckle from the old man in front of them. She should have been annoyed at that, but she didn't mind at the minute. "I'll pick first." She said, taking the initiative knowing that Chester wouldn't mind. He would have been late anyway, if it wasn't for her. Plus, they had a talk already. The old man nodded.

"Now, I know both of you have been informed on how to handle Pokémon correctly, so I trust both of you will be good trainers." The doctor started to say, coughing a bit as he smiled. No doubt, the intelligent man knew how excited both of them were – seeing as they were quite early. "There are only three starters available, a togepi, a swinub and a gastly." He pointed to each sealed red and white sphere respectively. "Now, which one will you choose?" He asked, gesturing towards the three pokeballs on the table.

Chelsea already had her mind on what she would choose the second she heard it. She walked and stood right in front of the first pokeball that contained the togepi. She gingerly took the ball into her hands. "I choose this!" She said, grinning.

"That pokeball contains the Pokémon togepi, a fairy type, female and a baby Pokémon. You can take a look at her if you want. Are you sure you want that?" Doc asked, and Chelsea replied with a certain yes, not bothering to open the pokeball. If her Pokémon doesn't want her, it's not like there's any choice.

"We'll meet our Pokémon at the same time." Chelsea declared. It wasn't like she was scared. There were just a few things that a person can do once in a lifetime, and she wanted to experience it at the same time her twin does – even if he probably doesn't care about her as much as she cared about him. She can't really tell sometimes. The old scientist sagely nodded at her proclamation, probably assuming that their twin 'bond' runs deep.

Without missing a beat, Chester just took the pokeball that contained the gastly, leaving the Swinub alone on the table. "Gastly, right?" He asked the old man before holding the ball in that certain way. Chelsea mirrored the action, and they both released the Pokémon contained within the pokeballs in their hands. With a bright light, the two Pokémon appeared.

Both looked confused for a few seconds, but when they saw the pokeballs held by the twins, they immediately knew. It was the female togepi that reacted first, yelling a very high-pitched "Togepii!" and running on her little round feet, stubby hands outstretched towards Chelsea. Chelsea, of course, squealed and scooped the tiny baby Pokémon into her arms.

"Yes." She cooed hugging the Pokémon before holding it right in front of her and locking eyes. "Yes, I'm your trainer. I'm Chelsea." She continued, a bit on the babying tone. "And you're mine now. We're going to be best friends."

As Chelsea got acquainted with togepi, Chester just stood awkwardly as his new Pokémon cackled around him. He felt a bit chilly as gastly rounded him up, circling around him, eyes planted on him and fangs obviously shown while grinning. There was no way he was going to hug gastly though, as his new Pokémon was mostly made up of poisonous gas – which he knew because he had always been a fan of dark, ghost and psychic types. He was very glad, even if the only evidence of that is the slight smirk on his face.

Then the scientist cleared his throat, earning the attention of all of them. Just when he was about to speak though, someone arrived loudly.

"Please don't be the last one, please don't be the last one."

Rose's mantra persisted until she ran out of breath. She let herself coast downhill. Outside of the lab her bicycle collided slowly with a trashcan and upended with her on it. The back wheel was still spinning as she staggered, panting, up the steps into the building, throwing the doors open dramatically.

"Yo, Doc! I'm here!" She shouted.

Rose's heart sank when she saw the twins with their Pokemon. It was too late! She was already the last one here. Standing in the doorway, feeling very self-conscious of her heavy breathing and sweatiness, Rose forced a smile.

"H-hey Chelsea, Hi Chester!" She managed to say brightly while she scurried over to the table to inspect the last pokeball.

"Hey Rose!" Chelsea greeted enthusiastically, waving a hand. Togepi, her incredibly cute Pokémon, chirped as enthusiastically as well. It seemed at that moment that their personalities matched well. Chester remained silent.

"Ahh, Hello, Rose. It's a swinub, if you're still interested in getting a Pokemon today." Doctor Lazarus looked over the rim of his glasses at her.

