Read on. Things are not always what they seem.
"Thank you, Professor Birch." Jessica clipped six pokeballs into her belt, dropped the other 16 balls into her bag, and slung it onto her shoulder. She hugged him again, sniffling.
"I'm happy to do it Jess," he said, hesitantly. They broke apart. "Are you sure this is what you want?"
"It's what I need." She looked away, out the window, into the horizon where her future awaited. Her stomach fluttered with the excitement of the unknown.
"Well, know that I have full confidence in you," he said, bowing his head in acceptance. "You will be perfectly fine. I mean, not just anyone can become the Kanto and Hoenn region champion!" He smiled. "Please, come back to visit and share your discoveries."
"I will." She looked down. "I have to do this, Professor. There is nothing more for me here. I need to become who I am. And if that means exploring the world and not only discovering new pokemon, but also myself, I will do it. Didn't they recently discover a new continent? What are they calling it… the Kalos Region?" He nodded. "I want to make those kind of discoveries; make a name for myself." She didn't know why she was explaining this to him; like she was not only convincing him that this was the right decision, but also convincing herself.
Birch put his hand on her shoulder, and she looked up. "I understand. Go." She nodded, and walked out of the lab without another word.
She headed towards Petalburg, thinking to head west from the shore, towards the open ocean. Many regions in the pokemon world were unexplored. Because of the existence of pokemon, many people were content to settle down and raise them, instead of exploring new lands. People were just happy where they were; with no pressing need for expansion due to lack of resources or overpopulation, they remained stagnant.
Plus, it was widely known that nearly all new lands that were explored were too harsh to live in; the pokemon too strong, the climate too extreme. The Kalos region that was being newly developed was the exception to the rule; there had not been a new region discovery in decades. Most all attempts to expand the lands ruled by humans with the use of machines had been outlawed anyway, to preserve the natural habitats of pokemon and cut back on pollution. Nobody wanted to take the hard road and explore on foot.
But Jess was not like these people who were content with what they had. Something had always drawn her to the unknown, and knowing that it would be so harsh and nearly un-survivable, she trained to be the very best. She had defeated the Kanto and Hoenn leagues; and was first runner up in Johto, and second runner up in both Sinnoh and Unova. Once she returned to her home region of Hoenn after her yearlong training session in Unova, she knew she was ready.
It is against the training code to carry more than six pokemon on one's person at one time, and she knew this. But she was a special case. She would be travelling to a place where there were no pokemon centers, no storage systems, and no pokemon laboratories, and because she would not be doing any recreational battling, carrying more than six was not a problem. Birch was happy to watch the rest of her pokemon while she travelled, and continue watching them, even if she failed to return.
So, she had taken a select 22 from her extensive collection to accompany her for what could be years, and left the rest with him. She had said goodbye to almost everyone, including her foster parents. But there was one more left…
"Didn't think you could just go without saying goodbye, did you Jessie?" said a familiar voice from behind her. She grinned and stopped walking.
"How could I ever expect to escape you, Andrew?" She turned and laughed. Her older brother Andrew walked towards her, his swellow preening behind him. They hugged tightly.
She explained to him her reasoning for leaving just as she had to Professor Birch. He seemed to side more with her than the Professor. "Are you sure you won't need any of my flying pokemon to aid you?" Andrew was the flying type gym leader in Fortree City, and one of the best bird pokemon trainers in the five regions.
"I'm positive. I have Flygon and Tropius on my person, and others in my bag. I will be fine," she said assuredly.
He nodded. "Well, I do have a gift for you." Jess smiled; she loved presents. "Close your eyes." She did. Even through her closed eyes, she could see the flash of light of a pokeball opening. "Open."
An eevee stared up at her from the ground. It looked at Andrew. "Vee?" It questioned. He nodded. The furry pokemon smiled and jumped right into her arms. She caught her more out of shock than anything.
"An eevee?" she asked, petting the excitable little thing.
"That's part of the gift… she's a prototype from Dad's lab." Their Dad was a scientist in Hoenn. He wasn't very well known, and most of his work was viewed as… pointless. He received no funding, and was a scientist purely as a hobby. He was holed up away in the mountains, and stayed away from people. And they stayed away from him, viewing him as a mad scientist.
But Jessica and Andrew only saw a genius. He had taken them in when they were both orphaned, and raised them as his own. The two children tested all of his inventions (most of which ended in horrible failure.) Jess hadn't received a gift from their Dad in years.
"This pokemon is the prototype?" she asked, cautious about this one.
He nodded. "And this." He reached behind his head and peeled a band-aid looking device off of his neck. He handed it to Jess. "Put it on."
Skeptically, she stuck it on the back of her neck, and was suddenly barraged with noise. "Oh I love you I love you I love you we are going to be the bestest friends ever and I will love you and we will go on an adventure and I'm so excited oh please pet me more I love you!"