"Yes! of course!" Rose countered, still flushed. She was just thankful there was still one left for her.

"It's not exactly-" The professor was saying, when Rose, overeager, picked up the ball and released the Pokemon hidden inside.

It emerged with a pig-like grunt. Rose looked flabberghasted. 'This has to be the dumbest Pokémon ever...' she thought. Swinub lay flat on the floor and heaved a big sigh. It looked like a hairy ottoman with a little snout sticking out of one end. It was big, for a starter. It didn't seem interested in anything that was happening around it. Chelsea watched as Rose got her Pokémon, and felt that it was a bit of a pity, really, that Rose seemed not-so-keen to have the rather fat swinub.

"Hey... s-swinub." Rose said timidly, squatting down on her haunches and poking it. Swinub just wheezed and furrowed its shaggy brows.

"He seems healthy." Chelsea said helpfully, as she observed the Pokémon wheezing. For some odd reason, she felt very lucky they got here earlier. She knew in her mind that there was no way her twin would settle for a swinub. He would have walked right out of the lab if he had been presented with a swinub, of all Pokémon. If she had been the one to be given the swinub, she wouldn't mind that much. Something so deprived of beauty and cuteness must be blessed with something else, right?

Chester, on the other hand, couldn't help but snicker. Healthy was the last thing on his mind, but then again, he wasn't really that personally alike with his twin. Chelsea shot him an automatic glare for his reaction, but he could care less. Rose, herself, seemed disappointed.

"Doc, is he okay?" Rose asked.

"I'm afraid this swinub has been here far too long in the lab. He's gotten very lazy and he's a bit too attached to me." Lazarus, usually scowling, looked a little sheepish.

Rose wilted. "It's okay, professor. I'll take good care of him." She made no effort to conceal the disappointment in her voice.

Lazarus chuckled. "I know you will, Rose. That's why I offered you a Pokémon in the first place. Now wait here, Oak keeps sending me Pokedexes and if I don't start giving them away I'll never get rid of them." Lazarus shuffled off into the back room and the sound of muttering and rooting through boxes soon drifted through the door.

Rose looked up at the twins. "Since we all have Pokemon now..." She said, standing and inclining her head so that her hoodie shaded her eyes. "Let's fight!"

"I'm game for it." Chester said, crossing his arms as his Pokémon floated around.

"Me too!" Chelsea chimed in after. "Although, let's go easy on each other! Our Pokémon are still weak after all."

"Rock, papers, scissors." The male twin said, and the other twin agreed. They tuned out Rose for a few seconds. Three swift plays and Chester won with scissors, scissors and paper.

"Okay." Chelsea said, "You go first." To be honest, she didn't want to battle with Rose yet. She had a baby Pokémon, and she'd rather train her adorable little one against weaker ones. Lazarus did say that swinub had been staying with him for awhile.

Chester faced Rose, flashing a lop-sided smile. He was often accused of being lazy and sleepy in class because of his naturally half-lidded eyes... Well, to be fair, he is lazy and sleepy, but he listens when the topic's useful or interesting. His Pokémon was immune to normal attacks, and probably have an advantage against Rose's swinub.

"Your choice, though. Battle me or skip me to battle Chelsea?" He asked, offering a choice.

Rose immediately sensed that Chester was the more challenging opponent here. His ghost type would naturally be immune to a majority of the attacks dealt by starter Pokémon. Gastly's natural grin seemed a little more smug to her than it did a second ago. She looked up at Chester. "Let's go then. You and me."

Swinub, seemingly catching on to the change of tone, looked back and forth from Rose to the twins and their respective Pokémon with a new interest. It gave a high-pitched grunt of concern.

Rose knelt and reached out to touch her Pokemon reassuringly. Its coat was thick and bristly and seemed to cover its small eyes almost completely so that the ice-type had to bob its head to tell what it was looking at. Swinub seemed a little wary of the situation, it wiggled like it wanted to back up.

"Swinub." Rose whispered kindly, "This is our first battle together as trainer and Pokémon. We don't know each other well, but... I'm rooting for you! Okay?" Rose held out her hand.

Swinub hesitated for a long moment and then pressed its hard, cold nose against Rose's hand and sniffed it deeply. What it was that Swinub learned about her by doing this, Rose couldn't really tell. Swinub had seemed about as impressed with her appearance as she had been with his; her voice hadn't done much to reassure him. But after he smelled her hand, his whole demeanor changed. Well... he was still basically a lump, but now he was clearly at attention.

Rose thought that was good enough for now. She stood up again. "Are you ready, Chester?" she stepped forward so that she was beside her Pokémon. "I choose Swinub!"

Chester tutted. He didn't know whether he was going to be impressed or not by Rose' decision. Their Pokémon were weak, and there she was, pitting the Pokémon she just got towards a Pokémon that may or may not have an advantage. A sure win she could have had if she battled with the togepi instead, knowing Chelsea – she would just forfeit.

"Obviously, I choose Gastly." He said, or proclaimed, with a lazy smirk on his face. The battle wasn't heart-pumping, to be honest, because only a few things could get him to feel livelier - and a battle between weak Pokémon isn't one. Losing or winning was of no consequence, as they were both new trainers.

Gastly seemed to be of the same personality with its trainer though, what with its confidence and carefree like persona. Later on, Chester would see in his pokedex that his Ghastly had a naughty nature.

"Keep your distance when not attacking, bud." He said, remembering that despite the type advantage, there was a chance that the swinub had that one move that makes ghosts tangible. The ghost Pokémon seemed to listen to him, and kept itself afloat, in front of his opponent.

"Gastly, hypnosis!" He commanded, knowing full well that his gastly would know the move.

Rose grit her teeth. She covered her eyes as pale circles began to emanate from the gaseous ghost. Swinub swayed and then sank lower to the ground, breathing heavily. It wasn't a big difference, actually, but Rose knew that her Pokémon was falling asleep. The psychic attack was especially effective and it wasn't long before swinub was snoring.

This was bad, she'd picked the fight and her opponent and now she was going to be thrashed. It was one thing to lose your first fight but to be completely shut out... Rose tried not to think about it. "Swinub, WAKE UP!" Rose, in a fit of desperation, yelled so loudly that several pidgey which had been sitting on the roof of the lab took off and circled into the sky. Unlike Chester, Rose felt extremely competitive, the first battle of her career had the power to set the entire tone of the journey.

Chester clicked his tongue. Rose knew the risks anyway, and he wasn't going to just give away a potential win because of pity. It would be an insult to both of them and their Pokémon. "Ghastly" Chester spoke, seeing that the swinub didn't look very awake and capable of any defense. "Lick!" And then he watched as his Pokémon did what he ordered to, not really feeling sorry at all. It looks like Ghastly was having fun anyway.

Rose couldn't tell if it was because of her desperate, slightly-embarrassing outburst, or the phantasmal tongue-lashing that swinub was taking, but her Pokemon woke up looking upset. It squealed and tried to run away from the ghost.

Ghastly looked positively ecstatic when the swinub ran around, and Chester couldn't help but think that maybe his Ghastly would be a bit terrifying when it grows stronger - as if it was a bit creepy right then. Haunter were written as Pokémon that sucked souls after all.

Chelsea watched on the sidelines, her arms around her togepi. Her brother was, she always thought, a mean spirited person underneath... Or yes, she always had been biased when it comes to people's choice in Pokémon. Watching his ghastly lick swinub, she hoped that her brother won't end up accumulating ghost types. She really didn't like ghost types.

Rose didn't exactly know what moves her Pokémon had, which was problematic, she found herself sweating again. Chester already seemed to know exactly how to use his gastly, like it was second nature. It was a bit frightening. The creepy ghost type even enhanced this unsettling vibe. Swinub had fled in a circle and ended up near Rose again. "Swinub!" she shouted, heart pounding. He skidded to a stop and looked at her. "Can you hit ghosts?" she asked. She knew he was an ice type, and a ground type. Maybe he could use powder snow... or mud-slap... Surely something.