"Argh what is that sound!" she moaned, wincing.
"Me!" said the voice. And at the same time the eevee in her arms stopped squirming.
It didn't take long for Jessica to put the pieces together. "A device that lets you talk to pokemon?" she gasped, looking at the eevee in awe.
"Not exactly," began Andrew. "You can only talk to this eevee. She has a similar device implanted in her neck that allows for her to communicate with you as well. But only you two can talk. Dad hasn't quite gotten to the point of being able to talk with all pokemon yet."
"That's still so cool!" Jessica exclaimed, rubbing her new friend's head.
"I know I know right? It's so exciting! Are you going to be my trainer? My other trainer said that I would be going on an adventure with someone very special! Are you special?" squeaked the eevee.
"Yes I sure hope I am!" laughed Jessica. "Now what is your name?"
"I don't have one yet! My trainer didn't give me one, and you didn't either! What will my name be? Oh please tell me!" The little thing spoke so fast it was comical.
Jessica laughed again, just at the sheer strangeness of it all. She was talking to a pokemon! "I think I'll call you… Gemini. Do you like that one?"
"Yes I do I do!" she confirmed. "Gemini is so pretty I just love it I love it!"
Jessica could not stop smiling. She learned much about her new friend and about pokemon and about eevee while she walked with her brother towards Petalburg City.
Something useful she also discovered was that Gemini could translate for other pokemon. As they walked, Swellow trailed behind. Once or twice, he cooed "Swell, swellow lowswell!"
Andrew turned to ask what was wrong, but Gemini was already on top of it. "Swellow is very hot, and tired of walking! Bird pokemon fly, not walk, he says." I translated to Andrew, who nodded.
"That makes sense. Return Swellow," he said, and sent the bird pokemon back into its pokeball.
The trees were shaking in a tense rustle as the siblings entered the Petalburg City limits. Towards the west, the sky was darkening.
"Looks like a storm," observed Andrew. "Are you sure that you want to set off in this kind of weather Jess?"
She looked over into the horizon at the looming darkness. "If I don't leave now…" she began, still staring at the ominous clouds, "I don't think I will ever have the strength to go."
Petalburg was a prosperous city right on the ocean. It had grown in the last ten years from a small suburb to a bustling complex with several thousand people, and buildings dozens of stories high.
The pokemon center was in the center of town. It was a Supercenter; a pokemon center that had been coupled with a hotel to provide extra housing and services to its residents. Jessica and Andrew headed towards it; Jessica wanted one last checkup on her pokemon before she left for what could be years.
"All of your pokemon are in excellent condition! We hope to see you again!" chirped Nurse Joy as she handed Jessica back all 22 of her pokeballs. She put six in her belt, and 16 in her bag. Then, she picked up Gemini and passed her over the counter.
"Do you mind checking this eevee as well? She was just hatched, and I want to make sure she is in good health," Jessica explained. Nurse Joy smiled and nodded.
"Heehee that tickles!" cried Gemini as the nurse began prodding her.
"Fur looks in good condition… nice and shiny… teeth are sharp and white… joints are fluid and strong… she looks good Jessica!" she announced. Gemini bounded back into Jessica's arms.
"That was fun, can we do it again?" she squeaked.
"No," Jessica whispered to her. Nurse Joy gave her a funny look, but shrugged it off and smiled.
"I can help whoever is next! Welcome to the pokemon center! We restore your tired pokemon to full health. Would you like to rest your pokemon?"
Jessica and Andrew headed out of the pokemon center and out of the center of town, chatting about what she hoped to find on her adventure. The sky was really darkened, and fat raindrops were beginning to dampen the earth.
Suddenly…
"Beware! Team Aqua will rise again!" cried someone from behind them. They turned. An older man in ragged clothes was waving his arms in the air, and attracting attention. They started walking towards him. A small crowd was beginning to form.
"Beware!" he announced once again. "The seas will rise, and the land shall be no more! Save yourselves!" he cried. There was a wave of murmuring through the crowd.
"The balance must be restored. Save yourselves! Today is the beginning of the end!"
"Alright old man, that's enough." Officer Jenny pushed her way through the crowd and headed towards him. "You're scaring people. Get out of here."
"Beware!" he cried one more time. Then he looked directly at Jessica. His dark eyes widened, and he moved towards her. "You don't believe me! Believe me! Believe!" He was rushing at her, and she took a step back.
Several police officers moved in front of him and pushed him back. "Get out of here you crazy person!" they said threateningly.
He took one last look around. "I tried to warn you. Beware! You will all be dead by the end of the day!" He looked right at Jessica. "All of you." Then he cast out a pokeball, and took off on a honchkrow into the sky, disappearing into the approaching storm.