Swinub grunted seriously. But he did not prepare an elemental attack, instead it did something that surprised Rose. It turned to face gastly and steadied itself. It lifted up its hard round nose and breathed in deeply. Rose waited for a flurry of freezing snowflakes to blow across the room but... nothing happened. She furrowed her brow.

What happened was that swinub, who could barely even see gastly, really, suddenly knew exactly where the smell was coming from... He had identified his target, but at the cost of a second turn.

The battle could have gone smoother in favour of Chester, but the moment he saw the swinub do a sniff thing, he guessed that Rose may have commanded the Pokémon to use odor sleuth. He wasn't very sure, but he didn't want to risk Gastly.

"Keep your distance after attacking, Gastly." He said, "Confuse ray!" He commanded.

Gastly only looked at him, and he almost rolled his eyes. The Pokémon still didn't know the move, which just confirms that gastly is weak.

"Astonish!"

Several turns later, Rose was getting excited. She could taste victory, almost like it was predestined. Gastly had a huge advantage over most starters by being damn near invulnerable, but somehow her hairy lump of a Pokémon was hitting it with what looked like normal attacks. Perhaps she had underestimated it...

"Go, hit it with everything you've got!" she cheered.

Swinub backed up. Gastly readied itself for an attack, it swooped low and hit swinub with a frightful lick attack, swinub looked badly hurt. Gastly swooped off, keeping its distance as instructed. But swinub was prepared.

The only warning the ghost-type had was the cloud of pale ice crystals forming in front of swinub before a sudden volley of small icicles shot through the air. They struck gastly with surprising accuracy. It was a critical hit. Gastly's big eyes closed and it floated to the ground defeated. Rose jumped for joy and dropped to her knees opening her arms for her Pokemon.

"Swinub that was amazing! You did it!" She grinned, positively glowing. The furball of a Pokémon shuffled over to her quickly but walked directly around behind her and put its nose up to her bag.

"Huh?" Rose tried not to feel put out about being snubbed by swinub, but why was it interested in her backpack?

"It seems Swinub was hungry." Lazarus smiled as the pig-like creature nosed open the satchel and pulled out the container of granola and the apple that Rose had packed at the top. "He has a very good sense of smell, I think he must have known immediately that you had food on you."

"O-oh. It's... a he then?" She asked. She hadn't even seen Lazarus come into the room again. He smiled his meek old-man smile and his broad, pale hand produced a sleek, green pokedex for her.

Chester wasn't that surprised with the outcome of the battle, what with the odor sleuth. Watching gastly get defeated... That was something he had to change soon. Gastly was his. Being his Pokémon automatically meant being connected to him, and he didn't want something connected to him to get defeated all the time. It would be hard, but training is important. He always had liked ghost Pokémon, and Gastly would get a nickname soon.

Holding the pokeball, he recalled his Pokémon, encasing it into a bright light and back into the ball it came from. "Rest now." He muttered with a slight smile, before turning to look at his twin.

His twin obviously was impartial towards the whole thing. He's her brother, but she didn't want to offend Rose with a glare or something. She's glad her togepi didn't battle the swinub. She would have reacted badly, after all – despite her honourable view of herself. Chester knew her better.

Lazarus moved over to the twins to administer their Pokedexes. They patiently waited for him to give them their pokedexes, but Rose got to Chester while the professor was presenting one to his sister. She offered him her hand. "It was a good fight. You commanded your gastly better than I did with swinub." It was no idle compliment. Rose really felt impressed by Chester's ability to control the wily ghost right away.