The wind was really picking up, and the crowd began to dissipate into the surrounding townhouses and apartment buildings. A zigzagoon dove into a trash can with a clatter, making the siblings both jump as they made their way towards the beach. A smart zigzagoon; trash cans in beach cities had sealing lids and waterproof insides in case of flooding, so trash doesn't seep into the ocean.
They reached the beach and stepped onto the blowing sand. The waves were tall and slamming hard into the shore. "Are you sure you still want to leave today?" Andrew called loudly over the howling wind and roaring ocean.
Jessica looked out at the ocean for a long time. She smiled, looking back at her brother. "If this is the worst I have to face, I will be a happy soul." She hugged her brother tight, putting every ounce of love into the motion. "I promise I'll come back."
"You better," he said, tossing out a pokeball. "Let's go Swellow."
She watched as he took off, headed north towards Rustboro City. Alone, she stared out at the ocean.
Well, not entirely alone. "Pick me up again please Jess! The sand is really wet, and my paws are sinking into it!" pled Gemini.
Jessica smiled and picked up her new friend. Her father knew how she would need someone to talk to while she was gone, and created the perfect parting gift.
She sat on a rock, not minding the rain, and pulled out her pokedex. All forty badges displayed on the touch screen of the device. She tapped the Fortree gym badge and slid it across the screen to open the menu. She scrolled past the virtual TM storage case and opened her world map.
This special map had been obtained on Mossdeep Island, from the space center. It was made up of satellite images taken from space, and therefore showed every landmass on the planet, including those that were unexplored. She marked the one that would be the first to reach.
3000 miles out to sea sailing due west from Petalburg was an unexplored landmass that, from the satellite pictures, looked highly volcanic. "That will be our first target," she said, showing Gemini.
"Looks really hot," said the little pokemon nervously. She stomped her paw. "But I'm tough! Let's go on an adventure!"
Jessica smiled, respecting her new friend a little more. She clipped her pokedex back on her belt and picked up Gemini. She took out a pokeball and went to throw it into the water.
Suddenly, talons gripped her shoulders and backpack and yanked her from the beach.
"Oh!" she gasped, instinctively gripping Gemini tighter.
"What is happening!" squealed the eevee.
"Jessica, hold on!" She recognized Andrew's voice from above her. She looked up to see Swellow's breast and wings. She felt a little safer.
But not much. "Andrew what is going on put me down!" Swellow was struggling in the high winds, and shook in the turbulence. A talon slipped from her shoulder and suddenly, she was only hanging by her backpack.
"Hold on!" Andrew called. "Look towards the ocean!" She looked, and saw something that would change her life forever.
A tsunami that seemed to touch the sky was headed straight for Petalburg. It stretched out as far as the eye could see.
"Get to the city!" she shrieked. "We have to warn the civilians!"
"I can't Jess! Look over there!" She turned her head again, and saw their doom. A giant tornado was headed straight for the city, and people were diving into their houses and basements in order to escape it, unaware of the impending tsunami.
"No!" she cried. "Fly over there!"
"Jess we can't we'll die! And we will be no help to anyone! Ahh!" Swellow dipped again, flapping as hard as he could to gain altitude and get away from the tornado.
"We have to get up over the tsunami, then we can make it!" Swellow flapped and flapped and finally the tsunami reached the shore. The siblings were nearly a mile up when it crashed into the city.
"No!" she screamed. Every ounce of feeling she had flowed into that one word. She watched the city get torn apart by the wave, and skyscrapers disappear under the massive wall of water. She screamed indiscernible animalistic wails as she watched thousands of people and pokemon instantly die and she floated, safely in the sky.
Well not exactly safely. The tornado that threatened Petalburg crashed into the tsunami and, instead of dissipating, it became a water funnel. Swellow flapped through the cutting wind and towards the open ocean.
Jessica gripped onto Gemini for her life, hanging by the straps on her bag. But the turbulence was too much, and the unthinkable happened.
"Swel!" cried Swellow, and he jerked hard to the side. Instinctively, Jessica reached up to grab onto the strap of her bag, and in doing so, lost her grip on Gemini.
"Ah! Jess! Help!" wailed the little eevee as it tumbled through the sky down towards the open ocean, still swirling in the wake of the tsunami.
"Gemini!" And without thinking, Jessica slid her hands out of the bag, and dove towards the ocean.
"Lapras go!" she pulled a ball from her belt and cast out her water pokemon. "Streamline yourself!" She sat on his back, and the two dove headfirst for the tiny pokemon
They finally reached her, and Jessica grabbed on tight. It would be seconds before they hit the water.
"Lapras, use dive!" was the last thing she could say before she plunged into darkness, gripping Gemini and Lapras for dear life.
My newest story! Also check out From Childhood to Destiny and Allora Silverfield! Please review!