Of course, he shook her hand with a smile. "It was, wasn't it?" He repeated, pertaining to the 'good fight' they had. When she peeked back at her Swinub she saw that it... HE had eaten most of her food quite quickly and somehow already managed to fall asleep. "I'm sure you will be able to cooperate with your swinub, sometime." He pointed out, and his twin nodded in agreement. "It's just that gastly and I have the same personality." He added, before letting go of her hand.

"I'm kidding, of course."

In case, you know, Rose might view him as a nefarious guy, or the darker twin – as his twin often accuses him of jokingly.

Rose chuckled in a way that didn't quite seem at ease. She settled on saying, "You and gastly are a... good match for each other," having decided that was inoffensive enough. "And uh, I think there is a lot I could learn from you. You know? I'm sure you two were planning on doing the gym circuit together anyway, right? I was at least, but I mean... a journey is no fun by yourself. So, could I, maybe, if it's alright with you, you know, like, tag along, sorta?" Rose felt herself getting more and more timid. She had just battled with him and knocked out his Pokemon, surely they wouldn't want her around after that. She had been in such a hurry to battle that she hadn't thought this through very well.

With Rose' proposal, Chester seemed to think for a bit, so Chelsea decided to chime in. "Yeah, that sounds fantastic!" She half-yelled, glad that Rose didn't seem like she was going to cut herself off. There were only three of them that received starters today, and they're in the same town. It was just plain obvious that they were going to be travel buddies.

That, and she didn't want to get stuck alone with Chester and his gastly. She had had enough of her twin running around in the same house as her. She wanted a new companion who didn't have a creepy ghost. Swinub has its... own charms, anyway.

"Let's start tomorrow morning." She said, inching herself closer to Rose so she would be able to talk to her more clearly – efficiently cutting Chester off for a bit. "More preparation, after all. And we have to bid our mom a proper goodbye, and pack our things completely." She continued excitedly, and togepi seemed to twitter excitedly as well. If her Pokémon wasn't currently in her arms, she would have taken Rose' arm and talked more about other things.

Chester, who seemed to not really care that much, began to walk away. What his twin wants, she gets – so if she wants Rose in, then he might as well just let the girl into their travel plans. He didn't mind much. "Thanks, doc." He said, taking his Pokedex as he passed by the old man.

"Let's go home, Chelsea. Mom's waiting."

The twins seemed to be going, so Rose took a moment to thank Chelsea sincerely and bid her goodbye. She wanted to go home too. Her dad would be pleased to see her with her new Pokemon. She retreived her backpack from the ground, it was full of crumbs now. She sighed down at swinub. "Good job." she said. She reached out her right hand, holding the pokeball towards it and pressed the button. The beam of light shot out and swinub disappeared but a moment later it reemerged, startling Rose and causing her to drop the pokeball.

"Swinub, return!" she said more forcefully, but the Pokémon released itself a second time and rolled on the floor grunting with annoyance.

"Why won't he listen to me?" she said, turning to Professor Lazarus in surprise.

"Hmm-whaa?" He interrupted some wandering thought of his own invention and looked towards the disobedient swinub, while adjusting his absurdly thick spectacles. "Well. Do you have any food left?"

Rose checked her bag. Swinub had eaten about three days worth of supplies. "No, I'm all out. Wait! You mean the only reason he battled for me was because I had food! You can't be serious!" she groaned, burying her face in her hands. He doesn't respect me! My Pokemon won't listen to me at all!

She crossed her arms and turned to swinub. "Listen! I'm your trainer. We're gonna be good friends but we can't stay in this lab forever! Won't you come with me?"

Swinub shook its snout defiantly and snorted. "Why not? We won our first battle together! We make a great team!"

"...Nub!" it grunted.

"Okay, okay, so I didn't know your attacks and I was nervous, but I fed you! And I have lots more food at my house, c'mon."

Swinub hesitated again, but at the mention of more food it seemed to reluctantly concede. Ten minutes later Rose was back on her bike. Her opinion of swinub had come full circle in this short time. From complete distaste, to hope, to downright admiration at its ability to best Chester's gastly; now she was once again asking herself, why did I have to wake up so late?